In conclusion almost half of the young healthy males participating in the study were detected to have vitamin D deficiency in winter. Low vitamin D concentrations are associated with a worse emotional state.”
“During the past few decades, much effort has been devoted to increasing

the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass to create biofuels, biochemicals, biocomposites, and a host of other bioproducts to replace fossil-based GSK1210151A supplier products. Recently, the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass received much more attention in ionic liquids with strong hydrogen-bond-destroying ability to produce lignocellulosic derivatives containing new functionality. In present study, carboxyl groups were attached onto sugarcane bagasse (SCB) by the homogenous modification

of SCB with maleic anhydride in ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride (BMIMCl) without any catalysts. The parameters optimized included maleic anhydride concentration, reaction temperature and reaction time required in the process. The extent of maleation of SCB was measured by the weight percent gain (WPG), which increased with an increment of maleic anhydride concentration between 1:1 and 5:1 (g/g, maleic anhydride/SCB). It should be noted that WPG decreased at wild conditions, including long reaction duration (>60 min) and high temperature this website (>110 degrees C). The results from FT-IR and solid-state CP/MAS C-13 NMR spectroscopies indicated that the maleation of hydroxyl groups in lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses LY2835219 all occurred. XRD, SEM and TGA/DTG analyses of the native and modified SCB showed that the cellulose crystalline structure of SCB was significantly destroyed after dissolution, maleation, and regeneration in IL. However, the remained cellulose

crystalline structure did not change except remarkable decrystallization. The thermal stability of the maleated SCB decreased at low temperature (lower than 300 degrees C), and increased at high temperature (above 300 degrees C) compared with that of native ball-milled SCB. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“Probiotics and prebiotics, which can change the colonic microenvironment, are the areas of current interest. Unutilizable fractions of the foods and fortificants, which reach the colon can affect the profile of probiotics. Effects of eight such factors viz, zinc sulphate, zinc carbonate, ferrous sulphate, ferric citrate, quercetin, gallic acid, phytic acid, and oxalic acid were, therefore, investigated on 24 H growth of Lactobacillus acidophilus (L1) and Lactobacillus plantarum (L2), two isolates of bifidobacteria (Ion gum (L3) and bifidum (L4)) and a marketed consortium (L5) of eight probiotic cultures. MRS medium with marketed fructooligosaccharide as the only source of carbon was used for study of dose response curves. Quercetin and zinc sulphate showed significant positive effect for L1 and L5 (P < 0.