Recent Advances in Encapsulation, Protection, and Oral Delivery of Bioactive Proteins and Peptides using Colloidal Systems

There are many areas in medicine and industry where it would be advantageous to orally deliver bioactive proteins and peptides (BPPs), including ACE inhibitors, antimicrobials, antioxidants, hormones, enzymes, and vaccines. A major challenge in this area is that many BPPs degrade during storage of the product or during passage through the human gut, thereby losing their activity. Moreover, many BPPs have undesirable taste profiles (such as bitterness or astringency), which makes them unpleasant to consume. These challenges can often be overcome by encapsulating them within colloidal particles that protect them from any adverse conditions in their environment, but then release them at the desired site-of-action, which may be inside the gut or body. This article begins with a discussion of BPP characteristics and the hurdles involved in their delivery. It then highlights the characteristics of colloidal particles that can be manipulated to create effective BPP-delivery systems, including particle composition, size, and interfacial properties. The factors impacting the functional performance of colloidal delivery systems are then highlighted, including their loading capacity, encapsulation efficiency, protective properties, retention/release properties, and stability. Different kinds of colloidal delivery systems suitable for encapsulation of BPPs are then reviewed, such as microemulsions, emulsions, solid lipid particles, liposomes, and microgels. Finally, some examples of the use of colloidal delivery systems for delivery of specific BPPs are given, including hormones, enzymes, vaccines, antimicrobials, and ACE inhibitors. An emphasis is on the development of food-grade colloidal delivery systems, which could be used in functional or medical food applications. The knowledge presented should facilitate the design of more effective vehicles for the oral delivery of bioactive proteins and peptides

Neurophysiological and Behavioral Responses to Music Therapy in Vegetative and Minimally Conscious States

Assessment of awareness for those with disorders of consciousness is a challenging undertaking, due to the complex presentation of the population. Debate surrounds whether behavioral assessments provide greatest accuracy in diagnosis compared to neuro-imaging methods, and despite developments in both, misdiagnosis rates remain high. Music therapy may be effective in the assessment and rehabilitation with this population due to effects of musical stimuli on arousal, attention, and emotion, irrespective of verbal or motor deficits. However, an evidence base is lacking as to which procedures are most effective. To address this, a neurophysiological and behavioral study was undertaken comparing electroencephalogram (EEG), heart rate variability, respiration, and behavioral responses of 20 healthy subjects with 21 individuals in vegetative or minimally conscious states (VS or MCS). Subjects were presented with live preferred music and improvised music entrained to respiration (procedures typically used in music therapy), recordings of disliked music, white noise, and silence. ANOVA tests indicated a range of significant responses (p ? 0.05) across healthy subjects corresponding to arousal and attention in response to preferred music including concurrent increases in respiration rate with globally enhanced EEG power spectra responses (p = 0.05–0.0001) across frequency bandwidths. Whilst physiological responses were heterogeneous across patient cohorts, significant post hoc EEG amplitude increases for stimuli associated with preferred music were found for frontal midline theta in six VS and four MCS subjects, and frontal alpha in three VS and four MCS subjects (p = 0.05–0.0001). Furthermore, behavioral data showed a significantly increased blink rate for preferred music (p = 0.029) within the VS cohort. Two VS cases are presented with concurrent changes (p ? 0.05) across measures indicative of discriminatory responses to both music therapy procedures. A third MCS case study is presented highlighting how more sensitive selective attention may distinguish MCS from VS. The findings suggest that further investigation is warranted to explore the use of music therapy for prognostic indicators, and its potential to support neuroplasticity in rehabilitation programs

Enhanced Transport of Two Spheres in Viscous Fluid

We obtain a numerical solution for the synchronous motion of two spheres moving in viscous fluid. We find that for a given amount of work performed, the final distance travelled by each sphere is increased by the presence of the other sphere. The result suggests that the transport efficiency of molecular motor cargo in vivo may be improved due to an effective hydrodynamic interaction with neighboring cargos moving along the same direction.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, minor correction

Who Are the Givers? Briefing Paper on British Social Attitudes to Charitable Giving

This Institute for Philanthropy paper summarizes the findings of the annual British Social Attitudes Survey on the attitudes and values of Britons regarding charitable giving and philanthropy, and on their behavior. The authors differentiate the target group by age, education, religion, income, political affiliation, and newspaper readership, and determines that there are broadly three groups in British society: contributors, bystanders, and investors

The Case for Community Colleges: Aligning Higher Education and Workforce Needs in Massachusetts

Reviews research on the need for middle-skilled workers with at least an associate's degree, Massachusetts' community college system, promising models for aligning community college curricula with workforce needs, and challenges. Makes recommendations

Biological fieldwork provision in higher education

Fieldwork is regarded as an important component of many bioscience degree programmes. QAA benchmarks statements refer explicitly to the importance of fieldwork, although give no indication of amounts of field provision expected. Previous research has highlighted the importance of fieldwork to the learning of both subject-specific and transferable skills. However, it is unclear how the amount and type of fieldwork currently offered is being affected by the recent expansion in student numbers and current funding constraints. Here we review contemporary literature and report on the results of a questionnaire completed by bioscience tutors across 33 UK institutions. The results suggest, perhaps contrary to anecdotal evidence, that the amount of fieldwork being undertaken by students is not in decline and that on the whole, programmes contain reasonable amounts of fieldwork. The majority of programmes involved UK-based fieldwork, but a number of programmes also offered ‘exotic’ overseas fieldwork which was considered important in terms of student recruitment as well as exposing students to a diversity of field learning environments. Tutors were very clear about the benefits of fieldwork and the need to be proactive to maintain its provision

The Deterrent Effects of National Anti-Cartel Laws: Evidence from the International Vitamins Cartel

This paper estimates the effect on international trade flows during the 1990s of the formation of the vitamins cartel. After this cartel began operating, exports from countries where the cartel conspirators' headquarters were located to those nations in Asia, Western Europe, and Latin America that did not have active cartel enforcement regimes tended to rise in value more than in those nations that had such regimes. As industry studies suggest that the demand for vitamins is price inelastic, this finding is supportive of the hypothesis that the vitamins cartel raised prices further in nations without active cartel enforcement regimes. These findings also have implications for the cost-benefit analyses of anti-cartel laws. In nine economies in Western Europe and Latin America, where recent estimates of government outlays on competition policy enforcement were found, these expenditures were compared to the additional overcharges on vitamins imports that would have resulted if each of these nations did not have an active cartel enforcement regime. In seven of the nine economies, the reduction in overcharges on this one international cartel alone exceeded a quarter of their government's spending on the entire competition policy enforcement regime. These findings have a direct bearing on the debate, currently taking place at the World Trade Organization, on the merits of multilateral disciplines that would require all WTO members to enact and enforce provisions against hard core cartels.