Effect of heat processing on the profiles of trans fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid in butter oil

Sman or traditional butter oil (TBO) is known to be rich in saturated fatty acids (SFA). Meanwhile, published information about trans fatty acids (TFAs) content in TBO remains unexplored. Therefore, a comparison of the fatty acid (FA) composition of traditional butter (TB) and (TBO) with emphasis on geometric and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers was undertaken. Both TB and TBO accounted for a high level of SFA with significant high content in TBO (p < 0.05). Total TFAs in TBO were more than twice the content in TB (8.23% vs. 3.85%, respectively, p < 0.01). An increase by 1.81 and 2.9 times was observed for trans monounsaturated FAs and trans polyunsaturated FAs in TBO compared to TB, respectively. Vaccenic acid (VA), the predominant TFA in both TB and TBO, was increased by 100% in TBO (p < 0.001). Trans-linoleic acid isomers were 1.84-fold higher in TBO than in TB. The contribution that CLA made to the total FA was increased by 1.48-fold for TBO. In general, it was found that TBO contains high levels of TFAs and CLA. Thus, TBO represents a mixture of FAs with different configurations from natural and technological origins, having potential conflicting effects on human health.Keywords: Trans-fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid, butter oilAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(21), pp. 3333-334

The intake of high fat diet with different trans fatty acid levels differentially induces oxidative stress and non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Trans</it>-fatty acids (TFA) are known as a risk factor for coronary artery diseases, insulin resistance and obesity accompanied by systemic inflammation, the features of metabolic syndrome. Little is known about the effects on the liver induced by lipids and also few studies are focused on the effect of foods rich in TFAs on hepatic functions and oxidative stress. This study investigates whether high-fat diets with different TFA levels induce oxidative stress and liver dysfunction in rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male Wistar rats were divided randomly into four groups (n = 12/group): C receiving standard-chow; Experimental groups that were fed high-fat diet included 20% fresh soybean oil diet (FSO), 20% oxidized soybean oil diet (OSO) and 20% margarine diet (MG). Each group was kept on the treatment for 4 weeks.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A liver damage was observed in rats fed with high-fat diet via increase of liver lipid peroxidation and decreased hepatic antioxidant enzyme activities (superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase). The intake of oxidized oil led to higher levels of lipid peroxidation and a lower concentration of plasma antioxidants in comparison to rats fed with FSO. The higher inflammatory response in the liver was induced by MG diet. Liver histopathology from OSO and MG groups showed respectively moderate to severe cytoplasm vacuolation, hypatocyte hypertrophy, hepatocyte ballooning, and necroinflammation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It seems that a strong relationship exists between the consumption of TFA in the oxidized oils and lipid peroxidation and non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The extent of the peroxidative events in liver was also different depending on the fat source suggesting that feeding margarine with higher TFA levels may represent a direct source of oxidative stress for the organism. The present study provides evidence for a direct effect of TFA on NAFLD.</p

Guidance on Noncorticosteroid Systemic Immunomodulatory Therapy in Noninfectious Uveitis : Fundamentals Of Care for UveitiS (FOCUS) Initiative

Supplemental material available at www.aaojournal.org. Supported by AbbVie, Inc., and the Fundamentals of Care for Uveitis Initiative National Faculty. This manuscript was developed subsequent to an AbbVie-sponsored literature review of noninfectious, nonanterior uveitis. The meeting was conducted to understand the available literature regarding the management of patients with noninfectious, nonanterior uveitis. The program involved a total of 139 experts from 28 countries, who were selected for participation by AbbVie. However, AbbVie was not involved in the development of the manuscript. The authors maintained complete control over the content and this manuscript reflects the opinions of the authors. AbbVie selected the discussion participants and reviewed the final manuscript draft for scientific accuracy, but the authors determined the final content. All authors made substantial contributions to the article or critically revised it for important intellectual content and approved the final manuscript. AbbVie provided funding to invited participants, including honoraria for their attendance at the meetings. Travel to and from the meetings was reimbursed. No payments were made to the authors for the development of this manuscript. Dhinakaran Sambandan, PhD, and Shula Sarner, PhD, of Lucid Partners, Burleighfield House, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, provided medical writing and editorial support to the authors in the development of this manuscript; financial support for these services was provided by AbbVie. AbbVie reviewed the manuscript, but was not involved in the methodology, data collection and analysis, or completion of this manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Guidance on noncorticosteroid systemic immunomodulatory therapy in noninfectious uveitis: fundamentals of care for uveitis (focus) initiative

Topic: An international, expert-led consensus initiative to develop systematic, evidence-based recommendations for the treatment of noninfectious uveitis in the era of biologics. Clinical Relevance: The availability of biologic agents for the treatment of human eye disease has altered practice patterns for the management of noninfectious uveitis. Current guidelines are insufficient to assure optimal use of noncorticosteroid systemic immunomodulatory agents. Methods: An international expert steering committee comprising 9 uveitis specialists (including both ophthalmologists and rheumatologists) identified clinical questions and, together with 6 bibliographic fellows trained in uveitis, conducted a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol systematic reviewof the literature (English language studies from January 1996 through June 2016; Medline [OVID], the Central Cochrane library, EMBASE,CINAHL,SCOPUS,BIOSIS, andWeb of Science). Publications included randomized controlled trials, prospective and retrospective studies with sufficient follow-up, case series with 15 cases or more, peer-reviewed articles, and hand-searched conference abstracts from key conferences. The proposed statements were circulated among 130 international uveitis experts for review.Atotal of 44 globally representativegroupmembersmet in late 2016 to refine these guidelines using a modified Delphi technique and assigned Oxford levels of evidence. Results: In total, 10 questions were addressed resulting in 21 evidence-based guidance statements covering the following topics: when to start noncorticosteroid immunomodulatory therapy, including both biologic and nonbiologic agents; what data to collect before treatment; when to modify or withdraw treatment; how to select agents based on individual efficacy and safety profiles; and evidence in specific uveitic conditions. Shared decision-making, communication among providers and safety monitoring also were addressed as part of the recommendations. Pharmacoeconomic considerations were not addressed. Conclusions: Consensus guidelines were developed based on published literature, expert opinion, and practical experience to bridge the gap between clinical needs and medical evidence to support the treatment of patients with noninfectious uveitis with noncorticosteroid immunomodulatory agents

Multimodal pricing model in a deficit public transport market: Implication of informal transport

This article explores one of the most important segments of public transport in developing countries, namely informal transport and its relation to the pricing system of public transport. This paper is an extension of the work of Tirachini, A. and Hensher, D.A., who have developed a model to analyze the impact of non-motorized transport on an optimal public transport pricing policy. We are looking at three congested modes of transportation, and we introduce informal transport as an independent mode of transport instead of non-motorized transport in this analysis. Informal transport has never been incorporated into an intercity transport pricing analysis and this is the first one that informal transport has been considered an autonomous mode in a pricing model. We tried to show how the pricing policy would change by considering or ignoring the Informal Transport. We propose three congested modes (Public transport, particular vehicular and informal transport) pricing model that incorporates informal transport and reconstruct the impact of a capacity constraint on optimal public transport prices. Pricing model were developed explaining the first best and second best prices and the changes effects of capacities and frequency of public transport bus

Safety and security perceptions in informal transport: the case of Tunisia

This study aims to evaluate the perception of safety and security in informal transport in Tunisia. This research employs a questionnaire-based survey of passengers and drivers of informal transport in Tunisia. Interviews were conducted with 215 informal transport Tunisian drivers and 255 Tunisian passengers, all above 18 years of age. Analyses have been made by employing several multivariate statistical analyses. Results showed that personal attributes of informal transport drivers influence their decision to violate traffic laws and to display risky driving behaviors. It was also found that driver skills, personality, education, experience, quality of the car, and information about the road congestion are the main factors influencing safety and security in informal transport. Non-compliance with the law by informal drivers leads to aberrant habits and behaviors as well as to a driving style beyond recognized standards. Informal drivers, police and local authorities are the parties involved in the low safety and security aspects of informal transport. It can be concluded that this study underlines that improving safety and security in informal transport cannot be achieved without improving awareness of the role of traffic laws and the need for their enforcement

An Effective Fault Diagnosis Technique for Wind Energy Conversion Systems Based on an Improved Particle Swarm Optimization

The current paper proposes intelligent Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) approaches, aimed to ensure the high-performance operation of Wind energy conversion (WEC) systems. First, an efficient feature selection algorithm based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed. The main idea behind the use of the PSO algorithm is to remove irrelevant features and extract only the most significant ones from raw data in order to improve the classification task using a neural networks classifier. Then, to overcome the problem of premature convergence and local sub-optimal areas when using the classical PSO optimization algorithm, an improved extension of the PSO algorithm is proposed. The basic idea behind this proposal is to use the Euclidean distance as a dissimilarity metric between observations in which a single observation is kept in case of redundancies. In addition, the proposed reduced PSO-NN (RPSO-NN) technique not only enhances the results in terms of accuracy but also provides a significant reduction in computation time and storage cost by reducing the size of the training dataset and removing irrelevant and redundant samples. The experimental results showed the robustness and high performance of the proposed diagnosis paradigms

An Effective Fault Diagnosis Technique for Wind Energy Conversion Systems Based on an Improved Particle Swarm Optimization

The current paper proposes intelligent Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) approaches, aimed to ensure the high-performance operation of Wind energy conversion (WEC) systems. First, an efficient feature selection algorithm based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) is proposed. The main idea behind the use of the PSO algorithm is to remove irrelevant features and extract only the most significant ones from raw data in order to improve the classification task using a neural networks classifier. Then, to overcome the problem of premature convergence and local sub-optimal areas when using the classical PSO optimization algorithm, an improved extension of the PSO algorithm is proposed. The basic idea behind this proposal is to use the Euclidean distance as a dissimilarity metric between observations in which a single observation is kept in case of redundancies. In addition, the proposed reduced PSO-NN (RPSO-NN) technique not only enhances the results in terms of accuracy but also provides a significant reduction in computation time and storage cost by reducing the size of the training dataset and removing irrelevant and redundant samples. The experimental results showed the robustness and high performance of the proposed diagnosis paradigms

Antioxidant Activity of the Leaf Volatile Oil and Extracts of Olea europaea L.cv. Chetoui from Northern Tunisia

This study is designed to examine the chemical composition and the in vitro antioxidant activity of the volatile oil and the extracts (polar and non-polar sub-fractions) of the methanol extract of Olea europea L. (cv) chetoui. GC and GC–MS analyses of the volatile oil from the dried leaves of the variety chetoui resulted in the identification of 32 compounds, representing 92.1% of the oil; alcohols (39.5%), aldehydes (19.1%) and ketones (12.2%) were the main groups of volatiles in the studied cultivar, comprising 70.8% of the total oil. Antioxidant activities of the samples were determined by the test system namely DPPH. The weakest radical scavenging activity was exhibited by the volatile oil (49.92%). Antioxidant activity of the non-polar sub-fraction of methanol extract was superior to the all samples tested with an inhibition of the free radical DPPH value of 64.31%. Total phenolic content of the polar and non-polar sub-fractions was 65.35 and 69.17 mg/100 g DW, respectively. In fact, the results showed no significant differences in the levels of polyphenols between sub-fractions of the methanol extract of Olea europea L. Furthermore, the amount of the total orthodiphenols was highest in the non-polar sub-fraction (219.66 mg /100 g DW). A positive correlation was observed between the antioxidant activity potential and total flavonoids content of the extracts