Edible foxtail millet flour stabilises and retain the in vitro activity of blueberry bioactive components

Blueberries, a functional food, are rich in bioactive polyphenols and anthocyanins. However, the shelf life is short and requires cold storage. This study provides evidence that edible foxtail millet flour (FMF) efficiently sorbs only blueberry bioactive components (polyphenols and anthocyanins) but not sugars, improves their stability and retains the activity. The concentration of blueberry polyphenols and anthocyanins sorbed to FMF ranged from 6 to 113 and 4 to 41 mg g^?1, respectively. The concentration of bioactive components in one serving of blueberries (73 g) is equivalent to those present in 1.2 g of blueberry‐enriched foxtail millet flour (BFMF). The blueberry bioactive sorbed onto FMF remained stable for at least 16 weeks at 40 °C. BFMF eluates inhibited α‐glucosidase enzyme activity and scavenged the free radicals conferring that blueberry bioactive components in BFMF retained the activity. The sorption process described here provides a practical way of creating low glycemic protein‐rich edible flour enriched with plant bioactive compounds without sugars.     

Sorption Behavior of Crawfish Chitosan Films as Affected by Chitosan Extraction Processes and Solvent Types

Effects of chitosan extraction processes and solvent types on sorption behavior of unplasticized crawfish chitosan films were investigated. Four different chitosans prepared from crawfish shell were dissolved in 1% v/v acetic, formic, lactic, or malic acids at 1% w/v concentration. Chitosans dissolved in acetic or formic acid formed flexible and transparent films that are desirable for packaging applications. Chitosan acetate films maintained lower moisture contents at any relative humidity level compared with chitosan formate films. The type of chitosan significantly influenced the sorption isotherms of chitosan formate films but not chitosan acetate films. The Guggenheim‐Anderson‐de Boer, Oswin, and Caurie models (R²= 0.98, 0.95, and 0.95, respectively) could be used to predict sorption behavior of crawfish chitosan acetate and formate films.     

Between-cow variation in dermal fibroblast response to lipopolysaccharide reflected in resolution of inflammation during Escherichia coli mastitis

Effective response to mammary gland infection depends on efficient early innate immune response. The desired response would be one that is sufficient to clear the infection with a rapid return to the production of high-quality milk and limited tissue damage. In this study, 43 early lactation cows were ranked based on the ability of their fibroblasts to produce IL-8 in response to Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide. Subsequently, the effect of a low or high response phenotype on the response to E. coli mastitis was determined. Untreated fibroblasts produced no detectable IL-8, whereas the range of IL-8 production in response to LPS (100 ng/mL) was approximately 7-fold between the lowest and highest responding cultures. Similar patterns of between-cow variation were observed in fibroblast production of IL-8 and IL-6 in response to IL-1β and Pam2CSK4 (a synthetic diacylated lipopeptide ligand). Four low and 4 high responder cows were challenged in late lactation with intramammary infusion of E. coli. All cows developed clinical mastitis in the challenged quarters and all cows cleared the infection within 8 d. However, somatic cell count began to decline earlier in the low responder group, and milk BSA concentration (an indicator of tissue damage) was also lower in low responders compared with high responders. Milk production from the challenged quarter was markedly depressed in both groups, but returned toward prechallenge values earlier in low responder cows. Dermal fibroblast cells appear predictive of a cow's response to mastitis. In this study, the low responder phenotype was sufficient to contain an E. coli infection with a more rapid return to the production of high quality milk.     

Mature seeds of Sorghum contain proteins toxic to aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus flavus

Crude acid extract of mature Sorghum seeds showed partial inhibition of spore germination and growth of aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus flavus strains. To find the protein components involved in this mechanism of inhibition, the crude extract was fractionated by differential precipitation followed by ion exchange chromatography in carboxymethyl cellulose. Five proteins of low molecular weight were isolated. The ability of each of the five proteins to inhibit the spore germination and hyphal extension of aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus flavus strains was tested. Protein 5 did not show any inhibition. Proteins 1, 2 and 4 showed complete inhibition of spore germination (1500–2000 spores/100 μl of medium) at a concentration of 15 μg/100 μl. Protein 3 showed partial inhibition only.     

Hardware implementation of tag-reader mutual authentication protocol for RFID systems

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a recent technology that utilizes radio frequencies to track the object by transmitting a signal with a unique serial identity. Generally, the drawbacks of RFID technology are high cost and authentication systems between a reader and a tag become weak. In this paper, we proposed a protocol for RFID tag–reader mutual authentication scheme which is hardware efficient and consumes less dynamic power. Truncated multipliers are implemented in RFID tag–reader mutual authentication protocol system due to reduction in hardware cost and dynamic power. Experimental evaluation reveals that the proposed protocol with truncated multipliers provides more security than the earlier schemes. The proposed protocol is described in VHDL and simulated using Altera Quartus II. The functional block is implemented as hardware using an Altera DE2 Cyclone II (EP2C35F672C6) Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).     

Simple and efficient method for the oxidation of sulfides to sulfones using hydrogen peroxide and a Mo(VI) based catalyst

A simple and efficient method for the oxidation of sulfides to sulfones at room temperature using ammonium heptamolybdate and 30% H₂O₂ is developed. The reactions provide excellent yields within short time, also sensitive functional groups such as allyl, vinyl, propargyl, alcohol, ketone, ester, pyridine and nitrile are found to be tolerated.     

Tropical vaginal hydroceles: are they all filarial in origin?

Hydrocele of the tunica vaginalis testis has been conventionally used as an absolute indicator of filarial disease in most clinical surveys. The prevalence of filarial etiology in 100 consecutive hydroceles was studied using clinical, parasitological, histopathological and immunological parameters. Filarial etiology could be proved in 57% of hydrocele cases using major criteria: presence of microfilaria in hydrocele fluid, presence of chyle in hydrocele fluid, demonstration of adult worm in tunica, ratio of fluid antibody titer to serum antibody titer more than 2 and presence of filarial antigen in hydrocele fluid. The results of other tests in these 57 cases were used to define the minor criteria. In the other 43 cases, based on the minor criteria, 12 hydroceles could be classified as likely to be due to filariasis and the rest were probably non-filarial. Thus only 69% of hydroceles were definitely or probably filarial.     

Dielectric relaxation in antiplasticized poly n-butyl methacrylate system

The dielectric αβrelaxation process has been studied for poly n-butyl methacrylate (PBMA) in presence of various additives such as cholesteric liquid crystals and some isotropic liquids. Addition of isotropic liquids increased log (f_max) with increasing concentration at constant temperature and decreased the activation energy. The cholesteric liquid crystal additives, however, decreased log (f_max) and the free volume with increasing concentration at constant temperature. The data gathered were fitted to a master curve to evaluate the decay function, $\text{ф(t)}$ and the parameterβ. The normalized loss curves were found to be broadened with increased asymmetry both with isotropic and cholesteric liquid crystal additives. These studies clearly revealed the antiplasticization effect of some of the cholesteryl liquid crystal additives. The extent of broadening and the asymmetry of the loss curves cannot be explained on the basis of free volume theory alone and a mechanistic approach is used to explain the results. The values of $\text{Δβ}\text{Δc}$ have thus been explained on the basis of a gradient of the segments mobility leading to an increased spread of relaxation times.     

Mechanisms of subthreshold atomic emission from solid surfaces

Computer simulation of the dynamics of ions and atoms on the surfaces of solids has been carried out. The Coulomb, Pauli, exchange and Van der Waals potentials have been taken into account. The semi-empirical quantum-chemical method has been used also. In the case of alkali halide surfaces it is shown that if recharge of an anion (X⁻ →X⁺) occurs in two surface layers, it may initiate the ejection of positive metal ions (M⁺) and, assisted by the capture of an electron by a departing M⁺ of metal atoms M⁰. Besides the Coulomb repulsion the Pauli shock is shown to play an essential role in the driving of the ejection process. This mechanism of desorption has large efficiency when the excitation of a core electron occurs in case of alkali halide crystals and has a strong dependence on the crystal ionicity. We obtained the energy distribution of ejected particles for different mechanisms of electron-ion emission.