Antioxidant mechanism of grape procyanidins in muscle tissues: Redox interactions with endogenous ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol

The present study investigates the antioxidant mechanism of grape procyanidins and, in particular, their aptitude to establish redox interactions with two important components of the endogenous antioxidant system of muscle tissues, α-tocopherol (α-TOH) and ascorbic acid (AA). To this end, the progress of lipid oxidation was monitored in fish muscle supplemented with grape procyanidins at the concentrations usually employed in antioxidant food applications, and then related to the redox stability of the endogenous α-TOH and AA. In addition to the lipid oxidation protective effect, the incorporation of procyanidins also provided an improvement of the redox stability of the endogenous components in a straight procyanidinic concentration-dependent manner. Results showed the capacity of procyanidins to repair oxidised α-TOH at medium-long term, and to delay the AA depletion. Therefore, such cooperative redox interaction of exogenous procyanidins adequately complements the natural α-TOH regenerative system supplied by AA that is efficient at the early post mortem stages.     

Improved Optimization Formulations for Launching Nose of Incrementally Launched Prestressed Concrete Bridges

The conventional design process of a launching nose of an incrementally launched bridge is based on trial-and-error methods to reduce bending moment of prestressed concrete deck at the foremost support during launch. With this method, there is no guarantee that the obtained solution is the best among all the possible solutions, since they all depend on the experience and intuition of a designer, and they are also restricted by a limited number of possible iterations. Given that launched bridges constitute an important constructive typology, all the available capacities of design innovation should be incorporated, including numerical optimization. This research work proposes an objective and rigorous formulation to optimize the launching nose of a launched bridge under real constraints that a bridge designer can encounter in practice. Comparing the results obtained by conventional process and those obtained by optimization techniques allows us to verify that some of the assumptions considered in classical design methods of a launching nose are not based on any theoretical foundation. This fact demonstrates the utility of numerical optimization to improve a design.     

A Classification Theorem for Zindler Carrousels

The purpose of this paper is to give a complete classification of Zindler carrousels with five chairs. This classification theorem gives enough evidence to show the nonexistence of figures different from the disk that float in equilibrium in every position for the corresponding perimetral densities.     

Expression of cell adhesion molecules, chemokines and chemokine receptors involved in leukocyte traffic in rats undergoing autoimmune orchitis

The testis is considered an immunologically privileged site where germ cell antigens are protected from autoimmune attack. Yet in response to infections, inflammatory diseases, or trauma, there is an influx of leukocytes to testicular interstitium. Interactions between endothelial cells (EC) and circulating leukocytes are implicated in the initiation and evolution of inflammatory processes. Chemokines are a family of chemoattractant cytokines characterized by their ability to both recruit and activate cells. Thus, we investigated the expression of CCL3, its receptors, and adhesion molecules CD31 and CD106 in an in vivo model of experimental autoimmune orchitis (EAO). In EAO, the highest content of CCL3 in testicular fluid coincides with onset of the disease. However, CCL3 released in vitro by testicular macrophages is higher during the immunization period. The specific chemokine receptors, CCR1 and CCR5, were expressed by testicular monocytes/macrophages and an increased number of CCR5+ cells was associated with the degree of testicular lesion. EC also play an essential role by facilitating leukocyte recruitment via their ability to express cell surface adhesion molecules that mediate interactions with leukocytes in the bloodstream. Rats with EAO showed a significant increase in the percentage of CD31+ EC that upregulate the expression of CD106. The percentage of leukocytes isolated from peripheral blood and lymph nodes expressing CD49d (CD106 ligand) also increases during orchitis. These data suggest that cell adhesion molecules, in conjunction with chemokines, contribute to the formation of a chemotactic gradient within the testis, causing the leukocyte infiltration characteristic of EAO histopathology.     

Assessment of the Fire Dynamics Simulator for Modeling Fire Suppression in Engine Rooms of Ships with Low-Pressure Water Mist

Water mist-based fire-extinguishing systems are gaining acceptance for the protection of ship machinery spaces. The use of simulation tools presents a great potential for taking a performance-based design (PBD) approach to these fire scenarios. The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) is the most frequently used and validated fire modeling software; however, studies of low-pressure water mist fire suppression modeling in ship engine rooms are rare. This paper contributes to the current literature by using the FDS to model a series of fire suppression scenarios defined by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Circulars, including spray and pool fires with heptane and diesel oil, as well as exposed and obstructed fires. The simulation results are compared to data from full-scale tests conducted at recognized fire testing laboratories. Furthermore, an analysis of both the experimental and model uncertainties is carried out to assess the simulations performance. In general, a good agreement in compartment temperature evolution and fire extinguishing time is found for the modeled fire scenarios. The results support the application of FDS in a PBD approach for the design of water mist fire extinguishing systems for machinery spaces in ships. In this way, designers and engineers could model different machinery volumes and nozzles spacings that differ from those prescribed for a one story square engine room of the IMO, and, thus, predict the evolution of temperatures and extinguishing times for get the authorities approval.     

Piaget's stage learning hypothesis revisited.

Found evidence to support the stage learning hypothesis of Piaget (1974) in a reanalysis of the B. Inhelder et al (1974) data. Data show that the initial level of development was a good indicator of the degree of learning attainable through training. Results may in part be due to the reduction of variance attributable to aggregating the experiments, as well as the use of a different model to test the stage learning hypothesis. (French abstract) (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exterior stable domain segmentation integral equation method for scattering problems

This paper is concerned with the development of an exterior domain segmentation method for the solution of two- or three-dimensional time-harmonic scattering problems in acoustic media. This method, based on a variational localized, symmetric, boundary integral equation formulation leads, upon discretization, to a sparse system of algebraic equations whose solution requires only O(N) multiplications, where N is the number of unknown nodal pressures on the scatterer surface. The new procedure is analogous to the one developed recently¹ except that in the present formulation we avoid completely the use of the hypersingular operator, thereby reducing the computational complexity. Numerical experiments for a rigid circular cylindrical scatterer subjected to a plane incident wave serve to assess its accuracy for normalized wave numbers, ka, ranging from 0 to 30, both directly on the scatterer and in the far field, and to confirm that, contrary to standard boundary integral equation formulations, the present procedure is valid for critical frequencies.