Antioxidant efficiency of oregano in frying and storage of fried products

The effect of oregano on the oxidative stability of cottonseed oil during frying of potato chips and on the storage stability of the products was studied. The ground spice or an ethanol‐derived extract was added to the oil before frying. The results showed that both additives decreased the rates of accumulation of conjugated dienes, polar compounds, polymerized triacylglycerols, dimeric triacylglycerols and the p‐anisidine value of the frying oil, while the hydrolytic compounds were not affected. The major decrease was observed in the accumulation of polymerized and dimeric triacylglycerols. The storage stability of the produced chips was estimated by the rate of increase of the peroxide value and of the conjugated dienes in the oil absorbed by them. Both rates were depressed when oregano was added to the frying oil, with the protective action of oregano extract being considerably greater than that of ground oregano. The protective action of oregano extracts obtained by successive extractions with petroleum ether (PE), diethyl ether (EE) and ethanol (EtOH) and added to the chips after frying was also examined. The results showed that the EE and EtOH extracts were very effective against oxidative deterioration.     

OFDMA techniques in multicellular networks with total frequency reuse

Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) techniques are investigated in this paper. Five subchannel allocation algorithms are analysed and their performance in a multicellular environment is evaluated with simulations. Four schemes of lower complexity, suitable for the early deployment of wireless systems, are compared with a more computationally demanding scheme with respect to their blocking probability, loading factor and offered bit rate. The channel condition of each carrier is calculated and its knowledge is used for power controlled adaptive modulation, as an essential feature of the OFDMA technique. The general radio resource management process is divided into two steps: in the first step a base station allocates carriers to users while in the second step the modulation and power levels for each allocated carrier are defined.The simulation results demonstrate that a wireless system in its early deployment phase (up to 15–30% blocking probability) can employ simple OFDMA techniques capable of achieving high throughput. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that two of the proposed lower complexity schemes, (those based on cell coordination), offer good performance gain for higher data rate services. Nevertheless, these schemes achieve relatively lower gains with adaptive modulation, when compared with the techniques which exploit interference averaging or adaptive interference mitigation.     

NBTI-Aware Data Allocation Strategies for Scratchpad Based Embedded Systems

The push to embed reliable and low-power memories architectures into modern systems-on-chip is driving the EDA community to develop new design techniques and circuit solutions that can concurrently optimize aging effects due to Negative Bias Temperature Instability (NBTI), and static power consumption due to leakage mechanisms. While recent works have shown how conventional leakage optimization techniques can help mitigate NBTI-induced aging effects on cache memories, in this paper we focus specifically on scratchpad memory (SPM) and present novel software approaches as a means of alleviating the NBTI-induced aging effects. In particular, we demonstrate how intelligent software directed data allocation strategies can extend the lifetime of partitioned SPMs by means of distributing the idleness across the memory sub-banks.     

Reduction of Tungsten Oxide: A Path Towards Dual Functionality Utilization for Efficient Anode and Cathode Interfacial Layers in Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Here, we report on the dual functionality of tungsten oxide for application as an efficient electron and hole injection/transport layer in organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). We demonstrate hybrid polymer light‐emitting diodes (Hy‐PLEDs), based on a polyfluorene copolymer, by inserting a very thin layer of a partially reduced tungsten oxide, WO_2.5, at the polymer/Al cathode interface to serve as an electron injection and transport layer. Significantly improved current densities, luminances, and luminous efficiencies were achieved, primarily as a result of improved electron injection at the interface with Al and transport to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the polymer, with a corresponding lowering of the device driving voltage. Using a combination of optical absorption, ultraviolet spectoscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and photovoltaic open circuit voltage measurements, we demonstrate that partial reduction of the WO₃ to WO_2.5 results in the appearance of new gap states just below the conduction band edge in the previously forbidden gap. The new gap states are proposed to act as a reservoir of donor electrons for enhanced injection and transport to the polymer LUMO and decrease the effective cathode workfunction. Moreover, when a thin tungsten oxide film in its fully oxidized state (WO₃) is inserted at the ITO anode/polymer interface, further improvement in device characteristics was achieved. Since both fully oxidized and partially reduced tungsten oxide layers can be deposited in the same chamber with well controlled morphology, this work paves the way for the facile fabrication of efficient and stable Hy‐OLEDs with excellent reproducibility.     

The influence of spent household batteries to the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes during composting

The objective of this work was to investigate the potential transfer of 9 heavy metals from spent household batteries (zinc-carbon and alkaline-manganese batteries) to the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes during active composting. Six runs were performed including one control and 2 replications. Eleven types of alkaline and non-alkaline batteries were added at 3 different levels to the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes, namely at percentages equal to 0.98% w/w (low), 5.2% w/w (medium) and 10.6% w/w (high). Experiments were performed in 230 l insulated plastic aerobic bioreactors under a dynamic air flow regime for up to 60 days. Iron, copper and nickel masses contained in the organic fraction of the wastes were found significantly higher in the high level runs compared to the corresponding masses in the control. No metal transfer was obtained in the low and medium level runs. Metal mass balance closures ranged from 51% to 176%. Metals' concentrations in the leachates were below 10 mg l⁻¹ for most metals, except iron, while an increasing concentration trend versus time was measured in the leachates of the high level runs. In all cases, the contents of 5 regulated heavy metals in all end products were below the Hellenic limits.     

Structure of the O-Antigen and the Lipid A from the Lipopolysaccharide of Fusobacterium nucleatum ATCC 51191

Fusobacterium nucleatum is a common member of the oral microbiota. However, this symbiont has been found to play an active role in disease development. As a Gram-negative bacterium, F. nucleatum has a protective outer membrane layer whose external leaflet is mainly composed of lipopolysaccharides (LPSs). LPSs play a crucial role in the interaction between bacteria and the host immune system. Here, we characterised the structure of the O-antigen and lipid A from F. nucleatum ssp. animalis ATCC 51191 by using a combination of GC-MS, MALDI and NMR techniques. The results revealed a novel repeat of the O-antigen structure of the LPS, [→4)-β-d -GlcpNAcA-(1→4)-β-d -GlcpNAc3NAlaA-(1→3)-α-d -FucpNAc4NR-(1→], (R=acetylated 60 %), and a bis-phosphorylated hexa-acylated lipid A moiety. Taken together these data showed that F. nucleatum ATCC 51191 has a distinct LPS which might differentially influence recognition by immune cells.     

Pepsin Promotes Activation of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor and Downstream Oncogenic Pathways,at Slightly Acidic and Neutral pH,in Exposed Hypopharyngeal Cells

Pepsin refluxate is considered a risk factor for laryngopharyngeal carcinogenesis. Non-acidic pepsin was previously linked to an inflammatory and tumorigenic effect on laryngopharyngeal cells in vitro. Yet there is no clear evidence of the pepsin-effect on a specific oncogenic pathway and the importance of pH in this process. We hypothesized that less acidic pepsin triggers the activation of a specific oncogenic factor and related-signalling pathway. To explore the pepsin-effect in vitro, we performed intermittent exposure of 15 min, once per day, for a 5-day period, of human hypopharyngeal primary cells (HCs) to pepsin (1 mg/mL), at a weakly acidic pH of 5.0, a slightly acidic pH of 6.0, and a neutral pH of 7.0. We have documented that the extracellular environment at pH 6.0, and particularly pH 7.0, vs. pH 5.0, promotes the pepsin-effect on HCs, causing increased internalized pepsin and cell viability, a pronounced activation of EGFR accompanied by NF-κB and STAT3 activation, and a significant upregulation of EGFR, AKT1, mTOR, IL1β, TNF-α, RELA(p65), BCL-2, IL6 and STAT3. We herein provide new evidence of the pepsin-effect on oncogenic EGFR activation and its related-signaling pathway at neutral and slightly acidic pH in HCs, opening a window to further explore the prevention and therapeutic approach of laryngopharyngeal reflux disease.     

The Diagnostic Potential of Amyloidogenic Proteins

Neurodegenerative disorders are a highly prevalent class of diseases, whose pathological mechanisms start before the appearance of any clear symptoms. This fact has prompted scientists to search for biomarkers that could aid early treatment. These currently incurable pathologies share the presence of aberrant aggregates called amyloids in the nervous system, which are composed of specific proteins. In this review, we discuss how these proteins, their conformations and modifications could be exploited as biomarkers for diagnostic purposes. We focus on proteins that are associated with the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and frontotemporal dementia. We also describe current challenges in detection, the most recent techniques with diagnostic potentials and possible future developments in diagnosis.     

Hardware-programmable optical networks硬件可编程光网络

For future multi-dimensional optical networks, vast network resources provided by space division multiplexing and wavelength division multiplexing technologies, require new network architectures to scale up current network functions. The huge switch-granularity range requires a more dynamic way to deploy network resources. In this paper, we proposed a hardware-programmable optical network which deploys network resources according to incoming traffic requests. The proposed network supports node function programmability and node architecture adaptability, which are critical for dynamic function and resources deployments. Architecture-on-Demand based node architecture adapts node architectures and also enables network function programmability by incorporating with several flexible node functions. Other enabling technologies, such as ubiquitous power monitoring and dynamic optical power management, assures the programmable optical node work properly. Based on all these technologies, we established a hardware-programmable optical network testbed. Several use cases were demonstrated successfully, such as dynamic power equalization and optical debugging. These work verified the feasibility of hardware-programmable optical network, which dynamically allocate network resources for service provision. The proposed hardware programmable optical network will lead to a better hardware utilization and provide a possible solution for the future multi-dimensional optical network.