Effects of storage time and added antioxidant on fatty acid composition of red blood cells at −20°C

The stability of PUFA in venous red blood cells (RBC) of women aged 25 to 55 years (n=12) was investigated during storage at −20°C. The RBC sample from each participant was divided into seven portions: one baseline with the antioxidant BHT, another without BHT, samples without BHT stored for 2, 4, 9, or 17 wk, and samples with BHT stored for 17 wk. No difference was found in proportions of PUFA at baseline and after storage for 2 and 4 wk without BHT, and 17 wk with BHT. After 9 wk without BHT the proportion of 22∶6n−3 in RBC was lower, and after 17 wk without BHT proportions of all PUFA were lower than at baseline. High proportion of 22∶6n−3 in RBC at baseline was associated with more stable concentration of total FA in RBC without BHT during 17 wk. The findings indicate that PUFA in RBC from healthy women are stable at −20°C for 4 wk, without BHT and for at least 17 wk with BHT.     

Identification and significance of sulphonamides (p-TSA, o-TSA, BSA) in an urban water cycle (Berlin, Germany)

Because of the nature of the water cycle in Berlin, a number of persistent wastewater residues are present in the surface water and may potentially reach the groundwater via bank filtration and artificial recharge. The occurrence and behaviour of the wastewater residues para-toluenesulphonamide (p-TSA), ortho-toluenesulphonamide (o-TSA) and benzenesulphonamide (BSA) through wastewater treatment, surface water, bank filtration and drinking water treatment was studied. In addition, groundwater below a former sewage farm was investigated. All three compounds are ubiquitous in the aquatic environment of Berlin. p-TSA concentrations are much higher than those of o-TSA and BSA. p-TSA was found in high concentrations in the wastewater influent (2 to 15microg/L), in the wastewater effluent (<0.15 to 2.34microg/L) and in sewage farm groundwater (<0.05 to 20microg/L) and in lower concentrations in the surface water (<0.05 to 1.15microg/L), bank filtrate (<0.05 to 0.30microg/L) and drinking water (<0.05 to 0.54microg/L). p-TSA is considerably depleted during waste- and drinking water treatment ( approximately 90% reduction each). The concentration ranges for o-TSA and BSA in wastewater influents were 0.11 to 8microg/L and <0.05 to 0.64microg/L, respectively, while the values for wastewater effluents were 0.14 to 4microg/L for o-TSA and 0.25 to 0.49microg/L for BSA. Wastewater treatment and drinking water treatment do not reduce the concentrations of o-TSA and BSA. The behaviour of o-TSA during wastewater treatment varies largely between different wastewater treatment plants where concentrations increase, remain constant or decrease. BSA forms during treatment. The concentrations measured in surface water, sewage farm groundwater, bank filtrate and drinking water were <0.05 to 1.74microg/L for o-TSA and <0.05 to 0.53microg/L for BSA.     

Free radical polymerization in ionic liquids—Influence of the IL-concentration and temperature

The influence of the ionic liquid (IL) 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazoliumethylsulfate ([EMIM]EtSO₄) on the polymerization kinetics of methyl methacrylate was investigated. ILs are liquids with relatively high polarities and viscosities. These two characteristic properties are strongly correlated with the rate coefficients of propagation k_p and termination k_t of polymerizations carried out in ILs. The rate constant of termination k_t decreases when the concentration of ionic liquid, and thus the viscosity is increased, whereas the propagation rate coefficient k_p increases with increasing IL content. The viscosity of ILs can be varied by either working with mixtures of ILs with conventional organic solvents – here the IL [EMIM]EtSO₄ was mixed with dimethyl formamide (DMF) – or by variation of the temperature. The studies were carried out to determine the influence of the viscosity on the propagation and the termination reaction as well as the molecular weight distribution.     

Interactions between amylopectin and lipid additives during retrogradation in a model system

The retrogradation of waxy maize starch in the presence of surfactants and emulsifiers was measured by differential scanning calorimetry. It was found that a surfactant (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) and unsaturated monoglycerides reduced retrogradation, whereas lecithin and a soya bean oil influenced the retrogradation to a lesser extent. The effects were greater after 1 day of storage than after 7 days, and the influence of the surfactant was greater at +25^oC than at +7^oC. Different storage temperatures led to crystallised forms of amylopectin with different melting temperatures. Further, an amylopectin sample was affected by the presence of a surfactant in a way similar to the waxy maize starch.     

Biomimic Vein-Like Transparent Conducting Electrodes with Low Sheet Resistance and Metal Consumption

In this contribution,inspired by the excellent resource management and material transport function of leaf veins,the electrical transport function of metallized leaf veins is mimicked from the material transport function of the vein networks.By electroless copper plating on real leaf vein networks with copper thickness of only several hundred nanometre up to several micrometre,certain leaf veins can be converted to transparent conductive electrodes with an ultralow sheet resistance 100 times lower than that of state-of-the-art indium tin oxide thin films,combined with a broadband optical transmission of above 80%in the UV–VIS–IR range.Additionally,the resource efficiency of the vein-like electrode is characterized by the small amount of material needed to build up the networks and the low copper consumption during metallization.In particular,the high current density transport capability of the electrode of>6000 A cm^−2 was demonstrated.These superior properties of the vein-like structures inspire the design of high-performance transparent conductive electrodes without using critical materials and may significantly reduce the Ag consumption down to<10%of the current level for mass production of solar cells and will contribute greatly to the electrode for high power density concentrator solar cells,high power density Li-ion batteries,and supercapacitors.     

Dynamic product acquisition in closed loop supply chains

We consider a closed-loop supply chain where demand can either be satisfied by manufacturing new products or by buying back used products from customers and upgrading their functionality by remanufacturing. A joint buy-back pricing and manufacturing–remanufacturing decision model at the operations–marketing interface is presented that allows for dynamic parameters, e.g. product life cycles and seasonal aspects. The model allows the identification of beneficial opportunities for buying back and storing used products for immediate and future recovery. We present a new deterministic, dynamic, continuous-time optimisation model, derive necessary and sufficient optimality conditions, and develop a solution algorithm to find the cost-minimising manufacturing and remanufacturing policies as well as buy-back strategies for used products based on Pontryagin's Maximum Principle. It is shown that, in general, an optimal policy will include time intervals where returns are acquired so as to synchronise demand and remanufacturing, where returns are acquired and stored for future remanufacturing, and intervals where demand is satisfied by a mix of manufactured and remanufactured products. Furthermore, we discuss several reactive and proactive acquisition and remanufacturing heuristics and show under which conditions they are optimal. The findings are illustrated by numerical examples.     

Attention, Heart Rate, and Startle Response During Exposure to Trauma-Relevant Pictures: A Comparison of Recent Trauma Victims and Patients With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Victims of a recent trauma were compared with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients and healthy controls to assess whether a specific anxiety response and an attentional bias were evident initially or only in chronic PTSD. Heart rate (HR) and startle response were measured, and a dot-probe task was carried out using trauma-relevant pictures. Severely affected recent trauma victims and chronic PTSD patients showed HR acceleration to trauma-related material, which was the only significant group difference. A bias away from trauma-related material was related to severity of intrusions in recent trauma victims, and the bias toward trauma-related material increased with amplitude of the HR response in PTSD patients. A specific anxiety reaction is present initially in severely affected trauma victims. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A rapid prototyping software infrastructure for user interfaces in ubiquitous augmented reality

Recent user interface concepts, such as multimedia, multimodal, wearable, ubiquitous, tangible, or augmented-reality-based (AR) interfaces, each cover different approaches that are all needed to support complex human–computer interaction. Increasingly, an overarching approach towards building what we call ubiquitous augmented reality (UAR) user interfaces that include all of the just mentioned concepts will be required. To this end, we present a user interface architecture that can form a sound basis for combining several of these concepts into complex systems. We explain in this paper the fundamentals of DWARFs user interface framework (DWARF standing for distributed wearable augmented reality framework) and an implementation of this architecture. Finally, we present several examples that show how the framework can form the basis of prototypical applications.     

From Meso to Macro: Controlling Hierarchical Porosity in Supraparticle Powders

A drying droplet containing colloidal particles can consolidate into a spherical assembly called a supraparticle. Such supraparticles are inherently porous due to the spaces between the constituent primary particles. Here, the emergent, hierarchical porosity in spray-dried supraparticles is tailored via three distinct strategies acting at different length scales. First, mesopores (<10 nm) are introduced via the primary particles. Second, the interstitial pores are tuned from the meso- (35 nm) to the macro scale (250 nm) by controlling the primary particle size. Third, defined macropores (>100 nm) are introduced via templating polymer particles, which can be selectively removed by calcination. Combining all three strategies creates hierarchical supraparticles with fully tailored pore size distributions. Moreover, another level of the hierarchy is added by fabricating supra-supraparticles, using the supraparticles themselves as building blocks, which provide additional pores with micrometer dimensions. The interconnectivity of the pore networks within all supraparticle types is investigated via detailed textural and tomographic analysis. This work provides a versatile toolbox for designing porous materials with precisely tunable, hierarchical porosity from the meso- (3 nm) to the macroscale (≈10 µm) that can be utilized for applications in catalysis, chromatography, or adsorption.     

Evaluation of divergent N-echelon (s,nQ)-policies under compound renewal demand

In this paper, decentralized inventory control in a divergent multi-echelon network is considered. All stockpoints are controlled by continuous review (s,nQ)-installation stock policies. Due to the fact that orders from a stockpoint to its predecessors may have to wait, this delay must be incorporated into the lead time of an arbitrary replenishment. We develop analytical approximations for the first two moments of this waiting time. These results enable us to accurately approximate the relevant performance characteristics at each stockpoint, given its (s,nQ)-policy. The performance measure considered in this paper are fill rate and average physical inventory. The analysis can easily be extended for other performance measures. The main contribution of this paper is the fact that the results apply to arbitrary divergent multi-echelon systems, with stochastic transportation times, arbitrary lot sizes and compound renewal demand. Correspondence to: Gudrun P. Kiesmüller