Effects of fermented soya bean on digestion, absorption and diarrhoea

For many centuries Asian people have consumed soya beans in various forms of traditional fermented soya bean foods. Major desirable aspects of fermented soya bean foods are their attractive flavour and texture, certain nutritional properties, and possible health promoting effects. This study describes effects of fermented soya beans on gastrointestinal physiology and addresses digestion, absorption and diarrhoea.Using an in vitro digestion model it appeared that fermentation increased solubility and absorbability to a large extent as a result of protein and carbohydrate degradation. The level of water-soluble dry matter increased during fermentation with Rhizopus sp. (tempe) from an initial 7 up to 27%, and during fermentation with Bacillus sp. from an initial 22 up to 65%. In vitro digestibility was only slightly higher for the fermented soya beans. Soya beans are more or less pre-digested by the action of the micro-organisms and can therefore serve as a source of easily available nutrients.Tempe extracts did not inhibit the growth of Escherichia coli. Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) induced haemagglutination of red blood cells was strongly inhibited by tempe extracts, and in vitro adhesion of ETEC to brush border membranes isolated from the small intestine of piglets was inhibited up to 95% by several tempe extracts.Perfusion of small intestinal segments of anaesthetised piglets showed an inverse relationship between osmolality and net fluid absorption (linear correlation). ETEC infection of small intestinal segments prior to perfusion resulted in an osmolality independent reduction of net fluid absorption of approximately 400μl/cm 2. Both cooked soya bean and tempe were able to minimise this reduction in net fluid absorption induced by ETEC. However, sodium losses as a result of ETEC infection were lower and dry matter and total solute absorption were higher for tempe when compared to cooked soya bean. A fraction containing high-molecular-weight components (> 5kDa) was shown to be mainly responsible for the observed protective effect of tempe. Several possible mechanisms of action are outlined and discussed.Soya beans fermented with Rhizopus microsporus showed better protection against ETEC-induced diarrhoea compared to cooked and especially toasted (commercial) soya beans in weaned piglets in vivo . Furthermore, fermentation of cooked soya beans, especially with Bacillus subtilis , resulted in increased feed efficiency probably as a result of increased digestibility. These characteristics imply the potential of using fermented soya beans in individuals suffering from diarrhoea and malnutrition.</p

Three heavy jet events at hadron colliders as a sensitive probe of the Higgs sector

Assuming that a non-standard neutral Higgs with an enhanced Yukawa coupling to a bottom quark is observed at future hadron experiments, we propose a method for a better understanding of the Higgs sector. Our procedure is based on "counting" the number of events with heavy jets (where "heavy" stands for a c or b jet) versus b jets, in the final state of processes in which the Higgs is produced in association with a single high p_T c or b jet. We show that an observed signal of the type proposed, at either the Tevatron or the LHC, will rule out the popular two Higgs doublet model of type II as well as its supersymmetric version - the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), and may provide new evidence in favor of some more exotic multi Higgs scenarios. As an example, we show that in a version of a two Higgs doublet model which naturally accounts for the large mass of the top quark, our signal can be easily detected at the LHC within that framework. We also find that such a signal may be observable at the upgraded Tevatron RunIII, if the neutral Higgs in this model has a mass around 100 GeV and \tan\beta > 50 and if the efficiency for distinguishing a c jet from a light jet will reach the level of 50%.Comment: Revtex, 11 pages, 4 figures embedded in the text. Main changes with respect to Version 1: Numerical results re-calculated using the CTEQ5L pdf, improved discussion on the experimental consequences, new references added. Conclusions remain unchanged. As will appear in Phys. Rev.

A high molecular weight soluble fraction of tempeh protects against fluid losses in Escherichia coli-infected piglet small intestine

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is an important cause of diarrhoea in children and piglets. Infection of ETEC results in fluid secretion and electrolyte losses in the small intestine. In this study the effects of tempeh, a traditional fungal fermented soyabean product, on fluid losses induced by ETEC infection in piglets was investigated. Pairs of ETEC-infected and non-infected small intestinal segments of piglets were perfused simultaneously for 8 h with pre-digested tempeh, its supernatant and saline as an internal control. In saline perfused segments, ETEC infection reduced net fluid absorption by more than 500 ¿l/cm2, whereas this reduction was significantly less for pre-digested tempeh and its supernatant (75 and 282 ¿l/cm2, respectively). The supernatant of pre-digested tempeh was also compared with its permeate and retentate fractions. These fractions were created by ultra-filtration and contained respectively low and high molecular weight (>5 kDa) compounds. Again ETEC infection caused a significant reduction of net fluid absorption when perfused with saline (386 ¿l/cm2) and also with the permeate fraction (300 ¿l/cm2), but much less with the supernatant and the retentate fraction (125 and 140 ¿l/cm2, respectively). The reduction in net fluid absorption upon ETEC infection when perfused with supernatant of either undigested or pre-digested tempeh was not different. Therefore from this study it can be concluded that a high molecular weight soluble fraction of tempeh is able to protect against fluid losses induced by ETEC, suggesting that this could play a potential role in controlling ETEC-induced diarrhoea

Associated production of light gravitinos in e^+e^- and e^-\gamma collisions

Light gravitino productions in association with a neutralino (selectron) in e^+e^- (e^-\gamma) collisions are restudied in a scenario that the lightest supersymmetric particle is a gravitino and the produced neutralino (selectron) promptly decays into a photon (electron) and a gravitino. We explicitly give the helicity amplitudes for the production processes by using the effective goldstino interaction Lagrangian, and present the cross sections with different collision energies and mass spectra. We also examine selection efficiencies by kinematical cuts and beam polarizations for the signal and background processes, and show that the energy and angular distributions of the photon (electron) can explore the mass of the t-channel exchange particle as well as the mass of the decaying particle at a future e^+e^- (e^-\gamma) collider.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables; references added, version to appear in EPJ

Flavor changing Z-decays from scalar interactions at a Giga-Z Linear Collider

The flavor changing decay Z -> d_I \bar{d}_J is investigated with special emphasis on the b \bar{s} final state. Various models for flavor violation are considered: two Higgs doublet models (2HDM's), supersymmetry (SUSY) with flavor violation in the up and down-type squark mass matrices and SUSY with flavor violation mediated by R-parity-violating interaction. We find that, within the SUSY scenarios for flavor violation, the branching ratio for the decay Z -> b \bar{s} can reach 10^{-6} for large \tan\beta values, while the typical size for this branching ratio in the 2HDM's considered is about two orders of magnitudes smaller at best. Thus, flavor changing SUSY signatures in radiative Z decays such as Z -> b \bar{s} may be accessible to future ``Z factories'' such as a Giga-Z version of the TESLA design.Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures, REVTeX4. A new section added and a few minor corrections were made in the tex

Exploring flavor structure of supersymmetry breaking from rare B decays and unitarity triangle

We study effects of supersymmetric particles in various rare B decay processes as well as in the unitarity triangle analysis. We consider three different supersymmetric models, the minimal supergravity, SU(5) SUSY GUT with right-handed neutrinos, and the minimal supersymmetric standard model with U(2) flavor symmetry. In the SU(5) SUSY GUT with right-handed neutrinos, we consider two cases of the mass matrix of the right-handed neutrinos. We calculate direct and mixing-induced CP asymmetries in the b to s gamma decay and CP asymmetry in B_d to phi K_S as well as the B_s--anti-B_s mixing amplitude for the unitarity triangle analysis in these models. We show that large deviations are possible for the SU(5) SUSY GUT and the U(2) model. The pattern and correlations of deviations from the standard model will be useful to discriminate the different SUSY models in future B experiments.Comment: revtex4, 36 pages, 10 figure

Tempe fermentation, innovation and functionality: update into the third millenium

Fermented foods represent on average one-third of total food consumption. Tempe is a major fermented soyabean food and is known for its attractive flavour, texture and superior digestibility. This present review aims at providing an overview of literature data from ca 1990 until present. Although traditional preparation methods are still applied at the small scale, commercial production at small and medium industrial scale have resulted in technical innovations for improved control of starters and fermentation conditions. Nevertheless, the monitoring, control and modelling of the tempe fermentation at a large scale still presents a big challenge to process engineers. The complex dynamics of the microbiological composition continuously result in new aspects being resolved including the production of enzymes and bioactive compounds. The use of tempe in food consumption has evolved from the stages of basic nutrition to the development of derived products such as burgers and salads, and in recent years health benefits are becoming an important drive for its consumption