The Social News Gap: How News Reading and News Sharing Diverge

This article seeks to explain variation in news sharing patterns on social media. It finds that news editors have considerable power to shape the social media agenda through the use of “story importance cues” but also shows that there are some areas of news reporting (such as those related to crime and disasters) where this power does not apply. This highlights the existence of a social “news gap” where social media filters out certain types of news, producing a social media news agenda which has important differences from its traditional counterpart. The discussion suggests that this may be consequential for perceptions of crime and engagement with politics; it might even stimulate a partial reversal of the tabloidization of news outlets.     

Plasma Lipid Peroxidation and Vitamin E Supplementation during High Intakes of Fish-Oil Fatty Acids

High intakes of fish oil concentrates (15g/day MaxEPA) resulted in increased TBARS in plasma after 2 weeks irrespective of the vitamin E intake and plasma content. After 4 weeks TBARS values returned to normal despite continued MaxEPA supplementation and different vitamin E levels. Fish oil supplements resulted in increased whole-blood aggregation and higher plasma glucose concentrations which did not occur when extra vitamin E was given. No significant differences in plasma cholesterol levels were observed.     

FNS Control Schemes for the Upper Limb

This paper is concerned with the problems of control associated with the application of functional neuromuscular stimulation of the upper limb, concentrating on elbow flexion/extension and wrist pronation/supination. A closed-loop controller is needed in order to overcome the gain nonlinearities and plant dynamic parameter variations. Controllers were developed based on models and parameters previously established. Two controllers are discussed in detail, a thirdorder feedforward controller and a model reference adaptive controller. There were no striking differences in the performances of the thirdorder controllers. The conventional controllers, however, required a lengthy a priori identification procedure each time they were used. This was performed implicitly by the adaptive controller within a few seconds, making it a practical proposition for an FNS controller.     

Ammoxidation of toluene over Y-Ba-Cu-Co-O perovskites

Ammoxidation of toluene over the perovskites YBa₂Cu₃O_6.1, YBa₂Cu₂CoO_6.7 and YBaCuCoO_4.9 was investigated at 400 °C. At low partial pressures of O₂ benzonitrile was selectively formed, while CO₂ was the main product at high pressures of O₂. Systematic differences in activity were observed for the three phases and are related to the crystal contents of Cu and Co. At low O₂ pressures, Cu-sites are active for nitrile formation, while Co-sites give CO₂. At high O₂ pressures, the activity for CO₂ of Cu-sites increases more than that of Co-sites due to filling of near-surface oxygen vacancies.     

On reducing the number of states in a PDA

A transformation is presented which converts any pushdown automaton (PDA)M ₀ withn ₀ states andp ₀ stack symbols into an equivalent PDAM withn states and n ₀ /n² p ₀ stack symbols into an equivalent ofn, 1n ₀. This transformation preserves realtime behavior but not derterminism. The transformation is proved to be the best possible one in the following sense: for each choice of the parametersn ₀ + 1 stack symbols for any desired value realtime PDAM ₀ such that any equivalent PDAM (whether realtime or not) havingn states must have at least (n ₀ /n)² p₀ stack symbols. Furthermore, the loss of deterministic behavior cannot be avoided, since for each choice ofn ₀ andp ₀, there is a deterministic PDAM ₀ such that no equivalent PDAM with fewer states can be deterministic.This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grants MCS76-10076 and MCS76-10076A01.     

Higher nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in menthol cigarette smokers with and without schizophrenia.

This study examined whether smoking menthol cigarettes was associated with increased biochemical measures of smoke intake. Expired carbon monoxide (CO) and serum nicotine and cotinine were measured in 89 smokers with schizophrenia and 53 control smokers immediately after smoking an afternoon cigarette. Serum nicotine levels (27 vs. 22 ng/ml, p = .010), serum cotinine levels (294 vs. 240 ng/ml, p = .041), and expired CO (25 vs. 21 ppm, p = .029) were higher in smokers of menthol compared with nonmenthol cigarettes, with no differences in 3-hydroxycotinine/cotinine ratios between groups when controlling for race. Backward stepwise linear regression models showed that, in addition to having a diagnosis of schizophrenia, smoking menthol cigarettes was a significant predictor of nicotine and cotinine levels. Individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder smoked more generic or discount value brands (Basic, Doral, Monarch, USA, Wave, others) compared with control smokers (28% vs. 6%, p = .002) but did not smoke more brands with high nicotine delivery as estimated by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission method. Although rates of mentholated cigarette smoking were not higher in smokers with schizophrenia overall, they were significantly higher in non-Hispanic White people with schizophrenia compared with controls of the same ethnic/racial subgroup (51% vs. 28%, p<.0001). The higher exhaled CO in menthol smokers suggests that the higher nicotine levels are at least partly related to increased intake of smoke from menthol cigarettes, although menthol-mediated inhibition of nicotine metabolism also may be a factor. Menthol is an important cigarette additive that may help explain why some groups have lower quit rates and more smoking-caused disease.     

Lupin seed coat as a promising food ingredient: physicochemical,nutritional, antioxidant properties,and effect of genotype and environment

The high proportion of seed coat of legume lupins results in big milling lose during kernel flour production, though the seed coat could be value-added as human food. The physicochemical and nutritional properties and antioxidant capacities of seed coats of six Australian sweet lupin cultivars grown at two locations were evaluated. Results showed that genotype, environment and their interaction were significant for seed coat percentage, proximate composition, dietary fibre content, polyphenols and antioxidant capacities. Strong correlations between seed coat lightness and polyphenol content were found. A comparison using multivariate analysis of the seed coat properties showed clear separation based on growing sites. This study indicates the enormous potential of Australian sweet lupin seed coat as an ‘antioxidant dietary fibre’ food source. The results could also benefit to breed varieties with desirable levels of nutrients and phytochemicals.     

Water soluble inner aqueous phase markers as indicators of the encapsulation properties of water-in-oil-in-water emulsions stabilized with sodium caseinate

The aim of this study was to evaluate the suitability of Methylene Blue (MB) and Vitamin B₁₂ (Vit-B₁₂) as water soluble inner aqueous phase (W₁) markers for measuring the encapsulation efficiency and stability of water-in-oil-in-water (W₁/O/W₂) double emulsions stabilized by sodium caseinate (NaCN). The encapsulation efficiency and stability were determined by centrifugation of the double emulsion to separate the cream phase (W₁/O) and the outer aqueous phase (W₂) and measuring the concentration of marker in W₂ by absorbance spectrophotometry. To validate this method the marker concentration measurable and the stability of the marker in W₂ were measured. Both markers could be accurately measured in W₂ and there was no change in the concentration of marker on storage of a W₂ solution for 7 days at 45 °C. The recovery yields of MB and Vit-B₁₂ in the recovered W₂ of an oil-in-water (O/W₂) emulsion, determined using the procedure normally used for measuring encapsulation efficiency and stability, were 78% and 99%, respectively, and 52 and 100%, respectively. Double emulsions had encapsulation efficiency of 61.9 ± 21.4% and 16.6 ± 1.1% and encapsulation stability of 62.0 ± 22.6% and 10.7 ± 0.7% for MB and Vit-B₁₂, respectively. Recovery yield and encapsulation efficiency/stability data for MB indicate that it is not a suitable marker for measuring the encapsulation properties of NaCN stabilized double emulsions while similar data for Vit-B₁₂ indicate that it is a suitable marker for studying the encapsulation properties of double emulsions stabilized with NaCN. Methods used in other studies to measure encapsulation properties of double emulsions are discussed in light of the results obtained in this study.     

消减食品加工过程中的真菌毒素：来自欧洲和东南亚的经验分享（网络首发、推荐阅读）

在世界范围内,由真菌毒素造成的经济损失估计达数十亿美元,给人类和动物带来安全风险。粮食中真菌毒素的预防可以通过食品加工过程中进行真菌毒素的消减处理。在过去几十年里,虽然发表的科技论文中报道了大量真菌毒素防控措施,但实际生产往往需要更容易实施的、简单易行的建议和指导方针。欧洲和东南亚在真菌毒素处理到数据分析、风险评估到污染防控、差异分析到流通途径等方面可以做到相互协作,互相补充。欧洲和东南亚政府及相关行业必须在综合考虑地域、农业系统和不同国家消费者偏好的背景下,寻求平衡食品安全和地区贸易二者关系,协同管控食品供应链。以谷物为例,加工过程包括初级加工（谷物清理和碾磨操作）和二次加工（如烘焙过程中的发酵和烘烤）,欧洲尤其关注烘焙食品安全性及全麦面包生产工艺对呕吐毒素的影响。结合农业、咖啡工业和科学研究人员的专业知识及亚洲咖啡生产者的具体情况,重点关注东南亚地区咖啡中赭曲霉毒素A污染问题。在农场环境中减少真菌毒素的措施给咖啡农民带来了较大的挑战,包括在规范种植农场模式下咖啡生产者和消费者之间社会经济效益和个人行为模式的相关影响因素。随着世界变得更加全球化,食品和饲料供应链也变得日趋复杂,因此,需要制定更全面的策略来确保食品供给及品质安全。