379 research outputs found

    Osjetljivost na vlagu te optička, mehanička i strukturna svojstva jestivih filmova na bazi proteina sirutke s dodatkom repičinog ulja

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    The objective of this work is to study the effect of the rapeseed oil content on the physical properties of whey protein emulsion films. For this purpose, whey protein films with the addition of 0, 1, 2 and 3 % of rapeseed oil, and glycerol as a plasticizer were obtained by the casting method. Film-forming emulsions were evaluated and compared using light scattering granulometry. The Sauter mean diameters (d32) of lipid droplets in film-forming solutions showed an increasing trend when increasing the oil volume fractions. The inclusion of rapeseed oil enhanced the hydrophobic character of whey protein films, reducing moisture content and film solubility in water. All emulsified films showed high lightness (L*≈90). Parameter a* decreased and parameter b* and total colour difference (ΔE) increased with the increase of the volume fractions of oil. These results were consistent with visual observations; control films were transparent and those containing oil opaque. Water vapour sorption experimental data at the full range of water activity values from 0.11 to 0.93 were well described with Peleg’s equation (R2≥0.99). The tensile strength, Young’s modulus and elongation at break increased with the increase of rapeseed oil volume fraction, which could be explained by interactions between lipids and the protein matrix. These results revealed that rapeseed oil has enormous potential to be incorporated into whey protein to make edible film or coating for some food products. The mechanical resistance decreased with the addition of the lipids, and the opacity and soluble matter content increased.Svrha je ovoga rada bila ispitati utjecaj dodatka repičinog ulja u različitim volumnim udjelima na fizikalna svojstva filmova izrađenih od proteina sirutke. Filmovi su pripremljeni u kalupima lijevanjem emulzija dobivenih od proteina sirutke s dodatkom 0, 1, 2 ili 3 % repičinog ulja te glicerola kao plastifikatora. Raspodjela veličine čestica emulzije određena je metodom laserske difrakcije, te je utvrđeno da se s povećanjem volumnog udjela ulja povećao srednji Sauterov promjer (d32) lipidnih kapljica. Dodatkom repičinog ulja povećala se hidrofobnost, a smanjio udjel vlage u filmovima te njihova topljivost u vodi. Sve su emulzije bile vrlo svijetle (L*≈90), a pri većim volumnim udjelima ulja smanjila se vrijednost parametra a*, a povećali vrijednost parametra b* i ukupna razlika u boji (ΔE). Rezultati su bili u skladu s onima dobivenim vizualnim pregledom: kontrolni uzorci filmova bili su prozirni, dok su oni s dodatkom ulja bili mutni. Ispitana je sposobnost upijanja vode filmova, a dobiveni su podaci u rasponu aktiviteta vode od 0,11 do 0,93 dobro opisani pomoću Pelegove jednadžbe (R2≥0,99). Povećanjem volumnog udjela repičinog ulja povećali su se vlačna čvrstoća, Youngov modul elastičnosti i istezljivost filmova, vjerojatno uslijed povezivanja lipida s proteinima. Rezultati pokazuju da se dodavanjem repičinog ulja emulzijama dobivenim od proteina sirutke može proizvesti jestivi film ili omotač za koje postoji velika mogućnost primjene u prehrambenoj industriji. Dodatkom lipida smanjili su se mehanički otpor i prozirnost filmova, a povećao udjel topljivih tvari

    Study of the preheating phase of chaotic inflation

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    Particle production and its effects on the inflaton field are investigated during the preheating phase of chaotic inflation using a model consisting of a massive scalar inflaton field coupled to N massless quantum scalar fields. The effects of spacetime curvature and interactions between the quantum fields are ignored. A large N expansion is used to obtain a coupled set of equations including a backreaction equation for the classical inflaton field. Previous studies of preheating using these equations have been done. Here the first numerical solutions to the full set of equations are obtained for various values of the coupling constant and the initial amplitude of the inflaton field. States are chosen so that initially the backreaction effects on the inflaton field are small and the mode equations for the quantum fields take the form of Mathieu equations. Potential problems relating to the parametric amplification of certain modes of the quantum fields are identified and resolved. A detailed study of the damping of the inflaton field is undertaken. Some predictions of previous studies are verified and some new results are obtained.Comment: PRD version, some changes and corrections, 37 pages, 10 figure

    Cancer risk in 680 000 people exposed to computed tomography scans in childhood or adolescence: Data linkage study of 11 million Australians

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    Objective To assess the cancer risk in children and adolescents following exposure to low dose ionising radiation from diagnostic computed tomography (CT) scans. Design Population based, cohort, data linkage study in Australia. Cohort members 10.9 million people identified from Australian Medicare records, aged 0-19 years on 1 January 1985 or born between 1 January 1985 and 31 December 2005; all exposures to CT scans funded by Medicare during 1985-2005 were identified for this cohort. Cancers diagnosed in cohort members up to 31 December 2007 were obtained through linkage to national cancer records. Main outcome Cancer incidence rates in individuals exposed to a CT scan more than one year before any cancer diagnosis, compared with cancer incidence rates in unexposed individuals. Results 60 674 cancers were recorded, including 3150 in 680 211 people exposed to a CT scan at least one year before any cancer diagnosis. The mean duration of follow-up after exposure was 9.5 years. Overall cancer incidence was 24% greater for exposed than for unexposed people, after accounting for age, sex, and year of birth (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.24 (95% confidence interval 1.20 to 1.29); P<0.001). We saw a dose-response relation, and the IRR increased by 0.16 (0.13 to 0.19) for each additional CT scan. The IRR was greater after exposure at younger ages (P<0.001 for trend). At 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, and 15 or more years since first exposure, IRRs were 1.35 (1.25 to 1.45), 1.25 (1.17 to 1.34), 1.14 (1.06 to 1.22), and 1.24 (1.14 to 1.34), respectively. The IRR increased significantly for many types of solid cancer (digestive organs, melanoma, soft tissue, female genital, urinary tract, brain, and thyroid); leukaemia, myelodysplasia, and some other lymphoid cancers. There was an excess of 608 cancers in people exposed to CT scans (147 brain, 356 other solid, 48 leukaemia or myelodysplasia, and 57 other lymphoid). The absolute excess incidence rate for all cancers combined was 9.38 per 100 000 person years at risk, as of 31 December 2007. The average effective radiation dose per scan was estimated as 4.5 mSv. Conclusions The increased incidence of cancer after CT scan exposure in this cohort was mostly due to irradiation. Because the cancer excess was still continuing at the end of follow-up, the eventual lifetime risk from CT scans cannot yet be determined. Radiation doses from contemporary CT scans are likely to be lower than those in 1985-2005, but some increase in cancer risk is still likely from current scans. Future CT scans should be limited to situations where there is a definite clinical indication, with every scan optimised to provide a diagnostic CT image at the lowest possible radiation dose

    Rare Copy Number Variants in \u3cem\u3eNRXN1\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3eCNTN6\u3c/em\u3e Increase Risk for Tourette Syndrome

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    Tourette syndrome (TS) is a model neuropsychiatric disorder thought to arise from abnormal development and/or maintenance of cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuits. TS is highly heritable, but its underlying genetic causes are still elusive, and no genome-wide significant loci have been discovered to date. We analyzed a European ancestry sample of 2,434 TS cases and 4,093 ancestry-matched controls for rare (\u3c 1% frequency) copy-number variants (CNVs) using SNP microarray data. We observed an enrichment of global CNV burden that was prominent for large (\u3e 1 Mb), singleton events (OR = 2.28, 95% CI [1.39–3.79], p = 1.2 × 10−3) and known, pathogenic CNVs (OR = 3.03 [1.85–5.07], p = 1.5 × 10−5). We also identified two individual, genome-wide significant loci, each conferring a substantial increase in TS risk (NRXN1 deletions, OR = 20.3, 95% CI [2.6–156.2]; CNTN6 duplications, OR = 10.1, 95% CI [2.3–45.4]). Approximately 1% of TS cases carry one of these CNVs, indicating that rare structural variation contributes significantly to the genetic architecture of TS

    Macroautophagy—a novel β-amyloid peptide-generating pathway activated in Alzheimer's disease

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    Macroautophagy, which is a lysosomal pathway for the turnover of organelles and long-lived proteins, is a key determinant of cell survival and longevity. In this study, we show that neuronal macroautophagy is induced early in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and before β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits extracellularly in the presenilin (PS) 1/Aβ precursor protein (APP) mouse model of β-amyloidosis. Subsequently, autophagosomes and late autophagic vacuoles (AVs) accumulate markedly in dystrophic dendrites, implying an impaired maturation of AVs to lysosomes. Immunolabeling identifies AVs in the brain as a major reservoir of intracellular Aβ. Purified AVs contain APP and β-cleaved APP and are highly enriched in PS1, nicastrin, and PS-dependent γ-secretase activity. Inducing or inhibiting macroautophagy in neuronal and nonneuronal cells by modulating mammalian target of rapamycin kinase elicits parallel changes in AV proliferation and Aβ production. Our results, therefore, link β-amyloidogenic and cell survival pathways through macroautophagy, which is activated and is abnormal in AD

    Multiple Scattering Expansion of the Self-Energy at Finite Temperature

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    An often used rule that the thermal correction to the self-energy is the thermal phase-space times the forward scattering amplitude from target particles is shown to be the leading term in an exact multiple scattering expansion. Starting from imaginary-time finite-temperature field theory, a rigorous expansion for the retarded self-energy is derived. The relationship to the thermodynamic potential is briefly discussed.Comment: 33 pages. Uses ReVTeX and epsf. 8 figure

    Genetic and Chemical Modifiers of a CUG Toxicity Model in Drosophila

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    Non-coding CUG repeat expansions interfere with the activity of human Muscleblind-like (MBNL) proteins contributing to myotonic dystrophy 1 (DM1). To understand this toxic RNA gain-of-function mechanism we developed a Drosophila model expressing 60 pure and 480 interrupted CUG repeats in the context of a non-translatable RNA. These flies reproduced aspects of the DM1 pathology, most notably nuclear accumulation of CUG transcripts, muscle degeneration, splicing misregulation, and diminished Muscleblind function in vivo. Reduced Muscleblind activity was evident from the sensitivity of CUG-induced phenotypes to a decrease in muscleblind genetic dosage and rescue by MBNL1 expression, and further supported by the co-localization of Muscleblind and CUG repeat RNA in ribonuclear foci. Targeted expression of CUG repeats to the developing eye and brain mushroom bodies was toxic leading to rough eyes and semilethality, respectively. These phenotypes were utilized to identify genetic and chemical modifiers of the CUG-induced toxicity. 15 genetic modifiers of the rough eye phenotype were isolated. These genes identify putative cellular processes unknown to be altered by CUG repeat RNA, and they include mRNA export factor Aly, apoptosis inhibitor Thread, chromatin remodelling factor Nurf-38, and extracellular matrix structural component Viking. Ten chemical compounds suppressed the semilethal phenotype. These compounds significantly improved viability of CUG expressing flies and included non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents (ketoprofen), muscarinic, cholinergic and histamine receptor inhibitors (orphenadrine), and drugs that can affect sodium and calcium metabolism such as clenbuterol and spironolactone. These findings provide new insights into the DM1 phenotype, and suggest novel candidates for DM1 treatments
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