Impairments in the perception of odor-induced tastes and their relationship to impairments in taste perception.

Certain odors have tastelike qualities when sniffed. To the extent that these qualities are akin to real taste experiences, impairment in perception of odor-induced tastes should be accompanied by taste impairment, and vice versa. Twelve patients were selected with possible odor-induced taste impairments or general taste impairments via a screening test, along with a further 6 patients with a probable taste impairment (insular lesion). These 18 patients, along with 19 normal controls, completed a battery of odor, taste, visual control, and neuropsychological tests to assess impairments in odor-induced taste perception and general taste perception. Four patients had an odor-induced taste impairment and were also impaired on taste perception. A further analysis, using regression on the whole sample, indicated that taste impairments were associated with odor-induced taste abnormalities independent of other predictors. This pattern also held for the patient group alone. The insular patients also exhibited both taste and odor-induced taste impairments. This study is the first to demonstrate a relationship between impaired taste perception and the perception of odor-induced tastes and suggests that both may rely on certain common neural substrates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Centralised vs. decentralised control decision in card-based control systems: comparing kanban systems and COBACABANA

Kanban systems are simple yet effective means of controlling production. Production control is decentralised or exercised locally on the shop floor, i.e. a downstream station signals to an upstream station that an item is needed. If items are always the same and known, then demands can be satisfied instantaneously from stock; but if items differ and are unknown, demands must first be propagated backwards from station to station before being satisfied. The former is defined as an inventory control problem and the latter as an order control problem. Handling the order control problem via kanban involves a decentralised card acquisition process (during which information is propagated from station to station) that is separated from the actual production process. COBACABANA (control of balance by card-based navigation), an alternative card-based solution, shares kanban’s control structure but centralises the card acquisition process. Evaluating the two systems therefore provides a unique opportunity to compare decentralised and centralised control. Using simulation, we demonstrate that it is specifically the centralised card acquisition process that allows COBACABANA to balance the workload across resources and thus to outperform kanban in an order control problem. This has major implications for research and practice.     

Botanical pesticide production,trade and regulatory mechanisms in sub-Saharan Africa: making a case for plant-based pesticidal products

Pesticides are the major technology used in the management of field and postharvest losses due to pests. There is growing demand for effective alternatives that present low health risks and conserve ecosystems and biological diversity. Pesticidal plants are increasingly used as alternatives where synthetic products are unaffordable, have limited availability or are ineffective. Plant materials, however, are often used inefficiently and their effective use requires optimisation. In Africa wide-scale uptake of pesticidal plants remains limited despite the success of pyrethrum in some countries and other pesticidal plant products in China and India. This is mainly due to lack of data on efficacy and safety, inconsistent efficacy of plant products, the prohibitive cost of registration, and an inadequately developed conventional pesticides sector. Globally, the demand for botanicals is poised to grow due to an increasing shift in consumer demand for safe food, increasing organic farming, lobbying by environmentalists and the increasing pressure from new regulations on internationally traded foods in Europe. These demands can only be met by formalising production, marketing and use of pesticidal plants. This has to be supported by friendly registration procedures, sustainable forest management, propagation and cultivation of pesticidal plants. This paper presents a critical review of the enabling environment required for wide-scale adoption and commercialisation of botanical pesticides in sub-Saharan Africa. We conclude that regulations and protocols for production, marketing and trade need to be reviewed to facilitate the development of the botanicals sector in Africa.     

Neuronal nitric-oxide synthase is regulated by the Hsp90-based chaperone system in vivo

It is established that the multiprotein heat shock protein 90 (hsp90)-based chaperone system acts on the ligand binding domain of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) to form a GR.hsp90 heterocomplex and to convert the receptor ligand binding domain to the steroid-binding state. Treatment of cells with the hsp90 inhibitor geldanamycin inactivates steroid binding activity and increases the rate of GR turnover. We show here that a portion of neuronal nitric-oxide synthase (nNOS) exists as a molybdate-stabilized nNOS. hsp90 heterocomplex in the cytosolic fraction of human embryonic kidney 293 cells stably transfected with rat nNOS. Treatment of human embryonic kidney 293 cells with geldanamycin both decreases nNOS catalytic activity and increases the rate of nNOS turnover. Similarly, geldanamycin treatment of nNOS-expressing Sf9 cells partially inhibits nNOS activation by exogenous heme. Like the GR, purified heme-free apo-nNOS is activated by the DE52-retained fraction of rabbit reticulocyte lysate, which also assembles nNOS. hsp90 heterocomplexes. However, in contrast to the GR, heterocomplex assembly with hsp90 is not required for increased heme binding and nNOS activation in this cell-free system. We propose that, in vivo, where access by free heme is limited, the complete hsp90-based chaperone machinery is required for sustained opening of the heme binding cleft and nNOS activation, but in the heme-containing cell-free nNOS-activating system transient opening of the heme binding cleft without hsp90 is sufficient to facilitate heme binding.     

Templated Grain Growth in Macroporous Materials

We demonstrate a facile method to produce crystallographically textured, macroporous materials using a combination of modified ice templating and templated grain growth (TGG). The process is demonstrated on alumina and the lead‐free piezoelectric material sodium potassium niobate. The method provides macroporous materials with aligned, lamellar ceramic walls which are made up of crystallographically aligned grains. Each method showed that the ceramic walls present a long‐range order over the entire sample dimensions and have crystallographic texture as a result of the TGG process. We also present a modification of the March–Dollase equation to better characterize the overall texture of materials with textured but slightly misaligned walls. The controlled crystallographic and morphologic orientation at two different length scales demonstrated here can be the basis of multifunctional materials.     

Primary human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) isolates, like HIV-1 isolates, frequently use CCR5 but show promiscuity in coreceptor usage

Coreceptor usage of primary human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) isolates varies according to biological phenotype. The chemokine receptors CCR5 and CXCR4 are the major coreceptors that, together with CD4, govern HIV-1 entry into cells. Since CXCR4 usage determines the biological phenotype for HIV-1 isolates and is more frequent in patients with immunodeficiency, it may serve as a marker for viral virulence. This possibility prompted us to study coreceptor usage by HIV-2, known to be less pathogenic than HIV-1. We tested 11 primary HIV-2 isolates for coreceptor usage in human cell lines: U87 glioma cells, stably expressing CD4 and the chemokine receptor CCR1, CCR2b, CCR3, CCR5, or CXCR4, and GHOST(3) osteosarcoma cells, coexpressing CD4 and CCR5, CXCR4, or the orphan receptor Bonzo or BOB. The indicator cells were infected by cocultivation with virus-producing peripheral blood mononuclear cells and by cell-free virus. Our results show that 10 of 11 HIV-2 isolates were able to efficiently use CCR5. In contrast, only two isolates, both from patients with advanced disease, used CXCR4 efficiently. These two isolates also promptly induced syncytia in MT-2 cells, a pattern described for HIV-1 isolates that use CXCR4. Unlike HIV-1, many of the HIV-2 isolates were promiscuous in their coreceptor usage in that they were able to use, apart from CCR5, one or more of the CCR1, CCR2b, CCR3, and BOB coreceptors. Another difference between HIV-1 and HIV-2 was that the ability to replicate in MT-2 cells appeared to be a general property of HIV-2 isolates. Based on BOB mRNA expression in MT-2 cells and the ability of our panel of HIV-2 isolates to use BOB, we suggest that HIV-2 can use BOB when entering MT-2 cells. The results indicate no obvious link between viral virulence and the ability to use a multitude of coreceptors.     

ASSESSMENT OF MACHINING MODELS: PROGRESS REPORT

Progress in developing and assessing predictive modeling of machining processes has been hindered by the extremely localized nonlinear physical phenomena that occur in machining and the many different types of models ranging from theoretical to empirical. The difficulty in assessing models has been cited by industry as the major barrier to use of modern machining models. Current practice in industry is to machine and change tools conservatively, or to conduct costly empirical studies for a limited selection of tools and coolants. The Assessment of Machining Models project will assess the ability of modern machining models to predict the outputs of machining processes based upon a consistent, well measured calibration data set. The data set is nearly complete and is to be used in benchmarking the predictive capability of machining models in blind tests. This paper presents the project motivation, goals, and representative calibration data set results. The next steps in the effort include release of the calibration data, solicitation and collection of predictions, and evaluation and reporting of results.