Unique phospholipid metabolism in mouse heart in response to dietary docosahexaenoic or α-linolenic acids

Diet and fatty acid metabolism interact in yet unknown ways to modulate membrane fatty acid composition and certain cellular functions. For example, dietary precursors or metabolic products of n-3 fatty acid metabolism differ in their ability to modify specific membrane components. In the present study, the effect of dietary 22∶6n−3 or its metabolic precursor, 18∶3n−3, on the selective accumulation of 22∶6n−3 by heart was investigated. The mass and fatty acid compositions of individual phospholipids (PL) in heart and liver were quantified in mice fed either 22∶6n−3 (from crocodile oil) or 18∶3n−3 (from soybean oil) for 13 wk. This study was conducted to determine if the selective accumulation of 22∶6n−3 in heart was due to the incorporation of 22∶6n−3 into cardiolipin (CL), a PL most prevalent in heart and known to accumulate 22∶6n−3. Although heart was significantly enriched with 22∶6n−3 relative to liver, the accumulation of 22∶6n−3 by CL in heart could not quantitatively account for this difference. CL from heart did accumulate 22∶6n−3, but only in mice fed preformed 22∶6n−3. Diets rich in non-22∶6n−3 fatty acids result in a fatty acid composition of phosphatidylcholine (PC) in heart that is unusually enriched with 22∶6n−3. In this study, the mass of PC in heart was positively correlated with the enrichment of 22∶6n−3 into PC. The increased mass of PC was coincident with a decrease in the mass of phosphatidylethanolamine, suggesting that 22∶6n−3 induced PC synthesis by increasing phosphatidylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase activity in the heart.     

Interaction‐Feature Enhanced Multiuser Model Learning for a Home Environment Using Ambient Sensors

Activity recognition (AR) is a key enabler for a context‐aware smart home since knowing what the residents’ current activities helps a smart home provide more desirable services. This is why AR is often used in assistive technologies for cognitively impaired people to evaluate their abilities to undertake activities of daily living. In a real‐life scenario, multiple‐resident AR has been considered as a very challenging problem, primarily due to the complexity of data association. In addition, most prior research has not considered the potential interpersonal interactions among residents to simplify complexity, especially in an environment monitored by ambient sensors. In this study, we propose two types of multiuser activity models, both of which are derived from an interaction‐feature enhanced multiuser model learning framework. These two models consider interpersonal interactions and data association for multiuser AR using ambient sensors. We then compare their performance with the other two baseline models with or without consideration of data association and interpersonal interactions. The experimental results show that the derived models outperform other baseline classifiers. Therefore, the proposed approach can increase the opportunities for providing context‐aware services for a multiresident smart home.     

Monooxygenase system of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus megaterium</Emphasis> ALA2: Studies on palmitic acid oxidation products

We identified many novel oxygenated FA produced from linoleic acid by microbial strain ALA2: 12,13,17-trihydroxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid (12,13,17-THOA); 12,13,16-trihydroxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid (12,13,16-THOA); 12-hydroxy-13,16-epoxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid; and 12,17;13,17-diepoxy-16-hydroxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid. 12,13,17-THOA, the main product, inhibits the growth of some plant pathogenic fungi. Recently, we reclassified strain ALA2 as Bacillus megaterium ALA2 NRRL B-21660 and opened a possible link with the well-studied catalytically self-sufficient P450 monooxygenase of Bacillus megaterium ATCC 14581 (NRRL B-3712) and B. subtilis strain 168 (NRRL B-4219). Now we have found that strain ALA2 also oxidizes palmitic acid into three oxygenated products: 13-, 14-, and 15-hydroxy palmitic acids. This indicates that strain ALA2 also possesses a monooxygenase system similar to the abovementioned well-known strains. These data facilitate studies on the oxygenase system of strain ALA2.     

Single‐pack,self‐curable,aqueous‐based polyurethane dispersion containing a disperse dye

An organic‐solvent‐soluble disperse dye was introduced into an aqueous phase by a reaction with a self‐emulsified, aqueous‐based polyurethane (PU), and this resulted in the formation of a homogeneous, aqueous polymeric dye dispersion. This aqueous polymeric dye was stable in a water phase with excellent color extension upon application. It was formulated with a latent curing agent, polyaziridine (e.g., TMPTA‐AZ), as a single‐component, self‐curable, aqueous polymeric dye. The curing reaction took place between PU carboxylic acid and the latent curing agent upon drying. A self‐cured polymeric dye was obtained with excellent color extension and fastness and resistance to organic solvents and water after drying. This single‐component, self‐curable, aqueous‐based PU system containing a dye has potential for printing, writing, and dyeing applications. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2006 © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 3741–3747, 2006     

Bit-level systolic arrays for modular multiplication

This paper presents bit-level cellular arrays implementing Blakley's algorithm for multiplication of twon-bit integers modulo anothern-bit integer. The semi-systolic version uses 3n(n+3) single-bit carry save adders and 2n copies of 3-bit carry look-ahead logic, and computes a pair of binary numbers (C, S) in 3n clock cycles such thatC+S[0, 2N). The carry look-ahead logic is used to estimate the sign of the partial product, which is needed during the reduction process. The final result in the correct range [0,N) can easily be obtained by computingC+S andC+S–N, and selecting the latter if it is positive; otherwise, the former is selected. We construct a localized process dependence graph of this algorithm, and introduce a systolic array containing 3nw simple adder cells. The latency of the systolic array is 6n+w–2, wherew=n/2. The systolic version does not require broadcast and can be used to efficiently compute several modular multiplications in a pipelined fashion, producing a result in every clock cycle.     

我国首个智慧城市国家标准将出台

截争2014年第一季度末,在我国新型城镇化建设过程中,已有l04个城市开展了智慧城市规划建设,80％以上的二级城市明确提出将建设智慧城市。为此,住房与城乡建设部正在编制智慧城市评价模型及基础评价标准体系国家标准,预计将于今年内完成相关编制工作并提交评审。     

Cluster Analysis Based on T‐transitive Interval‐Valued Fuzzy Relations

In this paper, we consider cluster analysis based on T‐transitive interval‐valued fuzzy relations. A fuzzy relation with its partitional tree for obtaining an agglomerative hierarchical clustering has been studied and applied. In general, these fuzzy‐relation‐based clustering approaches are based on real‐valued memberships of fuzzy relations. Since interval‐valued memberships may be better than real‐valued memberships to represent higher order imprecision and vagueness for human perception, in this paper we first extend fuzzy relations to interval‐valued fuzzy relations and then construct a clustering algorithm based on the proposed T‐transitive interval‐valued fuzzy relations. We use two examples to demonstrate the efficiency and usefulness of the proposed method. In practical application, we apply the proposed clustering method to performance evaluations for academic departments of higher education by using actual engineering school data in Taiwan.     

Effect of doping ferrocene in the working fluid of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) micropumps

The effect of doping ferrocene in the working fluid of electrohydrodynamic micropumps was investigated under the application of DC electric fields. The micropump consisted of 100 planar electrode pairs that were embedded along the bottom wall of a 100-micron-high, 5-mm-wide and 26-mm-long microchannel. The width of the emitter and collector electrodes was 20 and 40 µm, respectively, with inter-electrode spacing of 30 µm. A redox dopant, ferrocene, was diffused homogeneously into the working fluid HFE-7100 at 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2 % concentration by weight. The static pressure head generation and flow rate at different back pressure conditions were measured under different applied DC voltages. The current and pressure generated with the doped working fluid were significantly higher than with pure HFE-7100 under an applied DC field. A maximum static pressure of 6.7 kPa and flow rate of 0.47 mL/min at no back pressure were achieved at 700 V.     

Performance of estimating depth in projection based stereoscopic virtual display

Accurate distance estimation is essential for effective user interaction with objects appearing in the virtual space. Research has shown that the distance estimation in the virtual space is not as accurate as that in the real world. The inaccuracy phenomenon is almost exclusively documented for estimating objects appearing straight ahead of the eye. A collection of the accuracy data for targets located in different angles of view in the visual field may be useful in aiding the design of user‐virtual object interaction. This study collected the object to object distance estimation accuracy for targets displayed stereoscopically. There are five horizontal and two vertical viewing angles and three depths, resulting in a total of 30 locations in the virtual space. The distance estimation for any of the 30 object pairs were performed with or without the aid of spatial cues. Significant factors influencing the accuracy and time of distance estimation were identified. Implications of the finding were discussed with respect to the stereoscopic display environment.     

A User‐Centric Evaluation Procedure for the Design of Child‐Resistant Medicine Bottles

Recently, people have begun to realize the importance of child‐resistant (CR) medicine packaging. However, most manufacturers and designers have not been able to effectively provide prevention strategies or design criteria to protect consumers. This research proposes a systematic approach to analyze CR packaging design problems and experiments to evaluate the identified design parameters and to generate the most suitable CR medicine packaging design. The design of a CR packaging bottle is used as an example to help explain the development procedure. During the development procedure, user trials, questionnaires, and children's anthropometric data on bottle opening and hand operations are analyzed. Five design parameters, specifically the cap diameter, cap height, bottle height, bottle diameter, and torsion, are identified and used to perform a Taguchi orthogonal array experimental analysis. A computer‐aided design system is also built to help generate the most suitable design alternatives. The results should assist designers in determining the most important CR design parameters and their most suitable combinations for bottle and related CR medicine packaging design.