Penetrating atherosclerotic aortic ulcer: documentation by transesophageal echocardiography

The effect of medium pH on the activity of cultured human osteoblasts was investigated in this study. Osteoblasts derived from explants of human trabecular bone were grown to confluence and subcultured. The first-pass cells were incubated in Hepes-buffered media at initial pHs adjusted from 7.0 to 7.8. Osteoblast function was evaluated by measuring lactate production, alkaline phosphatase activity, proline hydroxylation, DNA content, and thymidine incorporation. Changes in medium pH were determined from media pHs recorded at the beginning and end of the final 48 h incubation period. As medium pH increased through pH 7.6, collagen synthesis, alkaline phosphatase activity, and thymidine incorporation increased. DNA content increased from pH 7.0 to 7.2, plateaued from pH 7.2 to 7.6, and increased again from pH 7.6 to 7.8. The changes in the medium pH were greatest at pHs 7.0 and 7.8, modest at pHs 7.4 and 7.6, and did not change at 7.2, suggesting that the pHs are migrating towards pH 7.2. Lactate production increased at pH 7.0 but remained constant from 7.2 to 7.8. These results suggest that in the pH range from 7.0-7.6 the activity of human osteoblasts increases with increasing pH, that this increase in activity does not require an increase in glycolytic activity, and that pH 7.2 may be the optimal pH for these cells.     

Depressive symptoms in early marriage: Predictions from relationship confidence and negative marital interaction.

The authors proposed a model of depressive symptoms in early marriage in which relationship confidence, defined as perceived couple-level efficacy to manage conflicts and maintain a healthy relationship, mediates the effect of negative marital interactions on depressive symptoms. The model was tested in a sample of 139 couples assessed prior to marriage and 1 year later. As predicted, relationship confidence demonstrated simple negative associations with negative marital interaction and depressive symptoms for all participants. Longitudinal path analyses supported the mediational model for women only. In women but not men, negative marital interaction indirectly had an impact on depressive symptoms through the mediator of relationship confidence. Findings suggest that relationship confidence may be important to understanding links between marital distress and depressive symptoms, especially in women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recovering lower bounds of the error by postprocessing implicit residual a posteriori error estimates

Classical residual type error estimators approximate the error flux around the elements and yield upper bounds of the exact (or reference) error. Lower bounds of the error are also needed in goal oriented adaptivity and for bounds on functional outputs. This work introduces a simple and cheap strategy to recover a lower bound estimate from standard upper bound estimates. This lower bound may also be used to assess the effectivity of the former estimate and to improve it. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A curvature-based multiresolution automatic karyotyping system

This paper presents a method to segment, characterise and pair a set of chromosomes in a cell of an eukaryotic organism. This method yields several new features: (i) chromosomes are captured at non-uniform resolution to minimise the problem instance; (ii) segmentation is adaptively conducted by means of a hierarchical structure in a fast way; (iii) the curvature of each chromosome is studied at high resolution by means of attentive steps; (iv) a very short and uncorrelated feature vector is extracted from curvature by analysing its spectral components; and (v) a multistage benchmark classifier is used to pair chromosomes according to shape and banding. The method has been tested with publicly available databases. Results were successfully compared to manual karyotypes. Received: 26 June 2000 / Accepted: 4 December 2001 Published online: 3 June 2003 Correspondence to: Cristina Urdiales García (e-mail: cris@dte.uma.es, Tel.: +34-952-132757, Fax: +34-952-131447)     

Millimeter wave inductive post filters,theory and results

This paper briefly details the work carried out on the modelling of inductive post filters. This type of filter approach is particularly attractive at millimeter wave frequencies due to its ease of manufacture, however for modelling no true wide band equivalent circuit would seem to be available. In order to overcome this limitation we have developed a rigorous wide band model. The accuracy of the model has been confirmed by numerous experimental measurements and the resulting computer program quickly enables both analysis and synthesis to be carried out. The speed and efficiency of this approach has allowed the effect of mechanical tolerances to be taken into account, thus reducing cost, complexity and assembly times.     

Design and Implementation of High-Performance RNS Wavelet Processors Using Custom IC Technologies

The design of high performance, high precision, real-time digital signal processing (DSP) systems, such as those associated with wavelet signal processing, is a challenging problem. This paper reports on the innovative use of the residue number system (RNS) for implementing high-end wavelet filter banks. The disclosed system uses an enhanced index-transformation defined over Galois fields to efficiently support different wavelet filter instantiations without adding any extra cost or additional look-up tables (LUT). A selection of a small wordwidth modulus set are the keys for attaining low-complexity and high-throughput. An exhaustive comparison against existing two's complement (2C) designs for different custom IC technologies was carried out. Results reveal a performance improvement of up to 100% for high-precision RNS-based systems. These structures demonstrated to be well suited for field programmable logic (FPL) assimilation as well as for CBIC (cell-based integrated circuit) technologies.     

Aromatic DNA adducts in relation to dietary and other lifestyle factors in Spanish adults

The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between bulky DNA adducts in white blood cells (WBC) and lifestyle factors in a sample from the Spanish cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). 296 subjects aged between 35 and 64 years, from five regions, were included. Food intake was estimated with a computerized version of dietary history questionnaire. Daily intake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) was estimated using a database with information on food content of potential carcinogens. Data on lifestyle and health factors were collected and DNA adducts measured using the nuclease P1 ³²P-postlabelling technique. Geometric means of adducts were similar for men and women (4.11/10⁹ and 3.94/10⁹ nucleotides, respectively). Highest levels of adduct were observed in non-smokers and non-occupationally exposed. Meat intake, oils and fats were associated with higher levels of adducts, but all non-statistically significant. Higher intakes of calcium, sodium and phosphorus were associated with lower adducts levels. Summarising, our study shows that bulky adducts measured by ³²P-postlabelling in DNA from WBC do not correlate with the usual diet of healthy Spanish adults. Although it has been proposed that diet be the main source of PAH in nonsmokers without occupational exposure, DNA adducts do not seem to be suitable biomarkers of dietary PAH in general population.     

Technological and spoiling characteristics of the yeast microflora isolated from Bella Di Cerignola table olives

This study focused to investigate the technological significance and the spoiling impact of diverse yeast strains, isolated from 'Bella di Cerignola' Italian table olives. Sixty-four isolates (belonging mainly to the species Candida famata and C. guilliermondii ) were studied to assess their growth at different temperatures (15, 25 and 37 °C), pHs (4.0, 5.0 and 9.5) and NaCl concentrations (0–10.0%) in lab medium. Their pectolytic, xylanolytic, lipolytic and catalase activities were also evaluated. Most of the yeasts showed a moderate pectolytic activity and were able to grow at pH 9.5 after 120 h of incubation. Salt and temperature were the most important environmental variables affecting yeast growth, which could exert a strong selective pressure on yeast population. Candida guilliermondii appeared more resistant to high salt concentrations, whereas C. famata was able to grow at 15 °C.     

Biochemical changes in cut vs. intact lamb's lettuce (Valerianella olitoria) leaves during storage

Consumers are oriented towards fresh-cut vegetables that provide phytonutrients useful for preventing stress-related diseases. The aim of this work was to evaluate the cut operations on the quality changes of lamb's lettuce ( Valerianella olitoria L.) cv. Trofy during storage at 4 °C for 8 days. Results showed that chlorophyll and carotenoids reduction was observed after 8 days of storage. In both treatments, total carotenoids after 8 days decreased from 20 to 16 mg g⁻¹ FW. Free and total phenols increased with storage in both treatments. Total phenols were 23% higher in control (32 μmol g⁻¹ FW) compared to cut leaves (25 μmol g⁻¹ FW) after 8 days of storage. Anthocyanins increased after 8 days and reached 30 mg 100 g⁻¹ FW without significant difference between treatments. Ascorbic acid (AsA) and dehydroascorbic (DHA) acid increased in cut leaves compared to control. After 1 day AsA concentration was 3 300 nmol g⁻¹ FW in cut leaves, while in control leaves was 1 500 nmol g⁻¹ FW. Analogously AsA + DHA was higher in cut leaves, 4 100 nmol g⁻¹ FW, while in control leaves the mean was 3 000 nmol g⁻¹ FW. After 5 days of storage the values of AsA returned to initial values, while AsA + DHA were lower.     

Effects of pH, cinnamaldehyde and heat-treatment time on spore viability of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris

A three variables–five levels central composite design was used to study the effects of pH (3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 5.5), cinnamaldehyde (0, 40, 80, 120 and 160 ppm) and heating temperature (80, 84, 88, 92 and 96 °C) on the spores of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris in malt extract broth (MEB). The heat shock resulted in a slight decrease of spore number from 3.2 to 2.5 log CFU mL⁻¹ and occurred at 80–85 °C depending on the pH of the medium. Otherwise, cinnamaldehyde acted as an additional hurdle within the storage time; the critical amounts to be used were included in the range 41.35–44.42 ppm of cinnamaldehyde and were related positively to the pH, i.e. the critical amount of active compound decreased with the decreasing of the pH.