Search Results (1,335)

Background: Self-care and healthy dietary habits are fundamental components of heart failure (HF) management, yet the relationship between dietary quality and self-care remains insufficiently explored. This study investigated the association between dietary habits and self-care behaviors among patients with HF. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 137 adults with HF attending outpatient clinics in Greece. Self-care behaviors were assessed using the Hippocratic Heart Failure Self-Care Scale (HHFSCS), and dietary quality was evaluated using the validated Greek version of the Cardiovascular Diet Questionnaire-2 (CDQ-2). Associations between demographic characteristics, dietary measures, and self-care were examined using non-parametric tests and multivariable general linear models adjusted for demographic characteristics. Results: The mean HHFSCS score was 41.0 ± 11.3, indicating a moderate level of self-care. Higher scores were observed for medication adherence and appointment keeping, whereas lower scores were observed for exercise, smoking-related behaviors, alcohol-related behaviors, and symptom monitoring. The mean total CDQ-2 score was 8.57 ± 7.17. Overall dietary quality was not significantly associated with total self-care after adjustment for age, sex, marital status, educational level, and employment status (B = −0.102, 95% CI: −0.338 to 0.134, p = 0.394). Among the dietary components, only the saturated fatty acid (SFA) score remained significantly associated with total self-care after adjustment (p = 0.015), whereas fruit and vegetable and monounsaturated fatty acid scores were not significant. Employment status was also significantly associated with self-care (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Overall dietary quality was not significantly associated with total self-care in this sample of patients with HF. However, the observed association between the SFA component and self-care suggests that specific aspects of dietary behavior may warrant further investigation. Given the cross-sectional design and reliance on self-reported measures, these findings should be interpreted cautiously and do not establish directionality or causality. Prospective studies incorporating objective dietary and behavioral measures are needed to further clarify the relationship between dietary habits and self-care in HF. Full article

The study aimed to investigate the effect of the inclusion of Tenebrio molitor meal (TM) in the diet of layer hens on the quality characteristics of eggs and their fatty acid profile. A total of 90 layers (age 33 weeks) were involved in the trial. They were allocated to 5 dietary groups, each consisting of 6 replicate cages with 3 layers per cage. The layers were fed a basal diet (C) and diets including TM in amounts of 1% (T1), 2% (T2), 3% (T3), and 4% (T4) for a period of 10 weeks. The dietary incorporation of TM was associated with decreased weight of the eggs (p < 0.0001), albumen (p < 0.0001), yolk (p = 0.0008), and shell (p < 0.0001) as well as decreased shell thickness (p < 0.0001), corresponding to the deteriorated performance indicators. Additionally, the yolks of the hens receiving TM had a darker colour (p < 0.0001). The diets containing the insect meal led to significant decrease in the saturated (SFA) (p = 0.0019) and increase in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) (p < 0.0001) in the yolks. The content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) declined in the groups fed TM (p = 0.0028), particularly T3 and T4. This was, however, compensated by the favourably lower peroxidability (PI) (p = 0.0137), atherogenic (AI) (p = 0.0111) and thrombogenic (TI) (p = 0.0070) index and raised ratio between hypo- and hypercholesterolemic fatty acids (h/H) (p = 0.0039). Full article

Background/Objectives: Goat milk is an important source of bioactive lipids, but information on the fatty acid (FA) profiles of indigenous Greek goat breeds under semi-extensive management remains limited. This study aimed to compare the milk FA composition and lipid health indices of Capra prisca, Skopelos, and crossbred goats in Thessaly, Greece, and to evaluate the effect of organic versus conventional semi-extensive production systems. Methods: Thirty bulk-tank milk samples were collected during spring 2025 from eight herds, comprising Capra prisca (n = 10), Skopelos (n = 10), and crossbred goats (n = 10), with 15 samples from each production system. Physicochemical characteristics were determined using an ultrasonic milk analyzer, while FA composition was analyzed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC–FID). Lipid quality indices, including the Atherogenicity Index (AI) and Thrombogenicity Index (TI), were calculated. Statistical analyses were performed using two-way ANOVA with Benjamini–Hochberg adjustment. Results: Breed significantly affected several individual FAs but not total SFA, MUFA, or UFA concentrations. Capra prisca milk contained higher levels of C4:0, C18:0, and C18:3n6 (pBH ≤ 0.015), whereas Skopelos milk showed higher C16:0 and lower C18:2n6 isomers (pBH ≤ 0.046). Total PUFA and ω-6 concentrations were higher in Capra prisca and crossbred milk than in Skopelos milk (pBH ≤ 0.004). In contrast, total ω-3 concentrations and lipid health indices did not differ significantly among breeds or between production systems (AI = 2.5–2.7; TI = 3.0–3.3; PUFA/SFA = 0.06–0.07; pBH ≥ 0.192). Conclusions: Under semi-extensive management, breed was associated primarily with differences in individual FAs and total ω-6 PUFA concentrations, whereas overall lipid health indices were relatively stable. No significant differences were observed between organic and conventional production systems. These findings provide baseline information on the milk lipid composition of indigenous Greek goat breeds and support further investigation using larger, multi-season datasets. Full article

In this study, targeted metabolomics and transcriptomics were applied for the first time to compare fatty acid contents, vitamin levels, and gene expression profiles between Stage II and Stage IV ovaries of LBG. The data revealed a rise in total SFA and PUFA as the ovary progressed from Stage II to Stage IV. The marked increase in n-3 PUFA from 11.5% in Stage II to 26.8% in Stage IV ovaries was primarily attributed to DHA. Despite a reduction in n-6 PUFA, ARA and its metabolism-related fatty acids all increased, suggesting indispensable roles for both ARA and DHA in the vitellogenesis of LBG. Consistent with the changes in fatty acid profiles during ovarian maturation, transcriptome analysis revealed that many upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) showed significant enrichment in fatty acid biosynthesis, arachidonic acid metabolism, and steroid hormone synthesis pathways. The concentrations of VC and VE increased, whereas VA declined during ovarian development from Stage II to Stage IV. Accordingly, many upregulated DEGs exhibited significant enrichment in ascorbate and aldarate metabolism, as well as vitamin digestion and absorption pathways. In addition to VC and VE, our transcriptome data also highlighted the importance of several B vitamins in oocyte development of LBG, warranting further investigation. Overall, these findings suggest that DHA, ARA, VC, and VE are key nutrients governing oocyte maturation in LBG. This study provides a solid theoretical basis for developing broodstock nutritional enhancement strategies in the artificial propagation of LBG. Full article

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are among the most common nosocomial infections globally and represent a significant cause of morbidity and prolonged hospital stays. There is a scarcity of molecular data regarding pathogens and virulence factors linked to CAUTIs, particularly in South Africa. This study aimed to determine the distribution and frequency of uropathogens, including polymicrobial infection patterns, isolated from catheterised patients at the Polokwane National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS), Limpopo Province, from March 2024 to March 2025, and to characterise the prevalence and co-occurrence of six virulence genes (fimH, papC, sfa, hly, cnf, and aer) among Escherichia coli isolates, the predominant uropathogen identified. Specimens from catheterised patients diagnosed with urinary tract infections at the National Health Laboratory Services in Polokwane were used. Uropathogens were isolated on agar and identified using the VITEK^® system. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used for amplification of some virulence genes (fimH, papC, sfa, hly, cnf, and aer) associated with uropathogens. Confirmation of urinary tract infections revealed that Escherichia coli was the predominant uropathogen (32.8%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae (17.8%), Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium (14%), and others. Among E. coli isolates, virulence gene analysis revealed fimH (79.8%) as the most prevalent, followed by aer (77.4%), sfa (41.7%), hly (27.4%), papC (26.19%), and lastly cnf (9.5%). This study demonstrates that E. coli is the leading cause of CAUTIs in our study population, exhibiting diverse virulence gene combinations that enhance adhesion and overall pathogenicity. The findings emphasise the need for routine molecular surveillance of CAUTI pathogens, reinforcement of catheter-care protocols, and targeted infection prevention strategies. Full article

Drying and storage are widely used to preserve edible mushrooms, yet information on how different drying temperatures and prolonged storage affect the relative fatty acid profile of wild Boletus edulis remains limited. This study aimed to determine the effects of drying temperature (20–60 °C), lyophilization, and storage duration (up to 6 months) on the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profile and fatty acid profile-derived indices of B. edulis. FAMEs were analyzed by GC-FID and expressed as relative percentages of total identified FAMEs. Linoleic acid predominated (58.7–70.1%), followed by oleic and palmitic acids. Samples dried at 40–60 °C showed higher relative PUFA proportions, approaching those of lyophilized samples. During storage, SFA increased from 12.9% to 16.2%, whereas PUFA decreased from 65.9% to 59.7%. Exploratory multivariate analysis suggested visual grouping of samples according to drying temperature, mainly related to differences in MUFA, SFA, and PUFA proportions. The highest PUFA/SFA ratio was 5.54. Overall, drying conditions and storage duration were associated with shifts in the relative fatty acid profile of B. edulis. Because total lipid content and direct oxidation markers were not measured, these results describe compositional differences and do not demonstrate absolute lipid retention, degradation, or oxidation. Full article

Introduction: The “obesity paradox” describes the observed association between improved cancer-specific (CSS) and overall (OS) survival observed among obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²) patients with RCC. Prior studies have reported lower stage/grade tumors among obese patients to explain this. This study aimed to evaluate subcutaneous (SFA) and visceral fat area (VFA) associations with CSS, OS, tumor stage and grade among patients with non-metastatic clear cell RCC. Methods: Following IRB approval, patients undergoing nephrectomy for clear cell RCC between 2000 and 2023 were screened for inclusion. Eligible patients were those with non-metastatic disease and available preoperative imaging within 90 days of surgery. SFA and VFA were determined using mid-L3 imaging and standardized Hounsfield Unit thresholds. Multivariable Cox models evaluated factors associated with 5-year CSS and OS, and multivariable logistic regression models evaluated associations with pathologic stage (pT) 3–4 and Fuhrman grade 3–4 disease. Results: 400 patients were included. Higher SFA quartiles were independently associated with improved CSS (Q3 HR 0.21, p = 0.029; Q4 HR 0.24, p = 0.042) and OS (Q2-Q4 HR range 0.35–0.52, all p < 0.05) compared to Q1. VFA was not independently associated with OS and showed only an isolated association with CSS in the third quartile (HR 2.95, p = 0.041). Neither SFA nor VFA were independently associated with RCC stage or grade. Conclusions: Greater subcutaneous adiposity was associated with improved 5-year CSS/OS, whereas visceral adiposity did not demonstrate consistent associations with survival outcomes. These findings refine the obesity paradox and reflect the importance of fat distribution as a more specific risk factor than weight-based measures such as BMI alone. Full article

Local chicken breeds are valuable genetic resources, but their limited growth performance may restrict practical use. This study evaluated whether crossing the Murciana chicken, a Mediterranean local breed, with the medium-growing commercial hybrid Hubbard JA757 could improve performance while retaining differentiated meat-quality traits. A total of 179 male chickens were assigned to three genotypes: Murciana (Mur), Murciana × Hubbard JA757 (MurHb), and Hubbard JA757 (Hb), reared under identical conditions, and slaughtered at a common target body weight. Final body weight was comparable among genotypes but reached at different ages (126, 78, and 53 days for Mur, MurHb, and Hb). Compared with Mur, MurHb showed higher average daily gain (30.6 vs. 21.5 g/d), improved feed conversion ratio (2.58 vs. 3.89), obtained higher carcass yield, and increased breast yield, although performance remained below Hb. Mur showed lower drip and cooking losses, whereas MurHb generally showed intermediate responses. In thigh meat, MurHb showed higher lipid content than Mur and a differentiated fatty acid profile, with lower SFA than Mur but PUFA, n-3, n-6/n-3, and PUFA/SFA values comparable to Mur and distinct from Hb. Overall, Murciana-derived crossbred improved productive performance while preserving local-breed meat-quality and lipid-related traits, supporting their potential as a complementary conservation-through-use strategy. Full article

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) from traditional foods are a useful source of natural biopreservatives. This study isolated and characterized indigenous LAB from goat meat produced in the argan grove ecosystem of the Souss-Massa region, Morocco, to identify strains that could improve food safety and shelf life. LAB were isolated under anaerobic conditions and screened by Gram staining, catalase test, growth profiling, and biochemical assays. Proteolytic, gelatinase, and hemolytic activity were assessed, together with antimicrobial activity against foodborne pathogens by agar well diffusion. The most promising strains were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The selected isolates belonged to Latilactobacillus and Enterococcus. Several isolates strongly inhibited Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus, and none were hemolytic or gelatinase-positive. The sustained inhibition even after neutralization of pH suggested that the antimicrobial effects might be mediated by bacteriocin-like compounds or other non-acidic metabolites. In the strains tested, L. sakei MG4013 gave the best results because of its wide range of antimicrobial activity and absence of hemolytic, gelatinase, proteolytic and lipolytic activities. Goat meat from the Souss-Massa region therefore harbours LAB with biopreservative potential, with potential for use as natural preservatives in traditional meat products or as starter cultures in fermented foods. However, before being used as natural preservatives or starter cultures, they need to be further validated in food matrices. Full article

Digital infrastructure (DI) and agricultural socialized services (ASSs) are key drivers of agricultural value chain efficiency (AVCE), yet their causal effects remain confounded by endogeneity bias. This study constructs an integrated SFA-Tobit-DML framework using 31-province Chinese panel data (2011–2023). SFA estimates provincial technical efficiency; Tobit provides associational benchmarks; and Double Machine Learning (DML) with K = 5 cross-fitting identifies causal average treatment effects (ATEs). The DML results validate the Tobit benchmark for DI (LassoCV ATE: 0.810, 95% CI [0.656, 0.963]; Tobit: 0.826), while revealing Tobit overestimates ASSs by approximately 37% (LassoCV: 0.850 [0.599, 1.101]; Tobit: 1.347). Bootstrap mediation tests confirm that agricultural R&D investment mediates 61.58% and 47.45% of DI and ASS effects. Heterogeneity analysis shows that urbanization amplifies DI marginal returns (ATE: 1.401 in low-urban vs. 0.711 in high-urban regions), while government intervention exhibits conditional crowding-out effects. These findings imply that policies should shift from uniform investment toward regionally differentiated strategies that account for local absorptive capacity. Full article

Oleogels, in which liquid oils are structured into semi-solid matrices by oleogelators, have been widely investigated as animal fat replacers in meat products, where they lower saturated fatty acid content while helping preserve texture, structure, and emulsion stability. The reported gains are substantial: structuring PUFA-rich oils to replace pork backfat has raised the PUFA/SFA ratio around 3.6-fold and cut the n-6/n-3 ratio up to 23-fold in burgers, while cellulose- and wax-structured systems have reduced saturated fat from roughly 42% to 15% of total fat in patties. In parallel, oleogels and structurally related gels act as carriers for lipophilic bioactives such as carotenoids, curcumin, phytosterols, and omega-3 fatty acids, improving oxidative stability and modulating digestive release, with encapsulation efficiencies exceeding 90% in some systems. Whether one structured-lipid system can perform both roles inside a meat matrix remains largely untested: direct evidence for classical oleogels is confined to a few cases, most clearly curcumin-loaded beeswax oleogels in pork burgers, which retained antioxidant protection through chilled storage and cooking. This review integrates the fat-replacement and bioactive-delivery studies, separates classical oleogels from gelled emulsions, Pickering emulsions, and bigels, and stratifies studies by level of evidence. Because most current support comes from related systems, it is framed as a perspective that maps this evidence gradient and defines the experiments required to validate dual-function oleogels under realistic meat processing and storage conditions. Full article

Obesity is a major health concern within the United States. Previous studies have shown that a diet high in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) may help combat metabolic disease by improving cardiometabolic and inflammatory status. Pecans have high MUFA content and the highest antioxidant capacity of any nut. The aim of this preliminary study is to determine if a diet supplemented with 1.5 ounces of pecans daily for eight weeks could improve blood glucose, lipid panel, inflammatory markers, and body composition in individuals with overweight and obesity as compared to a control group who maintained their normal diet. Post-intervention measurements showed no significant difference from baseline values for either the experimental or the control group. Data acquired using the Vioscreen Food Frequency Questionnaire found negative correlations were present between LDL cholesterol and dietary intake of iron, selenium, zinc, MUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acids, saturated fatty acids, and dietary cholesterol. Furthermore, there were negative correlations determined between fasting blood glucose and dietary intake of magnesium, MUFA, and SFA. Regarding inflammatory markers, no detectable levels of IL-10 nor TNF-α were found in the majority of samples. IL-6 was detectable in all samples, but showed no statistical difference between any of the groups in the study. Thus, an intervention of 1.5 oz of pecans for eight weeks did not significantly change measured metabolic parameters nor levels of serum IL-6. However, due to the sample size limitations of this hypothesis-generating preliminary study, further research is needed. Further studies should include a longer intervention period, a larger cohort, and potentially a larger dosage of pecans to increase the amount of MUFA in the diet to determine if such interventions may influence cardiometabolic and inflammatory parameters. Full article

This paper develops and evaluates HQER-SFA, a likelihood-based stochastic frontier specification that embeds a hybrid quantile-expectile error layer into the bilateral noise component while preserving the standard one-sided inefficiency structure. The model nests Quantile-SFA when $\gamma =0$ and extends it by normalizing the hybrid loss into a proper bilateral error density, so that likelihood inference, residual decomposition, and technical-efficiency recovery remain in a unified stochastic-frontier framework. We compare HQER-SFA with Traditional-SFA and Quantile-SFA using three processed production modules, Monte Carlo parameter-inversion experiments, an expanded $R=300$ robustness design, $\gamma$ sensitivity and ablation checks, convergence diagnostics, and a source-assisted small-sample extension. The results demonstrate clear gains for technical-efficiency recovery: in the $R=300$ design, HQER-SFA attains win rates of 0.5646 for technical-efficiency RMSE and 0.5578 for technical-efficiency rank correlation, and the agricultural module shows the strongest real-data improvement under the flexible bilateral error layer. The source-assisted analysis further shows that same-domain initialization improves small-sample validation RMSE by about 2.43%, while excessive source-centered penalties should be controlled. Overall, HQER-SFA provides an interpretable and computationally feasible extension for technical-efficiency recovery, especially when bilateral noise is asymmetric, tail-sensitive, or heterogeneous across production modules. Full article

Glioblastoma (GBM) exhibits profound metabolic reprogramming, among which the balance between unsaturated and saturated fatty acids (UFA/SFA) emerges as a critical determinant of tumor behavior and treatment response. Recent studies have shown that fatty acid metabolic reprogramming is a key mechanism driving GBM progression. Abnormalities in fatty acid uptake, synthesis, desaturation, and oxidation collectively reshape the lipid composition of tumor cells, particularly by altering the unsaturated/saturated fatty acid ratio. Monounsaturated fatty acids mainly promote tumor cell proliferation and membrane biosynthesis, polyunsaturated fatty acids can induce lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis under specific stress conditions, whereas excessive saturated fatty acids can cause lipotoxicity when desaturation is limited. Key enzymes in fatty acid metabolism constitute a regulatory network and provide potential therapeutic targets for GBM. In addition, fatty acid metabolism can remodel the tumor immune microenvironment, especially by affecting the functional state of tumor-associated macrophages. Rather than targeting a single lipid species or isolated metabolic enzyme, therapeutic strategies that recalibrate the UFA/SFA ratio may provide a more integrated approach to restraining GBM progression and improving treatment sensitivity. Full article

Accurate identification of urban functional zones is critically important for urban planning and sustainable development. However, existing deep learning methods exhibit limited cross-city generalization capabilities, rendering them inadequate for large-scale automated mapping applications. To address this challenge, this study proposes a cross-city identification framework based on SFA-Mask R-CNN (Scale-Aware Feature-enhanced Attention Mask R-CNN), which achieves precise segmentation and classification of functional zones by integrating three complementary feature enhancement mechanisms: a Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) for discriminative feature recalibration, a novel Scale-Aware FPN (SA-FPN) that dynamically adjusts feature pyramid layer weights according to the scale distribution of input imagery to improve cross-city transferability, and an ASPP (Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling) module for multi-scale contextual feature extraction, combined with multi-source data fusion. Using three cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt—Chengdu, Wuhan, and Shanghai—as study areas, we systematically evaluated the model’s cross-city generalization performance. The results show that the Wuhan model exhibits the strongest cross-city transferability, achieving 85.37% accuracy in Chengdu, suggesting that models trained on cities at transitional development stages possess superior generalizability. In contrast, the gradient reversal layer-based domain adaptation approach tested in this study failed to effectively enhance model performance. This study provides a practical technical pathway for “train once, apply to multiple cities” large-scale functional zone mapping and offers new perspectives for research on regional disparities in urban development. Full article