Retention of nitrogen from ground barley grain supplemented with lucerne or barley leaf juice in long-term balance experiments conducted with rats

The biological value (BV) and true digestibility of lucerne and barley juice protein mixed with ground barley grain were estimated using the Thomas-Mitchell balance method with rats. The BV with forage barley juice protein was similar to that of barley grain protein alone and was not improved by any of the applied treatments. The BV with lucerne juice protein was lower and was improved by separating the ‘brown juice’ after heat coagulation. Better results were obtained in a group fed diets with lowered levels of potassium and calcium which suggested an imbalance in the mineral content of lucerne juice; there was no difference in water consumption. The haemoglobin content of the blood of rats fed lucerne or barley juice alone was lower than that of animals fed plant juice/barley grain mixtures. No pathological lesions were observed in the guts, kidneys and livers of the rats.     

A codesign approach for safety-critical automotive applications

This complex, bus-based air bag ignition system for automobiles demonstrates an effective way to design embedded fault-tolerant applications     

Thermodynamic and Cation Diffusion Studies of Perovskites on the Basis of LaGaO3 and Implications for SOFC

Solid phase equilibria in the quasi quaternary system La₂O₃‐Ga₂O₃‐SrO‐MgO near the solubility lobe of the (La,Sr)(Ga,Mg)O_3−δ perovskite phase were determined by XRD, SEM/EDX and EPMA of annealed and quenched samples. Equilibration of the samples during these measurements was ensured by considering diffusion of the cations which are the slowest moving species and determine all equilibration processes. Vaporization studies of the perovskite phase La_1−xSr_xGa_1−yMg_yO_3−(x+y)/2 and of the Ga₂O₃‐La₂O₃ system were carried out by the use of Knudsen effusion mass spectrometry in the temperature range between 1600 K and 1900 K. The gaseous species O₂, Ga, GaO, Ga₂O, and LaO, as well as in part also Mg, Sr and SrO were detected over the samples investigated. Thermodynamic activities and Gibbs energies of formation of the quasi binary compounds LaGaO₃(s) and La₄Ga₂O₉(s) resulted from the measurements. The data obtained are used to compute the vaporization of La_0.90Sr_0.10Ga_0.80Mg_0.20O_2.85 being considered as SOFC electrolyte by thermodynamic modeling for different SOFC operating conditions. A high volatility results for the anode side. Diffusion of the impurities Y, Fe and Cr was investigated by SIMS at 1673 K for different compositions of symmetrically doped LSGM, La_1−xSr_xGa_1−xMg_xO_3−x (x = 0.0, 0.02, 0.10, 0.20) showing that diffusion occurs via bulk and grain boundaries. Implications for the kinetic stability of LSGM in a SOFC are discussed.     

Effect of non-enzymatic glycosylation of pea albumins on their immunoreactive properties

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of non-enzymatic glycosylation of pea proteins on their immunoreactive properties. Extracted total pea albumins were glycated. No changes were found in molecular weight distribution of total pea albumins before and after glycation using size exclusion chromatography and SDS–PAGE methods. SDS–PAGE GLYCO test stained the glycated proteins and OPA method showed 15% progress in glycation. Glycated and unglycated pea albumins were orally and intraperitoneally administered to Balb/C mice. Serum specific IgG and IgA and sIgA were determined. No difference in serum specific IgG level was found after oral mice immunization with TA and GTA. In the presence of antigen SPL lymphocytes culture showed higher proliferation activity as compared to the culture without the antigen addition. The glycation does not change the immunoreactivity of proteins significantly. During the presented route of immunization with TA and GTA specific tolerance mechanism could be induced.     

Influence of native antioxidants on the formation of fatty acid hydroperoxides in model systems

The effect of alpha‐tocopherol (alpha‐T) and quercetin on the formation of hydroperoxides of linoleic and linolenic acids during autoxidation at 60 ± 1 °C was investigated. Three isomers of hydroperoxides were detected using HPLC. Of isomers of linoleic acid hydroperoxides, 13‐hydroperoxy‐octadecadienoic acid trans‐trans (13‐HPODE t‐t), 9‐HPODE cis‐trans (9‐HPODE c‐t) and 9‐HPODE trans‐trans (9‐HPODE t‐t) were identified, constituting 64, 19 and 17% of the total amount, respectively. For linolenic acid, the components 13‐hydroperoxy‐octadecatrienoic acid trans‐trans (13‐HPOTE t‐t), 9‐HPOTE c‐t and 9‐HPOTE t‐t contributed 7, 33 and 60% to the total, respectively. The different dominant hydroperoxide isomers detected in linoleic and linolenic acids during oxidation are related to their chemical structure and the microenvironment of emulsion droplets. The ratios between specific isomers for both fatty acid hydroperoxides did not change during oxidation with or without antioxidants. Alpha‐T effectively inhibited the oxidation of fatty acids and reduced the formation of hydroperoxides. The total amount of the hydroperoxides decreased along with the increase in the concentration of alpha‐T, 1–40 µM. Quercetin inhibited the oxidation of both fatty acids at similar efficiency only at 40 µM concentration. A synergistic antioxidant effect of quercetin with alpha‐T in a binary system on both fatty acids was observed.     

Properties of TiN coatings deposited by the modified IPD method

The paper describes the very first observations of the effect of pulsed gas injection to the coaxial accelerator during impulse plasma deposition (IPD) on the structure and properties of deposited material. As a test material a TiN coating deposited on high-speed steel substrates was chosen. The morphology and wear-resistance properties were determined. The structure obtained with modified IPD method is characterized by a crystalline structure built of rectangular nanograins (with size a few tens of nm) in contrast to the nanocrystalline structure based on three-dimensional (3D) agglomerates of nanoparticles typical for the standard IPD synthesis. The wear-resistance of the TiN coatings deposited in the modified IPD apparatus demonstrate very good properties with the best results more than ten times better compared with the uncoated steel substrates.     

Culturomics Approach to Identify Diabetic Foot Infection Bacteria

The main goal of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of the culturomics approach in the reflection of diabetic foot infections (DFIs) microbial compositions in Poland. Superficial swab samples of 16 diabetic foot infection patients (Provincial Polyclinical Hospital in Toruń, Poland) were subjected to culturing using 10 different types of media followed by the identification via the matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and Biotyper platform. Identified 204 bacterial isolates representing 18 different species—mostly Enterococcus faecalis (63%) and Staphylococcus aureus (44%). Most of the infections (81%) demonstrated a polymicrobial character. Great differences in the species coverage, the number of isolated Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and the efficiency of the microbial composition reflection between the investigated media were revealed. The use of commonly recommended blood agar allowed to reveal only 53% of the entire microbial composition of the diabetic foot infection samples, which considerably improved when the chromagar orientation and vancomycin-resistant enterococi agar were applied. In general, efficiency increased in the following order: selective < universal < enriched < differential media. Performed analysis also revealed the impact of the culture media composition on the molecular profiles of some bacterial species, such as Corynebacterium striatum, Proteus mirabilis or Morganella morganii that contributed to the differences in the identification quality. Our results indicated that the culturomics approach can significantly improve the accuracy of the reflection of the diabetic foot infections microbial compositions as long as an appropriate media set is selected. The chromagar orientation and vancomycin-resistant enterococi agar media which were used for the first time to study diabetic foot infection microbial profiles demonstrate the highest utility in the culturomics approach and should be included in further studies directed to find a faster and more reliable diabetic foot infection diagnostic tool.     

Novel 2-(Adamantan-1-ylamino)Thiazol-4(5H)-One Derivatives and Their Inhibitory Activity towards 11β-HSD1—Synthesis,Molecular Docking and In Vitro Studies

A common mechanism in which glucocorticoids participate is suggested in the pathogenesis of such metabolic diseases as obesity, metabolic syndrome, or Cushing’s syndrome. The enzyme involved in the control of the availability of cortisol, the active form of the glucocorticoid for the glucocorticoid receptor, is 11β-HSD1. Inhibition of 11β-HSD1 activity may bring beneficial results for the alleviation of the course of metabolic diseases such as metabolic syndrome, Cushing’s syndrome or type 2 diabetes. In this work, we obtained 10 novel 2-(adamantan-1-ylamino)thiazol-4(5H)-one derivatives containing different substituents at C-5 of thiazole ring and tested their activity towards inhibition of two 11β-HSD isoforms. For most of them, over 50% inhibition of 11β-HSD1 and less than 45% inhibition of 11β-HSD2 activity at the concentration of 10 µM was observed. The binding energies found during docking simulations for 11β-HSD1 correctly reproduced the experimental IC₅₀ values for analyzed compounds. The most active compound 2-(adamantan-1-ylamino)-1-thia-3-azaspiro[4.5]dec-2-en-4-one (3i) inhibits the activity of isoform 1 by 82.82%. This value is comparable to the known inhibitor-carbenoxolone. The IC₅₀ value is twice the value determined by us for carbenoxolone, however inhibition of the enzyme isoform 2 to a lesser extent makes it an excellent material for further tests.     

Determination of the Influence of c-BN+h-BN Coating Structure on Brittleness

COATINGS applied on cutting tools should becharacterized among other properties by high abrasivewear resistance2,3,5,11-16].Abrasive wearresistance increases with hardness increasing.Manyexperiments have shown linear dependence betweenhardness and abrasive wear for different materials[5,7,9,11,24].This relation however,according to[24]notalways is true.In this work is pointed out,that thisrelation is more complicated and another properties canbe more important then hardness.Linear relation…     

Effect of menadione (vitamin K3) addition on lipid oxidation and tocopherols content in plant oils

The effect of added menadione (vitamin K3) on stored corn and wheat germ oil on the dissolution and dimerization of natural tocopherols and autoxidation of triacylglycerols was investigated. Samples of corn and wheat germ oils pure and with added menadione were stored at +20 degrees C in brown and transparent glass bottles. During storage their peroxide value, changes of the content of fatty acids and dissolution of tocopherols were measured. Destruction of individual tocopherols in tested oils with menadione stored in both dark and transparent glass bottles was greater than in the oil samples without menadione. However, the degradation of individual tocopherols was different in each oil. Addition of menadione to the both oils resulted in accelerated the process of autoxidation of these oils. The corn oil stored in transparent bottles was oxidized faster than the one stored in brown bottles. The pro-oxidant activity of menadione was additionally activated by light. In contrast, in the case of germ oil, the process of autoxidation was very fast regardless of sort of container. Addition of menadione to the plant oils influenced the dissolution of natural tocopherols but did not influence the dimerization of tocopherols. As from the experiment, the addition of menadione to the oils decreased their nutritive value.