Sources of Information about Dietary Fibre: A Cross-Country Survey

Dietary fibre (DF) has been recognized as a major determinant for improvement of health. Hence the means of information through which people become aware of its benefits are crucial. This work aimed at studying the sources of information about DF, as a means to educate people about aspects related to healthy eating. Factors such as gender, level of education, living environment or country were evaluated as to their effect on the selection of sources and preferences. For this, a descriptive cross-sectional study by means of a questionnaire, applied to a non-probabilistic sample of 6010 participants from 10 countries in different continents (Europe, Africa and America), answered after informed consent by all participants. For the analysis were used several descriptive statistics tools, crosstabs and chi square test to assess the relations between some of the variables under study. The results showed that mostly the information about DF comes from the internet, but the participants recognize that television might be a most suitable way to disseminate information about DF. The results also indicated differences between genders, levels of education, living environments and countries. The internet, the preferred source of information, got highest scores for Hungary, for urban areas, for university level of education and for female gender. The radio, the least scored source of information, was preferred in Egypt, for men and with lower education (primary school). As a conclusion, people get information through the internet due to easy access. However, it is to some extent a risk given the impossibility to control de information made public on the internet. The role of health centers and hospitals as well as schools should definitely be increased, as a responsible way to ensure correct information

Level of information about dietary fibre: a study involving 10 Countries

Introduction: Dietary fibre (DF) is recognized as healthy for long, so that health claims are allowed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) due to its proved benefits, extended but not only confined to many diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Objective: This work intended to analyse the level of information about DF in 10 countries, situated in Europe, Africa and South America. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken through a survey based on a questionnaire of self-response applied to a sample of 6010 participants. The data were lately treated by factor and cluster analyses, including validation methodologies. Results: Factor analysis showed that ten of the twelve items used to assess the knowledge about DF could be arranged into two factors: one related to health effects (α =0.854) and the other to the sources (α =0.644). Furthermore, cluster analysis showed that the participants could be divided into three groups: 1) Good knowledge about sources and health effects of DF; 2) Good knowledge about the sources of DF but poor knowledge about the health effects; 3) Poor knowledge about the sources and health effects of DF. Conclusions: The results clearly allowed identifying two factors and three clusters, and the variables that most influenced cluster membership were country, living environment and level of education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cellulose Acetate Nanofibers: Incorporating Hydroxyapatite (HA), HA/Berberine or HA/Moghat Composites, as Scaffolds to Enhance In Vitro Osteoporotic Bone Regeneration

The specific objective of this study was to stabilize a simple valid method to prepare pure nanorod hydroxyapatite (HA) mixed with berberine chloride (BER) and Moghat water extract (ME) as composites for incorporation into cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers to be used as novel bone scaffolds and to determine their efficacy in bone regeneration process In Vitro. Preparation of HA/BER and HA/ME composites were performed by mixing powders using the ball-milling machine. The HA, HA/BER, and HA/ME composites at a concentration of 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50, 100, and 200 mg were mixed with CA solution (13%), then the fiber was formed using electrospinning technique. The properties of the obtained CA fibers were investigated (SEM, TEM, EDX, FTIR, TGA, water uptake, porosity, and mechanical tests). The efficacy of HA and HA composites loaded into CA nanofiber on osteoblast and osteoclast differentiation were measured by tacking ALP, osteocalcin, TRAcP, calcium, and total protein concentration. Moreover, their effects on cell differentiation (CD90 and PARP- ɣ) and death markers (GSK3b, MAPK, Wnt-5 and β-catenin) were evaluated by using ELISA and qPCR. The obtained TEM results indicated that the continuous CA and CA/HA composites electrospun fibers have ultrafine fiber diameters of about 200 nm and uniform distribution of discrete n-HA clusters throughout. In addition, hydrocortisone (HCT) was found to increase the formation of adipocytes and osteoclastic markers CD90 and p38-MAPK which indicated the bone lose process take placed. Treatment with CA loaded with HA, HA/BER or HA/ME decreased CD90, Wnt-5, PARP- ɣ, GSK3b and p38-MAPK associated elevation of osteogenic markers: ALP and osteocalcin. Moreover, HCT overexpressed RANKL and down expressed Osterix gene. Treatment with CA/HA/BER or CA/HA/ME downregulated RANKL and upregulated Osterix associated with a reduction in RANKL/OPG ratio, at p 2+) pathways. Furthermore, our data confirmed that the novel scaffolds create a crosstalk between RUNX-2, RANKL, p38-MAPK, and Wnt signals which positively impact bone regeneration process. Treatment with CA/HA/BER is better compared to the treatment with CA/HA/ME. Nevertheless, both are considered as alternative biomaterial scaffolds with a potential for biomedical applications in the field of bone tissue engineering

Enhancement of the CAST Block Algorithm Based on Novel S-Box for Image Encryption

Background and Aim: due to the rapid growth of data communication and multimedia system applications, security becomes a critical issue in the communication and storage of images. This study aims to improve encryption and decryption for various types of images by decreasing time consumption and strengthening security. Methodology: An algorithm is proposed for encrypting images based on the Carlisle Adams and Stafford Tavares CAST block cipher algorithm with 3D and 2D logistic maps. A chaotic function that increases the randomness in the encrypted data and images, thereby breaking the relation sequence through the encryption procedure, is introduced. The time is decreased by using three secure and private S-Boxes rather than using six S-Boxes, as in the traditional method. Moreover, the CAST encryption algorithm was modified to be used on the private keys and substitution stage (S-Boxes), with the keys and S-Boxes of the encryption algorithm being generated according to the 2D and 3D chaotic map functions. The proposed system passed all evaluation criteria, including (MSE, PSNR, EQ, MD, SC, NC, AD, SNR, SIM, MAE, Time, CC, Entropy, and histograms). Results: Moreover, the results also illustrate that the created S-Boxes passed all evaluation criteria; compared with the results of the traditional method that was used in creating S-Box, the proposed method achieved better results than other methods used in the other works. The proposed solution improves the entropy which is between (7.991–7.999), reduces the processing time which is between (0.5–11 s/Images), and improves NCPR, which is between (0.991–1). Conclusions: The proposed solution focuses on reducing the total processing time for encryption and decryption and improving transmission security. Finally, this solution provides a fast security system for surgical telepresence with secure real-time communication. The complexity of this work needs to know the S-Box creation method used, the chaotic method, the values of the chaotic parameters, and which of these methods was used in the encryption process

Antagonistic activity of phylloplane yeasts from moringa oleifera lam. Leaves against aspergillus flavus unjcc f-30 from chicken feed

Aspergillus flavus is widely known as an aflatoxin-producing fungus that frequently contaminates feed and affects livestock, which leads to severe health problem for animal and human. Biological agents have been proven to prevent this contamination since they can produce metabolites which have antagonistic activity. In this study, phylloplane yeasts isolated from Moringa oleifera leaf have shown an ability to inhibit the growth of Aspergillus flavus UNJCC F-30 collected from chicken feed. This research was conducted in three stages: (1) yeast isolation (leaf washing and direct method), followed by (2) antagonistic test using dual culture method, and (3) molecular identification using D1/D2 region of 26S rDNA. In the first stage, 38 yeast isolates have been succesfully obtained. These isolates were of different colors: peach pigment (60.5%), the non-pigmented yeast (26.5%), cream (10%), and orange (3%). Antagonistic activity against A. flavus UNJCC F-30 was tested based on growth, sporulation, and the presence of clear zones. Screening result showed that 12 yeast isolates are capable of inhibiting A. flavus UNJCC F-30. Among them, 4 isolates with the code K4, K10, K15, and K26 showed the highest antagonist ability. Molecular identification resulted that the 4 isolates show a similar identity with Aureobasidium pullulans UWFP 993 (100%), Aureobasidium melanogenum QCC:M017/17 (99%), Aureobasidium melanogenum QCC:M017/17 (100%) and Rhodotorula taiwanensis CBS:11729 (99%), respectively. Isolate K10 exhibited the highest percentage of inhibition activity among all isolates which is potential for application as biocontrol agent against A. flavus. As A. pullulans is a common yeast found on leaf surfaces of many Indonesian flora, therefore it can be considered as safe and alternative to reduce fungal contamination from A. flavus in feed chicken