Functional fish: improving nutrition for the elderly

Elder people need highly digestible foods that can also provide health benefits even to those suffering from chronic diseases. Furthermore, such foods should be palatable as well as familiar for elder consumers. Fish is a high-protein, low-fat food that potentially provides a range of health promoting effects which may be further improved with suitable approaches in the production systems. The present mini-review intends to report possible aquaculture interventions to enhance the positive impact of fish on elder health and to promote its function in terms of prevention and recovery of specific diseases. Some fish species during their lifespan experience periods of food restrictions that can be mimicked in aquaculture without affecting fish welfare. Under these circumstances fish can modify the fatty acid profile and increase the use of muscle proteins to fulfill their energy requirements, by activation of muscle endogenous proteases. Degradation of muscle proteins can enhance their digestibility and possibly the release of encrypted bioactive peptides, showing a plethora of biological actions, including the antihypertensive activity. The degree of myofibrillar protein degradation and the fatty acid profile of fish fillet can then be managed by suitable and sustainable feeding protocols in the context of farming conditions

Intestinal morpho-physiology and innate immune status of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) in response to diets including a blend of two marine microalgae, Tisochrysis lutea and Tetraselmis suecica

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of replacing graded levels of dietary fish meal by a blend of two marine microalgae Tisochrysis lutea and Tetraselmis suecica on intestinal morpho-physiology and innate immune response in European sea bass. Two complete diets were formulated to be iso-nitrogenous and isolipidic and prepared by including a blend of the two microalgae, to replace approximately 15 and 45% fish meal protein of the control diet. A fourth diet, where the microalgae mix was substituted by soybean meal, was also prepared. Each diet was offered until visual satiety over 105 days to triplicated groups of European sea bass (204 \ub1 12.7 g), kept in a recirculating marine water system. The humoral and cellular innate immune parameters of E. sea bass were affected by the dietary treatment. Fish fed the microalgae-containing or the soybean rich diets, showed a significantly greater villi height, while the thickness of intestinal epithelium was significantly reduced in fish fed the soybean meal-rich diet. The activity of the brush border membrane enzymes, maltase, sucrase-isomaltase, \u3b3-glutamil transferase and alkaline phosphatase was not affected by dietary treatment but changed in different intestinal tracts. The genes sucrase-isomaltase, peptide transporter 1, sodium/potassium-transporting ATPase and aminopeptidase N were overexpressed in the pyloric and proximal region of the intestine of fish fed the microalgae-including diets. In conclusion, a blend of dried marine microalgae Tisochrysis lutea and Tetraselmis suecica as alternative ingredients to dietary fish meal did not hamper gut digestive-absorptive functions of E. sea bass. Moreover, it resulted in enhanced non-specific immune response, suggesting an effective role as an immunostimulant ingredien

An overview on dietary polyphenols and their biopharmaceutical classification system (Bcs)

Polyphenols are natural organic compounds produced by plants, acting as antioxidants by reacting with ROS. These compounds are widely consumed in daily diet and many studies report several benefits to human health thanks to their bioavailability in humans. However, the digestion process of phenolic compounds is still not completely clear. Moreover, bioavailability is dependent on the metabolic phase of these compounds. The LogP value can be managed as a simplified measure of the lipophilicity of a substance ingested within the human body, which affects resultant absorption. The biopharmaceutical classification system (BCS), a method used to classify drugs intended for gastrointestinal absorption, correlates the solubility and permeability of the drug with both the rate and extent of oral absorption. BCS may be helpful to measure the bioactive constituents of foods, such as polyphenols, in order to understand their nutraceutical potential. There are many literature studies that focus on permeability, absorption, and bioavailability of polyphenols and their resultant metabolic byproducts, but there is still confusion about their respective LogP values and BCS classifi-cation. This review will provide an overview of the information regarding 10 dietarypolyphenols (ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid, rutin, quercetin, apigenin, cirsimaritin, daidzein, resveratrol, ellagic acid, and curcumin) and their association with the BCS classification

growth performance and stress response of common sole subjected to varying stocking densities and rearing temperatures

AbstractEarlier short-term studies have shown productivity of intensively farmed common sole (S. solea) to be closely dependent on rearing density. Irrespective of fish size, elevating crowding conditions led to declining growth rates while the effect of density on mortality remains controversial. To what extent water temperature could affect productivity of growing sole subjected to varying crowding conditions, warrants investigation as very few studies have tried to quantify the effects of this fundamental rearing parameter on growth and survival in this fish species. This is particularly crucial for developing suitable farming protocols in Italy, where common sole may experience a broad range of water temperatures throughout the rearing cycle. The aim of this study was to evaluate productivity and blood cortisol level as a measure of stress response, in growing sole subjected to different stocking densities and temperature conditions. Six hundred juveniles (ind. weight 21.8±1.5g) were randomly allotted..

Analysis and Design of Plasmonic-Organic Hybrid Electro-Optic Modulators Based on Directional Couplers

We present a detailed simulation study on plasmonic-organic hybrid electro-optic modulators based on coupled symmetric or asymmetric plasmonic slots. An electro-optic polymer is exploited as an active material, and the device is compatible with a silicon photonics platform. The proposed device operates at 1550 nm wavelength, typical of data center or long-haul telecommunication systems. The device performance in terms of area, plasmonic losses, optical bandwidth, intrinsic modulation bandwidth and energy dissipation are comparable to already proposed Mach-Zehnder solutions, but with potentially better extinction ratio, coupling losses due to photonic-plasmonic transitions, and flexibility in exploiting, without any performance penalty, asymmetric slots to shift the ON and OFF states bias. Finally, the bias dependence of the modulation chirp is investigated, comparing through and cross-coupling configurations

Collaborative care for depression in general practice: overview of systematic reviews

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Limiting mechanisms for photon recycling in thin-film GaAs solar cells

Photon recycling mechanisms in single junction thin-film GaAs solar cells are evaluated in this study. Modelling supported by experimentally obtained results is used in order to correlate the reflectance of the cell's rear layers, the photon recycling probability, and the solar cell performance. Solar cells with different top and bottom metallization configurations are produced, and their performance is analyzed from the optical and electrical point of view. It is shown that the photon recycling probability increases with the rear mirror reflectance and solar cell thickness, which results in the increase of the devices open circuit voltage. However, the front grid coverage, usually disregarded in rear mirror focused studies, strongly reduces the photon recycling probability. Furthermore, perimeter and interface recombination hinder the internal radiative efficiency of the solar cells, preventing further increase of the devices' open circuit voltage as a result of improvements of the rear mirror reflectivity. In order to exploit the significant benefit of increased photon recycling probability to the solar cell performance, these limiting mechanisms need to be properly addressed