Normal and intruder configurations in Si- 34 populated in the beta(-) decay of Mg-34 and Al-34

The structure of Si-34 was studied through gamma spectroscopy separately in the beta(-) decays of Mg-34 and Al-34 at the ISOLDE facility of CERN. Different configurations in Si-34 were populated independently from the two recently identified beta-decaying states in Al-34 having spin-parity assignments J(pi) = 4(-) dominated by the normal configuration pi(d(5/2))(-1) circle times nu(f(7/2)) and J(pi) = 1(+) by the intruder configuration pi(d(5/2))(-1) circle times nu(d(3/2))(-1) (f(7/2))(2). The paper reports on spectroscopic properties of Si-34 such as an extended level scheme, spin and parity assignments based on log(ft) values and gamma-ray branching ratios, absolute beta feeding intensities, and neutron emission probabilities. A total of 11 newly identified levels and 26 transitions were added to the previously known level scheme of Si-34. Large scale shell-model calculations using the SDPF-U-MIX interaction, able to treat higher order intruder configurations, are compared with the new results and conclusions are drawn concerning the predictive power of SDPF-U-MIX, the N = 20 shell gap, the level of mixing between normal and intruder configurations for the 0(1)(+), 0(2)(+), and 2(1)(+) states, and the absence of triaxial deformation in Si-3(4).Peer reviewe

Anthocyanidins and anthocyanins: colored pigments as food, pharmaceutical ingredients, and the potential health benefits

Anthocyanins are colored water-soluble pigments belonging to the phenolic group. The pigments are in glycosylated forms. Anthocyanins responsible for the colors, red, purple, and blue, are in fruits and vegetables. Berries, currants, grapes, and some tropical fruits have high anthocyanins content. Red to purplish blue-colored leafy vegetables, grains, roots, and tubers are the edible vegetables that contain a high level of anthocyanins. Among the anthocyanin pigments, cyanidin-3-glucoside is the major anthocyanin found in most of the plants. The colored anthocyanin pigments have been traditionally used as a natural food colorant. The color and stability of these pigments are influenced by pH, light, temperature, and structure. In acidic condition, anthocyanins appear as red but turn blue when the pH increases. Chromatography has been largely applied in extraction, separation, and quantification of anthocyanins. Besides the use of anthocyanidins and anthocyanins as natural dyes, these colored pigments are potential pharmaceutical ingredients that give various beneficial health effects. Scientific studies, such as cell culture studies, animal models, and human clinical trials, show that anthocyanidins and anthocyanins possess antioxidative and antimicrobial activities, improve visual and neurological health, and protect against various non-communicable diseases. These studies confer the health effects of anthocyanidins and anthocyanins, which are due to their potent antioxidant properties. Different mechanisms and pathways are involved in the protective effects, including free-radical scavenging pathway, cyclooxygenase pathway, mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, and inflammatory cytokines signaling. Therefore, this review focuses on the role of anthocyanidins and anthocyanins as natural food colorants and their nutraceutical properties for health. Abbreviations: CVD: Cardiovascular disease VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor

11. Modern Teaching Methods in Creative Workshop Fashion Design Courses

The aim of this article is to specify and exemplify the stages of the creative process in fashion design courses and workshops, with a focus on a few learning methods exploring the creative potential through content and visual analysis processes as well as more practical techniques and methods in the area of fashion design and applied arts. From scientific documentation to pedagogical experiments, a range of methods have been used to enable students fulfill their learning objectives and reach the apex of professional competence

Artistic and Educational Projects – Perspectives in Non-Formal Education. A Case Study

The present article aims to analyze the impact of artistic and educational projects from the perspective of non-formal education. This will be done with the help of a case study that brings forth the aforementioned elements in order to improve the educational standards of the students that participate in these projects. Also, here will be detailed the specific objectives of the projects in this category and the impact imprinted on the target groups as well as the implementation manners of the objectives themselves, by following the factors that stimulate creativity and the degree of young people involvement in this project

6. Design – Synthesis Phenomenon: Art, Science and Technology

This article discusses the issue of curricular adaptation of subject content for students attending courses in Clothing Design and Visual and Decorative Arts in which the content of the national curriculum components is correlated with the student’s real possibilities to prioritize and compare their individual vocational performance and accumulated acquisitions during the development of design projects, following the individualized and differentiated curriculum in Clothing Design courses through algorithmic teaching strategies or heuristic strategies that require creativity in order to achieve global or sequential learning tasks

Anthocyanins: naturally occuring fruit pigments with functional properties

Anthocyanin is a water-soluble pigment existing in plants, and has various health benefits to humans. As far as that goes, the number and location of the hydroxyl groups of the parent nucleus have significant effects on the anthocyanin activities. This review summarizes anthocyanin content in fruits, the importance of anthocyanin in relation to human health, some aspects of anthocyanin biochemistry and their bioavailability, the distribution in some fruits, the biosynthetic pathway, different extraction, separation and purification methods, and also identification methods. Beneficial effects of anthocyanin pigments are reported in the scientific literature and these compounds are nowadays recognized as potentially therapeutic. The lack of antioxidant defense mechanisms in humans is associated with the cardiovascular and coronary artery diseases, cancer and diabetes, besides others

Journal of Food Quality Thermal Degradation of Plum Anthocyanins: Comparison of Kinetics from Simple to Natural Systems

The stability of anthocyanin was assessed over a temperature range of 50–120°C in different simulated plum juices in order to compare the thermal behavior in the presence of certain compounds. The results were correlated with the antioxidant activity and intrinsic fluorescence spectra. The results suggested significant changes, especially at higher temperature; hence, increase in the fluorescence intensity and some bathochromic and hypsochromic shifts were observed. Anthocyanins in natural matrices presented the highest rate for degradation, followed by the anthocyanins in juices with sugars. Values of the activation energies were 42.40 ± 6.87 kJ/mol for the degradation in water, 40.70 ± 4.25 kJ/mol for the juices with citric acid, 23.03 ± 3.53 kJ/mol for the juices containing sugars, 35.99 ± 3.60 kJ/mol for simulated juices with mixture, and 14.19 ± 2.39 kJ/mol for natural juices. A protective effect of sugars was evidenced, whereas in natural matrices, the degradation rate constant showed lower temperature dependence

Value-Added Crackers Enriched with Red Onion Skin Anthocyanins Entrapped in Different Combinations of Wall Materials

The objective of this study was to encapsulate anthocyanins from red onion skins into different biopolymeric matrices as a way to develop powders with multifunctional activities. Two different variants of powders were obtained using a combination of gelation and freeze-drying techniques and characterized by encapsulation efficiency, antioxidant activity, phytochemical content, and color. Stability during storage and the bioavailability of anthocyanins in the in vitro simulated digestion were also examined. Powder V2, with a higher concentration of polysaccharides than V1, allowed a better encapsulation efficiency (90.53 ± 0.29%) and good stability during storage. Both variants had a high content of phytochemicals and antioxidant activity. In vitro investigations proved that an increased polysaccharides concentration offers the best protection for anthocyanins. Thus, a controlled release of the anthocyanins in the intestinal medium was achieved. The powder with the highest encapsulation efficiency was added to crackers, followed by phytochemical characterization to assess its potential added value. The addition of the micro-particles improved the functional characteristics such as antioxidant activity, showing its suitability for the development of bakery products. The attained results may bring implicit benefits to consumers, who can benefit from improved bioactive concentrations in foodstuffs, with significant health benefits