Search

Cannonball jellyfish, often commercialized as salted, dried jellyfish (SDJ), is an emerging fishery in the USA and a great source of collagen, which can be utilized for developing novel marine gelatin powders. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of producing gelatin powders with gelling properties from SDJ using a mild acid hydrolysis and freeze-drying procedure as well as to evaluate their physico-chemical properties. The findings revealed that the resultant gelatin powders had a moisture (g/100 g, dry basis, d.b.), crude protein (g/100 g, d.b.), ash content (g/100 g, d.b.) and water activity values of 4.82, 29.54, 56.61, and 0.09, respectively. Sodium, Al, and S were the main minerals detected in the jellyfish gelatin powders, which were agglomerated and had irregular morphologies with a mean particle size of 12.8 μm. Gels prepared with 5, 6.67, and 10% (w/v) jellyfish gelatin powder had Bloom values lower than 4.2 g; melting temperatures between 15.09 and 16.12 °C and their rheological behavior was effectively characterized by the Herschel-Bulkley flow model, which revealed non-Newtonian behavior and shear thinning phenomena. Higher apparent viscosities, yield stress, and consistency index values were observed in the gels prepared at higher concentrations of jellyfish gelatin powders and at lower evaluated temperatures. This study illustrates (for the first time) the feasibility of producing novel marine gelatin powders from SDJ, which have the potential to be used as gelling, thickening and/or binding agents in several food applications.

Metastasis to the pineal region is a rare event, and esophageal adenocarcinoma metastatic to the pineal region is exceptionally rare, with only two cases reported in the current literature. Here, we characterize a third case of metastatic esophageal adenocarcinoma to the pineal region, and compare clinicopathological characteristics among all three cases. The three patients were men, with ages at neurological presentation ranging from 48 to 65years. Time from initial esophageal adenocarcinoma diagnosis to development of neurologic symptoms ranged from 12 to 23months. Neuroimaging in all cases showed an isolated enhancing pineal region mass with sizes ranging from 1.8 to 2.2cm. All cases were believed to have local control of esophageal disease prior to metastatic sequela, with initial treatment including esophageal resection with or without chemoradiation therapy. No cases had evidence of primary site disease progression at time of metastatic presentation, nor were there signs of other sites of metastasis. All patients underwent tumor excision and were referred for subsequent radiotherapy. Overall, all three cases demonstrate similar demographics, histology, and clinical presentations. In the appropriate clinical setting it is important to keep esophageal metastasis in the differential diagnosis, particularly in the setting of isolated pineal lesions.

Alternating multilayers of amphiphile, 4-{4-[Methyl-(4-octadecylcarbamoyl-butyl)-amino]-phenylazo}-benzenesulfonic acid (S-azo-C 18 ), and stearic acid were deposited on hydrophobized silica surfaces using the Langmuir–Blodgett technique. Ellipsometry, UV–visible spectroscopy, and second harmonic generation were used to characterize the films, demonstrating reproducible deposition and suggesting a well ordered film structure. Despite the appearance of order at the macroscopic level, neutron and X-ray scattering results unequivocally show that there is considerable disorder, with significant interpenetration between the stearic acid and S-azo-C 18 layers. These results suggest that molecular disorder in Langmuir–Blodgett deposited multilayer films may often go unrecognized mainly because the macroscopic probes based on these optical measurements are not adequate for determining the molecular level structural order.

Changes in cerebral blood flow (f) and vascular volume (v) are of major interest in mapping cerebral activity and metabolism, but the relation between them currently lacks a sufficient theoretical basis. To address this we considered three models: a uniform reactive tube model (M1); an extension of M1 that includes passive arterial inflow and venous volume (M2); and a more anatomically plausible model (M3) consisting of 19 compartments representing the whole range of vascular sizes and respective CO2 reactivities, derived from literature data. We find that M2 cannot be described as the simple scaling of a tube law, but any divergence from a linear approximation is negligible within the narrow physiological range encountered experimentally. In order to represent correctly the empirically observed slope of the overall v-f relationship, the reactive bed should constitute about half of the total vascular volume, thus including a significant fraction of capillaries and/or veins. Model M3 demonstrates systematic variation of the slope of the v-f relationship between 0.16 and 1.0, depending on the vascular compartment under consideration. This is further complicated when other experimental approaches such as flow velocity are used as substitute measurements. The effect is particularly large in microvascular compartments, but when averaged with larger vessels the variations in slope are contained within 0.25 to 0.55 under conditions typical for imaging methods. We conclude that the v-f relationship is not a fixed function but that both the shape and slope depend on the composition of the reactive volume and the experimental methods used.

Thin films of alternating layer composition were constructed from the polyelectrolyte complex PEDOT:PSS and the polycation PEI, using ionic self assembly (ISA). The PEI/PEDOT:PSS system displays a consistent trend in film growth, as evidenced by UV–visible spectroscopy and ellipsometry. We find that the overall density of PEDOT increases with increasing number of layers. The density of PSS during multilayer deposition differs from PEDOT, with a sharp drop in density between the 3rd and 6th bilayers. Combining film deposition estimates with contact angle measurement, we distinguish three regions of growth, separated by the 3rd and 6th layers. We ascertain that a constant level of interpenetration between PEI and PEDOT:PSS is reached by the 6th layer. Results from kinetics experiments and pH variation reveal a local increase in pH for the PEDOT species as it comes into contact with the PEI surface. Electrochemical characterization indicates that our films have an interpenetrated PEDOT network and a relatively hydrophilic surface. We demonstrate that ISA can be used to generate robust thin films, stable over a large pH range, whose coloration and conductivity may be manipulated on a large scale using applied voltage, and may be fine-tuned by changing the pH. The films exhibit electrochromic properties similar to other PEDOT derivatives, with a change in transmittance of 51% for 16 bilayers at 643 nm.