Glycaemic Response to Quality Protein Maize Grits

Background. Carbohydrates have varied rates of digestion and absorption that induces different hormonal and metabolic responses in the body. Given the abundance of carbohydrate sources in the Philippines, the determination of the glycaemic index (GI) of local foods may prove beneficial in promoting health and decreasing the risk of diabetes in the country. Methods. The GI of Quality Protein Maize (QPM) grits, milled rice, and the mixture of these two food items were determined in ten female subjects. Using a randomized crossover design, the control bread and three test foods were given on separate occasions after an overnight fast. Blood samples were collected through finger prick at time intervals of 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, and 120 min and analyzed for glucose concentrations. Results. The computed incremental area under the glucose response curve (IAUC) varies significantly across test foods (P < .0379) with the pure QPM grits yielding the lowest IAUC relative to the control by 46.38. Resulting GI values of the test foods (bootstrapped) were 80.36 (SEM 14.24), 119.78 (SEM 18.81), and 93.17 (SEM 27.27) for pure QPM grits, milled rice, and rice-QPM grits mixture, respectively. Conclusion. Pure QPM corn grits has a lower glycaemic response compared to milled rice and the rice-corn grits mixture, which may be related in part to differences in their dietary fibre composition and physicochemical characteristics. Pure QPM corn grits may be a more health beneficial food for diabetic and hyperlipidemic individuals

CoV Genome Tracker: tracing genomic footprints of Covid-19 pandemic

Genome sequences constitute the primary evidence on the origin and spread of the 2019-2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Rapid comparative analysis of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 genomes is critical for disease control, outbreak forecasting, and developing clinical interventions. CoV Genome Tracker is a web portal dedicated to trace Covid-19 outbreaks in real time using a haplotype network, an accurate and scalable representation of genomic changes in a rapidly evolving population. We resolve the direction of mutations by using a bat-associated genome as outgroup. At a broader evolutionary time scale, a companion browser provides gene-by-gene and codon-by-codon evolutionary rates to facilitate the search for molecular targets of clinical interventions

ECM signaling regulates collective cellular dynamics to control pancreas branching morphogenesis

During pancreas development, epithelial buds undergo branching morphogenesis to form an exocrine and endocrine gland. Proper morphogenesis is necessary for correct lineage allocation of pancreatic progenitors; however, the cellular events underlying pancreas morphogenesis are unknown. Here, we employed time-lapse microscopy and fluorescent labeling of cells to analyze cell behaviors associated with pancreas morphogenesis. We observed that outer bud cells adjacent to the basement membrane are pleomorphic and rearrange frequently; additionally, they largely remain in the outer cell compartment even after mitosis. These cell behaviors and pancreas branching depend on cell contacts with the basement membrane, which induce actomyosin cytoskeleton remodeling via integrin-mediated activation of FAK/Src signaling. We show that integrin signaling reduces E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesion in outer cells and provide genetic evidence that this regulation is necessary for initiation of branching. Our study suggests that regulation of cell motility and adhesion by local niche cues initiates pancreas branching morphogenesis

A Methodology for Risk Assessment to Improve the Resilience and Sustainability of Critical Infrastructure with Case Studies from the United States Army

Reliable performance of energy and water infrastructure is central to the mission readiness of the United States Army. These systems are vulnerable to coordinated attacks from an adversary as well as disruption from natural events. The objectives of this work were to investigate Army installations in North America, identify best practices for improving the resilience and sustainability of critical energy and water infrastructure, and develop a framework and methodology for analyzing the resilience of an installation under varying outage scenarios. This work was accomplished using a multi-layered decision process to identify unique case studies from the 117 active-duty domestic Army installations. A framework for analyzing and assessing the resilience of an installation was then developed to help inform stakeholders. Metered energy and water data from buildings across Fort Benning, GA were curated to inform the modeling framework, including a discrete-event simulation of the supply and demand for energy and water on the installation using ProModel. This simulation was used to study the scale of solutions required to address outage events of varying frequency, duration, and magnitude, the combination of which is described as the severity of outages at a given site. This project helps develop a framework to inform how installations might meet Army Directive 2020-03, which states that installations must be able to sustain mission requirements for a minimum of 14 days after a disruption has occurred

Marine origin polysaccharides in drug delivery systems

Oceans are a vast source of natural substances. In them, we find various compounds with wide biotechnological and biomedical applicabilities. The exploitation of the sea as a renewable source of biocompounds can have a positive impact on the development of new systems and devices for biomedical applications. Marine polysaccharides are among the most abundant materials in the seas, which contributes to a decrease of the extraction costs, besides their solubility behavior in aqueous solvents and extraction media, and their interaction with other biocompounds. Polysaccharides such as alginate, carrageenan and fucoidan can be extracted from algae, whereas chitosan and hyaluronan can be obtained from animal sources. Most marine polysaccharides have important biological properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and anti-inflammatory activity, as well as adhesive and antimicrobial actions. Moreover, they can be modified in order to allow processing them into various shapes and sizes and may exhibit response dependence to external stimuli, such as pH and temperature. Due to these properties, these biomaterials have been studied as raw material for the construction of carrier devices for drugs, including particles, capsules and hydrogels. The devices are designed to achieve a controlled release of therapeutic agents in an attempt to fight against serious diseases, and to be used in advanced therapies, such as gene delivery or regenerative medicine.This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Grant SFRH/BPD/95446/2013), “Fundo Social Europeu” (FSE), “Programa Operacional de Potencial Humano” (POPH), and by European Research Council grant agreement ERC-ADG-2014-669858 for project ATLAS

Carrageenans as a New Source of Drugs with Metal Binding Properties

Carrageenans are abundant and safe non-starch polysaccharides exerting their biological effects in living organisms. Apart from their known pro-inflammation properties and some pharmacological activity, carrageenans can also strongly bind and hold metal ions. This property can be used for creation of the new drugs for elimination of metals from the body or targeted delivery of these metal ions for healing purposes. Metal binding activity of different carrageenans in aqueous solutions containing Y3+ or Pb2+ ions was studied in a batch sorption system. The metal uptake by carrageenans is not affected by the change of the pH within the range from 2.0 to 6.0. The rates and binding capacities of carrageenans regarding metal ions were evaluated. The Langmuir, Freundlich and BET sorption models were applied to describe the isotherms and constants, and the sorption isothermal data could be explained well by the Langmuir equation. The results obtained through the study suggest that κ-, ι-, and λ-carrageenans are favorable sorbents. The largest amount of Y3+ and Pb2+ ions are bound by ι-carrageenan. Therefore, it can be concluded that this type of polysaccharide is the more appropriate substance for elaboration of the drugs with high selective metal binding properties

Blood cholesterol and lipid-lowering effects of carrageenan on human volunteers

Algal polysaccharides such as carrageenan are good sources of dietary fibre. Previous studies have shown that carrageenan has hypoglycemic effects, but its cholesterol and lipid-lowering effects have yet to be demonstrated. In this study, carrageenan was incorporated into 4 food items, then fed to 20 human volunteers to determine its effects on blood cholesterol and lipid levels. The study followed a randomized crossover design. Each phase of the study -control and experimental -lasted for 8 weeks separated by a 2-week washout. At control, the subjects consumed their usual food intake; at experimental, they were given test foods with carrageenan partly substituting similar items in their usual diet. Fasting venous blood samples were collected immediately before and after each phase to assay serum cholesterol and triglyceride. The mean serum cholesterol was significantly lower (P &lt; 0.0014) after the experimental phase at 3.64 mmol/L compared with the mean level after the control phase, 5.44 mmol/L. The mean triglyceride level after the experimental phase, 0.87 mmol/L, was significantly lower (P &lt; 0.0006) in comparison to the level after the control phase, 1.28 mmol/L. The mean HDL cholesterol level significantly increased (P &lt; 0.0071) after the experimental phase at 1.65 mmol/L compared to the mean value after the control phase, 1.25 mmol/L. No significant differences were observed between the LDL cholesterol levels after the experimental and the control phases. This study indicates that regular inclusion of carrageenan in the diet may result in reduced blood cholesterol and lipid levels in human subjects

Giant Phonon-induced Conductance in Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of Gate-tunable Graphene

The honeycomb lattice of graphene is a unique two-dimensional (2D) system where the quantum mechanics of electrons is equivalent to that of relativistic Dirac fermions. Novel nanometer-scale behavior in this material, including electronic scattering, spin-based phenomena, and collective excitations, is predicted to be sensitive to charge carrier density. In order to probe local, carrier-density dependent properties in graphene we have performed atomically-resolved scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements on mechanically cleaved graphene flake devices equipped with tunable back-gate electrodes. We observe an unexpected gap-like feature in the graphene tunneling spectrum which remains pinned to the Fermi level (E_F) regardless of graphene electron density. This gap is found to arise from a suppression of electronic tunneling to graphene states near E_F and a simultaneous giant enhancement of electronic tunneling at higher energies due to a phonon-mediated inelastic channel. Phonons thus act as a "floodgate" that controls the flow of tunneling electrons in graphene. This work reveals important new tunneling processes in gate-tunable graphitic layers