Long-Term Measures of Dyslipidemia,Inflammation, and Oxidative Stress in Rats Fed a High-Fat/High-Fructose Diet

Inflammation and oxidative stress are thought to be involved in, or associated with, the development of obesity, dyslipidemia, hepatic steatosis, and insulin resistance. This work was designed to determine the evolution of inflammation and oxidative stress during onset and progression of hepatic steatosis and glucose intolerance. Seventy-five male Wistar rats were divided to control and high-fat high-fructose (HFHFr) groups. A subgroup of each group was sacrificed at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 weeks. HFHFr-fed rats exhibited overweight, glucose intolerance, and hepatic steatosis with increased contents of hepatic diacylglycerols and ceramides. The HFHFr diet increased hepatic interleukin 6 (IL-6) protein and adipose tissue CCL5 gene expression and hepatic nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase activity but not mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. The HFHFr diet decreased plasma and liver levels of isoprostanoid metabolites as well as plasma thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance (TBARS) levels. Hepatic glutathione content was decreased with a moderate decrease in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) with the HFHFr diet. Overall, HFHFr diet led to hepatic lipid accumulation and glucose intolerance, which were accompanied by only moderate inflammation and oxidative stress. Most of these changes occurred at the same time and as early as 8 or 12 weeks of diet treatment. This implies that oxidative stress may be the result, not the cause, of these metabolic alterations, and suggests that marked hepatic oxidative stress should probably occur at the end of the steatotic stage to result in frank insulin resistance and steatohepatitis. These findings need to be further evaluated in other animal species as well as in human studies.     

Optimized silyl ester diblock methacrylic copolymers: A new class of binders for chemically active antifouling coatings

This work focuses on the assessment of the erosion properties and antifouling (AF) performance of silyl ester copolymer-based coatings through laboratory and field tests. Silyl ester diblock copolymers were synthesized via the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization and were selected as binders for developing copper-free chemically active coatings. AF coatings were subsequently prepared using biocides (Sea-Nine™ 211, Preventol^® A4S, and zinc pyrithione). Laboratory-based bioassays, targeting the growth of selected microorganisms (bacteria and microalgae) and barnacle settlement, highlighted that the silyl ester methacrylic-based binders did not inhibit the growth of microorganisms, are essentially non-toxic to nauplii and reduced the settlement of Amphibalanus amphitrite cyprids. The corresponding biocidal coatings are potent toward bacteria and diatoms but were demonstrated to be toxic against the barnacle larvae. Field test results showed variations with geographical locations: in sub-tropical area, the silyl ester methacrylic-based coatings failed to inhibit the settlement of barnacles; however, field tests performed in Mediterranean Sea for 18 months demonstrated that biocidal silyl ester methacrylic-based coatings were promising candidates.     

Nitroarenes as Antitubercular Agents: Stereoelectronic Modulation to Mitigate Mutagenicity

Nitroarenes are less preferred in drug discovery due to their potential to be mutagenic. However, several nitroarenes were shown to be promising antitubercular agents with specific modes of action, namely, nitroimidazoles and benzothiazinones. The nitro group in these compounds is activated through different mechanisms, both enzymatic and non‐enzymatic, in mycobacteria prior to binding to the target of interest. From a whole‐cell screening program, we identified a novel lead nitrobenzothiazole (BT) series that acts by inhibition of decaprenylphosphoryl‐β‐d ‐ribose 2′‐epimerase (DprE1) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The lead was found to be mutagenic to start with. Our efforts to mitigate mutagenicity resulted in the identification of 6‐methyl‐7‐nitro‐5‐(trifluoromethyl)‐1,3‐benzothiazoles (cBTs), a novel class of antitubercular agents that are non‐mutagenic and exhibit an improved safety profile. The methyl group ortho to the nitro group decreases the electron affinity of the series, and is hence responsible for the non‐mutagenic nature of these compounds. Additionally, the co‐crystal structure of cBT in complex with Mtb DprE1 established the mode of binding. This investigation led to a new non‐mutagenic antitubercular agent and demonstrates that the mutagenic nature of nitroarenes can be solved by modulation of stereoelectronic properties.     

Developing an inpatient practicum program for patients with serious and persistent mental illness.

Training psychology students to treat patients with serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI) can provide an excellent opportunity for psychologists to help an historically disenfranchised and ignored population. With proper training, psychologists can play an important role in the development, provision, and administration of services to people with SPMI. We outline some of the issues to be considered in developing such a training program for practicum students, discuss the clinical skills and systemic issues that need to be mastered at the graduate level, and delineate the process by which this can be achieved in an inpatient, acute-care setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moisture barrier and physical properties of acetylated derivatives with increasing acetylation degree

Four acetostearin products with increasing acetylation degree were synthesized by chemical interesterification followed by fractionation/blending stages. Their physical properties and functional barrier properties were studied and compared to the properties of technical tristearin. Increasing acetylation degree (AD) modified the triacylglycerols crystal habits and probably led to an increase in acyl chain fluidity, which induced, at macroscopic levels, a decrease in solid fat content (SFC), in melting point, in surface and bulk material hydrophobicity, and an increased moisture effective diffusivity. Water vapor permeability (WVP) coefficients of the materials were partially influenced by the AD factor, but also by the development of macroscopic cracks in lipids presenting high SFC. Acetylated stearin up to 47% (acetyl mol/mol of esterified chain) presented the lowest WVP at 20 °C resulting from an adequate balance between hydrophobicity and mechanical properties of the material.     

‘WAKE/UP/AND/DREAM/FOR/THE/EIGHTIES’: Nigel Coates 1975–82

Nigel Coates graduated from Bernard Tschumi's unit at the Architectural Association in 1974, before joining him in 1977 to develop a new unit together. These were formative years for Coates, a period that shaped his architectural preoccupations for the following decades – yet they remain relatively unexplored. Between 1974 and 1977, Coates produced a number of installation and performance works with the artist Antonio Lagarto and fellow AA graduate Jenny Lowe, influenced by Tschumi's own explorations with the curator RoseLee Goldberg, and their exhibition at the Royal College of Art, A Space: A Thousand Words (1975). The works considered the potential for space to be amplified by the introduction of markers, representations of other spaces and the movement of the body. This article exposes these works for the first time, tracing the changes in Coates's thinking during this period and how it was reflected in the Unit 10 briefs that he and Tschumi developed in the period 1977–80. It chronicles Coates's pivotal trips to New York during 1980–81 to teach at Bennington College, where his exposure to a dynamic club-scene and influential new art would mark a step change in the young architect's trajectory. Charting Coates's development through his own work and his teaching at the AA, the article constructs the background from which the radical architectural group NATØ emerged in 1983.     

Historical perspective of heavy metals contamination (Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, Zn) in the Seine River basin (France) following a DPSIR approach (1950-2005)

The Driver-Pressures-State-Impact-Response approach is applied to heavy metals in the Seine River catchment (65,000 km(2); 14 million people of which 10 million are aggregated within Paris megacity; 30% of French industrial and agricultural production). The contamination pattern at river mouth is established on the particulate material at different time scales: 1930-2000 for floodplain cores, 1980-2003 for suspended particulate matter (SPM) and bed-sediments, 1994-2003 for atmospheric fallout and annual flood deposits. The Seine has been among the most contaminated catchments with maximum contents recorded at 130 mg kg(-1) for Cd, 24 for Hg, 558 for Pb, 1620 for Zn, 347 for Cu, 275 for Cr and 150 for Ni. Today, the average levels for Cd (1.8 mg kg(-1)), Hg (1.08), Pb (108), Zn (370), Cu (99), Cr (123) and Ni (31) are much lower but still in the upper 90% of the global scale distribution (Cr and Ni excepted) and well above the natural background values determined on pre-historical deposits. All metal contents have decreased at least since 1955/65, well before metal emission regulations that started in the mid 1970's and the metal monitoring in the catchment that started in the early 1980's. In the last 20 y, major criteria changes for the management of contaminated particulates (treated urban sludge, agricultural soils, dredged sediments) have occurred. In the mid 1990's, there was a complete shift in the contamination assessment scales, from sediment management and water usage criteria to the good ecological state, now required by the 2000 European Directive. When comparing excess metal outputs, associated to river SPM, to the average metal demand within the catchment from 1950 to 2000, the leakage ratios decrease exponentially from 1950 to 2000 for Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn, meanwhile, a general increase of the demand is observed: the rate of recycling and/or treatment of metals within the anthroposphere has been improved ten-fold. Hg environmental trajectory is very specific: there is a marked decontamination from 1970 to 2000, but the leakage ratio remains very high (10 to 20%) during this period. Drivers and Pressures are poorly known prior to 1985; State evolution since 1935 has been reconstructed from flood plain cores analysis; Impacts were maximum between 1950 and 1970 but remained unknown due to analytical limitation and lack of awareness. Some Responses are lagging 10 y behind monitoring and have much evolved in the past 10 y.     

Impact of enzyme inactivation conditions during the generation of whey protein hydrolysates on their physicochemical and bioactive properties

The thermal inactivation conditions (75 °C × 35 min, 80 °C × 10 min, 85 °C × 5 min and 90 °C × 5 min) for Protamex? following bovine whey protein concentrate (WPC) hydrolysis was studied with the view to limiting WPC hydrolysate (WPH) aggregation while maintaining bioactivity. A decrease in the amount of large WPH aggregates formed was observed at inactivation temperatures ≤85 °C. However, the WPC appeared to be more hydrolysed on heating at 75 °C × 35 min, as Protamex? was active for longer under these heating conditions. Significantly (P < 0.05), higher WPH antioxidant (oxygen radical absorbance capacity – ORAC) activity was obtained on inactivation at temperatures ≤80 °C. In contrast, the dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP‐IV) inhibitory properties of all WPH samples were similar (P > 0.05). A reduction in thermal treatment from 90 °C × 5 min to 85 °C × 5 min was sufficient to decrease the amount of large aggregates formed in the hydrolysate without altering its bioactive properties.