Effect of vacuum-packing method on the shelf-life of Capoeta umbla sausages

The effect of vacuum packing on the shelf-life of sausages produced from Capoeta umbla were investigated during storage periods. For this purpose, microbial, chemical and sensory changes were analyzed throughout the storage time. The microbial flora of the sausages comprised mainly mesophilic bacteria, psychrotrophic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, yeast and molds. Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and coliforms were not detected in the sausage samples. Total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) increased gradually with storage time while the concentration of moisture was not affected during the storage period. Application of vacuum-packing at 4±1°C extended the shelf-life of sausage samples by approximately 30 days

Welfare and Revenue Guarantees for Competitive Bundling Equilibrium

We study equilibria of markets with $m$ heterogeneous indivisible goods and $n$ consumers with combinatorial preferences. It is well known that a competitive equilibrium is not guaranteed to exist when valuations are not gross substitutes. Given the widespread use of bundling in real-life markets, we study its role as a stabilizing and coordinating device by considering the notion of \emph{competitive bundling equilibrium}: a competitive equilibrium over the market induced by partitioning the goods for sale into fixed bundles. Compared to other equilibrium concepts involving bundles, this notion has the advantage of simulatneous succinctness ($O(m)$ prices) and market clearance. Our first set of results concern welfare guarantees. We show that in markets where consumers care only about the number of goods they receive (known as multi-unit or homogeneous markets), even in the presence of complementarities, there always exists a competitive bundling equilibrium that guarantees a logarithmic fraction of the optimal welfare, and this guarantee is tight. We also establish non-trivial welfare guarantees for general markets, two-consumer markets, and markets where the consumer valuations are additive up to a fixed budget (budget-additive). Our second set of results concern revenue guarantees. Motivated by the fact that the revenue extracted in a standard competitive equilibrium may be zero (even with simple unit-demand consumers), we show that for natural subclasses of gross substitutes valuations, there always exists a competitive bundling equilibrium that extracts a logarithmic fraction of the optimal welfare, and this guarantee is tight. The notion of competitive bundling equilibrium can thus be useful even in markets which possess a standard competitive equilibrium

Cooperation and partner choice among Agta hunter-gatherer children: An evolutionary developmental perspective

Examining development is essential for a full understanding of behaviour, including how individuals acquire traits and how adaptive evolutionary forces shape these processes. The present study explores the development of cooperative behaviour among the Agta, a Filipino hunter-gatherer population. A simple resource allocation game assessing both levels of cooperation (how much children shared) and patterns of partner choice (who they shared with) was played with 179 children between the ages of 3 and 18. Children were given five resources (candies) and for each was asked whether to keep it for themselves or share with someone else, and if so, who this was. Between-camp variation in children's cooperative behaviour was substantial, and the only strong predictor of children's cooperation was the average level of cooperation among adults in camp; that is, children were more cooperative in camps where adults were more cooperative. Neither age, sex, relatedness or parental levels of cooperation were strongly associated with the amount children shared. Children preferentially shared with close kin (especially siblings), although older children increasingly shared with less-related individuals. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding cross-cultural patterns of children's cooperation, and broader links with human cooperative childcare and life history evolution

Testing adaptive hypotheses of alloparenting in Agta foragers.

Human children are frequently cared for by non-parental caregivers (alloparents), yet few studies have conducted systematic alternative hypothesis tests of why alloparents help. Here we explore whether predictions from kin selection, reciprocity, learning-to-mother and costly signalling hypotheses explain non-parental childcare among Agta hunter-gatherers from the Philippines. To test these hypotheses, we used high-resolution proximity data from 1,701 child-alloparent dyads. Our results indicated that reciprocity and relatedness were positively associated with the number of interactions with a child (our proxy for childcare). Need appeared more influential in close kin, suggesting indirect benefits, while reciprocity proved to be a stronger influence in non-kin, pointing to direct benefits. However, despite shared genes, close and distant kin interactions were also contingent on reciprocity. Compared with other apes, humans are unique in rapidly producing energetically demanding offspring. Our results suggest that the support that mothers require is met through support based on kinship and reciprocity

Mitochondrial carrier homolog 1 (Mtch1) antibodies in neuro-Behçet's disease

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Efforts for the identification of diagnostic autoantibodies for neuro-Behcet's disease (NBD) have failed. Screening of NBD patients' sera with protein macroarray identified mitochondrial carrier homolog 1 (Mtch1), an apoptosis-related protein, as a potential autoantigen. ELISA studies showed serum Mtch1 antibodies in 68 of 144 BD patients with or without neurological involvement and in 4 of 168 controls corresponding to a sensitivity of 47.2% and specificity of 97.6%. Mtch1 antibody positive NBD patients had more attacks, increased disability and lower serum nucleosome levels. Mtch1 antibody might be involved in pathogenic mechanisms of NBD rather than being a coincidental byproduct of autoinflammation. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

Evaluating case studies of community-oriented integrated care.

This paper summarises a ten-year conversation within London Journal of Primary Care about the nature of community-oriented integrated care (COIC) and how to develop and evaluate it. COIC means integration of efforts for combined disease-treatment and health-enhancement at local, community level. COIC is similar to the World Health Organisation concept of a Community-Based Coordinating Hub - both require a local geographic area where different organisations align their activities for whole system integration and develop local communities for health. COIC is a necessary part of an integrated system for health and care because it enables multiple insights into 'wicked problems', and multiple services to integrate their activities for people with complex conditions, at the same time helping everyone to collaborate for the health of the local population. The conversation concludes seven aspects of COIC that warrant further attention

Photocurrent response of B12As2 crystals to blue light, and its temperature-dependent electrical characterizations

Citation: Gul, R., Cui, Y., Bolotnikov, A. E., Camarda, G. S., Egarievwe, S. U., Hossain, A., . . . James, R. B. (2016). Photocurrent response of B12As2 crystals to blue light, and its temperature-dependent electrical characterizations. Aip Advances, 6(2), 6. doi:10.1063/1.4941937With the global shortage of He-3 gas, researchers worldwide are looking for alternative materials for detecting neutrons. Among the candidate materials, semiconductors are attractive because of their light weight and ease in handling. Currently, we are looking into the suitability of boron arsenide (B12As2) for this specific application. As the first step in evaluating the material qualitatively, the photo-response of B12As2 bulk crystals to light with different wavelengths was examined. The crystals showed photocurrent response to a band of 407- and 470- nm blue light. The maximum measured photoresponsivity and the photocurrent density at 0.7 V for 470 nm blue light at room temperature were 0.25 A.W-1 and 2.47 mA.cm(-2), respectively. In addition to photo current measurements, the electrical properties as a function of temperature (range: 50-320 K) were measured. Reliable data were obtained for the low-temperature I-V characteristics, the temperature dependence of dark current and its density, and the resistivity variations with temperature in B12As2 bulk crystals. The experiments showed an exponential dependence on temperature for the dark current, current density, and resistivity; these three electrical parameters, respectively, had a variation of a few nA to mu A, 1-100 mu A.cm(-2) and 7.6x10(5)-7.7x10(3) Omega.cm, for temperature increasing from 50 K to 320 K. The results from this study reported the first photoresponse and demonstrated that B12As2 is a potential candidate for thermal-neutron detectors. (C) 2016 Author(s)

Targeting triple-negative breast cancer cells using Dengue virus-mimicking pH-responsive framboidal triblock copolymer vesicles

It is well-known that the Dengue fever virus undergoes a distinct morphological transition from topologically smooth particles to ‘bumpy’ particle on increasing the temperature from that of the mosquito carrier (28 °C) to that of the human host (37 °C). This virus also possesses pH-sensitive surface domains that undergo conformational changes during infection which facilitates exit from the endosomes. Herein we take a bio-inspired approach to design synthetic Dengue virus-mimicking nanoparticles to target triple-negative (TN) breast cancer cells that overexpress SR-B1 scavenger receptors. Thus, sterile pH-responsive methacrylic ABC triblock copolymer vesicles were prepared in aqueous solution via polymerization-induced self-assembly. Microphase separation between two enthalpically-incompatible hydrophobic membrane-forming blocks produced a well-defined framboidal morphology, with surface globules of ∼28 nm diameter protruding from the membrane. The hydrophilic stabilizer block comprises 97% hydroxyl-functionalized chains and 3% phosphorylcholine-functionalized chains, with the latter being critical for selective intracellular uptake. These framboidal vesicles remain intact at neutral pH but become swollen and cationic at pH 5–6 because the tertiary amine residues in the hydrophobic C block become protonated. We demonstrate that such nanoparticles enable selective targeting of TN breast cancer cells. This is because such malignant cells overexpress SR-B1 receptors for naturally-occurring phospholipids and hence take up the phosphorylcholine-decorated framboidal vesicles preferentially. In contrast, negligible cell uptake is observed over the same time period for both human dermal fibroblasts and normal breast cancer cells that minimally express the SR-B1 receptor. Moreover, we show that genetic material within such pH-responsive framboidal vesicles can be efficiently delivered to the cell nuclei while maintaining high cell viability