In Vitro Protein Digestibility (IVPD) of Three Indonesian Sorghum Varieties Affected by Water Treatment and Incubation Time

The objective of this experiment was to study if incubating the water treated grain could improve the in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) values of three varieties of Indonesian sorghum (UPCA-S1, KD-4, and No. 46 varieties).Each variety of sorghum was divided into four groups of incubation time: 0 day (as a control group), 1, 2, and 3 days. All of the grains were brought into water content of 30% and incubated at 32⁰C.The IVPD values varied with sorghum variety (P<0.05). TheIVPD value of untreated UPCA-S₁ was higher than those of KD-4 and No. 46. The effect of adding water to the grain followed by incubation at 32⁰C for several days signigicantly improved (P<0.05) the IVPD values of all the three varieties.  

Partitioning and characterization of tyrosine-tagged green fluorescent proteins in aqueous two-phase systems

The green fluorescent protein GFPuv has been genetically engineered to investigate the influence of N-terminal tyrosine extensions in aqueous two-phase systems. Fusions in the N-terminus affected the protein expression, and tags containing three tyrosines and prolines influenced the expression favorably. This effect is probably due to changes in mRNA stability, because the amounts of corresponding mRNAs correlated with the amounts of GFPuv proteins. The partitioning was investigated in two different aqueous two-phase systems, a two-polymer system composed of EO30PO70/dextran and a PEG/salt system with potassium phosphate. Partitioning in the PEG/salt system generally was more favorable than in the EO30PO70/dextran system. Tags with three tyrosines resulted in higher partitioning toward the EO30PO70- and PEG-rich phases, respectively. The effect of adding proline residues to the tag was also investigated, and the partitioning effect of the tag was enhanced when prolines were included in the tags with three tyrosines. The best tyrosine tag, Y3P2, increased the partition coefficient 5 times in the PEG/salt system. Thermoseparation of the EO30PO70 phase allowed recovery of 83% Y3P2-GFPuv protein in a water phase

To Alfred Deakin

The first results of the Women's Health Initiative dietary intervention trial were published in the USA in February. This is a colossal intervention designed to see if diets lower in fat and higher in fruits, vegetables and grains than is usual in high-income countries reduce the incidence of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, heart disease and other chronic diseases, in women aged 50-79 years. As interpreted by US government media releases, the results were unimpressive. As interpreted by a global media blitz, the results indicate that food and nutrition has little or nothing to do with health and disease. But the trial was in key respects not reaching its aims, was methodologically controversial, and in any case has not produced the reported null results. What should the public health nutrition profession do about such messes