Going Natural: Using polymers from nature for gastroresistant applications

Nutraceuticals provide an additional health or medicinal benefit besides their nutritional value and are therefore marketed for the prevention and treatment of certain conditions. Nutraceuticals contain natural ingredients, usually presented in the form of functional foods or as dietary supplements. Many of the ingredients are susceptible to degradation by gastric acid or can provoke nauseatic feelings or induce vomiting on oral administration. Gastroresistant coatings, widely researched and used in pharmaceuticals, employ enteric polymers which are not regarded as natural ingredients or do not possess GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status by the regulatory bodies, thus cannot be used for nutraceutical products. Consequently, most nutraceuticals are not formulated as gastroresistant and can therefore lack efficacy or are well tolerated. This manuscript provides a critical review of natural substances employed in producing gastroresistant products, their shortcomings, and potential industrial applications. It also identifies current gaps in our knowledge to encourage further research in this area

Geographic population structure analysis of worldwide human populations infers their biogeographical origins

The search for a method that utilizes biological information to predict humans’ place of origin has occupied scientists for millennia. Over the past four decades, scientists have employed genetic data in an effort to achieve this goal but with limited success. While biogeographical algorithms using next-generation sequencing data have achieved an accuracy of 700 km in Europe, they were inaccurate elsewhere. Here we describe the Geographic Population Structure (GPS) algorithm and demonstrate its accuracy with three data sets using 40,000–130,000 SNPs. GPS placed 83% of worldwide individuals in their country of origin. Applied to over 200 Sardinians villagers, GPS placed a quarter of them in their villages and most of the rest within 50 km of their villages. GPS’s accuracy and power to infer the biogeography of worldwide individuals down to their country or, in some cases, village, of origin, underscores the promise of admixture-based methods for biogeography and has ramifications for genetic ancestry testing

Prevalence of Frailty in European Emergency Departments (FEED): an international flash mob study

Introduction Current emergency care systems are not optimized to respond to multiple and complex problems associated with frailty. Services may require reconfiguration to effectively deliver comprehensive frailty care, yet its prevalence and variation are poorly understood. This study primarily determined the prevalence of frailty among older people attending emergency care. Methods This cross-sectional study used a flash mob approach to collect observational European emergency care data over a 24-h period (04 July 2023). Sites were identified through the European Task Force for Geriatric Emergency Medicine collaboration and social media. Data were collected for all individuals aged 65 + who attended emergency care, and for all adults aged 18 + at a subset of sites. Variables included demographics, Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), vital signs, and disposition. European and national frailty prevalence was determined with proportions with each CFS level and with dichotomized CFS 5 + (mild or more severe frailty). Results Sixty-two sites in fourteen European countries recruited five thousand seven hundred eighty-five individuals. 40% of 3479 older people had at least mild frailty, with countries ranging from 26 to 51%. They had median age 77 (IQR, 13) years and 53% were female. Across 22 sites observing all adult attenders, older people living with frailty comprised 14%. Conclusion 40% of older people using European emergency care had CFS 5 + . Frailty prevalence varied widely among European care systems. These differences likely reflected entrance selection and provide windows of opportunity for system configuration and workforce planning

Hybrid potential analysis of exotic clustering in heavy nuclei

We generate a hybrid potential by combining the best features of a microscopic and a phenomenological core-cluster potential and use it to analyze the spectra, B(E2) transition rates, and the exotic decays of heavy even-even nuclei. © 2012 American Physical Society

Nonyrast high-spin states in N=Z 44Ti

High-spin states have been investigated in the N-Z=22 nucleus 44Ti. A newly observed set of states with J?=6+ , 8 + , 10+ , and 12+ are assigned to be members of a band built upon an excited 0+ state. This band displays rotational-like level spacings, with a near-linear J(J+1) dependence. A third set of J?=8+ , 10+ , and 12+ states have also been tentatively assigned and a negative-parity intruder band has been extended to J? =13-. Comparisons with df-shell model calculations show a good agreement for both energy levels and branching ratios. These calculations indicate that the excited 0+ band is dominated by a mixture of 8p-4h and 6p-2h configurations relative to 40Ca