Fibroblast-Like Synoviocytes Glucose Metabolism as a Therapeutic Target in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Metabolomic studies show that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with metabolic disruption that may be therapeutically targetable. Among them, glucose metabolism and glycolytic intermediaries seem to have an important role in fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) phenotype and might contribute to early stage disease pathogenesis. RA FLS are transformed from quiescent to aggressive and metabolically active cells and several works have shown that glucose metabolism is increased in activated FLS. Glycolytic inhibitors reduce not only FLS aggressive phenotype in vitro but also decrease bone and cartilage damage in several murine models of arthritis. Essential glycolytic enzymes, including hexokinase 2 (HK2) and 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase (PFKFB) enzymes, have important roles in FLS behavior. Of interest, HK2 is an inducible enzyme present only in the inflamed rheumatic tissues compared to osteoarthritis synovium. It is a contributor to glucose metabolism that could be selectively targeted without compromising systemic homeostasis as a novel approach for combination therapy independent of systemic immunosuppression. More information about metabolic targets that do not compromise global glucose metabolism in normal cells is needed

Associations between Social Support Dimensions and Resilience Factors and Pathways of Influence in Depression and Anxiety Rates in Young adults

Emerging adulthood is an important developmental period, associated to mental health risk. Resilience research points to both social and personal protective factors against development of psychopathology, but there is paucity with their comprehensive study in young adults. This study provides and initial integrative approach to model multiple dimensions of perceived social support (i.e., from family, friends, significant others) and personal factor of trait resilience (i.e., coping and persistence during stress, tolerance to negative affect, positive appraisals, trust) and their hypothesized contributions to reducing depression and anxiety rates. The study was conducted with a sample of 500 Spanish emerging adults (18 to 29 years old). Regression analyses and multiple mediation models were performed to test our hypotheses. Results showed that social support from family was the dimension with the highest strength relating individual differences in resilience. Furthermore, analyses supported a differential mediating role of specific resilience factors (coping and persistence during stress, tolerance to negative affect, positive appraisals, trust) in partially accounting for the association between higher social support from family and lower depression and anxiety levels in young adults. These results may inform new programs of mental health during emerging adulthood via the promotion of different sources of social support and their related resilience pathways contributing to low emotional symptomatology at this stage of development

Role of continuous phase and particle properties on the sensory perception of root vegetable pur\ue9es evaluated by an expert panel and na\uefve consumers

Textural properties play an essential role in the development of food products. The complexity of textural attributes has been traditionally overcome with extensive panelist training and the use of generic descriptive analysis. A better understanding on the use of rapid methods with na\uefve consumers to evaluate texture attributes in complex food products is still needed. The present study aimed to investigate the (i) role of different continuous phases and particle properties (i.e., size and hardness) on the mouthfeel perception of root vegetable pur\ue9es and (ii) the effect of panel expertise (sensory experts vs. na\uefve consumers) using Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA). The study included six pur\ue9es made of two different continuous phase (based on Jerusalem artichoke which is rich in inulin and, parsnip which is rich in starch) and three types of beetroot particles (raw, cooked, and comminuted beetroot). Results showed that both panels were able to discriminate and profile in a similar manner. However, sensory experts showed higher ability to discriminate between samples regarding the particle\u27s attributes whereas consumer\u27s sample discrimination was influenced by attributes such as “ease of swallow” and “creaminess.” For the expert panel, the presence of hard particles was a clear factor driving the differences between samples. Our results highlighted the contribution of both continuous and dispersed phases to design the texture profile of particulate semisolid plant-based foods

Modelling the continuous relaxation time spectrum of aquous xanthan solutions using two commercial softwares

The continuous relaxation time spectrum\ua0was modelled from the mechanical spectrum\ua0of a xanthan aqueous solution both using the\ua0TA Instruments TRIOS\uae software, and with\ua0the rheology software IRIS\uae1. Two types of\ua0calculation were applied to obtain the\ua0relaxation modes since the software bundles\ua0used in this study base the calculation upon\ua0two different algorithms, named\ua0"parsimonious" as it models continuous\ua0relaxation spectra using a minimum number\ua0of modes to obtain continuous relaxation\ua0times2, and a nonlinear regularization method that provides a larger spectrum with\ua0several modes3. The results were overall\ua0comparable but slightly different for long\ua0relaxation times

Report on the 4th Inter-laboratory Comparison Organised by the Community Reference Laboratory for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons - 15 + 1 EU Priority PAHs in Fish and Acetonitrile

This report represents the results of the 4th inter-laboratory comparison organised by the CRL PAHs on the determination of the 16 EU priority PAHs in fish and acetonitrile. The test materials used in this exercise were raw, frozen fish spiked with the 16 PAHs, a cooked fish spiked with an extract of contaminated smoke flavourings and a solution in acetonitrile of the 16 PAHs. For the frozen fish 94% of results were rated as satisfactory with regard to performance. For the smoked fish 89% of results were rated satisfactory.JRC.DDG.D.6-Food Safety and Qualit

Report on the 7th Inter-Laboratory Comparison Organised by the European Union Reference Laboratory for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons - 15 + 1 EU Priority PAHs in Spiked Olive Oil and Solvent Solution

The European Union Reference Laboratory for PAHs (EU-RL-PAHs), operated by the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), organises yearly one or more proficiency tests (PTs) within the scope of the Regulation (EC) 882/2004. The proficiency test here reported concerned the determination of the 15+1 EU priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in an olive oil test sample. Participants to these PT were National Reference Laboratories for PAHs (NRLs-PAHs) and EU official food control laboratories. The number of participants was 54. The PT was organised along the lines of the IUPAC Harmonised Protocol for the Proficiency Testing of Analytical Chemistry Laboratories. The test material used was olive oil spiked with a 15 + 1 EU priority PAHs and a solution of the target analytes in depending of the preference of the participants acetonitrile or toluene. The results from participants were rated with z-scores and zeta-scores. About 90 % of the reported results were attributed with z-scores with an absolute value of below two, which is the threshold for satisfactory performance.JRC.DG.D.6-Food Safety and Qualit

Impact of panelist\u27s age on the ease of swallow and sensory perception of texture-modified broccoli purees

Swallowing disorders affect approximately 8% of the global population. It is more prevalent in the elderly, leading to malnutrition and dehydration. Different strategies have been investigated to design new texture-modified food products that would reduce or mitigate the suffering from these swallowing disorders. Despite the recent interest and research in this area, there are, however, still a lot of unknowns regarding the specific sensory insights by this targeted group. The aim of this work was to understand if the ease of swallow and related sensory characteristics are perceived differently by “young” and “elderly” healthy individuals. Broccoli purees with different textural properties were created by changing the fluid component (water or xanthan solution) or processing conditions. Samples were evaluated by an elderly panel (n\ua0=\ua019, average age\ua0=\ua068.9 years) and a young panel (n\ua0=\ua016, average age\ua0=\ua025.4 years). Multivariate data analysis strategies were used to understand the intrapanel sample discrimination and to compare between panels. Results showed a similar overall discrimination between samples between young and elderly panels. The use of xanthan improved the ease of swallow in both age groups. In the absence of xanthan gum, processing conditions determined the ease of swallow, which was related to the particle size distribution. Nevertheless, small differences were found between panels. For example, the elderly panel was more sensitive when discriminating samples based on the ease of swallow (p\ua0=.005). Therefore, panelist age seems to be relevant when designing tailored foods enhancing the ease of swallow for the elderly populations. Practical Applications: The present study highlights new insights on the relevance of age and sensory capabilities when designing new texture-modified food products. It also provides new insights regarding the key sensory attributes to consider and how these are affected by the type of food processing

Shear and extensional rheological properties of whole grain rye and oat aqueous suspensions

Whole grain flours contain polysaccharides with techno-functional and nutritional properties which make them good candidates as natural texturisers in foods and beverages, thus reducing the use of highly refined ingredients. However, the use of plant components to develop complex fluids and soft materials, requires an enhanced understanding of the relationship between their physicochemical and rheological properties. Here, we systematically investigated the shear and extensional rheological properties of aqueous suspensions of whole grain rye and oat flours. Our results indicated that both types of suspensions (3.5 wt %) showed similar shear thinning behaviour (n = 0.4) however, oat suspensions presented higher viscosity and gel-like behaviour (G\u27>G\u27\u27) compared to rye. Additionally, the oat suspensions exhibited an apparent extensional viscosity, which was not present in rye suspensions. The rheological properties of the continuous and disperse phases, separated by centrifugation, were investigated before and after starch hydrolysis and protein removal. Our results indicate that the distinct behaviour of oat suspensions is mainly due to the molecular structure of starch in the liquid phase of i.e oat starch had a higher amylose/amylopectin ratio than rye. Whilst the presence of protein and cell wall polysaccharides in the solid phase contribute to the overall rheology of the suspensions. Furthermore, our results show that the systems do not follow the Cox-Merz rule, indicating that they behaved as suspensions of soft particles rather than macromolecules in solution. Aqueous suspensions of whole grain rye and oat flours showed rheological properties that could be of interest to design low-medium viscosity food and beverage products

El picking y su influencia en el cumplimiento de pedidos a los clientes internos y externos del almacén Cajamarquilla, de una empresa comercial, año 2021

El objetivo del presente estudio es analizar la influencia del Picking en el Cumplimiento de pedidos a clientes internos y externos del almacén Cajamarquilla de una empresa comercial ubicada en la ciudad de Lima, considerando la gran importancia que tiene para los servicios logísticos en general y empresas comerciales en particular; por lo cual será de gran utilidad para que la empresa obtenga información valiosa para diseñar las estrategias más adecuadas. La investigación que se ha desarrollado es de tipo correlacional y longitudinal, con diseño no experimental, realizado con una muestra de 37 personas y 285 ítems que maneja la empresa. Como técnica principal se utilizó la observación estructurada y como instrumento 8 fichas, los cuales registran los datos necesarios para el estudio. Y, para medir el grado de asociación entre las variables se utilizó el coeficiente de correlación de Pearson y determinación, ya que las variables son de razón. Se obtuvo como valor del coeficiente de correlación de Pearson y determinación 0.851 y 72.5% con una significancia de 0.000 contrastado mediante la prueba de hipótesis. Lo que lleva a concluir que si existe influencia significativa del Picking en el Cumplimiento de Pedidos

Assessing the volatile composition of seaweed (Laminaria digitata) suspensions as function of thermal and mechanical treatments

Macroalgae are a rich source of dietary fibre, protein, lipids and bioactives. However, more research is needed to understand how processing methods impact macroalgae techno-functional properties. In this work, aqueous suspensions of the fibre-rich brown algae Laminaria digitata were prepared by conventional food processing methods. The impact of sequence of processing steps (thermal and mechanical treatments), and heating time (15, 30 and 45 min), on volatile aroma composition were investigated. Changes in volatile composition were monitored with headspace GC-FID/MS analysis. Our results showed that both parameters impacted the volatiles profile of the suspensions. From an overall volatile perspective, short heating times (90 \ub0C for 15 min) led to similar profiles, independently of the sequence of thermal and mechanical treatments. However, longer heating times induced a larger release of several aldehydes, specific for each processing method. Our results bring new insights on the volatile composition of suspensions of Laminaria digitata, which are related to flavour properties, and aid design of food products containing seaweed