Dietary advanced glycation end‐products: Perspectives linking food processing with health implications

Dietary advanced glycation end products (dAGEs) are complex and heterogeneous compounds derived from nonenzymatic glycation reactions during industrial processing and home cooking. There is mounting evidence showing that dAGEs are closely associated with various chronic diseases, where the absorbed dAGEs fuel the biological AGEs pool to exhibit noxious effects on human health. Currently, due to the uncertain bioavailability and rapid renal clearance of dAGEs, the relationship between dAGEs and biological AGEs remains debatable. In this review, we provide the most updated information on dAGEs including their generation in processed foods, analytical and characterization techniques, metabolic fates, interaction with AGE receptors, implications on human health and reducing strategies. Available evidence demonstrating a relevance between dAGEs and food allergy is also included. AGEs are ubiquitous in foods and their contents largely depend on the reactivity of carbonyl and amino groups, along with surrounding condition mainly pH and heating procedures. Once being digested and absorbed into the circulation, two separate pathways can be involved in the deleterious effects of dAGEs: an AGE receptor‐dependent way to stimulate cell signals, and an AGE receptor‐independent way to dysregulate proteins via forming complexes. Inhibition of AGEs formation during food processing and reduction in the diet are two potent approaches to restrict health‐hazardous dAGEs. To elucidate the biological role of dAGEs toward human health, the following significant perspectives are raised: molecular size and complexity of dAGEs; interactions between unabsorbed dAGEs and gut microbiota; and roles played by concomitant compounds in the heat‐processed foods.     

Adaptive actuator failure compensation design for unknown chaotic multi‐input systems

In this paper, an adaptive control approach is designed for compensating the faults in the actuators of chaotic systems and maintaining the acceptable system stability. We propose a state‐feedback model reference adaptive control scheme for unknown chaotic multi‐input systems. Only the dimensions of the chaotic systems are required to be known. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, new adaptive control laws are synthesized to accommodate actuator failures and system nonlinearities. An illustrative example is studied. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the design method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interlayer Engineering of Molybdenum Trioxide toward High‐Capacity and Stable Sodium Ion Half/Full Batteries

Orthorhombic molybdenum trioxide (MoO₃) is one of the most promising anode materials for sodium‐ion batteries because of its rich chemistry associated with multiple valence states and intriguing layered structure. However, MoO₃ still suffers from the low rate capability and poor cycle induced by pulverization during de/sodiation. An ingenious two‐step synthesis strategy to fine tune the layer structure of MoO₃ targeting stable and fast sodium ionic diffusion channels is reported here. By integrating partially reduction and organic molecule intercalation methodologies, the interlayer spacing of MoO₃ is remarkably enlarged to 10.40 Å and the layer structural integration are reinforced by dimercapto groups of bismuththiol molecules. Comprehensive characterizations and density functional theory calculations prove that the intercalated bismuththiol (DMcT) molecules substantially enhanced electronic conductivity and effectively shield the electrostatic interaction between Na⁺ and the MoO₃ host by conjugated double bond, resulting in improved Na⁺ insertion/extraction kinetics. Benefiting from these features, the newly devised layered MoO₃ electrode achieves excellent long‐term cycling stability and outstanding rate performance. These achievements are of vital significance for the preparation of sodium‐ion battery anode materials with high‐rate capability and long cycling life using intercalation chemistry.     

Graphite Oxide and Aromatic Amines: Size Matters

Experimental and theoretical studies are performed in order to illuminate, for first time, the intercalation mechanism of polycyclic aromatic molecules into graphite oxide. Two representative molecules of this family, aniline and naphthalene amine are investigated. After intercalation, aniline molecules prefer to covalently connect to the graphene oxide matrix via chemical grafting, while napthalene amine molecules bind with the graphene oxide surface through π–π interactions. The presence of intercalated aromatic molecules between the graphene oxide layers is demonstrated by X‐ray diffraction, while the type of interaction between graphene oxide and polycyclic organic molecules is elucidated by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical calculations describe the intercalation mechanism and the aniline grafting, rationalizing the experimental data. The present work opens new perspectives for the interaction of various aromatic molecules with graphite oxide and the so‐called “intercalation chemistry”.     

Synthesis and characterization of MCM-41-supported nano zirconia catalysts

Series of MCM-41 supported sulfated Zirconia (SZ) catalysts with different loadings (2.5–7.5% wt.) were prepared using direct impregnation method. The acquired solid catalysts were characterized structurally and chemically using X-RD, HRTEM, BET, FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy and TPD analysis. The acidity of the solid catalysts was investigated through cumene cracking and isopropanol dehydration at different temperatures. As the SZ loading increases, the surface acidity of the mesoporous catalysts was enhanced, this was reflected by the higher catalytic activity toward cumene cracking and isopropanol dehydration.     

Design of novel urogenital pharmabiotic formulations containing lactobacilli,salivaricin CRL 1328 and non-microbial compounds with different functionalities

Context: The administration of pharmabiotics is a promising alternative to antimicrobial drugs for the treatment and/or prevention of female urogenital infections.

Objective: To design pharmabiotic formulations including bioactive ingredients of microbial origin combined with non-microbial substances and then to evaluate the stability of the combinations during freeze-drying and storage.

Materials and methods: Different formulations including Lactobacillus gasseri CRL 1263, Lactobacillus salivarius CRL 1328, salivaricin CRL 1328 (a bacteriocin) and non-microbial compounds (lactose, inulin and ascorbic acid) were assayed, and the ingredients were freeze-dried together or separately. The formulations were stored in gelatin capsules at 4?°C for 360?d.

Results: The viability of lactobacilli was affected to different extents depending on the strains and on the formulations assayed. L. salivarius and ascorbic acid were successfully combined only after the freeze-drying process. Salivaricin activity was not detected in formulations containing L. gasseri. However, when combined with ascorbic acid, lactose, inulin or L. salivarius, the bacteriocin maintained its activity for 360?d. The selected microorganisms proved to be compatible for their inclusion in multi-strain formulations together with lactose, inulin and ascorbic acid. Salivaricin could be included only in a L. salivarius CRL 1328 single-strain formulation together with non-microbial substances.

Conclusions: This study provides new insights into the design of urogenital pharmabiotics combining beneficial lactobacilli, salivaricin CRL 1328 and compounds with different functionalities.     

Adaptive backstepping repetitive learning control design for nonlinear discrete‐time systems with periodic uncertainties

This paper addresses a tracking problem for uncertain nonlinear discrete‐time systems in which the uncertainties, including parametric uncertainty and external disturbance, are periodic with known periodicity. Repetitive learning control (RLC) is an effective tool to deal with periodic unknown components. By using the backstepping procedures, an adaptive RLC law with periodic parameter estimation is designed. The overparameterization problem is overcome by postponing the parameter estimation to the last backstepping step, which could not be easily solved in robust adaptive control. It is shown that the proposed adaptive RLC law without overparameterization can guarantee the perfect tracking and boundedness of the states of the whole closed‐loop systems in presence of periodic uncertainties. In addition, the effectiveness of the developed controller is demonstrated by an implementation example on a single‐link flexible‐joint robot. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Potential bio-activity of whey fermented extract as sanitizer of organic grown lettuce

Consumption of vegetables is increasing due to demand for healthy products in peoples' diets. To reduce microbial contamination and maintain freshness, industrial processes in Portugal rely on minimally processing of vegetables with hypochlorite as sanitizer. Formation of toxic chlorine derivatives has raised concern restrictions to its use and alternatives with whey permeate as a disinfection agent has been attempted. The aim of this work was to evaluate the bio potential of fermented cheese whey, for use on disinfection of minimally processed lettuce organically grown.Assays were made with whey obtained from inoculated milk during cheese processing, fermented for 120 h at 37 °C, after which, among other carbohydrates, lactic acid was measured by HPLC, giving average yields of 18 g L⁻¹.The sanitizing effect of whey, undiluted, 75 and 50% solutions, was compared with 110 ppm sodium hypochlorite, after rinsing. Aerobic Microorganisms (AM), Psychrotrophic Microorganisms (PM) and Enterobacteriaceae (ENT), were used as indicators for hygiene quality. For a level of significance of P < 0.05, the hygiene quality standards of lettuce samples, were better using 75% whey solution (AM 6.62, PM 7.48 cfu g⁻¹), than using sodium hypochlorite (AM 7.48, PM 8.15 cfu g⁻¹), for the 7 days of shelf life studied. Evaluation of Enterobacteriaceae showed significant differences after 3 days, between water (ENT 4.98 cfu g⁻¹) sodium hypochlorite (ENT 4.81 cfu g⁻¹) and 75% solution of whey (ENT 4.63 cfu g⁻¹).Considering the actual limitations imposed to chlorine sanitation, these results point a good alternative to the food industry, especially for organic fresh vegetables, which are chemical free brands.