Hydrogen production from carrot pulp by the extreme thermophiles Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus and Thermotoga neapolitana

Hydrogen was produced from carrot pulp hydrolysate, untreated carrot pulp and (mixtures of) glucose and fructose by the extreme thermophiles Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus and Thermotoga neapolitana in pH-controlled bioreactors. Carrot pulp hydrolysate was obtained after enzymatic hydrolysis of the polysaccharide fraction in carrot pulp. The main sugars in the hydrolysate were glucose, fructose, and sucrose.     

The nonword-reading deficit of disabled readers: A developmental interpretation.

This article presents empirical evidence challenging the received wisdom that a nonword-reading deficit is a characteristic trait of disabled readers. On the basis of 2 large-scale empirical studies using the reading-level match design, we argue that a nonword-reading deficit is the consequence of normal developmental differences in word-specific knowledge between disabled readers and younger normal readers (both groups being matched on real-word reading). The first study shows that the nonword-reading deficit varies as a function of age and reading level and that this deficit is not typical for disabled readers. The second study demonstrates that a nonword-reading deficit crucially depends on the sensitivity of the matching word reading task to detect age-related differences in word-specific knowledge between disabled and normal readers. We clarify how these findings can be interpreted within the current framework of the phonological deficit hypothesis and discuss implications for theories of reading development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Stratosphere platform for big data analytics

We present Stratosphere, an open-source software stack for parallel data analysis. Stratosphere brings together a unique set of features that allow the expressive, easy, and efficient programming of analytical applications at very large scale. Stratosphere’s features include “in situ” data processing, a declarative query language, treatment of user-defined functions as first-class citizens, automatic program parallelization and optimization, support for iterative programs, and a scalable and efficient execution engine. Stratosphere covers a variety of “Big Data” use cases, such as data warehousing, information extraction and integration, data cleansing, graph analysis, and statistical analysis applications. In this paper, we present the overall system architecture design decisions, introduce Stratosphere through example queries, and then dive into the internal workings of the system’s components that relate to extensibility, programming model, optimization, and query execution. We experimentally compare Stratosphere against popular open-source alternatives, and we conclude with a research outlook for the next years.     

ADSEAT – Adaptive seat to reduce neck injuries for female and male occupants

Neck injuries sustained in low severity vehicle crashes are of worldwide concern and the risk is higher for females than for males. The objective of the study was to provide guidance on how to evaluate protective performance of vehicle seat designs aiming to reduce the incidence of neck injuries for female and male occupants. The objective was achieved by reviewing injury risk, establishing anthropometric data of an average female, performing dynamic volunteer tests comprising females and males, and developing a finite element model, EvaRID, of an average female. With respect to injury criteria, it was concluded based on the tests that using NIC (with a lower threshold value) and Nkm (with reduced intercept values) for females would be a suitable starting point. Virtual impact simulations with seats showed that differences were found in the response of the BioRID II and EvaRID models, for certain seats.     

Effect of dimorphic regulation on heterologous glucose oxidase production by Mucor circinelloides

The production of Aspergillus niger glucose oxidase (GOX) and native amylase by the recombinant M. circinelloides KFA199 strain under conditions of dimorphic growth was investigated. The recombinant KFA199 strain was compared to its parental ATCC 1216b strain and a wild‐type CBS 232.29 strain under similar morphology‐controlled conditions. Cultivation in Vogel's medium supplemented with ergosterol/Tween‐80 and sparged with nitrogen gas was most suitable for yeast‐like biomass production under anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic growth was characterized by high levels of ethanol formation and linear growth rates of 0.24–0.05/h, indicating metabolic stress. Subsequent to anaerobic growth, cultures were shifted to aerobic conditions to induce aerobic mycelial growth. GOX produced by the recombinant KFA199 after the shift to aerobic conditions was poorly secreted and accumulated intracellularly to 0.56 U/ml_culture. Amylase production by the KFA199, ATCC12b and CBS 232.29 strains was determined during growth on starch after the shift to aerobic culture. Growth‐associated amylase production by the ATCC 1216b (0.63 U/ml_culture) and wild‐type CBS 232.29 (0.33 U/ml_culture) strains was substantially higher than by the recombinant KFA199 strain (0.07 U/ml_culture), which may be related to the leucine auxotrophy of the transformation host, or genetic changes induced during transformation of the KFA199 strain. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hope for GWAS: Relevant Risk Genes Uncovered from GWAS Statistical Noise

Hundreds of genetic variants have been associated to common diseases through genome-wide association studies (GWAS), yet there are limits to current approaches in detecting true small effect risk variants against a background of false positive findings. Here we addressed the missing heritability problem, aiming to test whether there are indeed risk variants within GWAS statistical noise and to develop a systematic strategy to retrieve these hidden variants. Employing an integrative approach, which combines protein-protein interactions with association data from GWAS for 6 common diseases, we found that associated-genes at less stringent significance levels (p < 0.1) with any of these diseases are functionally connected beyond noise expectation. This functional coherence was used to identify disease-relevant subnetworks, which were shown to be enriched in known genes, outperforming the selection of top GWAS genes. As a proof of principle, we applied this approach to breast cancer, supporting well-known breast cancer genes, while pinpointing novel susceptibility genes for experimental validation. This study reinforces the idea that GWAS are under-analyzed and that missing heritability is rather hidden. It extends the use of protein networks to reveal this missing heritability, thus leveraging the large investment in GWAS that produced so far little tangible gain.     

大连足球场

这一体育场的设计灵感来源于中国古代蹴鞠的色彩层次和叠加的构造。设计将观众的集体精神、建筑的公共领域和城市内涵交织在一起。主体育场将观众席、广播电视中心、管理区、贵宾休息室、运动员设施和公共大厅安置在一个分层次的空间中,这一空间延伸到地表层,在双层停车设施上部提供户外的公共空间。