Influence of different cultivation methods on carbohydrate and lipid compositions and digestibility of energy of fruits and vegetables

BACKGROUND Environmental as well as cultivation factors may greatly influence the chemical composition of plants. The main factors affecting the chemical composition of foodstuff are level and type of fertilizer (conventional and organic cultivation systems), location or soil type, and year of harvest. Organic foods are defined as products that are produced under controlled cultivation conditions characterized by the absence of synthetic fertilisers and very restricted use of pesticides. Very limited information is available regarding the impact of organic cultivation systems on the composition of carbohydrates and fatty acids of fruits and vegetables. The objective was to investigate the influence of organic and conventional cultivation systems on the carbohydrate and fatty acid composition and digestibility of the energy of apple, carrot, kale, pea, potato, andrapeseedoil. RESULTS Carbohydrate and lignin values ranged from 584 g kg−1 dry matter in kale to 910 g kg−1 DM in potato, but with significant differences in the proportion of sugars, starch, non-starch polysaccharides, and lignin between the food stuffs. Triacylglycerol was the major lipid class in pea, with 82% of total fatty acids, as opposed to apple, with only 35% of fatty acids of the ether extract. The most important factor influence in the digestibility of energy, and consequently faecal bulking, was the content of dietary fibre. CONCLUSION The cultivation system had minor impact on the carbohydrate and lipid composition in the investigated foodstuffs or on the digestibility of energy when assessed in the ratmodel. Faecal bulking was related to dietary fibre in a linear fashion

Escherichia coli Subtilase Cytotoxin

Subtilase cytotoxin (SubAB) is the prototype of a new AB5 toxin family produced by a subset of Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) strains. Its A subunit is a subtilase-like serine protease and cytotoxicity for eukaryotic cells is due to a highly specific, single-site cleavage of BiP/GRP78, an essential Hsp70 family chaperone located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). This cleavage triggers a severe and unresolved ER stress response, ultimately triggering apoptosis. The B subunit has specificity for glycans terminating in the sialic acid N-glycolylneuraminic acid. Although its actual role in human disease pathogenesis is yet to be established, SubAB is lethal for mice and induces pathological features overlapping those seen in the haemolytic uraemic syndrome, a life-threatening complication of STEC infection. The toxin is also proving to be a useful tool for probing the role of BiP and ER stress in a variety of cellular functions

FireDock: a web server for fast interaction refinement in molecular docking†

Structural details of protein–protein interactions are invaluable for understanding and deciphering biological mechanisms. Computational docking methods aim to predict the structure of a protein–protein complex given the structures of its single components. Protein flexibility and the absence of robust scoring functions pose a great challenge in the docking field. Due to these difficulties most of the docking methods involve a two-tier approach: coarse global search for feasible orientations that treats proteins as rigid bodies, followed by an accurate refinement stage that aims to introduce flexibility into the process. The FireDock web server, presented here, is the first web server for flexible refinement and scoring of protein–protein docking solutions. It includes optimization of side-chain conformations and rigid-body orientation and allows a high-throughput refinement. The server provides a user-friendly interface and a 3D visualization of the results. A docking protocol consisting of a global search by PatchDock and a refinement by FireDock was extensively tested. The protocol was successful in refining and scoring docking solution candidates for cases taken from docking benchmarks. We provide an option for using this protocol by automatic redirection of PatchDock candidate solutions to the FireDock web server for refinement. The FireDock web server is available at http://bioinfo3d.cs.tau.ac.il/FireDock/

The use of Scutellaria lateriflora: a pilot survey amongst herbal medicine practitioners

American skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) is a popular herb in traditional medicine systems and western Materia medica for anxiety and related disorders. It is reported to be one of the most widely used medicinal herbs, with anecdotal evidence for minimal side-effects and with no known toxicity. This article summarises the results of a pilot survey conducted amongst herbal medicine practitioners on their use of S. lateriflora. An email survey was conducted amongst herbal medicine practitioners in the UK and Ireland. It aimed to gather information on the extent of, and indications for, current use of S. lateriflora, its perceived effectiveness and its safety. Herbal medicine practitioners were selected from the membership list of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH). All members with identifiable email addresses were contacted (n = 377) and responses were received from 62 (a 16% response rate). The results of the survey suggested that S. lateriflora is highly regarded among herbal medicine practitioners as an effective intervention for reducing anxiety and stress and is commonly prescribed for these conditions and related co-morbidities. The results were not conclusive as the response rate was low and respondents were only those with email access

New Mechanics of Traumatic Brain Injury

The prediction and prevention of traumatic brain injury is a very important aspect of preventive medical science. This paper proposes a new coupled loading-rate hypothesis for the traumatic brain injury (TBI), which states that the main cause of the TBI is an external Euclidean jolt, or SE(3)-jolt, an impulsive loading that strikes the head in several coupled degrees-of-freedom simultaneously. To show this, based on the previously defined covariant force law, we formulate the coupled Newton-Euler dynamics of brain's micro-motions within the cerebrospinal fluid and derive from it the coupled SE(3)-jolt dynamics. The SE(3)-jolt is a cause of the TBI in two forms of brain's rapid discontinuous deformations: translational dislocations and rotational disclinations. Brain's dislocations and disclinations, caused by the SE(3)-jolt, are described using the Cosserat multipolar viscoelastic continuum brain model. Keywords: Traumatic brain injuries, coupled loading-rate hypothesis, Euclidean jolt, coupled Newton-Euler dynamics, brain's dislocations and disclinationsComment: 18 pages, 1 figure, Late

Improved catalytic activity of ruthenium–arene complexes in the reduction of NAD+

A series of neutral Ru-II half-sandwich complexes of the type [(eta(6)-arene)Ru(N,N')Cl] where the arene is para-cymene (p-cym), hexamethylbenzene (hmb), biphenyl (bip), or benzene (bn) and N,N' is N-(2-aminoethyl) -4-(trifluoromethyl)benzenesulfonamide (TfEn), N-(2-aminoethyl)-4-toluenesulfonamide (TsEn), or N-(2-aminoethyl)-methylenesulfonamide (MsEn) were synthesized and characterized. X-ray crystal structures of [(p-cym)Ru(MsEn)Cl] (1), [(hmb)Ru(TsEn)Cl] (5), [(hmb)Ru(TfEn)Cl] (6), [(bip)Ru(MsEn)Cl] (7), and [(bip)Ru(TsEn)Cl] (8) have been determined. The complexes can regioselectively catalyze the transfer hydrogenation of NAD(+) to give 1,4-NADH in the presence of formate. The turnover frequencies (TOF) when the arene is varied decrease in the order bn > bip > p-cym > hmb for complexes with the same N,N' chelating ligand. The TOF decreased with variation in the N,N' chelating ligand in the order TfEn > TsEn > MsEn for a given arene. [(bn)Ru(TfEn)Cl] (12) was the most active, with a TOP of 10.4 h(-1). The effects of NAD(+) and formate concentration on the reaction rates were determined for [(p-cym)Ru(TsEn)Cl] (2). Isotope studies implicated the formation of [(arene)Ru(N,N')(H)] as the rate-limiting step. The coordination of formate and subsequent CO2 elimination to generate the hydride were modeled computationally by density functional theory (DFT). CO2 elimination occurs via a two-step process with the coordinated formate first twisting to present its hydrogen toward the metal center. The computed barriers for CO2 release for arene = benzene follow the order MsEn > TsEn > TfEn, and for the Ms En system the barrier followed bn < hmb, both consistent with the observed rates. The effect of methanol on transfer hydrogenation rates in aqueous solution was investigated. A study of pH dependence of the reaction in D2O gave the optimum pH* as 7.2 with a TOF of 1.58 h(-1) for 2. The series of compounds reported here show an improvement in the catalytic activity by an order of magnitude compared to the ethylenediamine analogues

Observational evidence for gravitationally trapped massive axion(-like) particles

Unexpected astrophysical observations can be explained by gravitationally captured massive particles, which are produced inside the Sun or other Stars and are accumulated over cosmic times. Their radiative decay in solar outer space would give rise to a `self-irradiation' of the whole star, providing the time-independent component of the corona heating source. In analogy with the Sun-irradiated Earth atmosphere, the temperature and density gradient in the corona - chromosphere transition region is suggestive for an omnipresent irradiation of the Sun. The same scenario fits other astrophysical X-ray observations. The radiative decay of a population of such elusive particles mimics a hot gas. X-ray observatories, with an unrivalled sensitivity below ~10 keV, can search for such particles. The elongation angle relative to the Sun is the relevant new parameter.Comment: 35 pages, LaTeX, 9 figures. Accepted by Astroparticle Physic