Caffeine intake in Hungary – A population based estimation

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that is synthesized in different parts of more than 60 plant species. In a previous study, caffeine content of 377 food samples obtained from the Hungarian market was measured by a validated HPLC technique. These analytical data were built up into a food composition database called NutriComp. Dietary caffeine intake of the Hungarian population was estimated based on the data of the National Nutritional Status Survey 2009. Daily caffeine intake of Hungarian adult males and females were 147±6.2 mg per capita (95% CI: 135–160), and 138±4.2 mg per capita (95% CI: 129–147), respectively. There was no significant difference between genders. The oldest men and women consumed significantly less caffeine than the people between 35–64 years of age. The main sources of caffeine are coffee and tea with 58–59%, and 35–37% of the total intake in men and women, respectively

Purification and characterization of a polygalacturonase produced by Wickerhamomyces anomalus

The aim of this work was to study the purification and physicochemical properties of an endo-polygalacturonase (PG) produced by Wickerhamomyces anomalus isolated from the citrus fruit peels. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity from the culture filtrate of W. anomalus grown on the yeast nitrogen base medium with glucose as carbon and energy source and citrus pectin as inductor. After anion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration chromatography, PG activity was eluted as a single peak, yielding 21% of the original activity. After dialysis and cation-exchange chromatography, only one fraction with PG activity was obtained, recovering 56% of initial enzyme activity and 1.3-fold increase in specific activity. The molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated as 43 kDa by the SDS-PAGE. The enzyme exhibited maximal activity at pH 4.2 and was stable over a pH range from 3.5 to 6.0 and up to 49°C for 10 h. The Vmax and Km values with polygalacturonic acid as substrate were 0.26 mmol/L. min and 0.173 mg/mL, respectively. Cations such as Cu+2, Fe+3, Mg+2, Mn+2 and Zn+2 did not show any significant effect on PG activity but K+ and Ca+2 reduced it. The purified PG was able to macerate cassava tissues.Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Fermentaciones Industriale

Intervención breve en accidentados con alcoholemia positiva desde un centro de traumatología

E1 objetivo principal de la investigación es comprobar la efectividad de la intervención breve para reducir el consumo de alcohol en accidentados de tráfico adultos con alcoholemia positiva y sin dependencia del alcohol.En objetivo de la etapa piloto es comprobar la viabilidad estructural del proyecto (capacitación de los profesionales y viabilidad del cribado e intervención desde un centro de traumatología, así como una estimación aproximada de la prevalencia y perfil de los lesionados de tráfico con presencia de alcohol. Material: Se elabora un programa de formación con material de apoyo. Se aplica un método de detección del alcohol en saliva en lesionados de tráfico que acuden a urgencias de traumatología. A los pacientes con saliva positiva se les ofrece una intervención breve. Se recoge la opinión del personal sobre la eficacia percibida y viabilidad estimada del proyecto gobal (cribado e intervención) mediante cuestionarios de opinión. Se estudian la prevalencia y perfil de los pacientes con saliva positiva a partir del análisis comparativo de variables seleccionadas.Resultados: El personal entrenado considera (80%) útil y adecuada la formación recibida. Las enfermeras consideran (89%) que el método es fácil, no plantea demasiados problemas (55%) y es bien aceptado por el paciente (53%). El personal entrenado se ha sentido cómodo y eficiente (67%) al realizar la intervención. 261 de 264 pacientes aceptaron el cribado y el 11% tenía alcohol en saliva. Sólo 2 pacientes rechazaron la intervención, que fue practicada en 16 lesionados. Los pacientes con saliva positiva acuden más en fines de semana (p 0,005) y quedan ingresados con mayor frecuencia (p 0,05) que aquéllos con saliva negativa. Conclusión: el programa está bien estructurado, es viable y aceptado por el paciente. El estudio definitivo incluirá la determinación del alcohol en orina, en pacientes con saliva seca, y reforzará el cribado en fines de semana y politraumáticosMain research objective is to verify the effectiveness of brief intervention to reduce alcohol consumption in non-dependent adults injured in a traffic crash, presenting at the emergency department with a positive saliva alcohol test. The aim of the pilot study is to verify the feasibility of the project (staff training, screening and intervention at a trauma centre) and to roughly estimate the prevalence and profile of alcohol-attributable traffic casualties. Method: Training programme and support material are delivered. Saliva alcohol screening is performed by nurses in patients attending the emergency department because of a traffic crash. Positive patients are offered brief intervention. Staff's opinion on training, esteemed self-efficacy and feasibility of the whole procedure (screening and intervention) is collected by opinion surveys. Prevalence and profile of patients with positive saliva is drawn up by comparative analysis of selected variables. Results: Trained staff considers (80%) training useful and matching objectives. Nurses consider that, despite the nonvalid results in case of mouth dryness, the saliva test is easy (89%), doesn't pose major problems (55%), and is well accepted by the patient (53%). Trained staff have felt comfortable and self-effective (67%) in delivering the intervention. 261 out of 264 patients accepted screening and 28 (11%) had a positive result. Only 2 patients refused intervention, which was performed on 16. Patients with a positive test present more frequently in the weekends (p: 0.005) and are more hospitalised (p: 0.05) than those with a negative test. Conclusion: The programme is well designed, feasible and accepted by the patient. Main study will use urine alcohol test on patients with dry mouth, and will reinforce screening in the weekends and in sever injured patient

Practical study of optical stellar interferometry

In this work we present an observational technique and a detailed analysis of the stellar interferograms produced by three bright stars: Betelgeuse, Rigel and Sirius. It is shown that the atmospheric turbulence is responsible for the reduction of the long-exposure fringe visibility of the obtained interference patterns. By using different baselines in our interferometer, we are able to distinguish the decay of the visibility with the baseline, how different parameters such us the diameter of the holes in our interferometer or their distribution affects the pattern, and to measure the turbulence with the estimation of the Fried parameter r0. The work and methodology are presented as a method for postgraduate students that targets practical learning of optical interferometry in astronomy and how it is affected by several causes, such as the atmospheric turbulence.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, paper submitted and accepted to AJ

Simulating Radiating and Magnetized Flows in Multi-Dimensions with ZEUS-MP

This paper describes ZEUS-MP, a multi-physics, massively parallel, message- passing implementation of the ZEUS code. ZEUS-MP differs significantly from the ZEUS-2D code, the ZEUS-3D code, and an early "version 1" of ZEUS-MP distributed publicly in 1999. ZEUS-MP offers an MHD algorithm better suited for multidimensional flows than the ZEUS-2D module by virtue of modifications to the Method of Characteristics scheme first suggested by Hawley and Stone (1995), and is shown to compare quite favorably to the TVD scheme described by Ryu et. al (1998). ZEUS-MP is the first publicly-available ZEUS code to allow the advection of multiple chemical (or nuclear) species. Radiation hydrodynamic simulations are enabled via an implicit flux-limited radiation diffusion (FLD) module. The hydrodynamic, MHD, and FLD modules may be used in one, two, or three space dimensions. Self gravity may be included either through the assumption of a GM/r potential or a solution of Poisson's equation using one of three linear solver packages (conjugate-gradient, multigrid, and FFT) provided for that purpose. Point-mass potentials are also supported. Because ZEUS-MP is designed for simulations on parallel computing platforms, considerable attention is paid to the parallel performance characteristics of each module. Strong-scaling tests involving pure hydrodynamics (with and without self-gravity), MHD, and RHD are performed in which large problems (256^3 zones) are distributed among as many as 1024 processors of an IBM SP3. Parallel efficiency is a strong function of the amount of communication required between processors in a given algorithm, but all modules are shown to scale well on up to 1024 processors for the chosen fixed problem size.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ Supplement. 42 pages with 29 inlined figures; uses emulateapj.sty. Discussions in sections 2 - 4 improved per referee comments; several figures modified to illustrate grid resolution. ZEUS-MP source code and documentation available from the Laboratory for Computational Astrophysics at http://lca.ucsd.edu/codes/currentcodes/zeusmp2

Young stars at large distances from the galactic plane: mechanisms of formation

We have collected from the literature a list of early-type stars, situated at large distances from the galactic plane, for which evidence of youth seems convincing. We discuss two possible formation mechanisms for these stars: ejection from the plane by dynamical interactions within small clusters, and formation away from the plane, via induced shocks created by spiral density waves. We identify the stars that could be explained by each mechanism. We conclude that the ejection mechanism can account for about two thirds of the stars, while a combination of star formation at z = 500-800 pc from the plane and ejection, can account for 90 percent of these stars. Neither mechanism, nor both together, can explain the most extreme examples.Comment: 6 pages, No figures. Sixth Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar Astrophysics - A tribute to Helmut Abt, (Kluwer

On the intriguing subject of the low amplitudes of magnetic anomalies at the Powell Basin

The Powell Basin is a small oceanic basin bounded by continental blocks that fragmented during break up of Antarctica from South America. This basin bounds the South Orkney Microcontinent to the east, the South Scotia Ridge to the north, and the Antarctic Peninsula to the west. The timing of its opening is poorly constrained due to the low amplitude of the oceanic spreading magnetic anomalies which hampers their identification and interpretation causing large uncertainties in proposed ages that range from the Late Eocene to Early Miocene. This basin has been extensively studied using a variety of geophysical methods including seismic, gravity and magnetics surveys intended to unveil the tectonic domains, the particularities of its magnetic anomalies and the understanding of the thermal regime in this area. Here, we show new magnetic and heat flow data integrated with other geophysical data from international databases (multichannel seismic data, bathymetry and free-air gravity), to analyze the thermal structure of the lithosphere of Powell Basin and the upper mantle dynamics as well as to discuss the probable causes of the abnormally small amplitudes of its magnetic anomalies. Our results show that the low magnetic anomaly amplitudes are not widespread but concentrate in the eastern and southwestern part of the basin. We propose that these small amplitudes result from the thermal dependency of magnetic rocks caused by an asthenospheric branch flow that penetrates the Powell Basin through the northern area

Reparación de lesiones del cartílago articular de la rótula de conejos con injertos libres de pericondrio costal y periostio tibial: Estudio histológico comparativo

El propósito del presente, estudio experimental es comparar la capacidad condrogénica de injertos libres de pericondrio y periostio en lesiones que afectan a todo el espesor del cartílago articular rotuliano. Para ellos, se eligieron 18 conejos adolescentes de Nueva Zelanda con un peso comprendido entre los 2400 y 3600 gramos, a los que se realizó una lesión de 6 mm de diámetro y 3 mm de espesor en la superficie articular de la rótula, y se distribuyeron de modo aleatorio en tres grupos: control, tratados con injerto libre de pericondrio (PC) y tratados con injerto libre de periostio (PO). Todos los animales fueron sacrificados a las 8 semanas y las preparaciones histológicas fueron evaluadas con arreglo a una escala que concede una puntuación de 0 a 17 puntos. En el análisis estadístico, las diferencias encontradas han sido, en todos los casos, entre el control y los grupos tratados, para ninguna de las variables se ha podido demostrar diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre los grupos PC y PO.The purpose of this experimental study was to compare the chondrogenic capacity of both perichondrium and periosteal free grafts in lesions affecting all the articular chondral thickness of the patella. A total of 18 white New Zeland rabbits with a weight ranging from 2.4 to 3.6 kg were operated. A chondral lesion o f 6 mm of diameter and 3 mm in depth was performed at the articular surface on the patella. The lesion was repair with either a perichondrium (6 animals) or a periosteal free grafts (6 animals). In other 6 animals, the control group, the lesion was not repaired. All animals were killed 8 weeks after surgery. Histological studies were performed using a modified O'Discoll's scale. Statistically significant differences were found between the control group and the two groups in which the lesions were repaired, but not between lesions treated with perichondrium and periosteal grafts