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Holm Honore posted an update 3 days, 7 hours ago
In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly three-fourths of children 6-23 months are anemic. Yet, the underlying causes had not been sufficiently explored. This study, based on data (n = 348) extracted from the Malawi Micronutrient Survey-2015/2016 dataset, evaluated the contribution of multiple factors to the hemoglobin status of children 6-23 months. The association between hemoglobin and 19 predictors was assessed using multiple linear regression analysis, and the relative contribution of the covariates was determined based on delta-R2 value. The study found that 43.9% of children were anemic and 76.9% had elevated soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) levels. Unit changes in serum ferritin (µg/L) and sTfR (mg/L) were associated with 0.01 g/dl rise (p = .041) and 0.05 g/dl decline (p less then .001) in hemoglobin, respectively. Each 1 ng/ml increase in plasma selenium was met with 0.007 g/dl (p = .02) rise in hemoglobin. Hemoglobin showed negative relationships with α-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP) (β = -.339, p = .007) and C-reactive protein (CRP) (β = -.014, p = .004) and positive association with child’s age in months (β = .038, p = .003) and altitude in meters (β = .001, p = .015). Children affected by α-thalassemia (β = -.75, p less then .001), malaria (β = -.43, p = .029), and fever (β = -.39, p = .008) had significantly lower hemoglobin levels. On the contrary, nine variables including serum zinc and retinol binding protein were not significant predictors of hemoglobin. sTfR had the highest delta-R2 contribution (9.1%) to hemoglobin variations, followed by inflammation (5.2%), α-thalassemia (2.5%), age (2.1%), fever (1.9%), and malaria (1.5%). find more The analysis suggested iron status, inflammation, and malaria were the major predictors of hemoglobin among Malawian infants and young children.Soybean protein-derived peptides (SBP) are a rich source of various bioactive peptides with multiple health benefits. However, the prospective effects of SBP on human cells are still unclear. Therefore, this article investigated the effects of small molecular weight SBP on MG132-induced apoptosis in RAW264.7 cells. SBP inhibited MG132-induced apoptosis of RAW264.7 cells in a dose-dependent manner by flow cytometry. To further study its molecular mechanisms, Western blot analysis demonstrated that SBP could activate the PI3K-AKT pathway by increasing the phosphorylation of PI3K and AKT and inhibiting apoptosis pathway by downregulating the expressions of pro-apoptotic proteins of Bim, Bax, Fas, and Fasl and promoting the expressions of anti-apoptotic proteins of Bcl-xL and Bcl-2. These results indicated the protective effect of SBP on MG132-induced apoptosis in RAW264.7 cells.Permeate is the by-product of the process of ultrafiltration in a kind of cheese making process in which a semipermeable membrane filters the liquid. It mainly contains 4.5%-4.8% lactose and 0.44%-0.47% mineral salts which make it a safe disposal issue. This study was conducted to use permeate and its lactose as an alternative to sugar, and to use these useful permeate compounds in an optimized orange juice formulation. Milk permeate, as a waste disposal of dairy companies, was applied in lactose hydrolyzed form as the cost effective sugar and water substitution in production of orange juice. The RSM optimization method was applied for formulating beverage mixture. The heated and nonheated permeate samples were incubated with β-glycosidase enzyme in three thermal ranges (35, 40, and 45°C), 3 time intervals (60,150, and 240 min), and 3 enzyme levels (0%, 0.1%, and 0.2%). The degree of hydrolysis was determined by MilkoScan analyzer. In the next step, optimization of orange juice was accomplished with a mixture of sugar (10%-40%) and hydrolyzed permeate (10%-40%) with specific Brix through RSM statistical design. The physicochemical properties and sensory evaluation were measured during 8 weeks of storage. At the first stage of the study, the heated sample with 0.1% enzyme density, which was incubated for 150 min at 40°C, was yielded the best result. At the second stage, which was the juice production and evaluation, the statistical analysis showed increasing trend of pH and sugar content, but density and vitamin C showed a decreasing trend during storage time (p less then .05). The optimal condition was obtained in taking 35% permeate and 41 days of storage in which the values of formalin, vitamin C, and sensory tests were in the highest levels.The rapid development of transcriptome sequencing technology has contributed to the discovery of numerous genes in plant; however, the role of gene expression in postharvest wheat remains largely unexplored. In this study, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by RNA-seq in different quality wheats. The 102.6 Gb clean reads had been yielded from the nine RNA-seq libraries. Typically, there were 1791 upregulated and 2,677 downregulated DEGs, respectively, in strong-gluten wheat compared with weak-gluten wheat. Specifically, a total of 4,468 DEGs were classified into 286 Gene Ontology (GO) terms and 131 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes terms (KEGG). Moreover, the storage protein components, starch and sucrose metabolism, and plant hormone signal transduction-related genes were discovered, which had involved 109 DEGs. The wet gluten proteins content was 35.24% and 17.36%, and the glutenin macropolymer content was 6.38% and 5.01% between the strong- and weak-gluten wheat, respectively. The POD activities of the different quality wheats were 6,571.14, 5,341.24, and 4,851.48 U/g/min, respectively. The significant difference of starch and sucrose metabolism, hormone, POD, and CAT enzyme along with the higher ATPase activity might potentially affect gluten polymerization, which might thereby result in the different qualities of wheats.Green tea, superfine green tea powder (SGTP), and tea extract were prepared to determine their chemical components and antioxidant activity. The nutrition and aroma challenges of green tea during traditional extract technique and superfine grinding were profiled in this study. The traditional extract technique took advantage over superfine grinding in L-theanine and glutamic acid (Glu) preservation, but not in other 16 essential amino acids. SGTP preserved a maximum of elements from green tea, whereas tea extract greatly changed the elements ratio. Tea extract contained higher VB2 and VC contents and doubled the tea polyphenol (TP) content in comparison with green tea and SGTP. Additionally, tea extract contained more favorable aroma compounds and maintained stronger antioxidant activity in comparison with green tea and SGTP. This study profiled an important basis for the comprehensive utilization of green tea resources by consumers and manufacturers.