Cápsula imobilizadora de probióticos para a produção de micronutrientes no intestino

National Patent (INPI)A presente invenção consiste numa cápsula transportadora de probióticos com capacidade para libertar os nutrientes no intestino, sem decorrer a libertação dos microrganismos. a cápsula caracteriza-se por compreender um núcleo de alginato onde estão os probióticos, seguido de uma camada de -poli-llisina, seguido de uma camada intermédia de alginato e uma terceira camada de quitosano. a referida cápsula altera o seu diâmetro quando há variação de phs, aumentando o mesmo quando o ph é neutro.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Microencapsulation of probiotics envisaged for folate production in human intestine environment

[Excerpt] A balanced nutrition is a great concern in Human health anda preventive way to avoid diseases. Folate, a B-complex vitamin, is crucial in a significant group of cellular metabolic reactions. The daily intake of folate recommended for an adult varies between 200 and 400 µg; these values double in the case of pregnant women. The intake of folate is inefficient because its chemical fonns can be extremely unstable in food products and after ingcstion. The consumption of probiotics that produce this vitamin directly in the intestine could improve folate intake. However, the survival ratio of probiotics to gastric conditions is a problem than needs to be tackled. Severa! technologies can be applied aiming at probiotic encapsulation and eacb of tbem provides microcapsules with different characteristics in terms of particles' size and type of capsule. Emulsification allows the production of a wide particle size range from 0.2 to 5000 µm, whereas extrusion yields a smaller range size but does not provide particles under 300 µm [1]. Considering the envisaged application of probiolics into foods, this study was focused in particles smaller than l 00 µm, produced by microemulsification techniques, to avoid modifying food texture. [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Electrosprayed whey protein-based nanocapsules for beta-carotene encapsulation

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.126157.In this work an electrohydrodynamic process (electrospray) was used to produce beta-carotene loaded nanocapsules based on whey protein isolate (WPI). WPI solutions were prepared in aqueous solutions with different concentrations of ethanol (5, 10 and 15%) which were used for beta-carotene solubilization. Different electrospray conditions were tested and the morphology and molecular organization of the nanocapsules were studied on dried and hydrated state. The size of the dried nanocapsules ranged between 227 and 283nm. After hydration, there was a significant increase in the mean size of the nanocapsules, being the sizes higher for nanocapsules produced with increasing concentrations of ethanol. Results, obtained from the reactivity of free sulfhydryl groups and fluorescence analysis, showed that the increase of ethanol concentration had a destabilizing effect on the protein unfolding. Electrosprayed WPI-based nanocapsules can be used for the encapsulation of ?-carotene answering the industrial demand for novel encapsulation technologies to protect sensitive bioactive compounds.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit and by BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145- FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 – Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The author Rui M. Rodrigues thanks to FCT the financial grant with SFRH/BD/110723/2015. This work was supported by the project ARMAdilhas seletivas para eliminação da VESPA velutina. Medida 6 – Investigação e Desenvolvimento (n° 5894057). Instituto de Financiamento de Agricultura e Pescas, I.P.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The AERONET-Europe calibration facility: access within the ACTRIS project

Comunicación presentada en: 2012 European Aerosol Conference (EAC-2012), B-WG01S2P30, celebrada del 2 al 7 de septiembre de 2012 en Granada.This work has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement N. 262254. Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science (MICINN) under projects with ref. CGL2009-09740, CGL2011-23413, CGL2010-09480-E and CGL2011-13085-E as well as from Junta de Castilla y León are gratefully acknowledged

In support of the ICCAT ecosystem report card: advances in monitoring the impacts on and the state of the “foodweb and trophic relationships” ecosystem component.

In support of the development of the ICCAT Ecosystem Report Card, this paper addresses the “foodweb/trophic relationships” ecosystem component. Specifically, it contributes towards developing the following elements: (1) we describe what this component means in the context of ICCAT species and fisheries and the importance of monitoring it; (2) we describe the role of ecological indicators and ecosystem models in monitoring this ecosystem component; (3) we present a list of candidate ecological indicators that could be estimated to monitor this component; (4) we discuss the main challenges in monitoring this ecosystem component and indicator development; and finally (5), we draft a work plan to guide our future work. We invite the ICCAT community and others to contribute towards the development of ecological indicators and ecosystem models to monitor this ecosystem component. If interested, contact the corresponding authors to find out how you can contribute to this initiative.Versión del editor

In support of the IOTC ecosystem report card: Advances in monitoring the impacts on and the state of the “foodweb and trophic relationships” ecosystem component

In support of the development of the ICCAT Ecosystem Report Card, this paper addresses the “foodweb/trophic relationships” ecosystem component. Specifically, it contributes towards developing the following elements: (1) we describe what this component means in the context of ICCAT species and fisheries and the importance of monitoring it; (2) we describe the role of ecological indicators and ecosystem models in monitoring this ecosystem component; (3) we present a list of candidate ecological indicators that could be estimated to monitor this component; (4) we discuss the main challenges in monitoring this ecosystem component and indicator development; and finally (5), we draft a work plan to guide our future work. We invite the ICCAT community and others to contribute towards the development of ecological indicators and ecosystem models to monitor this ecosystem component. If interested, contact the corresponding authors to find out how you can contribute to this initiative

Universal Vectorial and Ultrasensitive Nanomechanical Force Field Sensor

Miniaturization of force probes into nanomechanical oscillators enables ultrasensitive investigations of forces on dimensions smaller than their characteristic length scale. Meanwhile it also unravels the force field vectorial character and how its topology impacts the measurement. Here we expose an ultrasensitive method to image 2D vectorial force fields by optomechanically following the bidimensional Brownian motion of a singly clamped nanowire. This novel approach relies on angular and spectral tomography of its quasi frequency-degenerated transverse mechanical polarizations: immersing the nanoresonator in a vectorial force field does not only shift its eigenfrequencies but also rotate eigenmodes orientation as a nano-compass. This universal method is employed to map a tunable electrostatic force field whose spatial gradients can even take precedence over the intrinsic nanowire properties. Enabling vectorial force fields imaging with demonstrated sensitivities of attonewton variations over the nanoprobe Brownian trajectory will have strong impact on scientific exploration at the nanoscale

Physiological protection of probiotic microcapsules by coatings

Nowadays, food and nutrition have a greater impact in people's concerns, with the awareness that nutrition have a direct impact in health and wellbeing. Probiotics have an important role in this topic and consumers are starting to really understand their potential in health, leading to an increasing interest of the companies to their commercial use in foods. However, there are several limitations to the use of probiotics in foods and beverages, being one of them their efficiency (directly associated to their survival rate) upon ingestion. This work is focused in microencapsulation techniques that have been used to increase probiotics efficiency. More specifically, this work reviews the most recent and relevant research about the production and coating techniques of probiotic-loaded microcapsules, providing an insight in the effect of these coatings in probiotics survival during the gastrointestinal phase. This review shows that coatings with the better performances in probiotics protection, against the harsh conditions of digestion, are chitosan, alginate, poly-L-lysine and whey protein. Chitosan presented an interesting performance in probiotics protection being able to maintain the initial concentration of viable probiotics during a digestive test. The analyses of different works also showed that the utilization of several coatings does not guarantee a better protection in comparison with monocoated microcapsules.The author Philippe E. Ramos is recipient of fellowships from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, POPH-QREN and FSE (FCT, Portugal) through the grant SFRH/BD/80800/2012. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684). RECI Project (Until December of 2017): This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the Project RECI/BBBEBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Layer-by-layer microcarrier production and characterization as a model to probiotics microencapsulation

The recommended daily intake of folate (B-complex vitamin) for an adult varies between 200 and 400 g, being the intake of folate inefficient due its extremely unstable chemical forms. One of the presented solutions is the in situ production using probiotics. However, two concerns exist for this solution: a) probiotic bacteria may need protection towards the gastric medium (encapsulation); and b) microcapsule sizes should be smaller than 100 m, to avoid modifying food texture. Alginate-based microcapsules were produced and three layers were added using the layer-by-layer technique: 1st - poly-L-lysine (0.1%); 2nd - sodium alginate (1%); 3rd - chitosan (0.03%). Confocal microscopy was used to confirm the consequent adhesion of the layers, and if they were in the correct position (the layers labelled were the first (Poly-l-lysine/FITC) and the third layer (Chitosan/Rhodamine). After production the particles where put into a 10 mL solution of KCl-HCl (pH 2) during 1 hour, at 100 rpm and then into a PBS solution (pH 7.2), during 3 hours in order to mimic the gastrointestinal tract during digestion. The average size of the particles was 21.01 ± 0.493 m and 39.84 ± 0.794 m during the process at pH 2 and at pH 7.2, respectively. The sizes were smaller than 100 m and showed a swelling capacity (particles duplicate their size upon passing from pH 2 to pH 7.2). Confocal images showed the adhesion of the different layers, also proving indirectly the existence of the second layer (not labelled). Further, after the contact with the KCl-HCl (pH 2) and PBS (7.2) media, the structure of the capsules with the layers was maintained, thus showing the robustness of this structure at pH values typical of the gastrointestinal system. Alginate microcapsules production through LbL technique showed potential for encapsulation of probiotics, allowing their protection against harsh conditions in gastrointestinal tract.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The effect of alginate in the protection of probiotics from the harsh conditions of digestion

BioTech 2017 and 7th Czech-Swiss Symposium with Exhibition[Excerpt] Introduction: Probiotics are live microorganisms that when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit to the host. However, to accomplish this positive influence on Human health, probiotics should survive to the passage through the upper digestive tract in large numbers to unsure a desired beneficial effects in the host. Several encapsulation methods have been used to protect probiotics. Alginate is the most used biopolymer in the production of these systems, although its performance is totally dependent of its characteristics. In this work, alginates with different molecular weights and different M/G ratio were used in the encapsulation of Lactococcus lactis spp. cremoris (LLC) aiming the protection of this probiotic bacteria against the harsh conditions of digestion. In the first set of experiments, variables such as flow rate, needle-CaCl2 solution distance and the stirring speed, CaCl2 concentration, alginate type, alginate concentration and needle diameter were studied in order to understand how they affect the formation of alginate beads. [...]Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020(POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte 2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norteinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio