Péptidos y proteínas de la leche con propiedades funcionales

La fracción proteica de la leche contiene un gran número de compuestos biológicamente activos. Además de lasproteínas de la leche, caseínas y proteínas del suero lácteo, existen también pequeñas cantidades de otras proteínasy péptidos. Estos péptidos, que son inactivos dentro de la secuencia de la proteína nativa, pueden ser liberados porhidrólisis enzimática, por ejemplo, durante la digestión gastrointestinal o durante el procesado del alimento. Estospéptidos bioactivos procedentes de proteínas lácteas presentan una actividad moduladora de numerosos procesosmetabólicos del organismo. Asimismo, las proteínas del suero lácteo representan una mezcla variada de proteínassecretadas, tales como á-lactoalbúmina, â-lactoglobulina, lactoferrina, lactoperoxidasa, inmunoglobulinas,glicomacropéptido y una gran cantidad de factores de crecimiento. Estas proteínas tienen una serie de efectosbiológicos, que van desde un efecto anticancerígenos hasta efectos en la función digestiva

Identifying masked uncontrolled hypertension in the community pharmacy setting

© 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Masked uncontrolled hypertension (MUCH) is associated with an increased cardiovascular risk. This condition is frequent in the community pharmacy (i.e., CP-MUCH), but there is no evidence on the factors associated with its presence in that setting. The aim of this analysis was to explore these factors. A sample of 98 treated hypertensive patients from the MEPAFAR study, with normal community pharmacy blood pressure (CPBP <135/85 mmHg), were analyzed. Blood pressure (BP) was also measured at home (4 days) and monitored for 24 h. CP-MUCH was identified when either ambulatory (daytime) or home BP averages were equal to or higher than 135/85 mmHg. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify the factors associated with CP-MUCH. The prevalence of CP-MUCH tends to be higher as systolic and diastolic CPBP increase, reaching 47% in patients with both systolicand diastolic CPBP equal to or higher than 123 mmHg and 79 mmHg, respectively.The multivariate regression analysis showed only systolic CPBP as an independent factor of CP-MUCH [≥123 mmHg: odds ratio=16.46 (P=0.012); from 115 to 122.9 mmHg: odds ratio=10.74 (P=0.036); systolic CPBP <115 mmHg as the reference]. Further assessment, using ambulatory and/or home BP monitoring, is recommended in patients with normal CPBP, but systolic CPBP equal to or higher than 115 mmHg. A more feasible approach would be evaluating patients with systolic CPBP equal to or higher than 123 mmHg and diastolic CPBP equal to or higher than 79 mmHg

Choked flow in water/CO2 solutions on air-independent propulsion systems

We develop a simplified model of choked flow in pipes for CO2-water solutions as an important step in the modelling of a whole hydraulic system with the intention of eliminating the carbon dioxide generated in air-independent submarine propulsion. The model is based on an approximate fitting of the homogeneous isentropic solution upstream of a valve (or any other area restriction), for given fluid conditions at the entrance. The relative maximum choking back-pressure is computed as a function of area restriction ratio. Although the procedure is generic for gas solutions, numeric values for the non-dimensional parameters in the analysis are developed only for choking in the case of carbon dioxide solutions up to the pure-water limit

The impact of a medication review with follow-up service on hospital admissions in aged polypharmacy patients

© 2016 The British Pharmacological Society Aims: The aims were to assess the impact of a medication review with follow-up (MRF) service provided in community pharmacy to aged polypharmacy patients on the number of medication-related hospital admissions and to estimate the effect on hospital costs. Methods: This was a sub-analysis of a cluster randomized controlled trials carried out in 178 community pharmacies in Spain. Pharmacies in the intervention group (IG) provided a comprehensive medication review during 6 months. Pharmacists in the comparison group (CG) delivered usual care. For the purposes of this sub-analysis, an expert panel of three internal medicine specialists screened the hospitalizations occurring during the main study, in order to identify medication-related hospitalizations. Inter-rater reliability was measured using Fleiss's kappa. Hospital costs were calculated using diagnosis related groups. Results: One thousand four hundred and three patients were included in the main study and they had 83 hospitalizations. Forty-two hospitalizations (50.6%) were medicine-related, with a substantial level of agreement among the experts (kappa = 0.65, 95% CI 0.52, 0.78, P < 0.01). The number of medication-related hospitalizations was significantly lower in patients receiving MRF (IG 11, GC 31, P = 0.042). The probability of being hospitalized was 3.7 times higher in the CG (odds ratio 3.7, 95% CI 1.2, 11.3, P = 0.021). Costs for a medicine-related hospitalization were €6672. Medication-related hospitalization costs were lower for patients receiving MRF [IG: €94 (SD 917); CG: €301 (SD 2102); 95% CI 35.9, 378.0, P = 0.018]. Conclusion: MRF provided by community pharmacists might be an effective strategy to balance the assurance of the benefit from medications and the avoidance of medication-related hospitalizations in aged patients using polypharmacy

Local electroexfoliation of graphene with a STM tip

Graphite surfaces can be manipulated by several methods to create graphene structures of different shapes and sizes. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) can be used to create these structures either through mechanical contact between the tip and the surface or through electro-exfoliation. In the latter, the mechanisms involved in the process of exfoliation with an applied voltage are not fully understood. Here we show how a graphite surface can be locally exfoliated in a systematic manner by applying an electrostatic force with a STM tip at the edge of a terrace, forming triangular flakes several nanometers in length. We demonstrate, through experiments and simulations, how these flakes are created by a two-step process: first a voltage ramp must be applied at the edge of the terrace, and then the tip must be scanned perpendicularly to the edge. Ab-initio electrostatic calculations reveal that the presence of charges on the graphite surface weakens the interaction between layers allowing for exfoliation at voltages in the same range as those used experimentally. Molecular dynamics simulations show that a force applied locally on the edge of a step produces triangular flakes such as those observed under STM. Our results provide new insights towards surface modification that can be extended to other layered materials

From social context and resilience to performance through job satisfaction: A multilevel study over time

Giving the crucial role of organizational context in shaping individual attitudes and behaviors at work, in this research we studied the effects of collective work-unit Perceptions of Social Context (PoSC) on individual work resilience and two key individual outcomes: job satisfaction and job performance as rated by the supervisor. We theorized that collective PoSC act as antecedents of individual variables, and that individual job satisfaction mediates the relationship between collective PoSC and job performance, and between work resilience and job performance over time. A sample of 305 white-collar employees, clustered in 67 work-units, participated in the study. Hierarchical linear modeling highlighted that collective PoSC are significant related to individual work resilience. Moreover, results showed that individual job satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between collective PoSC and individual job performance and the relationship between individual work resilience and individual job performance. At a practical level, results suggest that interventions on collective PoSC may increase work resilience, job satisfaction and job performance over time at the individual level

A new method to quantify and compare the multiple components of fitness-A study case with kelp niche partition by divergent microstage adaptations to Temperature

Point 1 Management of crops, commercialized or protected species, plagues or life-cycle evolution are subjects requiring comparisons among different demographic strategies. The simpler methods fail in relating changes in vital rates with changes in population viability whereas more complex methods lack accuracy by neglecting interactions among vital rates. Point 2 The difference between the fitness (evaluated by the population growth rate.) of two alternative demographies is decomposed into the contributions of the differences between the pair-wised vital rates and their interactions. This is achieved through a full Taylor expansion (i.e. remainder = 0) of the demographic model. The significance of each term is determined by permutation tests under the null hypothesis that all demographies come from the same pool. Point 3 An example is given with periodic demographic matrices of the microscopic haploid phase of two kelp cryptic species observed to partition their niche occupation along the Chilean coast. The method provided clear and synthetic results showing conditional differentiation of reproduction is an important driver for their differences in fitness along the latitudinal temperature gradient. But it also demonstrated that interactions among vital rates cannot be neglected as they compose a significant part of the differences between demographies. Point 4 This method allows researchers to access the effects of multiple effective changes in a life-cycle from only two experiments. Evolutionists can determine with confidence the effective causes for changes in fitness whereas population managers can determine best strategies from simpler experimental designs.CONICYT-FRENCH EMBASSADY Ph.D. gran

An additive subfamily of enlargements of a maximally monotone operator

We introduce a subfamily of additive enlargements of a maximally monotone operator. Our definition is inspired by the early work of Simon Fitzpatrick. These enlargements constitute a subfamily of the family of enlargements introduced by Svaiter. When the operator under consideration is the subdifferential of a convex lower semicontinuous proper function, we prove that some members of the subfamily are smaller than the classical $\epsilon$-subdifferential enlargement widely used in convex analysis. We also recover the epsilon-subdifferential within the subfamily. Since they are all additive, the enlargements in our subfamily can be seen as structurally closer to the $\epsilon$-subdifferential enlargement

Componentes biológicamente activos de la leche materna

La leche materna es un complejo fluido biológico que aporta la energía y los nutrientes esenciales para el desarrolloy crecimiento del recién nacido. Pero además, la leche materna contiene toda una serie de compuestos bioactivoscomo enzimas, hormonas, factores de crecimiento, proteínas específicas, poliaminas, nucleótidos, oligosacáridos, etc.,que ejercen efectos biológicos y que en conjunto reciben el nombre de “factores tróficos de la leche”. Estos compuestosbiactivos son considerados nutrientes potencialmente esenciales en periodos de desarrollo y en determinadasenfermedades, cuando la capacidad de síntesis no supera las necesidades de los mismos. Aunque las fórmulasinfantiles aportan todos los nutrientes para un adecuado desarrollo del recién nacido, carecen de muchos de estoscompuestos. Este artículo pretende realizar una revisión acerca de los conocimientos actuales sobre los efectosbiológicos de la lactoferrina, nucleótidos, poliaminas y oligosacáridos