Angiotensin-converting enzyme and angiotensinogen gene polymorphisms and heart rate variability in twins

Decreased heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with congestive heart failure, post-myocardial infarction, ventricular arrhythmias, sudden cardiac death, and advancing age. A deletion/insertion polymorphism in the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene and a substitution (M235T) in the angiotensinogen gene have been associated with risk for heart disease. The aim of this study was to determine the heritability of HRV and related parameters in monozygotic and dizygotic twins and to assess the influence of ACE and angiotensinogen polymorphisms. We studied 95 MZ pairs and 46 DZ pairs. We measured HRV and related parameters, ACE and angiotensinogen levels, plasma norepinephrine, ACE, and angiotensinogen genotypes. We found that HRV and related parameters were significantly influenced by genetic variability, although nonshared genetic effects were also important. Angiotensinogen and plasma norepinephrine were generally correlated with decreased HRV, whereas ACE was correlated with perturbances of normal rhythmic HRV. Nevertheless, the DD ACE genotype was associated with increased HRV (p <0.05), whereas angiotensinogen polymorphisms had no effect. We conclude that HRV and related parameters are in part heritable. Interestingly, the DD ACE genotype is associated with increased HRV.     

Qualit?tseinstufung und schnelle Jodzahlbestimmung von Butterfett anhand einer Triglyceridanalyse

Zusammenfassung Mit Hilfe statistischer Verfahren wurden anhand einer repräsentativen Zahl verschiedener Butterfette Triglyceridformeln entwickelt, um bei unterschiedlichen Fütterungsbedingungen im Hinblick auf die Milchfettqualität und hier insbesondere auf die zu erwartende Butterstreichfähigkeit eine Klassifizierung durchführen zu können. Mit einer schnellen gaschromatographischen Triglyceridanalyse kann damit in einfacher Weise eine Qualitätseinstufung des Butterfettes anhand der direkt gemessenen C54- oder C36-Anteile oder C40/C36-Quotienten oder eine Klassifizierung anhand theoretisch ermittelter Jodzahlen vorgenommen werden. Außerdem konnte gezeigt werden, daß die Triglyceride C36, C54, C52 und C34 die höchsten Anteile an ungesättigten Fettsäuren aufweisen, C48 und C40 dagegen die geringsten.

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Classification of butter fat quality and rapid determination of iodine number by triglyceride analysis

Summary Statistical methods were employed to a representative number of different butter fats in order to develop triglyceride formulae for characterizing the milk fat quality and especially for classifying the expected spreadability of butter, which results from the different feeding conditions of cows. The quality of butter fat can be easily classified by the directly measured C54 or C36 portions or C40/C36 quotients, which can be obtained with a rapid gas chromatography triglyceride analysis. A classification is also possible by determining the iodine number, either experimentally or more rapidly by calculation, using the developed formulae with different numbers of triglycerides. Furthermore, it could be shown that the triglycerides C 36, C 54, C 52, and C 34 have the highest content of unsaturated fatty acids, whereas C48 and C40 have the lowest.

     

Rare localization of a reticulum-cell sarcoma in the clavicular epiphysis

Two different methods for classifying cochlear pathology were applied to 62 BEKESY AUDIOGRAMS obtained from cochlear pathology subjects to determine which method was the better indicator of cochlear pathology. The two methods compared were: (1) Jerger's type II, which is based upon the difference (D) between the client's threshold for the interrupted-tone tracing and the threshold for the continuous-tone tracing; and (2) Bilger's Wc, which is the swing width of the continuous tone tracing for 4,000 Hz. Results indicated that D classified 62% of the audiograms (39) correctly, and Wc classified 52% of the audiograms (32) correctly. Both measures jointly classified 37% of the audiograms (23) correctly and jointly missed 23% of the audiograms (14). Statistical analysis showed no difference between the two methods in classifying cochlear pathology.     

Angiographic studies in fluoroscopically detected coronary calcification (author's transl)

We performed coronary angiography in eighty subjects with radiographically diagnosed coronary calcification. Radiographically proven coronary calcification is highly specific for coronary heart disease. Within certain limitations it helps in locating stenoses and is present more frequently in multiple vessel disease. It sometimes detects coronary artery disease missed by other non-invasive methods.     

Untersuchungen über die Kristallstruktur und den molekularen Aufbau der Fettphase von Butter

Studies on the Crystal Structure and the Molecular Conformation of the Fat Phase of Butter Comparative examinations of butter samples are carried out at different temperatures of preparation ranging from 15 to 35° C by means of electron microscope pictures won by freezefracturing technique and of X-ray diffraction patterns. While an increase of temperature from 15 to 25–30° C causes a liquefaction of the crystalline aggregates, contained in the interior of the fat globules, the main part of the outer globule shell remains unchanged. However, in case of a further increase of temperature to 35° C practically all fat globules and crystals in the interglobular fat phase of butter melt. Nevertheless, many water droplets, existing isolated with their characteristic covering of small and thin crystal platelets, still remain in existence. It is concluded that in the region of the outer globule shell as well as in the region of the crystal platelets of the water droplets the triclinic β modification dominates. In contrast to this fact the predominating part of the β′ modification is to be found in the deeper melting crystal layers of the interior of the globules. This is true for the interglobular fat phase, too, in which the part of unsaturated fatty acids is especially high. Further on the arrangements of molecules in the β and β3′ regions of butter are discussed, whereby the numerous lattice defects are particularly mentioned.     

Xenoendocrine pollutants may reduce size of sexual organs in East Greenland polar bears (Ursus maritimus)

Reproductive organs from 55 male and 44 female East Greenland polar bears were examined to investigate the potential negative impact from organohalogen pollutants (OHCs). Multiple regressions normalizing for age showed a significant inverse relationship between OHCs and testis length and baculum length and weight, respectively, and was found in both subadults (dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethanes, dieldrin, chlordanes, hexacyclohexanes, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)) and adults (hexachlorobenzene [HCB]) (all p < 0.05). Baculum bone mineral densities decreased with increasing chlordanes, DDTs, and HCB in subadults and adults, respectively (all p < 0.05). In females, a significant inverse relationship was found between ovary length and sigma PCB (p = 0.03) and sigma CHL (p < 0.01), respectively, and between ovary weight and sigma PBDE (p < 0.01) and uterine horn length and HCB (p = 0.02). The study suggests thatthere is an impact from xenoendocrine pollutants on the size of East Greenland polar bear genitalia. This may pose a riskto this polar bear subpopulation in the future because of reduced sperm and egg quality/quantity and uterus and penis size/robustness.     

Photonic Side-Channel Analysis of Arbiter PUFs

As intended by its name, physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are considered as an ultimate solution to deal with insecure storage, hardware counterfeiting, and many other security problems. However, many different successful attacks have already revealed vulnerabilities of certain digital intrinsic PUFs. This paper demonstrates that legacy arbiter PUF and its popular extended versions (i.e., feed-forward and XOR-enhanced) can be completely and linearly characterized by means of photonic emission analysis. Our experimental setup is capable of measuring every PUF internal delay with a resolution of 6 ps. Due to this resolution, we indeed require only the theoretical minimum number of linear independent equations (i.e., physical measurements) to directly solve the underlying inhomogeneous linear system. Moreover, it is not required to know the actual PUF responses for our physical delay extraction. We present our practical results for an arbiter PUF implementation on a complex programmable logic device manufactured with a 180 nm process. Finally, we give an insight into photonic emission analysis of arbiter PUF on smaller chip architectures by performing experiments on a field programmable gate array manufactured with a 60 nm process.     

Recent trends in the fatty acid composition of German sunflower margarines,shortenings and cooking fats with emphasis on individual C16 : 1, C18 : 1, C18 : 2, C18 : 3 and C20 : 1trans isomers

In some countries the content oftransfatty acids (TFA) in margarines has strongly decreased as a result of the continuous discussion on their disadvantages regarding aspects of nutritional physiology. However, still in 1994 almost 1/3 of total fatty acids in part of German sunflower margarines, shortenings and cooking fats comprised these unfavourable TFA. In the present study the main interest was laid ontrans‐C16 : 1,trans‐C18 : 1,trans‐C20 : 1,trans‐C18 : 2 and trans‐C18 : 3 fatty acids and particularly their individual isomers, as negative metabolic activity of TFA possibly might only be attributable to certain isomers. By combining argentation thin‐layer chromatography with gas chromatography using a 100‐m capillary column (CP‐Sil 88) trans fatty acid contents were determined in nearly all German brands of sunflower margarines (SFM; n = 9) and of cooking fats and shortenings (CFS; n = 10). Concerning the above‐mentioned groups of isomers mean TFA contents of 0.01, 4.88, 0.00, 0.45 and 0.03% for SFM as well as of 0.01, 5.02, 0.03, 0.70 and 0.17% for CFS were established, respectively. The re‐evaluation of samples from 1994 and 1996 exhibited that the total TFA content (sum of all mentioned isomers) in SFM decreased from 21.77% (range: 13.78–26.29; n = 11) to 5.37% (1.98–6.15%; n = 9) between 1994 and 1999. Also the total TFA content in CFS on average strongly decreased from 11.77% (0.08–33.63; n = 16) in 1994 and 12.52% (1.61–26.79%; n = 7) in 1996 to 5.91% (0.43–19.72%; n = 10) in 1999. However, even the newest CFS samples partly exhibited relative high TFA contents. In addition to the total TFA contents all positional isomers of trans‐C18 : 1,trans‐C18 : 2 and trans‐C18 : 3 in SFM and CFS were quantified and compared between different years. The conjugated linoleic acid (cis Δ9,trans Δ11) occurred only in small amounts of 0.03% and 0.02% in current SFM and CFS.     

Mikrokapseln in der Galvanotechnik

Composite coatings with microcapsules Electrodeposited composite coatings are well known for wear reduction or friction reducing applications. A new development are microcapsules containing composite coatings. Microcapsules have a solid, liquid or gaseous core with a shell from different plastics with a diameter from 0.3 up to 50 μm. Self lubricating coatings, for example, are able to reduce the coefficient of friction from 0.7 to 0.1 (Nickel vs. steel). Wear‐indicating coatings containing micro‐encapsulated perfumes, fluorescent dyes or other detectable substances were developed.