The effects of lithium chloride and cathodal/anodal transcranial direct current stimulation on conditional fear memory changes and the level of p-mTOR/mTOR in PFC of male NMRI mice

Lithium chloride clinically used to treat mental diseases but it has some side effects like cognitive impairment, memory deficit. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that is able to change neural activity and gene transcription in the brain. The aim of the study is to provide a conceptual theoretical framework based on behavioral and molecular effects of tDCS on memory changes induced by lithium in male mice. we applied Anodal-tDCS and Cathodal-tDCS over the left PFC for 3 consecutive days tDCS for 20 min with 2 mA after injection of different doses of lithium/saline.Trained in fear condition and finally the day after that tested their memory persistency factors (freezing-latency) and other behavior such as grooming and rearing percentage time in the fear conditioning. P-mTOR/mTOR was analyzed using western blotting. The results obtained from the preliminary analysis of behavioral fear memory showed that lithium had destructive effect in higher doses and decreased freezing percentage time. However, both cathodal and anodal tDCS significantly improved memory and increased P-mTOR/mTOR level in the PFC. The results of this study indicate that cathodal and anodal tDCS upon the left prefrontal increased memory and reduced lithium side effects on memory consolidation and altered expression of plasticity-associated genes in the prefrontal cortex. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Changes in Quality Properties and Kinetics of Reducing Sugar Removal in Potato Sticks during Blanching

Due to problems in storage, transportation and price fluctuation of fresh potato, production of ready-to-use products like French fries is of particular importance. French fries quality mainly depends on the appearance, taste, color, texture and oil uptake. One of the important steps in product processing is blanching. This step improves product texture and color due to the decrease in reducing sugar content, and causes reduction of oil uptake due to the gelatinization of surface starch. Therefore, by selecting a suitable method and condition, the improvement of product quality is possible. In order to investigate the effect of blanching temperature on kinetic of the reducing sugar content and changes in potato stick color and texture, sticks with 0.8 0.8 8 cm dimensions were prepared and blanching was carried out with hot water at different temperatures (60, 70, 80 and 90°C) and various times up to 120 minutes. Color, texture and reducing sugar content of samples were measured during blanching. The results showed that reducing sugar content was reduced during the blanching as a function of temperature and time. Also, product color and texture were mainly affected by blanching temperature, with the low temperature being more suitable to improve potato stick quality. According to the results, there was no significant difference between blanching at 80, 90°C and 60°C for reducing sugar content. Also, for this parameter, there was no significant difference between times of 100 and 5 minutes at 60°C. The least texture damage was obtained by blanching at 60°C in a short time. It could be concluded that to preserve potato stick color and texture and reduce energy consumption, blanching can be done at 60°C for 5 minutes if enzymes are inactivated

Effect of Xanthan, Mono-di-Glyceride and Cultivar on Physical and Sensory Properties of Canned Rice During Storage

Ready-to-eat or canned products have an important place in urban life style. Rice is consumed by half of world population. Problems related to production of canned rice are the coherences of rice kernel, retrogradation of rice starch and physico-chemical changes of rice during storage. Main factors affecting physico-chemical properties of canned rice are rice cultivar, amylose and amylopectin content of kernels, precooking conditions, kernel composition and added stabilizers. In this study, effect of three cultivars, Basmati and two local cultivars, Tarom Mazandaran and Tarom Hashemi, also two types of stabilizers, Xanthan, Mono-di-glyceride, on sensory and physical properties of canned rice were studied. Type and level of stabilizers, cultivars and time had significant effect on texture of cooked rice. Initially during storage, Basmati had the highest firmness and Tarom Mazandaran and Tarom Hashemi had lower firmness. The results of texture analysis indicated that both stabilizers reduced firmness of cooked rice during storage. Adding xhanthan as stabilizer had higher effect on reducing of cooked rice firmness comparing to mono-di-glyceride. Result of color analysis showed that Basmati cultivar was most yellowish and Tarom Mazandaran indicated maximum lightness. Sensory analysis of samples indicated that Basmati had the best score on texture, appearance and acceptability and Tarom Hashemi had the best score on taste and flavor. Type of stabilizer had significant effect on taste and flavor of cooked rice

Effects of radiofrequency-assisted freezing on microstructure and quality of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fillet

In this research, freezing was combined with radiofrequency waves (RF) as a novel method and its application was investigated on rainbow trout fish. The main purpose of this study was determination of the effect of RF waves on freezing process and quality characteristics of fish after thawing as compared to the conventional air blast freezing method. The effects of three radiofrequency pulse patterns and three electrode gaps (2, 3 and 4 cm) on the quality of frozen fish such as drip loss, colour, texture and microstructure were investigated. As compared to the control sample, RF-assisted freezing reduced drip loss, however no significant difference was observed in weight loss on freezing. Textural analysis showed that hardness, gumminess and chewiness of RF treatments were similar to the fresh sample (unfrozen) and no significant difference was found between them. The colour of frozen fillets was not significantly influenced by RF application. Histology tests conducted to investigate the microstructure of frozen fish indicated that the size of the formed ice crystals was significantly reduced under RF-assisted freezing and at the minimum electrode gap it was about 75% of the size of the ice crystals of the control sample frozen without RF