Nano grain sized zirconia–silica glass ceramics for dental applications

Glass ceramics based on lithium disilicates are commonly used in dental veneers and crowns. Alternative materials with improved mechanical properties may be of interest for more demanding applications, e.g. bridgeworks. In this study, a sol–gel method was optimized to produce nano grain-sized zirconia–silica glass ceramics with properties adequate for dental applications. The material properties were compared to those of IPS e.max^® CAD, a commercially available lithium disilicate. The zirconia–silica glass ceramic was found to be translucent, with a transmittance of over 70%, and possessed excellent corrosion resistance. It also presented a somewhat lower elastic modulus but higher hardness than the lithium disilicate, and with the proper heat treatment a higher fracture toughness was achieved for the zirconia–silica glass ceramic. In conclusion, the material produced in this study showed promising results for use in dental applications, but the production method is sensitive and large specimen sizes may be difficult to achieve.     

Yeast biocontrol of fungal spoilage of pears stored at low temperature

To reduce the use of fungicides, biological control with yeasts has been proposed in postharvest pears. Most studies of antagonists selection have been carried out at room temperature. However, in regions like North Patagonia where fruits are stored at − 1/0 °C during 5-7 months the selection of potential antagonist agents must be carried out at low temperature. In this study, 75 yeast cultures were isolated from healthy pears from two Patagonian cold-storage packinghouses. Aureobasidium pullulans, Cryptococcus albidus, Cryptococcus difluens, Pichia membranifaciens, Pichia philogaea, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast species were identified. Additionally, 13 indigenous isolates of Penicillium expansum and 10 isolates of Botrytis cinerea were obtained from diseased pears, characterized by aggressiveness and tested for sensitivity to postharvest fungicides. The yeasts were pre-selected for their ability to grow at low temperature. In a first biocontrol assay using the most aggressive and the most sensitive isolate of each pathogen, two epiphytic isolates of A. pullulans and R. mucilaginosa were the most promising isolates to be used as biocontrol agents. They reduced the decay incidence by P. expansum to 33% and the lesion diameter in 88% after 60 days of incubation in cold. Foreign commercial yeast used as a reference in assays, only reduced 30% of lesion diameter in the same conditions. Yeasts were not able to reduce the incidence of B. cinerea decay. The control activity of the best two yeasts was compared with the control caused by the fungicides in a second bioassay, obtaining higher levels of protection against P. expansum by the yeasts. These two regional yeasts isolates could be promising tools for the future development of commercial products for biological control.     

CD4+ and CD8+ T cells producing Th1 and Th17 cytokines are involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmune orchitis

Experimental autoimmune orchitis (EAO) is a useful model to study chronic testicular inflammation and infertility. EAO is characterized by severe damage of seminiferous tubules with germ cells that undergo apoptosis and sloughing. We previously reported an increase in CD4+ and CD8+ effector T cells in the testes of rats with EAO. Since cytokine patterns determine T cell effector functions, in the present work we analyzed the cytokines expressed by these cells during disease development. By flow cytometry, we detected an increase in the number of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF) and interferon -γ (IFNG)-producing CD4+ T cells in the testis at EAO onset. As the severity of the disease progressed, these cells declined while CD8+ T cells producing TNF and IFNG increased, with the predominance of IFNG expression. As a novel finding, we identified by immunofluorescence CD4+ interleukin 17 (IL17)+ and CD8+ IL17+ cells in the testes of EAO rats, with CD4+ and CD8+ T cells predominating at the onset and in the chronic phase of EAO respectively. Moreover, IL17 (western blot) and IL23 content (ELISA) increased in EAO, with maximum levels in the chronic phase. These results suggest the involvement of CD4+ T helper (Th) 1 and Th17 subsets as co-effector cells governing EAO onset, as well as the central contribution of CD8+ T cells producing Th1 and Th17 cytokines in the maintenance of chronic inflammation. The expression of T-bet and RORγt (western blot) in the testis over the course of disease also supports the presence of Th1 and Th17 cells in the testes of EAO rats.     

Non-structural carbohydrate partitioning in Phaseolus vulgaris after vegetative growth

This study provides information on the concentration and quantity of starch, reducing sugars, total sugars, and non-reducing oligosaccharides in the organs of the common bean plant (Phaseolus vulgarisL cv Jamapa) during growth. The following observations were made: (1) the root, stems and branches were temporary carbohydrate storage organs; (2) until 80 days after sowing (DAS), the leaves were the major contributors to the non-structural carbohydrates of the whole plant; (3) during the developmental period studied, non-structural carbohydrate content in the rachis and pulvinus changed frequently; (4) the pod walls contained between 5 and 8% of total sugars at 72 DAS and by maturity soluble sugars diminished to less than 1%; (5) during seed growth (until 80 DAS), the pod walls contained between 11 and 18% starch (dry weight basis) and by maturity this carbohydrate had decreased to 2% of dry weight; and (6) starch represented the major non-structural storage carbohydrate in mature seeds (29%), as opposed to soluble sugars, which amounted to 2·3% of the dry weight.     

^13C NMR and ^1H NMR Spectroscopic Analysis of Adansonia digitata,Albizia lebbeck and Daniellia ofiveri Oils

Oils of AD （Adansonia digitata）, AL （Albizia lebbeck） and DO （Daniellia oliveri） were studied using ^13C NMR （nuclear magnetic resonance） and ^1H NMR. The gated decoupled high resolution ^13C NMR spectra revealed the presence of both saturated and unsaturated triacylglycerides. However, there is a higher percentage of unsaturation in AL seed oil. The peaks at 0.7 ppm to 0.9 ppm which correspond to the terminal methyl groups in the fatty acid and that at 1.2 ppm to 1.3 ppm are more intense and bigger in DO which show that it is more saturated than AD and AL oils. The results obtained by ^13C NMR and ^1H NMR are compared favorably with those obtained by gas chromatographic analysis.     

A comparative study of parallel software SURF implementations

Nowadays, it is common to find problems that require recognizing objects in an image, tracking them along time, or recognizing a complete real‐world scene. One of the most known and used algorithms to solve these problems is the Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) algorithm. SURF is a fast and robust local, scale and rotation invariant, features detector. This means that it can be used for detecting and describing a set of points of interest (keypoints) from an image. Because of the importance of this algorithm and the rise of the parallelism‐based technologies, in the last years, diverse parallel implementations of SURF have been proposed. These parallel implementations are based on very different techniques: Compute Unified Device Architecture, OpenMp, OpenCL, and so on. In conclusion, we think valuable a comparative study of all of them highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each parallel implementation. To our best knowledge, this article is the first attempt to do this comparative study. In order to make this study, we have used the standard metrics and image collection in this field, as well as other important metrics in parallelism as speedup and efficiency. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Carob bean germ seed (Ceratonia siliqua): Study of the oil and proteins

The oil and flour of the seed germ of carob bean (Ceratonia siliqua L) were studied. The fatty acid composition included, as main components, palmitic (14·2%), stearic (3·0%), oleic (38·5%) and linoleic (43·6%) acids. Lipolysis with pancreatic lipase shows the following glyceride composition: S₃ (0·0%), US₂ (2·7%), SU₂ (27·9%) and U₃ (63·7%). The protein flour was separated into protein classes according to their solubility and molecular weight, and the preparation of an isolate (with more than 90% protein) is described.     

Improving everyday error detection, one picture at a time: A performance-based study of everyday task training.

Objective: Research suggests that dementia patients detect fewer action errors than age-matched controls; however, little is known about the derivation of their error-monitoring difficulties. The aims of the study are to evaluate a novel, task-training action intervention (TT-NAT) designed to increase error monitoring in dementia patients and to pinpoint the relation between error monitoring and neuropsychological processes. Method: Participants (n = 45) with dementia were administered the Standard NAT, a performance-based test requiring completion of three everyday tasks. A second group (n = 42) was administered the TT-NAT, which includes a brief training session prior to the commencement of each task. All participants were compared on the following variables: total errors, proportion of errors detected, and proportion of errors corrected. Correlations between error-monitoring variables and neuropsychological tests of executive functioning and language were performed. Results: TT-NAT participants produced fewer total errors and detected significantly more errors than Standard NAT participants (z = 3.0; t = 3.36; p