Modified Equations to Calculate Water Content and Refractive Index of Honey Based on Its Total Soluble Solids

The capacity of honey to break light is used for refractometric determination of humidity. In the present work, a manual refractometer was used to measure honey total soluble solids (73% - 86%) which are the corresponding values of refractive indices stated in Chataway’s Table. The relationship between values of total soluble solids, water content and refractive index in the obtained graphics gave equations that could be used directly to calculate both refractive index and water content of honey from its total soluble solids. This simple, fast and easy way could be applied without utilizing expensive refractometers due to their high cost or lack of their usage training. Furthermore, the suggested equation is more accurate than that of the current reference table (i.e. Chataway’s Table) and could be rapidly utilized for calculating water content in honey samples

Hydroxytyrosol but not resveratrol ingestion induced an acute increment of post exercise blood flow in brachial artery

The aim of this study was to test if previous ingestion of compounds containing resveratrol or hydroxytyrosol, followed by an exhausting hand grip exercise, could induce an acute post-exercise increase in brachial blood flow. Six healthy subjects (three males and three females, 35 ± 7 years), 60 minutes after ingestion of a capsule containing 200 mg of resveratrol or 30 ml of extra virgin olive oil enriched with tyrosol, oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol, performed a hand grip exercise equal to half of their maximum strength until they were no longer able to express the same force (2-day interval between tests). The nonparametric Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for statistical evaluations. Brachial artery blood flow (Fba) and both blood velocity (Vba) and artery diameter (Dba) were assessed immediately after exercise cessation by means of colour Doppler ultrasound. After ingestion of the oil mixture the post-exercise value of Fba median was 2.4 times higher than that after ingestion of the resveratrol compound (P = 0.03), and also the Vba median concerning the hydroxytyrosol was 1.9 times higher than that of the resveratrol (P = 0.03). Both functional foods did not lead to a significant difference in the Dba medians. These results indicate that hydroxytyrosol, but not resveratrol, may be an effective adjuvant of recreational or agonistic, long-lasting sports performances, thanks to the powerful blood flow increment which can be obtained as soon as one hour from its oral intake

Efficacy of Ranolazine in a Patient with Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Electrical Storm

A case of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy with an arrhythmic storm refractory to the usual antiarrhythmic therapy will be reported. The idiopathic structural heart disease of the patient is a vulnerable anatomic substrate in itself, for electrical instability and reentry mechanism, because of heterogeneous areas of scarred myocardium and low left ventricle ejection fraction. In this case, the ranolazine administration was safe and effective for the prevention of further electrical storms. © 2013, International Research and Cooperation Association for Bio & Socio-Sciences Advancement. All rights reserved

Proboscis Extension Response of Three Apis mellifera Subspecies toward Water and Sugars in Subtropical Ecosystem

The proboscis extension response (PER) assay revealed the responsiveness of three subspecies of the honeybee Apis mellifera [A. m. jemenitica (AMJ), A. m. carnica (AMC), and A. m. ligustica (AML)] to water and different concentrations (0.00001, 0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 M) of three sugars (fructose, glucose, and sucrose) during the summer and fall seasons. The tested bee subspecies showed significantly different PERs to sugar types across the seasons. The water responsiveness of AMJ, a native bee subspecies, was significantly lower than that of AMC and AML, which showed an equally higher water response in both seasons. During the summer season, AMJ and AMC were equally responsive to each sugar type at all tested concentrations. AML was relatively less responsive to glucose at 0.001, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 M than to fructose and sucrose during the summer season. During the fall season, AMJ was equally responsive to glucose and sucrose at all tested concentrations but showed a significantly different response between fructose and sucrose at 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 M concentrations. The PER of AMJ to fructose was lower than that of glucose and sucrose. AMC was equally responsive to all tested sugars at all concentrations, and AML showed a differential response between glucose and sucrose at different concentrations during the fall season. The inter-specific species comparisons revealed that all tested subspecies were equally responsive to fructose at all tested concentrations, and AMJ was more responsive to glucose and sucrose than AMC and AML during both seasons. AMC and AML showed no differences in PER to glucose and sucrose in either season. The AMJ, AMC, and AML nectar and pollen foragers showed no significant differences in PER to glucose and sucrose. The AMC nectar foragers were highly responsive to sucrose than pollen foragers at higher sucrose concentrations (0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 M). The AML (nectar forager vs. pollen forgers) showed identical PER to sucrose and glucose but a higher response of nectar foragers to high glucose concentrations (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 M) than pollen foragers. For water responsiveness, AMJ nectar and pollen foragers showed similar PER to water, whereas AMC and AML pollen foragers were significantly more responsive to water than nectar foragers

Cascaded Feature Selection for Enhancing the Performance of Collaborative Recommender System

Most of collaborative recommender systems (CRSs) rely on statistical and data analysis methods for comparing users. However, dealing with them using machine learning techniques seems to be more appropriate. This paper investigates the usage of feature selection and classification methods for CRSs. It suggests building a user model suitable for the classification purpose and proposes a density-based feature selection (DBFS) method based on the rating density for each class. The DBFS reduces the effect of sparsity problem and keeps only users having a dense-feature history. Additionally, a cascaded feature selection method is proposed to pick out a subset of features through a two-layer approach. The first layer applies a classical feature selection method while the second layer applied the DBFS on the output of the first layer. The results show that the performance is gradually improved. The cascaded feature selection yields the best results since it improves the system accuracy, reduces the space and processing complexities, and alleviates the sparsity in two cascaded layers. The achieved improvements by cascaded feature selection as compared to SVM are 6.55 percent, 10.14 percent, and 3.92 percent in terms of accuracy, F-measure and MAE, respectively

Impact of Different Storage Regimes on the Levels of Physicochemical Characteristics, Especially Free Acidity in Talh (<i>Acacia gerrardii</i> Benth.) Honey

This study investigates how storage conditions (temperature and duration) may affect the physicochemical parameters, especially free acidity (FA), of Talh honey originating from Acacia gerrardii that have naturally high FA levels. Fresh Talh honey samples were kept at 0, 25, 35, and 45 °C, and analyzed monthly over a period of eight months. The Talh honey was monofloral with 69% A. gerrardii pollen content. The free acidity (FA) of freshly harvested Talh honey samples was higher (93 ± 0.3 meq/kg) than that of standard limits (≤50 meq/kg) and remained stable at 0 °C throughout the storage period. A significantly increase in FA started to occur after storage for 6 months at 25 °C (103 ± 0.2 meq/kg), 2 months at 35 °C (108 ± 0.3 meq/kg), and 1 month at 45 °C (112 ± 0.3 meq/kg). After 8 months of storage, the highest FA level was recorded at 45 °C (159 ± 0.5 meq/kg), followed by 127 ± 0.3 meq/kg at 35 °C, 105 ± 0.2 meq/kg at 25 °C, and 94 ± 0.3 meq/kg at 0 °C. It was found that 0 °C was an appropriate temperature for storing honey for long time. The electrical conductivity (EC) of fresh Talh samples (1.46 ± 0.0 mS/cm) was above the accepted limit (≤0.8 mS/cm), which was slightly increased (non-significant) throughout the storage period under all the storage temperatures. Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), diastase activity (DN), and reducing sugars (RSs) showed normal levels only at 0 °C and 25 °C throughout the storage period. However, HMF exceeded the standard limits after the first month at 45 °C (127 ± 9.6 mg/kg) and after the second month at 35 °C (90 ± 23.5 mg/kg), DA decreased below standard limits after the second month (5 ± 1 DN) under 45 °C and after the seventh month under 35 °C (7 ± 2 DN, and RSs decreased below 60% after 2 months under 45 °C and after 6 months at 35 °C. The physicochemical parameters (moisture content, pH, color, and sucrose) were the least affected and were within the standard range throughout the storage period under all the storage temperatures. The levels of FA and EC in fresh Talh samples were higher than the acceptable limits. The moisture content, pH, color, and sucrose content were not affected by storage conditions and remained within the acceptable limits. HMF, DA, and RSs were significantly affected by storage conditions only at 35 and 45 °C. The storage of honey at low temperatures (0 and 25 °C) for up to eight months presented the least amount of changes in the honey, and the honey was unchanged from its fresh status. Honey storage at 35 and 45 °C resulted in significant changes. It is recommended that Talh honey, which normally has high acidity levels, should be stored at temperatures not exceeding 25 °C

Studies on HIF hydroxylases

<p>Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is the master regulator of genes involved in adaptation to hypoxia. The stability and transcriptional activity of HIF are regulated by post-translational hydroxylations: prolyl hydroxylation by the prolyl hydroxylase domain-containing enzymes PHD1 – 3 earmarks HIF for proteasomal degradation, whilst asparaginyl hydroxylation by factor inhibiting HIF (FIH) blocks the interaction of HIF with the transcriptional coactivators p300/CBP. The PHDs and FIH hydroxylate HIF directly from molecular oxygen and are therefore oxygen sensors.</p> <p>Recent literature shows that FIH also hydroxylates a number of proteins containing an ankyrin-repeat domain (ARD). Together with reports suggesting that the PHDs are involved in HIF-independent pathways, this suggests that the HIF hydroxylases may have a wide range of non-HIF targets. This thesis describes my investigations into novel substrates of the HIF hydroxylases.</p> <p>This work has characterized the FIH-dependent hydroxylation of the ARD-containing protein Notch1, and defined a consensus sequence for hydroxylation that corresponds to the ankyrin-repeat consensus. Using this consensus potential sites of hydroxylation in a novel ARD FIH substrate, myosin phosphatase targeting subunit 1 (MYPT1), were identified then subsequently confirmed and characterized.</p> <p>Notch1 competes with HIF for FIH hydroxylation. My experiments show that this occurs because Notch1 is a more efficient substrate than HIF, whilst studies on MYPT1 and other proteins indicate that competitive inhibition of FIH may be a general property of ARDs.</p> <p>There are more than 300 ARD proteins in the human genome, and this thesis demonstrates that FIH may hydroxylate a significant percentage of these. In addition to the analysis of ARD hydroxylation a proteomic investigation into novel PHD3 substrates has identified two candidate proteins, suggesting that the PHDs may also have multiple targets. These results have important implications for oxygen sensing, and indicate that post-translational hydroxylation is likely to be a widespread modification in cell biology. </p>This thesis is not currently available in ORA