Delivery of Functionality in Complex Food Systems: Physically Inspired Approaches from Nanoscale to Microscale,Wageningen 18–21 October 2009

The Wageningen Delivery of Functionality symposium covered all aspects involved with food structural design to arrive at high-quality foods which meet demanding customer expectations and regulatory requirements. The symposium integrated aspects from the structural organization of foods at molecular and supramolecular scales to dedicated techniques required to describe and visualize such structures, the gastro-intestinal events and how to model these in a laboratory setting, and finally the impact those food structures and ingredients have on the consumer’s physiology and on the human perception. As an interdisciplinary platform, bringing together more than 160 researchers from academia and industry, the symposium meanwhile fulfills an important role in the food science community.     

In vitro response of subpopulations of human tonsil lymphocytes. I. Cellular collaboration in the proliferative response to PHA and Con A.

Human tonsil lymphocytes have been separated into three subpopulations of cells: purified B cells and two subsets of purified T cells (F1 and F2). B cells were obtained by rosetting with neuraminidase treated SRBC. F1 and F2 were separated by filtration on a nylon wool column using different speeds of elution. Purified B cells contained less than 5% T cells, the T cells preparations contained less than 5% B cells for F1 and 10 to 15% for F2, respectively. A significant contamination in cells not identified by any B or T marker was observed in purified B cells and in F1. Adherent cells enhanced the response of each lymphochte population to PHA and Con A. This explained the paradoxically low responsiveness of the purified T cells. Purified B cells did not respond to these mitogens in different culture conditions. However, a small B cell response was observed when they were cultured in the presence of mitomycin-treated T cells. Striking was the enhancing effect of B cells on the T cell response to PHA and Con A. This enhancing effect was observed even when B cells were treated with mitomycin or depleted in adherent cells. The comparison of the F1 and F2 response suggested that they contained distinct types of T cells.     

Adaptable mesocosm facility to study oil spill impacts on corals

Although numerous studies have been carried out on the impacts of oil spills on coral physiology, most have relied on laboratory assays. This scarcity is partly explained by the difficulty of reproducing realistic conditions in a laboratory setting or of performing experiments with toxic compounds in the field. Mesocosm systems provide the opportunity to carry out such studies with safe handling of contaminants while reproducing natural conditions required by living organisms. The mesocosm design is crucial and can lead to the development of innovative technologies to mitigate environmental impacts. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a mesocosm system for studies simulating oil spills with several key advantages, including true replication and the use of gravity to control flow‐through that reduces reliance on pumps that can clog thereby decreasing errors and costs. This adaptable system can be configured to (a) have continuous flow‐through; (b) operate as an open or closed system; (c) be fed by gravity; (d) have separate mesocosm sections that can be used for individual and simultaneous experiments; and (e) simulate the migration of oil from ocean oil spills to the nearby reefs. The mesocosm performance was assessed with two experiments using the hydrocoral Millepora alcicornis and different configurations to simulate two magnitudes of oil spills. With few exceptions, physical and chemical parameters remained stable within replicates and within treatments throughout the experiments. Physical and chemical parameters that expressed change during the experiment were still within the range of natural conditions observed in Brazilian marine environments. The photosynthetic potential (F_v/F_m) of the algae associated with M. alcicornis decreased in response to an 1% crude‐oil contamination, suggesting a successful delivery of the toxic contaminant to the targeted replicates. This mesocosm is customizable and adjustable for several types of experiments and proved to be effective for studies of oil spills.     

Impact of artificial patchy reef design on the ichthyofauna community of seasonally influenced shores at Southeastern Brazil

Aquatic Ecology - To investigate how variations in the small-scale distance between patchy reef modules affect the structure and composition of the associated ichthyofauna, concrete reefballs were...     

Assessment of Efficacy and Quality of Two Albendazole Brands Commonly Used against Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections in School Children in Jimma Town,Ethiopia

BackgroundThere is a worldwide upscale in mass drug administration (MDA) programs to control the morbidity caused by soil-transmitted helminths (STHs): Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworm. Although anthelminthic drugs which are used for MDA are supplied by two pharmaceutical companies through donation, there is a wide range of brands available on local markets for which the efficacy against STHs and quality remain poorly explored. In the present study, we evaluated the drug efficacy and quality of two albendazole brands (Bendex and Ovis) available on the local market in Ethiopia.Conclusion/SignificanceThe study revealed that differences in efficacy between the two brands of albendazole (ABZ) tablets against hookworm are linked to the differences in the in-vitro drug release profile. Differences in uptake and metabolism of this benzimidazole drug among different helminth species may explain that this efficacy difference was only observed in hookworms and not in the two other species. The results of the present study underscore the importance of assessing the chemical and physicochemical quality of drugs before conducting efficacy assessment in any clinical trials to ensure appropriate therapeutic efficacy and to exclude poor drug quality as a factor of reduced drug efficacy other than anthelminthic resistance. Overall, this paper demonstrates that “all medicines are not created equal”.     

A Simple 13C NMR Method for the Discrimination of Complex Mixtures of Stereoisomers: All Eight Stereoisomers of α‐Tocopherol Resolved

A simple one‐dimensional ¹³C NMR method is presented to discriminate between stereoisomers of organic compounds with more than one chiral center. By means of this method it is possible to discriminate between all eight stereoisomers of α‐tocopherol. To achieve this the chiral solvating agent (S)‐(+)‐1‐(9‐anthryl)‐2,2,2‐trifluoroethanol and the compound of interest were dissolved in high concentrations in chloroform‐d, and the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum was recorded at a low temperature. The individual stereoisomers of α‐tocopherol were assigned by spikes of the reference compounds. The method was also applied to six other representative examples. Chirality 27:850–855, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.