Meal with animal protein builds more muscle than meal with plant protein in elderly people

A meal with meat ensures faster muscle building than a vegan meal with the same amount of protein. This is according to the research of Philippe Pinckaers from Maastricht University and Maastricht UMC+'s research institute NUTRIM. Pinckaers was the first to compare muscle production after eating a complete meal with animal or vegetable proteins. The findings were recently published in the scientific journal The Journal of Nutrition.

Our muscles are constantly breaking down and building up: they renew themselves every two to three months. For that muscle building, we need protein from food, for example from animal sources such as meat, cheese and yoghurt, or from plant products such as beans, nuts and soymilk. Previous research on protein powders showed that animal proteins have better muscle-building properties than plant proteins. 'But in reality, we do not get our proteins in powder form, but through complete meals,' says PhD student Philippe Pinckaers. 'Those meals contain different types of protein and other nutrients such as fibers, fats and carbohydrates. These nutrients affect how proteins are released from the diet and influence muscle building'. To investigate how muscles respond after eating a complete meal, Pinckaers asked 16 participants aged over 65 to come to the lab twice for dinner.
 

Dining in the lab

On one of the test days, quinoa with chickpeas, broad beans, soy beans and soy sauce was on the menu, while on the other test day participants were served with a beef tartlet, potatoes, green beans, apple sauce and herb butter. Both meals had similar amounts of protein, fat, carbohydrates and calories. Prior to the meals, participants were administered an infusion of amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, which in turn are essential for muscle building. 'The amino acids administered via the infusion were marked, as it were with a flag,' Pinckaers explains. 'We took small pieces of muscle tissue from the participants and were able to measure the amount of 'flags' in them. If more flags are measured, it means that muscle proteins are built up faster, which is beneficial for muscles. In this way, we found that after eating a meal with animal protein, muscle protein was built up faster than after eating a vegan meal. This means that a vegan meal does not have the same capacity to stimulate muscle growth as a meal that includes animal proteins.' This difference arises partly because plant-based foods are harder to digest, and because they naturally contain fewer essential amino acids.
 

Compensate 

The results do not mean that everyone should eat meat or other animal products, clarifies professor of exercise science and lead researcher Luc van Loon. 'Healthy people can very well compensate for the lower quality of plant proteins by eating more of them.' For elderly or frail patients it is a bit more complicated. 'Elderly people actually need more protein because their muscle production decreases, but they actually eat less.  Also, patients with reduced appetite or who do not exercise much, for example during hospitalisation, may have trouble getting that extra protein. For them, it is therefore important to choose protein sources that stimulate muscle production as much as possible. Then you do end up with proteins from animal products".

What happens if you put the wrong fuel into your car?

Putting the wrong fuel in your car can be a costly mistake. It can damage your engine and may even void your warranty.

Putting diesel in a petrol engine

If you put diesel in a petrol engine, the engine will not start. Diesel fuel is not volatile enough to ignite with a spark plug. In addition, diesel fuel can damage the spark plugs and fuel injectors.

Putting petrol in a diesel engine

If you put petrol in a diesel engine, the engine may start, but it will not run for long. Petrol fuel ignites too easily in a diesel engine, which can cause knocking and other damage to the engine.

What to do if you put the wrong fuel in your car

If you realize that you have put the wrong fuel in your car, do not start the engine. Turn the car off and call a tow truck to have it towed to a mechanic. The mechanic will be able to drain the fuel tank and refill it with the correct type of fuel.

Here are some tips to avoid putting the wrong fuel in your car:

Pay attention to the fuel pump labels. Make sure the label matches the type of fuel that your car requires.

Use a fuel funnel. This will help to prevent you from spilling fuel.

If you are unsure about the type of fuel that your car requires, consult your owner's manual.

Difference Between Diesel and Petrol Engines

Petrol and diesel engines are two types of internal combustion engines that are commonly used in automobiles and other vehicles. They both convert chemical energy from fuel into mechanical energy to power the vehicle. However, there are some key differences between the two types of engines.

Type of fuel

• Petrol engines use petrol, also known as gasoline, as fuel. Petrol is a volatile liquid that is easily ignited by a spark.
• Diesel engines use diesel fuel, which is a heavier and more oily substance than petrol. Diesel fuel ignites spontaneously when it is compressed to a high enough temperature.
• Combustion process

Petrol engines use a spark plug to ignite the air-fuel mixture in the engine cylinders. The spark plug creates a spark that ignites the mixture, causing the pistons to move and generate power.

Diesel engines do not use spark plugs. Instead, they rely on high compression to ignite the air-fuel mixture. The air is compressed to a very high temperature, which causes the diesel fuel to ignite spontaneously.

Efficiency

• Diesel engines are generally more efficient than petrol engines. This is because they can convert more of the chemical energy in the fuel into mechanical energy. Diesel engines typically have a higher compression ratio than petrol engines, which helps to improve their efficiency.
• Petrol engines are less efficient than diesel engines, but they are typically less expensive to purchase and maintain.

Emissions

• Diesel engines produce more particulate matter (PM) emissions than petrol engines. PM is a type of air pollution that can cause respiratory problems.
• Petrol engines produce more volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions than diesel engines. VOCs are a type of air pollution that can contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone.

Applications

• Petrol engines are commonly used in passenger cars and light trucks.
• Diesel engines are commonly used in heavy-duty trucks, buses, and tractors.

Overall, diesel engines are more efficient and produce less CO2 than petrol engines, but they produce more particulate matter emissions. Petrol engines are less efficient and produce more CO2 than diesel engines, but they produce less particulate matter emissions.

In recent years, there has been a trend towards cleaner diesel engines, with the use of particulate filters and other emissions control technologies. This has helped to reduce the environmental impact of diesel engines.

Electrocaloric Material Makes Solid-State Fridge Scalable

Many of today’s refrigerators and air conditioners have a fundamental flaw. Most coolers operate by vapor compression, relying on a fluid to absorb heat and wick it away. Vapor compression tech is cheap and proven, but it’s also inefficient and about as downsizable as a 1950s vacuum-tube computer . Plus, its workhorse fluids—in particular, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)—often enter the atmosphere as potent greenhouse gases .

Fortunately, there are a few solid-state alternatives to vapor compression that avoid these problems. More than just cleaning up refrigerators’ acts, the alternatives could create cooling devices in miniature , small enough to fit in a pocket. One such alternative relies on solid materials that change temperature under an electric field: what scientists call the electrostatic effect.

Researchers have now created arguably the most successful demonstration yet of an electrocaloric component. Relying on a ceramic multilayer capacitor, this regenerative heat exchanger (a.k.a. regenerator ) features a difference in temperature more than 50 percent greater than any electrocaloric that preceded it.

“This is really something of interest because the technology we are using is intrinsically scalable.”
—EMMANUEL DEFAY, LUXEMBOURG INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

When an electric field courses through an electrocaloric material, the material reacts by warming up; when the field vanishes, the material cools back down. The trick is to switch on the electric field, hold it on, force the resulting heat to radiate away, and then switch off the field—encouraging the material to chill to depths lower than its original temperature.

Researchers have known about the electrocaloric effect for more than half a century, but for most of that time, they could not do much with it. Until well into the 21st century, no one could coerce an electrocaloric material into a temperature difference of more than 10 ºC.

Then, in the late 2010s, researchers discovered they could boost an electrocaloric material’s potency by fashioning it into a multilayer capacitor. “If we put the right material in there, then we could have access to a larger [change in temperature],” says Emmanuel Defay , a materials scientist at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST).

Defay and colleagues in Luxembourg and at Japan’s Murata Manufacturing set their eyes on one particular ceramic: a perovskite , lead scandium tantalate (PST). They created a regenerator from stacked layers of PST submerged in silicone oil.

First, the regenerator’s electric field activates, and its PST heats up, as electrocalorical materials do. A syringe pump pushes the silicone oil one way through the stack, which absorbs heat from the PST and creates a hot end on the far side. The electric field deactivates, and the stack cools down; the pump pushes the oil back through the stack to the other, cold end, and the PST absorbs some of its heat. Repeating this process over and over creates a regenerative cycle.

When their LIST and Murata researchers first published their regenerator results in Science in 2020, it exhibited a record 13 °C difference between its hot and cold ends. After several years of tinkering with the regenerator’s design, Defay and his colleagues have increased that delta to another record, 20.9 °C.

Moreover, they measured a cooling power of 4.2 watts. That figure may be orders of magnitude less than a garden-variety vapor-compression refrigerator, but in the world of electrocalorics, the authors say it’s a 15-fold improvement over any material that came before.

Defay is optimistic about the future. “This is really something of interest because the technology we are using is intrinsically scalable,” Defay says. “We can scale it because those elements we are using are already commercialized for other purposes.”

But before a warming world can begin fighting heat waves with electrocaloric coolers, the regenerator’s builders will have to further iterate their design. For one thing, none of the present ceramics’ key elements are appealing for mass production. Lead is toxic; scandium is prohibitively expensive; tantalum is a conflict material in Central Africa and, Defay says, best avoided.

Additionally, the silicone oil that the researchers use to absorb heat is actually a relatively bad thermal conductor. Defay would prefer to use water, which could do the job far more effectively. Unfortunately, water—or any electrically conductive fluid like it—will short-circuit the regenerator. So Defay says for the present purposes they were forced to use a poor substitute. However, he adds, if the regenerator could be redesigned to be waterproofed, the problem would be solved. “We could then increase the cooling power by one order of magnitude,” Defay says.

Electrocalorics are not the only technology that could create solid-state refrigerators. On the reverse of the electromagnetic coin are magnetocaloric materials, which change temperature under a magnetic field. In fact, in 2014, other researchers built a magnetocaloric refrigerator capable of on the order of a hundred times as much cooling power as even the present record-shattering electrocaloric regenerator.

What will happen if all the oceans of the world froze?

If all the oceans of the world were to freeze completely, it would have significant and wide-ranging effects on the Earth's ecosystems and climate. Here are some of the consequences that would likely occur:

1. Disruption of Marine Life: The freezing of the oceans would pose a severe threat to marine life. Most marine organisms are adapted to living in liquid water, and the sudden freezing of their habitat would lead to widespread mortality. Fish, mammals, and other marine species would struggle to survive in the absence of liquid water, affecting the entire marine food chain.

2. Impact on Climate: Oceans play a crucial role in regulating the Earth's climate. They absorb and store vast amounts of heat, which they distribute around the globe through ocean currents. If the oceans were frozen, this heat distribution would be severely disrupted, leading to significant changes in global climate patterns. It could result in colder temperatures in coastal regions and altered weather patterns worldwide.

3. Sea Level Changes: When water freezes, it expands. If all the oceans froze, the expansion of the water would cause a rise in sea levels. This is because frozen water occupies more space than liquid water. The extent of sea level rise would depend on the volume of water frozen.

4. Impact on Earth's Albedo: The frozen oceans would significantly alter the Earth's albedo, which is the measure of how much sunlight is reflected back into space. Ice and snow have a much higher albedo than liquid water, meaning they reflect more sunlight. This increased reflectivity could lead to an overall cooling effect on the planet's temperature.

5. Disruption of Oceanic Circulation: Ocean currents, such as the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift, play a crucial role in redistributing heat around the globe. Freezing the oceans would disrupt these currents, potentially leading to changes in regional climates and affecting ecosystems that rely on specific current patterns.

If all the oceans of the world were to freeze, it would have a substantial impact on global trade and transportation. Here are some considerations:

1. Maritime Transportation Disruption: Shipping and maritime transportation, which heavily rely on open waterways, would be severely disrupted. Frozen oceans would make it nearly impossible for vessels to navigate through the ice, resulting in a significant reduction in maritime trade routes. Ports and harbors would be inaccessible, leading to a halt in shipping activities.

2. Economic Implications: International trade heavily depends on maritime transportation for the movement of goods across the globe. With frozen oceans impeding shipping routes, there would be a substantial disruption in global supply chains. Industries reliant on imports and exports would face challenges in transporting goods, leading to potential shortages, increased costs, and economic repercussions.

3. Alternative Transportation Methods: In the face of frozen oceans, alternative transportation methods would need to be explored. This could involve utilizing land-based transportation networks such as roads, railways, and air travel to compensate for the loss of maritime routes. However, such alternatives may not be as efficient or cost-effective for transporting large volumes of goods over long distances.

4. Localized Trade Opportunities: While international trade would be significantly impacted, localized trade within regions that are not directly affected by the frozen oceans could still continue. Landlocked countries and regions that rely less on maritime transportation might experience a shift in trading patterns, focusing more on overland trade routes.

5. Exploration of Arctic Routes: The Arctic region, which is already experiencing diminishing sea ice due to climate change, could potentially become more accessible for trade if all the oceans were to freeze. However, it's important to note that even in the frozen state, navigating through icy Arctic waters presents significant challenges and requires specialized ice-breaking vessels.

The freezing of all the oceans on Earth has never occurred in the history of our planet. While there have been periods of extensive ice coverage in the past, such as during the Snowball Earth hypothesis, where a large portion of the Earth's surface was covered in ice, the complete freezing of all oceans has not been observed.

The Snowball Earth hypothesis suggests that approximately 650 to 700 million years ago, the Earth experienced severe ice ages where ice sheets extended from the poles to lower latitudes. However, even during this time, it is believed that there were still areas of open water, known as "refugia," where life could persist.

The Earth's climate has gone through various cycles of glaciations and interglacial periods, with ice ages occurring intermittently. These cycles involve the growth and retreat of ice sheets, but they do not result in the complete freezing of all oceans.

The Earth's climate is influenced by complex interactions between various factors, including solar radiation, greenhouse gases, ocean currents, and geological processes. While changes in climate can lead to shifts in ice coverage and sea ice extent, a complete freeze of all oceans would require extreme and long-lasting climate conditions that have not been observed in Earth's history.

New Microgel Lubricant Could Provide Relief From Dry Mouth, new study

A new proof-of-concept lubricant gel provides improved relief for dry mouths.

A novel aqueous lubricant that can be used as a saliva substitute to combat the effects of xerostomia, also known as dry mouth, has been developed by scientists at the University of Leeds.

The lubricant makes use of the material properties of microgels, a lattice-like network of molecules that bind onto the inside of the mouth. Surrounding the microgel is a polysaccharide-based hydrogel that also helps to trap in water and keep the mouth hydrated.

This dual-action lubricant technology is up to five times more effective than current commercial products, the researchers say. The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

New benchmarks for dry mouth care

Xerostomia affects roughly 1 in 10 adults, with this rising to approximately 30% of elderly adults and 80% of institutionalized elders. But dry mouth is more than just an important health issue due to its prevalence. It also significantly increases the risk of developing periodontal diseases, oral ulcers, tooth decay and swallowing problems. If left untreated, this can lead to reduced food intake and malnutrition.

To combat the negative effects of xerostomia, a wide range of different saliva substitutes have been developed to help rehydrate the mouth and act as a lubricant when chewing and swallowing food. However, a recent scientific review of such “artificial saliva” products found that any relief brought by such products tends to be short-lived. 

“The problem with many of the existing commercial products is they are only effective for short periods because they do not bind to the surface of the mouth, with people having to frequently reapply the substance, sometimes while they are talking or as they eat,” said lead study author Anwesha Sarkar, a professor of colloids and surfaces in the University of Leeds School of Food and Nutrition. “That affects people’s quality of life.”

The new microgel developed by Sarkar and her team is different, she explains, as the microgel structure is able to physically bind to biological surfaces, such as the dry inside of a mouth, due to a process called adsorption.

New saliva substitute is five times more effective than alternatives

The research team’s novel lubricant comes in two types: one made using a dairy protein, and a “veganized” version, made with a protein found in potatoes.

The researchers used an artificial tongue-like surface to measure the lubrication and desorption – the opposite of adsorption – properties of the lubricant on the tongue after a short rinsing, which mimics the swallowing process.

Similar tests were also conducted for eight commercially available saliva substitutes, including a drug store own-brand product, Biotene, Oralieve, Saliveze and Glandosane.

For the commercial products, between 23% to 58% of the lubricant was lost upon rinsing, compared to just 7% of the new saliva substitute. The dairy version of the substitute was also found to have marginally outperformed the vegan version.

“The test results provide a robust proof of concept that our material is likely to be more effective under real-world conditions and could offer relief up to five times longer than the existing products that are available,” said Olivia Pabois, PhD, a research fellow at the University of Leeds and first author of the paper.

“The results of the benchmarking show favorable results in three key areas. Our microgel provides high moisturization, it binds strongly with the surfaces of the mouth and is an effective lubricant, making it more comfortable for people to eat and talk.”

So far, the University of Leeds team has only tested the new saliva alternative in laboratory studies, though the team is looking to translate this technology into commercially available products that can complete human trials.

Reference: Pabois O, Avila-Sierra A, Ramaioli M, et al. Benchmarking of a microgel-reinforced hydrogel-based aqueous lubricant against commercial saliva substitutes. Sci Rep. 2023;13(1):19833. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-46108-w

This article is a rework of a press release issued by the University of Leeds. Material has been edited for length and content.

Physical appearance of man, a new study

A recent study published in Social Science Quarterly has shed light on an intriguing aspect of our lives—how our physical appearance during our teenage years can impact our future social mobility. Researchers found that being perceived as attractive during adolescence can significantly boost a person’s chances of moving up the social ladder in terms of education, occupation, and income.

We’ve all heard the saying that “looks aren’t everything,” but this study suggests that they might matter more than we think when it comes to social mobility. While previous research has explored various factors influencing social mobility, such as education and family background, the role of physical attractiveness has often been overlooked. This study aimed to fill that gap by examining how physical appearance in adolescence might affect a person’s future opportunities and success.

“My co-author and I became interested in this topic because there is a popular notion that physically attractive individuals have an advantage over others, not only in terms of finding romantic partners, but also in terms of achieving other important outcomes, such as having higher incomes,” explained study author Alexi Gugushvili, a professor at the University of Oslo. “Yet, we couldn’t find many studies which would show if attractiveness really helps to improve individuals’ socioeconomic position when compared to their parents.”

To conduct the study, researchers analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which involved over 20,000 adolescents in the United States. They looked at information from three different waves of data collection, spanning from the mid-1990s to the late 2010s.

The researchers assessed the participants’ physical attractiveness using interviewer ratings obtained during the first wave of data collection when the respondents were aged 12-19. The attractiveness ratings ranged from “very unattractive” to “very attractive.” These ratings were used to gauge the participants’ physical attractiveness during their adolescent years.

To measure social mobility, the researchers compared the educational, occupational, and income attainment of these adolescents in adulthood with the socioeconomic status of their parents. This allowed them to determine whether individuals had moved up or down the socioeconomic ladder compared to their parents.

The researchers found that individuals who were rated as attractive or very attractive during their adolescent years were more likely to experience upward social mobility in terms of education, occupation, and income when they became adults. This effect was significant even after accounting for various factors such as socioeconomic background, cognitive abilities, personality traits, health, and neighborhood characteristics.

“Despite decades of research on how some individuals climb the social ladder in comparison to their parents, many important characteristics that can facilitate intergenerational social mobility are not well understood,” Gugushvili told PsyPost. “In the present study, we showed that being physically attractive helps individuals be better educated, have more prestigious jobs, and earn higher incomes when compared to their parents.”

The study also uncovered gender differences in the impact of physical attractiveness on social mobility. While physical attractiveness mattered for both males and females, it appeared to have a stronger influence on males’ educational and income mobility compared to females. For females, the effect of physical attractiveness on occupational mobility was less pronounced.

“The most surprising finding of the study was that physical attractiveness appears to matter more for males than females,” Gugushvili said.

But the study, like all research, includes some caveats. For instance, the researchers relied on interviewers’ assessments of physical attractiveness, which may not be a perfect measure. Additionally, factors influencing attractiveness and social mobility could be intertwined in complex ways. Future research could delve deeper into understanding the mechanisms through which physical attractiveness affects social mobility and explore whether these effects persist over time.

“I think it is particularly interesting to study how and why males benefit more from their looks than females, and if the same association also holds in countries other than the United States,” Gugushvili said.