Evaluation of rapeseed meals in broiler chicks: Effect of iodine supply and glucosinolate degradation by myrosinase or copper

In rapeseed meals (RSM) of a conventional (c) or a newly bred (n) variety 117 or 44 mmol glucosinolates and glucosinolate degradation products per kg dry matter were detected. Soaking meals in aqueous myrosinase or copper sulphate solution and subsequent drying reduced the content of antinutrients by more than 90%. Broiler chickens were fed (i) a glucosinolate-free diet, or this diet in which half the soybean meal was replaced by RSM of various origins and treatment; (ii) untreated cRSM; (iii) cRSM treated with myrosinase: (iv) cRSM treated with Cu (v) untreated nRSM; or (vi) nRSM treated with myrosinase. These diets were administered with or without supplementary iodine. Chickens receiving the iodine-deficient diets with myrosinase-treated RSM showed growth depression, incomplete feathering, leg injuries and severe goitre. In the serum T⁴ could not be detected. Giving myrosinase-treated RSM plus iodine, or giving other RSM diets irrespective of iodine administration, no growth depression was observed. RSM diets without iodine dosage markedly increased thyroid weight: there were no differences between the RSM variants. In contrast to the treatment with myrosinase, in the sera of the chickens fed on untreated RSM or RSM treated with copper T⁴ could be detected, suggesting that in iodine-deficient conditions differences in serum T⁴ concentration between RSM groups indicate a differing anti-thyroid activity. With iodine supplementation the RSM had a significant effect on thyroid weight. The largest thyroids (five-fold heavier) were in the animals with myrosinase-treated cRSM. The untreated cRSM and the nRSM trebled or doubled the thyroid weight, and the myrosinase-treated nRSM trebled it. The thyroid weight of chicks fed cRSM treated with copper did not differ significantly from the glucosinolate-free control. There was evidence that heating the myrosinase-treated RMS produced anti-thyroid compounds; these should be identified in further investigations.     

Salvage therapy of advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth cavity and oropharynx. Results of interstitial high-dose-rate brachytherapy combined with ablative tumor surgery

PURPOSE: The clinical effect of high-dose-rate (HDR) interstitial brachytherapy combined with tumor resection was investigated in this retrospective study on patients with recurrent oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma in 38 patients were treated over a period of 7 years (1988-1994) by HDR interstitial brachytherapy using Gammamed 12i equipment. Pretreatment of patients in terms of irradiation and surgery differed (33 irradiated with a total dose between 60.0 and 75.6 Gy, including 8 patients with additional surgery; 1 patient with surgery alone, and 4 patients without any pretreatment). Indications for interstitial brachytherapy differed according to individual responses to treatment and medical histories. RESULTS: Interstitial brachytherapy was successful in the majority of patients, i.e. complete remission: 12, partial remission: 19, no change: 2, progression: 5. Local control and overall survival including patients with surgical treatment was 59% and 81% at 6 months and 47% and 49% after 12 months, respectively. CONCLUSION: Interstitial HDR brachytherapy with Iridium 192 is recommended in patients with local recurrences or second primary carcinomas after previous external radiotherapy in the head and neck region. Combination of interstitial brachytherapy and surgery is preferable for these patients.     

Comparative studies on the enzymatic absorption of protein hydrolysates in the small intestines of the rat. 3. The absorption of trypsin, thermitatic and trypsin thermitatic wheat gluten hydrolysates in comparison with equimolar mixtures of free amino acids

Tryptic, thermitatic, and tryptic-thermitatic wheat-gluten hydrolyzates as well as their equimolar amino-acid mixture were perfused through proximal and distal parts of the intestine (10 cm length) of non-narcotized rats. The total amino-acid concentration of the perfused solution was 50 mM. The tryptic hydrolyzate showed a significantly lower absorption of nitrogen and total amino acids than the amino-acid mixture. Both the supplied forms were very different as to their absorption pattern of the amino acids. The high variability of the percental absorption of the individual amino acids of the tryptic hydrolyzate results in a high coefficient of variation. The absorption of nitrogen and total amino acids from thermitatic and tryptic-thermitatic hydrolyzates is equal to that from the amino-acid mixture. In a peptidic form glutamic acid is more rapidly absorbed from the two hydrolyzates, and methionine from the tryptic-thermitatic hydrolyzate in both the intestinal parts. As to alanine and glycine this concerns only the distal intestinal part for both the hydrolyzates. There are no differences between the absorption patterns of the two hydrolyzates but in comparison with the amino-acid mixture and the tryptic hydrolyzate differences were evident. The coefficients of variation of both the hydrolyzates are significantly lower as compared to those of the tryptic hydrolyzate and the amino-acid mixture. All forms of supply are more rapidly absorbed in the distal than in the proximal part of the intestine.     

Precision of micromilled x-ray masks and exposures

 Micromechanical milling has been shown to be a rapid and direct method for the fabrication of structures with the geometry and size suitable for use as x-ray mask absorbers. While the micromilling process can not duplicate the size and resolution of absorber patterns created by high energy electron beam or optical lithography methods, micromilling can repeatedly create absorber line widths down to 10 micrometers, or less, with a one-sigma tolerance of 0.5 micrometers. A method for easily characterizing milling tool run out has been adapted so tool change out can be more routine. The milling process leaves some absorber burrs and the absorber is apparently tapered at the machined wall which introduce process biases, both of which add to exposure degradation. Nevertheless, based on work to date, it appears both of these effects can be reduced to acceptable limits. Received: 25 August 1997/Accepted: 3 September 1997     

Brain-computer communication: motivation, aim, and impact of exploring a virtual apartment.

The step away from a synchronized or cue-based brain-computer interface (BCI) and from laboratory conditions towards real world applications is very important and crucial in BCI research. This work shows that ten naive subjects can be trained in a synchronous paradigm within three sessions to navigate freely through a virtual apartment, whereby at every junction the subjects could decide by their own, how they wanted to explore the virtual environment (VE). This virtual apartment was designed similar to a real world application, with a goal-oriented task, a high mental workload, and a variable decision period for the subject. All subjects were able to perform long and stable motor imagery over a minimum time of 2 s. Using only three electroencephalogram (EEG) channels to analyze these imaginations, we were able to convert them into navigation commands. Additionally, it could be demonstrated that motivation is a very crucial factor in BCI research; motivated subjects perform much better than unmotivated ones.     

An integer concave minimization approach for the minimum concave cost capacitated flow problem on networks

Formulating the minimum concave cost capacitated network flow problem as an integer concave minimization problem, we establish finite branch and bound algorithms, in which the branching operation is the so–called integral rectangular partition and the bounding procedure is performed by the classical minimum linear cost flow problem on subnetworks. For the special case that the flow cost function is concave on a fixed number of arcs and linear on the others, an upper bound of the running time is given. Received: 19 July 1996 / Accepted: 8 July 1997     

Microstructure and fracture behaviour of short and long fibre-reinforced polypropylene composites

Microstructure and fracture mechanical behaviour of injection-moulded, longer glass fibrereinforced polypropylene (Verton* aspect ratio 320) were studied as a function of fibre volume fraction and compared to that of shorter fibre-filled polypropylene (aspect ratio 70). Toughness was measured using instrumented notched lzod and falling weight impact tests, as well as compact tension specimens. It was found that the addition of longer fibres generally increased the toughness of the material, although more significant increases were seen in the impact tests than were seen in the compact tension test. For the latter results, a correlation between toughness improvement and microstructural details was performed on the basis of the microstructural efficiency concept, a semi-empirical approach of the formK _c,C = (a* +nR)K _c,M, where,K _c,C andK _c,M are the fracture toughnesses of the composite and the matrix, respectively,_a* is a matrix stress correction factor,n is a scaling parameter andR is a fibre reinforcement effectiveness factor. The latter corrects for differences in the composite microstructures, and incorporates effective fibre orientation factors, layering of injection moulded parts, and fibre volumes in the different layers.Nomenclature a crack length - a ^* matrix toughness correction factor - A cross-sectional area - B thickness of the sample plaques - C thickness of the composite core regions - E _peak energy adsorbed up to the maximum force in the impact load-displacement curve - E _t tensile modulus - F _max maximum force in impact force-displacement curves - f _p fibre orientation factor - f _pe effective orientation factor - f _pe,C effective orientation parameter, core region - f _{pe, s} effective orientation parameter, surface region - F critical load in the tensile test load-displacement curves - K _c critical stress intensity factor/fracture toughness - K _L fracture toughness of the composite materials - K _d dynamic fracture toughness - K _L fracture toughness of the matrix - L test with crack parallel to the mould filling direction - M microstructural efficiency factor - n scaling parameter for reinforcement effectiveness factor (energy absorbtion ratio) - R reinforcement effectiveness factor - S thickness of the composite surface regions - T test with crack perpendicular to the mould filling direction - V _f fibre volume fraction - V _m matrix volume fraction (= 1 —V _f) - W specimen width - W _f fibre weight fraction - W _m matrix weight fraction (= 1 —W _f) - X _n number average fibre length - X _v volume average fibre length - Y(a/ W) polynomial correction for compact tension specimens - variable in effective orientation factor formula - variable in effective orientation factor formula - _B strain to break - _c density of the composite - _f fibre density - _m matrix density - _F fracture strength - fibre angle with respect to a reference direction     

Finite canonical rewriting systems for congruences generated by concurrency relations

WhenC is a concurrency relation on alphabet , then ^*/= _C is a free partially commutative monoid. Here we show that it is decidable in polynomial time whether or not there exists a finite canonical rewriting systemR on such that the congruences _R ^* generated byR and = _C induced byC coincide. Further, in case such a systemR exists, one such system can be determined in polynomial time.     

Development and characterization of a biocompatible OH-modified copolymer based on polyurethane

Different polyurethanes were synthesized by varying the diol as well as the diisocyanate components and chain extenders. Polyurethanes with OH-groups were obtained by photo- and thermoinitiation of the radical polymerization of hydroxy alkyl acrylates in the presence of the polyurethanes. The polymers were evaluated with respect to their biocompatibility by measuring the cell spreading, the rates of DNA- and protein synthesis and the swelling behaviour. The differences in the surfaces and the bulks between the selected basic polyurethane and the functionalized modification were determined and characterized by XPS, FTIR-ATR and ¹³C-FT-NMR-spectroscopy. The mechanical data of Tecoflex EG 60D® and Pellethane 2363–80AE® were compared with the data of the synthesized polyurethanes.