High concentrations of essential and toxic elements in infant formula and infant foods – A matter of concern

This study assessed concentrations in and intake of toxic and essential elements from formulas and foods intended for infants during their first 6 months of life. Concentrations of the essential elements Ca, Fe, Zn, Mn and Mo were significantly higher in most formulas than in breast milk. Daily intake of Mn from formula varies from ten up to several hundred times the intake of the breast fed infant, levels that may be associated with adverse health effects. One portion of infant food provided significantly more Fe, Mn, Mo, As, Cd, Pb and U than one feeding of breast milk, but less Ca, Cu and Se. Rice-based products in particular contained elevated As concentrations. Drinking water used to mix powdered formula may add significantly to the concentrations in the ready-made products. Evaluation of potentially adverse effects of the elevated element concentrations in infant formulas and foods are warranted.     

Present and future of simultaneous EEG-fMRI

The brain’s activity can be measured in numerous complementary ways, including electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The simultaneous acquisition of EEG and fMRI was originally developed to make the localization of the generators of often subtle pathological activity commonly observed in EEG recordings of patients with epilepsy more sensitive and spatially accurate by mapping their hemodynamic correlates. Now, the value of the information provided by simultaneous EEG-fMRI is being evaluated in a clinical context, while in parallel, more sophisticated data analysis techniques, e.g. with electrical source imaging or dynamic causal modeling, have begun to be applied to increase the technique’s sensitivity and allow the study of brain network structure. Beyond its clinically oriented application in epilepsy, simultaneous EEG-fMRI recording has now gained interest as a tool for basic and systems human neuroscience, e.g. the study of neuro-vascular coupling and cognitive studies. In this review, we give an overview over the current use of simultaneous EEG-fMRI, its applications to the study of epilepsy as well as human cognition and systems neuroscience and ongoing and anticipated methodological developments.     

Using symmetries in the eigenvalue method for polynomial systems

One way of solving polynomial systems of equations is by computing a Gröbner basis, setting up an eigenvalue problem and then computing the eigenvalues numerically. This so-called eigenvalue method is an excellent bridge between symbolic and numeric computation, enabling the solution of larger systems than with purely symbolic methods. We investigate the case that the system of polynomial equations has symmetries. For systems with symmetry, some matrices in the eigenvalue method turn out to have special structure. The exploitation of this special structure is the aim of this paper. For theoretical development we make use of SAGBI bases of invariant rings. Examples from applications illustrate our new approach.     

Bow-tie architecture of gene regulatory networks in species of varying complexity

The gene regulatory network (GRN) architecture plays a key role in explaining the biological differences between species. We aim to understand species differences in terms of some universally present dynamical properties of their gene regulatory systems. A network architectural feature associated with controlling system-level dynamical properties is the bow-tie, identified by a strongly connected subnetwork, the core layer, between two sets of nodes, the in and the out layers. Though a bow-tie architecture has been observed in many networks, its existence has not been extensively investigated in GRNs of species of widely varying biological complexity. We analyse publicly available GRNs of several well-studied species from prokaryotes to unicellular eukaryotes to multicellular organisms. In their GRNs, we find the existence of a bow-tie architecture with a distinct largest strongly connected core layer. We show that the bow-tie architecture is a characteristic feature of GRNs. We observe an increasing trend in the relative core size with species complexity. Using studied relationships of the core size with dynamical properties like robustness and fragility, flexibility, criticality, controllability and evolvability, we hypothesize how these regulatory system properties have emerged differently with biological complexity, based on the observed differences of the GRN bow-tie architectures.     

Characteristics of carcass composition,fat metabolism and meat quality of genetically different pigs

The aim of the study was to quantify the differences in meat and fat quality and lipid metabolism of pigs with either high or medium capacity for lipid accretion. A total of 58 castrated males of the breeds German Saddle Back (SB) and German Landrace (DL) were included in the experiment. Animals were housed individually and fed twice daily semi ad libitum. Saddle Back pigs indicated a lower lean meat content (41.4% vs 52.6%) and a higher fat percentage (40.9% vs 28.2%) in comparison to DL as a result of high lipid accumulation. The larger fat content of SB was related to an increased intramuscular fat concentration of longissimus muscle. A significant correlation between intramuscular fat content and fatty acid composition was estimated in both breeds. The relative concentration of saturated fatty acids was significantly increased in SB pigs. The percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids (8.3%) in SB muscle fat was significantly lower than in DL muscle fat (10.7%). The de novo biosynthesis of fatty acids resulted in mostly saturated fatty acids and oleic acid. The higher activities of lipogenetic enzymes in backfat of SB proved a higher lipogenetic capacity. There were no significant differences in meat quality traits of longissimus muscle between the two breeds.     

How to transform local energy systems towards bioenergy? Three strategy models for transformation

During the last decades, the actors within the energy sector in Sweden—as well as in many other countries—have faced increasing demands to transform the energy system towards ecological sustainability. In Sweden these demands have led to numerous policies and economic incentives promoting the use of renewables (which in the Swedish discourse often also includes a connotation of “indigenous energy sources”), and especially the promotion of bioenergy.

To be successful, however, these policies and economic incentives need to be interpreted and adapted to different local contexts and translated into actual transformation processes. In Sweden the municipal authorities have played an important role as interpreters of such institutional frameworks and implementers of local transformation processes. In this article, we re-construct three transformation processes implemented by local municipal authorities, chiselling out the different strategy models developed through them. We argue that such re-constructions help to make visible the different and complex interactions between national institutional frameworks and local contexts as well as interactions within such local contexts. We hope that the strategy models presented can contribute to the understanding of the different kinds of local actions that can foster a further implementation of bioenergy into the energy system.     

Coherent pulsed injection seeding of two gain-switchedsemiconductor lasers

High-power, narrow-spectrum, short pulses at a wavelength near 830 nm are needed for optical logic applications. The authors report the generation of two coherent trains of pulses by pulsed injection seeding of two gain-switched semiconductor lasers with one mode-locked master oscillator. The available power was doubled and both lasers emit in nearly identical spectral lines. Short pulses (30-50 ps) are generated at a repetition rate of 1.9 GHz. The spectrum is reduced to a single mode cluster and shows a 1.7 Å wide chirp suitable for pulse compression. The peak power is 0.1 W for each pulse train. The capability of this technique for coherent power combining is demonstrated     

"Attribution and expressed emotion in the relatives of patients with schizophrenia": Correction to Brewin, MacCarthy, Duda, and Vaughn (1991).

Reports an error in "Attribution and expressed emotion in the relatives of patients with schizophrenia" by Chris R. Brewin, Brigid MacCarthy, Karin Duda and Christine E. Vaughn (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1991[Nov], Vol 100[4], 546-554). An incorrect sentence was published. The sentence that ends the fourth paragraph on p. 547 ought to read: A more recent onset of illness would be expected to produce more unstable attributions, and more disturbed behavior (particularly involving violence toward the relative) would be expected to produce attributions that were more internal and personal to the patient but more external and uncontrollable as regards the relative. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1992-12907-001.) Indexes of expressed emotion (EE) in 58 relatives of patients with schizophrenia were related to those relatives' spontaneously expressed causal beliefs about the illness and about related symptoms and behaviors. Relatives made attributions predominantly to factors external, universal, and uncontrollable from their own perspective, and to factors internal, universal, and uncontrollable from the patient's perspective. Low-EE relatives were similar in their attributions to emotionally overinvolved relatives. Compared with these 2 groups, critical and/or hostile relatives made more attributions to factors personal to and controllable by the patient. Subsequent analyses suggested that hostile relatives were further characterized by making more attributions to factors internal to the patient and by making attributions with fewer causal elements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)