Calidad de la dieta española según el índice de alimentación saludable

Objetivo: determinar la calidad de la dieta española mediante el Índice de Alimentación-Saludable (IASE) y su relación con variables geográficas y socioeconómicas. Metodología: Estudio descriptivo transversal a partir de Encuesta-Nacional-Salud-2006 (ENS-2006) Se estudiaron 29.478 personas (Mujeres = 15.019; Hombres = 14.459) que respondieron el Cuestionario de Frecuencia de Consumo (CFC). El IASE se compone de 10 variables (Cereales-derivados, Verduras-hortalizas, Frutas, Leche-derivados, Carnes, Legumbres, Embutidos-fiambres, Dulces, Refrescos-azúcar y Variedad-dieta), construidas a partir del CFC y las recomendaciones de las Guías-Alimentarias (Sociedad-Española-Nutrición-Comunitaria-2004). Categorías IASE (puntuación-máxima 100): Alimentación-saludable: > 80 puntos; Necesita-cambios: > 5.080; Poco-saludable: 50. Se realizó un análisis descriptivo, de diferencias de medias (pruebas Kruskal–Wallis y Mann–Whitney), y prueba Chi-Cuadrado, para estudiar la independencia de las variables edad, sexo, clase-social y nivel de estudios con las categorías de IASE. Resultados: El 72% del total de la muestra necesita cambios en su alimentación. La puntuación media para mujeres es 73,7 ± 10,5 y para hombres 69,9 ± 11,3 (p < 0,001). En la categoría saludable obtienen mayor porcentaje (38,8%) el grupo de edad > 65 años y las mujeres (28,3%) frente a los hombres (18,4%). Así mismo, las clases-sociales más altas (clase-I: 24,4%, clase-II: 25,0%, clase-III: 25,8%) presentan mayor índice de alimentación-saludable, (p < 0,001). Las Comunidades-Autónomas: Comunitat Valenciana (5,4%), Illes Balears (4,6%) y Andalucía (4,3%) son las que presentan mayor índice en la categoría poco-saludable. Conclusiones: El IASE es un método rápido y económico de estimación de la calidad de la dieta de la población, porque utiliza datos secundarios procedente de la ENS y de las guías-alimentarias; siendo útil en la planificación de políticas nutricionales en España.

¿Siguen patrones de dieta mediterránea los universitarios españoles?

Objetivo: Determinar el patrón de consumo de alimentos del alumnado de la Universidad de Alicante (UA) mediante el grado de adecuación a la dieta mediterránea. Método: Estudio transversal descriptivo para estimar la ingesta individual a través de un cuestionario de frecuencia de consumo de alimentos (CFCA) en una muestra representativa de 380 universitarios. Variables a estudio: edad, sexo, área geográfica de procedencia, peso y talla autoreferidos. Así como los alimentos y frecuencias de consumo que componen el CFCA. Se determinó el porcentaje de adecuación teniendo en cuenta, consumo real sobre consumo recomendado por la guía dieta mediterránea tradicional: (100 x raciones consumidas/raciones recomendadas). Se establecieron 5 rangos de porcentaje adecuación: consumo óptimo (80%-119%), consumo aceptable (60%-79%), consumo deficiente (40%-59%), consumo muy deficiente (< 39%), consumo excesivo (> 120%). Se realizó contraste de diferencia de proporciones y la prueba t-Student con EPIDAT 3.1, y SPSS 15.0. Resultados: Prevalencia de sobrepeso-obesidad, es mayor en hombres (34,6%) que en mujeres (9,8%), p < 0,001. Mientras que las mujeres presentan mayor prevalencia de bajo peso (7,0%) que hombres (0,7%), p < 0,05. El consumo de cereales y derivados es muy deficiente (mujeres = 90,6; hombres = 94,9), y el consumo de carnes rojas (mujeres = 90,6; hombres = 92,7) y embutidos (mujeres = 95,9%, hombres = 96,3%) es excesivo. Ningún alumno cubre un “consumo óptimo” o un “consumo aceptable” de todos los grupos de alimentos (n = 12). Discusión: El nivel educativo y el acceso a la información no protegen a la población universitaria de factores socioambientales que influencian sus hábitos alimentarios. Deben reforzarse estrategias de salud pública dirigidas a este grupo de población.

Factors governing the adsorption of ethanol on spherical activated carbons

Ethanol adsorption on different activated carbons (mostly spherical ones) was investigated covering the relative pressure range from 0.001 to 1. Oxygen surface contents of the ACs were modified by oxidation (in HNO3 solution or air) and/or by thermal treatment in N2. To differentiate the concomitant effects of porosity and oxygen surface chemistry on ethanol adsorption, different sets of samples were used to analyze different relative pressure ranges (below 1000 ppmv concentration and close to unity). To see the effect of oxygen surface chemistry, selected samples having similar porosity but different oxygen contents were studied in the low relative pressure range. At low ethanol concentration (225 ppmv) adsorption is favored in oxidized samples, remarking the effect of the oxidizing treatment used (HNO3 is more effective than air) and the type of oxygen functionalities created (carboxyl and anhydride groups are more effective than phenolic, carbonyl and derivatives). To analyze the high relative pressure range, spherical and additional ACs were used. As the relative pressure of ethanol increases, the effect of oxygen-containing surface groups decreases and microporosity becomes the most important variable affecting the adsorption of ethanol.

Pregabalin - learning from gabapentin?

The author overviews the use of pregabalin in neuropathic pain. (non-author abstract)

Purification of plasmid DNA for use in human gene therapy

Two key issues defined the focus of this research in manufacturing plasmid DNA for use In human gene therapy. First, the processing of E.coli bacterial cells to effect the separation of therapeutic plasmid DNA from cellular debris and adventitious material. Second, the affinity purification of the plasmid DNA in a Simple one-stage process. The need arises when considering the concerns that have been recently voiced by the FDA concerning the scalability and reproducibility of the current manufacturing processes in meeting the quality criteria of purity, potency, efficacy, and safety for a recombinant drug substance for use in humans. To develop a preliminary purification procedure, an EFD cross-flow micro-filtration module was assessed for its ability to effect the 20-fold concentration, 6-time diafiltration, and final clarification of the plasmid DNA from the subsequent cell lysate that is derived from a 1 liter E.coli bacterial cell culture. Historically, the employment of cross-flow filtration modules within procedures for harvesting cells from bacterial cultures have failed to reach the required standards dictated by existing continuous centrifuge technologies, frequently resulting in the rapid blinding of the membrane with bacterial cells that substantially reduces the permeate flux. By challenging the EFD module, containing six helical wound tubular membranes promoting centrifugal instabilities known as Dean vortices, with distilled water between the Dean number's of 187Dn and 818Dn,and the transmembrane pressures (TMP) of 0 to 5 psi. The data demonstrated that the fluid dynamics significantly influenced the permeation rate, displaying a maximum at 227Dn (312 Imh) and minimum at 818Dn (130 Imh) for a transmembrane pressure of 1 psi. Numerical studies indicated that the initial increase and subsequent decrease resulted from a competition between the centrifugal and viscous forces that create the Dean vortices. At Dean numbers between 187Dn and 227Dn , the forces combine constructively to increase the apparent strength and influence of the Dean vortices. However, as the Dean number in increases above 227 On the centrifugal force dominates the viscous forces, compressing the Dean vortices into the membrane walls and reducing their influence on the radial transmembrane pressure i.e. the permeate flux reduced. When investigating the action of the Dean vortices in controlling tile fouling rate of E.coli bacterial cells, it was demonstrated that the optimum cross-flow rate at which to effect the concentration of a bacterial cell culture was 579Dn and 3 psi TMP, processing in excess of 400 Imh for 20 minutes (i.e., concentrating a 1L culture to 50 ml in 10 minutes at an average of 450 Imh). The data demonstrated that there was a conflict between the Dean number at which the shear rate could control the cell fouling, and the Dean number at which tile optimum flux enhancement was found. Hence, the internal geometry of the EFD module was shown to sub-optimal for this application. At 579Dn and 3 psi TMP, the 6-fold diafiltration was shown to occupy 3.6 minutes of process time, processing at an average flux of 400 Imh. Again, at 579Dn and 3 psi TMP the clarification of the plasmid from tile resulting freeze-thaw cell lysate was achieved at 120 Iml1, passing 83% (2,5 mg) of the plasmid DNA (6,3 ng μ-1 10.8 mg of genomic DNA (∼23,00 Obp, 36 ng μ-1 ), and 7.2 mg of cellular proteins (5-100 kDa, 21.4 ngμ-1 ) into the post-EFD process stream. Hence the EFD module was shown to be effective, achieving the desired objectives in approximately 25 minutes. On the basis of its ability to intercalate into low molecular weight dsDNA present in dilute cell lysates, and be electrophoresed through agarose, the fluorophore PicoGreen was selected for the development of a suitable dsDNA assay. It was assesseel for its accuracy, and reliability, In determining the concentration and identity of DNA present in samples that were eleclrophoresed through agarose gels. The signal emitted by intercalated PicoGreen was shown to be constant and linear, and that the mobility of the PicaGreen-DNA complex was not affected by the intercalation. Concerning the secondary purification procedure, various anion-exchange membranes were assessed for their ability to capture plasmid DNA from the post-EFD process stream. For a commercially available Sartorius Sartobind Q15 membrane, the reduction in the equilibriumbinding capacity for  ctDNA in buffer of increasing ionic demonstrated that DNA was being.adsorbed by electrostatic  interactions only. However, the problems associated with fluid distribution across the membrane demonstrated that the membrane housing was the predominant cause of the .erratic breakthrough curves. Consequently, this would need to be rectified before such a membrane could be integrated into the current system, or indeed be scaled beyond laboratory scale. However, when challenged with the process material, the data showed that considerable quantities of protein (1150 μg) were adsorbed preferentially to the plasmid DNA (44 μg). This was also shown for derived Pall Gelman UltraBind US450 membranes that had been functionalised by varying molecular weight poly-L~lysine and polyethyleneimine ligands. Hence the anion-exchange membranes were shown to be ineffective in capturing plasmid DNA from the process stream. Finally, work was performed to integrate a sequence-specific DNA·binding protein into a single-stage DNA chromatography, isolating plasmid DNA from E.coli cells whilst minimising the contamination from genomic DNA and cellular protein. Preliminary work demonstrated that the fusion protein was capable of isolating pUC19 DNA into which the recognition sequence for the fusion-protein had been inserted (pTS DNA) when in the presence of the conditioned process material. Althougth the pTS recognition sequence differs from native pUC19 sequences by only 2 bp, the fusion protein was shown to act as a highly selective affinity ligand for pTS DNA alone. Subsequently, the scale of the process was scaled 25-fold and positioned directly following the EFD system. In conclusion, the integration of the EFD micro-filtration system and zinc-finger affinity purification technique resulted in the capture of approximately 1 mg of plasmid DNA was purified from 1L of E.coli  culture in a simple two stage process, resulting in the complete removal of genomic DNA and 96.7% of cellular protein in less than 1 hour of process time.

Microencapsulation studies with P(HB-HV) polymers

Microencapsulation processes, based upon the concept of solvent evaporation, have been employed within these studies to prepare microparticles from poly--hydroxybutyrate homopolymers and copolymers thereof with 3-hydroxyvalerate [P(HB-HV) polymers]. Variations in the preparative technique have facilitated the manufacture of two structurally distinct forms of microparticle. Thus, monolithic microspheres and reservoir-type microcapsules have been respectively fabricated by single and double emulsion-solvent evaporation processes. The objective of the studies reported in chapter three is to asses how a range of preparative variables affect the yield, shape and surface morphology of P(HB-HV) microcapsules. The following chapter then describes how microcapsule morphology in general, and microcapsule porosity in particular, can be regulated by blending the fabricating P(HB-HV) polymer with poly--caprolactone [PCL]. One revelation of these studies is the ability to generate uniformly microporous microcapsules from blends of various high molecular weight P(HB-HV) polymers with a low molecular weight form of PCL. These microcapsules are of particular interest because they may have the potential to facilitate the release of an encapsulated macromolecule via an aqueous diffusion mechanism which is not reliant on polymer degradation. In order to investigate this possibility, one such formulation is used in chapter five to encapsulate a wide range of different macromolecules, whose in vitro release behaviour is subsequently evaluated. The studies reported in chapter six centre on the preparation and characterization of hydrocortisone-loaded microspheres, prepared from a range of P(HB-HV) polymers, using a single emulsion-solvent evaporation process. In this chapter, the influence of the organic phase viscosity on the efficiency of drug encapsulation is the focus of initial investigations. Thereafter, it is shown how the strategies previously adopted for the regulation of microcapsule morphology can also be applied to single emulsion systems, with profound implications for the rate of drug release.

Interaction of metal salts with polyethers

The dielectric properties of pure low to medium molecular weight poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(propylene glycol) and a variety of their salt complexes have been studied through the measurement of the dielectric permittivity and dielectric loss over a range of frequency and temperature. The major proportion of this study has been concerned with the examination of the nature of the interaction between mercuric chloride and poly(propylene glycol) (PPG). Other salt-poly-ether combinations have also been considered such as cobalt chloride-PPG cadmium chloride-PPG zinc chloride-PPG and ferric chloride-PEG (polyethylene glycol). Some of this work was also supported by chemical shift and spin-lattice Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (N.M.R.) spectroscopy. The dielectric permittivity data were analysed using the Onsager relation to calculate the mean dipole moment per dipolar unit. This approach was employed in the discussion of various models proposed for the structure of salt-polyether complexes. The effect of mercuric chloride on the statistical conformations of poly(propylene-glycol) was studied in a quantitative manner using the relationships of marchal-Benoit. The dielectric relaxation activation energy and mean energy difference between gauche and trans conformations of poly(propylene glycol) in the presence of mercuric chloride, both showed a distinct minimum when the concentration of mercuric chloride was close to 5 mole %. Opposite behaviour was observed for the Cole-Cole parameter. It was concluded that the majority of the dielectric data could be rationalised in terms of a 5-membered cyclic complex formed between mercuric chloride and PPG in which the complexed segment of the polyether-(OMeCH2CH2O)- adopted either gauche or cis conformations.

Vascular cell responsiveness to toll-like receptor ligands in carotid atheroma

Background Atherosclerosis is potentiated by stimulation of Toll-like receptors (TLRs), which serve to detect pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). However little is known of which PAMPs may be present in atheroma, or capable of stimulating inflammatory signalling in vascular cells. Materials and Methods DNA extracted from human carotid atheroma samples was amplified and sequenced using broad-range 16S gene specific primers to establish historical exposure to bacterial PAMPs. Responsiveness of primary human arterial and venous endothelial and smooth muscle cells to PAMPs specific for each of the TLRs was assessed by measurement of interleukin-8 secretion and E-selectin expression. Results Extracts of atheromatous tissue stimulated little or no signalling in TLR-transfected HEK-293 cells. However, sequencing of bacterial DNA amplified from carotid atheroma revealed the presence of DNA from 17 different bacterial genera, suggesting historical exposure to bacterial lipopeptide, lipopolysaccharide and flagellin. All cells examined were responsive to the ligands of TLR3 and TLR4, poly inosine:cytosine and lipopolysaccharide. Arterial cells were responsive to a wider range of PAMPs than venous cells, being additionally responsive to bacterial flagellin and unmethylated cytosine-phosphate-guanosine DNA motifs, the ligands of TLR5 and TLR9, respectively. Cells were generally unresponsive towards the ligands of human TLR7 and TLR8, loxoribine and single stranded RNA. Only coronary artery endothelial cells expressed TLR2 mRNA and responded to the TLR2 ligand Pam3CSK4. Conclusions Vascular cells are responsive to a relatively diverse range of TLR ligands and may be exposed, at least transiently, to ligands of TLR2, TLR4, TLR5 and TLR9 during the development of carotid atheroma.

Fractional Calculus of the Generalized Wright Function

Mathematics Subject Classification: 26A33, 33C20.

Some Fractional Extensions of the Temperature Field Problem in Oil Strata

This survey is devoted to some fractional extensions of the incomplete lumped formulation, the lumped formulation and the formulation of Lauwerier of the temperature field problem in oil strata. The method of integral transforms is used to solve the corresponding boundary value problems for the fractional heat equation. By using Caputo’s differintegration operator and the Laplace transform, new integral forms of the solutions are obtained. In each of the different cases the integrands are expressed in terms of a convolution of two special functions of Wright’s type.

A Brief Story about the Operators of the Generalized Fractional Calculus

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 26A33, 33C60, 44A20

An Analog of the Tricomi Problem for a Mixed Type Equation with a Partial Fractional Derivative

Mathematics Subject Classification 2010: 35M10, 35R11, 26A33, 33C05, 33E12, 33C20.

Fractional Calculus of P-transforms

MSC 2010: 44A20, 33C60, 44A10, 26A33, 33C20, 85A99

Distribuição de derivados de petróleo por redes de polidutos: uma abordagem através de algoritmos evolucionários híbridos para um problema triobjetivo

An important problem faced by the oil industry is to distribute multiple oil products through pipelines. Distribution is done in a network composed of refineries (source nodes), storage parks (intermediate nodes), and terminals (demand nodes) interconnected by a set of pipelines transporting oil and derivatives between adjacent areas. Constraints related to storage limits, delivery time, sources availability, sending and receiving limits, among others, must be satisfied. Some researchers deal with this problem under a discrete viewpoint in which the flow in the network is seen as batches sending. Usually, there is no separation device between batches of different products and the losses due to interfaces may be significant. Minimizing delivery time is a typical objective adopted by engineers when scheduling products sending in pipeline networks. However, costs incurred due to losses in interfaces cannot be disregarded. The cost also depends on pumping expenses, which are mostly due to the electricity cost. Since industrial electricity tariff varies over the day, pumping at different time periods have different cost. This work presents an experimental investigation of computational methods designed to deal with the problem of distributing oil derivatives in networks considering three minimization objectives simultaneously: delivery time, losses due to interfaces and electricity cost. The problem is NP-hard and is addressed with hybrid evolutionary algorithms. Hybridizations are mainly focused on Transgenetic Algorithms and classical multi-objective evolutionary algorithm architectures such as MOEA/D, NSGA2 and SPEA2. Three architectures named MOTA/D, NSTA and SPETA are applied to the problem. An experimental study compares the algorithms on thirty test cases. To analyse the results obtained with the algorithms Pareto-compliant quality indicators are used and the significance of the results evaluated with non-parametric statistical tests.

Characterization of three human sec14p-like proteins: a-Tocopherol

Three closely related human sec14p-like proteins (hTAP1, 2, and 3, or SEC14L2, 3, and 4, respectively) have been described. These proteins may participate in intracellular lipid transport (phospholipids, squalene, tocopherol analogues and derivatives) or influence regulatory lipid-dependent events. Here, we show that the three recombinant hTAP proteins associate with the Golgi apparatus and mitochondria, and enhance the in vitro transport of radioactively labeled α-tocopherol to mitochondria in the same order of magnitude as the human α-tocopherol transfer protein (α-TTP). hTAP1 and hTAP2 are expressed in several cell lines, whereas the expression level of hTAP3 is low. Expression of hTAP1 is induced in human umbilical cord blood-derived mast cells upon differentiation by interleukin 4. In tissues, the three hTAPs are detectable ubiquitously at low level; pronounced and localized expression is found for hTAP2 and hTAP3 in the perinuclear region in cerebellum, lung, liver and adrenal gland. hTAP3 is well expressed in the epithelial duct cells of several glands, in ovary in endothelial cells of small arteries as well as in granulosa and thecal cells, and in testis in Leydig cells. Thus, the three hTAPs may mediate lipid uptake, secretion, presentation, and sub-cellular localization in a tissue-specific manner, possibly using organelle- and enzyme-specific docking sites.