The NutriScore logo: A tool for the Moroccan consumer

Le Plan d’Action National pour la réduction de la consommation du Sel, du Sucre et du Gras 2017-2021 (PANSSG) vise à réduire graduellement, en collaboration avec l’industrie alimentaire, la teneur en sel, sucre et graisses (SSG) des produits transformés et à sensibiliser la population aux dangers sur la santé de l’excès de leurs consommations du SSG. Aussi, l’activité 17 du PANSSG traite de la création d’un label ou logo attestant de la qualité nutritionnelle globale des aliments. La mise en place au Maroc d’un logo nutritionnel sur la face avant des emballages des aliments peut donc contribuer à l’objectif de sensibilisation des consommateurs sur la qualité nutritionnelle globale des aliments (intégrant leurs teneurs en SSG et densité calorique) tout en incitant les industriels à améliorer la qualité nutritionnelle de leurs produits en réduisant la teneur en ces nutriments pour bénéficier d’un positionnement plus favorable sur le logo nutritionnel. En effet, le logo nutritionnel Nutri-Score est un logo coloriel couplé à des lettres décrivant 5 classes de qualité nutritionnelle, allant du vert (associé à la lettre A, considérés comme ‘favorables’ sur le plan nutritionnel) à l’orange foncé/rouge (associé à la lettre E, considérés comme ‘défavorables’ sur le plan nutritionnel). Mots-clés: Logo nutritionnel, aliments transformés, sucres simples, acides gras saturés, sodium et calories.The National Action Plan for Reducing the Consumption of Salt, Sugar and Fat (Saturated and Trans) 2017-2021 (PANSSG-2017-2021) aims to collaborate with the food industry in order to gradually reduce salt, sugar and fat in processed products and to educate the general public about health risks associated with excess consumption of salt, sugar and fat. One of the actions of the PANSSG (number 17) deals with the establishment of a label or a Nutri-Score logo attesting overall nutritional quality of foods and that maximum salt, sugar and fat contents abide by national standards. The Nutri-Score logo is a color logo with letters describing 5 classes of nutritional quality, ranging from green (associated with the letter A, considered as”nutritionally” favorable) to dark orange/red (associated with the letter E, considered as “nutritionally unfavorable”). The establishment in Morocco of a nutritional logo on food packaging can contribute to raise the consumer awareness of the overall nutritional quality of foods (including content levels of sugar, fat, salt and caloric density). It also encourages food industry to improve the nutritional quality of their products by reducing the content of these health risk nutrients so that they can benefit from a favorable positioning on the Nutri-Score logo. Key words : Nutritional logo, processed foods, simple sugars, saturated fatty acids, sodium and calories

The NutriScore logo: A tool for the Moroccan consumer

Le Plan d’Action National pour la réduction de la consommation du Sel, du Sucre et du Gras 2017-2021 (PANSSG) vise à réduire graduellement, en collaboration avec l’industrie alimentaire, la teneur en sel, sucre et graisses (SSG) des produits transformés et à sensibiliser la population aux dangers sur la santé de l’excès de leurs consommations du SSG. Aussi, l’activité 17 du PANSSG traite de la création d’un label ou logo attestant de la qualité nutritionnelle globale des aliments. La mise en place au Maroc d’un logo nutritionnel sur la face avant des emballages des aliments peut donc contribuer à l’objectif de sensibilisation des consommateurs sur la qualité nutritionnelle globale des aliments (intégrant leurs teneurs en SSG et densité calorique) tout en incitant les industriels à améliorer la qualité nutritionnelle de leurs produits en réduisant la teneur en ces nutriments pour bénéficier d’un positionnement plus favorable sur le logo nutritionnel. En effet, le logo nutritionnel Nutri-Score est un logo coloriel couplé à des lettres décrivant 5 classes de qualité nutritionnelle, allant du vert (associé à la lettre A, considérés comme ‘favorables’ sur le plan nutritionnel) à l’orange foncé/rouge (associé à la lettre E, considérés comme ‘défavorables’ sur le plan nutritionnel). Mots-clés: Logo nutritionnel, aliments transformés, sucres simples, acides gras saturés, sodium et calories.The National Action Plan for Reducing the Consumption of Salt, Sugar and Fat (Saturated and Trans) 2017-2021 (PANSSG-2017-2021) aims to collaborate with the food industry in order to gradually reduce salt, sugar and fat in processed products and to educate the general public about health risks associated with excess consumption of salt, sugar and fat. One of the actions of the PANSSG (number 17) deals with the establishment of a label or a Nutri-Score logo attesting overall nutritional quality of foods and that maximum salt, sugar and fat contents abide by national standards. The Nutri-Score logo is a color logo with letters describing 5 classes of nutritional quality, ranging from green (associated with the letter A, considered as”nutritionally” favorable) to dark orange/red (associated with the letter E, considered as “nutritionally unfavorable”). The establishment in Morocco of a nutritional logo on food packaging can contribute to raise the consumer awareness of the overall nutritional quality of foods (including content levels of sugar, fat, salt and caloric density). It also encourages food industry to improve the nutritional quality of their products by reducing the content of these health risk nutrients so that they can benefit from a favorable positioning on the Nutri-Score logo. Key words : Nutritional logo, processed foods, simple sugars, saturated fatty acids, sodium and calories

Biocidal activity of Ziziphora hispanica L and Satureja calamintha Scheele L essential oils against the Callosobruchus maculatus (Fabricius) pest on cowpea seeds during storage

IntroductionThe post-harvest period of cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp] is marked by substantial losses due to the insect pest Callosobruchus maculatus (Fabricius). The primary goal of the current study is to identify environmentally appropriate substitutes for synthetic pesticides in the management of stored seed pests. Thus, in a laboratory setting, the insecticidal activity of essential oils (EOs) from Ziziphora hispanica and Satureja calamintha against the cowpea weevil C. maculatus was assessed.MethodsThe fumigant effects of these two EOs were tested with concentrations (4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 μL L−1 of air per 10 g of cowpea seeds) on four biological parameters of C. maculatus: adult mortality, fecundity, fertility, and adult emergence, while concentrations of 4, 12, 16, and 20 μL/cm2 of air were used for the repulsion test.Results and discussionThe fumigant effects of these two EOs were tested with concentrations (4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 μL L−1 of air per 10  g of cowpea seeds) on four biological parameters of C. maculatus: adult mortality, fecundity, fertility, and adult emergence, while concentrations of 4, 12, 16, and 20  μL/cm2 of air were used for the repulsion test. The results of fumigation tests showed a remarkable efficacy of both essential oils against adult C. maculatus after 24  h of exposure. Z. hispanica EO yielded a mortality rate of 80 ± 20%, with an LC50 of 2.77 μL L−1 for males and 66.66 ± 11.54% with an LC50 of 3.57  μL L-1 for females at 4 μL L−1 of air. However, the S. calamintha EO resulted in a mortality rate of 100% for males and 86.66 ± 23.09% with an LC50 of 2.17  μL L−1 for females at low doses. The fecundity was 1.33 ±  0.57 eggs per female. In contrast, this parameter was absent with S. calamintha EO at the low dose, while fertility and emerging adults were missing for both EOs. Furthermore, both EOs showed highly repellent activity towards C. maculatus adults, with 81.66% for Z. hispanica and 91.67% for S. calamintha EO. According to the results of the GC–MS analysis, the primary components of Z. hispanica EO were found to be pulegone (28.17%), alpha-naphtonitrite (10.77%), and 3-(3-thienyl) pro-2-enoic acid (10.62%). Similarly, the main constituents of S. calamintha EO were pulegone (21.48%), piperitenone oxide (17.71%), and eucalyptol (11.99%). Hence, these substances are regarded as the volatile compounds accountable for controlling C. maculatus activities. The study reports that Z. hispanica and S. calamintha show promising fumigant and repellent efficacy and offer new avenues for their potential use as an alternative to synthetic pesticides against stored seed pests

A Dialogue between the Hypoxia-Inducible Factor and the Tumor Microenvironment

The hypoxia-inducible factor is the key protein responsible for the cellular adaptation to low oxygen tension. This transcription factor becomes activated as a result of a drop in the partial pressure of oxygen, to hypoxic levels below 5% oxygen, and targets a panel of genes involved in maintenance of oxygen homeostasis. Hypoxia is a common characteristic of the microenvironment of solid tumors and, through activation of the hypoxia-inducible factor, is at the center of the growth dynamics of tumor cells. Not only does the microenvironment impact on the hypoxia-inducible factor but this factor impacts on microenvironmental features, such as pH, nutrient availability, metabolism and the extracellular matrix. In this review we discuss the influence the tumor environment has on the hypoxia-inducible factor and outline the role of this factor as a modulator of the microenvironment and as a powerful actor in tumor remodeling. From a fundamental research point of view the hypoxia-inducible factor is at the center of a signaling pathway that must be deciphered to fully understand the dynamics of the tumor microenvironment. From a translational and pharmacological research point of view the hypoxia-inducible factor and its induced downstream gene products may provide information on patient prognosis and offer promising targets that open perspectives for novel “anti-microenvironment” directed therapies

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners ofτ-leptons (staus) in final stateswith two hadronically decayingτ-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of139fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LargeHadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected StandardModel background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with eachstau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and oneτ-lepton in simplified models where the two staumass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidencelevel for a massless lightest neutralino

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Glucose utilization via glycogen phosphorylase sustains proliferation and prevents premature senescence in cancer cells.

Metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells provides energy and multiple intermediates critical for cell growth. Hypoxia in tumors represents a hostile environment that can encourage these transformations. We report that glycogen metabolism is upregulated in tumors in vivo and in cancer cells in vitro in response to hypoxia. In vitro, hypoxia induced an early accumulation of glycogen, followed by a gradual decline. Concordantly, glycogen synthase (GYS1) showed a rapid induction, followed by a later increase of glycogen phosphorylase (PYGL). PYGL depletion and the consequent glycogen accumulation led to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels that contributed to a p53-dependent induction of senescence and markedly impaired tumorigenesis in vivo. Metabolic analyses indicated that glycogen degradation by PYGL is important for the optimal function of the pentose phosphate pathway. Thus, glycogen metabolism is a key pathway induced by hypoxia, necessary for optimal glucose utilization, which represents a targetable mechanism of metabolic adaptation

Human monoclonal antibodies targeting carbonic anhydrase IX for the molecular imaging of hypoxic regions in solid tumours

BACKGROUND: Hypoxia, which is commonly observed in areas of primary tumours and of metastases, influences response to treatment. However, its characterisation has so far mainly been restricted to the ex vivo analysis of tumour sections using monoclonal antibodies specific to carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX) or by pimonidazole staining, after the intravenous administration of this 2-nitroimidazole compound in experimental animal models.METHODS: In this study, we describe the generation of high-affinity human monoclonal antibodies (A3 and CC7) specific to human CA IX, using phage technology.RESULTS: These antibodies were able to stain CA IX ex vivo and to target the cognate antigen in vivo. In one of the two animal models of colorectal cancer studied (LS174T), CA IX imaging closely matched pimonidazole staining, with a preferential staining of tumour areas characterised by little vascularity and low perfusion. In contrast, in a second animal model (SW1222), distinct staining patterns were observed for pimonidazole and CA IX targeting. We observed a complementary pattern of tumour regions targeted in vivo by the clinical-stage vascular-targeting antibody L19 and the anti-CA IX antibody A3, indicating that a homogenous pattern of in vivo tumour targeting could be achieved by a combination of the two antibodies.CONCLUSION: The new human anti-CA IX antibodies are expected to be non-immunogenic in patients with cancer and may serve as broadly applicable reagents for the non-invasive imaging of hypoxia and for pharmacodelivery applications. British Journal of Cancer (2009) 101, 645-657. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6605200 www.bjcancer.com Published online 21 July 2009 (C) 2009 Cancer Research U