Morphometric analysis of human sciatic nerve perineurial collagen type IV content

Objectives: Aging is the process which unavoidably alters structure and function of the basal membranes in humans. Though, collagen type IV presents the most prominent component of the basal membranes, we estimated its presence in the perineurium of the human sciatic nerve samples during the aging process. Materials and methods: Material was 12 sciatic nerve samples, obtained from cadavers whose age ranged from 36 to 84 years. Cadavers were classified into three age groups: first which age ranged from 35 to 54 years, second which age ranged from 55 to 74 years and third which included cases older than 75 years. Tissue slices were further stained by labeled streptavidin–biotin method with collagen type IV monoclonal antibody and analyzed with light microscope under 100× lens magnification with oil immersion. Digital images of sciatic nerve perineurium were further processed and analyzed with ImageJ software. Results: Our results showed that there is statistically significant increase of perineurial area, perimeter, collagen type IV area, and collagen type IV area per perineurial perimeter unit in the third age group. These parameters also increased in the second age group, but this increase was not significant. Multiple regression analysis showed that beside fascicular size, age more significantly predict perineurial collagen type IV content. Conclusions: Results of morphometric and statistical analysis pointed to the conclusion that there is significant increase of sciatic nerve perineurial thickness during the aging process. This increase might represent the consequence of perineurial collagen type IV deposition with aging. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consumption of Bilberries Controls Gingival Inflammation

Bioactive molecules in berries may be helpful in reducing the risk of oral diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of bilberry consumption on the outcome of a routine dental clinical parameter of inflammation, bleeding on probing (BOP), as well as the impact on selected biomarkers of inflammation, such as cytokines, in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) in individuals with gingivitis. Study individuals who did not receive standard of care treatment were allocated to either a placebo group or to groups that consumed either 250 or 500 g bilberries daily over seven days. The placebo group consumed an inactive product (starch). A study group, receiving standard of care (debridement only) was also included to provide a reference to standard of care treatment outcome. Cytokine levels were assayed using the Luminex MagPix system. The mean reduction in BOP before and after consumption of test product over 1 week was 41% and 59% in the groups that consumed either 250 or 500 g of bilberries/day respectively, and was 31% in the placebo group, and 58% in the standard of care reference group. The analysis only showed a significant reduction in cytokine levels in the group that consumed 500 g of bilberries/day. A statistically significant reduction was observed for IL-1β (p = 0.025), IL-6 (p = 0.012) and VEGF (p = 0.017) in GCF samples in the group that consumed 500 g of bilberries daily. It appears that berry intake has an ameliorating effect on some markers of gingival inflammation reducing gingivitis to a similar extent compared to standard of care.     

The influence of genotypic variation in protein composition on emulsifying properties of soy proteins

This study describes the relationship between the emulsifying properties of soybean proteins and their composition, i.e., glycinin (11S) and β-conglycinin (7S). Twelve investigated soybean genotypes showed significant differences in storage protein composition. The β-conglycinin concentration positively correlated with extractable soluble protein content, which was positively correlated with protein extractability. These data suggest that the level of β-conglycinin has a positive influence on protein extractability. The emulsion activity index (EAI) was strongly and positively correlated with the 11S∶7S ratio and strongly and negatively correlated with the concentration of β-conglycinin. The emulsion stability index (ESI) showed a moderate positive correlation with the monomeric form of glycinin and a strong positive correlation with the ratio of the monomeric to dimeric form of glycinin. No association was evident between ESI and EAI. Also, no relationship was found between ESI or EAI and extractability. Based on these data, it appears that the 11S∶7S ratio strongly reflects the ability of soybean proteins to form emulsions, whereas the ratio of the two different forms of glycinin may be crucial factors for the stability of soybean protein emulsions. Thus, understanding the relationship between protein composition and functionality could be useful for further improvement of functional behavior of soy proteins in food systems.     

Can poor consumers pay for energy and water? An affordability analysis for transition countries

Low-income households spend a substantial share of their income on utility services such as electricity, heating and water. The difficulty of these socially vulnerable consumers to absorb further price increases is often used as an argument against tariff reform. However, detailed quantitative information on the affordability of tariff adjustments for low-income consumers is actually quite scarce. Much of the available information is based on households. This paper takes a more detailed look at the affordability of electricity, district heating and water for low-income consumers in transition countries. While the available data are incomplete, the paper finds that affordability is a problem for low-income consumers in most countries, in particular in the water sector and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The affordability consequences of tariff reform ultimately depend on the speed of tariff adjustments relative to the growth in household income, the level of tariffs needed for cost recovery, the level of effective tariffs at the outset (tariffs adjusted for non-payment) and the demand response to the tariff increase. The paper finds that delaying tariff reform by a few years makes little difference to affordability constraints, and may therefore not be an effective way to mitigate the social impact of utility reform.     

Protein profiles and total antioxidant capacity of water‐soluble and water‐insoluble fractions of white brined goat cheese at different stages of ripening

This study deals with proteolysis and total antioxidant capacity of proteins of white brined cheese prepared from overheated goat milk and ripened for fifty days. Proteolytic changes were reflected through the relatively low level of soluble nitrogen (50 days ripened cheese had 15.32 g/100 g of water‐soluble nitrogen, 8.1 g/100 g of TCA‐soluble nitrogen and 2.69 g/100 g of PTA‐SN), intensive proteolysis of α_s2‐CN during initial 10 days of ripening (up to 50.70% of initial content) and its much slower degradation through further 40 days, slow but continual decrease of β‐CN content (up to 85.14% of residual content) and high level of proteolytic products tightly bounded into gel network. Total antioxidant capacity of water‐soluble and water‐insoluble fractions increased after cheese ripening. These findings could be useful for better understanding and control over the production of white brined goat cheese as highly valuable functional product.     

Integrating multiple paradigms within the blackboard framework

The complexity and diversity of real world applications have forced researchers in the AI field to focus more on the integration of diverse knowledge representation and reasoning techniques for solving challenging, real world problems. Our development environment, BEST (Blackboard based Expert Systems Toolkit), is aimed to provide the ability to produce large scale, evolvable, heterogeneous intelligent systems. BEST incorporates the best of multiple programming paradigms in order to avoid restricting users to a single way of expressing either knowledge or data. It combines rule based programming, object oriented programming, logic programming, procedural programming and blackboard modelling in a single architecture for knowledge engineering, so that the user can tailor a style of programming to his application, using any or arbitrary combinations of methods to provide a complete solution. The deep integration of all these techniques yields a toolkit more effective even for a specific single application than any technique in isolation or collections of multiple techniques less fully integrated. Within the basic, knowledge based programming paradigm, BEST offers a multiparadigm language for representing complex knowledge, including incomplete and uncertain knowledge. Its problem solving facilities include truth maintenance, inheritance over arbitrary relations, temporal and hypothetical reasoning, opportunistic control, automatic partitioning and scheduling and both blackboard and distributed problem solving paradigms     

In Search of New Product Ideas: Identifying Ideas in Online Communities by Machine Learning and Text Mining

Online communities are attractive sources of ideas relevant for new product development and innovation. However, making sense of the ‘big data’ in these communities is a complex analytical task. A systematic way of dealing with these data is needed to exploit their potential for boosting companies' innovation performance. We propose a method for analysing online community data with a special focus on identifying ideas. We employ a research design where two human raters classified 3,000 texts extracted from an online community, according to whether the text contained an idea. Among the 3,000, 137 idea texts and 2,666 non‐idea texts were identified. The human raters could not agree on the remaining 197 texts. These texts were omitted from the analysis. The remaining 2,803 texts were processed by using text mining techniques and used to train a classification model. We describe how to tune the model and which text mining steps to perform. We conclude that machine learning and text mining can be useful for detecting ideas in online communities. The method can help researchers and firms identify ideas hidden in large amounts of texts. Also, it is interesting in its own right that machine learning can be used to detect ideas.     

A framework for decentralised feedback connectivity control with application to sensor networks

In this article, we propose a decentralised algorithm for connectivity maintenance in a distributed sensor network. Our algorithm uses the dynamics of a consensus algorithm to estimate the connectivity of a network topology in a decentralised manner. These estimates are then used to inform a decentralised control algorithm that regulates the network connectivity to some desired level. Under certain realistic assumptions we show that the closed-loop dynamics can be described as a consensus algorithm with an input, and eventually reduces to a scalar system. Bounds are given to ensure the stability of the algorithm and examples are given to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.     

Trapping and moving metal atoms with a six-leg molecule

Putting to work a molecule able to collect and carry adatoms in a controlled way on a surface is a solution for fabricating atomic structures atom by atom. Investigations have shown that the interaction of an organic molecule with the surface of a metal can induce surface reconstruction down to the atomic scale. In this way, well-defined nanostructures such as chains of adatoms, atomic trenches and metal-ligand compounds have been formed. Moreover, the progress in manipulation techniques induced by a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) has opened up the possibility of studying artificially built molecular-metal atomic scale structures, and allowed the atom-by-atom doping of a single C(60) molecule by picking up K atoms. The present work goes a step further and combines STM manipulation techniques with the ability of a molecule to assemble an atomic nanostructure. We present a well-designed six-leg single hexa-t-butyl-hexaphenylbenzene (HB-HPB) molecule, which collects and carries up to six copper adatoms on a Cu(111) surface when manipulated with a STM tip. The 'HB-HPB-Cu atoms' complex can be further manipulated, bringing its Cu freight to a predetermined position on the surface where the metal atoms can finally be released.     

Transition metal complexes with Girard reagent-based ligands, Part I: Synthesis and crystal structure of the first cobalt(III) complexes with Schiff base derivative of Girard reagent

A new ligand, pyridoxilidene Girard-T hydrazone, [H₃L]Cl₂ · 2H₂O, and its octahedral cobalt(III) complexes [Co(HL)(NO₂)₃] · H₂O (1) and [Co(HL)₂](PF₆)₃ (2) were synthesized. The X-ray analysis of (1) showed that the complex has a mer-octahedral configuration formed by coordination of the tridentate ONO neutral Schiff-base molecule and three monodentate N-bonded NO₂ groups. Hydrogen bonds and intermolecular interactions for this complex are discussed. Complex (2) also has a mer-octahedral configuration. The ligand and complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, conductometric and magnetochemical measurements, IR and UV–Visible, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectra.