Optimisation of a model food mixture using response surface methodology to evaluate the anti‐adhesive properties of cooking materials

The composition of a model food was optimised to evaluate the anti‐adhesive properties of cooking materials. This optimisation was performed using a response surface methodology. When cooked at 201 °C, the model food was selected to leave the greatest quantity of cooked residue that cannot be removed easily from the utensil surface. The measurement of the surface covered by the cooked food left after cleaning was the response value of the experimental design. The effect of five macronutrients was evaluated. Glucose and ovalbumin factors showed the most important positive effect, while amylopectin presented a negative effect. The optimum concentration values of the food constituents where highest food adsorption was estimated were 34.5 mg mL^?1 glucose, 14.5 mg mL^?1 amylopectin, 39.0 mg mL^?1 ovalbumin, 13.5 mg mL^?1 casein and 32.8 mg mL^?1 linoleic acid. The predicted results at the optimum point coincided well with experimental values. The optimum food mixture presented good precision as well.     

Occurrence and removal of pharmaceuticals in a municipal sewage treatment system in the south of Sweden

The occurrence and removal rate of seven pharmaceuticals (ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac, fluoxetine, ofloxacin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin), two metabolites (norfluoxetine, clofibric acid), one degradation product (4-isobutylacetophenone) and 3 estrogens (17α-ethinylestradiol, 17β-estradiol, estrone) were studied in the inlet and outlet of a tertiary sewage treatment plant (STP) in Sweden as well as between different treatment steps in the STP which includes a conventional activated sludge step. Pharmaceuticals in raw household and raw hospital sewage streams leading to the STP were as well investigated. Hydraulic retention times (HRT) of each treatment step was considered for sampling and for the calculation of the removal rates. These rates were above 90%, except for diclofenac, clofibric acid, estrone and ofloxacin. However, only diclofenac and naproxen showed significant effluent loads (> 145 mg/d/1000 inh). Diclofenac was not eliminated during the treatment and in fact even higher concentrations were found at the effluent than in the inlet of the STP. 17α-Ethinylestradiol was not detected in any of the samples. Results indicate that a STP such as the one in Kristianstad, Sweden, with a tertiary treatment is sufficient to remove significantly most of the investigated pharmaceuticals. The chemical treatment improved the removal of several pharmaceuticals especially the antibiotics, which showed step removal rates between 55 and 70%. The expected concentration levels of the pharmaceuticals in the surface water (dilution 1 to 10) close to the outlet of the STP are below the no-observed effect-concentration (NOEC). However, despite that this would imply no important effects in the aquatic environment one cannot rule out negative consequences nearby the STP because most of the NOEC values are derived from acute toxicity data. This may underestimate the real impact of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic ecosystem.     

The Involvement of Natural Polyphenols in the Chemoprevention of Cervical Cancer

From all types of cancer, cervical cancer manages to be in top four most frequent types, with a 6.5% rate of occurrence. The infectious vector that induces the disease, the high-risk Human papillomavirus (HPV), which is a sexually transmitted virus, is capable of transforming the host cell by modulating some of the principal signaling pathways responsible for cell cycle arrest, proliferation, and survival. Fortunately, like other cancer types, cervical cancer can be treated by chirurgical interventions or chemoradiotherapy, but these methods are not exactly the lucky clover of modern medicine because of the adverse effects they have. That is the reason why in the last years the emphasis has been on alternative medicine, more specifically on phytochemicals, as a substantial number of studies showed that diet contributes to cancer prevention and treatment. All these studies are trying to find new chemopreventive agents with less toxicity but high effectiveness both in vitro and in vivo. The aim of this review is to evaluate the literature in order to underline the advantages and disadvantages of polyphenols, a class of dietary compounds, as chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents. This review also aims to present polyphenols from different perspectives, starting with mechanisms of action and ending with their toxicity. The bigger picture illustrates that polyphenols have great potential in cervical cancer prevention, with strong effects on gene modulation.     

Optimization and application of homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction in preconcentration of copper (II) in a ternary solvent system

In this study a homogeneous liquid-liquid extraction based on the Ph-dependent phase-separation process was investigated using a ternary solvent system (water-acetic acid-chloroform) for the preconcentration of Cu(2+) ions. 8-Hydroxy quinoline was used as the chelating agent prior to its extraction. Flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry using acetylene-air flame was used for the quantitation of analyte after preconcentration. The effect of various experimental parameters in extraction step was investigated using two optimization methods, one variable at a time and central composite design. The experimental design was done at five levels of operating parameters. Nearly the same optimized results were obtained using both methods: sample size, 5 mL; volume of NaOH 10 M, 2 mL; chloroform volume, 300 microL; 8-hydroxy quinoline concentration more than 0.01 M and salt amount did not affect the extraction significantly. Under the optimum conditions the calibration graph was linear over the range 10-2000 microg L(-1). The relative standard deviation was 7.6% for six repeated determinations (C = 500 microg L(-1)). Furthermore, the limit of detection (S/N=3) and limit of quantification (S/N=10) of the method were obtained as 1.74 and 6 microg L(-1), respectively.     

A Recent Insight Regarding the Phytochemistry and Bioactivity of Origanum vulgare L. Essential Oil

Origanum vulgare L. is a widely used aromatic plant, especially due to its content in essential oil, mainly rich in carvacrol and thymol. The ethnopharmacological uses of Origanum vulgare L. essential oil (OEO) comprise digestive, respiratory, or dermatological disorders. The review focuses on the increasing number of recent studies investigating several biological activities of OEO. The bioactivities are in tight relation to the phytochemical profile of the essential oil, and also depend on taxonomic, climatic, and geographical characteristics of the plant material. The antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, skin disorders beneficial effects, next to antihyperglycemic and anti-Alzheimer activities were reported and confirmed in multiple studies. Moreover, recent studies indicate a positive impact on skin disorders of OEO formulated as nanocarrier systems in order to improve its bioavailability and, thus, enhancing its therapeutic benefits. The review brings an up to date regarding the phytochemistry and bioactivity of Origanum vulgare L. essential oil, underlining also the most successful pharmaceutical formulation used for skin disorders.     

Warning procedures for systems that are improving

Nowadays it is quite usual that systems are correctly maintained. This leads to a decreasing number of failures for the system. In this paper we discuss how to establish warning procedures that take into account features giving the chance of detecting eventual changes of trend in the systems and allowing taking measures before too much damage has actually happened. The proposed procedure is applied to the study of the reliability and maintenance of the railway electric supply system. In this kind of systems, complex and extended, testing the performance of the system and effectiveness of the maintenance tasks has special interest. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing trends in Duane plots using robust fits

The Duane plot is a simple and widely used graphical technique in the analysis of repairable systems. The fitting of a straight line to points in that graph serves to determine the behavior of the system assuming a power law process. However, the classical least squares fitting suffer from lack of robustness and it is specially heavily affected by the more remote and perhaps least interesting points. In order to solve this drawback we propose a robust fit based on Least Median of Squares (LMS) or Least Trimmed Squares (LTS) regression estimators of [1].This methodology has been applied in a project aimed to study the reliability, availability and maintainability of the aerial contact line of the Spanish railways.     

Recent Advances in Phenolic Metabolites and Skin Cancer

Skin cancer represents any tumor development from the cutaneous structures within the epidermis, dermis or subcutaneous tissue, and is considered to be the most prevalent type of cancer. Compared to other types of cancer, skin cancer is proven to have a positive growth rate of prevalence and mortality. There are available various treatments, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted therapy, but because of the multidrug resistance development, a low success has been registered. By this, the importance of studying naturally occurring compounds that are both safe and effective in the chemoprevention of skin cancer is emphasized. This review focuses on melanoma because it is the deadliest form of skin cancer, with a significantly increasing incidence in the last decades. As chemopreventive agents, we present polyphenols and their antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory effect, their ability to balance the cell cycle and to induce apoptosis and their various other effects on skin melanoma. Besides chemoprevention, studies suggest that polyphenols can have treating abilities in some conditions. The limitations of using polyphenols are also pointed out, which are related to their poor bioavailability and stability, but as the technology is well developed, it is possible to augment the efficacy of polyphenols in the case of melanoma.