GutSelf: Interindividual Variability in the Processing of Dietary Compounds by the Human Gastrointestinal Tract

Nutritional research is currently entering the field of personalized nutrition, to a large extent driven by major technological breakthroughs in analytical sciences and biocomputing. An efficient launching of the personalized approach depends on the ability of researchers to comprehensively monitor and characterize interindividual variability in the activity of the human gastrointestinal tract. This information is currently not available in such a form. This review therefore aims at identifying and discussing published data, providing evidence on interindividual variability in the processing of the major nutrients, i.e., protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, along the gastrointestinal tract, including oral processing, intestinal digestion, and absorption. Although interindividual variability is not a primary endpoint of most studies identified, a significant number of publications provides a wealth of information on this topic for each category of nutrients. This knowledge remains fragmented, however, and understanding the clinical relevance of most of the interindividual responses to food ingestion described in this review remains unclear. In that regard, this review has identified a gap and sets the base for future research addressing the issue of the interindividual variability in the response of the human organism to the ingestion of foods.     

The heat treatment and the gelation are strong determinants of the kinetics of milk proteins digestion and of the peripheral availability of amino acids

This study aimed to determine the kinetics of milk protein digestion and amino acid absorption after ingestion of four dairy matrices by six minipigs: unheated or heated skim milk and corresponding rennet gels. Digestive contents and plasma samples were collected over a 7 h-period after meal ingestion. Gelation of milk slowed down the outflow of the meal from the stomach and the subsequent absorption of amino acids, and decreased their bioavailability in peripheral blood. The gelled rennet matrices also led to low levels of milk proteins at the duodenum. Caseins and β-lactoglobulin, respectively, were sensitive and resistant to hydrolysis in the stomach with the unheated matrices, but showed similar digestion with the heated matrices, with a heat-induced susceptibility to hydrolysis for β-lactoglobulin. These results suggest a significant influence of the meal microstructure (resulting from heat treatment) and macrostructure (resulting from gelation process) on the different steps of milk proteins digestion.     

Study on the separation and characterization of cadmium incorporated into Zea Mays L.

Methods of separation and characterization of Cd in Zea Mays L. were studied by means of a radioisotopic technique based on injecting ¹⁰⁹Cd into the plant. Two classic methods for fractionating plant material were compared. Cd was found to occur in all different cell components and a significant activity of Cd in the intracellular liquid is bound to proteins as indicated by chromatography on a molecular sieve. Cd fixed to cell walls exchanges entirely after selective solvent extraction with H₂O, KNO₃, HAc, HCl. Our results indicate Cd‐binding sites in stems.     

Field monitoring and performance evaluation of a field-scale in-well aeration system at a gasoline-contaminated site

Several in-well aeration (IWA) technologies have been used since the early 1990s, but few field studies have been performed to evaluate the extent of water circulation around IWA systems. In this study, 27 discrete monitoring points (MPs) were installed at a gasoline-contaminated site to assess the efficacy of IWA. Pressure transducers and dissolved oxygen (DO) probes were sealed into the MPs, allowing them to be used to characterize subsurface changes in total head and DO with depth, distance and orientation from a central injection well. No change in DO or in hydrocarbon total mass or distribution occurred across the site during two trials (41 and 20 days) of the system. Water level fluctuations during the trials were similar in all MPs, and were due to seasonal water table changes and rainfall events. No circulation cell was established around the IWA well after 41 days of operation, and the impact of the well extended less than 90cm from it. Groundwater only circulated through the sand pack around the well. Little, if any, recharge occurred through the lower screen. Silt accumulated in the well, limiting its operation time, even with a fabric filter sock over the lower screen. Obviously, IWA was ineffective at this site, probably because the horizontal hydraulic conductivity (K(h)) of the soil opposite the lower screen was low (0.09cm per day) and because the distance between the two screens was short relative to the borehole radius. Long remediation times would likely make IWA unattractive at this or other sites where the K(h) of the soil is so low that the air injection rate would have to be low to prevent blowing the well dry.     

THE QSM ALGORITHM AND ITS APPLICATION TO SOFTWARE BEHAVIOR MODEL INDUCTION

This article presents a novel application of grammatical inference techniques to the synthesis of behavior models of software systems. This synthesis is used for the elicitation of software requirements. This problem is formulated as a deterministic finite-state automaton induction problem from positive and negative scenarios provided by an end user of the software-to-be. A query-driven state merging (QSM) algorithm is proposed. It extends the Regular Positive and Negative Inference (RPNI) and blue-fringe algorithms by allowing membership queries to be submitted to the end user. State merging operations can be further constrained by some prior domain knowledge formulated as fluents, goals, domain properties, and models of external software components. The incorporation of domain knowledge both reduces the number of queries and guarantees that the induced model is consistent with such knowledge. The proposed techniques are implemented in the ISIS tool and practical evaluations on standard requirements engineering test cases and synthetic data illustrate the interest of this approach.     

Co(II)(l-proline)2(H2O)2 solid complex: Characterization,magnetic properties,and DFT computations. Preliminary studies of its use as oxygen scavenger in packaging films

A solid Co^II complex with l-proline as ligand was synthesized and fully characterized using spectroscopic studies, magnetic data, and DFT calculations. Dioxygen scavenging properties were investigated by UV/Vis spectroscopy and oxymetry techniques. The Co-proline system presented very interesting properties in matter of oxygen absorption capacity both in solution and incorporated in a polymer matrix.     

Near-optimal parameterization of the intersection of quadrics: III. Parameterizing singular intersections

We conclude, in this third part, the presentation of an algorithm for computing an exact and proper parameterization of the intersection of two quadrics. The coordinate functions of the parameterizations in projective space are polynomial, whenever it is possible. They are also near-optimal in the sense that the number of distinct square roots appearing in the coefficients of these functions is minimal except in a small number of cases (characterized by the real type of the intersection) where there may be an extra square root.     

Mesoporous Cr2O3 as negative electrode in lithium batteries: TEM study of the texture effect on the polymeric layer formation

Mesoporous single crystal (PSC) oxides have been reported as presenting higher electrochemical performances than bulk materials in lithium ion batteries operating via intercalation processes. Here, we extend this study to the electrochemical behaviour of mesoporous Cr₂O₃ versus Li⁺/Li⁰. We confirm that the Cr₂O₃ reacts towards Li through a conversion reaction mechanism leading, upon discharge, to the formation of large metallic chromium nanoparticles (10 nm); the latter are embedded into a Li₂O matrix together with, in this specific case, a copious amount of polymeric materials coming from electrolyte degradation, surrounding the particles, and filling the pores. During the following charge, re-oxidation of the nanoparticles occurs with the formation of CrO_1−x, with the main difference, as opposed to bulk Cr₂O₃ electrodes, being the preservation of the polymeric layer at the end of the charge. We believe the material mesoporosity, via capillary effects, to be at the origin of such a difference. These electrolyte degradation products are shown to help in maintaining the material mesoporosity for a great number of cycles; and interestingly they are not detrimental to the cell performance in terms of capacity retention while presenting great advantages in terms of charge transfer by reducing diffusion lengths, namely for Li⁺ ions. The positive attributes of mesoporous material-based electrodes noticed for insertion reactions can then be extended to conversion reaction electrodes as long as we can master their synthesis while controlling their mesoporosity through either soft or hard templating techniques.     

évaluation de la validité théorique de l'Inventaire de l'organisation de la personnalité.

Studied the psychometric properties and the theoretical validity of the French translation of the Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO; O. F. Kernberg and J. F. Clarkin, 1995). The IPO was administered to 845 males and females from a Quebec university and from the general Quebec population. Separate exploratory and 1st-level confirmatory factor analyses were performed. The results indicate a good level of conformity between IPO items and the tridimensional primary constructs of O. F. Kernberg's theoretical model of personality organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)