Intergenerational Metabolomic Analysis of Mothers with a History of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Their Offspring

Shared metabolomic patterns at delivery have been suggested to underlie the mother-to-child transmission of adverse metabolic health. This study aimed to investigate whether mothers with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and their offspring show similar metabolomic patterns several years postpartum. Targeted metabolomics (including 137 metabolites) was performed in plasma samples obtained during an oral glucose tolerance test from 48 mothers with GDM and their offspring at a cross-sectional study visit 8 years after delivery. Partial Pearson’s correlations between the area under the curve (AUC) of maternal and offspring metabolites were calculated, yielding so-called Gaussian graphical models. Spearman’s correlations were applied to investigate correlations of body mass index (BMI), Matsuda insulin sensitivity index (ISI-M), dietary intake, and physical activity between generations, and correlations of metabolite AUCs with lifestyle variables. This study revealed that BMI, ISI-M, and the AUC of six metabolites (carnitine, taurine, proline, SM(-OH) C14:1, creatinine, and PC ae C34:3) were significantly correlated between mothers and offspring several years postpartum. Intergenerational metabolite correlations were independent of shared BMI, ISI-M, age, sex, and all other metabolites. Furthermore, creatinine was correlated with physical activity in mothers. This study suggests that there is long-term metabolic programming in the offspring of mothers with GDM and informs us about targets that could be addressed by future intervention studies.     

Does thermal control improve visual satisfaction? Interactions between occupants’ self-perceived control,visual, thermal,and overall satisfaction

Occupants’ satisfaction had been researched independently related to thermal and visual stimuli for many decades showing among others the influence of self-perceived control. Few studies revealed interactions between thermal and visual stimuli affecting occupant satisfaction. In addition, studies including interactions between thermal and visual stimuli are lacking different control scenarios. This study focused on the effects of thermal and visual factors, their interaction, seasonal influences, and the degree of self-perceived control on overall, thermal, and visual satisfaction. A repeated-measures laboratory study with 61 participants running over two years and a total of 986 participant sessions was conducted. Mixed model analyses with overall satisfaction as outcome variable revealed that thermal satisfaction and visual satisfaction are the most important predictors for overall satisfaction with the indoor environment. Self-perceived thermal control served as moderator between thermal satisfaction and overall satisfaction. Season had slight influence on overall satisfaction. Random effects explained the highest amount of variance, indicating that intra- and interindividual differences in the ratings of satisfaction are more prevalent than study condition. Future building design and operation plans aiming at a high level of occupant satisfaction should consider personal control opportunities and take into account the moderating effect of control opportunities in multimodal interactions.     

Heuristic Methods for Minimum-Cost Pipeline Network Design – a Node Valency Transfer Metaheuristic

Designing low-cost network layouts is an essential step in planning linked infrastructure. For the case of capacitated trees, such as oil or gas pipeline networks, the cost is usually a function of both pipeline diameter (i.e. ability to carry flow or transferred capacity) and pipeline length. Even for the case of incompressible, steady flow, minimizing cost becomes particularly difficult as network topology itself dictates local flow material balances, rendering the optimization space non-linear. The combinatorial nature of potential trees requires the use of graph optimization heuristics to achieve good solutions in reasonable time. In this work we perform a comparison of known literature network optimization heuristics and metaheuristics for finding minimum-cost capacitated trees without Steiner nodes, and propose novel algorithms, including a metaheuristic based on transferring edges of high valency nodes. Our metaheuristic achieves performance above similar algorithms studied, especially for larger graphs, usually producing a significantly higher proportion of optimal solutions, while remaining in line with time-complexity of algorithms found in the literature. Data points for graph node positions and capacities are first randomly generated, and secondly obtained from the German emissions trading CO₂ source registry. As political will for applications and storage for hard-to-abate industry CO₂ emissions is growing, efficient network design methods become relevant for new large-scale CO₂ pipeline networks.

     

Transmuting performance on manufacturing dimensions into business performance: An exploratory analysis of efficiency using DEA

This research examines efficiency in the transformation of performance on manufacturing competitive dimensions into business performance in the automotive supplier industry. Specifically, the study explores efficiency produced from data envelopment analysis (DEA) using cost, quality, time, flexibility and innovativeness performance as inputs and return on investment (ROI) and return on assets (ROA) as outputs. First tier suppliers to the 'Big 3' in North America were sampled. The 51 suppliers were categorized into three groups (high, medium and low) based on their efficiency. No significant group differences in quality, time, flexibility and innovativeness performance were found, but a significant difference does exist for cost. The results were further investigated by testing between-group differences for various cost reduction programmes, thereby identifying the levers and benchmarks for improving low efficiency firms.     

Thioarsenate transformation by filamentous microbial mats thriving in an alkaline, sulfidic hot spring

Thioarsenates dominate arsenic speciation in sulfidic geothermal waters, yet little is known about their fate in the environment. At Conch Spring, an alkaline hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, trithioarsenate transforms to arsenate under increasingly oxidizing conditions along the drainage channel, accompanied by an initial increase, then decrease of monothioarsenate and arsenite. On-site incubation tests were conducted using sterile-filtered water with and without addition of filamentous microbial mats from the drainage channel to distinguish the role of abiotic and biotic processes for arsenic species transformation. Abiotically, trithioarsenate was desulfidized to arsenate coupled to sulfide oxidation. Monothioarsenate, however, was inert. Biotic incubations proved that the intermediate accumulation of arsenite in the drainage channel is microbially catalyzed. In the presence of sulfide, microbially enhanced sulfide oxidation coupled to reduction of arsenate to arsenite could simply enhance abiotic desulfidation of trithioarsenate and potentially also monothioarsenate. However, we were also able to show, in sulfide-free medium, direct microbial transformation of monothioarsenate to arsenate. Some arsenite formed intermediately, which was subsequently also microbially oxidized to arsenate. This study is the first evidence for microbially mediated thioarsenate species transformation by (hyper)thermophilic prokaryotes.     

Reinigbarkeit von Oberflächen in der Lebensmittelindustrie durch Flüssigkeitsstrahlen

The influence of properties of product contact surfaces on cleanability is widely discussed in the food processing and pharmaceutical industry. In the present work stainless steel surfaces of different surface roughness, surface energy and electrokinetic properties were subject to organic soiling in order to study the influence of surface properties on cleanability. As food model test soils gelatinized starch and whey protein were chosen. The cleaning was realized by means of water jets from a flat fan nozzle.     

Wheat bran-based biorefinery 1: Composition of wheat bran and strategies of functionalization

Wheat, together with maize and rice, accounts to about 90% of the world's cereal production. During the milling process, wheat bran, besides other valuable compounds such as wheat germ and parts of the endosperm, remains as major by-product. Wheat bran is composed of various histological cell layers, called the pericarp, testa, hyaline and aleurone layer and its weight ratio to milled wheat is about 25%. Annually, over 650 million tons of wheat are produced in the world, of which more than 69% are used for food. The thereby accruing biomass of wheat bran can be estimated as 150 million tons, which are basically used in the feed industry. Even if numerous studies have investigated potential health benefits of consuming more whole grain foods, the addition of bran to existing food systems may confer difficulties in terms of processing, nutrition or sensory acceptance by consumers. This review will summarize state-of-the-art technological approaches such as mechanical, thermal or enzymatic treatment used to modify the functional properties of wheat bran and coincidently describe the impact on the food system.     

Imitation in young children: When who gets copied is more important than what gets copied.

Unlike other animals, human children will copy all of an adult's goal-directed actions, including ones that are clearly unnecessary for achieving the demonstrated goal. Here we highlight how social affiliation is key to this species-specific behavior. Preschoolers watched 2 adults retrieve a toy from a novel apparatus. One adult included irrelevant actions in her demonstration; the other only used actions causally related to opening the apparatus. After both adults took turns demonstrating, 1 left the test room, and the remaining adult gave the apparatus to the child. Children reproduced the irrelevant actions only when given the apparatus by the adult who had demonstrated them, even though the departed adult's actions emphasized how unnecessary these redundant actions were. Our results highlight the specialized skills for participating in cultural groups that have evolved in humans and provide insight into why finding such high fidelity copying in other animals has proven elusive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social competence of adult chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) with severe deprivation history: I. An individual approach.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 47(4) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2011-13792-001). Table 4 (p. 86) contained an error. The development of stationary vicinity for LD (late deprived) chimpanzees is misstated as ns. However, the difference is highly significant as p = .008.] Early social deprivation in highly social mammals interferes with their varying needs for security and stimulation. Toleration of social stimulation was studied in 18 adult ex-laboratory chimpanzees, who had been deprived for 16 to 27 years, during their 1st year after resocialization into 1 of 3 social groups. For this, a model of social competence was developed with 5 grades of social stimulation. The chimpanzees were classified as either early deprived (EDs; M = 1.2 years) or late deprived (LDs; M = 3.6 years) according to their age at entering the laboratory. EDs did not differ significantly from LD chimpanzees in the first 3 grades of social stimulation (i.e., the toleration of stationary vicinity, initiation of brief sociopositive contacts and gentle social play). LDs, however, clearly exceeded EDs in the 4th and 5th grade of social stimulation (i.e., their engagement in allogrooming and their toleration of passive close proximity). Furthermore, LDs showed greater social initiative in changing a social situation and had more expanded grooming networks compared with EDs. Moreover, in LDs and ED females, but not in ED males, toleration of stationary vicinity increased from the 1st to the 2nd year of group living. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Polymeric vesicles: from drug carriers to nanoreactors and artificial organelles

One strategy in modern medicine is the development of new platforms that combine multifunctional compounds with stable, safe carriers in patient-oriented therapeutic strategies. The simultaneous detection and treatment of pathological events through interactions manipulated at the molecular level offer treatment strategies that can decrease side effects resulting from conventional therapeutic approaches. Several types of nanocarriers have been proposed for biomedical purposes, including inorganic nanoparticles, lipid aggregates, including liposomes, and synthetic polymeric systems, such as vesicles, micelles, or nanotubes. Polymeric vesicles--structures similar to lipid vesicles but created using synthetic block copolymers--represent an excellent candidate for new nanocarriers for medical applications. These structures are more stable than liposomes but retain their low immunogenicity. Significant efforts have been made to improve the size, membrane flexibility, and permeability of polymeric vesicles and to enhance their target specificity. The optimization of these properties will allow researchers to design smart compartments that can co-encapsulate sensitive molecules, such as RNA, enzymes, and proteins, and their membranes allow insertion of membrane proteins rather than simply serving as passive carriers. In this Account, we illustrate the advances that are shifting these molecular systems from simple polymeric carriers to smart-complex protein-polymer assemblies, such as nanoreactors or synthetic organelles. Polymeric vesicles generated by the self-assembly of amphiphilic copolymers (polymersomes) offer the advantage of simultaneous encapsulation of hydrophilic compounds in their aqueous cavities and the insertion of fragile, hydrophobic compounds in their membranes. This strategy has permitted us and others to design and develop new systems such as nanoreactors and artificial organelles in which active compounds are simultaneously protected and allowed to act in situ. In recent years, we have created a variety of multifunctional, proteinpolymersomes combinations for biomedical applications. The insertion of membrane proteins or biopores into the polymer membrane supported the activity of co-encapsulated enzymes that act in tandem inside the cavity or of combinations of drugs and imaging agents. Surface functionalization of these nanocarriers permitted specific targeting of the desired biological compartments. Polymeric vesicles alone are relatively easy to prepare and functionalize. Those features, along with their stability and multifunctionality, promote their use in the development of new theranostic strategies. The combination of polymer vesicles and biological entities will serve as tools to improve the observation and treatment of pathological events and the overall condition of the patient.