Investigation of the Oral Retention of Tea Catechins in Humans: An Exploratory Interventional Study

Green tea catechin ingestion or gargling exhibit anti-viral activity against upper respiratory infection. We hypothesized that retention in the oral cavity could improve the anti-viral effects of catechins. The present study investigated the oral retention of catechins in humans and the effect of catechin beverage viscosity on oral retention. Two intervention studies with different test beverages, beverage-C (40 mL, containing 73.4 mg of catechins) and beverage-XT (40 mL, beverage-C containing 100 mg xanthan gum) were conducted in 20 healthy volunteers (mean age 38.7 years). Catechin concentrations were measured in buccal mucosa samples collected at 10 min, 40 min, and 60 min after ingesting test beverages, and the catechin variability of the tissue after intake was compared between test beverages. As a result, the mean (SEM) concentrations of EGCG were 99.9 (27.2), 58.2 (16.6), and 22.3 (5.7) ng/mg-mucosa at 10, 40, and 60 min, respectively, after ingestion of beverage-XT. Similarly, the catechin concentrations were 86.1 (20.3), 32.2 (5.3), and 27.8 (5.9) ng/mg-mucosa after ingestion of beverage-C. The total retention volume over 60 min tended to be slightly higher after ingestion of beverage-XT, though the difference was not statistically significant. Additional studies are needed to confirm the effect of xanthan gum on improving oral retention of catechins.

Desain Kolam Retensi Berbantu Komputer di Cibuluh Kota Bogor

Water retention serves to control the surface runoff and conservation of rainwater in maintaining groundwater accumulation. This research aims to know the discharge of flood, know the volume of water to be accommodated in water retention, determine optimal water retention volume capacity, produce an effective design of water retention technical design, and produce a cost budget plan. Research conducted in Cibuluh Quarter, Tanah Baru Village, District Bogor Utara, Bogor City, West Java. Komulative flood discharge is 12.01 m3/sec. Capacity of Ciheuleut River is 9.38 m3/sec. Total capacity of water retention is 5272.52 m3. The Capacity development is 10481 m2. Water retention area that can be constructed is 4241 m2. The depth is 4 m so the capacity is 16964 m3. The structure is oval. The shortest diameter dimension is 50 m and the longest is 108 m. Total depth plan of 6 m is able to accommodate maximum 25446 m3 of water. Planned a type of sluice with width 1300 mm x height 1600 mm with a discharge of 4.89 m3/sec. It takes a total of 5 sluices on inlet and outlet. The cost required in the construction of Cibuluh Water Retention is Rp13.680.570.000,00.

Thermodynamic Properties Investigation of Process Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Its Transport Impact Factor in Oil Sands Management

This paper presents a new approach for the determination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) characteristics and their migration influencing factors in oil sands management processes and reveals the relationship between different asphaltene content and different solvents. Specifically, thermodynamic (i.e., partitioning coefficients, Kr, specific retention volume, Vg, the activity coefficients, γ and enthalpy of solution, ΔH0) and their impact factors are discussed. Gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) experimental measurements were used as the test data. A range of solvents (nC5, iC5, nC6, nC7, and Toluene) has been tested in different asphalt contents (0, 2.56, 9.93, 36.86, 53.67 wt%). There are temperatures in the range of 333.2–393.2 K (with 10 K increase) were conducted, respectively. The dynamics properties of asphalt mixture are calculated, and the relation between dynamics properties of asphalt mixture and absolute temperature, asphalt content and solvent type is discussed. The results show that within the acceptable error range, partitioning coefficients, Kr, specific retention volume, Vg, and enthalpy of solution, ΔH0 and other thermodynamic properties have a good tendency to predict, they decrease with the increase in asphaltene content and temperature and increase with the increase in solute carbon number.

Milk thistle flour effect on dough rheological properties

The influence of the addition of partially defatted milk thistle seed flour was studied by analyzing the rheological properties of dough in order to further exploit the functionality of partially defatted milk thistle flour in bakery products. The rheological properties of dough were monitored using Mixolab 2 (Chopin Technologies, France). A rheofermentometer F4 (Chopin Technologies, France) was used to check the dough fermentation, and for the baking trials wheat flour, rye flour, and milk thistle flour were kept in the portion: 50:50:0 (control flour); 50:45:5; 50:40:10 and 50:35:15. The addition of different milk thistle flour in the mixtures resulted in a difference in the viscoelastic properties of the dough. The results showed a weakening of the gluten network in all trial mixtures evaluated. The dough development time values of the control flour were 1.20 min, while an addition of milk thistle flour in portions of 5, 10, and 15% increased these values to 1.30 min, 1.90 min, and 2,80 min, respectively. In addition to higher dough development time values, all trial mixtures exhibited also higher stability (5.07 min; 6.25 min and 8.03 min), when compared to the control flour (4.63 min). The trial mixture with 15% milk thistle flour had different characteristics of gelatinization and retrogradation. The rheofermentometer measured the dough characteristics during proofing, and the trial mixtures with the addition of MTF had a retention volume at approximately the same level as the control flour (WRF). The Volscan profiler was used to determine the bread volume and other parameters. All breads had high volume and specific volume values and can be rated as good, with good porosity and ratio. Mixtures containing 5%, 10% and 15% milk thistle flour added to wheat flour + rye flour maintained rheological parameters within the recommended limits for good technological behavior and, consequently, good quality of bakery products. From all of the above data, it can be stated that, with regard to their baking characteristics, these flour mixtures fall into the category of flours suitable for bakery products.

Investigation of Highway Stormwater Management Pond Capacity for Flood Detention and Water Quality Treatment Retention via Remote Sensing Data and Conventional Topographic Survey

Stormwater management ponds are common best management practice (BMP) and green infrastructure (GI) for flood attenuation and water quality treatment in highway projects. Originally designed to provide storage volume for flood detention, stormwater ponds today often employ additional retention volume at pond bottom in a hope to improve water quality via sedimentation and other pollutant-removal mechanisms. It is commonly assumed that sediment accumulation and topographic variations (such as erosion, channelization, and in-pond plant growth and decay) over time often decrease the capacity of stormwater ponds. However, differences between design capacities and field capacities over time have never been verified and quantitatively analyzed before. This study presents such analysis using conventional topographic survey techniques and remote sensing data (topographic light detection and ranging digital elevation model [LIDAR DEM]) for 10 highway stormwater ponds along Interstate Highway-95 (I-95) systems in Baltimore City, Cecil County, and Harford County, Maryland, United States, with facility service life ranging from 14 to 26 years (1990–2015). Data derived from LIDAR DEM were compared with those from topographic survey; the LIDAR DEM data appear to be effective in measuring flood detention capacities and identifying silted ponds, but not in estimating the remaining retention volume for water quality treatment. Data from topographic survey indicate that the total volume in the ponds was relatively unchanged compared with the design, with increases in some instances. The increase typically occurred at the pond’s upper stages. Nonetheless, the water quality treatment capacity at pond bottom (wet pool volume) was drastically less (up to 100% of the design). As current maintenance practice of stormwater ponds relies heavily on visual inspection, the storage volume variations are often overlooked. As such, the findings prompt uncertainty on the long-term effectiveness of watershed implementation plan and models in the Chesapeake Bay watersheds, as many of them depend on wet pool volume design in BMP and GI.

Cystodistension injuries and long-term bladder functional outcomes: A unique case series from medical malpractice

Objectives: Bladder overdistension injuries are rare, but they can have devastating effects on the individual and lead to litigation. We aimed to (a) test the hypothesis that larger distension volumes and longer distension times are more likely to generate acontractile bladders, (b) determine prognostic information and (c) guide management protocols aimed at preventing cystodistension injuries. Patients and methods: We report 18 cases of cystodistension injury following acute urinary retention. One author provided expert medical opinion in these cases, where redress was sought in the UK courts through medical malpractice claims. Data were collected retrospectively. Results: The cohort comprised 17 females and 1 male. The mean age was 31 years (range 17–69 years). Precipitating events included six surgical procedures, 11 vaginal deliveries and one episode of back pain. The median retention volume was 1450 mL (range 1000–3800 mL), and the median duration of retention was 1200 minutes (range 470–10,365 minutes). Fourteen patients performed intermittent self-catheterisation (ISC), six requiring this temporarily. No statistically significant association was demonstrated between retention characteristics and long-term functional outcomes of the bladder. Conclusions: This case series demonstrates cystodistension injuries to be unpredictable in their long-term impact. No association between volume and duration of retention and long-term bladder function was found. In the long term, 50% void spontaneously, 33% void spontaneously but require ISC to effect complete bladder emptying and 17% remain catheter dependent. Level of evidence: Level 4

The Influence of LED Lighting on Attention and Long-Term Memory

The fact that the illuminance of LED lights affects human attention and long-term memory has been verified through various studies, but there are no consistent research results about what level of illuminance is effective. The aims of this study were to systematically verify the effects of LED lighting on attention and long-term memory. The experiment was designed with four illuminance levels—300 lx, 400 lx, 500 lx, and 1,000 lx—as experimental conditions to determine the effects of LED lights on attention and long-term memory. Participants in the experiment were 18 college students. The attention task was performed using a handmade attention measuring instrument. Long-term memory was measured by the word fragment completion (hereinafter, referred to as “WFC”) task on the memory retention volume of the learning task that was learned exactly 24 hours before. Of the total 20 tasks, the ratio of correctly retrieval tasks was used as a dependent variable. As a result, attention showed the highest performance with a mean performance of 19.39 (SD = 3.78) at 1,000 lx. A statistically significant difference was also found between the 1,000 lx and 300 lx conditions (p=0.01). On the contrary, long-term memory showed the highest retrieval rate at an average of 58.06% (SD = 22.57) at 400 lx, and long-term memory performance was better in the order of 500 lx (mean = 48.89, SD = 20.33), 1,000 lx (mean = 45.83, SD = 23.53), and 300 lx (Mean = 43.33, SD = 19.10). Statistically, there was a significant difference between 300 lx and 400 lx (p=0.01), 400 lx and 1,000 lx (p=0.01). Through this study, it was verified that the effects of attention and long-term memory are different according to the illuminance of LED lighting, and these results can be important data to clarify the influence of light on human memory in the future.

Automated location optimization of detention basins as a contribution to an efficient flood mitigation strategy

<p>A considerable share of the losses by extreme flooding are in upstream areas, where centralized flood mitigation measures have no effect. Consequently, modern flood mitigation strategies address this problem by a distributed combination of measures, including nature-based solutions and decentralized flood detention basins. These small basins can be realized by minor changes in the landscape and can influence the runoff behavior at the site and downstream. However, the economic viability of the sites and the local and regional effectiveness depend on the location optimization, which is influenced by the local topography as well as by complex superposition effects.<br>We address this complexity with a combination of two innovative and automated optimization tools: LOCASIN (LOCation detection of retention and detention bASINs) is a flexible tool to automatically detect, characterize and evaluate detention basin locations. It is based on topographical data and provides information on the basin geometry as well as on the required curves for basin retention calculations. TOBAS (Tool for the Optimization of BASin efficiencies) calculates the effectiveness of a basin combination, taking into account the mutual influence when optimizing the throttle size. The input data includes the relation of water level and retention volume from LOCASIN and hydrographs generated by a hydrological model (e.g. WaSiM). Furthermore, TOBAS can be applied to select and dimension an optimized basin combination from the locations determined with LOCASIN. The optimization is based on the respective objective, e.g. effectiveness or economic efficiency. Hence, the joint application of both tools can contribute to improve efficient flood mitigation strategies and enhance flood resilience. The applicability of the tools and the benefits for the assessment of flood mitigation concepts were tested and confirmed by means of different Bavarian catchments.</p>

Application of cyanated asphaltenes in gas-phase adsorption processes for removal of volatile organic compounds

The paper presents an innovative, chemically modified (methylcyanated) asphaltene-based adsorbent that can be an interesting low-cost alternative for traditional adsorbents. Adsorption properties of adsorbents were examined by inverse gas chromatography technique, adsorption isotherms, and breakthrough curves. A significant increase in retention volume for pyridine, 2-pentanone, nitropropane, toluene, and 1-butanol was observed. Rohrschneider–McReynolds constants revealed an increase in strength of interactions as a result of the modification, especially in strong proton–acceptor interaction (by a factor of 4.6). The surface-free energy of asphaltene adsorbents increased from 136.71 to 169.95 mJ m−2 after modification. It is similar to the surface-free energy of silica or alumina. Moreover, modified adsorbent shows very high adsorption potential for pyridine. Adsorption isotherms revealed that monolayer adsorption capacity for pyridine increased 1.5 times after modification. Breakthrough curves of pyridine indicate that chemical modification increased the adsorption capacity, removal efficiency, and throughput. Scale-up calculations revealed that adsorption column packed with modified asphaltene adsorbent would be almost two times smaller compared to a column packed with unmodified one. Graphic abstract