Search results for "Lute"
showing 10 items of 1384 documents
Geographical trends in the yolk carotenoid composition of the pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca).
2010
Carotenoids in the egg yolks of birds are considered to be important antioxidants and immune stimulants during the rapid growth of embryos. Yolk carotenoid composition is strongly affected by the carotenoid composition of the female’s diet at the time of egg formation. Spatial and temporal differences in carotenoid availability may thus be reflected in yolk concentrations. To assess whether yolk carotenoid concentrations or carotenoid profiles show any large-scale geographical trends or differences among habitats, we collected yolk samples from 16 European populations of the pied flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca. We found that the concentrations and proportions of lutein and some other xantho…
Do carotenoid-based sexual traits signal the availability of non-pigmentary antioxidants?
2006
SUMMARY Carotenoid-based signals are thought to be indicators of male quality because they must be obtained from the diet and might thus indicate the ability of individuals to gather high-quality food. However, carotenoids are also known to have important physiological functions as immunoenhancers and antioxidants, and, as such, carotenoid-based sexual traits have also been suggested to reflect the health and antioxidant status of their bearers. This last idea is based on the hypothesis that carotenoids that are allocated to sexual signals are no longer available for the detoxification system. Recently, this hypothesis has been challenged on the grounds that the antioxidant activity is not …
Effects of magnesium deprivation on development and biomineralization in the sea urchin Arbacia lixula
2019
Echinoderms have an extensive endoskeleton composed of magnesian calcite and occluded matrix proteins. As biomineralization in sea urchin larvae is sensitive to the Magnesium:Calcium ratio of seawater, we investigated the effects of magnesium deprivation on development and skeletogenesis in the sea urchin Arbacia lixula. We focused on the localization of the skeletogenic cells (primary mesenchyme cells) and the spatial expression of associated genes. Embryos reared in Mg-free seawater exhibited developmental delay from 6-h post-fertilization and at 24 h embryos showed complete lack of biomineral formation. Larvae (48–72 h) exhibited severe skeleton malformations. Fluorescent labelling revea…
Antioxidant activity and enzymes inhibitory properties of several extracts from two Moroccan Asteraceae species
2018
Abstract The present work reports investigation on phenolic compounds, antioxidant activity and enzyme inhibitory activities (acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, tyrosinase, α-amylase and α-glucosidase) of different extracts from two Moroccan Asteraceae species; Bubonium imbricatum Cav. and Cladanthus arabicus (L.) Cass. B. imbricatum extracts contained the highest amounts of phenolics and flavonoids, and also exhibited higher antioxidant activity. In this species, the highest total phenolic (1611.13 ± 14.23 μmolGAE/gextract) and flavonoid (376.11 ± 8.22 μmolQE/gextract) contents were observed in aqueous-methanol extract obtained by maceration. Further, UHPLC–MS analysis of C. arab…
Quality Characteristics of Wholemeal Flour and Bread from Durum Wheat (Triticum turgidum L subsp. durum Desf.) after Field Treatment with Plant Water…
2016
The use of selected plant water extracts to control pests and weeds is gaining growing attention in organic and sustainable agriculture, but the effects that such extracts may exert on the quality aspects of durum wheat are still unexplored. In 2014, 5 plant water extracts (Artemisia arborescens, Euphorbia characias, Rhus coriaria, Thymus vulgaris, Lantana camara) were prepared and distributed on durum wheat cv Valbelice to evaluate their potential herbicidal effects. After crop harvesting, the major physicochemical and technological parameters of wholemeal flours obtained from each treatment were measured and compared with those from chemical weeding and untreated controls. A baking test w…
Spectroscopic analysis of hot-water- and dilute-acid-extracted hardwood and softwood chips
2017
Hot-water and dilute sulfuric acid pretreatments were performed prior to chemical pulping for silver/white birch (Betula pendula/B. pubescens) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) chips to determine if varying pretreatment conditions on the original wood material were detectable via attenuated total reflectance (ATR) infrared spectroscopy. Pretreatment conditions varied with respect to temperature (130 °C and 150 °C) and treatment time (from 30 min to 120 min). The effects of the pretreatments on the composition of wood chips were determined by ATR infrared spectroscopy. The spectral data were compared to those determined by common wood chemistry analyses to evaluate the suitability of ATR spe…
Nonlinear network dynamics for interconnected micro-grids
2018
Abstract This paper deals with transient stability in interconnected micro-grids. The main challenge is to understand the impact of the connectivity of the graph and model nonlinearities on transient and steady-state behavior of the system as a whole. The contribution of this paper is three-fold. First, we provide a robust classification of transient dynamics for different intervals of the parameters for a single micro-grid. We prove that underdamped dynamics and oscillations arise when the damping coefficient is below a certain threshold which we calculate explicitly as function of the product between the inertia coefficient and the synchronization parameter. Second, for interconnected mic…
Bio-inspired evolutionary dynamics on complex networks under uncertain cross-inhibitory signals
2019
Given a large population of agents, each agent has three possiblechoices between option 1 or 2 or no option. The two options are equally favorable and the population has to reach consensus on one of the two options quickly and in a distributed way. The more popular an option is, the more likely it is to be chosen by uncommitted agents. Agents committed to one option can be attracted by those committed to the other option through a cross-inhibitory signal. This model originates in the context of honeybee swarms, and we generalize it to duopolistic competition and opinion dynamics. The contributions of this work include (i) the formulation of a model to explain the behavioral traits of the ho…
Physico-chemical properties and sensory profile of durum wheat Dittaino PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) bread and quality of re-milled semolina…
2018
To help future quality checks, we characterized the physico-chemical and sensory properties of Dittaino bread, a sourdough-based durum wheat bread recently awarded with Protected Designation of Origin mark, along with the quality features of re-milled semolina used for its production. Semolina was checked for Falling Number (533–644 s), protein content (12.0–12.3 g/100 g d.m.), gluten content (9.7–10.5 g/100 g d.m.), yellow index (18.0–21.0), water absorption (59.3–62.3 g/100 g), farinograph dough stability (171–327 s), softening index (46–66 B.U.), alveograph W (193 × 10−4–223 × 10−4 J) and P/L (2.2–2.7). Accordingly, bread crumb was yellow, moderately hard (16.4–27.1 N) and chewy (88.2–10…
IL10 promoter haplotypes may contribute to altered cytokine expression and systemic inflammation in celiac disease
2018
Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune/inflammatory condition triggered by dietary gluten intake in genetically predisposed individuals. Though associations with MHC class II HLA-DQ2 or -DQ8 are the primary and necessary genetic predisposition for CD, >97% of genetically predisposed individuals never develop CD. Cytokines were measured in the serum of CD patients and controls. Possible associations with IL10 promoter variants were investigated. Cytokine expression from PBMCs was monitored in response to gluten exposure, or CD3/TCR complex stimulation in the absence or presence of recombinant IL-10. Serum cytokines varied between patients with CD at the time of diagnosis, after dietary elimina…