Whey-derived peptides interactions with ACE by molecular docking as a potential predictive tool of natural ACE inhibitors

Several milk/whey derived peptides possess high in vitro angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity. However, in some cases, poor correlation between the in vitro ACE inhibitory activity and the in vivo antihypertensive activity has been observed. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the structure-activity relationship of peptide sequences present in whey/milk protein hydrolysates with high ACE inhibitory activity, which could lead to a better understanding and prediction of their in vivo antihypertensive activity. The potential interactions between peptides produced from whey proteins, previously reported as high ACE inhibitors such as IPP, LIVTQ, IIAE, LVYPFP, and human ACE were assessed using a molecular docking approach. The results show that peptides IIAE, LIVTQ, and LVYPFP formed strong H bonds with the amino acids Gln 259, His 331, and Thr 358 in the active site of the human ACE. Interestingly, the same residues were found to form strong hydrogen bonds with the ACE inhibitory drug Sampatrilat. Furthermore, peptides IIAE and LVYPFP interacted with the amino acid residues Gln 259 and His 331, respectively, also in common with other ACE-inhibitory drugs such as Captopril, Lisinopril and Elanapril. Additionally, IIAE interacted with the amino acid residue Asp 140 in common with Lisinopril, and LIVTQ interacted with Ala 332 in common with both Lisinopril and Elanapril. The peptides produced naturally from whey by enzymatic hydrolysis interacted with residues of the human ACE in common with potent ACE-inhibitory drugs which suggests that these natural peptides may be potent ACE inhibitors

Hagin (Taxus baccata L.) populazioen egitura demografikoa Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoan

[EUS] Hagina (Taxus baccata L., Taxaceae) gainbeheran dagoen espeziea da, faktore ezberdinak izan direlarik honen eragile: mendeetan zeharreko klima aldaketa, gizakiaren eraginez gertatutako habitat naturalen asaldatze eta espezieen banaketen aldaketa, konpetentzia eta birsorkuntza arazoak. Ikerketa honen helburu nagusia hagin-basoen egitura bi eskualde klimatikoen (klima ozeanikoa eta trantsizio klima) artean konparatzea zen. Horretarako, sei hagin populazio hautatu ziren, hiru Gipuzkoan, Euskal Herriko eskualde Eurosiberiarrean (Alkiza, Aralar eta Pagoeta), eta beste hiru Araban, Euskal Herriko eskualde Eurosiberiarrean baina trantsizio zonaldean (Okina, Toloño eta Arluzea). Alde batetik, basoen konposizioari eta espezie nagusienen tamainen egiturari erreparatu zitzaion eta hagina espezie dioikoa denez, populazio ezberdinetako haginen sexu ratioa ere neurtu zen. Eta beste alde batetik, espezie nagusien birsorkuntza-gaitasunak aztertu ziren, ikertutako basoen etorkizuna islatzen baitute. Azkenik, ugaztunen herbiboriari ere erreparatu zitzaion, herbiboriak zuhaitz espezieen eta bereziki haginaren birsorkuntza mugatu baitezake. Zentzu honetan, zuhaitz espezie nagusienen herbiboria kalteak kuantifikatu ziren aztertutako basoetan. Populazioen arteko hagin dentsitateen arteko alde nabarmenik ez zen behatu. Sexu ratioari dagokionez, orokorrean arren aldeko balantzea behatu zen populazio gehienetan, Aralarren soilik ziren emeak nagusi, eta orokorrean Arabako populazioak orekatuagoak ziren. Birsorkuntza-tasa nahiko altuak behatu ziren, ikertutako basoetan espeziearen etorkizuna bermatzen dutelarik. Azkenik, birsorkuntza-tasetan herbiboriaren eragina nabaria zen, baina beste zenbait faktore ere kontuan hartu beharrekoak ziren, basoaren kudeaketa intentsitatea bezala. Klimaz harago, ikerketan kontuan hartu ez ziren beste faktore batzuek emaitzetan eragina izan dezakete, hala nola, iraganeko basoen kudeaketa, lurzoru mota edo geologia.(Euskera)[EN] European yew (Taxus baccata L., Taxaeae) is an endangered tree species prone to decline. It seems that many factors can cause this decline: global warming during the last centuries, anthropic pressure causing changes in habitat and species distribution, competition and limitations on regeneration. The aim of this study is to compare the structure of yew populations in two different climatic regions: oceanic climate and transition climate. For this purpose, six yew populations were monitored, three in Gipuzkoa, at the Eurosiberian region of the Basque Country (Alkiza, Aralar and Pagoeta), and other three in Araba, also at the Eurosiberian region of the Basque Country but in the transition area (Okina, Toloño eta Arluzea). On the one hand, we focused on forest composition and main species size structure. Since yew is a dioecious species, we also measured the sex ratio of the different populations. On the other hand, we calculated the regeneration-capacity which estimates the capacity of a given species to replace the existing adults in a near future. Finally, we analyzed mammal herbivory risk and damages for main tree species, as it can limit tree regeneration. Observed differences between populations in adult yew density seems related to other factors different than climate. Male proportion were overall higher than female proportion, except in Aralar, where females were more abundant. In addition, sex ratio was more balanced for populations in Araba than in Gipuzkoa. Regeneration was generally high, guarantying the future of the species in the studied populations. Finally, it seems that herbivory could limit yew regeneration, although many other factors should be taken into consideration such as forest management intensity. Some other factors, apart from climate, can influence recorded results, past forest management, soil type or geology. (English

Laguntza publikoen kontrolaren erreforma eta horren eragina Euskadin

La política de defensa de la competencia de la Unión Europea es una herramienta fundamental para garantizar el correcto funcionamiento del mercado interior. Como consecuencia de la úlima crisis financiera, la filosofía de las ayudas estatales ha caído por los suelos, habiéndose logrado que el sistema económico se sumerja en el caos. Asimismo se ha puesto en duda la potestad de las instituciones vascas para redactar leyes en este ámbito, aunque tengan competencia para ello. Con todo, la jurisprudencia de la Unión Europea ha tomado postura a favor de mantener las competencias de las regiones. Esta tendencia comenzó a ser percibida en el caso de las Azores, y ha quedado confirmada en la sentencia recientemente emitida por el Tribunal Superior del País Vasco en torno a las medidas tomadas por las instituciones forales vascas.Europar Batasunak lehiaren defentsarako duen politika funtsezko tresna da barne merkaturaren funtzionamendu egokia bermatzeko. Azken fi nantza-krisialdiaren ondoren estatu laguntzei buruzko fi losofi a hankaz gora erori da, sistema ekonomikoa kaos batean murgiltzea lortu delarik. Era berean, euskal erakundeek alor horretan legeak egiteko ahalmena ote duten zalantzan jarri dute, hartarako eskumenen jabe izan arren. Guztiarekin ere, eskualdeen eskumenak mantentzearen aldeko jarrera hartu du Europar Batasuneko jurisprudentziak. Azore Uharteen kasuan hasi zen joera hori begiztatzen, eta berretsia gertatu da, euskal foru erakundeek harturiko neurriak zirela-eta, Euskadiko Auzitegiak Nagusiak berriki emandako epaian.La politique que conduit l'Union Européenne en matière de défense de la concurrence est un outil fondamental pour garantir un fonctionnement correct du marché. Suite à la dernière crise financière, la philosophie concernant les aides étatiques a été totalement bouleversée, tandis que le système économique s'est enfoncé dans un véritable chaos. De même, les institutions basques ont douté de leur capacité à légiférer dans ce domaine, alors qu'elles détiennent des compétences pour cela. Cependant, la jurisprudence de l'Union Européenne a pris une position en faveur du maintien des compétences des régions. Cette tendance a commencé à être examinée à partir du cas des Açores et elle a été confirmée, suite aux mesures prises par les institutions forales basques, dans un jugement prononcé récemment par le Tribunal Suprême d'Euskadi.The European Union's policy for defending competition is a key tool for guaranteeing that the internal market functions properly. Following the recent financial crisis, the philosophy on State subsidies has collapsed, and the economic system has been immersed in chaos. Likewise, doubt has been cast on whether the Basque institutions have the capacity to pass legislation in this sphere, despite the fact that they have the power to do so. Nevertheless, EU jurisprudence has adopted an attitude in favour of upholding the powers of the regions. This attitude began to emerge in the case of the Azores and has been confirmed in the ruling handed down by the High Court of the Basque Autonomous Community on the occasion of the measures taken by the Basque Charter Institutions

Advances towards behaviour-based indoor robotic exploration

215 p.The main contributions of this research work remain in object recognition by computer vision, by one side, and in robot localisation and mapping by the other. The first contribution area of the research address object recognition in mobile robots. In this area, door handle recognition is of great importance, as it help the robot to identify doors in places where the camera is not able to view the whole door. In this research, a new two step algorithm is presented based on feature extraction that aimed at improving the extracted features to reduce the superfluous keypoints to be compared at the same time that it increased its efficiency by improving accuracy and reducing the computational time. Opposite to segmentation based paradigms, the feature extraction based two-step method can easily be generalized to other types of handles or even more, to other type of objects such as road signals. Experiments have shown very good accuracy when tested in real environments with different kind of door handles. With respect to the second contribution, a new technique to construct a topological map during the exploration phase a robot would perform on an unseen office-like environment is presented. Firstly a preliminary approach proposed to merge the Markovian localisation in a distributed system, which requires low storage and computational resources and is adequate to be applied in dynamic environments. In the same area, a second contribution to terrain inspection level behaviour based navigation concerned to the development of an automatic mapping method for acquiring the procedural topological map. The new approach is based on a typicality test called INCA to perform the so called loop-closing action. The method was integrated in a behaviour-based control architecture and tested in both, simulated and real robot/environment system. The developed system proved to be useful also for localisation purpose

Simulation of low rigidity part machining applied to thin-walled structures

The aim of this study is to evaluate the modelling of machining vibrations of thin-walled aluminium work- pieces at high productivity rate. The use of numerical simulation is generally aimed at giving optimal cutting conditions for the precision and the surface finish needed. The proposed modelling includes all the ingredients needed for real productive machining of thin-walled parts. It has been tested with a specially designed machining test with high cutting engagement and taking into account all the phenomena involved in the dynamics of cutting. The system has been modelled using several simulation techni- ques. On the one hand, the milling process was modelled using a dynamic mechanistic model, with time domain simulation. On the other hand, the dynamic parameters of the system were obtained step by step by finite element analysis; thus the variation due to metal removal and the cutting edge position has been accurately taken into account. The results of the simulations were compared to those of the experiments; the discussion is based on the analysis of the cutting forces, the amplitude and the frequency of the vibrations evaluating the presence of chatter. The specific difficulties to perfect simulation of thin-walled workpiece chatter have been finely analysed

Protective effect of β-Lactoglobulin against heat induced loss of antioxidant activity of resveratrol

Resveratrol exhibits many health benefits; however, low water-solubility and instability under processing conditions such as heating can be some of the main challenges for its processing and formulation. Here the complexation of β-lactoglobulin (β-Lg) with resveratrol was investigated to improve its solubility and stability. The solubility of resveratrol in water was determined as 7 mg/100 ml. Resveratrol-β-Lg nanoparticles (181.8 nm) were produced at pH 6 and 75 °C for 45 min. Heating resveratrol solutions at 75 °C for 45 min resulted in isomerization of resveratrol and reduced antioxidant activity. However, resveratrol-β-Lg nanocomplexes which had undergone the same heat treatment exhibited improved antioxidant activity. Heating under pasteurisation conditions led to similar results and both native β-Lg and nanoparticles exhibited a protective effect against heat-induced chemical changes in resveratrol, resulting in enhanced antioxidant activity. Fluorescence measurements revealed strong interactions of resveratrol with both native protein and nanoparticles

Análisis del grado de formación en primeros auxilios del profesorado en activo de educación infantil y primaria

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el conocimiento que sobre primeros auxilios posee el profesorado de educación infantil y primaria. Numerosos accidentes ocurren cada año en los centros escolares, por lo que conocer la capacidad del profesorado para responder ante situaciones de urgencia resulta esencial. Se aplica una prueba estandarizada a un total de 361 docentes. Los resultados muestran que, en general, el profesorado no está adecuadamente cualificado para atender situaciones de urgencia en la escuela, aunque se constatan diferencias significativas entre quienes han recibido formación sobre el tema y los que no. Tras llevar a cabo análisis jerárquicos se obtienen diferentes perfiles del profesorado con distintos grados de formación. Las conclusiones sugieren la necesidad de incorporar formación sobre primeros auxilios en los estudios de grado de magisterio, así como de ofertar cursos de formación permanente que pongan especial atención en la reanimación cardiopulmonar.The objective of this paper is, specifically, to analyze the knowledge that teachers of pre-school and primary school have on first aids. Many accidents occur each year in schools, so it is essential to know teachers’ ability to act properly in case of emergency. A standardized test was conducted on a sample of 361 teachers. The results show that, in general, teachers are not enough qualified to respond correctly in the event of emergency in the school. However, there are some significant differences between those that have been trained on this subject and those that have not. After conducting a hierarchical analysis, some profiles of teachers with different training level were shown. Conclusions suggest that it is necessary to incorporate first aids training in teacher education degree, as well as to offer continuous education courses, especially focused on cardiopulmonary resuscitation