Extrusion of foods is an emerging technology for the food industries to process and market a large number of products of varying size, shape, texture, and taste. Extrusion cooking technology has led to production of wide variety of products like pasta, breakfast cereals, bread crumbs, biscuits, crackers, croutons, baby foods, snack foods, confectionery items, chewing gum, texturized vegetable protein (TVP), modified starch, pet foods, dried soups, dry beverage mixes etc. The functional properties of extruded foods plays an important role for their acceptability which include water absorption, water solubility, oil absorption indexes, expansion index, bulk density and viscosity of the dough. The aim of this review is to give the detailed outlines about the potential of extrusion technology in development of different types of products and the role of extrusion-operating conditions and their effect on product development resulting in quality changes i.e physical, chemical, and nutritional, experienced during the extrusion process.

It is feasible to use AKIN staging for evaluating AKI in neonates with birth asphyxia.

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a w a l e a , V. I . A d a m c h u k a , S . O . P r a s h e r a , R . A . V i s c a r r a R o s s e SummaryRecent advances in semiconductor technologies have given rise to the development of mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectrometers that are compact, relatively inexpensive, robust and suitable for in situ proximal soil sensing. The objectives of this research were to evaluate a prototype portable mid-IR spectrometer for direct measurements of soil reflectance and to model the spectra to predict sand, clay and soil organic matter (SOM) contents under a range of field soil water conditions. Soil samples were collected from 23 locations at different depths in four agricultural fields to represent a range of soil textures, from sands to clay loams. The particle size distribution and SOM content of 48 soil samples were measured in the laboratory by conventional analytical methods. In addition to air-dry soil, each sample was wetted with two different amounts of water before the spectroscopic measurements were made. The prototype spectrometer was used to measure reflectance (R) in the range between 1811 and 898 cm −1 (approximately 5522 to 11 136 nm). The spectroscopic measurements were recorded randomly and in triplicate, resulting in a total of 432 reflectance spectra (48 samples × three soil water contents × three replicates). The spectra were transformed to log 10 (1/R) and mean centred for the multivariate statistical analyses. The 48 samples were split randomly into a calibration set (70%) and a validation set (30%). A partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used to develop spectroscopic calibrations to predict sand, clay and SOM contents. Results show that the portable spectrometer can be used with PLSR to predict clay and sand contents of either wet or dry soil samples with a root mean square error (RMSE) of around 10%. Predictions of SOM content resulted in RMSE values that ranged between 0.76 and 2.24%.

Stability testing is an important component of herbal drugs and products (HDPs) development process. Drugs regulatory agencies across the globe have recommended guidelines for the conduct of stability studies on HDPs, which require that stability data should be included in the product registration dossier. From the scientific viewpoint, numerous chemical constituents in an herbal drug are liable to varied chemical reactions under the influence of different conditions during its shelf life. These reactions can lead to altered chemical composition of HDP and consequently altered therapeutic profile. Many reports on stability testing of HDPs have appeared in literature since the last 10 years. A review of these reports reveals that there is wide variability in temperature (-80 to 100 °C), humidity (0-100%) and duration (a few hours-36 months) for stability assessment of HDPs. Of these, only 1% studies are conducted in compliance with the regulatory guidelines for stability testing. The present review is aimed at compiling all stability testing reports, understanding key challenges in stability testing of HDPs and suggesting possible solutions for these. The key challenges are classified as chemical complexity and biochemical composition variability in raw material, selection of marker(s) and influences of enzymes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mutations can occur throughout the virus genome and may be beneficial, neutral or deleterious. We are interested in mutations that yield a C next to a G, producing CpG sites. CpG sites are rare in eukaryotic and viral genomes. For the eukaryotes, it is thought that CpG sites are rare because they are prone to mutation when methylated. In viruses, we know less about why CpG sites are rare. A previous study in HIV suggested that CpG-creating transition mutations are more costly than similar non-CpG-creating mutations. To determine if this is the case in other viruses, we analyzed the allele frequencies of CpG-creating and non-CpG-creating mutations across various strains, subtypes, and genes of viruses using existing data obtained from Genbank, HIV Databases, and Virus Pathogen Resource. Our results suggest that CpG sites are indeed costly for most viruses. By understanding the cost of CpG sites, we can obtain further insights into the evolution and adaptation of viruses.

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