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Disease-related malnutrition remains a health problem with a high prevalence that increases the risk of poor patient outcomes, in addition to an elevation of healthcare costs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the nutritional quality of the menus at Ribera Molina Hospital, including their adequacy regarding recommended daily nutrient intakes and the agreement with the theoretical nutrition information provided by catering. The mean levels of energy, macronutrients, vitamins, and minerals provided by the basal, diabetic, and soft diets were calculated through the weighing of plated food served throughout the first 14 days of February 2020. A nutritional overestimation was seen in the nutrition information provided by the catering compared to the values derived from weighing foods (p < 0.01). Despite this, the nutritional content calculated by weighing satisfied the energy and protein requirements of 203 hospitalized patients previously studied in the internal medicine area of the hospital. The mean age of these patients was 62 years, and the main causes of admission were lung, cardiovascular, renal, and digestive diseases. There seems to be an insufficient amount of vitamins E and D, as well as magnesium, on all the menus. A possible insufficient amount of calcium, potassium, zinc, and copper was observed in some of the menus studied. It is necessary to update the hospital prescription manual so the nutritional contents of the diets are accurate and based on the weighted and calculated values to improve the adequacy of diets prescribed to patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malnutrition in cancer patients is one of the most influential factors in the evolution and mortality of such patients. To reduce the incidence of malnutrition, it is necessary to establish a correct nutritional intervention. For this purpose, precise tools and indicators must be developed to determine the patient's condition. The main objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to analyze the relationship between different nutritional strategies, phase angle (PA), and handgrip strength in patients with cancer, with the secondary objectives being the modification of other indicators of nutritional status, such as weight and body mass index (BMI). A systematic review of randomized clinical trials was carried out in March 2023 in the databases PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Scopus. As a risk-of-bias tool, RoB 2.0 was utilized. A total of 8 studies with a total of 606 participants were included in the analysis. A significant increase in PA was observed after the different nutritional strategies (SMD: 0.43; 95% CI: 0.10 to 0.77; p = 0.01; I2 = 65.63%), also detecting a significant increase in handgrip strength (SMD: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.08 to 0.47; p = 0.01; I2 = 30.70%). A significant increase in PA and handgrip were observed in cancer patients subjected to different nutritional strategies. These results suggest that these indicators could be used in the nutritional and functional assessment of the patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to obtain solid carvacrol-cyclodextrin (CD) complexes for use in the pharmaceutical industry. To this end, the complexation of carvacrol at different pH values was studied in detail, to determine the type of CD and the reaction environment that supported the highest amount of encapsulated carvacrol. Evidence of the capability of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrins (HP-β-CD) to form inclusion complexes with carvacrol (KC = 5042 ± 176 L mol−1) and more high complexation efficiency (2.824) was demonstrated for HP-β-CDs using two different energy sources, ultrasound (US) (KC = 8129 ± 194 L mol−1 24 h) and microwave irradiation (MWI) (KC = 6909 ± 161 L mol−1), followed by spraying the resulting solution in a spray dryer. To confirm complex formation, the complexes were characterized using various instrumental methods to corroborate the carvacrol incorporation into the hydrophobic cavity of HP-β-CD. The obtained carvacrol solid complexes were analyzed by 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (ROSEY), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) characterization. The structures of the resulting complexes were also characterized by molecular modeling. Furthermore, 1 mM HP-β-CD-carvacrol complex has been shown to reduce cell proliferation in HCT-116 colorectal cancer cells by 43%, much more than in a healthy lung fibroblast MRC-5 cell line (11%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, the nematic glassy state of the non-symmetric LC dimer α-(4-cyanobiphenyl-4′-yloxy)-ω-(1-pyrenimine-benzylidene-4′-oxy) undecane is studied by means of calorimetric and dielectric measurements. The most striking result of the work is the presence of two different glass transition temperatures: one due to the freezing of the flip-flop motions of the bulkier unit of the dimer and the other, at a lower temperature, related to the freezing of the flip-flop and precessional motions of the cyanobiphenyl unit. This result shows the fact that glass transition is the consequence of the freezing of one or more coupled dynamic disorders and not of the disordered phase itself. In order to avoid crystallization when the bulk sample is cooled down, the LC dimer has been confined via the dispersion of γ-alumina nanoparticles, in several concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a study of the nematic (N)-isotropic (I) phase transition has been made in a series of odd non-symmetric liquid crystal dimers, the α-(4-cyanobiphenyl-4'- yloxy)-ω-(1-pyrenimine-benzylidene-4'-oxy) alkanes, by means of accurate calorimetric and dielectric measurements. These materials are potential candidates to present the elusive biaxial nematic (NB) phase, as they exhibit both molecular biaxiality and flexibility. According to the theory, the uniaxial nematic (NU)-isotropic (I) phase transition is first-order in nature, whereas the NB-I phase transition is second-order. Thus, a fine analysis of the critical behavior of the N-I phase transition would allow us to determine the presence or not of the biaxial nematic phase and understand how the molecular biaxiality and flexibility of these compounds influences the critical behavior of the N-I phase transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the present study is to obtain linalool- cyclodextrin (CDs) solid complexes for possible applications in the food industry. For this purpose, a detailed study of linalool complexation was carried out at different pH values, to optimize the type of CDs and reaction medium that support the highest quantity of encapsulated linalool. Once demonstrated the ability of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CDs), to form inclusion complexes with linalool (KC = 921 ± 21 L mol−1) and given their greater complexation efficacy (6.788) at neutral pH, HP-β-CDs were selected to produce solid inclusion complexes by using two different energy sources, ultrasounds and microwave irradiation, subsequently spraying the solutions obtained in the Spray Dryer. To provide scientific solidity to the experimental results, the complexes obtained were characterized by using different instrumental techniques in order to confirm the inclusion of linalool in the HP-β-CDs hydrophobic cavity. The linalool solid complexes obtained were characterized by using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (ROSEY), differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry. Moreover, the structure of the complex obtained were also characterized by molecular modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy metals are one of the most hazardous pollutants in marine environments because of their bioaccumulation and biomagnification capabilities. Among them, cadmium (Cd) has been considered as one of the most dangerous for marine organisms. Here we incubated Ammonia cf. parkinsoniana specimens, a benthic foraminiferal taxon used in previous experiments, for up to 48 h in natural seawater with different concentrations of Cd to unravel the physiological change. We document a reduced pseudopodial activity of the Cd-treated specimens at concentrations >10–100 ppb in comparison with the control specimens. Moreover, confocal images of Cd-treated specimens using Nile Red as a fluorescent probe reveal an enhanced intracellular neutral lipid accumulation in the form of lipid droplets at 6 h and 12 h. This bioassay experiment allows for the direct evaluation of Cd-dose to A. cf. parkinsoniana-response relationships under laboratory controlled conditions and provides complementary information to field observations as well as to water quality guidelines and thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) were used to prepare insoluble polymers using epichlorohydrin as a cross-linking agent and the azo dye Direct Red 83:1 was used as target adsorbate. The preliminary study related to adsorbent dosage, pH, agitation or dye concentration allowed us to select the best conditions to carry out the rest of experiments. The kinetics was evaluated by Elovich, pseudo first order, pseudo second order, and intra-particle diffusion models. The results indicated that the pseudo second order model presented the best fit to the experimental data, indicating that chemisorption is controlling the process. The results were also evaluated by Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin isotherms. According to the determination coefficient (R2), Freunlich gave the best results, which indicates that the adsorption process is happening on heterogeneous surfaces. One interesting parameter obtained from Langmuir isotherm is qmax (maximum adsorption capacity). This value was six times higher when a β-CDs-EPI polymer was employed. The cross-linked polymers were fully characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Also, morphology and particle size distribution were both assessed. Under optimized conditions, the β-CDs-EPI polymer seems to be a useful device for removing Direct Red 83:1 (close 90%), from aqueous solutions and industrial effluents. Complementarily, non-adsorbed dye was photolyzed by a pulsed light driven advanced oxidation process. The proposed methodology is environmental and economically advantageous, considering the point of view of a sustainable recycling economy in the textile dyeing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of Comfort as a Service (CaaS), a new energy supply paradigm for providing comfort to residential customers. CaaS takes into account the available passive and active elements, the external factors that affect energy consumption and associated costs, and occupants' behaviors to generate optimal control strategies for the domestic equipment automatically. As a consequence, it releases building occupants from operating the equipment, which gives rise to a disruption of the traditional model of paying per consumed energy in favor of a model of paying per provided comfort. In the paper, we envision a realization of CaaS based on several technologies such as ambient intelligence, big data, cloud computing and predictive computing. We discuss the opportunities and the barriers of CaaS-centered business and exemplify the potential of CaaS deployments by quantifying the expected energy savings achieved after limiting occupants' control over the air conditioning system in a test scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]