(C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3567933]“
“We have prepared a series of novel gelatin derivatives through reactions of gelatin with alkyl succinic anhydride and polyoxyethylene stearyl ether. These derivatives contain gelatin units and polyoxyethylene
chains as their hydrophilic moieties and alkyl succinic anhydrides and 18-carbon-atom alkyl chains as their hydrophobic moieties. Surface activities were evaluated in terms of the materials’ surface tensions, wetting abilities, emulsifying powers, and foaming properties. The surface tensions were characterized with respect to the critical micelle concentration (cmc), the surface tension at the cmc, the Elafibranor price maximum surface excess concentration, the standard free energy, and the surface area per molecule at the air-water interface. The modified gelatins were more surface-active relative to gelatin itself. Increasing the polyoxyethylene chain length led to a decrease in surface activity. The excellent foaming, wetting, and LBH589 clinical trial emulsifying behavior of the gelatin derivatives was a direct result of the presence of their multiple hydrophilic and
hydrophobic units. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 121:2993-3000, 2011″
“Background: There is uncertainty over the nutrition-related benefits to health of consuming organic foods.
Objective: We sought to assess the strength of evidence that nutrition-related health benefits could be attributed to the consumption of foods produced under organic farming methods.
Design: We systematically searched PubMed, ISI Web of Science, CAB Abstracts, and Embase between 1 January 1958 and 15 September 2008 (and updated until 10 March 2010); contacted
subject experts; and hand-searched bibliographies. We included peer-reviewed articles with English abstracts if they reported a comparison of health outcomes that resulted from consumption of or exposure to organic compared with conventionally produced foodstuffs.
Results: From a total of 98,727 articles, we identified 12 relevant studies. A variety of different study designs were used; there were 8 reports (67%) of human studies, including 6 clinical trials, 1 cohort study, and 1 cross-sectional study, and 4 reports (33%) of studies in animals or Selumetinib human cell lines or serum. The results of the largest study suggested an association of reported consumption of strictly organic dairy products with a reduced risk of eczema in infants, but the majority of the remaining studies showed no evidence of differences in nutrition-related health outcomes that result from exposure to organic or conventionally produced foodstuffs. Given the paucity of available data, the heterogeneity of study designs used, exposures tested, and health outcomes investigated, no quantitative meta-analysis was justified.