Cocoa flavanols: effects on vascular nitric oxide and blood pressure

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables have been associated with benefits for human health. Those effects have been partially ascribed to their content in flavonoids, compounds that are present in many edible plants and its derived foods. In humans, a significant number of studies has been developed analyzing the effect of foods and beverages rich in flavonoids on the presence and progression of risk factors associated to cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension. Cocoa derived products, rich in flavanols, have been thoroughly studied and demonstrated to be efficient improving endothelial function and decreasing blood pressure in humans and animals. However, the final chemical species and the mechanism/s responsible for these effects have not been completely defined. In this paper we present data supporting the hypothesis that flavanols could define superoxide anion production and then, establish optimal nitric oxide levels and blood pressure

Radical product innovations : competitive responses along marketing expenditure and pricing dimensions.

Radical product innovations yield market expansion opportunities and possess great profit potential. Their introductions are also riskier compared to incremental product introductions. Managers must thus learn to foresee competitors’ reactions to radical innovations with precision and accuracy to develop the most effective marketing strategy for their own radical products. Given the lasting impact of marketing expenditure increments and the ease and speed with which prices can be varied, competitors’ marketing expenditure and price reactions pose major threats to firms and are important to predict. However, few studies of radical product introductions focus specifically on competitive reactions along the marketing expenditure and price dimensions. Hence, our research examines how firms react along the marketing expenditure and price dimensions when introducing their own radical products and why they do so. We extracted marketing expenditure and pricing decisions of participants of Markstrat – a marketing strategy simulation game – and examined factors influencing the magnitude of competitive reactions using relevant industry benchmarking data, consumer-related data and competitive intelligence data. Results show that firms responding to radical product innovations targeted at the ‘Innovators’ spend more on advertising and set lower prices than firms introducing the radical products. The average marketing expenditure of introducing firms and industry position of reacting firm have a significant impact on marketing expenditure reactions; likewise, consumers’ ideal price and the average price level of radical products by introducing firms on price reactions. Our study thus helps managers accurately predict competitor reactions and take pre-emptive measures against them. Managers in reacting firms can also make effective marketing-mix decisions for successful radical product launches.BUSINES

Effects of Pre-germination Treatment on the Phytate and Phenolic Contents of Almond Nuts

This study examined if pre-germination altered the water content and water activity, contents of phytate, total phenolic, (±)-catechin, quercetin and total antioxidant capacity of almond  (Prunus dulcis)kernel. Raw almond kernels were submerged for 15 hours in water, 0.02 mol dm-3 phosphate buffer solution (pH 5.0) and 0.02 mol dm-3 phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.0) at 25 and 40ºC, respectively. The content and activity of water in the kernels before and after the pre-germination treatments were measured by oven drying and dew point water analysis, respectively. The total phenolic and phytic acid contents of the kernels were quantified by using Folin-Ciocalteu and a published spectrophotometric assay, respectively. (±)-Catechin and quercetin contents in the almond kernels were determined using gas-chromatography mass spectrometry. The total antioxidant capacity of the kernels were measured by 2,2’-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl assay. Treatment with water, PBS pH 5 and PBS pH 7 significantly increased the water, total phenolic, (±)-catechin contents and total antioxidant capacity of the almond kernels regardless of the treatment temperatures (25 or 40°C). The phytic acid and quercetin contents were significantly elevated after the  three treatments at 40°C. The total phenolic, (±)-catechin, quercetin and phytate contents in the almond kernels contributed significantly to its antioxidant property. Our results suggested that the phytochemical compositions of the almond kernels changed during pre-germination. The temperature and pH of the medium exert differential influence on the phytochemical compositions of the pre-germinated almond kernels

Multiphasic strain differentiation of atypical mycobacteria from elephant trunk wash

Background. Two non-tuberculous mycobacterial strains, UM_3 and UM_11, were isolated from the trunk wash of captive elephants in Malaysia. As they appeared to be identical phenotypes, they were investigated further by conventional and whole genome sequence-based methods of strain differentiation.Methods. Multiphasic investigations on the isolates included species identification with hsp65 PCR-sequencing, conventional biochemical tests, rapid biochemical profiling using API strips and the Biolog Phenotype Microarray analysis, protein profiling with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, repetitive sequence-based PCR typing and whole genome sequencing followed by phylogenomic analyses.Results. The isolates were shown to be possibly novel slow-growing schotochromogens with highly similar biological and genotypic characteristics. Both strains have a genome size of 5.2 Mbp, G+C content of 68.8%, one rRNA operon and 52 tRNAs each. They qualified for classification into the same species with their average nucleotide identity of 99.98% and tetranucleotide correlation coefficient of 0.99999. At the subspecies level, both strains showed 98.8% band similarity in the Diversilab automated repetitive sequence-based PCR typing system, 96.2% similarity in protein profiles obtained by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, and a genomic distance that is close to zero in the phylogenomic tree constructed with conserved orthologs. Detailed epidemiological tracking revealed that the elephants shared a common habitat eight years apart, thus, strengthening the possibility of a clonal relationship between the two strains

The association of body mass index with health-related quality of life: an exploratory study in a multiethnic Asian population.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the association between body mass index (BMI) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a multiethnic Asian population in Singapore, and to explore if the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of alternative BMI cutoffs for Asians could be further strengthened by evidence of higher risk of impaired HRQoL using these criteria. METHODS: Consenting English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil-speaking primary care patients (age >or= 21 years) were interviewed using English/their respective mother tongue versions of the EQ-5D/EQ-VAS, Health Utilities Index (HUI2 & HUI3) and the SF-6D. We first evaluated the relationship between BMI and HRQoL (overall and individual attributes for each instrument) using multiple linear/logistic regression (where appropriate) to adjust for factors known to affect HRQoL. We next reorganized BMI into five categories (reflecting the differences in cutoffs between International/Asian classifications) and evaluated if median HRQoL scores were significantly different across these categories. RESULTS: Among 411 participants [response rate: 87%; median age: 51 years; obese: 19% (International); 33% (Asian)], after adjusting for sociodemographic and other factors, a tendency for underweight and obese subjects to report lower overall HRQoL scores was observed for most instruments. At the individual attribute level, obese subjects reported significantly lower HUI2 pain scores (regression coefficient: -0.035, P = 0.029) and greater odds of reporting problems for SF-6D role-limitations (odds ratio: 2.9, P = 0.005). Median overall HRQoL scores were not significantly different across the five BMI categories. CONCLUSION: Consistent with available studies, obese subjects reported worse HRQoL than normal-weight subjects. That underweight subjects also reported worse HRQoL is interesting and requires confirmation. HRQoL was similar in Asians using either WHO criteria

A metabolite profiling approach to identify biomarkers of flavonoid intake in humans

10.3945/jn.109.113613Journal of Nutrition139122309-2314JONU