Effect of l-ascorbic acid, sugar, pectin and freeze-thaw treatment on polyphenol content of frozen strawberries

The stability of phenolic compounds of three strawberry cultivars was evaluated for changes during prefreezing treatments, storage and various freezing and thawing conditions. Polyphenol content was determined by HPLC-DAD-FL. The sum of assayed polyphenolic (proanthocyanidin and monomeric flavan-3-ols, anthocyanins, ellagic acid, p-coumaric acid) represented 2858.4 mg/kg in Kent, 2893.1 mg/kg in Elkat, and 2438.0 mg/kg in Senga Sengana. After freezing, 4.5-33.6% of polyphenols were lost; protective effects of prefreezing treatments were seen on anthocyanidins and proanthocyanidins: ascorbic acid was the most effective pretreatment, allowing retention of 3.9-27.5% of anthocyanins, and almost total recovery (3.9-23.9%) when associated with liquid nitrogen freezing. Pectin and sugar only allowed retention of 3.0-25.1% and 5.5-25.4% of the antocyanins, respectively. Thawing of the strawberries in a microwave oven (instead of 20 h at 20 °C) had a further positive effect on retention of anthocyanins, proanthocyanins, (+)-catechin and ellagic acid.     

Unique Pit Lake Created in an Opencast Potassium Salt Mine (Dombrovska Pit Lake in Kalush,Ukraine)

We studied the physicochemical and biological characteristics of the Dombrovska pit lake in Ukraine. The lake formed in an abandoned opencast potassium salt mine and is one of the most saline inland water bodies in the world. It is 85 m deep (November 2015) and an annual inflow of about 2 Mm³ of water. The lake has two distinct layers. The mesohaline surface (0–5 m) layer is well oxygenated and slightly alkaline (pH?=?7.5–8.8). Its mineralization, expressed as dry mass, was 50–134 g dm^??3, and its electrical conductivity (EC) was 58–134 mS cm^??1. The underlying layer consists of hypersaline water with low amounts of dissolved oxygen, a neutral pH (6.7–7.4), high mineralization (179–420 g dm^??3), high EC (169–215 mS cm^??1), and higher concentrations of major anions and cations (except Ca²⁺) and nutrients than the overlying water. The vertical relationship between major ions and metals and the future salinity of the lake are discussed. In terms of zooplankton, in July we found living specimens of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis and the ciliates Paradileptus elephantinus and Tindinnidium sp. as well as dead rotifers, cladocerans, and copepods (in total, 19 species), but only live B. plicatilis and 9 dead species in November. In the littoral part of the pit lake, we found the diatoms Nitzschia pusilla and some Halamphora species (H. borealis, H. tenerrima, H. acutiuscula), which favour highly saline waters.     

The Effect of Buckwheat Hull Extract on Lipid Oxidation in Frozen‐Stored Meat Products

This study investigated the effect of antioxidants on lipid stability of frozen‐stored meat products. Buckwheat hull extract was used to enrich fried meatballs made from ground pork. During 180‐d storage of meat products, lipid oxidation (peroxide and 2‐thiobarbituric acid reactive substances [TBARS] value) was periodically monitored. The results were compared with butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). The addition of antioxidants decreased lipid oxidation in stored meatballs. The highest ability to control peroxide and TBARS values was demonstrated for buckwheat hull extract. Moreover, buckwheat hull extract showed a higher 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging activity as well as higher Fe(II) ion chelating ability, as compared with BHT. The total content of phenolic compounds are highly correlated to the individual polyphenols in extract of buckwheat hull, among which the following were assayed: 3,4‐dihydroxybenzoic acid, 4‐hydroxybenzoic acid, gallic acid, isovanillic acid and p‐coumaric acid, and flavonoids: isoorientin, quercetin, quercetin 3‐d ‐glucoside, rutin, and vitexin. These results indicate that plant extracts can be used to prolong shelf life of products by protecting them against lipid oxidation and deterioration of their nutritional quality.     

Hierarchical Polymer Microlattice Structures

In this paper, we describe a rapid method for fabricating a low density polymer microlattice with structural organization on two length scales. The topology of this hierarchical cellular structure is achieved through the in situ formation of a microlattice with small‐scale lattice members (≈100 µm diameter) within a microlattice with approximately 12 times larger feature sizes. Compression experiments suggest that an increase in the specific plateau stress is realized by the introduction of hierarchy.     

Patterning hierarchy in direct and inverse opal crystals

Biological strategies for bottom-up synthesis of inorganic crystalline and amorphous materials within topographic templates have recently become an attractive approach for fabricating complex synthetic structures. Inspired by these strategies, herein the synthesis of multi-layered, hierarchical inverse colloidal crystal films formed directly on topographically patterned substrates via evaporative deposition, or "co-assembly", of polymeric spheres with a silicate sol-gel precursor solution and subsequent removal of the colloidal template, is described. The response of this growing composite colloid-silica system to artificially imposed 3D spatial constraints of various geometries is systematically studied, and compared with that of direct colloidal crystal assembly on the same template. Substrates designed with arrays of rectangular, triangular, and hexagonal prisms and cylinders are shown to control crystallographic domain nucleation and orientation of the direct and inverse opals. With this bottom-up topographical approach, it is demonstrated that the system can be manipulated to either form large patterned single crystals, or crystals with a fine-tuned extent of disorder, and to nucleate distinct colloidal domains of a defined size, location, and orientation in a wide range of length-scales. The resulting ordered, quasi-ordered, and disordered colloidal crystal films show distinct optical properties. Therefore, this method provides a means of controlling bottom-up synthesis of complex, hierarchical direct and inverse opal structures designed for altering optical properties and increased functionality.     

Densification mechanisms of spark plasma sintering: multi-step pressure dilatometry

The effects of electrical current and mechanical pressure on the densification of spherical copper powder during spark plasma sintering (SPS) are examined. A novel multi-step pressure dilatometry method is introduced to compare the constitutive behavior of the copper powder under nearly equivalent current-insulated and current-assisted SPS process conditions. The strain rate sensitivity agrees with that predicted for a dislocation climb-controlled creep densification mechanism for both processing setups. Accelerated densification rate leading to a higher final relative density is observed for the current-assisted SPS.     

The Clinical Significance of Drug–Food Interactions of Direct Oral Anticoagulants

Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death in the world. For almost 60 years, vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) were the mainstay of anticoagulation therapy, but in recent years direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have become the anticoagulant treatment of choice. DOACs were initially considered drugs with no significant food interactions; however, clinical observations from daily practice have proved otherwise as interactions with food ingredients have been reported. Food, dietary supplements or herbs may contain substances that, when administered concomitantly with DOACs, can potentially affect the plasma concentration of the drugs. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the clinical significance of drug–food interactions of DOACs, such as dabigatran, rivaroxaban, apixaban, edoxaban and betrixaban. Patients treated with anticoagulants should avoid products containing St. John’s wort and take special care with other food ingredients. As the interest in dietary supplements is on the rise, healthcare providers can contribute to the development of well-designed clinical trials on interactions between DOACs and food, and distribute sufficient knowledge about the proper use of these supplements among patients.     

Physiological effects of unassembled chaperonin Cct subunits in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Eukaryotic chaperonins, the Cct complexes, are assembled into two rings, each of which is composed of a stoichiometric array of eight different subunits, which are denoted Cct1p-Cct8p. Overexpression of a single CCT gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae causes an increase of the corresponding Cct subunit, but not of the Cct complex. Nevertheless, overexpression of certain Cct subunits, especially CCT6, suppresses a wide range of abnormal phenotypes, including those caused by the diverse types of conditional mutations tor2-21, lst8-2 and rsp5-9 and those caused by the concomitant overexpression of Sit4p and Sap155p. The examination of 73 altered forms of Cct6p revealed that the cct6-24 mutation, containing GDGTT --> AAAAA replacements of the conserved ATP-binding motif, was unable to suppress any of these traits, although the cct6-24 allele was completely functional for growth. These results provide evidence for functional differences among Cct subunits and for physiological properties of unassembled subunits. We suggest that the suppression is due to the competition of specific Cct subunits for activities that normally modify various cellular components. Furthermore, we also suggest that the Cct subunits can act as suppressors only in certain states, such as when associated with ATP.     

Recombination in men with Klinefelter syndrome

Klinefelter syndrome (KS: 47,XXY), occurs in one in 1000 male births. Men with KS are infertile and have higher rates of aneuploidies in sperm compared with normal fertile men. In the course of analyzing recombination in a population of infertile men, we observed that four men in our study presented with KS. We examined whether these men differed in recombination parameters among themselves and relative to normal men. Even though the number of men with KS analyzed was small, we observed remarkable variation in spermatogenesis. In spite of the fact that the men had the same genetic cause for infertility, two of four KS patients had few or no spermatogenic cells that progressed through meiosis to the pachytene stage, whereas the other two men produced abundant pachytene cells that had recombination frequencies comparable with those of fertile men, although one had a significant reduction in fidelity of synapsis. Moreover, regardless of histological appearance, examination of outcomes of assisted reproduction indicated that sperm were extracted from testis biopsies in all four cases, and when used in assisted reproductive practices chromosomally normal babies were born. These results reinforce that: (i) men with the same underlying genetic cause for infertility do not present with uniform pathology, (ii) the checkpoint machinery that might arrest spermatogenesis in the face of chromosomal abnormalities does not prevent pockets of complete spermatogenesis in men with KS, and (iii) aneuploidy, in some cases, is compatible with birth of a chromosomally normal child, suggesting that sperm produced from a background of aneuploidy can be normal in men with KS.