Deposition of Carotenoids in Eggs from Hens Fed Diets Containing Saponified and Unsaponified Oleoresin Paprika

Deposition of carotenoids in saponified paprika (SP) and unsaponified oleoresin paprika (OP) in egg yolks as well as the dietary level for desired pigmentation were evaluated. Sixty-four hens on a carotenoid-depletion diet were divided into two replicated groups of each of eight dietary treatments containing from 0 to 16 mg paprika carotenoids per kg feed. Colour and the carotenoid content of egg yolk increased linearly ( P< 0·01) with the amounts of paprika carotenoids in the diets. The colours of egg yolks from hens fed similar concentra-tions of OP or SP were not significantly different ( P< 0·01). A low dose (4 mg kg⁻¹) of OP or SP provided yolk colour equivalent to the colour of eggs in supermarkets. High-performance liquid chromatographic analyses showed that carotenoids deposited in the yolk are in the free alcohol form, regardless of the form of carotenoids in the diet. Capsanthin, the predominant carotenoid in paprika, was deposited in egg yolk less efficiently than zeaxanthin and lutein.     

Impact of Spatially Heterogeneous Trop-2 Expression on Prognosis in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Oral cancer often presents with aggressive behavior and a high risk of recurrence and metastasis. For oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which is the most frequent histological subtype, therapy strategies include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and EGFR inhibitors. Recently, a Trop-2 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) has been approved in the United States of America for the treatment of advanced triple-negative breast cancer. However, this ADC has also been tested in other solid tumors including head & neck squamous cell carcinoma. The prognostic impact of Trop-2 has already been reported for several cancers. We studied the prognostic influence of Trop-2 protein expression on OSCC patients’ survival. The cohort comprised n = 229 OSCC patients with available archived tumor tissue and corresponding non-neoplastic oral mucosa tissue. Using immunohistochemistry, we investigated Trop-2 expression in both the central and peripheral regions of each tumor and in corresponding non-neoplastic oral mucosa. In patients suffering from OSCC with combined high central and low peripheral Trop-2 expression, five-year overall survival (OS) was 41.2%, whereas 55.6% of OSCC patients who presented lower central and/or higher peripheral tumoral Trop-2 expression were alive after five years (p = 0.075). In multivariate Cox regression, the expression pattern of high central tumoral and lower peripheral Trop-2 expression was significantly correlated with impaired OS (HR = 1.802, 95%-CI: 1.134–2.864; p = 0.013) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR = 1.633, 95%-CI: 1.042–2.560; p = 0.033), respectively, when adjusting for co-variables. Hence, Trop-2 may serve as an independent prognostic biomarker in OSCC. In subsequent studies, the pathophysiological meaning of downregulated Trop-2 expression in the OSCC periphery has to be analyzed.     

Analysis of the carbon anode in carbon conversion cells

We examine further the electrochemical oxidation of carbon in molten carbonate, based on analysis of published research. Ascending and descending branches of voltage hysteresis found in current sweeps of atomically-ordered graphite and of disordered carbon (coal char) are separated by about 0.20–0.25 V and by 0.10–0.15 V for ordered and disordered forms, respectively, over a wide band of current density, 0.03–0.10 A/cm². The higher voltage of the descending branch is in rough agreement with prediction of the Y. Li model for the carbon/carbonate electrode in the same current range, for ordered graphite (L_a = 70–100 nm) and for disordered structures (L_a = 3–5 nm), respectively. We suggest that the amplitude of the hysteresis represents the difference between the overvoltage requirements for 2- and 4 electron net transfer processes, respectively. The 2 e− reaction (C + CO₃²⁻ = CO + CO₂ + 2e⁻) dominates the low current segment (LCS) of our previous analysis, and the more hindered 4e− transfer reaction (C + 2CO₃²⁻ = 3CO₂ + 4e⁻) dominates the high current segment (HCS). The voltage increase separating LCS from HCS is effected by accumulation of CO₂ within small, melt-filled pores to form highly supersaturated solutions of CO₂, which enhance anode voltage by a concentration overpotential of 0.10–0.25 V. Overpotential increases with reaction extent until (1) overall polarization inhibits the interior reaction and shifts CO₂ production to the more accessible exterior surface, or, (2) at a critical concentration (dependent on surface tension and pore diameter) bubbles nucleate and block current flow in the pores. Further support for this picture comes from the often-reported deviation of the gas composition from the CO/CO₂ ratio of the Boudouard equilibrium at atmospheric pressure, as open circuit conditions are approached in an electrochemical cell. Our interpretation accounts for the mole fraction of CO₂ at open circuit being greater than predicted from the Boudouard equilibrium.     

Discriminative Response to Animal, But Not Plant, Chemicals by an Insectivorous, Actively Foraging Lizard, Scincella lateralis, and Differential Response to Surface and Internal Prey Cues

Responses by the insectivorous, actively foraging scincid lizard, Scincella lateralis, to chemical cues from a plant food favored by herbivorous lizards, its ability to discriminate prey chemicals from control substances, and its relative response to internal and surface prey chemicals were studied experimentally. We presented chemical cues to the lizards on cotton swabs and recorded their tongue-flicks and biting attacks on the swabs. The lizards exhibited significantly greater tongue-flick rates and biting frequencies to prey surface cues than to plant surface chemicals from romaine lettuce, diluted cologne (pungency control), and deionized water. Responses to the plant stimuli did not differ from those to the two control stimuli, in contrast with strong responses to the same plant cues by herbivores. This finding provides the first information suggesting that chemosensory response may be adapted to diet, with responsiveness to plant stimuli evolving de novo in herbivores. Biting and tongue-flicking responses were significantly greater to cricket chemicals than to all other stimuli, among which there were no differences. Thus, the lizards are capable of prey chemical discrimination, which may be ubiquitous among actively foraging lizards. The lizards exhibited more frequent biting and higher tongue-flick rates to internal than surface prey chemicals. Although different methods of stimulus preparation are appropriate for different purposes, we conclude that prey surface chemicals available to foraging lizards are most desirable for studies bearing on location and identification of prey.     

Polymer additive migration to foods-a direct comparison of experimental data and values calculated from migration models for polypropylene

To reduce the amount of compliance testing for food contact polymers the use of migration modelling is under discussion and being evaluated by an EU Commission funded project (Evaluation of Migration Models No. SMT4-CT98-7513). The work reported in this paper was exclusively funded by industry to provide data for the independent evaluation of a diffusion based model using eight different samples of polypropylene (PP) covering the range of polymers specification and five commonly used plastics additives. One hundred and fifty experimental migration data have been obtained in triplicate and used to evaluate a Fickian-based migration model in the prediction of specific migration of five additives into olive oil. All tests were conducted using olive oil, representing the most severe case for fatty foods, with test conditions of 2h at 121 ° C, 2h at 70 ° C and 10 days at 40 ° C, representing short term exposures at high temperatures and room temperature storage. Predicted migration values were calculated using the Piringer 'Migratest Lite' model by entering the measured initial concentration of additive in the polymers(C_p,0) in to the equations together with known variables such as additive molecular weight, temperature and exposure time. Where necessary the data generated in this study have been used to update the model. The results indicate the Piringer migration model, using the 'exact' calculations of the Migratest Lite program, predicted migration values into olive oil close to, or in excess of, the experimental results for > 97% of the migration values generated in this study. For all measurements, the predicted migration from the Migratest Lite program was greater than 70% of the observed value. This study has identified the possibility that random co-polymers of propylene and ethylene give higher migration than other grades of polypropylenes and could be treated as a separate case. However, further work on more samples of random co-polymers is required to confirm this finding.     

从霍尼韦尔国内第一订单看工业清洗剂发展新趋势

为了保护自然环境和地下水,处于对人类生存和发展的需要,原有的具有破坏臭氧层物质(ODS)的清洗剂将会退出市场,行业召唤创新的清洗剂技术。本文从霍尼韦尔公司的内部采购案例开始,分析了行业的需求与挑战,通过对比霍尼韦尔氟化学品部的Solstice高性能溶剂(SolsticePF)与现有几种主要清洗剂的性能优劣,显示了Solstice高性能溶剂在环保、安全和清洁等方面的优异性能,从而说明创新的环保型绿色无污染的工业清洗剂将成为未来中国清洗剂工业市场发展的主流。     

Boiling of binary mixtures—study of individual bubbles

Experiments are reported in which individual bubbles of vapour are grown at a plane wall in initially stagnant isothermal liquid. Such tests had already been done and satisfactorily analysed and understood for pure liquids, but here the liquids are binary mixtures of hexane and octane of varying composition.The chief result is that ciné observations of the general behaviour of such bubbles (rate of growth, change of shape, time and size at departure) presents no new problems; it is identical to behaviour in pure liquids, provided one change of parameter is made. That change is to substitute the correct temperature for the evaporating binary interface in place of the saturation temperature for the pure liquid. That interface temperature was determined by reference to recent analytic solutions for evaporation of semi-infinite binary liquid by diffusion of heat and mass.Detailed rapid thermometric observations were also made, of the temperatures at the wall below the bubble and inside the bubble. They showed some aspects which differ markedly from pure liquids (though not such as to affect general behaviour). Those aspects were explained by detailed analysis of diffusion of heat and mass in a thin layer of liquid (microlayer) left beneath the growing bubble.Implications for boiling heat transfer are also considered and it is shown that this analysis of individual bubbles does not, of itself, explain the known reduction in heat transfer coefficient between pure and binary liquids. Several existing methods of explaining that reduction are examined and shown to have a common basis close to that determined by our analysis of single bubbles. But on extending from that basis in a simple way, to predict boiling heat transfer rates, they fail, except where an additional pressure-dependent multiplier is introduced, on purely empirical grounds.     

Inhibition of cholesterol synthesis by cyclopropylamine derivatives of squalene in human hepatoblastoma cells in culture

Two squalene derivatives, trisnorsqualene cyclopropylamine and trisnorsqualeneN-methylcyclopropylamine, were synthesized and tested for inhibition of lanosterol and squalene epoxide formation from squalene in rat hepatic microsomes, and for the inhibition of cholesterol syntheses in human cultured hepatoblastoma (HepG2) cells. Trisnorsqualene cyclopropylamine inhibited [³H]-squalene conversion to [³H]squalene epoxide in microsomes (IC₅₀=5.0 μM), indicating that this derivative inhibited squalene mono-oxygenase. Trisnorsqualenen-methylcyclopropylamine inhibited [³H]squalene conversion to [³H]lanosterol (IC₅₀=12.0 μM) and caused [³H]-squalene epoxide to accumulate in microsomes, indicating that this derivative inhibited 2,3-oxidosqualene cyclase. Cholesterol biosynthesis from [¹⁴C]acetate in HepG2 cells was inhibited by both derivatives (IC₅₀=1.0 μM for trisnorsqualene cyclopropylamine; IC₅₀=0.5 μM for trisnorsqualeneN-methylcyclopropylamine). Cells incubated with trisnorsqualene cyclopropylamine accumulated [¹⁴C]squalene, while cells incubated with trisnorsqualeneN-methylcyclopropylamine accumulated [¹⁴C]squalene epoxide and [¹⁴C]squalene diepoxide. The concentration range of inhibitor which caused these intermediates to accumulate coincided with that which inhibited cholesterol synthesis. The results indicate that cyclopropylamine derivatives of squalene are effective inhibitors of cholesterol synthesis, and that substitutions at the nitrogen affect enzyme selectivity and thus the mechanism of action of the compounds.     

康复花园

20世纪50年代后,美国日渐泛滥程式化的医疗建筑设计,产生了很多负面影响,一种以病人为本的全新设计理念,在户外辅助治疗的"康复花园"于90年代开始出现.介绍了康复花园的15种设计原则,这些原则有源于经验的,也有基于常识的,是目前所知的最好的康复花园的设计原则,能带来积极的康复效果.现在西方国家的设计师们运用康复花园的经验和理念,在医疗诊断的基础上针对特殊病人对花园的要求设计花园.还有专门为成人和儿童生理复原、精神治疗、老年痴呆、烧伤、艾滋和癌症患者建造的花园等,有很多领域有待深八研究.     

Evaluation of a Meta-1-based automatic indexing method for medical documents.

This paper describes MetaIndex, an automatic indexing program that creates symbolic representations of documents for the purpose of document retrieval. MetaIndex uses a simple transition network parser to recognize a language that is derived from the set of main concepts in the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus (Meta-1). MetaIndex uses a hierarchy of medical concepts, also derived from Meta-1, to represent the content of documents. The goal of this approach is to improve document retrieval performance by better representation of documents. An evaluation method is described, and the performance of MetaIndex on the task of indexing the Slice of Life medical image collection is reported.