Glass and Jamming Rheology in Soft Particles Made of PNIPAM and Polyacrylic Acid

The phase behaviour of soft colloids has attracted great attention due to the large variety of new phenomenologies emerging from their ability to pack at very high volume fractions. Here we report rheological measurements on interpenetrated polymer network microgels composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and polyacrylic acid (PAAc) at fixed PAAc content as a function of weight concentration. We found three different rheological regimes characteristic of three different states: a Newtonian shear-thinning fluid, an attractive glass characterized by a yield stress, and a jamming state. We discuss the possible molecular mechanisms driving the formation of these states.     

Towards concept anchoring for cognitive robots

We present a model for anchoring categorical conceptual information which originates from physical perception and the web. The model is an extension of the anchoring framework which is used to create and maintain over time semantically grounded sensor information. Using the augmented anchoring framework that employs complex symbolic knowledge from a commonsense knowledge base, we attempt to ground and integrate symbolic and perceptual data that are available on the web. We introduce conceptual anchors which are representations of general, concrete conceptual terms. We show in an example scenario how conceptual anchors can be coherently integrated with perceptual anchors and commonsense information for the acquisition of novel concepts.     

Deep Scalogram Representations for Acoustic Scene Classification

Spectrogram representations of acoustic scenes have achieved competitive performance for acoustic scene classification. Yet, the spectrogram alone does not take into account a substantial amount of time-frequency information. In this study, we present an approach for exploring the benefits of deep scalogram representations, extracted in segments from an audio stream. The approach presented firstly transforms the segmented acoustic scenes into bump and morse scalograms, as well as spectrograms; secondly, the spectrograms or scalograms are sent into pre-trained convolutional neural networks; thirdly, the features extracted from a subsequent fully connected layer are fed into (bidirectional) gated recurrent neural networks, which are followed by a single highway layer and a softmax layer; finally, predictions from these three systems are fused by a margin sampling value strategy. We then evaluate the proposed approach using the acoustic scene classification data set of 2017 IEEE AASP Challenge on Detection and Classification of Acoustic Scenes and Events (DCASE). On the evaluation set, an accuracy of 64.0% from bidirectional gated recurrent neural networks is obtained when fusing the spectrogram and the bump scalogram, which is an improvement on the 61.0% baseline result provided by the DCASE 2017 organisers. This result shows that extracted bump scalograms are capable of improving the classification accuracy, when fusing with a spectrogram-based system.      

Dietary Apigenin Exerts Immune-Regulatory Activity in Vivo by Reducing NF-κB Activity,Halting Leukocyte Infiltration and Restoring Normal Metabolic Function

The increasing prevalence of inflammatory diseases and the adverse effects associated with the long-term use of current anti-inflammatory therapies prompt the identification of alternative approaches to reestablish immune balance. Apigenin, an abundant dietary flavonoid, is emerging as a potential regulator of inflammation. Here, we show that apigenin has immune-regulatory activity in vivo. Apigenin conferred survival to mice treated with a lethal dose of Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) restoring normal cardiac function and heart mitochondrial Complex I activity. Despite the adverse effects associated with high levels of splenocyte apoptosis in septic models, apigenin had no effect on reducing cell death. However, we found that apigenin decreased LPS-induced apoptosis in lungs, infiltration of inflammatory cells and chemotactic factors’ accumulation, re-establishing normal lung architecture. Using NF-κB luciferase transgenic mice, we found that apigenin effectively modulated NF-κB activity in the lungs, suggesting the ability of dietary compounds to exert immune-regulatory activity in an organ-specific manner. Collectively, these findings provide novel insights into the underlying immune-regulatory mechanisms of dietary nutraceuticals in vivo.     

Adaptive Quadrature for Maximum Likelihood Estimation of a Class of Dynamic Latent Variable Models

Maximum likelihood estimation of models based on continuous latent variables generally requires to solve integrals that are not analytically tractable. Numerical approximations represent a possible solution to this problem. We propose to use the adaptive Gaussian–Hermite (AGH) numerical quadrature approximation for a particular class of continuous latent variable models for time-series and longitudinal data. These dynamic models are based on time-varying latent variables that follow an autoregressive process of order 1, AR(1). Two examples are the stochastic volatility models for the analysis of financial time series and the limited dependent variable models for the analysis of panel data. A comparison between the performance of AGH methods and alternative approximation methods proposed in the literature is carried out by simulation. Empirical examples are also used to illustrate the proposed approach.     

Too Low to Kill: Concentration of the Secondary Metabolite Ranunculin in Buttercup Pollen does not Affect Bee Larval Survival

Growing evidence suggests that the freely accessible pollen of some plants is chemically protected against pollen-feeding flower visitors. For example, a diet of pollen from buttercup plants (Ranunculus) recently was shown to have a deleterious effect on developing larvae of several bee species not specialized on Ranunculus. Numerous Ranunculus species contain ranunculin, the glucosyl hydrate form of the highly reactive and toxic lactone protoanemonin, that causes the toxicity of these plants. We tested whether the presence of ranunculin is responsible for the lethal effects of R. acris pollen on the larvae of two bee species that are not Ranunculus specialists. To investigate the effect on bee larval development, we added ranunculin to the pollen provisions of the Campanula specialist bee Chelostoma rapunculi and the Asteraceae specialist bee Heriades truncorum, and allowed the larvae to feed on these provisions. We quantified ranunculin in pollen of R. acris and in brood cell provisions collected by the Ranunculus specialist bee Chelostoma florisomne. We demonstrated that although ranunculin was lethal to both tested bee species in high concentrations, the concentration in the pollen of R. acris was at least fourfold lower than that tolerated by the larvae of C. rapunculi and H. truncorum in the feeding experiments. Ranunculin concentration in the brood cells of C. florisomne was on average even twentyfold lower than that in Ranunculus pollen, suggesting that a mechanism different from ranunculin intoxication accounts for the larval mortality reported for bees not specialized on Ranunculus pollen.     

Geographical Authentication of Tequila According to its Mineral Content by Means of Support Vector Machines

The elemental profile of tequila samples from the three main production areas of the State of Jalisco, namely Amatitlan, Guadalajara, and Tequila, was used to carry out their geographical characterization. With this aim, the concentration of Al, Ba, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, S, Sr, and Zn was determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. Principal component analysis was addressed to visualize data trends. The number of input variables was reduced by means of backward stepwise linear discriminant analysis and support vector machines were used to construct an adequate classification model. The best classification performance was obtained by a linear support vector machine model with 100% of prediction ability.     

Perception of Host Plant Volatiles in Hyalesthes obsoletus: Behavior, Morphology, and Electrophysiology

The Palearctic planthopper Hyalesthes obsoletus is the natural vector of the grapevine yellow disease Bois noir. Grapevine is an occasional host plant of this polyphagous planthopper. To deepen our knowledge of the role of plant volatile organic compounds for H. obsoletus host plant searching, we carried out behavioral, morphological, and electrophysiological studies. We tested the attraction of H. obsoletus to nettle, field bindweed, hedge bindweed, chaste tree, and grapevine by using a Y-shaped olfactometer. The results showed a significant attraction of male H. obsoletus to chaste tree, and of the females to nettle. Male H. obsoletus were repelled by odor from hedge bindweed. Ultrastructural studies of the antennae showed at least two types of olfactory sensilla at the antennal pedicel: plaque organs and trichoid sensilla. Volatile organic compounds from nettle and chaste tree were collected, and the extracts were analyzed by coupling gas-chromatography to both mass-spectrometry and electroantennography. The volatile organic compounds that elicited electrophysiological responses in male and female antennae were identified. These findings are discussed with respect to behavior of H. obsoletus males and females in the field.     

Impact of Ethylene Oxide Butylene Oxide Copolymers on the Composition and Friction of Silicone Hydrogel Surfaces

The surface chemical compositions of three types of silicone hydrogel contact lenses, PureVision^® (balafilcon A), ACUVUE^® OASYS^® (senofilcon A), and O₂OPTIX^® (lotrafilcon B), were analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy prior to and following treatment in a test solution of diblock copolymer of poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(butylene oxide) (EO–BO). Prior to treatment, differences in surface elemental compositions of the lenses were found to reflect known bulk compositions and/or respective surface treatments. Following solution treatment, surface chemical modifications were apparent in balafilcon A and lotrafilcon B, especially in the distribution of chemical functionalities present at the surface. Only modest changes in surface composition were observed for the senofilcon A material. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to evaluate the surface topography and frictional properties of the lenses prior to and following similar solution treatments. AFM measurements in saline revealed large disparities between the coefficients of friction of the three lenses, with balafilcon A and lotrafilcon B exhibiting coefficients of friction approximately five times greater than that of senofilcon A. Lens surface treatment with the diblock copolymer test solution produced a significant reduction in the coefficients of friction of the two lenses exhibiting higher friction, yet only a small reduction in friction was observed for senofilcon A lens. Together, these results depict a strong correlation between the surface chemistry and frictional response of the lens systems as they relate to solution treatment with this specific diblock copolymer.