Flaxseed gum-biopolymers interactions driving rheological behaviour of oropharyngeal dysphagia-oriented products

Viscosity-modified diet through thickeners is used as a strategy to circumvent swallowing problems by oropharyngeal dysphagia patients. Most commercial products present xanthan and starch in their formulations, but flaxseed gum (FG) is a potential thickener for liquid food that provides additional health benefits. FG was mixed either with modified starch (MS) and/or xanthan gum (XG), varying biopolymersâ concentration according to a central composite rotational design in which rheological and colour properties in water were the evaluated responses. All formulations showed a shear time-independent and shear-thinning behaviour, mainly influenced by XG and MS concentrations. In oscillatory measurements, the formulations presented a prevailing elastic character attributed to MS and mainly to XG, which despite the lower concentration in which it was incorporated, exerted a similar influence on this rheological property. However, the increase of FG concentration was the most significant factor influencing viscosity, but also favoured an increase of both viscoelastic moduli mainly G'. Analysis of the microstructure disclosed different network structures as a result of biopolymers interactions, which was related to rheological behaviour giving insights to design new thickeners for dysphagia management. In addition, the amount of glucose released after in vitro digestion was evaluated and compared to a commercial MS-based thickener. Interestingly, the commercial formulation showed a glucose release significantly higher than the proposed FG/MS/XG-based formulations. These results open the opportunity to tailor the rheological characteristics of food systems by adding and combining natural ingredients, improving technological and nutritional properties.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) (Finance code 001); São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP (Process numbers 2016/05448–8; 2011/51707–1; EMU 2009/54137–1; 2007/58017–5; 2006/03263–9; 2004/08517–3) and by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq - Process 307168/2016–6). Okuro and Santos thanks São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (Grant numbers 2018/20308–3 and 2017/18109–0)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Regional lung recruitability during pneumoperitoneum depends on chest wall elastance - A mechanical and computed tomography analysis in rats

Laparoscopic surgery has been increasingly used as an alternative to open surgery for its well-known post-operative benefits. However, it is associated to intra-operative respiratory impairment (Valenza et al., 2010). Mechanical ventilation management is a challenge for the anesthetist in this scenario of intra-abdominal hypertension, because it is not clear how the modification of the ventilation parameters affects the different components of the respiratory system. The respiratory system is composed of two elastic elements in series: the lung and the chest wall. The latter, in turn, is made up of two parallel components: the rib cage and the diaphragm, which is also part of the abdominal wall. Disregarding airflow resistances, the positive pressure applied to the respiratory system during mechanical ventilation distends all these elements. How the applied pressure is distributed within the respiratory system depends on the compliance of each single element (Cortes-Puentes et al., 2015) and its distribution within the lungs depends on the compliance of the lung zones, i.e., regional compliance (Mutoh et al., 1991; Lowhagen et al., 2010)

Association of severe hypertension with pneumonia in elderly patients with acute ischemic stroke

Pneumonia is one of the most frequent complications in elderly patients with acute ischemic stroke. Although severe hypertension is often observed in the early phase of acute stroke, there are few studies of acute hypertension as a factor influencing the incidence of stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) in elderly subjects with acute ischemic stroke. To assess the association of acute phase blood-pressure elevation with the incidence of SAP, we compared 10 elderly patients with acute ischemic stroke complicated with severe hypertension (⩾200/120 mm Hg) with 43 patients with moderate hypertension (160–199/100–119 mm Hg), as well as with 65 control normotensive or mildly hypertensive (<160/100 mm Hg) controls on admission. Data were collected on known risk factors, type of ischemic stroke and underlying chronic conditions. The significance of differences in risk factors was analyzed using univariate and multivariate comparisons of 38 SAP cases and others, 8 SAP death cases and others, and 28 patients with poor outcome associated with in-hospital death or artificial feeding at discharge and others. After adjustment for potential confounding factors, the relative risk estimates for SAP, SAP death and poor outcome were 2.83 (95% confidence interval 1.14–7.05), 5.20 (1.01–26.8) and 6.84 (1.32–35.4), respectively, for severe hypertension relative to normotensive or mildly hypertensive controls. We conclude that severe hypertension on admission is an independent predictive factor for SAP in elderly patients with acute ischemic stroke

Análise da postura craniocervical de crianças respiradoras bucais após tratamento postural em bola suíça

The study aimed to evaluate the craniocervical posture of mouth breathing children after postural treatment on swiss ball. Twelve mouth breathing children were undergone to a postural reeducation protocol through stretching and strengthening exercises on swiss ball, diaphragmatic stimulation and stretching of the inspiratory accessory muscles. Craniocervical posture was evaluated through biophotogrammetry analysis. Forward head position was measured through an angle formed by the points in the tragus and in the spinous process of the seventh cervical vertebra with a horizontal line. Cervical column curvature was taken by the horizontal distance from a vertical line passing through the thoracic kyphosis apex to the point of the greatest cervical curvature concavity. Pictures were taken before and after ten treatment sessions. The normality of the variables was tested by Shapiro-Wilk test and the Student's t -test was used to determine differences in variables between assessments. It was considered a significance level of 5% (pO estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a postura craniocervical de crianças respiradoras bucais após tratamento postural em bola suíça. Doze crianças respiradoras bucais foram submetidas a um protocolo de reeducação postural constituído por exercícios de alongamento e fortalecimento muscular sobre a bola suíça, estimulação diafragmática e alongamento dos músculos acessórios da inspiração. A postura craniocervical foi avaliada através da análise biofotogramétrica. A posição da anteriorização da cabeça foi aferida por meio do ângulo formado pelos pontos localizados no tragus direito e no processo espinhoso da sétima vértebra cervical com a linha horizontal. A curvatura cervical foi avaliada pela distância horizontal de uma linha vertical tangenciando o ápice da cifose torácica e o ponto de maior concavidade da curvatura cervical. As fotografias foram obtidas antes e após dez atendimentos. A normalidade das variáveis foi verificada a partir do teste Shapiro-Wilk. Para as comparações entre as médias foi utilizado o teste t de Student para amostras dependentes admitindo-se nível de significância de 5% (

Markets Access, Approaches and Opportunities for Quality Protein Maize Products

Lack of access to nutritious food is an underlying and major cause of child mortality in Africa. Improving the nutritional quality of food crops, through biofortification, would be a useful complementary strategy to other agricultural and public health interventions. Quality Protein Maize (QPM) varieties have been developed through biofortification. Consumption of these varieties leads to greater protein utilisation in adults and children. In Kenya three QPM varieties have been released. In Central Kenya, particularly Kirinyaga district, farmers have come together through Innovation Platform for Technology Adoption ( IPTA) with the aim of production, value addition and marketing of QPM based products. These groups require information on the potential markets for the new QPM based products. The study was therefore conceived with the aim of collecting and providing information about potential market that can be used by farmers in the IPTAs in deciding how QPM based products should be designed, delivered, priced, and marketed. The study used the Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA) approach. Market outlets in Kirinyaga, Embu and Nairobi were first identified through the guidance of staff of the ministries of agriculture, trade, education, health and local authority. The market outlets were classified as retail, wholesale, schools, hospitals, restaurants/hotels and food stores/processors. 60 respondents in the different outlets were interviewed using separate sets of pretested questionnaires in June-July 2009. 17 questionnaires were not fully completed and were not included in the analysis. Data collected was subjected to analysis using SPSS. Although the awareness level about QPM was low (35 % (n=43), there was desire to buy QPM products. 95 % (n=43) expressed the desire to buy products but required samples of the products before making final decision. The potential demand varied from outlet to outlet but on average there was demand of about 0.8 tons per month. Promotional campaigns need to be intensified to create more awareness and increase demand. Farmers groups will also require to meet quality standards as they produce and market QPM products in the various outlets

Comparison of vegetation changes along grazing gradients with different numbers of livestock

The objective of this study was to clarify whether the changes in percent cover of plant functional types (i.e., life forms and growth forms) along a grazing gradient reflect the livestock number, which would reinforce the reliability of using a grazing gradient design and improve the management of rangeland. We selected two livestock camps that for many years have had different numbers of livestock, with approximately six times more sheep-equivalents at site 1 than at site 2. Vegetation was sampled in 10 quadrats on five transects along the grazing gradient at each site. In each quadrat, we recorded percent cover of each plant species. Our findings suggested that vegetation changes along the grazing gradient under different livestock numbers were characterized by changes in the cover of life forms: perennial species were replaced by annual species near the camps (10–50 m). However, we did not find growth form change that reflected the difference in the number of livestock

Nitrobenzoxadiazole-Appended Cell Membrane Modifiers for Efficient Optoporation with Noncoherent Light

(NBD)-N-FL-BAM(PEG2k), bearing a nitrobenzoxadiazole (NBD) unit and an oleyl terminus conjugated via a poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) spacer (M-n = 2,000), was designed to fluorescently label cell membranes by docking its hydrophobic oleyl terminus. During laser scanning microscopy in a minimal essential medium (MEM), human hepatocellular carcinoma Hep3B cells labeled with (NBD)-N-FL-BAM(PEG2k) appeared to undergo optoporation at their plasma membrane. We confirmed this unprecedented possibility by a series of cellular uptake experiments using negatively charged and therefore membrane-impermeable quantum dots (QDs; D-h = 4.7 nm). Detailed studies indicated that the photoexcited NBD unit can generate singlet oxygen (O-1(2)), which oxidizes the constituent phospholipids to transiently deteriorate the cell membrane. Reference membrane modifiers (NBD)-N-FL-Oleyl and (NBD)-N-FL-BAM(PEG8k) having shorter or longer hydrophilic spacers between the NBD and oleyl units showed a little or substantially no optoporation. For understanding these results, one must consider the following contradictory factors: (1) The photosensitized O-1(2) generation efficiently occurs only when the NBD unit is in aqueous media, and (2) the lifetime of O-1(2) in aqueous media is very short (3.0-3.5 mu s). As supported experimentally and computationally, the hydrophilic spacer length of (NBD)-N-FL-BAM(PEG2k) is optimal for compromising these factors. Further to note, the optoporation using (NBD)-N-FL-BAM(PEG2k) is not accompanied by cytotoxicity