Cultural adaptation of treatments: A resource for considering culture in evidence-based practice.

There is a growing interest in whether and how to adapt psychotherapies to take into account the cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic context of diverse ethnocultural groups. At the root of the debate is the issue of whether evidence-based treatments (EBTs) developed within a particular linguistic and cultural context are appropriate for ethnocultural groups that do not share the same language, cultural values, or both. There is considerable evidence that culture and context influence almost every aspect of the diagnostic and treatment process. Yet, there are concerns about fidelity of interventions, and some have questioned whether tinkering with well-established EBTs is warranted. We present arguments in favor of the cultural compatibility and universalistic hypotheses. Next, we review the available published frameworks for cultural adaptations of EBTs and offer examples from the literature on the process and outcome of different approaches used. Conceptual models for adapting existing interventions and emerging evidence that adapted intervention leads to positive outcomes suggest that there are tools for engaging in evidence-based psychological practices with ethnocultural youth. Recommendations for future directions are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associative and orthographic neighborhood density effects in normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

A group of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and a group of healthy elderly controls were tested with a lexical-decision task that included words with dense or sparse orthographic and associative neighborhoods to investigate whether there is automatic orthographic and semantic activation of related representations in these populations similar to that found with younger samples. Although some studies support the idea of deteriorated connections in semantic networks in Alzheimer’s disease, other studies propose that the automatic spread of activation at lexicosemantic levels remains intact and that intergroup differences are a consequence of impaired retrieval or attentional deficits. In this study, participants responded to words with dense orthographic and associative neighborhoods faster than they did to words with sparse neighborhoods, providing evidence in favor of a preserved automatic spread of activation through intact orthographic and semantic representations. Furthermore, no differences were found between the two groups regarding the magnitude of the effects, although control participants responded significantly faster than patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of phenotypic variation of sugar profile in different peach and nectarine [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] breeding progenies

BACKGROUND: Specific sugar contents are well known for contributing to a range of quality traits of fresh fruits such as flavour, texture and health properties. Peaches and nectarines of 205 genotypes from 14 different breeding progenies cultivated under Mediterranean conditions were evaluated by high‐performance liquid chromatography for their content of these sugar traits. RESULTS: A high contribution of cross to the phenotypic variance of all evaluated fruit quality traits was found. There were significant differences in mean sugar concentrations between peach and nectarine, yellow‐ and white‐fleshed or freestone and clingstone genotypes. Pre‐selected genotypes from the original breeding programme showed enhanced soluble solid content (SSC), total sugar and sucrose contents. A significant effect of year was found for SSC, sucrose and glucose contents, whereas no effect was found for fructose and sorbitol contents. Individual sugar contents correlated significantly with each other and with other fruit quality traits. CONCLUSION: A significant effect of cross, year and qualitative traits on the sugar profile of peaches and nectarines was found. Moreover, the differences shown in sugar traits between the breeding population and the pre‐selected genotypes indicated the importance of sugar profile in the global quality of peaches and nectarines. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Influence on cheese proteolysis and sensory characteristics of non-starter lactobacilli strains with probiotic potential

The contribution to cheese proteolysis and sensory profile of four potentially probiotic non-starter lactobacilli strains was assessed in two different models: soft and semi-hard cheeses. All the strains were able to grow in both types of cheese, where they maintained high levels during ripening. Overall, adjunct cultures of Lactobacillus rhamnosus showed the strongest influence in peptidolysis, which was verified by changes in peptide profiles and increase of free amino acids concentration. Nevertheless, some cheeses treated with L. rhamnosus also showed post-acidification during ripening and decreased sensory characteristics compared to controls. Cheeses with adjunct cultures of Lactobacillus casei I90 and Lactobacillus plantarum I91 exhibited, in general, an intermediate level of peptidolysis between control and L. rhamnosus-added cheeses; their sensory characteristics were preserved or improved, and they did not show any defects. Adjunct cultures showed similar trends in both models, confirming L. casei I90 and L. plantarum I91 as the most performing adjunct cultures for cheese-making among the strains.     

Analysis of the biomineralization process on SWNT-COOH and F-SWNT films

In vitro biomineralization process was investigated on functionalized single wall nanotube (SWNT) films. The films were prepared by solvent casting method by using carboxylated and fluorinated nanotubes. SWNT films were characterized by means of electron microscopy, contact angle measurements and optical absorption. The in vitro assays were performed on cultured human alveolar bone-derived cells (HABDC) to determine the capabilities of carboxylated single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs-COOH) and fluorinated single-walled nanotubes (F-SWNTs) to promote the deposit of mineral-like tissue. The results showed that the cellular response of HABDC in secreting a mineralized extracellular matrix and their consequent mineralization is dependent on the degree of functionalization of the SWNTs. Differences were found related to the kind of sidewall functionalization. Both structures promoted hydroxyapatite formation, however, calcium uptake on SWNTs-COOH increased and it was related to crystal density. From our results, it is possible to infer that CNT functionalization opens a path to future developments in new bone graft materials and techniques.     

Flavour profiles and survival of starter cultures of yoghurt produced from high-pressure homogenized milk

Volatile carbonyl compounds, organic acids and yoghurt bacteria counts were investigated in yoghurts made from ultra-high pressure homogenized milk. Yoghurts were manufactured from milk treated using ultra-high pressure homogenization at 200 or 300 MPa and at 30 °C or 40 °C, and compared with those produced from heat-treated milk with 3% added skim milk powder. To study the evolution of these parameters, samples were analysed after days 1, 14 and 28 of storage. Yoghurts from milk heat-treated or treated at 300 MPa had very similar profiles of organic acids and volatile compounds, as well as similar bacterial counts of both starter cultures. In comparison, yoghurts from milk treated at 200 MPa at either 30 °C or 40 °C gave different profiles, together with a sharp decrease in counts of lactobacilli. During storage, only slight differences in flavour compounds and yoghurt bacteria counts were detected, except in those samples from milk treated at 200 MPa.     

Thermo-economic analysis for the optimal conceptual design of biomass gasification energy conversion systems

This study addresses the thermo-economic assessment of a mid-scale (20 MW_th,wood) wood gasification, gas cleaning and energy conversion process, with particular attention given to electricity generation costs and tar control. Product distributions were estimated with a parametric stoichiometric equilibrium model calibrated using atmospheric air gasification data. A multi-objective optimisation problem was defined for a superstructure of alternative energy flow diagrams for each processing step. The trade-off between total investment costs and the exergy efficiency of electricity production was obtained, and analysed to identify operating conditions that minimise tar formation to prevent equipment fouling. The use of air, oxygen or steam fluidised bed gasifiers, closed coupled to an internal combustion engine combined cycle (ICE-CC) requiring cold gas cleaning, or gas turbine combined cycle (GT-CC) requiring hot gas cleaning have been considered. The operating conditions that maximise ICE-CC efficiency with cold gas cleaning (low pressure and high temperatures) also favour minimal tar formation. For GT-CC tar concentrations are higher, but this should not be of concern provided that hot gas cleaning can effectively prevent tar condensation. The trade-off appears to be optimal for steam gasification, with minimal specific costs of 2.1 €/W_e for GT-CC, and 2.7 €/W_e for ICE-CC. However, further calibration of the reaction model is still needed to properly assess product formation for other oxidants than air, and to properly take account of the impact of pressure on product distributions. For air gasification, the minimal specific cost of GT-CC is 2.5 €/W_e, and that of ICE-CC 3.1 €/W_e.     

Effect of age on the myosin-V immunoreactive myenteric neurons of rats ileum.

Alterations in the gastrointestinal neuromuscular function related to age have been demonstrated in human and animal models. This study analyzes the effects of the aging process on the area of the neuronal cell bodies of the myenteric plexus in the antimesenteric and intermediate regions of the ileal circumference of Wistar, 12 month-old in comparison 3 month-old animals. The ileum was removed and whole-mount preparations immunostained by the antibody anti-myosin-V were processed. The morphometric analyses were performed using a computerized image analysis system, with a subsequent distribution of neurons by size in intervals of 100 micro2. The cellular body morphometry revealed a significant increase in the size of the myosin-V- immunoreactive myenteric neurons from 12 month-old animals when compared with 3 month-old animals. However, significant differences between the regions were not observed; these observations were not age-dependent. The implications of these results in relation to the increase of the body weight, size of the small intestine, general organization of the myenteric plexus, staining method of neurons and the possible factors involved in the regulation and/or control of the volume of neronal cells due to aging, are discussed.     

Discrimination of climacteric and non‐climacteric melon fruit at harvest or at the senescence stage by quality traits

BACKGROUND: This paper characterizes the quality traits at harvest and the changes associated with fruit senescence based on fruit physiological behaviour (climacteric or non‐climacteric) found in a collection of near‐isogenic lines (NILs) of melon (Cucumis melo L.). Data from both stages of postharvest development were analyzed by univariate and multivariate statistical analysis. RESULTS: The principal components and random forest analyses of the fruit quality traits allowed the best classification of the NILs by time (harvest, senescence), or by climacteric behaviour at harvest, but not at the senescent stage. The overall quality profile of the non‐climacteric senescent melons was, in general, very different from that of the climacteric ones, and was in accord with a longer storage life. Most of the taste quality traits (individual sugars or sucrose equivalents, titratable acidity and the citric, oxalacetic, glutamic and succinic acids) and the traits related to skin, flesh and juice colour parameters (chroma, hue angle) helped to distinguish the climacteric NILs from the non‐climacteric ones independently of the time considered. CONCLUSIONS: The time had a stronger effect on quality than the physiological behaviour. The discrimination by climacteric or non‐climacteric behaviour was usually better at harvest than at the senescent stage irrespective of the methodology used. Principal component analysis was the best multivariate method to discriminate by time and physiological behaviour followed by random forest and linear discriminant analysis. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry