Characterization of kefir produced in household conditions: Physicochemical and nutritional profile, and storage stability

Kefir, a traditional fermented food, has numerous health benefits due to its unique chemical composition, which is reflected in its excellent nutritional value. Physicochemical and microbial composition of kefir obtained from fermented milk are influenced by the type of the milk, grain to milk ratio, time and temperature of fermentation, and storage conditions. It is crucial that kefir characteristics are maintained during storage since continuous metabolic activities of residual kefir microbiota may occur. This study aimed to examine the nutritional profile of kefir produced in traditional in use conditions by fermentation of ultra-high temperature pasteurized (UHT) semi-skimmed cow milk using argentinean kefir grains and compare the stability and nutritional compliance of freshly made and refrigerated kefir. Results indicate that kefir produced under home use conditions maintains the expected characteristics with respect to the physicochemical parameters and composition, both after fermentation and after refrigerated storage. This work further contributes to the characterization of this food product that is so widely consumed around the world by focusing on kefir that was produced in a typical household setting.Emília Alves and Epole Ntungwe acknowledge ALIES, Portugal for the grant PADDIC 2019–2020 and 2020–2021. The authors gratefully thank Professor Angela Leon, from the Centro de Investigacíon y Desarrollo en Criotecnologia de Alimentos (CIDCA), Universidad de La Plata, Argentina, for providing the CIDCA AGK1 kefir grains. The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020). L. Barros would like to thank the national funding by FCT, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract. To the project AllNat for the contract of C. Caleja (Project AllNat POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030463) and to the Project Mobilizador Norte-01-0247-FEDER-024479: ValorNatural® for the contract of E. Pereira.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Improvements in Compassion and Fears of Compassion throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multinational Study

During large-scale disasters, social support, caring behaviours, and compassion are shown to protect against poor mental health outcomes. This multi-national study aimed to assess the fluctuations in compassion over time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents (Time 1 n = 4156, Time 2 n = 980, Time 3 n = 825) from 23 countries completed online self-report questionnaires measuring the flows of compassion (i.e., Compassionate Engagement and Action Scales) and fears of compassion toward self and others and from others (i.e., Fears of Compassion Scales) and mental health at three time-points during a 10-month period. The results for the flows of compassion showed that self-compassion increased at Time 3. Compassion for others increased at Time 2 and 3 for the general population, but in contrast, it decreased in health professionals, possibly linked to burnout. Compassion from others did not change in Time 2, but it did increase significantly in Time 3. For fears of compassion, fears of self-compassion reduced over time, fears of compassion for others showed more variation, reducing for the general public but increasing for health professionals, whilst fears of compassion from others did not change over time. Health professionals, those with compassion training, older adults, and women showed greater flows of compassion and lower fears of compassion compared with the general population, those without compassion training, younger adults, and men. These findings highlight that, in a period of shared suffering, people from multiple countries and nationalities show a cumulative improvement in compassion and reduction in fears of compassion, suggesting that, when there is intense suffering, people become more compassionate to self and others and less afraid of, and resistant to, compassion

Toxicity effects of ethanol extract of Simarouba versicolor on reproductive parameters in female Wistar rats

Simarouba versicolor is popularly known as pau-paraiba. It belongs to the Simaroubaceae family and is found in the Northeast of São Paulo and in some parts of the states of Pará and Mato Grosso do Sul. It is known that this and other species from this genus have several activities: insecticides, antiinflammatory, antitumor, anthelmintic, among others. The effects of ethanolic extract of the bark of S. versicolor (Sv-EtOH) on the reproductive system of rats were investigated; also the influence of estrogenic and/or antiestrogenic activity, estrous cycle, pregnancy, lactation and offspring development was observed. In the experimental protocols with ethanolic extract of S. versicolor, the doses were 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg. To evaluate estrogenic and anti-estrogenic activity, uterotrophic assay and histopathology of the uterus were performed. In the estrous cycle tests, animals were treated daily, for 30 days, to count number of cycles and record the biochemical profile. During pre-implantation and post-implantation, the effect of the extract on pregnancy, lactation and development of the progeny was observed. Uterotrophic assay exhibited anti-estrogenic activity at extract doses of 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg. The animals exposed to all doses had no changes in their estrous cycle, pregnancy, lactation and biochemical profile. All results were within normal range; however, creatinine concentration increased significantly at all doses as compared to the control. The ethanol extract of S. versicolor presented antiestrogen activity, low systemic toxicity and had no reproductive toxicity at investigated doses.Key words: Simarouba versicolor, reproduction, rats

Temporal shoreline series analysis using GNSS

In recent decades, Boa Viagem beach located in the city of Recife-PE and Piedade in Jaboatão dos Guararapes-PE (Brazil) has seen urbanization near the coastline causing changes in social, economic and morphological aspects, where coastal erosion problems are observed. This study uses GNSS (global navigation satellite system) shoreline monitoring approach, which is quicker, and provides continuously updatable data at cm-level accuracy to analyze and determine temporal positional shifts of the shoreline as well as annual average rates through EPR (end point rate). To achieve this, kinematic GNSS survey data for the years 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012 were used. The results show sectorial trends over the years, with the highest annual retreat rate of 8.16 m /year occurring during the period 2007-2009. Variety of different patterns over the shoreline were also observed. These findings could be essential for decision making in coastal environments

Efecto de aditivos sobre el calor, textura y aceptación del dulce de umbu (Spondias tuberosa, Arr.Cam.) verde.

El dulce de umbu verde presenta elevada sinérisis debido a bajos pH y teor de pectina, lo que reduce la vida util de este producto. El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar el efecto de la adición de pectina y jarabe de glucosa sobre el color y la textura instrumental, así como verificar la preferencia sensorial entre las formulaciones. Los resultados mostraron que la adición conjunta de pectina y jarabe de glucosa proporciona dulces com textura más firme y de mayor gomosidad, a su vez mantuverieron mejor el color verde amarillento de la pulpa. Los resultados de preferencia mostraron que el produto tuvo un buen índice de aceptabilidad (70%) y no se observaron diferencias significativas entre los productos

Health-related quality of life and utilities in gastric premalignant conditions and malignant lesions: a multicentre study in a high prevalence country

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: A recent review of economic studies relating to gastric cancer revealed that authors use different tests to estimate utilities in patients with and without gastric cancer. Our aim was to determine the utilities of gastric premalignant conditions and adenocarcinoma with a single standardized health measure instrument. METHODS: Cross-sectional nationwide study of patients undergoing upper endoscopy (n=1,434) using the EQ-5D-5L quality of life (QoL) questionnaire. RESULTS: According to EQ-5D-5L, utilities in individuals without gastric lesions were 0.78 (95% confidence interval: 0.76-0.80), with gastric premalignant conditions 0.79 (0.77-0.81), previously treated for gastric cancer 0.77 (0.73-0.81) and with present cancer 0.68 (0.55-0.81). Self-reported QoL according to the visual analogue scale (VAS) for the same groups were 0.67 (0.66-0.69), 0.67 (0.66-0.69), 0.62 (0.59-0.65) and 0.62 (0.54-0.70) respectively. Utilities were consistently lower in women versus men (no lesions 0.71 vs. 0.78; premalignant conditions 0.70 vs. 0.82; treated for cancer 0.72 vs. 0.78 and present cancer 0.66 vs. 0.70). CONCLUSION: The health-related QoL utilities of patients with premalignant conditions are similar to those without gastric diseases whereas patients with present cancer show decreased utilities. Moreover, women had consistently lower utilities than men. These results confirm that the use of a single standardized instrument such as the EQ-5D-5L for all stages of the gastric carcinogenesis cascade is feasible and that it captures differences between conditions and gender dissimilarities, being relevant information for authors pretending to conduct further cost-utility analysis

An intriguing shift occurs in the novel protein phosphatase 1 binding partner, TCTEX1D4: evidence of positive selection in a pika model

T-complex testis expressed protein 1 domain containing 4 (TCTEX1D4) contains the canonical phosphoprotein phosphatase 1 (PPP1) binding motif, composed by the amino acid sequence RVSF. We identified and validated the binding of TCTEX1D4 to PPP1 and demonstrated that indeed this protein is a novel PPP1 interacting protein. Analyses of twenty-one mammalian species available in public databases and seven Lagomorpha sequences obtained in this work showed that the PPP1 binding motif 90RVSF93 is present in all of them and is flanked by a palindromic sequence, PLGS, except in three species of pikas (Ochotona princeps, O. dauurica and O. pusilla). Furthermore, for the Ochotona species an extra glycosylation site, motif 96NLS98, and the loss of the palindromic sequence were observed. Comparison with other lagomorphs suggests that this event happened before the Ochotona radiation. The dN/dS for the sequence region comprising the PPP1 binding motif and the flanking palindrome highly supports the hypothesis that for Ochotona species this region has been evolving under positive selection. In addition, mutational screening shows that the ability of pikas TCTEX1D4 to bind to PPP1 is maintained, although the PPP1 binding motif is disrupted, and the N- and C-terminal surrounding residues are also abrogated. These observations suggest pika as an ideal model to study novel PPP1 complexes regulatory mechanisms.publishe