Sensory attribute evolution in bottled young red wines from Rioja Alavesa

The evolution of 19 bottled young red wines from Rioja Alavesa was studied through 9 months. Twenty-four sensory attributes (including appearance, aroma, flavor, taste and mouth-feel) were evaluated at four times (at 1, 3, 5 and 9 months after bottling) by a ten-member panel. Fifteen physicochemical parameters were also analyzed at these four times. Effect of winemaking process (carbonic maceration vs. destemming), and grape variety (only Tempranillo vs. Tempranillo with a white variety) on wine evolution was considered too. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance. Nine sensory attributes changed significantly through the time: red berry aroma and flavor, body, balance, purple hue and color intensity increased, whereas alcoholic aroma and flavor, and astringency decreased. Almost all the physicochemical parameters changed significantly through the time. The winemaking process and the addition of white grapes did not influence sensory and physicochemical evolution.     

A One‐Pot “Triple‐C” Multicyclization Methodology for the Synthesis of Highly Constrained Isomerically Pure Tetracyclic Peptides

A broadly applicable one‐pot methodology for the facile transformation of linear peptides into tetracyclic peptides through a chemoenzymatic peptide synthesis/chemical ligation of peptides onto scaffolds/copper(I)‐catalyzed reaction (CEPS/CLIPS/CuAAC; “triple‐C”) locking methodology is reported. Linear peptides with varying lengths (≥14 amino acids), comprising two cysteines and two azidohomoalanines (Aha), were efficiently cyclized head‐to‐tail by using the peptiligase variant omniligase‐1 (CEPS). Subsequent ligation–cyclization with tetravalent (T4_1/2) scaffolds containing two bromomethyl groups (CLIPS) and two alkyne functionalities (CuAAC) yielded isomerically pure tetracyclic peptides. Sixteen different functional tetracycles, derived from bicyclic inhibitors against urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) and coagulation factor XIIa (FXIIa), were successfully synthesized and their bioactivities evaluated. Two of these (FF‐T4_1/2) exhibited increased inhibitory activity against FXIIa, compared with a bicyclic control peptide. The corresponding hetero‐bifunctional variants (UF/FU‐T4_1/2), with a single copy of each inhibitory sequence, exhibited micromolar activities against both uPA and FXIIa; thus illustrating the potential of the “bifunctional tetracyclic peptide” inhibitor concept.     

Immune response to recombinant capsid proteins of adenovirus in humans: antifiber and anti-penton base antibodies have a synergistic effect on neutralizing activity

Replication-deficient adenovirus used in humans for gene therapy induces a strong immune response to the vector, resulting in transient recombinant protein expression and the blocking of gene transfer upon a second administration. Therefore, in this study we examined in detail the capsid-specific humoral immune response in sera of patients with lung cancer who had been given one dose of a replication-defective adenovirus. We analyzed the immune response to the three major components of the viral capsid, hexon (Hx), penton base (Pb), and fiber (Fi). A longitudinal study of the humoral response assayed on adenovirus particle-coated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay plates showed that patients had preexisting immunity to adenovirus prior to the administration of adenovirus-beta-gal. The level of the response increased in three patients after adenovirus administration and remained at a maximum after three months. One patient had a strong immune response to adenovirus prior to treatment, and this response was unaffected by adenovirus administration. Sera collected from the patients were assayed for recognition of each individual viral capsid protein to determine more precisely the molecular basis of the humoral immune response. Clear differences existed in the humoral response to the three major components of the viral capsid in serum from humans. Sequential appearance of these antibodies was observed: anti-Fi antibodies appeared first, followed by anti-Pb antibodies and then by anti-Hx antibodies. Moreover, anti-Fi antibodies preferentially recognized the native trimeric form of Fi protein, suggesting that they recognized conformational epitopes. Our results showed that sera with no neutralizing activity contained only anti-Fi antibodies. In contrast, neutralizing activity was only obtained with sera containing anti-Fi and anti-Pb antibodies. More importantly, we showed that anti-native Fi and anti-Pb antibodies had a synergistic effect on neutralization. The application of these conclusions to human gene therapy with recombinant adenovirus should lead to the development of strategies to overcome the formation of such neutralization antibodies, which have been shown to limit the efficacy of gene transfer in humans.     

Dynamic Sharing of Large-Scale Visualization

Visualization is a research tool that computational scientists use for qualitative exploration, hypothesis verification, and result presentation. Driven by needs for large user groups to collaborate across geographical distances, visualization must now also serve as an effective means to share concrete data as well as abstract ideas over the Internet. Yet there is simply no expeditious and practical way for users collaborating in this wide area to share large visualizations in a dynamic fashion. Using distributed heterogeneous resources as a basic parallel infrastructure to compute visualization could provide great potential usability, scalability, and cost efficiency. To justify our viewpoint, we describe a sample system of this nature and demonstrate its efficacy with a recently generated real-world large data set     

Evanescent wave optical-fiber sensing (temperature, relative humidity, and pH sensors)

Sensitive and versatile evanescent wave-sensing systems featuring polished optical fiber-based sensor designs with low-cost light sources have been developed for temperature, relative humidity, and pH measurements. The work herein contained describes the fabrication of three types of sensors based on standard silica, single-mode fibers previously subjected to a lateral polishing of the cladding. Temperature sensing through oils whose refractive index varied linearly with temperature showed applicability with up to 5 dB//spl deg/C for a 5/spl deg/ range. Polyvinyl alcohol films on the fibers showed almost 10-dB linear variation from 70% to 90% relative humidity. Sol-gel trapped dyes as thin films on the polished surface were capable of performing 15-dB output variation (although not linearly) for pH ranging from 2 to 11.     

Crystal plasticity with Jacobian-Free Newton–Krylov

The objective of this work is to study potential benefits of solving crystal plasticity finite element method (CPFEM) implicit simulations using the Jacobian-Free Newton–Krylov (JFNK) technique. Implicit implementations of CPFEM are usually solved using Newton’s method. However, the inherent non-linearity in the flow rule model that characterizes the crystal slip system deformation on occasions would require considerable effort to form the exact analytical Jacobian needed by Newton’s method. In this paper we present an alternative using JFNK. As it does not require an exact Jacobian, JFNK can potentially decrease development time. JFNK approximates the effect of the Jacobian through finite differences of the residual vector, allowing modified formulations to be studied with relative ease. We show that the JFNK solution is identical to that obtained using Newton’s method and produces quadratic convergence. We also find that preconditioning the JFNK solution with the elastic tensor provides the best computational efficiency.     

Preparation et structure de Ga2S3α type wurtzite lacunaire

Preparations of powdered and crystalline αGa₂S₃ are described. Structure of αGa₂S₃ is established from single crystal determination (R = 0.058). These is a superstructure of wurtzite type, with ordered vacancies on gallium positions. A polymorphism of Ga₂S₃ is described.     

Improving Success in a Veterans Homeless Domiciliary Vocational Program: Model Development and Evaluation.

Objective: Determine predictors of success in a vocational rehabilitation component of a Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Program. Design: The 1st of 2 experiments evaluated risk factors for failure to find competitive employment. The 2nd assessed attainment of employment following program changes based on identified risk factors. Participants: Eighty-four and 82 homeless veterans in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Results/Experiment 1: Eight factors were found to be significant and were combined into a Risk Factor Scale. Results/Experiment 2: The authors assigned patients to a competitive job-search-only track or a hybrid program combining competitive job search and the potential for supported employment. Overall employment rates increased, and success rates for those seeking only competitive employment rose. Employment rates of those unlikely to find competitive employment increased. Conclusion: Findings demonstrated the effect of developing systematic data on risk factors for failing to find employment, implementing changes based on the data, and applying the benefit of these changes to program functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)