Highlights Zinc in rice endosperm moved to the outer layers during parboiling. Zinc retention in parboiled rice was lower than non-parboiled rice after milling. Biofortified rice had higher zinc retention than non-biofortified. Biofortified rice could provide more than half of the zinc EAR% for children.

The most commonly used method for measuring carotenoid concentration is high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Nevertheless, easier, quicker, and less costly proxy methods exist. We aimed to determine the diagnostic performance of several proxy methods: the spectrophotometer, iCheck Carotene, and near-infrared spectroscopy using both a desktop (dNIRS) and a portable (pNIRS) device for the measurement of total carotenoid concentration (TCC) and all-trans-β-carotene concentration (trans-BC) in 30 fresh cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) storage roots in comparison with HPLC. The spectrophotometer presented the highest predictability for TCC, followed by iCheck, dNIRS, and pNIRS. The dNIRS showed the highest predictability and agreement for trans-BC. The pNIRS showed the poorest repeatability and greatest underestimations compared with HPLC. The agreement between all methods was lower for higher carotenoid concentration, with the exception of the spectrophotometer. According to our results, and for screening purposes, the measurement of carotenoids in fresh cassava roots can be carried out by spectrophotometer, iCheck Carotene and NIRS methods depending on the availability of equipment.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a complex and multifaceted neurodegenerative disorder that results from multiple environmental factors and multicellular interactions. Although several PD neuropathologies have been identified and described, the thorough understanding of PD pathophysiology and research has been largely limited by the absence of reliable in vitro models that truly recapitulate PD microenvironments. Here, we propose a neuroimmune co-culture system that models PD neuropathologies by combining relevant multicellular interactions with environments that mimic the brain. This system is composed of: (i) 3D bioprinted cultures of mature human dopaminergic neurons grown on extracellular matrix (ECM)-derived scaffolds doped with electroconductive nanostructures, and (ii) a direct co-culture of human astrocytes and differentiated monocytes that models neuroinflammatory responses. When co-cultured in a transwell format, these two compartments recreate relevant multicellular environments that model Parkinson's disease pathologies after exposure to the neurotoxin A53T α-synuclein. With immunofluorescent staining and gene expression analyses, we show that functional and mature dopaminergic 3D networks are generated within our ECM-derived scaffolds with superior performance to standard 2D cultures. Moreover, by analyzing cytokine secretion, cell surface markers, and gene expression, we define a human monocyte differentiation scheme that allows the appearance of both monocyte-derived macrophages and dendritic cell phenotypes, as well as their optimal co-culture ratios with human astrocytes to recreate synergistic neuroinflammatory responses. We show that the combined response of both compartments to A53T α−synuclein stimulates the formation of intracellular α-synuclein aggregates, induces progressive mitochondrial dysfunction and ROS production, downregulates the expression of synaptic, dopaminergic, and mitophagy-related genes, and promotes the initiation of apoptotic processes within the dopaminergic networks. Most importantly, these intracellular pathologies were comparable or superior to those generated with a rotenone-stimulated 2D control that represents the current standard for in vitro PD models and showed increased resilience towards these neurotoxic insults, allowing the study of disease progression over longer time periods than current models.

The present work proposes a mean for recovery of metals used in current ion-lithium batteries, like lithium, cobalt and nickel, using organic agents and ultrasound instead of the more aggressive and less environment friendly method with sulfuric acid. This is especially useful in those countries that doesn't have lithium deposits and have a growing demand of such batteries, reducing the economic loss this represents. During the process, variables such as temperature, leaching agent concentration and ultrasound frequency were modified, using concentrations of 0.5 M (molar), 1 M and 1.5 M of sodium citrate, temperatures of 25˚C, 55˚C and 60˚C and also ultrasound frequencies of 20 KHz, 30 KHz and 40 KHz. It was found that the best combination of these variables that yielded the most quantity of the desired metal was 0.5 M concentration for both lithium and nickel, while using 60˚C and no ultrasound with Li and 55˚C and 40 KHz for Ni. For Co the best variables discovered were 1.5 molar concentration, 60˚C and 40 KHz.