The orexinergic system in rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and its regulation by dietary lipids

In this study, we report the distribution of orexin A (OXA), orexin B (OXB), and orexin receptor (OX2R) immunoreactive (ir) cells in the hypothalamus and gastrointestinal tract of Oncorhynchus mykiss fed diets with different dietary fatty acid compositions. Trout were fed five iso‐energetic experimental diets containing fish oil, or one of four different vegetable oils (olive, sunflower, linseed, and palm oils) as the added dietary lipid source for 12 weeks. OXA, OXB, and OX2R immunoreactive neurons and nervous fibers were identified in the lateral and ventro‐medial hypothalamus. OXA, OXB, and OX2R ir cells were found in the mucosa and glands of the stomach and in the mucosa of both the pyloric cecae and intestine. OX2R ir cells were localized in the mucosa layer of both the pyloric cecae and intestine. These immunohistochemical (IHC) results were confirmed via Western blotting. Antibodies against preproorexin (PPO) crossreacted with a band of ～16 kDa in the hypothalamus, stomach, pyloric cecae, and intestine. Antibodies against OX2R crossreacted with a band of ～38 kDa in the hypothalamus, pyloric cecae, and intestine. The presence and distribution of OXA, OXB, and OX2R ir cells in the hypothalamus and gastrointestinal tract did not appear to be affected by dietary oils. The presence of orexin system immunoreactive cells in the stomach, pyloric cecae, and intestine of rainbow trout, but not in the enteric nervous system, could suggest a possible role of these peptides as signaling of gastric emptying or endocrine modulation, implying a main local action played by orexins. Microsc. Res. Tech. 78:707–714, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Probabilistic topic models for sequence data

Probabilistic topic models are widely used in different contexts to uncover the hidden structure in large text corpora. One of the main (and perhaps strong) assumption of these models is that generative process follows a bag-of-words assumption, i.e. each token is independent from the previous one. We extend the popular Latent Dirichlet Allocation model by exploiting three different conditional Markovian assumptions: (i) the token generation depends on the current topic and on the previous token; (ii) the topic associated with each observation depends on topic associated with the previous one; (iii) the token generation depends on the current and previous topic. For each of these modeling assumptions we present a Gibbs Sampling procedure for parameter estimation. Experimental evaluation over real-word data shows the performance advantages, in terms of recall and precision, of the sequence-modeling approaches.     

Comparison between low-cost marker-less and high-end marker-based motion capture systems for the computer-aided assessment of working ergonomics

The paper deals with the comparison between a high-end marker-based acquisition system and a low-cost marker-less methodology for the assessment of the human posture during working tasks. The low-cost methodology is based on the use of a single Microsoft Kinect V1 device. The high-end acquisition system is the BTS SMART that requires the use of reflective markers to be placed on the subject's body. Three practical working activities involving object lifting and displacement have been investigated. The operational risk has been evaluated according to the lifting equation proposed by the American National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The results of the study show that the risk multipliers computed from the two acquisition methodologies are very close for all the analysed activities. In agreement to this outcome, the marker-less methodology based on the Microsoft Kinect V1 device seems very promising to promote the dissemination of computer-aided assessment of ergonomics while maintaining good accuracy and affordable costs.     

Structural vulnerability of power systems: A topological approach

Vulnerability analysis of power systems is a key issue in modern society and many efforts have contributed to the analysis. Complex network metrics for the assessment of the vulnerability of networked systems have been recently applied to power systems. Complex network theory may come in handy for vulnerability analysis of power systems due to a close link between the topological structure and physical properties of power systems. However, a pure topological approach fails to capture the engineering features of power systems. So an extended topological method has been proposed by incorporating several of specific features of power systems such as electrical distance, power transfer distribution factors and line flow limits. This paper defines, starting from the extended metric for efficiency named as net-ability, an extended betweenness and proposes a joint method of extended betweenness and net-ability to rank the most critical lines and buses in an electrical power grid. The method is illustrated in the IEEE-118-bus, IEEE-300-bus test systems as well as the Italian power grid.     

Three-dimensional crack propagation with distance-based discontinuous kernels in meshfree methods

Distance fields are scalar functions defining the minimum distance of a given point in the space from the boundary of an object. Crack surfaces are geometric entities whose shapes can be arbitrary, often described with ruled surfaces or polygonal subdivisions. The derivatives of distance functions for such surfaces are discontinuous across the surface, and continuous all around the edges. These properties of the distance function were employed to build intrinsic enrichments of the underlying mesh-free discretisation for efficient simulation of three-dimensional crack propagation, removing the limitations of existing criteria (reviewed in this paper). Examples show that the proposed approach is able to introduce quite convoluted crack paths. The incremental nature of the developed approach does not require re-computation of the enrichment for the entire crack surface as advancing crack front extends incrementally as a set of connected surface facets. The concept is based on purely geometric representation of discontinuities thus addressing only the kinematic aspects of the problem, such to allow for any constitutive and cohesive interface models to be used.     

A Meshless Cohesive Segments Method for Crack Initiation and Propagation in Composites

A modeling method aimed at eliminating the need of explicit crack representation in bi-dimensional structures is presented for the simulation of the initiation and subsequent propagation within composite materials. This is achieved by combining a meshless method with a physical stress–displacement based criterion known as Cohesive Model. This model consents to apply a penalty-based approach to delamination modeling where a variable penalty factor along the crack segment allows to loosen or tight the two parts according to their relative displacements. Results are showed for classical single mode loading benchmark cases and compared to experimental results taken from the literature.     

The olfactory organ of the trout Salmo trutta fario: A novel localization for a progestin receptor

A progestin receptor (PR) has been detected in the olfactory organ of the trout Salmo trutta fario. The specificity of this receptor was high for 17α,20β‐dihydroxy‐4‐pregnen‐3‐one (17α,20β‐DP), but it also bound 17α‐hydroxy‐progesterone (17α‐OHP) and 21‐hydroxyprogesterone (21‐OHP), even when present at low concentrations (10‐fold in relative binding affinity assay). Progesterone (P) competed effectively at much higher concentrations (1,000‐fold in relative binding affinity assay). Immunohistochemical studies carried out with three different monoclonal antibodies against human progesterone receptor (hPR), chicken progesterone receptor hinge region (cPR), and chicken progesterone receptor A/B domain (PR22), revealed that immunoreactivity was present in the epithelium of the olfactory organ of females and males of the trout Salmo trutta fario only against hPR. Western blotting showed two hPR immunoreactive bands of about 62 and 66 kDa. Finally, a portion of the cDNA of about 300 nucleotides extending over the DNA binding domain and the ligand binding domain was cloned and sequenced, revealing a high degree of sequence homology of the PR in Salmo trutta fario with the PR in other teleosts. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.