Intermittent Fasting and Fat Mass: What Is the Clinical Magnitude?

Clinical studies addressing the benefits of intermittent fasting (IF) diets have evoked interest in the treatment of obesity. Herein, the overall effects of IF regimens on fat-mass loss are explained in a brief review through a recent literature update. To date, human studies show a reduction in fat mass from 0.7 to 11.3 kg after IF regimens, in which the duration of interventions ranges from two weeks to one year. In light of this, IF regimens can be considered a reasonable approach to weight (fat mass) loss. However, the benefits of IF regimens occur thanks to energy restriction and cannot hence be considered the best dietary protocol compared to conventional diets.

A vibration model of a rotor system with the sinusoidal waviness by using the non-Hertzian solution

The nonlinear contact forces and deformations between the balls and raceways can cause very complex vibration behaviours of rotor systems with the waviness in the support bearings. However, almost all previous works that used sinusoidal waviness took the Hertzian solution as the calculation method, which is not an accurate method based on Johnson’s formulation since the changes in the curvature at the sinusoidal contact surfaces. To overcome this issue, a new dynamic model of a rigid rotor system with the waviness in the support bearings is proposed. To provide a more accurate nonlinear contact force formulation for the sinusoidal waviness profile, the model used the Johnson’s extended Hertzian contact model to replace Hertzian contact model. This model can consider the time-varying curvature between the mating sinusoidal surfaces. The lubricating condition in the support bearing is also considered. A comparative study on the effects of Hertzian contact model, simplified Hertzian contact model, and Johnson's extended Hertzian contact model on the nonlinear vibrations of the rotor system is developed. The effects of the waviness amplitude and orders on the vibrations of the rotor system are discussed. The comparative simulations show that the proposed model can provide a more reasonable approach for predicting the vibrations of the rigid rotor system. Moreover, the simulations give that the nonlinear contact forces in the support bearings can greatly affect the system vibrations.

Glutathione-Dependent Mechanisms of Antioxidant Defense in Men with Pathozoospermia after COVID-19 Infection

The article presents results of studying the influence of COVID-19 infections on glutathione metabolism in men with pathozoospermia and COVID-19. In erythrocyte cytolysate, we determined concentration of reduced (GSH) and oxidized (GSSG) glutathione and the GSH/GSSG ratio as the main indication of cell redox-status and an important factor in cell redox-dependent signaling control along with the effect GSH-dependent enzymes. Results of our study allowed us to determine the peculiarity of the influence of COVID-19 infection on thee glutathione metabolic pathway. The understanding of the influence mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 on metabolic processes in the body of men with pathozoospermia has been expanded. The data obtained give grounds and opportunities for a more reasonable approach to the organization of preventive, curative, and rehabilitative measures for COVID-19 infection.

Cerebrospinal Fluid Concentrations of Meropenem and Vancomycin in Ventriculitis Patients Obtained by TDM-Guided Continuous Infusion

Effective antibiotic therapy of cerebral infections such as meningitis or ventriculitis is hindered by low penetration into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Because continuous infusion of meropenem and vancomycin and routine therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) have been proposed to optimize antimicrobial exposure in ventriculitis patients, an individualized dosing strategy was implemented in our department. We present a retrospective analysis of meropenem and vancomycin concentrations in serum and CSF in the first nine ventriculitis patients treated with continuous infusion and TDM-guided dose optimization aiming at 20–30 mg/L. Median initial dosing was 8.8 g/24 h meropenem and 4.25 g/24 h vancomycin, respectively, resulting in median serum concentrations of 21.3 mg/L for meropenem and 24.5 mg/L for vancomycin and CSF concentrations of 3.4 mg/L for meropenem and 1.7 mg/L for vancomycin. Median CSF penetration was 15% for meropenem and 7% for vancomycin. With initial dosing, all but one patient achieved CSF concentrations above 1 mg/L. Dose adjustment according to TDM ensured sufficient CSF concentrations in all patients within 48 h of treatment. Given the limited penetration, continuous infusion of meropenem and vancomycin based on renal function and TDM-guided dose optimization appears a reasonable approach to attain sufficient CSF concentrations in ventriculitis patients.

Development of recommendations on the hierarchy of activities regarding the implementation of the BRC standard in relation to the safety of packaging using the AHP method

The British Retail Consortium Global Standard for Food Safety enjoys great popularity among food industry companies, the number of companies with the certified standard is rising every year. The packaging used for food packaging has a very large impact on the safety and quality of the packaged food. The purpose of the study was to indicate the requirements of the standard in relation to packaging, which should be implemented firstly by enterprises of the food industry. In the research part, the AHP analysis was conducted on the basis of the experts' recommendations. Decision matrixes for every criterion: hazard analysis concerning packaging, purchase procedure, packaging acceptance procedure were developed. A decision matrix for the main criterion as a result of criteria decision matrix was developed, global decision hierarchy was also developed. Research clearly showed that the most important activity (among the proposed) is hazard analysis, with a 0.517 weighted sum value. In many of the detailed requirements of the standard, hazard analysis and risk assessment (0.333 weighted sum value) are the basis for many activities, including establishing a purchasing procedure (0.163 weighted sum value), accepting packaging (0.297 weighted sum value), or many others. The relevance of this study is the identification of the hierarchy of importance of activities performed within the framework of ensuring the quality and safety of food packaging. A reasonable approach is presented. The AHP method allows indicating the sequence of activities during the implementation of the BRC standard, as evidenced by pilot studies carried out on the basis of procedures related to the safety of packaging. The standard sets up requirements for packaging in the form of packaging management procedure, in which it should be stated how the site operates with packaging. Moreover, there are requirements concerning hazard analysis in relation to packaging

A reasonable approach for the generation of hollow icosahedral kernels in metal nanoclusters

Although the hollow icosahedral M12 kernel has been extensively observed in metal nanoclusters, its origin remains a mystery. Here we report a reasonable avenue for the generation of the hollow icosahedron: the kernel collapse from several small nano-building blocks to an integrated hollow icosahedron. On the basis of the Au alloying processes from Ag28Cu12(SR)24 to the template-maintained AuxAg28-xCu12(SR)24 and then to the template-transformed Au12CuyAg32-y(SR)30, the kernel evolution/collapse from “tetrahedral Ag4 + 4∗Ag3” to “tetrahedral Au4 + 4∗M3 (M = Au/Ag)” and then to “hollow icosahedral Au12” is mapped out. Significantly, the “kernel collapse” from small-sized nano-building blocks to large-sized nanostructures not only unveils the formation of hollow icosahedral M12 in this work, but also might be a very common approach in constructing metallic kernels of nanoclusters and nanoparticles (not limited to the M12 structure).

A perspective on the widening gap between Covishield vaccine doses in India

The Oxford University-AstraZeneca’s vector-based vaccine called Covishield (ChAdOx1 nCoV- 19 Vaccine) is being manufactured and distributed by Serum Institute of India (SII). National roll out of this vaccine was in a phased manner starting from 16th January 2021. At present, many states are facing shortage of vaccines. Government of India kept changing its policy on dosing gap of Covishield vaccine based on researches. The latest recommendation citing “real-life evidence” from the UK is to extend the two doses of Covishield to 12-16 weeks. This reasonable approach will not only a breathing space for the government but also aids in free up doses for a larger number of people to get their first dose of the vaccine.

Elastic photon-initiated production at the LHC: the role of hadron-hadron interactions

We analyse in detail the role of additional hadron–hadron interactions in elastic photon–initiated (PI) production at the LHC, both in pp and heavy ion collisions. We first demonstrate that the source of difference between our predictions and other results in the literature for PI muon pair production is dominantly due to an unphysical cut that is imposed in these latter results on the dimuon–hadron impact parameter. We in addition show that this is experimentally disfavoured by the shape of the muon kinematic distributions measured by ATLAS in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions. We then consider the theoretical uncertainty due to the survival probability for no additional hadron–hadron interactions, and in particular the role this may play in the tendency for the predicted cross sections to lie somewhat above ATLAS data on PI muon pair production, in both pp and PbPb collisions. This difference is relatively mild, at the \sim 10\%∼10% level, and hence a very good control over the theory is clearly required. We show that this uncertainty is very small, and it is only by taking very extreme and rather unphysical variations in the modelling of the survival factor that this tension can be removed. This underlines the basic, rather model independent, point that a significant fraction of elastic PI scattering occurs for hadron–hadron impact parameters that are simply outside the range of QCD interactions, and hence this sets a lower bound on the survival factor in any physically reasonable approach. Finally, other possible origins for this discrepancy are discussed.