Effects of aldosterone and deoxycorticosterone on food intake and body weight.

Conducted an experiment with 48 female adrenalectomized Sprague-Dawley rats, who were injected daily with aldosterone (.25 mg/kg) or deoxycorticosterone (3 mg/kg) in combination with corticosterone. The mineralocorticoids increased food intake and weight gain well beyond that of controls receiving only corticosterone injections. The weight gain was not wholly dependent on increased food intake, as separate groups of Ss maintained on a restricted diet (10 g of laboratory chow/day) also displayed significant mineralocorticoid-stimulated weight gain. Although carcass composition was not directly determined, the undifferentiated wet/dry tissue ratios, hematocrit values, and nasoanal lengths found across groups suggested that the observed effect of mineralocorticoids was on body fat. Aldosterone and deoxycorticosterone can have important actions on energy metabolism as well as on sodium regulation. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

SEM study of water activity and temperature effects on the initial growth of Aspergillus ochraceus,Alternaria alternata and Fusarium verticillioides on maize grain. Scanning electron microscopy

A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study of the effect of water activity (a(w)), temperature and fungal interactions on the very early phases of Aspergillus ochraceus, Alternaria alternata and Fusarium verticillioides development on maize grains was carried out. Germination and growth of individual fungal strains were assayed at 0.92, 0.95 and 0.98 a(w), and 20 and 30 degrees C. Hyphal lengths were measured on micrographs taken by SEM at different periods of incubation. A. alternata had the highest linear growth at 0.98 a(w), and was the only species able to grow under all conditions tested, whereas A. ochraceus was not able to germinate at 0.92 a(w) at any temperature assayed. F. verticillioides demonstrated a different behaviour depending on growth temperature. Fungal interactions were studied at 0.95a(w) and 30 degrees C. A. ochraceus germination was inhibited when it was co-inoculated with one or two of the other species. A. alternata showed an increased growth rate when growing together with the other fungi, whereas growth of F. verticillioides was significantly inhibited when paired with A. ochraceus.     

Scene-based nonuniformity correction for focal plane arrays by the method of the inverse covariance form

What is to our knowledge a new scene-based algorithm for nonuniformity correction in infrared focal-plane array sensors has been developed. The technique is based on the inverse covariance form of the Kalman filter (KF), which has been reported previously and used in estimating the gain and bias of each detector in the array from scene data. The gain and the bias of each detector in the focal-plane array are assumed constant within a given sequence of frames, corresponding to a certain time and operational conditions, but they are allowed to randomly drift from one sequence to another following a discrete-time Gauss-Markov process. The inverse covariance form filter estimates the gain and the bias of each detector in the focal-plane array and optimally updates them as they drift in time. The estimation is performed with considerably higher computational efficiency than the equivalent KF. The ability of the algorithm in compensating for fixed-pattern noise in infrared imagery and in reducing the computational complexity is demonstrated by use of both simulated and real data.     

A dry process for production of microfluidic devices based on the lamination of laser-printed polyester films

A new microfabrication process based on a xerographic process is described. A laser printer is used to selectively deposit toner on a polyester film, which is subsequently laminated against another polyester film. The toner layer binds the two polyester films and allows the blank regions to become channels for microfluidics. These software-outlined channels are approximately 6 microm deep. Approximately twice this depth is obtained by laminating two printed films. The resulting devices were not significantly damaged after 24 h of exposure to aqueous solutions of H3PO4, NaOH, methanol, acetonitrile, or sodium dodecyl sulfate. Electric tests with an impedance analyzer and microchannels filled with KCl solution demonstrated that (1) wide channels suffer from deformation of the top and bottom walls due to the lamination of the polyester films and (2) the toner walls are somewhat porous. Although these drawbacks limit the maximum width of a channel and the minimum distance between two channels, the process is an attractive option to other expensive, laborious, and time-consuming methods for microchannels fabrication. The process has been used to implement devices for electrospray tip and capillary electrophoresis with contactless conductivity detection.     

Ferromagnetic- and Superconducting-Like Behavior of Graphite

We have identified ferromagnetic- and superconducting-like magnetization hysteresis loops in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite samples below and above room temperature. We also found that both behaviors are very sensitive to low-temperature—as compared to the sample synthesis temperature—heat treatment. The possible contribution of magnetic impurities and why these do not appear to be the reason for the observed phenomena is discussed.     

Development of Novel DNA Cleavage Systems Based on Copper Complexes. Synthesis and Characterisation of Cu(II) Complexes of Hydroxyflavones

Copper(II) complexes of several hydroxyflavones were prepared and characterised through their physico-chemical properties. The nuclease activity of three synthesised complexes is reported. These copper(II) complexes present more nuclease activity than the ligands and the copper(II) ion.     

Experimental Assessment of the Sprinkler Application Rate for Steep Sloping Fields

The Programa para el Manejo del Agua y del Suelo (PROMAS) assists the local farming community in introducing new types of locally available irrigation equipment that are both inexpensive and water efficient. Field experiments enabled determining the maximum application rates that cause zero runoff for slopes above 16% for low-cost sprinkler systems.     

Self-adaptive utility-based web session management

In the Internet, where millions of users are a click away from your site, being able to dynamically classify the workload in real time, and predict its short term behavior, is crucial for proper self-management and business efficiency. As workloads vary significantly according to current time of day, season, promotions and linking, it becomes impractical for some ecommerce sites to keep over-dimensioned infrastructures to accommodate the whole load. When server resources are exceeded, session-based admission control systems allow maintaining a high throughput in terms of properly finished sessions and QoS for a limited number of sessions; however, by denying access to excess users, the website looses potential customers.In the present study we describe the architecture of AUGURES, a system that learns to predict Web user’s intentions for visiting the site as well its resource usage. Predictions are made from information known at the time of their first request and later from navigational clicks. For this purpose we use machine learning techniques and Markov-chain models. The system uses these predictions to automatically shape QoS for the most profitable sessions, predict short-term resource needs, and dynamically provision servers according to the expected revenue and the cost to serve it. We test the AUGURES prototype on access logs from a high-traffic, online travel agency, obtaining promising results.     

Effect of salt on oxidative changes in pre- and post-rigor ground beef

Pre- and post-rigor beef was ground and salt was added to give 0·0, 0·5, 2·0 and 4·0% NaCl (w/w). Samples were removed after 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h at 4°C and analyzed for pH, TBA numbers and percentages of reduced myoglobin (Mb), metmyoglobin (MMb) and oxymyoglobin (MbO(2)). After holding for 96 h the samples were cooked in a boiling water bath to an internal temperature of 80°C and held at 4°C for 48 h before TBA analysis. Pre-rigor grinding and salting reduced the post-mortem pH decline and the extent of meat discoloration as shown by the differences in the amount of MMb. The extent of lipid oxidation as measured by TBA numbers was not significantly different for the pre- and post-rigor ground salted meat samples, although salt accelerated oxidation during storage. Results demonstrated that pre-rigor grinding and salting of beef produces a more stable bright red color, which appears to be associated with a lower percentage of MMb and a higher ultimate pH in the pre-rigor salted meat.     

p-aminohippurate uptake by syncytial microvillous membrane vesicles of human term placenta

The mechanism of uptake of p-aminohippurate (PAH) by syncytial microvillous membrane vesicles of human term placenta was investigated. Initial PAH uptake and efflux were increased in the presence of a pH-gradient and a Cl(-)-gradient, respectively. Forced negative and positive membrane potentials did not influence the uptake, which indicated that the transport is not electrogenic. The pH-dependent increase is probably the result of a higher rate of diffusion due to a lower degree of dissociation of PAH. Because several organic anions failed to transstimulate PAH uptake and FCCP did not decrease the uptake in the presence of an inwardly directed H(+)-gradient, ruling out a PAH/OH- antiport, an anion exchange system does not appear to be present in these membranes. Since electrogenicity and anion exchange seem not to be involved in the Cl(-)-dependent increase, an allosteric effect of Cl- on the transporter might be possible. Various organic anions were able to inhibit pH-stimulated PAH uptake significantly. Kinetic analysis of the probenecid sensitive part of uptake provided further evidence for mediated transport of PAH (Km = 7.4 +/- 2.6 mM and Vmax = 2.0 +/- 0.4 nmol/mg/15 s). Non-inhibitable diffusion accounted for the main part of total transport. Concentration dependent inhibition of PAH transport by probenecid showed a Ki of 2.5 +/- 0.9 mM. It is concluded that human placental syncytial microvillous membrane vesicles possess a low affinity transport mechanism for PAH with low specificity. The importance of this system, for placental excretion of anionic drugs, will depend on the intrasyncytial concentration of these drugs, caused by the transport across the basal membrane.