Natural Energy Bars With Protein Improvement From Animal Origin Foods

The energy bars provide the consumer with nutritional and organoleptic quality, as well as a prolonged shelf life without the need to modify the temperature for storage, however, they do not satisfy the nutritional requirements of high-quality proteins since they are usually made from cereals, which are low cost ingredients and great energy contribution. The objective of this study was to create an energetic and nutritious bar, without diminishing the technological quality of the commercial bars and that, due to their sensory characteristics, are easily included in the daily consumption of people who exercise and want to control their weight. A product was formulated with a greater contribution and protein quality, and with a functional dose of macronutrients. The product was prepared in compliance with the regulations of the Ecuadorian Institute for Standardization (INEN) and the Food Codex, the premixing and roasting of ingredients was controlled and finally food with animal protein source such as egg white and powdered milk was added. For the premix oat flakes, nuts such as nuts, almonds and hazelnuts, chia seeds and honey were used, then added egg white and powdered milk. The protein content it reached was 29.01% on a wet basis, a fat value of 23.10% and carbohydrates of 25.24% on 100 g of sample on a wet basis. The energy distribution of macronutrients was balanced, and the sensory evaluation showed good product acceptability. Keywords: cereal bars, protein, immediate energy. Resumen Las barras energéticas proporcionan al consumidor calidad nutricional y organoléptica, así como una vida de anaquel prolongada sin necesidad de modificar la temperatura para su almacenamiento, sin embargo, no satisfacen los requerimientos nutricionales de proteínas de alta calidad ya que generalmente están elaboradas a base de cereales, que son ingredientes de bajo costo y gran aporte energético. El objetivo se este estudio fue crear una barra energética y nutritiva, sin disminuir la calidad tecnológica de las barras comerciales y que por sus características sensoriales sean fácilmente incluidas en el consumo diario de personas que se ejercitan y quieren controlar su peso. Se formuló un producto con un mayor aporte y calidad proteica, y con una dosis funcional de macronutrientes. El producto se elaboró cumpliendo las normativas del Instituto Ecuatoriano de Normalización (INEN) y del Codex alimentario, se controló la premezcla y tostado de ingredientes y finalmente se adicionó los alimentos con fuente proteica animal como la clara de huevo y leche en polvo. Para la premezcla se utilizaron hojuelas de avena, frutos secos como nueces, almendras y avellanas, semillas de chía y miel de abeja, luego se adicionó la clara de huevo y la leche en polvo. El contenido proteico que alcanzó fue de 29,01% en base húmeda, un valor en grasas de 23,10% y de carbohidratos de 25,24% de muestra en base húmeda. La distribución energética de macronutrientes fue equilibrada y la evaluación sensorial arrojó una buena aceptabilidad del producto. Palabras claves: barras de cereales, proteína, energía inmediata

Thermodynamics of protein folding: a random matrix formulation

The process of protein folding from an unfolded state to a biologically active, folded conformation is governed by many parameters e.g the sequence of amino acids, intermolecular interactions, the solvent, temperature and chaperon molecules. Our study, based on random matrix modeling of the interactions, shows however that the evolution of the statistical measures e.g Gibbs free energy, heat capacity, entropy is single parametric. The information can explain the selection of specific folding pathways from an infinite number of possible ways as well as other folding characteristics observed in computer simulation studies.Comment: 21 Pages, no figure

Effect of Socioeconomic Status (SES) Disparity on Neural Development in Female African-American Infants at 1 Month

There is increasing interest in both the cumulative and long term impact of early life adversity on brain structure and function, especially as the brain is both highly vulnerable and highly adaptive during childhood. Relationships between SES and neural development have been shown in children older than age two years. Less is known regarding the impact of SES on neural development in children before age two. This paper examines the effect of SES, indexed by income-to-needs (ITN) and maternal education, on cortical, deep gray, and white matter volumes in term, healthy, appropriate for gestational age, African American, female infants. At 44-46 post-conception weeks, unsedated infants underwent MRI (3.0T Siemens Verio scanner, 32-channel head coil). Images were segmented based on a locally-constructed template. Utilizing hierarchical linear regression, overall and component (maternal education and ITN) SES effects on MRI volumes were examined. In this cohort of healthy African American infants of varying SES, lower SES was associated with smaller cortical gray and deep gray matter volumes. These SES effects on neural outcome at such a young age build on similar studies of older children, suggesting that the biological embedding of adversity may occur very early in development

Deriving amino acid contact potentials from their frequencies of occurence in proteins: a lattice model study

The possibility of deriving the contact potentials between amino acids from their frequencies of occurence in proteins is discussed in evolutionary terms. This approach allows the use of traditional thermodynamics to describe such frequencies and, consequently, to develop a strategy to include in the calculations correlations due to the spatial proximity of the amino acids and to their overall tendency of being conserved in proteins. Making use of a lattice model to describe protein chains and defining a "true" potential, we test these strategies by selecting a database of folding model sequences, deriving the contact potentials from such sequences and comparing them with the "true" potential. Taking into account correlations allows for a markedly better prediction of the interaction potentials

A Process for Co-Designing Educational Technology Systems for Refugee Children

There is a growing interest in the potential for technology to facilitate emergency education of refugee children. However, designing in this space requires knowledge of the displaced population and the contextual dynamics surrounding it. Design should therefore be informed by both existing research across relevant disciplines, and from the practical experience of those who are on the ground facing the problem in real life. This paper describes a process for designing appropriate technology for these settings. The process draws on literature from emergency education, student engagement and motivation, educational technology, and participatory design. We emphasise a thorough understanding of the problem definition, the nature of the emergency, and of socio-cultural aspects that can inform the design process. We describe how this process was implemented leading to the design of a digital learning space for children living in a refugee camp in Greece. This drew on involving different groups of participants such as social-workers, parents, and children

Steric constraints in model proteins

A simple lattice model for proteins that allows for distinct sizes of the amino acids is presented. The model is found to lead to a significant number of conformations that are the unique ground state of one or more sequences or encodable. Furthermore, several of the encodable structures are highly designable and are the non-degenerate ground state of several sequences. Even though the native state conformations are typically compact, not all compact conformations are encodable. The incorporation of the hydrophobic and polar nature of amino acids further enhances the attractive features of the model.Comment: RevTex, 5 pages, 3 postscript figure

Review of Reactor Antineutrino Experiments

As discussed elsewhere, the measurement of a non-zero value for $\theta_{13}$ would open up a wide range of possibilities to explore CP-violation and the mass hierarchy. Experimental methods to measure currently the unknown mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ include accelerator searches for the $\nu_{e}$ appearance and precise measurements of reactor antineutrino disappearance. The reactor antineutrino experiments are designed to search for a non-vanishing mixing angle $\theta_{13}$ with unprecedented sensitivity. This document describes current reactor antineutrino experiments and synergy between accelerator searches for the $\nu_{e}$ appearance and precise measurements of reactor antineutrino disappearance.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Review talk given at NuFact 2011, XIIIth InternationalWorkshop on Neutrino Factories, Super beams and Beta beams, CERN/UNIGE, Geneva, Switzerland, August 1-6, 201