Consumer acceptance of reformulated food products: A systematic review and meta-analysis of salt-reduced foods

Food product reformulation is promoted as an effective strategy to reduce population salt intake and address the associated burden of chronic disease. Salt has a number of functions in food processing, including impacting upon physical and sensory properties. Manufacturers must ensure that reformulation of foods to reduce salt does not compromise consumer acceptability.

The aim of this systematic review is to determine to what extent foods can be reduced in salt without detrimental effect on consumer acceptability.

Fifty studies reported on salt reduction, replacement or compensation in processed meats, breads, cheeses, soups, and miscellaneous products. For each product category, levels of salt reduction were collapsed into four groups: <40%, 40–59%, 60–79% and ≥80%. Random effects meta-analyses conducted on salt-reduced products showed that salt could be reduced by approximately 40% in breads [mean change in acceptability for reduction <40% (?0.27, 95% confidence interval (CI) ?0.62, 0.08; p = 0.13)] and approximately 70% in processed meats [mean change in acceptability for reductions 60–69% (?0.18, 95% CI ?0.44, 0.07; p = 0.15)] without significantly impacting consumer acceptability. Results varied for other products.

These results will support manufacturers to make greater reductions in salt when reformulating food products, which in turn will contribute to a healthier food supply.     

Exploring Homeless People's Use of Outreach Services: Applying a Social Psychological Perspective

A number of critiques have been published drawing attention to the gaps in research methods applied to issues surrounding homelessness and service utilisation in Britain. This paper discusses the use of social identity, a theory drawn from the field of applied social psychology, and synthesises it with the pathways model, thereby providing a framework to further explore service utilisation. The synthesised framework was used to predict the uptake of outreach services in a prospective study of 121 homeless people in a major UK city. In general, homeless people's use of intervention services was affected by the extent to which they identified with the support services themselves. The study demonstrates the central role of social identity in understanding service utilisation patterns, and shows the importance of applying fresh techniques to fine-tune our understanding of uptake in the long term.     

Wide Reach of Migratory Bird Treaty Act for Energy Projects

For nearly a century, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act has been a tool used by the federal government to protect migratory bird species.¹     

Novel nucleophilic/basic and acidic organocatalysts for reaction between poorly reactive diisocyanate and diols

Original basic or acidic organic compounds derived from guanidine or phenyl phosphonic acid were specifically designed and tested as new catalysts for the bulk synthesis of polyurethane prepolymers from a precursor system with particularly low reactivity (secondary alcohol + aliphatic isocyanate at low temperature). Both families showed interesting catalytic activities at 60–80 °C, but must nevertheless be used in much higher amounts (1 mol%, i.e. between 0.15 and 0.50 wt%) than traditional metal-based catalysts. The efficiency of guanidine derivatives seems to be related to their nucleophilicity, whereas that of phosphonic acid derivatives depends on their acidity. However, the solubility of the considered species in the reactive medium also plays a major role. The water/alcohol selectivity of the catalysts, especially at room temperature, was then examined as an additional criterion. Guanidines are not selective and favor the reaction of isocyanate groups with water as much as that with alcohols. Phenyl phosphonic acid derivatives are more selective, and particularly pentafluorophenyl phosphonic acid displays a remarkable catalytic activity together with an acceptable selectivity and could represent an interesting and safer alternative to toxic tin and mercury derivatives for many industrial polyurethanes.     

Green Nanocomposites of Natural Rubber/ Olivine Nanosilica: Viscoelastic,Mechanical, Transport and Thermal Characterizations

Silicon - Nanosilica was synthesized from a low cost raw material, olivine by a more sustainable and cost effective method. The pure nanosilica obtained was amorphous in nature with a surface area...     

Conformational Stabilization of Gp41-Mimetic Miniproteins Opens Up New Ways of Inhibiting HIV-1 Fusion

Inhibition of the HIV-1 fusion process constitutes a promising strategy to neutralize the virus at an early stage before it enters the cell. In this process, the envelope glycoprotein (Env) plays a central role by promoting membrane fusion. We previously identified a vulnerability at the flexible C-terminal end of the gp41 C-terminal heptad repeat (CHR) region to inhibition by a single-chain miniprotein (named covNHR-N) that mimics the first half of the gp41 N-terminal heptad repeat (NHR). The miniprotein exhibited low stability, moderate binding to its complementary CHR region, both as an isolated peptide and in native trimeric Envs, and low inhibitory activity against a panel of pseudoviruses. The addition of a disulfide bond stabilizing the miniprotein increased its inhibitory activity, without altering the binding affinity. Here, to further study the effect of conformational stability on binding and inhibitory potency, we additionally stabilized these miniproteins by engineering a second disulfide bond stapling their N-terminal end, The new disulfide-bond strongly stabilizes the protein, increases binding affinity for the CHR target and strongly improves inhibitory activity against several HIV-1 strains. Moreover, high inhibitory activity could be achieved without targeting the preserved hydrophobic pocket motif of gp41. These results may have implications in the discovery of new strategies to inhibit HIV targeting the gp41 CHR region.     

Molecular Networking for Drug Toxicities Studies: The Case of Hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 Patients

Using drugs to treat COVID-19 symptoms may induce adverse effects and modify patient outcomes. These adverse events may be further aggravated in obese patients, who often present different illnesses such as metabolic-associated fatty liver disease. In Rennes University Hospital, several drug such as hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) have been used in the clinical trial HARMONICOV to treat COVID-19 patients, including obese patients. The aim of this study is to determine whether HCQ metabolism and hepatotoxicity are worsened in obese patients using an in vivo/in vitro approach. Liquid chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry in combination with untargeted screening and molecular networking were employed to study drug metabolism in vivo (patient’s plasma) and in vitro (HepaRG cells and RPTEC cells). In addition, HepaRG cells model were used to reproduce pathophysiological features of obese patient metabolism, i.e., in the condition of hepatic steatosis. The metabolic signature of HCQ was modified in HepaRG cells cultured under a steatosis condition and a new metabolite was detected (carboxychloroquine). The RPTEC model was found to produce only one metabolite. A higher cytotoxicity of HCQ was observed in HepaRG cells exposed to exogenous fatty acids, while neutral lipid accumulation (steatosis) was further enhanced in these cells. These in vitro data were compared with the biological parameters of 17 COVID-19 patients treated with HCQ included in the HARMONICOV cohort. Overall, our data suggest that steatosis may be a risk factor for altered drug metabolism and possibly toxicity of HCQ.