Stability and Quality Parameters of Probiotic Cantaloupe Melon Juice Produced with Sonicated Juice

The use of sonicated melon juice as substrate for Lactobacillus casei growth in cantaloupe melon juice and its effect on product quality were investigated. The survival of L. casei in the fermented juice, the product color, the post-acidification and other quality parameters were evaluated in the refrigerated product (4 °C) for a period of 42 days. Storage pH, color, sugar content, lactic acid concentration, biomass and viable cells count were determined. The caloric value of the product was also evaluated. During the refrigerated storage period, acidification and a slight reduction in the number of viable cells were observed. However, a sufficient number of viable cells were observed to guarantee the beneficial properties from probiotic consumption (>8 log CFU?ml^?1) throughout the storage period, for both stocked samples (with and without sugar addition). The product color was also preserved during storage. The developed product resulted in a low caloric product. The caloric value was reduced during the storage period due to sugar consumption by the remaining microorganisms.     

Fluidized‐bed reactor modeling for polyethylene production

Gas‐phase technology for polyethylene production has been widely used by industries around the world. A good model for the reactor fluid dynamics is essential to properly set the operating conditions of the fluidized‐bed reactor. The fluidized‐bed model developed in this work is based on a steady‐state model, incorporating interactions between separate bubble, emulsion gas phase, and emulsion solid polymer particles. The model is capable not only of computing temperature and concentration gradients for bubble and emulsion phases, calculating polymer particle mean diameter throughout the bed and polyethylene production rate, but also of pinpointing the appearance of hot spots and polymer meltdown. The model differs from conventional well‐mixed fluidized‐bed models by assuming that the particles segregate within the bed according to size and weight differences. The model was validated using literature and patent data, presenting good representation of the behavior of the fluidized‐bed reactor used in ethylene polymerization. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 81: 321–332, 2001     

Circadian Rhythm Dysregulation and Leukemia Development: The Role of Clock Genes as Promising Biomarkers

The circadian clock (CC) is a daily system that regulates the oscillations of physiological processes and can respond to the external environment in order to maintain internal homeostasis. For the functioning of the CC, the clock genes (CG) act in different metabolic pathways through the clock-controlled genes (CCG), providing cellular regulation. The CC’s interruption can result in the development of different diseases, such as neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders, as well as cancer. Leukemias correspond to a group of malignancies of the blood and bone marrow that occur when alterations in normal cellular regulatory processes cause the uncontrolled proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells. This review aimed to associate a deregulated CC with the manifestation of leukemia, looking for possible pathways involving CG and their possible role as leukemic biomarkers.     

Novel hetero-polymetallic derivatives of palladium bearing pyridylthioether fragments incorporating a Fe2(CO)6 cluster core as ligand

The complexation of poly(pyridylthioether) incorporating a Fe₂(CO)₆ cluster core with palladium derivatives in different oxidation states afforded novel hetero-polymetallic complexes.     

A principal component analysis of the Katz Adjustment Scale in a traumatic brain injury rehabilitation sample.

Relatives of 88 clients enrolled in a postacute rehabilitation program for the treatment of traumatic brain injury completed Section 1 of the Katz Adjustment Scale (KAS-R1). The items were subjected to a principal component analysis, which yielded 10 statistically significant component groups. Internal consistency as determined by Cronbach alpha ranged from 0.78 to 0.94. Moderate correlations were observed between several component groups, suggesting some overlap in components derived. Results suggest that the 127 items of the KAS-R1 form component groups that may represent categorically differentiated behavioral symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Framework for the Automation of LTE Physical Layer Tests

This study proposes an uncooperative-multi-cell-multiple-input–multiple-output system to increase the throughput of an ill-conditioned wireless MIMO downlink system. The proposed algorithm suppresses the inter-cell interference at each mobile station using a set of adaptive receive beamformers, but handles the intra-cell interference at each base station using a Tomlinson Harashima precoder. Using the singular vectors of channel matrices, the receive beamformers can be designed based on a linear-constrained-minimum-variance criterion. On the other hand, to obtain high enough degree of freedoms for cancelling the intra-cell interference at each base station, the precoder is applied to the re-assembled downlink virtual channel formed by the simplified channel state information. Using the proposed interference suppression techniques, a multi-cell downlink system with multiple uncooperative base stations can be decomposed into a set of parallel subchannels. The resulting system has better performance in channel capacity than conventional MIMO systems. Computer simulations support the validity of the proposed approach.     

Of Embodied Action and Sensors: Knowledge and Expertise Sharing in Industrial Set-Up

Knowledge and expertise sharing has long been an important theme in CSCW and, importantly, one that has frequently challenged a prevailing view concerning knowledge management. This critique focused, initially, on the practical problems associated with issues of Organisational Memory (OM), and in particular the difficulties inherent in an oversimplified ‘repository’ model. Attention then turned to issues of contextuality and communication for expertise sharing, drawing on concepts such as communities of practice and social capital to understand, again, the sharing of knowledge and expertise in practice. Here, we report on how particular kinds of ‘embodied action’ can be identified in relation to the potential of cyber-physical infrastructures for knowledge sharing in an industrial context. We argue that, in a complex industrial domain, both the recording of physical movement – ‘showing’ – and the representation of local knowledge – ‘telling’ – are potentially relevant. Our proposal is that the evolution of cyber-physical infrastructures now offers a way of changing some early assumptions about how knowledge might be captured and displayed. We argue that we are entering a third generation of knowledge and expertise sharing research, where the use of augmented reality (AR) and sensor technology will result in significant new methodological innovations, including the capture and sharing of knowledge, embedded in embodied action.