Oral Rg1 supplementation strengthens antioxidant defense system against exercise-induced oxidative stress in rat skeletal muscles

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Previous studies reported divergent results on nutraceutical actions and free radical scavenging capability of ginseng extracts. Variations in ginsenoside profile of ginseng due to different soil and cultivating season may contribute to the inconsistency. To circumvent this drawback, we assessed the effect of major ginsenoside-Rg1 (Rg1) on skeletal muscle antioxidant defense system against exhaustive exercise-induced oxidative stress. METHODS: Forty weight-matched rats were evenly divided into control (N = 20) and Rg1 (N = 20) groups. Rg1 was orally administered at the dose of 0.1 mg/kg bodyweight per day for 10- week. After this long-term Rg1 administration, ten rats from each group performed an exhaustive swimming, and remaining rats considered as non-exercise control. Tibialis anterior (TA) muscles were surgically collected immediately after exercise along with nonexercise rats. RESULTS: Exhaustive exercise significantly (p <0.05) increased the lipid peroxidation of control group, evidenced by elevated malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. The increased oxidative stress after exercise was also confirmed by decreased reduced glutathione to oxidized glutathione ratio (GSH/GSSG ratio) in control rats. However, these changes were completely eliminated in Rg1 group. Catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activities were significantly (p <0.05) increased by Rg1 in non-exercise rats, while no significant change after exercise. Nevertheless, glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) activities were significantly increased after exercise in Rg1 group. CONCLUSIONS: This study provide compelling evidences that Rg1 supplementation can strengthen antioxidant defense system in skeletal muscle and completely attenuate the membrane lipid peroxidation induced by exhaustive exercise. Our findings suggest that Rg1 can use as a nutraceutical supplement to buffer the exhaustive exercise-induced oxidative stress.     

Users as knowledge co-producers in the information system development project

This study investigates the role of users as knowledge co-producers in different stages of the information system development project. Data collected from 269 IS professionals supported our hypotheses that common knowledge has an impact on requirement determination, which, in turn, leads to better project performance. User-IS relationship can substitute the effect of common knowledge on requirement determination in the design stage and user review can ensure that the obtained requirements are actually carried out by developers in the development stage. As a result, higher project performance can be obtained. Discussion of the results and conclusions is also provided.     

Integrated biocatalytic process for trehalose production and separation from rice hydrolysate using a bioreactor system

Rice starch can be hydrolyzed into maltose for trehalose bioconversion by enzymatic methods. In this study, we have successfully established an efficient production system for our recombinant PTTS in large scale. Three bio-treatments were developed to simplify the separation and purification of trehalose from complex rice saccharified liquid. The trehalose conversion rate of 64.63 ± 4.05% at 30 °C can be reached using rice hydrolysate as the substrate in a 5 l fermentor system. By 1% of raw material koji fermentation, the highest concentration of bioethanol (3.61 ± 0.07%) was obtained at 30 °C for 36 h. After 12 h of reaction time, the gluconic acid (24.47 ± 0.33 mM) was successfully produced by glucose oxidase (40 U/g rice) using residual glucose as a substrate. After the batch/continuous ionic exchange process, the trehalose can be successfully separated, crystallized and identified as 92.6 ± 0.02% purity and 94.2% of the recovery yield, respectively.     

Isolation and characterisation of lactic acid bacteria from jiang-gua (fermented cucumbers), a traditional fermented food in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: Jiang‐gua (fermented cucumbers) is a popular traditional fermented food in Taiwan. The microflora of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in jiang‐gua have not been investigated in detail. In this study, LAB from jiang‐gua were isolated, characterised and identified. RESULTS: A total of 103 LAB were isolated; 70 cultures were isolated from jiang‐gua samples and 33 cultures were isolated from its raw substrate, cucumber. These isolates were mainly characterised phenotypically and then divided into seven groups (A‐G) by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and sequencing of 16S ribosomal DNA. The isolates were identified as Enterococcus casseliflavus, Leuconostoc lactis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides, Lactobacillus pentosus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus paraplantarum, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Weissella cibaria and Weissella hellenica. The antibacterial activities of the isolates were determined and 11 Lc. lactis subsp. lactis strains showed inhibitory activity against the indicator strain Lactobacillus sakei JCM 1157^T. CONCLUSION: Heterofermentative W. cibaria and Leu. lactis were the major LAB found in jiang‐gua samples without soy sauce. In soy sauce‐added samples, homofermentative L. pentosus and L. plantarum were the most abundant LAB. In addition, the results also suggested that HhaI and RsaI restriction enzymes could be applied to distinguish W. hellenica and Weissella paramesenteroides. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Effect of molecular weight of an anionic dispersant on the properties of BaTi4O9 slurries

The colloidal stability of BaTi₄O₉ (BT₄) aqueous suspensions with poly(acrylamide‐co‐4‐carboxylamino‐4‐oxo‐2‐butenate) (PAC) of different molecular weights at pH 9 has been investigated by means of zeta potential, adsorption, sedimentation, and particle size measurements. The results indicate that PAC could improve the dispersion of the particles from agglomeration. The resulting suspensions became more stabilized, and contained powder with smaller particle size. Consequently, the compacts with PAC exhibited better properties in terms of density and dielectric constant than those without any polymer present. The performance of PAC increased with decreasing polymer molecular weight. Clearly, PAC1 (M_w = 1.8 × 10⁴) was most effective in dispersing the BT₄ particles, and stabilizing the ceramic suspensions. This is attributed to the highest adsorption of this polymer onto BT₄ powder, and causes strongest electrostatic repulsions among solid particles. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Development of a Quantitative Multi-Class Method for 18 Antibiotics in Chicken, Pig, and Fish Muscle using UPLC-MS/MS

A rapid multi-residue/multi-class procedure utilizing ultra performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC/MS/MS) detection has been developed and validated to monitor 18 veterinary drugs, including macrolides (clarithromycin, erythromycin, josamycin, kitasamycin, natamycin, neospiramycin, oleandomycin, spiramycin, tilmicosin, tylosin, and virginiamycin M1), β-lactams (ampicillin, cefoperazone, cloxacillin, and mecillinam), lincosamides (clindamycin and lincomycin), and one quinolone (orbifloxacin), in pig, chicken, and fish muscle. Two grams of homogenized muscle sample were fortified with the 18 drugs. The drugs were extracted using two extraction solutions and then were cleaned up with n-hexane and SPE. Data acquisition with MS/MS was achieved using the multiple reaction monitoring modes to acquire the data. The method was validated at four concentration levels within the designated linear ranges for each drug, with most recoveries greater than 75?% and most coefficients of variation (CV) values less than 15?%.     

Failure modes and effects analysis for high-power GaN-based light-emitting diodes package technology

In this study, nondestructive test is developed to analyze the structure failure of LED package. The relationship between thermal resistance analysis and LED package failure structure is build with T3Ster thermal transient tester and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The failure LED device with defect in the attaching layer and gap between LED chip and copper are designed advisedly. The failure factors of LED package have been measured with thermal resistance analysis and SEM cross-section images. The thermal dissipation performance of LED with defect in the attaching layer is indicated by thermal resistance analysis combined with SEM cross-section images. The blister in attaching layer results in 4.4 K/W additional thermal resistance. The gap between LED chip and copper also makes high additional thermal resistance with 8.6 K/W. Different failures of LED packages are indicated obviously using thermal transfer analysis. The LED package failure structure such as interface defect between solder and cup-shaped copper is able to forecast without destructive measurement.     

The Transparent Conductive Properties of Manganese-Doped Zinc Oxide Films Deposited by Chemical Bath Deposition

Manganese-doped zinc oxide (Mn-doped ZnO) thin films were prepared using chemical bath deposition (CBD), and the impacts of the manganese dopant concentration on the structure, electrical resistivity, optical transmission, and magnetic properties were investigated using x-ray diffractometry, Hall-effect measurements, ultraviolet–visible–near-infrared (UV–Vis–IR) spectrophotometry, and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), respectively. The concentration of the manganese dopant in the ZnO thin film critically impacted the resulting properties, and the 4.0 at.% Mn-doped ZnO film had a resistivity of 5.8 × 10⁻² Ωcm, transmittance of 75.6% in the visible light range, and bandgap of 3.30 eV when the film was annealed at 600°C in an Ar + H₂ atmosphere. Annealing the film could enhance its magnetic properties such that the film had a saturation magnetization of 21.0 emu/cm³ and a coercivity of 45.7 Oe after annealing at 600°C. Because of these electrical, optical, and magnetic properties, Mn-doped thin films are promising for use in spintronic devices.     

Design and realization of 1.3?Gb/s off-chip transmission circuitry using 0.35?μm CMOS technology

Low-voltage-differential-signaling (LVDS) is one of the very popular technologies which simultaneously addresses low dynamic power consumption and high data rate transmission in modern high speed circuit applications. In this paper, system level integration design approach is applied to design LVDS transmitter featuring high off-chip data rate. Full wave electromagnetic simulation technique was adopted to accurately characterize possible couplings and parasitic effects induced from the off-chip components which then acted as the termination of the output circuitry. Common mode feedback was included to perform fine tuning on the offset leading to much higher overall precision. Meanwhile, generation of the controlled current and voltage across termination was guaranteed through the introduction of a constant transconductance bias network. The design was implemented using TSMC 3.3?V 0.35???m CMOS technology with overall chip size of 0.923?mm². At a DC power consumption level of 29.4?mW, the LVDS transmitter exhibited an off-chip data rate of 1.3?Gb/s validated through measurements.