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To describe health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) and physical function in patients with early axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) and to assess their associations with disease activity and radiographic damage. This was a cross‐sectional study drawing upon baseline data of axial SpA patients (Assessment of SpondyloArthritis international Society criteria) from the ESPERANZA cohort. Linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the associations between disease activity and radiographic damage (spine and sacroiliac joints) with HRQOL, physical function, and spinal mobility. In total, 259 patients were included. The mean ± SD age was 32.2 ± 6.9 years, disease duration was 13.3 ± 6.8 months, Ankylosing Spondylitis Quality of Life score was 5.9 ± 4.8, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index score was 2.4 ± 2.3, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrology Index score was 1.4 ± 1.3, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) score was 3.8 ± 2.3, C‐reactive protein (CRP) level was 9.7 ± 13.2 mg/liter, and Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Radiology Index for the spine (BASRI‐s) score was 1.7 ± 1.6. HRQOL was mainly associated with disease activity on univariate analysis (β values for BASDAI 0.646, patient global visual analog scale [VAS] 0.641, night back pain VAS 0.598, physician VAS 0.560, and CRP level 0.275; P< 0.01 for all), whereas the association with radiographic damage was weaker (standardized β for BASRI‐s 0.142; P< 0.05). On multivariate models, HRQOL only remained significantly associated with disease activity (standardized β for BASDAI 0.330; P< 0.01, and physician VAS 0.205 and night back pain VAS 0.210; P= 0.01). Similarly, physical function was associated with disease activity and radiographic damage on univariate analysis, but only with disease activity (BASDAI β 0.466; P< 0.01) on multivariate analysis. However, spinal mobility was associated with radiographic damage in both univariate and multivariate analyses. Patients with axial SpA already have impaired quality of life and physical function, albeit mildly, at the beginning of their disease course. Both outcomes are mainly associated with disease activity in these patients.

Osmotic dehydration (OD) treatments of apple cubes were carried out in a pilot plant, which consisted of an OD vessel, a filter, a vacuum evaporator, and recirculating pumps. The osmotic solution (OS) was maintained at 59.5 ± 1.5 °Brix and 50C by reconcentration in the evaporator, and suspended particles were eliminated by filtration. OS was reused to process 20 batches of apple cubes, maintaining a constant OS/fruit ratio of 5/1 (w/w) by addition of new OS. Evolution of pH, titratable acidity, soluble solids, water activity, color, reducing sugars, and microbial load in the OS was evaluated along the OD process. The OD parameters and the apple color were determined. Values of the physicochemical properties of the OS stabilized after 10 treated batches. A microbial load of 2590 ± 330 CFU/mL was observed in the OS at the end of 20 OD treatments. Water loss, solids gain and color of dehydrated apple cubesobtained in OD process with reuse of the OS were similar to those found in an OD process carried out with a nonrewed OS.

This work proposes a pilot scale equipment for osmotic dehydration (OD) of apple cubes that consists of a novel agitation‐immersion device, a bag filter and a vacuum evaporator to conduct simultaneously the OD process, filtration and reconcentration of the osmotic solution (OS). The functional method analysis was used to design the pilot plant. Apple cubes (∼1 cm3) were dehydrated using a 60 ° Brix sucrose syrup OS at 50C and a syrup/fruit ratio of 5. OD was conducted either with or without reconcentration of the OS. During the OD process particles of fruit were eliminated from the OS by filtration and the OS concentration was kept at 60 ° Brix by reconcentration in the evaporator. A comparison of the dehydration parameters of apple cubes obtained at pilot scale to those obtained at laboratory scale was done to evaluate the performance of the pilot equipment. The results show that the proposed set‐up can be suitable for commercial production of osmodehydrated fruits.

AbstractThe recent challenges set by the social sciences on mass media have caused practitioners, especially in Asia, to re-think and re-evaluate their roles and responsibilities. For example, in the social sciences, the ‘researched’ have become as important as or even more important than the researcher. The latter no longer merely aims to find out what the situations or problems are but consciously intends to be part of the solution to those problems.To a great extent, these views affect the way journalism and news reporting is done, or ought to be done, today. Journalists are being challenged not simply to shovel facts and spew them out. The ‘new view’ of communication holds journalists responsible not only for the method but also for the content of what they report on. Substance over structure. Kunda Dixit (1997) agrees. He says that journalists are not stenographers or ‘robots with no power of analysis and comprehension … capable only of a monochrome view of the world’ (p. 38).Improvement of coverage of news by Asian journalists must begin with a transformation of the reporters’ own inner being because their value system, character, and integrity will be reflected in their coverage. They must keep the larger picture in mind and decide: are they going to take a shortcut and file a superficial, sensationalized story, or are they going to try to be part of the solution?

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of the rumen bacterial community composition and abundance on marbling grade and breed in Wagyu cattle. Wagyu cattle are known for highly marbled and tender meat with unique flavor. This taste comes from the mono-unsaturated fatty acids, mainly oleic acid (18:1 n-9) which makes Wagyu fat more soft and palatable. It is believed that stearic acid (18:0) is responsible for fat hardness and its desaturation by a Delta -9 desaturase in Wagyu to oleic acid results in the tenderness. In the rumen, the microbial community plays important role in saturation and desaturation of fatty acids by biohydrogenation and in providing energy to the host animal through volatile fatty acids. In this study, we have analyzed the rumen bacterial community structure in 85 Wagyu animals from rumen samples collected at harvesting. Phenotypes of carcass traits were also collected from all animals at harvest. The animals in this study were either crossbred (F1) or full blood (FB) animals and came from 14 different producers which utilized different dietary and management conditions. The V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform to evaluate the microbial community composition in Wagyu cattle. The sequencing data were processed by using custom pipelines. All statistical analysis performed was adjusted to account for producer variation before analyzing for carcass traits. Alpha diversity metrics, Chao1 and observed OTUs, displayed higher (P= 0.001) bacterial richness in F1 than FB and displayed no difference (P>0.4) in bacterial community richness due to marbling grade. The principal coordinate analysis displayed distinct clustering of bacterial communities for FB and F1 which suggested that breed has an effect on the bacterial community composition. Further, these observations were confirmed by PERMANOVA which displayed different (P<0.001) bacterial communities between breeds (FB and F1) and producers while no difference (P>0.05) for marbling grade. Furthermore, we performed analysis to identify differential OTUs between marbling grades and to identify OTUs that were correlated with increased marbling scores. The differential OTUs (P<0.001) identified in the highest marbling grade predominately belonged to families Mogibacteriaceae, Lachnospiraceaeand Clostridiaceae.Additionally, several differential OTUs (P<0.001) were also associated with FB, predominantly from bacterial families Spirochaetaceae, Mogibacteriaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Fibrobacteraceae, Ruminococcaceaeand Prevotellaceae. The results from this preliminary study demonstrate that the rumen microbial community composition may influence marbling and manipulating the rumen microbial community may lead to increased marbling.