Evaluation of the physico-chemical, rheological and sensory characteristics of commercially available Frankfurters in Spain and consumer preferences

The physico-chemical, rheological and sensory characteristics of different commercially available Frankfurters were studied. Samples presented values of A_w and pH from 0.954 to 0.972 and 5.88 to 6.43, respectively. Greater differences were observed in parameters such as fat and salt content, with values ranging from 10.83% to 21.92% and 1.85% to 3.01%, respectively. With regard to total nitrogen, all samples presented values close to 2%. Free-choice profiling and generalised procrustes analysis of the sensory data permitted differentiation between samples and provided information about the attributes responsible for the observed differences. All the frankfurters scored in the moderate range for overall acceptability. Consumers identified reasons for purchasing frankfurters when evaluating the product's packaging. The most important criterion for consumers when purchasing frankfurters was the appetising aspect of the product in the packaging's illustration.     

State of the art in silico tools for the study of signaling pathways in cancer

In the last several years, researchers have exhibited an intense interest in the evolutionarily conserved signaling pathways that have crucial roles during embryonic development. Interestingly, the malfunctioning of these signaling pathways leads to several human diseases, including cancer. The chemical and biophysical events that occur during cellular signaling, as well as the number of interactions within a signaling pathway, make these systems complex to study. In silico resources are tools used to aid the understanding of cellular signaling pathways. Systems approaches have provided a deeper knowledge of diverse biochemical processes, including individual metabolic pathways, signaling networks and genome-scale metabolic networks. In the future, these tools will be enormously valuable, if they continue to be developed in parallel with growing biological knowledge. In this study, an overview of the bioinformatics resources that are currently available for the analysis of biological networks is provided.     

Surface‐Mediated Nucleic Acid Delivery by Lipoplexes Prepared in Microwell Arrays

Many delivery methods have been developed to improve the therapeutic efficacy and facilitate the clinical translation of nucleic acid‐based therapeutics. A facile surface‐mediated nucleic acid delivery by lipoplexes is prepared in a microwell array, which combines the advantages of lipoplexes as an efficient carrier system, surface‐mediated delivery, and the control of surface topography. Uniform disc‐like lipoplexes containing nucleic acids are formed in the microwell array with a diameter of ～818 nm and thickness of ～195 nm. The microwell array‐mediated delivery of lipoplexes containing FAM‐oligodeoxynucleotides is ～18.6 and ～10.6 times more efficient than the conventional transfection method in an adherent cell line (A549 non‐small cell lung cancer cells) and a suspension cell line (KG‐1a acute myelogenous leukemia cells), respectively. MicroRNA‐29b is then used as a model nucleic acid to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of lipoplexes delivered by the microwell array. Compared to conventional transfection methods, the effective therapeutic dosage of microRNA‐29b is reduced from the microgram level to the nanogram level by lipoplexes prepared in the microwell array. The microwell array is also a very flexible platform. Both nucleic acid therapeutics and imaging reagents are incorporated in lipoplexes and successfully delivered to A549 cells, demonstrating its potential applications in theranostic medicine.     

Mechanisms for High‐Performance and Non‐Local Photoisomerization Gratings in a Sol–Gel Material

Novel azo‐containing sol–gel films exhibiting outstanding properties for optical applications via nonlocal photoisomerization gratings were reported recently, although the underlying mechanisms were not well understood, especially regarding the unexpected non‐local effect. Here, this photoisomerizable sol–gel material is characterized in‐depth, analyzing the design and fabrication strategy, and discussing the aspects that enable the efficient photoresponse, with focus on the holographic recording. The material consists of an azochromophore‐rich silica matrix containing glycidoxypropyl groups, which provide increased flexibility and internal free volume for improved dye photoresponse. The matrix characteristics allow a novel procedure for fabrication of thick optical films, in which chromophore aggregation is ruptured by thermal annealing while keeping the material centrosymmetry (beneficial for high hologram contrast). The molecular photo‐orientation promotes alignment of microscopic domains in a cooperative motion, not reported previously in sol–gel materials. This collective mechanism enhances the material response and explains some intriguing features of photoisomerization gratings. In particular, there is evidence that spatially shifted domains are related to the grating nonlocal nature. Different recording (write–erase–write) procedures that distinctly affect the photoalignment at both molecular and microscopic level are studied. The holographic performance drastically changes, which can be selectively exploited for either long‐term or dynamic holography.     

Antioxidant Properties of Three Aromatic Herbs (Rosemary, Thyme and Lavender) in Oil-in-Water Emulsions

Lipid oxidation is the major form of deterioration in foods because it decreases food quality and nutritional value, and may have negative health implications. Selected aromatic plant extracts from leaves, flowers and stems of rosemary, thyme and lavender were investigated for their antioxidant activity. The total polyphenol content was determined by the Folin–Ciocalteu assay and the antioxidant capacity was determined by the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl, oxygen radical absorbance capacity and ferric-reducing antioxidant power assays. For all four antioxidant assays, the extracts from thyme flowers, lavender leaves and thyme leaves had the highest antioxidant activity, followed by rosemary stems, rosemary leaves, and lavender stems, and the lavender flowers and thyme stems had the lowest antioxidant activity. The antioxidant activity was correlated with the polyphenol content, although minor deviations were observed. In oil-in-water emulsion, extracts from rosemary leaves and thyme leaves were most effective at retarding oxidation followed by the rosemary stems and thyme flowers. Extracts from thyme flowers and lavender leaves were less effective in the emulsion than predicted by the homogeneous antioxidant assays. This study demonstrated the potential use of plants extract as substitutes for synthetic antioxidants.     

Evaluation of Different Glutaryl Acylase Mutants to Improve the Hydolysis of Cephalosporin C in the Absence of Hydrogen Peroxide

2‐Oxoadipoyl‐7‐ACA is an intermediate in the conversion of cephalosporin C (CPC) to 7‐aminocephalosporanic acid (7‐ACA) when using a new route involving D ‐amino acid oxidase, catalase and glutaryl acylase. A key point in the reaction design is to avoid the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the reaction medium as the yields of 7‐ACA decrease in the presence of this compound due to its low stability. Looking for an enzyme with improved activity towards 2‐oxoadipoyl‐7‐ACA, different mutants of glutaryl acylase from Pseudomonas SY‐77 with an improved activity towards adipoyl‐7‐ACA were evaluated. The best results on 2‐oxoadipoyl‐7‐ACA hydrolysis were found with the double mutant Y178F+F375H, which showed a K_cat increase of 6.5‐fold and a K_m decrease of 3‐fold compared to the wild‐type (wt) enzyme. When this enzyme was tested in the tri‐enzymatic system to convert CPC into 7‐ACA, this mutant permitted us to reach more than an 80 % yield of 7‐ACA using a 3‐fold mass excess compared to DAAO; while the wt enzyme gave only a 40 % yield. Therefore, the application of this new mutant to the one‐pot conversion of CPC to 7‐ACA gives very good result in terms of efficiency, yield and rate of the process.     

Alveolar air and urine analyses as biomarkers of exposure to trihalomethanes in an indoor swimming pool

The exposure of workers and swimmers at an indoor swimming pool to trihalomethanes (THMs) as a consequence of water chlorination was evaluated by analyzing alveolar air and urine samples. Environmental monitoring of THMs in water and ambient air was also performed in order to assess the possible correlation between environmental and biological samples. The sampling was done concurrently, taking the urine and alveolar air samples before and after the work shift for 15 workers and the swimming activity for 12 swimmers. A high THM uptake was observed in alveolar air and urine of subjects exposed, with chloroform being the most abundant THM. Mean chloroform levels in alveolar air and urine before exposure were 4 microg/ m3 and 475 ng/L, respectively. After 2 h of exposure, concentration increases of ca. 8 times in alveolar air and 2 times in urine were observed in workers. After 1 h swimming, the increases found in swimmers were ca. 20 and 3 times in alveolar air and urine, respectively. High increases have also been observed in bromodichloromethane levels. We have obtained excellent correlations between the chloroform concentrations found in the swimming pool ambient air/alveolar air, and between the urine/ alveolar air of the participants after exposure (r > 0.9). In conclusion, alveolar air provides better response sensitivity and shorter reaction time to external exposure than urine, being therefore the most sensitive biomarker.     

Design of Tall Formworks by a Finite-Element Model

The design of formworks for holding fresh concrete possesses a difficult engineering challenge. Present standards assume fresh concrete to have a nonviscous fluid behavior when calculating the lateral pressure to which the formwork walls will be the subject. This paper describes a finite-element model to determine these pressures, taking into account the interaction between the fresh concrete and the formwork wall. The use of this numerical model shows that present standards may underestimate the lateral pressures that can be exerted particularly with respect to tall formworks. The paper also discusses the influence of different mechanical variables on the results returned by the proposed model. The proposed model may be of use to practicing engineers and of interest to researchers examining load distributions in formworks.     

Ultimate design load analysis of planetary gearbox bearings under extreme events

This paper investigates the impact of extreme events on the planet bearings of a 5 MW gearbox. The system is simulated using an aeroelastic tool, where the turbine structure is modeled, and MATLAB/Simulink, where the drivetrain (gearbox and generator) are modeled using a lumped‐parameter approach. Three extreme events are assessed: low‐voltage ride through, emergency stop and normal stop. The analysis is focused on finding which event has the most negative impact on the bearing extreme radial loads. The two latter events are carried out following the guidelines of the International Electrotechnical Commission standard 61400‐1. The former is carried out by applying a voltage fault while simulating the wind turbine under normal turbulent wind conditions. The voltage faults are defined by following the guidelines from four different grid codes in order to assess the impact on the bearings. The results show that the grid code specifications have a dominant role in the maximum loads achieved by the bearings during a low‐voltage ride through. Moreover, the emergency brake shows the highest impact by increasing the bearing loads up to three times the rated value. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Metformin Reduces Potassium Currents and Prolongs Repolarization in Non-Diabetic Heart

Metformin is the first choice drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes due to positive results in reducing hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance. However, diabetic patients have higher risk of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death, and metformin failed to reduce ventricular arrhythmia in clinical trials. In order to explore the mechanisms responsible for the lack of protective effect, we investigated in vivo the effect of metformin on cardiac electrical activity in non-diabetic rats; and in vitro in isolated ventricular myocytes, HEK293 cells expressing the hERG channel and human induced pluripotent stem cells derived cardiomyocytes (hIPS-CMs). Surface electrocardiograms showed that long-term metformin treatment (7 weeks) at therapeutic doses prolonged cardiac repolarization, reflected as QT and QTc interval duration, and increased ventricular arrhythmia during the caffeine/dobutamine challenge. Patch-clamp recordings in ventricular myocytes isolated from treated animals showed that the cellular mechanism is a reduction in the cardiac transient outward potassium current (I_to). In vitro, incubation with metformin for 24 h also reduced I_to, prolonged action potential duration, and increased spontaneous contractions in ventricular myocytes isolated from control rats. Metformin incubation also reduced I_hERG in HEK293 cells. Finally, metformin incubation prolonged action potential duration at 30% and 90% of repolarization in hIPS-CMs, which is compatible with the reduction of I_to and I_hERG. Our results show that metformin directly modifies the electrical behavior of the normal heart. The mechanism consists in the inhibition of repolarizing currents and the subsequent decrease in repolarization capacity, which prolongs AP and QTc duration.