Active compounds and distinctive sensory features provided by American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) extract in a new functional milk beverage

American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) has recognized neurocognitive effects, and a ginsenoside-rich extract of the root of the plant has been shown to improve cognitive functions in young adults. This study aimed at assessing the chemical and sensory profiles of a UHT-treated, low-lactose functional milk containing American ginseng. Individual ginsenosides in the milk were analyzed by HPLC. Descriptive sensory analysis was performed by a trained panel to quantitatively document sensory changes resulting from the addition of ginseng and the UHT process on flavored and unflavored milks. Consumer acceptance of the product was also investigated. Total ginsenoside content in the UHT-treated milk enriched with the ginseng extract after UHT process treatment was 7.52. mg/100. g of milk, corresponding to a recovery of 67.6% compared with the content in the unprocessed extract. The intake of 150 to 300. mL of this ginseng-enriched milk provides the amount of total ginsenosides (11.5 to 23. mg) necessary to improve cognitive function after its consumption. Both the presence of ginsenosides and their thermal treatment affected some sensory properties of the milk, most notably an increase in bitterness and metallic taste, the appearance of a brownish color, and a decrease in milky flavor. Levels of brown color, bitterness, and metallic taste were highest in the industrially processed ginseng-enriched milk. The bitterness attributable to ginseng extract was reduced by addition of vanilla flavor and sucralose. A consumer exploratory study revealed that a niche of consumers exists who are willing to consume this type of product.The financial support of the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (Madrid, Spain) for the project SENIFOOD (CENIT Programme) and for the contract with A. Tárrega (Juan de la Cierva Programme) is acknowledged. We gratefully acknowledge Juan Duato Aguilar, from Naturex Spain S.L. (Quart de Poblet, Spain), for his valuable technical support

Expression of Sirtuin 1 and 2 Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) and sirtuin 2 (SIRT2) are NAD+-dependent protein deacetylases involved in the regulation of key cancer-associated genes. In this study we evaluated the relevance of these deacetylases in lung cancer biology

Hydrotherapy as a recovery strategy after exercise: a pragmatic controlled trial

Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01765387Background Our aim was to evaluate the recovery effects of hydrotherapy after aerobic exercise in cardiovascular, performance and perceived fatigue. Methods A pragmatic controlled repeated measures; single-blind trial was conducted. Thirty-four recreational sportspeople visited a Sport-Centre and were assigned to a Hydrotherapy group (experimental) or rest in a bed (control) after completing a spinning session. Main outcomes measures including blood pressure, heart rate, handgrip strength, vertical jump, self-perceived fatigue, and body temperature were assessed at baseline, immediately post-exercise and post-recovery. The hypothesis of interest was the session*time interaction. Results The analysis revealed significant session*time interactions for diastolic blood pressure (P=0.031), heart rate (P=0.041), self perceived fatigue (P=0.046), and body temperature (P=0.001); but not for vertical jump (P=0.437), handgrip (P=0.845) or systolic blood pressure (P=0.266). Post-hoc analysis revealed that hydrotherapy resulted in recovered heart rate and diastolic blood pressure similar to baseline values after the spinning session. Further, hydrotherapy resulted in decreased self-perceived fatigue after the spinning session. Conclusions Our results support that hydrotherapy is an adequate strategy to facilitate cardiovascular recovers and perceived fatigue, but not strength, after spinning exercise

RICORS2040 : The need for collaborative research in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a silent and poorly known killer. The current concept of CKD is relatively young and uptake by the public, physicians and health authorities is not widespread. Physicians still confuse CKD with chronic kidney insufficiency or failure. For the wider public and health authorities, CKD evokes kidney replacement therapy (KRT). In Spain, the prevalence of KRT is 0.13%. Thus health authorities may consider CKD a non-issue: very few persons eventually need KRT and, for those in whom kidneys fail, the problem is 'solved' by dialysis or kidney transplantation. However, KRT is the tip of the iceberg in the burden of CKD. The main burden of CKD is accelerated ageing and premature death. The cut-off points for kidney function and kidney damage indexes that define CKD also mark an increased risk for all-cause premature death. CKD is the most prevalent risk factor for lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the factor that most increases the risk of death in COVID-19, after old age. Men and women undergoing KRT still have an annual mortality that is 10- to 100-fold higher than similar-age peers, and life expectancy is shortened by ~40 years for young persons on dialysis and by 15 years for young persons with a functioning kidney graft. CKD is expected to become the fifth greatest global cause of death by 2040 and the second greatest cause of death in Spain before the end of the century, a time when one in four Spaniards will have CKD. However, by 2022, CKD will become the only top-15 global predicted cause of death that is not supported by a dedicated well-funded Centres for Biomedical Research (CIBER) network structure in Spain. Realizing the underestimation of the CKD burden of disease by health authorities, the Decade of the Kidney initiative for 2020-2030 was launched by the American Association of Kidney Patients and the European Kidney Health Alliance. Leading Spanish kidney researchers grouped in the kidney collaborative research network Red de Investigación Renal have now applied for the Redes de Investigación Cooperativa Orientadas a Resultados en Salud (RICORS) call for collaborative research in Spain with the support of the Spanish Society of Nephrology, Federación Nacional de Asociaciones para la Lucha Contra las Enfermedades del Riñón and ONT: RICORS2040 aims to prevent the dire predictions for the global 2040 burden of CKD from becoming true

Mesityl gold(III) complexes. X-ray structure of mononuclear Au(mes)(2)Cl(PPh3) and the dimer Au(mes)(2)Cl (2)

The reaction between PPN[AuCl4] and [Hg(mes)(2)] gives the anionic complex cis-PPN[Au(mes)(2)Cl-2] (1) and [Hg(mes)Cl] as side-product. Complex 1 is a precursor to other compounds both neutral and cationic. Removal of one chloride ligand affords the mononuclear neutral complexes cis-[Au(mes)(2)ClL] (L = PPh3 (2), P{p-tol}(3) (3), AsPh3 (4), SPPh3 (5)) by addition of a neutral ligand or, alternatively if no ligand is added, dimeric cis-[Au(mes)(2)Cl](2) (6). If both chloride groups in 1 are removed, cationic compounds can be obtained by addition of a potentially bidentate ligand affording cis-[Au(mes)(2)(L-L)]X complexes (X = ClO4, L-L = bipy (7), L-L = phen (8), L-L = dppe (9) X = SO3CF3, L-L = dppm (10)). Dithiocarbamate- or acetate salts can be added to solutions of 'Au(mes)(2)X' (obtained by removal of two chloride anions in 1) leading to the neutral compounds cis-[Au(mes),(L-L)] (L-L = S2CNR2 (R = Me (11), Et (12), Bz (13)), O2CCF3 (14)). The structures of cis-[Au(mes)(2)Cl(PPh3)] (2) and cis-[Au(mes)(2)Cl](2) (6) have been established by an X-ray diffraction study

Structural monitoring of RPAS MILANO in the flight test phase

The RPAS (Remote Piloted Air System) MILANO is the largest unmanned aerial system developed by INTA that aims to become a research platform capable of carrying out in-flight tests with many scientific payload, thus complementing the Air Research Platforms (PAIs) of INTA. At the structural level, the RPAS MILANO is made in its entirety in carbon / epoxy composite material that is cured out of the autoclave. Its design has been followed by the airworthiness regulations applicable to the aircraft type (STANAG-4671). In the month of December 2018, the RPAS MILANO flight test phase began and it’s Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) is being used to collect data before, after and during flights, providing very useful information when evaluating and analyzing the state of the structure and the possible appearance of structural overloads not foreseen during the mission. Information about special events, such as forced landing or burst loading, can be provided to maintenance operators after each flight. The simulation model and its predictions have been validated in a real structure of the rear fuselage of the MILANO and in which real damage of larger sizes is introduced by eliminating rivets progressively. In our study, three different damage detection algorithms are used, based on a damage index, PCA and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)

Sensor integration and data explotation of Structural Health Monitoring Network integrated on a Unmananned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are flying robots that require little or no human control while flying. The number of UAV has growth exponentially due to rise in applications such as video taking, surveillance and delivering cargo to customers. Despite the promise of the technology, UAV are not very reliable currently, either civil or military. They lack of sensing mechanisms to detect issues in operation, such impacts, hard landings and overload, together with the difficulties to detect structural problems during the UAV operation could compromise not only the safety of the UAV, also all along the entire flying area. This paper presents the design, development implementation, and validation of a Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system applied to the rear fuselage of the UAV developed by INTA for R&D activities (MILANO). The rear fuselage, a 2.5 meters carbon/epoxy structure with frames and stringers, was instrumented with fiber optic sensors and PZT. Two different types of fiber optic sensors were considered: Fiber Bragg Gratings and distributed fiber sensing based on Rayleigh backscatter. The objective of the fiber optic sensor network is to detect the changes induced on the strain field due to damage appearance. This information will be employed to train a neural network which provides the self-diagnosis of the structural integrity. Additionally, the PZT network will be used as active system for structure interrogation through elastic waves

STAMS : New tools for monitoring flooded and nonflooded mine shaft

International audienceIn European coalmines, there are many unequipped, abandoned shafts (in Poland, Germany, France, Spain, UK and other countries) in which the long term stability is a cause of concern. The need for continuous assessment and monitoring of the stability of abandoned shafts present a real challenge particularly for deep shafts. The European STAMS research project (Long term STability Assessment and Monitoring of flooded Shafts), subsidized by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel programme (RFCS), is addressing this issue. The objective of the STAMS project is to implement Periodic Inspection Modules, and to design permanently installed monitoring systems, to achieve periodic and long term continuous monitoring and condition assessment of flooded mine shafts. The project proposes solutions to monitor and to assess the stability and the conditions of flooded shafts, including the non flooded portions of partially flooded shafts, for long periods of time. The Multi functional Monitoring Module is able to make periodic measurements in order to assess the stability of a flooded shaft. The Ultrasonic Inspection Module allows the detection of lining deformations with high precision between periodic inspections of shafts. In addition to monitoring, a modelling approach has been developed to assess the long term stability of shafts during and after flooding by coupling the hydro mechanical behaviour with the chemical reactions which occur between the mine water and the shaft lining components. A database of the flooded shafts has been established. Laboratory and trials tests are carried out by the partners of the project to check the tools and to test them under real conditions. This paper presents and describes the developed modules and the first obtained results

Combination of high levels of SIRT1 and SIRT2 proteins predicts shorter RFS and OS.

<p>Kaplan-Meier curves of RFS (A, C, E) and OS (B, D, F) for SIRT1 (A, B), SIRT2 (C, D) and the combination of SIRT1 and SIRT2 (E, F) as assessed by immunohistochemical staining.</p