Effect of heating and acidic pH on characteristics of wheat gluten suspension

The effects of different pH treatments with and without heating on the characteristics of wheat gluten suspension was investigated. At pH 1, maximum changes in colour were observed with a concurrent 65% decrease in protein free-thiol content compared to the control gluten. The SDS-Extractability of protein (SDS-EP) chromatogram eluted at lower retention time and the presence of bands at the top lane even during reducing conditions in SDS-PAGE gel suggested complex formation involving bonds other than disulphides. An increase in the free-amino group content and the presence of an additional peak at a higher retention time in the SDS-EP chromatogram was suggestive of hydrolysis. At pH 2 and 3, similar decreases in SDS-EPs and free-thiol content indicated formation of complexes. When heated, the free-thiol content of the dispersions increased compared to the non-heated dispersions indicating disruption of disulphide bonds with changes in gluten structure and size distribution.     

Antimicrobial Activity of Natural Agents against Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The antimicrobial (AM) activity of starch‐based films coated with linalool, carvacrol or thymol against Saccharomyces cerevisiae in vitro and/or inoculated on the surface of Cheddar cheese was investigated. In solid medium using the agar diffusion method and in experiments involving the inoculation of the microorganism on the surface of Cheddar cheese, all the films containing these AM agents in coatings demonstrated an inhibitory effect against S. cerevisiae. The results suggest that the overall inhibitory effect of linalool, carvacrol or thymol increased significantly (p ≤ 0.05) with the concentration of each of the AM agents in the film coating and that the response is linear in the concentration range of 1 to 5% (w/w) of the AM agent. Thymol had the highest AM efficacy followed by carvacrol, whereas linalool had the lowest efficacy amongst the three systems. The zones of inhibition in the agar diffusion test method at 25°C for S. cerevisiae were found to be 7.6, 7.1 and 6.1 mm for thymol, carvacrol and linalool at 1% (w/w) loading and 13.2, 12.2 and 11.2 mm at 5% (w/w) loading of the AM agents, respectively. The death rates of S. cerevisiae on Cheddar cheese wrapped in films coated with thymol, carvacrol and linalool and stored for up to 28 days at 15°C were found to be 0.044, 0.043 and 0.038 per day at 1% (w/w) loading and 0.077, 0.073 and 0.063 per day at 5% (w/w) loading of the AM agents, respectively. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis and characterization of superhydrophobic wood surfaces

Superhydrophobic films were developed on wood substrates with a wet chemical approach. Growth of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods was found differentially in the cross‐sectional walls and inner lumenal surfaces. The surface roughness of the prepared films on the inner lumenal surface conformed to the Cassie–Baxter wetting model, whereas the roughness across the microsurface of the cell wall was in conformity with the hydrophobic porous wetting model. The space between the ZnO nanorods and the microstructure of the wood surface constituted the nanoscale and microscale roughness of the ZnO nanofilm, respectively. The water contact angle of the prepared wood surfaces was up to 153.5°. In the prepared films, monolayers of stearic acid molecules were self‐assembled on the ZnO nanorods, which in turn, were attached to the wood surface via dimeric bonds. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Psychological disorder and mortality in French older adults: do social relations modify the association?

The possible modifying effect of social relations on the association between depression and mortality was examined in a community-based cohort study. A total of 3,777 randomly selected persons 65 years of age and older in southwest France were followed over a 5-year period from 1988 in the Personnes Agees Quid (PAQUID). At study entry, the prevalence of elevated depressive symptomatology was 12.9% for men and 14.7% for women, and the reported relative isolation was 14.1% for men and 26.0% for women. During a total of 16,984 person-years of follow-up, 849 deaths occurred. Among participants with high levels of depressive symptomatology, the age-adjusted mortality rate ratio was 2.10 (95% confidence interval 1.7-2.7) in men and 1.76 (95% confidence interval 1.4-2.3) in women. When compared with individuals with the most connections, men and women with few social network connections were also at increased risk of mortality: age-adjusted rate ratio = 2.69 (95% confidence interval 1.9-3.8) for men and 1.56 (95% confidence interval 1.0-2.4) for women. Satisfaction with social support had a small but nonsignificant effect on mortality risk. For women, the excess risks due to depressive symptoms and few network connections are observed only in the 65- to 74-year age group, after adjusting for health and health behaviors. Social relations did not significantly modify the depression-mortality associations for either men or women, although the depression-mortality effect was reduced by 12.8% in men. The latter findings do not appear to be compatible with the buffering hypothesis, whereby we would expect social relations to decrease the depression-mortality association. Nonetheless, there are independent effects from these two factors, and older men who are depressed and not socially connected are at increased risk of dying earlier.     

Antiepileptic drug therapy and sexual function in men with epilepsy

PURPOSE: To study the effects of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) on sex hormone levels and sexual activity in a group of men attending a hospital-based epilepsy clinic. METHODS: One hundred eighteen men being treated with AED therapy, 32 with epilepsy but not receiving AEDs, and 34 controls were recruited. All subjects were aged 18-65 years. Blood (20 ml) was removed for hormone assays, after which each subject completed a validated questionnaire [Sexuality Experience Scores (Frenken and Vennix, 1981)] aimed at exploring the individuals' sexual activity and attitudes to sexual morality. RESULTS: Men taking carbamazepine (CBZ) only had significantly higher mean sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) levels than the control group. The CBZ group also had a significantly lower mean DHEAS concentration than the control, untreated, and sodium valproate (VPA) monotherapy groups. The phenytoin monotherapy group (PHT) had a significantly higher mean SHBG than both the control and untreated groups, and had a significantly higher mean total testosterone (TT) value than the control untreated, CBZ, and VPA groups, and a significantly lower mean DHEAS than the controls, untreated, and VPA groups. Men receiving more than one AED had significantly higher mean SHBG concentrations compared with control, untreated, and VPA groups. In addition, the polytherapy group's mean TT was significantly higher than the control and VPA groups, although its mean DHEAS concentration was lower than the control, untreated, and VPA groups. There were no significant differences between the study groups in mean FT, Budrostenedione (AND), or estradiol levels. But the CBZ, PHT, and polytherapy groups had significantly lower mean free and rogen index (FAI) than the controls. The CBZ group had a lower mean FAI than the VPA group. The polytherapy group had a lower FAI than the untreated group. Sexuality Experience Scores (SES) showed that those men receiving AEDs embraced a stricter sexual morality than the controls and untreated, and expressed greater satisfaction with their marriages than the control and untreated groups. CONCLUSIONS: Seizure type did not affect SES scores. Multiple regression showed men who had received further education were less accepting of strict sexual morality.     

Molecular and phenotypic characterization of genotypic Candida albicans subgroups and comparison with Candida dubliniensis and Candida stellatoidea

There have been increased reports of the isolation of unusual genotypic groups of Candida albicans (groups C and D) based on a well-defined genotypic method; this method uses cellular DNA digested with the EcoRI enzyme and the restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) generated by agarose gel electrophoresis. The aim of the present study was to use additional molecular tools to characterize these unusual strains and to compare them with authentic strains of C. dubliniensis, a recently delineated species, and type I C. stellatoidea. The RFLPs of PCR products generated from the intergenic transcribed spacer (ITS) region did not differentiate among C. albicans genotypes A, B, and C and type I C. stellatoidea. However, this method did differentiate the C. albicans genotype D strains, which were identical to C. dubliniensis. The RFLPs generated by HaeIII digestion of the PCR products of the V3 region of the 25S rRNA gene (rDNA) could differentiate the same groups as RFLP analysis of the PCR amplicon of the ITS region. C. albicans genotype B isolates have been shown to have a transposable intron in the 25S rDNA, whereas genotype A isolates do not; C. dubliniensis strains also have an intron that is larger than that in genotype B C. albicans strains but that is in the same location. PCR designed to span this region resulted in a single product for C. albicans genotype A (450 bp), B (840 bp), type 1 C. stellatoidea (840 bp), and C. dubliniensis (1,080 bp), whereas the C. albicans genotype C isolates had two major products (450 and 840 bp). All C. albicans genotype D isolates gave a PCR product identical to that given by C. dubliniensis. These results indicate that those strains previously designated C. albicans genotype D are in fact C. dubliniensis, that no differences were found between type 1 C. stellatoidea and C. albicans genotype B strains, and that the C. albicans genotype C strains appear to have the transposable intron incompletely inserted throughout the ribosomal repeats in their genomes. The results of the antifungal susceptibility testing of 105 of these strains showed that, for fluconazole, strains of C. dubliniensis were significantly more susceptible than strains of each of the C. albicans genotypes (genotypes A, B, and C). The flucytosine susceptibility results indicated that strains of C. albicans genotype A were significantly less susceptible than either C. albicans genotype B or C. albicans genotype C strains. These results indicate that there is a correlation between the Candida groups and antifungal susceptibility.