Analysis of the sheep MUC1 gene: structure of the repetitive region and polymorphism

An investigation was undertaken with the aim of studying the repetitive region of the MUC1 gene and analyzing its polymorphisms in some Italian sheep breeds. Two primers previously used for the goat MUC1 gene analyses allowed for the amplification of 4 different alleles. The sequence analysis showed that the repetitive region of the sheep MUC1 gene is an array of 60-bp repeats, in accordance with the information reported in humans, cattle, and goats. The polypeptide sequence encoded by the consensus repeat was very similar to the corresponding sequences of goats and cattle. The average homology of all repeated units was 82%; when the repeats were compared with the derived consensus repeat, homology dropped to 78%. The repeats were not all perfectly conserved, but the sequence homology was nevertheless clearly sufficient to preserve the mechanism giving rise to the variable-number tandem-repeat polymorphism. In spite of their reduced sequence homology, the sheep repeats shared a high number of potential glycosylation sites. The conservation of the exact number and position of glycosylation sites did not seem to be very important for the purpose of functional integrity, but glycosylation appeared to be conserved as a bulk property. Analysis of the polymorphism in 6 Italian breeds showed that the sheep repetitive region seemed to be less variable and smaller in size than the repetitive region of the goat. The findings of this study suggest that ruminants can be a useful model to study the mechanisms by which the variation in the repeat number and the extracellular domain size can modulate the effectiveness of MUC1 as a cell-surface shield.     

Defining Distinction,or Four Good Reasons for Success: The Extraordinary Career of Renzo Piano

For 30 years, Renzo Piano has been producing distinguished buildings and delighting the world with his innovation and sensitivity. Here, Livio Sacchi attempts to tease out some of the reasons behind Piano's sustained success. Having gained an almost unparalleled international profile during the last couple of decades, a period that has been notoriously difficult for Italian architects, Piano's career has an almost mythic quality. It boasts one of the most unlikely competition wins of all time that ceded one of the most prestigious sites in the world, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, to two completely unknown architects in their late 20s. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Oxidation in fish lipids during thermal stress as studied by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

¹³C Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been applied to elucidate the mechanism of lipid oxidation occurring during thermal treatment of fish. Effects of temperature and time of processing have been studied by means of a model system of lipids, extracted from salmon (Salmo salar) muscle, to simulate industrial conditions of canning. Unsaturated fatty acids located at the sn-2 position of the glycerol moiety were the most prone to oxidative damage. Regarding the mechanism of the reaction, results inferred from olefinic and methylenic resonances indicated a higher susceptibility of the allylic sites closest to the carbonyl group, followed by those placed near the methyl terminal group. Unsaturations located in the middle of the carbon chain did not show much damage. The glyceryl region provided an unusual resonance at 53.4 ppm, which could be assigned to a hydroxylic compound formed during process.     

Impact of Olive Harvesting Date on Virgin Olive Oil Volatile Composition in Four Spanish Varieties

The unique sensory characteristics of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) depend upon its volatile composition. This work investigates the impact of olive fruit harvesting time and growing location on the volatile composition of the obtained EVOO, on four typical Spanish olive varieties (Cornicabra, Picual, Castellana, Manzanilla Cacereña). Several growing locations within the Madrid region (Spain) are studied to assess the natural variability attributed to the environmental factors. Aroma compounds are analyzed by solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas-chromatography and mass spectrometry, and sensory analysis. A considerable different behavior is observed depending on the olive variety and ripening stage. Statistically significant differences are obtained for volatile compounds biosynthesized from the lipoxygenase pathway and other fatty acid metabolism routes, which results in significant differences in their aroma profiles. Practical applications: These results have practical applicability for the olive oil industry and regulatory bodies. For example, for protected designation of origin EVOOs the aroma profile needs to be consistent over different production lots. The outcome of this research is of interest to the olive oil industry to get a better insight into the expected variability and interactions among cultivars, small pedoclimatic differences within the same broader area, and the harvesting date on the sensory and volatile profile of the resulting EVOO.     

Investigating the accuracy of Bayesian techniques for before–after safety studies: The case of a “no treatment” evaluation

The main challenge in conducting observational before–after (BA) studies of road safety measures is to use a methodology that accounts for many potential confounding factors. However, it is usually difficult to evaluate and decide on the accuracy of the different safety evaluation techniques available in literature. This is mainly because the outcome of the comparison has no specific target (i.e., the effect of a specific treatment on safety is not precisely known).     

Development of a petroleum knowledge tutorial system for university and corporate training

The increasingly rapid development of the disciplines of petroleum engineering and petroleum geology has led to new methodologies and interpretation techniques forming new knowledge that should be offered quickly and efficiently to modern engineers and geologists. This need is equally important for students as well as for young professionals. Access and training to all scientific information is necessary to ensure success in their future careers. Today, e-learning has become a common medium for the management and distribution of on-line educational content. Learning Management Systems (LMSs) were not only developed to handle a large variety of multimedia content that provides an organized knowledge repository used to accelerate access to information and skill acquisition; but, LMSs can also keep detailed statistics on the use of the available material offering a powerful training and educational tool. In this document, the Petroleum Knowledge Tutorial System, an LMS platform offering a variety of online educational and training options to petroleum engineers and geologists, is presented. It was created using Moodle, open- source software that can be used to create on-line courses. The platform covers fundamental educational concepts in a structured way. It follows an optimized "workflow" that can be applied not only to solve a specific exercise but also any similar problem encountered over the course of one’s career. The platform was designed to offer a repository of learning material in various forms and to favor user-platform interactions It can be used for training and evaluation purposes through exercises and problem solving that the user can perform online by using browsing software along with Internet access. Special tools were created and implemented on the platform to assist the user in completing a variety of tasks including performing exercises involving calculations with given data and plots of points or lines on graphs without leaving the learning environment. Furthermore, videos with detailed explanations follow each learning module and provide the full solution to every exercise. The LMS automatically keeps a large statistical database including the users’ access to activities on the platform that can be exported and further processed to improve the platform functionality and evaluate the users’ performance.     

Simulating the complete pyrolysis and charring process of phenol–formaldehyde resins using reactive molecular dynamics

Journal of Materials Science - We examine the mechanism of pyrolysis and charring of large (>?10,000 atom) phenol–formaldehyde resin structures produced using pseudo-reaction...     

Biophenol extracts from olive oil mill wastewaters by membrane separation and adsorption resin

The disposal of olive oil mill wastewater, the main effluent resulting from the production of olive oil, presents technical difficulties which are still unsolved. Several techniques have been proposed for the treatment of this effluent, but only a few processes have been applied at pilot or industrial scale and, nowadays, the management of olive oil mill wastewaters represents an environmental problem in the olive oil‐producing countries. Tests were carried out at pilot scale, by means of a plant with 1 m³ h^?1 capacity; a process for the treatment and valorisation of olive mill wastewaters was reported. By this process, it was possible to produce starting from olive mill wastewaters resulting from a three‐phase milling system, 62% of purified water, which could be reused in the industrial processes, and a concentrated phenolic extract (9.5% total phenols), which could be used in food, cosmetic or animal feed industry.