Individual variability in patterns and dynamics of fecal gluten immunogenic peptides excretion after low gluten intake

Purpose Determination of Gluten Immunogenic Peptides (GIP) in feces is a direct tool for gluten exposure detection. The sensitivity of GIP detection methods for cases of unintentional low gluten intakes is unknown. We studied the interindividual variability in the kinetic of excretion under homogeneously controlled dietary conditions, and the sensitivity of fecal GIP tests after low amounts of punctual gluten ingestions. Methods Participants (n = 20) followed the same gluten-free menu for 12 days in which two separated doses of gluten (50 mg and 2 g) were ingested and all the depositions were collected. GIP from stool samples were analyzed by ELISA and lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) tests. Results Most participants had detectable GIP after 50 mg and 2 g gluten ingestions using ELISA test (72.2% and 95%, respectively), whereas the LFIA test showed less sensitivity (22.2% and 80%, respectively). GIP were detected at higher either frequency or concentration in the range of 12–36 h after 50 mg intake, and 12–84 h after 2 g consumption. Considering this period, diagnostic sensitivity of GIP detection after a single 50 mg ingestion may be significatively increased analyzing three stool samples per individual. High variability among participants was found in the time and amount of GIP excretion; however, some individuals showed common patterns for both gluten intakes. Conclusion Sporadic gluten exposure detection may require several fecal samples to achieve level of sensitivity above 90%. Interindividual variability in the dynamic of GIP excretion may suggest patterns of gluten metabolism.

Effect of Plant Fibres on the Variability of Cob Materials

Earthen materials have different nature components and present a high variability comparing to conventional materials; researchers try to settle it down for a future normalization as environmentally efficient material. But there is a need in energy to do it, either directly (compaction, organic matter extraction, particle screening to get the best particle size distribution ...) or indirectly by including inefficient materials from an environmental perspective (cement, limestone ...). The aim of this study is to follow the variability problematic of cob materials by comparing and understanding variation level of the hygrothermal characteristics due to fibres nature and fibres content. We found that plant fibres (hemp, flax and hay) act as a stabilizer for dry bulk density; at 1% fibres substitute, hemp fibre composites show the highest coefficient of variation on the thermal properties (6.1% on thermal conductivity, 18.74% on specific heat capacity) but flax fibres show the highest mean values. Increasing hay stalk content induces the spread of the hygrothermal properties inside their range of variaation.

Tackling Variability of Clay to Provide a Robust Binder

Locally available and with infinite recycling possibilities, the use of earth as building material leads to one of the lowest environmental impacts in the construction sector. Recent advances in the earth materials field have been made based on concrete and ceramics technologies to facilitate its uses in dense areas. It is possible to modify clay particle interactions and the material's whole behavior by adding inorganic dispersants and flocculants into clay paste. Earth becomes easy to cast and unmold into formworks, and by removing cement in its composition, poured earth can reach a low CO2 emission rate. Even if this technology is promising, further work has to be performed, as it cannot be implemented on earth from excavation sites with high variability. Tackling the clay nature variability is now the main issue to push this product on the market with robust properties. This research investigates the robustness of the poured earth binder. In this way, several clays (three montmorillonites, two kaolinites, and binary mixes at different proportions) were investigated. Their compacity (C) was determined following the water demand protocol with Vicat apparatus and compared to their consistency properties (liquidity and plasticity limits), and a correlation between these values is established. Different clay pastes prepared at different solid volume fractions were tested to define the influence of the clay nature on the paste consistency evolution. The results showed that clay nature for paste at high solid volume fraction does not influence constituency's evolution when their respectivecompacity is taking into account. It can be suggested that for a clay binder with a consistency close to C, which might be mandatory for poured earth application, only the swelling capacity might influence the mix design.

Compatibility of Plants with a Mineral Binder

Hemp concretes are the most widely used biobased concretes in France. However, their growth is still limited by the lack of knowledge and high variability of the performances of biobased concretes, especially for their mechanical properties. These results are related to interactions between the mineral binder and plant compounds that modify the hydration of the cement. In this work, the interactions between cement and eight types of hemp shiv, and a flax shiv are studied by isothermal calorimetry. The setting delays observed in the presence of plants are interpreted by analyzing the molecules extracted from these plants in water. A link can be observed between the setting delay and the coloration of the extract solutions or their concentration in reducing sugars and in polyphenols. These results constitute a basis in the objective to define an indicator enabling to predict the compatibility between plants and mineral binders.

Evaluation of the Characteristics of Native Wild Himalayan Fig (Ficus palmata Forsk.) from Pakistan as a Potential Species for Sustainable Fruit Production

Wild Himalayan figs (Ficus palmata Forsk.), native to East Asia and the Himalayan region, are closely related to the well-known cultivated fig (Ficus carica L.), which is grown mainly in the Mediterranean region. The Pakistani state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir has a rich variety of figs. However, no comprehensive study has been carried out to utilise the diversity of these wild figs for possible use in sustainable fruit production. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess the variability of 35 wild fig accessions using quantitative and qualitative traits. Descriptive statistics were used to measure quantitative characteristics, while the coefficient of variance (CV %) was analysed using SAS® version 9.1. A principal component analysis (PCA) and multivariate analysis were performed using R Studio (v1.1.4). Pearson correlation coefficients between characteristics were obtained using SPSS software. The studied accessions showed high variability and the coefficient of variation (CV) ranged from 4.46–14.81%. Days to maturity varied from 71 to 86, leaf area from 38.55 to 90.06 cm2. The fruit length, fruit diameter and fruit weight ranged from 11.25 to 29.85 mm, 11.85 to 27.49 mm and 2.65 to 9.66 g, respectively. The photosynthetic activity and total chlorophyll content also varied from 7.94 to 10.22 μmol CO2 m−2s−1 and 37.11 to 46.48 μgml−1. In most of the fig accessions studied, apical dominance was found to be ‘absent’ while fruit shape was observed to be ‘globular’. A strong correlation was observed between all the studied characteristics. In the PCA analysis, all 35 fig accessions were distributed in four quadrants and showed a great diversity. This could be a valuable gene pool for future breeding studies and provide improved quality varieties. Wild Himalayan figs from the wild are well adapted to local pedoclimatic conditions and, combined with easy propagation and production can contribute to the local economy and have a significant impact on the socio-economic and ecological balance. The results of this study show high variability in some of the studied traits of 35 accessions from different parts of Northeast Pakistan, indicating their good potential for further enhancement and utilisation in sustainable agricultural production.

Nanoemulsion-Based Antiviral Drug Therapy

Nanoemulsions are an attractive approach for the delivery of antiviral drugs in the treatment of various viral infections. Nanoemulsions are easy to plan and develop, and their components exhibit high variability. Nanoemulsion system and its components have certain biophysical properties which could increase the efficacy of drug therapy. Pulmonary surfactant (PS)-assisted antiviral drug delivery by nanoemulsion system could be another effective approach for the treatment of COVID-19. Antiviral drug delivery of nebulization using an animation system could increase the efficacy of antiviral drug against COVID-19. Ginkgo biloba polyprenol nanoemulsion was also found to be stable, non-toxic, and had strong antiviral activity against influenza A H3N2 and hepatitis B virus in vitro. Nanoemulsion systems possess certain properties that make their system suitable for drug delivery by mobilization and hence would be promising systems for therapeutics in the future.

Mandatory lockdown impairs performance in professional soccer players.

COVID-19 caused a total halt in sport competition during 2020. The purpose of this study was to analyze the changes between pre- and post-lockdown competitive periods in the players’ workload variables in competition. Seventeen professional football players were monitored using a WIMU PRO® inertial device throughout the 2019-20 season. Anthropometric and physical fitness were assessed with the aim to relate possible associations between these characteristics and the workload changes in the pre- and post-lockdown periods. During the lockdown, players carried out an 8-week guided self-training. There was a general decrement in the players’ physical workload demands in competition, and the parameters related to high-intensity actions as accelerations and decelerations (-8.96% [ES: 0.64] and -11.04% [ES: 0.77] respectively; p < .05), Ind HSR (-35.57% [ES: 0.92]; p = .002), HMLD (-8.58% [ES: 0.66]; p = .016), PLOAD (-7.03% [ES: 0.54]; p = .047) and Vmax (-3.80% [ES: 0.65]; p = .016) can be highlighted. The results showed high negative correlations between match workload variables prior to the lockdown and the percentage of change in these variables after the lockdown period. Individual percentages of change showed high variability in players’ changes. Individual self-training programs should be reviewed to minimize the impact of a “detraining” period in players’ physical performance during possible new lockdown periods.

Incidental Meckel’s diverticula low grade neuroendocrine tumor coexisting with synchronous sigmoidian and perianal adenocarcinoma

Although rarely, due to the high variability of the possible tissues encountered in it’s wall, the Meckel’s diverticula can represent a site for tumor development in 0,5-3,2% cases. Data in the literature shows that the most common malignancy at this level is represented by neuroendocrine tumors (NET) the observed incidence of neurendocrine tumors and other primary neoplasia, varies between 12-55%. Moreover, the gastro-intestinal tract was the second primary tumor bearer encountered.

Data Homogeneity Effect in Deep Learning-Based Prediction of Type 1 Diabetic Retinopathy

This study is aimed at evaluating a deep transfer learning-based model for identifying diabetic retinopathy (DR) that was trained using a dataset with high variability and predominant type 2 diabetes (T2D) and comparing model performance with that in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D). The Kaggle dataset, which is a publicly available dataset, was divided into training and testing Kaggle datasets. In the comparison dataset, we collected retinal fundus images of T1D patients at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan from 2013 to 2020, and the images were divided into training and testing T1D datasets. The model was developed using 4 different convolutional neural networks (Inception-V3, DenseNet-121, VGG1, and Xception). The model performance in predicting DR was evaluated using testing images from each dataset, and area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity were calculated. The model trained using the Kaggle dataset had an average (range) AUC of 0.74 (0.03) and 0.87 (0.01) in the testing Kaggle and T1D datasets, respectively. The model trained using the T1D dataset had an AUC of 0.88 (0.03), which decreased to 0.57 (0.02) in the testing Kaggle dataset. Heatmaps showed that the model focused on retinal hemorrhage, vessels, and exudation to predict DR. In wrong prediction images, artifacts and low-image quality affected model performance. The model developed with the high variability and T2D predominant dataset could be applied to T1D patients. Dataset homogeneity could affect the performance, trainability, and generalization of the model.

Vitamin D in Food Supplements: Labeling Survey

An adequate vitamin D (vitD) intake (Recommended Daily Allowance,RDA= 5µg) is crucial for health maintenance and its deficiency isassociated with several health problems. The increase in hypovitaminosisD cases and the proliferation of food supplements (FS) that are easilyaccessible by the population, have led to an unrestrained chronicconsumption of FS. VitD may accumulate in the body and originatetoxicity (Tolerable Upper Limit, UL=100 µg). The aim of this study was toevaluate if daily vitD doses mentioned in FS labels are in conformity withRDA. 210 solid and liquid FS (for pediatrics and adults) sold in Portuguesepharmacies, supermarkets, health shops and on the internet were examinedfor indicated daily intake of vitD and compared to RDA and UL values.51.43% of FS have values higher than RDA, 8.57% higher than UL. Theaverage vitD daily dose in FS is 24.48 µg, with a high variability betweensamples (0.25 - 250 µg). Majority of FS labels recommend vitD daily dosesabove RDA and some even above UL, regardless of being for adults orchildren. Therefore, it is crucial that vitD dose in FS is reviewed to ensurethe safety of these products.