Milk from cows fed a diet with a high forage:concentrate ratio improves inflammatory state,oxidative stress,and mitochondrial function in rats

Excessive energy intake may evoke complex biochemical processes characterized by inflammation, oxidative stress, and impairment of mitochondrial function that represent the main factors underlying noncommunicable diseases. Because cow milk is widely used for human nutrition and in food industry processing, the nutritional quality of milk is of special interest with respect to human health. In our study, we analyzed milk produced by dairy cows fed a diet characterized by a high forage:concentrate ratio (high forage milk, HFM). In view of the low n-6:n-3 ratio and high content of conjugated linoleic acid of HFM, we studied the effects of this milk on lipid metabolism, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress in a rat model. To this end, we supplemented for 4 wk the diet of male Wistar rats with HFM and with an isocaloric amount (82 kJ, 22 mL/d) of milk obtained from cows fed a diet with low forage:concentrate ratio, and analyzed the metabolic parameters of the animals. Our results indicate that HFM may positively affect lipid metabolism, leptin:adiponectin ratio, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress, providing the first evidence of the beneficial effects of HFM on rat metabolism.     

On stochastic comparisons of finite mixtures for some semiparametric families of distributions

In this paper, we consider the classical finite mixture model, which is an effective tool for modeling lifetime distributions for random samples from heterogeneous populations. We discuss new results on stochastic comparison for two finite mixtures when each of them is drawn from one of the following semiparametric families, i.e., proportional hazards, accelerated lifetime and proportional reversed hazards.     

Is the List of Incomplete Open Cubes Complete?

Variations of Incomplete Open Cubes is the major project by the twentieth-century conceptual artist Sol LeWitt. In this paper we interpret the enumerative component of the project as embeddings of graphs. This formulation permits use of an algorithm to check the completeness of the list of the structures produced by the artist. Our conclusion is that the artist found the correct number of structures (that is, 122), but that his list contains a mistake in the presentation of a pair of incomplete cubes, a discovery that appears not to have been noted before.     

Effect of an abrupt change in pulling rate on microstructures of directionally solidified Al2O3-Er3Al5O12 eutectic and off-eutectic composite ceramics

Directionally solidified microstructures of Al₂O₃-Er₃Al₅O₁₂ eutectic and off-eutectic in situ composite ceramics were explored under abrupt-change pulling rate conditions. Corresponding temperature distributions and interface locations were studied. In eutectic composition, fluctuation of eutectic spacing occurred when the pulling rate increased abruptly. A gradually increase or abrupt increase in eutectic spacing was observed when the pulling rate decreased abruptly. In hypoeutectic and hypereutectic compositions, formation of the primary phases were suppressed when the pulling rate increased abruptly from 10?µm/s to 100?µm/s, while primary phases precipitated when the pulling rate decreased abruptly from 100?µm/s to 10?µm/s. The interface altitude decreased after the pulling rate increased abruptly, but increased after the pulling rate decreased abruptly. The liquid composition restriction (around the eutectic composition) at the eutectic interface plays an important role in the suppression of the primary dendrite and coupled eutectic oxides can be obtained in off-eutectic compositions even under higher solidification rate conditions.     

The Critical Role of Passive Permeability in Designing Successful Drugs

Passive permeability is a key property in drug disposition and delivery. It is critical for gastrointestinal absorption, brain penetration, renal reabsorption, defining clearance mechanisms and drug-drug interactions. Passive diffusion rate is translatable across tissues and animal species, while the extent of absorption is dependent on drug properties, as well as in vivo physiology/pathophysiology. Design principles have been developed to guide medicinal chemistry to enhance absorption, which combine the balance of aqueous solubility, permeability and the sometimes unfavorable compound characteristic demanded by the target. Permeability assays have been implemented that enable rapid development of structure-permeability relationships for absorption improvement. Future advances in assay development to reduce nonspecific binding and improve mass balance will enable more accurately measurement of passive permeability. Design principles that integrate potency, selectivity, passive permeability and other ADMET properties facilitate rapid advancement of successful drug candidates to patients.     

Semantic word shifts in a scientific domain

Understanding semantic word shifts in scientific domains is essential for facilitating interdisciplinary communication. Using a data set of published papers in the field of information retrieval (IR), this paper studies the semantic shifts of words in IR based on mining per-word topic distribution over time. We propose that semantic word shifts not only occur over time, but also over topics. The shifts are examined from two perspectives, the topic-level and the context-level. According to the over-time word-topic distribution, stable words and unstable words are recognized. The diverging and converging trends in the unstable type reveal characteristics of the topic evolution process. The context-level shifts are further detected by similarities between word vectors. Our work associates semantic word shifts with the evolving of topics, which facilitates a better understanding of semantic word shifts from both topics and contexts.