AMPK Activation Is Important for the Preservation of Insulin Sensitivity in Visceral,but Not in Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue of Postnatally Overfed Rat Model of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a well-known reproductive syndrome usually associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and hyperinsulinemia. Although the first signs of PCOS begin early in adolescence, it is underexplored whether peripubertal obesity predisposes women to PCOS metabolic disturbances. To highlight that, we examined the impact of postnatal overfeeding-induced obesity, achieved by litter size reduction during the suckling period, on metabolic disturbances associated with visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue (VAT and SAT) function in the 5α-dihydrotestosterone (5α-DHT)-induced animal model of PCOS. We analyzed markers of insulin signaling, lipid metabolism, and energy sensing in the VAT and SAT. Our results showed that postnatally overfed DHT-treated Wistar rats had increased VAT mass with hypertrophic adipocytes, together with hyperinsulinemia and increased HOMA index. In the VAT of these animals, insulin signaling remained unchanged while lipogenic markers decreased, which was accompanied by increased AMPK activation. In the SAT of the same animals, markers of lipogenesis and lipolysis increased, while the activity of AMPK decreased. Taken together, obtained results showed that postnatal overfeeding predisposes development of PCOS systemic insulin resistance, most likely as a result of worsened metabolic function of SAT, while VAT preserved its tissue insulin sensitivity through increased activity of AMPK.     

Combined effects of inulin,pectin and guar gum on the quality and stability of partially baked frozen bread

Many attempts have been made to increase the nutritional value of bread by adding dietary fibre. However, fibre enrichment is usually associated with various technological problems. The aim of this study was to optimise the composition of a blend of inulin, pectin and guar gum to enrich the fibre content of partially baked frozen bread without impairing its technological quality. We prepared 20 formulations following a central composite design, together with 4 control breads. Bread enriched with inulin had higher crumb hardness, lower specific volume, shape, moisture content, and crumb cohesiveness than control bread, but improved flavour. Pectin and guar improved moisture content and crumb cohesiveness. There was no interaction between inulin and pectin for any of the bread attributes investigated, while interactions between inulin and guar were small. In contrast, guar and pectin significantly interacted to decrease volume and increase crumb hardness and chewiness. A desirability function method identified the optimised blend as containing 3% inulin, 0.9–1% pectin and 0.3–0.4% guar. Bread enriched with such blend had the following characteristics: specific volume, 4.06 cm³/g; shape, 0.63; crumb hardness, 189 g; resilience, 0.36; cohesiveness, 0.84; chewiness, 169 g; and flavour score, 4.6. Experimental values were close to the predicted ones, with prediction errors below 10% for all attributes tested. The specific volume, crumb hardness and chewiness of the enriched bread were superior to those of unenriched bread. However, undesirable textural changes occurred in the enriched bread during 12 weeks of frozen storage, and these changes strongly depended on the fibre blend composition.     

A new approach for kinetic modeling and optimization of rubber molding

Although extensive research has been carried out on the understanding of the complex vulcanization process, the influence of reversion through exposure time and temperature on the vulcanization degree remains unclear. Therefore, the main aim of this study was a novel optimization approach that can help the industrial practitioners to select the optimal operating parameters, exposure time, and molding temperature, to achieve desired vulcanization degree of selected product. Spheres of four different diameters (2.5, 5, 10, and 20 cm) were selected as test geometry for simulation and optimization of rubber molding. Obtained vulcanization rheometer data for commercially available rubber blend (NR/SBR) were fitted by a new modeling approach, dividing vulcanization curve into two fitting sets: curing and reversion. The heat transfer equations for chosen geometry were coupled with proposed kinetic model. A new temperature-dependent kinetic parameter x, as the maximal reversion degree, was introduced, enabling determination of the lowest operating molding temperature (T_min = 132.36 °C), preventing high reversion and overheating of the rubber product. The final optimization goal was assessment of the optimal temperature and vulcanization time dependence on the rubber products dimensions. Proposed models have precise prediction with R² values greater than 0.8328 and MAPE less than 2.3099%.     

Closed‐Form Expressions for Selection Combining System Statistics over Correlated Generalized‐K Fading Channels in the Presence of Interference

This paper considers the effects of simultaneous correlated multipath fading and shadowing on the performances of a signal‐to‐interference ratio (SIR)‐based dual‐branch selection combining (SC) diversity receiver. This analysis includes the presence of cochannel interference. A generalized fading/shadowing channel model in an interference‐limited correlated fading environment is modeled by generalized‐K distribution. Closed‐form expressions are obtained for probability density function and cumulative distribution function of the SC output SIR, as well as for the outage probability. Based on this, the influence of various fading and shadowing parameter values and the correlation level on the outage probability is examined.     

Total oxidation of volatile organic compounds on Au/Ce–Ti–O and Au/Ce–Ti–Zr–O mesoporous catalysts

Cerium–titanium mixed oxides and mesoporous cerium-modified titanium and cerium-modified titanium–zirconium mixed oxides were synthesized in order to obtain active support for gold volatile organic compound (VOC) oxidation catalysts. Ce–Ti mixed oxides were synthesized by sol–gel method. Mesoporous TiO₂ and Ti–Zr mixed oxides were prepared through the surfactant templating technique. Gold was loaded on supports by deposition-precipitation method. The catalysts were characterized by thermal analysis, XRD, N₂ analysis, TPR, DR/UV–vis and IR. The results evidenced the beneficial role of ceria modifying additive in decreasing the degree of crystallinity of mesoporous support and its particle size. A high degree of synergistic interaction between ceria and mesoporous oxide was observed. H₂-TPR revealed that the reducibility of the catalysts is greatly enhanced in the presence of gold. Considering the light off temperature, the activity of Au/mesoporous cerium-modified titanium oxide is particularly interesting for VOC oxidation comparatively to the same catalysts with a classical support. The gold particles would be more dispersed and stable. However, the sample Au/mesoporous cerium-modified titanium–zirconium mixed oxide is less interesting for VOC oxidation, particularly for toluene oxidation whose activity depends essentially on the adsorption of toluene molecule.     

Surface modification of PET fibers with the use of β‐cyclodextrin

The purpose of our research was to prepare nanoencapsulated PET textile materials, which would be used as odor carriers (underwear and bed sheets with aromatherapy activities) or would act as malodorous absorbers (absorption of cigarette smell). We grafted β‐cyclodextrin onto PET textile materials by using a polyfunctional reagent 1,2,3,4‐butanetetracarboxylic acid. To reduce the curing temperature of the reaction, catalysts such as sodium hypophosphite and cyanamide were used. We prepared nanoencapsulated polyester textile materials with increased adsorption capacity and with delayed release of volatile or active compounds. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

Uncensoring censored data for machine learning: A likelihood-based approach

Various machine learning techniques have been applied to different problems in survival analysis in the last decade. They were usually adapted to learning from censored survival data by using the information on observation time. This includes learning from parts of the data or interventions to the learning algorithms. Efficient models were established in various fields of clinical medicine and bioinformatics. In this paper, we propose a pre-processing method for adapting the censored survival data to be used with ordinary machine learning algorithms. This is done by pre-assigning censored instances a positive or negative outcome according to their features and observation time. The proposed procedure calculates the goodness of fit of each censored instance to both the distribution of positives and the spoiled distribution of negatives in the entire dataset and relabels that instance accordingly. We performed a thorough empirical testing of our method in a simulation study and on two real-world medical datasets, using the naive Bayes classifier and decision trees. When compared to one of the popular ML methods dealing with survival, our method provided good results, especially when applied to heavily censored data.     

Structure-activity relationship in water-gas shift reaction over gold catalysts supported on Y-doped ceria

The utilization of pure hydrogen as an energy source in fuel cells gave rise to renewed interest in developing active and stable water-gas shift catalysts. Gold catalysts have proven to be very efficient for water-gas shift reaction at low temperature. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of:(i) different preparation methods(impregnation and coprecipitation) to obtain a modified ceria support,and(ii) the amount of Y_2 O_3(1.0 wt%, 2.5 wt%, 5.0 wt% and 7.5 wt%) as dopant on the water-gas shift activity of Au/CeO_2 catalysts. An extended characterization by means of S_(BET), XRD, HRTEM/HAADF, FTIR,H_2-TPR and CO-TPR measurements in combination with careful evaluation of the catalyst behavior allowed to shed light on the parameters governing the water-gas shift activity. The catalysts show very high activity(90% CO conversion) in the temperature range 180-220 ℃,with a slightly better performance of the gold catalysts on supports prepared by impregnation. The decreased activity with increasing Y_2 O_3 concentration is related to the hindering of oxygen mobility due to ordering of surface oxygen vacancies in vicinity of segregated Y~(3+). The effect of catalyst pre-treatments and the stability of the best performing samples were examined as well.