Health promoting properties of blueberries: a review

Abstract

With the strengthening of the link between diet and health, several foodstuffs have emerged as possessing potential health benefits such as phenolic rich fruits and vegetables. Blueberries, along with other berries, given their flavonoid and antioxidant content have long since been considered as a particularly interesting health promoting fruit. Therefore, the present work aimed to compile the existing evidences regarding the various potential benefits of blueberry and blueberry based products consumption, giving particular relevance to in vivo works and epidemiological studies whenever available. Overall, the results demonstrate that, while the evidences that support a beneficial role of blueberry and blueberry extracts consumption, further human based studies are still needed.     

Epidemiology of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency in a population in a sunny country: Geospatial meta-analysis in Brazil

Studies conducted among populations of tropical countries have reported high prevalences of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency. Information resulting from meta-analyses on the spatial distribution of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency in tropical countries is still rare. The aim of this review was investigated the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency among the Brazilian population. Observational studies were searched in eight electronically databases. Additionally, theses and dissertations and abstracts were screened. Details on study design, methods, population, mean and data on serum concentrations of vitamin D in different age groups in Brazil were extracted. Data were pooled using a random-effects model and choropleth maps were created based on the geopolitical regions of the country. 72 published paper met the inclusion criteria. The mean vitamin D concentration among the Brazilian population between 2000 and 2017 of 67.65 nmol/L (95% CI: 65.91, 69.38 nmol/L).The prevalences of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were 28.16% (95% CI: 23.90, 32.40) and 45.26% (95% CI: 35.82, 54.71), respectively, for the Brazilian population. The highest prevalence of deficiency were observed in the southern and southeastern regions and the highest occurrence of vitamin D insufficiency was among the populations of the southeastern and northeastern regions. Finally, there are high prevalence of inadequate vitamin D concentrations among the population, regardless of age group in Brazil. The development of vitamin D food fortification policies in needs to be cautious and carefully planned.     

Detection and quantification of 47 antibiotic residues in farmed European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) using a multi-class and multi-residue UHPLC-MS/MS method

In the present study, a multi-class multi-residue method for the simultaneous detection and determination of antibiotics in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) was developed and validated. The method based on UHPLC-MS/MS proved to be a rapid, highly selective and sensitive tool, requiring minimum sample preparation, for screening and detection of 47 compounds from eight different classes. The validation was performed according to EU regulation 2002/657/EC, proving the method’s suitability for application in routine analysis. The method was applied to the analysis of 30 samples of farmed European sea bass purchased in different supermarkets in Portugal. Antibacterial residues were detected in 6 of the 30 analysed samples, namely enrofloxacin and oxytetracycline, in concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 12 µg kg^?1.     

Hg(II) adsorption by bacteria: a surface complexation model and its application to shallow acidic lakes and wetlands in Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia, Canada

The fate and environmental threat posed by mercury in aquatic systems is controlled, in part, bythe transport of Hg(II) from oxic to anoxic zones in lakes and its subsequent transformation to organic mercury. The transport of Hg(II) in aquatic systems can be affected by its partitioning between the dissolved and particulate phases. In this study, batch experiments were performed to quantify Hg(II) adsorption to Bacillus subtilis as bacteria-to-metal ratio, pH, chloride concentration, growth phase, and reaction time were independently varied. The laboratory data were well described by a surface complexation model (SCM) considering the adsorption of neutral Hg(II) hydroxide and chloride complexes by specific functional groups on the bacterial surface. To evaluate its applicability to complex aquatic systems, the SCM was used to predict the distributions of Hg(II) in 36 shallow acidic lakes and wetlands in Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia, Canada. The lab-derived SCM provided a statistically accurate (r2 = 0.615, P < 0.01) fit to the field data when it was expanded to consider Hg(II) complexation by dissolved organic matter. Inclusion of Hg(II)-mineral adsorption reactions did not improve the fit of the model. The quality of fit provided by the expanded SCM suggested that the major assumptions implicit in applying a lab-derived model to the field were justifiable. Our study has demonstrated that SCMs are powerful tools for dynamic prediction of the sorption of environmental contaminants to biocolloids at the regional scale.     

Design,simulation and experimental characterization of a high-power density fuel cell

This research proposes a novel design of a millimeter-sized air-breathing proton exchange membrane fuel cell (AB-PEMFC). The producing method of the air-breathing PEMFC consisted of the sequential deposition of the elements in layers: 1) endplate of a flat polymer, 2) fuel flow channel with gas diffusion layers (GDL), 3) silicone seal with embedded micro Pt (platinum) wires, 4) membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with high platinum load, 5) GDL with micro Pt wires. Performance tests were done using an AB-PEMFC and the stack of two mono cells under different conditions. The results obtained by the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) allowed analyzing the current collector (CC) position. The performance results show 110 W L^?1 for the cell power density and 2200 W kg^?1 for the specific power density.     

Off-line coupled electrocatalytic oxidation and liquid phase polymer based retention (EO-LPR) techniques to remove arsenic from aqueous solutions

Electrochemistry and membrane ultrafiltration methods (electro-oxidation and liquid phase polymer based retention technique, LPR, respectively) were off-line coupled to remove As(III) inorganic species from aqueous solutions. Our main objective was to achieve an efficient extraction of arsenic species by associating a polymer-assisted liquid phase retention procedure, based on the As(V) adsorption properties of cationic water-soluble polymers, with an electrocatalytic oxidation process of As(III) into its more easily removable analogue As(V). The electrocatalytic oxidation of As(III) to As(V) was performed in the presence of different water-soluble poly(quaternary ammonium) salts acting also as supporting electrolyte, i.e. poly(vinylbenzyl)trimethyl ammonium chloride, P(ClVBTA), poly[3-(methacryloylamine)propyl]trimethyl ammonium chloride, P(ClMPTA), and poly(4-vinyl-1-methylpyridinium bromide), P(BrVMP). After complete electrocatalytic conversion of As(III) into As(V), the mixtures were introduced into an LPR cell to remove the As(V)-polymer adducts. Using P(ClMPTA), P(ClVBTA), or P(BrVMP) ammonium salts in a 20:1 polymer:As(III) mol ratio at pH 8, complete (100%) retention of the arsenic was achieved. Moreover, the As(V) retention efficiency turned out to be directly related to the net charge consumed during the electrochemical conversion of As(III) to As(V).     

High Catalytic Activity of Nitrogen-Containing Carbon from Molecular Sieves in Fine Chemistry

Nanostructured nitrogen-containing carbon (CNs) were prepared by nanocasting techniques using MCM-41, MCM-22, and FAU molecular sieves. The surface and morphological features of CN were investigated by XRD, SEM, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, XPS, and N₂ adsorption isotherms. The catalytic activity in a fine chemistry reaction was also evaluated. The amine-functionalized carbon materials studied are potentially of great importance because of their textural features and high catalytic performance towards Knoevenaguel condensation. In addition, variation of the structure of the molecular sieve material from FAU to MCM-41 led to an increase in the conversion from 23 to 80%. This may be correlated to the basic active sites upon incorporation of nitrogen and also an organized CN that provides active, selective, and stable catalysts to the target reaction. The re-use of the MCM-41-CN does not affect the selectivity of the desired product.     

Privacy within pervasive communications

In the era of “anywhere, anytime communication”, contextual security is becoming very important. Context security means preventing leakage of information about such aspects of communication as identities of the parties involved, their locations, frequency and the times of communications, and so on as opposed to content security which is concerned with protecting the transmitted data against eavesdropping and manipulation and is usually achieved using encryption and message digests. Routing protocols play an important role in this regard. All of the previously proposed solutions in this area are based on reactive routing. In this paper, we propose a solution called V-routing based on proactive routing protocols for ad hoc networks of the type Mesh and MANET that conceals the locations and the identities of the communicating parties as well as the fact that they are communicating. Our protocol resists an omni-present eavesdropper that tries to locate and identify the source and the destination of a data flow. V-routing is especially capable of hiding the destination, unlike many other secure routing protocols, because it is designed according to a novel routing paradigm that puts the destination in charge of how packets should be sent to it.