Chemical and Biological Characterization from Condalia microphylla Fruits, a Native Species of Patagonia Argentina

Condalia microphylla Cav. (Rhamnaceae), popularly known as “piquillin”, is widely distributed in Patagonia. The drupes are consumed as fresh fruits by Argentine communities. The aim of this work was to quantify the nutritional value of C. microphylla fruit and the phenolic compounds present and to determine the functional antioxidant properties in vitro and in vivo. The nutritional value was determined according to the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) methodology, and phenolic compounds were quantified by diode-array detection (HPLC-DAD). Antioxidant activity in vitro and in vivo was analyzed through the use of the radical species 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and zebrafish model, respectively. Quercetin-3-O-rutinoside (rutin) was the single principal phenolic compound. The extracts contained in vitro antioxidant activities and total phenolic contents (TPCs) between 1,143 ± 112 µg and 4,633 ± 174 µg gallic-acid equivalents (GAEs) per 100 g dry weight (DW), though no relationship was found between the latter parameter and the antioxidant activity of the extracts. When zebrafish larvae were exposed to oxidative stress (2.4% v/v H2O2), a concentration as low as 1.44 µg of GAEs/mL of piquillin-derived polyphenols inhibited lipid oxidation by up to 40%. Thus, in view of these advantageous functional food properties and the opportunity to exploit this Patagonian natural resource, piquillin consumption should be promoted worldwide.Fil: Boeri, Patricia. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Atlántica; ArgentinaFil: Piñuel, Maria Lucrecia. Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Rio Negro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Rio Negro; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Atlántica; ArgentinaFil: Sharry, Sandra Elizabeth. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Atlántica; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Cs.agrarias y Forestales. Departamento de Tecnología Agropecuaria y Forestal. Centro Exptal.de Propagación Vegetativa; ArgentinaFil: Tombari, Andrea Diana. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Atlántica; ArgentinaFil: Barrio, Daniel Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Atlántica; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Rio Negro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Rio Negro; Argentin

A Blueprint for the Hard Problem of Consciousness

A Blueprint for the Hard Problem of Consciousness addresses the fundamental mechanism that allows physical events to transcend into subjective experiences, termed the Hard Problem of Consciousness. Consciousness is made available as the abstract product of self-referent realization of information by strange loops through the levels of processing of the brain. Readers are introduced to the concept of the Hard Problem of Consciousness and related concepts followed by a critical discourse of different theories of consciousness. Next, the author identifies the fundamental flaw of the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and proposes an alternative that avoids the cryptic intelligent design and panpsychism of the IIT. This author also demonstrates how something can be created out of nothing without resorting to quantum theory, while pointing out neurobiological alternatives to the bottom-up approach of quantum theories of consciousness. The book then delves into the philosophy of qualia in different physiological knowledge networks (spatial, temporal and olfactory, cortical signals, for example) to explain an action-based model consistent with the generational principles of Predictive Coding, which maps prediction and predictive-error signals for perceptual representations supporting integrated goal-directed behaviors. Conscious experiences are considered the outcome of abstractions realized out of map overlays and provided by sustained oscillatory activity. The key feature of this blueprint is that it offers a perspective of the Hard Problem of Consciousness from the point of view of the subject; the experience of ‘being the subject’ is predicted to be the realization of inference inversely mapped out of hidden causes of global integrated actions. The author explains the consistencies of his blueprint with ideas of the Global Neuronal Workspace and the Adaptive Resonance Theory of consciousness as well as with the empirical evidence supporting the Integrated Information Theory. A Blueprint for the Hard Problem of Consciousness offers a unique perspective to readers interested in the scientific philosophy and cognitive neuroscience theory in relation to models of the theory of consciousness

On one-point functions for sinh-Gordon model at finite temperature

Using fermionic basis we conjecture the exact formulae for the expectation values of local fields in sinh-Gordon model. The conjecture is checked against previously known results.Comment: 21 pages, some explanation on relation to the lattice model is adde

Reflection relations and fermionic basis

There are two approaches to computing the one-point functions for sine-Gordon model in infinite volume. One is a bootstrap type procedure based on the reflection relations. Another uses the fermionic basis which was originally found for the lattice six-vertex model. In this paper we show that the two approaches are deeply interrelated.Comment: 17 pages; several typos are correcte

[Review of] Cary D. Wintz. Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance

In 1925 Professor Alain Locke argued in The New Negro that the Negro was moving forward under the control largely of his own objectives ... which were none other than the ideals of American institutions and democracy. This allowed for blacks everywhere to be called New Negroes but nowhere were there as many New Negroes as in Harlem. The activities of these people in politics, arts, literature, music and the like between World War I and the Depression Era came to be called the Harlem Renaissance

Asymmetric shocks among U.S. states

This paper applies a factor model to the study of risk sharing among U.S. states. The factor model makes it possible to disentangle movements in output and consumption due to national, regional, or state-specific business cycles from those due to measurement error. The results of the paper suggest that some findings of the previous literature which indicate a substantial amount of interstate risk sharing may be due to the presence of measurement error in output. When measurement error is properly taken into account, the evidence points towards a lack of interstate smoothing.Consumption (Economics) ; Business cycles