1,721,020 research outputs found
Bioactive compounds in lentils and nutraceutical effects
No full textLentils are an endemic crop of central Italy in particular of Umbro-Marchean Apennines and some of these are recognized by the European Union with the acronym PGI, Protected Geographical Indication. Among pulses, lentils have high nutritional value and they are an important sources of bioactive compounds: besides nutrients such as PUFA (regulation of cognitive function, cardiovascular diseases prevention) there are important nutraceutical compounds such as soyasaponins (hypocholesterolemic, antiepatotoxic and anticarcinogenic activity) and isoflavones (osteoporosis prevention, ameloriation postmenopausal symptoms, tumor initiation prevention). In our labs, several methods to determine the above compounds have been validated and applied to lentils and other legumes using HPLC-MS, UHPLC-MS/MS, GC-FID systems. Furthermore, some in vivo and in vitro biological studies have been performed, such as anti-hypercholesterolemic effect on a rat model with diet induced hypercholesterolemia. Additionally, toxic effect of soyasaponins and lentil extracts have been studied in vitro on caco-2 cells.
Results showed that soyasaponins I and βg are present in lentils in concentrations ranging from 541 to 1457 mg kg−1. The isoflavone content in lentils ranged from 0.41 to 58.61 μg kg-1. Unsaturated fatty acids are predominant in lentils with respect to saturated fatty acids. Soyasaponin I and lentil extracts no cytotoxic effect produced in Caco-2 cells at the tested concentrations. Lentils are an important source of bioactive compounds and lentils extracts may have a nutraceutical effect.
References
1Vila-Donat, P.; Caprioli, G.; Conti, P.; Maggi, F.; Ricciutelli, M.; Torregiani E.; Vittori, S.; Sagratini, G., Food Anal. Meth., 2013, DOI 10.1007/s12161-013-9708-3. 2Vila-Donat, P., Caprioli, G., Maggi, F., Ricciutelli, M., Torregiani, E., Vittori, S., Sagratini, G., Food Chem., submitted. 3Folch, J., Lees, M., Sloane Stanley, G. H. (1956). J. Biol. Chem., 1956, 226, 497-509
Qualitative characterization of a transesterification product of coconut oil by FIA-APCI-MS
No full textSynopsis Objectives The purpose of this work was the qualitative characterization of a recently transesterification product obtained from the coconut oil in the presence of polyglycerol-6 to produce a new PEG-free secondary surfactant. The purpose of a secondary surfactant is to reduce the harshness of a skin cleanser. Methods The transesterification product was qualitatively characterized in our laboratory by flow injection analysis-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry (FIA-APCI-MS). The mass spectrum of the transesterification product was compared to those of the starting materials (polyglycerol and coconut oil). Results The analyses highlighted the disappearance of the starting oil peaks and the appearance of new peaks assignable to the reaction products, mainly corresponding to diesters of polyglycerol. Additionally, peaks of unreacted polyglycerol are present as well as peaks of cyclization products derived from the polyglycerol starting material. Conclusions The development of this fast and easy analytical method, requesting only few minutes to be performed, represents a very useful tool for the characterization of transesterification products during the quality control of batches under production
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Development of an innovative phytosterol derivatization method to improve the HPLC-DAD analysis and the ESI-MS detection of plant sterols/stanols
No full textHPLC analyses of phytosterols are associated with the issues of sensitivity due to their high lipophilicity and their lack of chromophore. These problems could be solved through chemical modifications of plant sterols/stanols structures. Therefore, the present study aims to develop a new method for phytosterols derivatization. This method was performed using dansyl chloride (4 mg ml−1) as derivatizing agent and different reaction parameters have been optimized. The highest yields of phytosterol derivatization were obtained with 4‐dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP) as catalyst at a concentration of 8 mg ml−1 and dichloromethane as reaction solvent. In addition, 40 ̊C was the best reaction temperature for 30 min as the best reaction time. This derivatization method presented a high reproducibility (%RSD = 1.2–2.7%) and a good linearity (R2 = 0.9982–0.9999). The UV absorption intensities after derivatization showed a 23-fold increment for plant sterols and a 400-fold increment for plant stanols. Moreover, this derivatization method allowed the use of high and more selective wavelengths of detection and improved the chromatographic separation of phytosterols. Furthermore, the developed method allowed the ESI-MS ionization and analysis of phytosterols. This method can therefore contribute to the improvement of the HPLC analyses of plant sterols/stanols
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