Circulating Amino Acids and Risk of Peripheral Artery Disease in the PREDIMED Trial

Effective prevention and risk prediction are important for peripheral artery disease (PAD) due to its poor prognosis and the huge disease burden it produces. Circulating amino acids (AA) and their metabolites may serve as biomarkers of PAD risk, but they have been scarcely investigated. The objective was to prospectively analyze the associations of baseline levels of plasma AA (and their pathways) with subsequent risk of PAD and the potential effect modification by a nutritional intervention with the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet). A matched case-control study was nested in the PREDIMED trial, in which participants were randomized to three arms: MedDiet with tree nut supplementation group, MedDiet with extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) supplementation group or control group (low-fat diet). One hundred and sixty-seven PAD cases were matched with 250 controls. Plasma AA was measured with liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry at the Broad Institute. Baseline tryptophan, serine and threonine were inversely associated with PAD (OR_{for 1 SD increase} = 0.78 (0.61–0.99); 0.67 (0.51–0.86) and 0.75 (0.59–0.95), respectively) in a multivariable-adjusted conditional logistic regression model. The kynurenine/tryptophan ratio was directly associated with PAD (OR_{for 1 SD increase} = 1.50 (1.14–1.98)). The nutritional intervention with the MedDiet+nuts modified the association between threonine and PAD (p-value interaction = 0.018) compared with the control group. However, subjects allocated to the MedDiet+EVOO group were protected against PAD independently of baseline threonine. Plasma tryptophan, kynurenine/tryptophan ratio, serine and threonine might serve as early biomarkers of future PAD in subjects at a high risk of cardiovascular disease. The MedDiet supplemented with EVOO exerted a protective effect, regardless of baseline levels of threonine.     

Influence of fresh and processed fruit quality attributes on peach purée consistency index

Multivariate projection techniques were used to analyze the influence of several quality variables, measured both on fresh peach fruits and on peach purée, on Bostwick’s consistency index of the purée, which is the main parameter that the industry uses to take decisions regarding its commercialization. It was found that the variables measured on the fresh fruits were more useful to calibrate a prediction model of the consistency than the measures taken on the purée itself. The most important variable to predict consistency is the dry pulp-stone ratio, followed by the fruit firmness and the dry fruit weight, while the rest of variables have less influence in the modeling.     

Learning and Adaptation in Wastewater Treatment Plants Through Case–Based Reasoning

This paper discusses a case–based reasoning approach to modeling the specific or experiential knowledge coming directly from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) operation within the overall supervisory task of a plant. A concrete implementation is detailed: case structure, case library organization, retrieving algorithm, matching function, and learning techniques. Starting from some initial cases (learning by observation), the system evolves, adapting its experiential knowledge (learning by own experience) from the actual operation of the WWTP under control. The result is a more accurate supervisory system. Recording previous experiences—cases—in the system helps to solve new similar or related situations in the plant with less effort than other methods that start from scratch to build up new solutions. Moreover, the continuous execution of the system enhances its adaptation to new situations that could appear.     

Changes in physico-chemical properties, hydroxymethylfurfural and volatile compounds during concentration of honey and sugars in Alicante and Jijona turrón

Turrón has being elaborated in a traditional way; however, manufacturers are trying to (a) change production systems from discontinuous to continuous and (b) improve quality/homogeneity of products. To get these objectives, detailed scientific information regarding each of the unit operations involved is needed. Thus, the objective of this study was to gain as much information as possible about the initial operation of “honey+sugars” concentration. During this stage, humidity was reduced from a 29 to 0.5% and water activity from 0.86 to 0.18. At the same time, the soluble solid content increased from 51 to 81 Brix. 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural increased during the heating stages and was constant during the cooling stage; however, contents were always below 40 mg kg⁻¹. Finally during this heating step, characteristic honey volatile compounds decreased their concentration, for instance acetoin, benzaldehyde, phenylacetaldehyde, and linalool oxide, while compounds arising from amino acids and sugars through Maillard and Strecker degradation reactions significantly increased, for instance furfuryl alcohol, furfural and 5-methyl furfural.     

An Input/Output Semantics for Distributed Program Equivalence Reasoning

A new notion of input/output equivalence of distributed imperative programs, with synchronous communications, is introduced. It preserves the input/output relation, encompassing both, initial/final state and communication channel values. For its mathematical justification, the semantic framework of Manna and Pnueli, based on finite transition systems and reduced behaviors, is extended with the notion of input/output behavior. A set of laws for the equivalence is overviewed. A deduction rule for the substitution of references to input/output equivalent procedures is defined and justified in the new semantics. The rule is applied to decompose distributed program simplification proofs, introduced in a prior work, which use the laws to establish the equivalence between a sequential and a parallel communicating program. They include communication elimination as one of their steps. An outline of one of such proofs, for a pipelined processor model, is included.     

Hepatobiliary clearance of glycocholic acid in Gilbert's disease

AIM: To research the behaviour of one biliary acid (glyco-cholic) i.v. injected in patients with Gilbert's disease and in healthy controls, so that contribute to the knowledge of the pathophysiological correlate between bilirubin and biliary acids. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We include 15 patients with Gilbert's disease and 7 healthy voluntary ones. We injected i.v. glycocholic acid and obtained the clearance curve (CG-RIA Abbot method). We evaluated the possible biostatistically significant differences between the obtained values of both groups though the non-parametric method of Mann-Whitney. RESULTS: The clearance curve of both groups had a similar profile; biostatisticaly there are not significant differences between the serum values of glyco-cholic acid in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The clearance of the glyco-cholic acid in patients with Gilbert's disease had a similar behaviour as in healthy controls, without biostatisticaly significant differences between both groups.     

激发经济和社会活力复苏的城区更新

<正>近几十年来人们所经历的技术创新,尤其是与新的信息和通信技术相关的创新,使得知识成为生产过程中的一个关键因素,而以前被视为占主导地位的因素(诸如资金和劳动力等)已退居第二位,对生产过程、组织和产品进行创新的能力则被视为具有竞争优势的最可靠的价值之一。后工业社会正见证着这些新技术如何演变为未来发展的要素。无论是在整体框架还是社会网络中,这一新型经济的形成都催生出重大的变化。劳动市场的变化、思想文化的影响、政治制度的变革以及个人与其周边环境间的新关系,无疑明确了建立在经济活动和社会制度基础上的知识效应。从根本上来说,这是在建设知识型社会的过程中,知识经济