Blueberry fruit polyphenolics suppress oxidative stress‐induced skeletal muscle cell damage in vitro

Skeletal muscle damage can result from disease and unaccustomed or excessive exercise. Muscle dysfunction occurs via an increased level of reactive oxygen species and hence there is potential in antioxidants as amelioration strategies. We explored the putative benefit of fruit polyphenolic extracts in reducing the susceptibility of skeletal muscle cells to oxidative stress. Muscle myotubes were simultaneously challenged with fruit extracts (1–50 μg/mL) and calcium ionophore (A23187), hydrogen peroxide, or 2,4‐dinitrophenol and damage monitored by release of cytosolic enzymes. A blueberry fruit extract displayed a potent and significant dose‐dependant protective capacity. Evaluation of the protective capacity of anthocyanin sub‐extracts of blueberry fruit and pure individual glycosides, with identification of extract polyphenolic components using MS, suggested that malvidin galactoside and/or glucoside were the active compounds. These in vitro data support the concept that blueberry fruits or derived foods rich in malvidin glycosides may be beneficial in alleviating muscle damage caused by oxidative stress. More research on the benefits of blueberry fruit consumption in human intervention studies is warranted.     

Nutritional and physicochemical characteristics of wholemeal bread enriched with pea flour

In this work, wholemeal bread enriched with hydrated and nonhydrated pea flour was investigated. Moreover, hydrocolloids, such as hydroxypropylcellulose, agar‐agar and guar seed flour, were added to the bread to improve its organoleptic properties. The bread samples were analysed from the nutritional, microstructural and textural properties point of view, and their correlations were also evaluated. Results showed that guar gum at 2% gave the better results. In particular, the overall quality of the bread enriched with hydrated pea flour and guar gum was statistically similar to that of the CTRL reference sample (7.70). The fibres and ash content of all pea‐enriched bread samples were significantly higher compared with the CTRL sample; moreover, all functional bread samples recorded significantly lower glycaemic response with respect to the CTRL sample. In addition, the mixture of both guar gum and hydrated pea flour significantly improved the dough properties and reduced the firmness of the bread.     

Machine Translation of Closed Captions

Traditional Machine Translation (MT) systems are designed to translate documents. In this paper we describe an MT system that translates the closed captions that accompany most North American television broadcasts. This domain has two identifying characteristics. First, the captions themselves have properties quite different from the type of textual input that many MT systems have been designed for. This is due to the fact that captions generally represent speech and hence contain many of the phenomena that characterize spoken language. Second, the operational characteristics of the closed-caption domain are also quite distinctive. Unlike most other translation domains, the translated captions are only one of several sources of information that are available to the user. In addition, the user has limited time to comprehend the translation since captions only appear on the screen for a few seconds. In this paper, we look at some of the theoretical and implementational challenges that these characteristics pose for MT. We present a fully automatic large-scale multilingual MT system, ALTo. Our approach is based on Whitelock's Shake and Bake MT paradigm, which relies heavily on lexical resources. The system currently provides wide-coverage translation from English to Spanish. In addition to discussing the design of the system, we also address the evaluation issues that are associated with this domain and report on our current performance.     

Change in emotion-regulation strategy for women with metastatic breast cancer following supportive-expressive group therapy.

Four relatively independent emotion-regulation constructs (suppression of negative affect, restraint, repression, and emotional self-efficacy) were tested as outcomes in a randomized trial of supportive-expressive group therapy for women with metastatic breast cancer. Results indicate that report of suppression of negative affect decreased and restraint of aggressive, inconsiderate, impulsive, and irresponsible behavior increased in the treatment group as compared with controls over 1 year in the group. Groups did not differ over time on repression or emotional self-efficacy. This study provides evidence that emotion-focused therapy can help women with advanced breast cancer to become more expressive without becoming more hostile. Even though these aspects of emotion-regulation appear trait-like within the control group, significant change was observed with treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repression and High Anxiety Are Associated With Aberrant Diurnal Cortisol Rhythms in Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Previous research has provided evidence of autonomic, endocrine, and immunological dysregulation in repressers and a possible association with cancer incidence and progression. Recently published data from the authors' laboratory demonstrated that flatter diurnal cortisol slopes were a risk factor for early mortality in women with metastatic breast cancer. In the current analysis of this same sample (N=91), the authors tested differences at baseline between groups scored using the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory on diurnal cortisol slope and mean cortisol levels. When compared with self-assured and nonextreme groups, the represser and high-anxious groups had a significantly flatter diurnal slope. Diurnal slope was similar for repressers and high-anxious groups. Groups did not differ on mean cortisol levels, nor did they differ on intercept (morning) values. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neural basis of individual differences in impulsivity: Contributions of corticolimbic circuits for behavioral arousal and control.

The objective of the current study was to analyze the neural correlates of behavioral arousal and inhibitory control as they relate to individual differences in impulsivity via well-established functional MRI amygdala reactivity and prefrontal inhibitory control paradigms in healthy adult subjects. Impulsivity correlated positively with activity of the bilateral ventral amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus, dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus (BA 32), and bilateral caudate. Conversely, impulsivity correlated negatively with activity of the dorsal amygdala and ventral prefrontal cortex (BA 47). Together, these findings suggest that dispositional impulsivity is influenced by the functional interplay of corticolimbic behavioral arousal and control circuits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Catalytic oxidation of 1,2-dichlorobenzene over ABO3-type perovskites

Several ABO₃-type perovskite oxides (A = La, Y, Nd or Gd; B = Fe, Mn, Cr or Co) have been investigated as catalysts for the oxidation of 1,2-dichlorobenzene (o-DCB), a model compound for the highly toxic polychlorinated dibenzodioxins. Initial transient and steady state activity measurements were conducted with all catalysts in the absence and presence of water. Perovskites containing Cr in the B-site were more active than perovskites containing other transition metals, with YCrO₃ being the most active catalyst among the different systems studied. Furthermore, YCrO₃ did not show any loss of its initial activity after several hours on stream. Other perovskites lost 10–20% of their initial activity within the first 5–10 h on stream. This loss was associated with a corresponding loss in BET surface area. With the exception of LaCoO₃, all perovskites retained their crystalline structure upon exposure to o-DCB under reaction conditions. LaCoO₃ was converted to LaOCl and Co₃O₄. The presence of water appeared to enhance the catalytic activity of some perovskites. This effect can be attributed to a faster removal of Cl⁻ ions from the catalyst surface via their reaction with water.     

Neurobiological and memory models of risky decision making in adolescents versus young adults.

Predictions of fuzzy-trace theory and neurobiological approaches are examined regarding risk taking in a classic decision-making task—the framing task—as well as in the context of real-life risk taking. We report the 1st study of framing effects in adolescents versus adults, varying risk and reward, and relate choices to individual differences, sexual behavior, and behavioral intentions. As predicted by fuzzy-trace theory, adolescents modulated risk taking according to risk and reward. Adults showed standard framing, reflecting greater emphasis on gist-based (qualitative) reasoning, but adolescents displayed reverse framing when potential gains for risk taking were high, reflecting greater emphasis on verbatim-based (quantitative) reasoning. Reverse framing signals a different way of thinking compared with standard framing (reverse framing also differs from simply choosing the risky option). Measures of verbatim- and gist-based reasoning about risk, sensation seeking, behavioral activation, and inhibition were used to extract dimensions of risk proneness: Sensation seeking increased and then decreased, whereas inhibition increased from early adolescence to young adulthood, predicted by neurobiological theories. Two additional dimensions, verbatim- and gist-based reasoning about risk, loaded separately and predicted unique variance in risk taking. Importantly, framing responses predicted real-life risk taking. Reasoning was the most consistent predictor of real-life risk taking: (a) Intentions to have sex, sexual behavior, and number of partners decreased when gist-based reasoning was triggered by retrieval cues in questions about perceived risk, whereas (b) intentions to have sex and number of partners increased when verbatim-based reasoning was triggered by different retrieval cues in questions about perceived risk. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trust and team development to fight chaos: three student reports

The world is increasingly developing towards complex and chaotic behaviour. Enterprises are challenged to establish flexible but trustworthy structures of doing business within global instability. We need to educate our students today for coping with such chaotic patterns in their professional future. As an example, the student-run Europe-wide organisation ESTIEM is offering the 2-week Summer Academy (SAC) to develop the communication skills corresponding. It also means among other aims to strengthen mutual trust through interaction of the students. In 2011, one of the SAC took place in Serbia. About 15 students attended it from all over Europe. In the paper, three of these students report on their experiences as a set of suggestions of how to develop further engineering and economics teaching towards international trust and stability.