Survivability of lactobacilli cells upon coating with methacrylic acid copolymers

This study aimed to evaluate the coating effect of methacrylic acid copolymers (MAc) on alginate beads, with respect to protection, survivability, and in vitro release of lactobacilli cells under simulated gut conditions, and to evaluate the effect of oven drying and fluidized bed-spraying as a mean to dry and coat alginate beads with MAc. MAc-coated beads exhibited protective effects for lactobacilli cells against low acidic environment providing higher survivability (71.82–96.11%) compared to uncoated beads (28.67–61.68%), and also higher cell release under sequential gut conditions (P<0.05). Lactobacillus casei BT 1268 showed a high cell release and was thus selected for further analysis using spray coating-drying via fluidized bed. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that fluidized bed-spray drying produced beads with irregular shapes but consistent coating and with lactobacilli cells clearly embedded within the inner matrix. Oven dried and fluidized bed-spray dried MAc-coated beads of L. casei BT 1268 also showed similar cell release, indicating the possible use of fluidized bed-spray as a more economical and less time consuming method for the protection and maintenance of cell viability

Survivability of encapsulated lactobacilli in high acid foods

This study aimed to evaluate the survivability of lactobacilli cells encapsulated in calcium alginate beads coated with methacrylic acid copolymers (MAc) in high acidic foods (orange juice and mayonnaise). Lactobacilli survived well at low temperature (4 °C) for 6 wk in orange juice, 4 wk in heat-treated orange juice, 12 wk in mayonnaise, and 8 wk in heat-treated mayonnaise (P<0.05), without affecting the acidity of orange juice and mayonnaise during storage. FTIR spectra showed that the characteristic peaks of calcium alginate and MAc were not altered, designating no high affinity interaction between calcium alginate and MAc. DSC of MAc-coated alginate beads indicated an increased in melting temperature, demonstrating improvement in molecular orientation in the MAc-coated alginate beads compared to the control. Sensory evaluation revealed that panellists could detect the presence of MAc-coated alginate beads, leading to a lower acceptance score

Evaluation of inter-granular coupling in stacked perpendicular recording media

AbstractThe trial for quantitative evaluation of inter-granular coupling in stacked perpendicular recording media is reported. The evaluation is realized by analyzing magnetic domain in relation with microstructure of the cap layer initial growth layer. When the thickness of cap layer is increased, the change of magnetic domain from single magnetic domain to maze magnetic domain can be observed. The critical thickness of the cap layer where the change happened was around 5.1nm. According to this analysis, when granular layer and cap layer of stacked media are assumed to be single layer, inter-granular coupling with amount of around 2.9erg/cm2 was obtained which agrees with the simulation result qualitatively

Associations of autozygosity with a broad range of human phenotypes

In many species, the offspring of related parents suffer reduced reproductive success, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In humans, the importance of this effect has remained unclear, partly because reproduction between close relatives is both rare and frequently associated with confounding social factors. Here, using genomic inbreeding coefficients (F-ROH) for >1.4 million individuals, we show that F-ROH is significantly associated (p <0.0005) with apparently deleterious changes in 32 out of 100 traits analysed. These changes are associated with runs of homozygosity (ROH), but not with common variant homozygosity, suggesting that genetic variants associated with inbreeding depression are predominantly rare. The effect on fertility is striking: F-ROH equivalent to the offspring of first cousins is associated with a 55% decrease [95% CI 44-66%] in the odds of having children. Finally, the effects of F-ROH are confirmed within full-sibling pairs, where the variation in F-ROH is independent of all environmental confounding.Peer reviewe

A multi-ancestry genome-wide study incorporating gene-smoking interactions identifies multiple new loci for pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure

Elevated blood pressure (BP), a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, is influenced by both genetic and lifestyle factors. Cigarette smoking is one such lifestyle factor. Across five ancestries, we performed a genome-wide gene–smoking interaction study of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure (PP) in 129 913 individuals in stage 1 and follow-up analysis in 480 178 additional individuals in stage 2. We report here 136 loci significantly associated with MAP and/or PP. Of these, 61 were previously published through main-effect analysis of BP traits, 37 were recently reported by us for systolic BP and/or diastolic BP through gene–smoking interaction analysis and 38 were newly identified (P < 5 × 10−8, false discovery rate < 0.05). We also identified nine new signals near known loci. Of the 136 loci, 8 showed significant interaction with smoking status. They include CSMD1 previously reported for insulin resistance and BP in the spontaneously hypertensive rats. Many of the 38 new loci show biologic plausibility for a role in BP regulation. SLC26A7 encodes a chloride/bicarbonate exchanger expressed in the renal outer medullary collecting duct. AVPR1A is widely expressed, including in vascular smooth muscle cells, kidney, myocardium and brain. FHAD1 is a long non-coding RNA overexpressed in heart failure. TMEM51 was associated with contractile function in cardiomyocytes. CASP9 plays a central role in cardiomyocyte apoptosis. Identified only in African ancestry were 30 novel loci. Our findings highlight the value of multi-ancestry investigations, particularly in studies of interaction with lifestyle factors, where genomic and lifestyle differences may contribute to novel findings

Repetitive control approach towards automatic tuning of Smith predictor controllers

10.1016/j.isatra.2008.10.002ISA Transactions48116-23ISAT