108 research outputs found
Can artisanal “Coalho” cheese from Northeastern Brazil be used as a functional food?
AbstractBrazilian artisanal “Coalho” cheeses from six Northeast towns were investigated as a functional food based on their peptide profiles and antioxidant, zinc-binding and antimicrobial activities. The peptides (WSP) from “Coalho” cheese showed high antioxidant activity, the best value of TEAC being 2223±10.10μM, which means 91.1±0.43% oxidative inhibition and peptide concentration for IC50 of 7mg/mL (21μg of peptides) for sample from the town of Correntes. The smallest TEAC value (1896±17μM), which means 75.9±0.7% oxidative inhibition and IC50 of 10.5mg/mL (31.5μg of peptide), was obtained for samples from the town of São Bento do Una. The zinc-binding activities were: Arcoverde (72.21±0.24%) Cachoeirinha (75.02±0.02%), Capoeiras (61.78±0.65%), Correntes (75.47±0.5%), São Bento do Una (75.41±0.15%), and Venturosa (74.36±0.04%). The WSP extracts showed antimicrobial activity against Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. All the results obtained suggest that “Coalho” cheese has potential as a functional food
Mirror symmetry breaking through an internal degree of freedom leading to directional motion
We analyze here the minimal conditions for directional motion (net flow in
phase space) of a molecular motor placed on a mirror-symmetric environment and
driven by a center-symmetric and time-periodic force field. The complete
characterization of the deterministic limit of the dissipative dynamics of
several realizations of this minimal model, reveals a complex structure in the
phase diagram in parameter space, with intertwined regions of pinning (closed
orbits) and directional motion. This demonstrates that the mirror-symmetry
breaking which is needed for directional motion to occur, can operate through
an internal degree of freedom coupled to the translational one.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Density pertubation of unparticle dark matter in the flat Universe
The unparticle has been suggested as a candidate of dark matter. We
investigated the growth rate of the density perturbation for the unparticle
dark matter in the flat Universe. First, we consider the model in which
unparticle is the sole dark matter and find that the growth factor can be
approximated well by , where is
the equation of state of unparticle. Our results show that the presence of
modifies the behavior of the growth factor . For the second model
where unparticle co-exists with cold dark matter, the growth factor has a new
approximation and
is a function of . Thus the growth factor of unparticle is quite
different from that of usual dark matter. These information can help us know
more about unparticle and the early evolution of the Universe.Comment: 6pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.
Hopping Transport in the Presence of Site Energy Disorder: Temperature and Concentration Scaling of Conductivity Spectra
Recent measurements on ion conducting glasses have revealed that conductivity
spectra for various temperatures and ionic concentrations can be superimposed
onto a common master curve by an appropriate rescaling of the conductivity and
frequency. In order to understand the origin of the observed scaling behavior,
we investigate by Monte Carlo simulations the diffusion of particles in a
lattice with site energy disorder for a wide range of both temperatures and
concentrations. While the model can account for the changes in ionic activation
energies upon changing the concentration, it in general yields conductivity
spectra that exhibit no scaling behavior. However, for typical concentrations
and sufficiently low temperatures, a fairly good data collapse is obtained
analogous to that found in experiment.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Population structure and relative growth of the Amazon shrimp Macrobrachium amazonicum (Heller, 1862) (Decapoda: Palaemonidae) on two islands in the fluvial-estuarine plain of the Brazilian Amazon
Measuring the neutrino mass from future wide galaxy cluster catalogues
We present forecast errors on a wide range of cosmological parameters
obtained from a photometric cluster catalogue of a future wide-field
Euclid-like survey. We focus in particular on the total neutrino mass as
constrained by a combination of the galaxy cluster number counts and
correlation function. For the latter we consider only the shape information and
the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), while marginalising over the spectral
amplitude and the redshift space distortions. In addition to the cosmological
parameters of the standard LCDM+nu model we also consider a non-vanishing
curvature, and two parameters describing a redshift evolution for the dark
energy equation of state. For completeness, we also marginalise over a set of
"nuisance" parameters, representing the uncertainties on the cluster mass
determination. We find that combining cluster counts with power spectrum
information greatly improves the constraining power of each probe taken
individually, with errors on cosmological parameters being reduced by up to an
order of magnitude. In particular, the best improvements are for the parameters
defining the dynamical evolution of dark energy, where cluster counts break
degeneracies. Moreover, the resulting error on neutrino mass is at the level of
\sigma(M_\nu)\sim 0.9 eV, comparable with that derived from present Ly-alpha
forest measurements and Cosmic Microwave background (CMB) data in the framework
of a non-flat Universe. Further adopting Planck priors and reducing the number
of free parameters to a LCDM+nu cosmology allows to place constraints on the
total neutrino mass of \sigma(M_\nu) \sim 0.08 eV, close to the lower bound
enforced by neutrino oscillation experiments. [abridged]Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, matches the JCAP accepted versio
Uniformidade de distribuição superficial e subsuperficial de água e de água residuária de suinocultura com irrigação por aspersão em malha
Fusion and Binary-Decay Mechanisms in the Cl+Mg System at E/A 8 MeV/Nucleon
Compound-nucleus fusion and binary-reaction mechanisms have been investigated
for the Cl+Mg system at an incident beam energy of E= 282
MeV. Charge distributions, inclusive energy spectra, and angular distributions
have been obtained for the evaporation residues and the binary fragments.
Angle-integrated cross sections have been determined for evaporation residues
from both the complete and incomplete fusion mechanisms. Energy spectra for
binary fragment channels near to the entrance-channel mass partition are
characterized by an inelastic contribution that is in addition to a fully
energy damped component. The fully damped component which is observed in all
the binary mass channels can be associated with decay times that are comparable
to, or longer than the rotation period. The observed mass-dependent cross
sections for the fully damped component are well reproduced by the fission
transition-state model, suggesting a fusion followed by fission origin. The
present data cannot, however, rule out the possibility that a long-lived
orbiting mechanism accounts for part or all of this yield.Comment: 41 pages standard REVTeX file, 14 Figures available upon request -
Database of spatial distribution of non indigenous species in Spanish marine waters
Research in marine Spanish waters are focused on several actions to achieve an effectively management on protected areas, with the active participation of the stakeholders and research as basic tools for decision-making. Among these actions, there is one about the knowledge and control on NIS. One of its objectives is the creation of NIS factsheets, which are going to be added to the National Marine Biodiversity Geographical System (GIS) providing complementary information about taxonomic classification, common names, taxonomic synonyms, species illustrations, identification morphological characters, habitat in the native and introduced regions, biological and ecological traits, GenBank DNA sequences, world distribution, first record and evolution in the introduced areas, likely pathways of introduction, effects in the habitats and interaction with native species, and potential management measures to apply. The database will also provide data for (1) the European online platforms, (2) the environmental assessment for the Descriptor 2 (D2-NIS) of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), as well as (3) supporting decisions made by stakeholders. It is the result of extensive collaboration among scientist, manager’s and citizen science in the Spanish North-Atlantic, South-Atlantic, Gibraltar Strait-Alboran, Levantine-Balearic and Canary Islands marine divisions, providing an updated overview of the spatial distribution of relevant extended and invasive NIS of recent and established NIS introduced by maritime transport and aquaculture pathways, as well as on cryptogenic or native species in expansion due to the climatic water warming trend
Identification by cluster analysis of patients with asthma and nasal symptoms using the MASK-air® mHealth app
peer reviewedBackground: The self-reporting of asthma frequently leads to patient misidentification in epidemiological studies. Strategies combining the triangulation of data sources may help to improve the identification of people with asthma. We aimed to combine information from the self-reporting of asthma, medication use and symptoms to identify asthma patterns in the users of an mHealth app. Methods: We studied MASK-air® users who reported their daily asthma symptoms (assessed by a 0-100 visual analogue scale – “VAS Asthma”) at least three times (either in three different months or in any period). K-means cluster analysis methods were applied to identify asthma patterns based on: (i) whether the user self-reported asthma; (ii) whether the user reported asthma medication use and (iii) VAS asthma. Clusters were compared by the number of medications used, VAS asthma levels and Control of Asthma and Allergic Rhinitis Test (CARAT) levels. Findings: We assessed a total of 8,075 MASK-air® users. The main clustering approach resulted in the identification of seven groups. These groups were interpreted as probable: (i) severe/uncontrolled asthma despite treatment (11.9-16.1% of MASK-air® users); (ii) treated and partly-controlled asthma (6.3-9.7%); (iii) treated and controlled asthma (4.6-5.5%); (iv) untreated uncontrolled asthma (18.2-20.5%); (v) untreated partly-controlled asthma (10.1-10.7%); (vi) untreated controlled asthma (6.7-8.5%) and (vii) no evidence of asthma (33.0-40.2%). This classification was validated in a study of 192 patients enrolled by physicians. Interpretation: We identified seven profiles based on the probability of having asthma and on its level of control. mHealth tools are hypothesis-generating and complement classical epidemiological approaches in identifying patients with asthma. © 2022 Sociedade Portuguesa de Pneumologi
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