Supplemental linseed oil and antioxidants affect fatty acid composition, oxidation and colour stability of frozen pork

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of dietary linseed oil and antioxidants on the quality of fresh and frozen pork neck stored at -20 °C for six and 12 months. Polish Landrace x Duroc pigs were fed a standard diet (C), a diet supplemented with 3% linseed oil (L1), or a diet with 3% of linseed oil, 1 mg organic selenium (SE)/kg, and 100 mg vitamin E/kg (L2). Chemical components, fatty acid profile and vitamin E content were determined in the fresh meat. Colour, pH and change in the profiles of certain volatile compounds (alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, and esters) were monitored during frozen storage. An electronic nose technique, which was based on ultra-fast gas chromatography, was used to evaluate changes in the profiles of the volatile compounds. After six months of frozen storage, oxidative processes were slower and similar in groups L1 and L2, but less so in meat from C. In pork that was stored for six months, lipid oxidation was not affected by supplementation only with linseed oil (L1). After 12 months of frozen storage, a reduced rate of increase in alcohols, aldehydes and ketones was observed in pork from L2 relative to L1 and C. Lipid oxidation processes in long-stored frozen pork neck were inhibited by the addition of antioxidants to L2. However, a total colour change (ΔE*) of the pork from L1 and L2 was found during storage, which might influence consumers’ decisions to purchase the product.Keywords: colour, fatty acids, freezing, meat quality, volatile component

Siostry benedyktynki misjonarki w Libii - misja milczenia w latach 1976-1998 (w świetle zbiorów archiwalnych Zgromadzenia)

Artykuł składa się ze  trzech rozdziałów i krótkiego zakończenia. W pierwszym rozdziale przedstawiam genezę wyjazdu polskich  sióstr, w tym benedyktynek misjonarek do pracy pielęgniarskiej w libijskim szpitalu w El  Beida. W drugim  - stan  wspólnoty benedyktyńskiej w  chwili wyjazdu via Rzym   do Libii oraz podjęcie pracy w szpitalu w El Beida. W trzecim -  prezentuję przebieg pracy w szpitalu arabskim, życie zakonne w arabskim kraju, zmiany personalne:  w pracy i w domu zakonnym na stanowisku przełożonej oraz  wizytacje kanoniczne. W  końcu przypominam, że benedyktynki, zgodziły się na wyjazd do pracy w Libii na wyraźny rozkaz hierarchii kościelnej w Polsce. Otrzymały w Afryce godziwe warunki życia i pracy. Klimat afrykański  trudny był do zaakceptowania przez niektóre nasze siostry. Misja milczenia w Libii stała się preludium do podjętej przez  nasze siostry  misji  w Ameryce Południowej, w Brazylii i w Ekwadorze

Ethical aspect of quality of life of palliative care patients

In the paper, we attempt a semantic analysis of patient quality of life, which plays an important role in evaluating the patient’s condition and health. The issue seems to be the most important in palliative-hospice care, where doctors work with seriously or terminally ill patients. One of the aims of this branch of medicine is to improve quality of life. This may be achieved, among others, by recognizing the current problems the patient is facing pertaining to family and social relations, beliefs, views or religion. Moreover, by monitoring the behavior of patients and symptoms of their illnesses, the best therapy methods may be selected. Patient quality of life assessment may also enable comparing health care units of the same specialization and be used for the selection of the best standards of care. When discussing the broader meaning of "quality of life", we caution against equating quality of life with the value of life. The main arguments are as follows: subjective character of evaluation of quality of life and, in the future, the possibility of postulates for shortening life of poor quality of life patients when funds for their treatment are insufficient. When accepting quality of life as equal to the value of life, it may result in eliminating unprotected and helpless patients and allowing only the strong to live. Later, this may result in the discrimination of seriously and terminally ill people, even those who do not wish to shorten their lives despite experiencing burdensome symptoms and being aware of the incurable nature of their illness

Immune-cell BDNF expression in treatment-naïve relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients and following one year of immunomodulation therapy

Although neurons are the main source of neurotrophins in the healthy brain, neurotrophins can also be expressed in the immune system. We have previously shown that in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) lower immune-cell neurotrophin levels are associated with brain atrophy and cognitive impairment. The aim of the present study was to assess if immune-cell neurotrophin expression is impaired in MS as compared with the healthy controls, and to describe if these levels change in treatment-naïve RRMS patients, following one year of immunomodulation. Fifty treatment-naïve RRMS patients were assessed at baseline and after one year of immunomodulation (beta-interferons/glatiramer acetate). The control group included 39 healthy subjects matched according to age and gender. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from heparinized blood using Ficoll-Histopaque gradient. The levels of brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor (BDNF), beta-nerve-growth-factor (beta-NGF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) and neurotrophin-4/5 (NT-4/5) were measured in PBMC lysates with ELISA. BDNF levels were significantly lower in MS than in the healthy controls (median 613 vs. 1657pg/mg protein, p<0.001). After one year of immunomodulation, BDNF expression did not change significantly (p=0.06) on the group level. In 70% of patients there was no increase in BDNF level, and in 30% it increased. We observed no differences between treatment groups. Other neurotrophins were detected in a minority of MS samples (as opposed to the controls). To conclude, we have shown that immune-cell production of neurotrophins is impaired in MS patients. In our MS cohort standard immunomodulation failed to restore normal BDNF levels in PBMCs within one year of therapy

Spatial distribution of white matter degenerative lesions and cognitive dysfunction in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis patients

Aim. The aim of this study was to assess degenerative lesion localisation in the course of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and to identify the association between localisation and the frequency of T1-hypointense lesions (black holes) with cognitive dysfunction. We also searched for neuroradiological predictors of cognitive dysfunction in patients. The clinical rationale for the study was previous research, and our own findings suggest that lesion localisation plays an important role in cognitive performance and neurological disability of MS patients. Material and methods. Forty-two patients were included in the study. All subjects underwent neuropsychological examination using Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices, a naming task from the Brief Repeatable Battery of Neuropsychological Tests, and attention to detail tests. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was acquired on 1.5 Tesla scanner and black holes were manually segmented on T1-weighted volumetric images using the FMRIB Software Library. Linear regression was applied to establish a relationship between black hole volume per lobe and cognitive parameters. Bonferroni correction of voxelwise analysis was used to correct for multiple comparisons. Results. The following associations between black hole volume and cognition were identified: frontal lobes black hole volume was associated with phonemic verbal fluency (t = –4.013, p < 0.001), parietal black hole volume was associated with attention (t = –3.776, p < 0.001), and parietal and temporal black hole volumes were associated with nonverbal intelligence (p < 0.001). The volume of parietal black holes was the best predictor of cognitive dysfunction. Conclusions. Our approach, including measurement of focal axonal loss based on T1-volumetric MRI sequence and brief neuropsychological assessment, might improve personalised diagnostic and therapeutic decisions in clinical practice

Anatomical classification of the shape and topography of the operated stomach

The aim of the study was to present the classification of anatomical variances of the operated stomach, based on the radiological and historical data. Different anatomical variations of the operated organ were revealed in 431 out of 2034 patients examined in years 2006-2010. Four primary groups were established: abnormal position along longitudinal (I) and horizontal axis (II), as well as abnormal shape (III) and stomach connections (IV). An additional group (V) encloses mixed forms that connect features of two or more primary groups. The first group contains the partial and total translocation of the stomach into the thoracic cavity after the partial or total esophagectomy. Depends on the applied surgical techniques used during the total esophagectomy, the stomach could be located in the front or back to the pericardial sac. An elongated and gestrectatical form often with signs of pylorostenosis is visible in patients treated by the vagotomy. The consequences of fundoplication included: lack or narrow cardiac angle, and often mild form of the stomach cascade. The most common abnormal shape of the stomach was secondary to the gastrectomy and gastric bending. The final organ shape depends on the type of applied surgical procedure that maintains physiological connection with the duodenum or un-anatomical one, mostly with the jejunal loop. In banding, the body of the stomach forms hourglass on the level of the artificial adjustable band, typically fitted for the surgical slim purpose

Study of shock waves generation, hot electron production and role of parametric instabilities in an intensity regime relevant for the shock ignition

We present experimental results at intensities relevant to Shock Ignition obtained at the sub-ns Prague Asterix Laser System in 2012 . We studied shock waves produced by laser-matter interaction in presence of a pre-plasma. We used a first beam at 1ω (1315 nm) at 7 × 10 13 W/cm 2 to create a pre-plasma on the front side of the target and a second at 3ω (438 nm) at ∼ 10 16 W/cm 2 to create the shock wave. Multilayer targets composed of 25 (or 40 μm) of plastic (doped with Cl), 5 μm of Cu (for Kα diagnostics) and 20 μm of Al for shock measurement were used. We used X-ray spectroscopy of Cl to evaluate the plasma temperature, Kα imaging and spectroscopy to evaluate spatial and spectral properties of the fast electrons and a streak camera for shock breakout measurements. Parametric instabilities (Stimulated Raman Scattering, Stimulated Brillouin Scattering and Two Plasmon Decay) were studied by collecting the back scattered light and analysing its spectrum. Back scattered energy was measured with calorimeters. To evaluate the maximum pressure reached in our experiment we performed hydro simulations with CHIC and DUED codes. The maximum shock pressure generated in our experiment at the front side of the target during laser-interaction is 90 Mbar. The conversion efficiency into hot electrons was estimated to be of the order of ∼ 0.1% and their mean energy in the order ∼50 keV. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distributio

Screening of antioxidant properties of the apple juice using the front-face synchronous fluorescence and chemometrics

Fluorescence spectroscopy is gaining increasing attention in food analysis due to its higher sensitivity and selectivity as compared to other spectroscopic techniques. Synchronous scanning fluorescence technique is particularly useful in studies of multi-fluorophoric food samples, providing a further improvement of selectivity by reduction in the spectral overlapping and suppressing light-scattering interferences. Presently, we study the feasibility of the prediction of the total phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidant capacity using front-face synchronous fluorescence spectra of apple juices. Commercial apple juices from different product ranges were studied. Principal component analysis (PCA) applied to the unfolded synchronous fluorescence spectra was used to compare the fluorescence of the entire sample set. The regression analysis was performed using partial least squares (PLS1 and PLS2) methods on the unfolded total synchronous and on the single-offset synchronous fluorescence spectra. The best calibration models for all of the studied parameters were obtained using the PLS1 method for the single-offset synchronous spectra. The models for the prediction of the total flavonoid content had the best performance; the optimal model was obtained for the analysis of the synchronous fluorescence spectra at Delta lambda = 110 nm (R (2) = 0.870, residual predictive deviation (RPD) = 2.7). The optimal calibration models for the prediction of the total phenolic content (Delta lambda = 80 nm, R (2) = 0.766, RPD = 2.0) and the total antioxidant capacity (Delta lambda = 70 nm, R (2) = 0.787, RPD = 2.1) had only an approximate predictive ability. These results demonstrate that synchronous fluorescence could be a useful tool in fast semi-quantitative screening for the antioxidant properties of the apple juices.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Hitting on the move:Targeting intrinsically disordered protein states of the MDM2-p53 interaction

Intrinsically disordered proteins are an emerging class of proteins without a folded structure and currently disorder-based drug targeting remains a challenge. p53 is the principal regulator of cell division and growth whereas MDM2 consists its main negative regulator. The MDM2-p53 recognition is a dynamic and multistage process that amongst other, employs the dissociation of a transient α-helical N-terminal ''lid'' segment of MDM2 from the proximity of the p53-complementary interface. Several small molecule inhibitors have been reported to inhibit the formation of the p53-MDM2 complex with the vast majority mimicking the p53 residues Phe19, Trp23 and Leu26. Recently, we have described the transit from the 3-point to 4-point pharmacophore model stabilizing this intrinsically disordered N-terminus by increasing the binding affinity by a factor of 3. Therefore, we performed a thorough SAR analysis, including chiral separation of key compound which was evaluated by FP and 2D NMR. Finally, p53-specific anti-cancer activity towards p53-wild-type cancer cells was observed for several representative compounds