Prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 13 on fetal cells obtained from maternal blood after minor enrichment

In a pilot study to establish fetal nucleated red blood cell (NRBC) detection in maternal blood, trisomy 13 was diagnosed by FISH analysis at 11 weeks' gestation. The NRBCs were detected after a single-step ficoll density gradient enrichment. In blood samples taken both before and after CVS, 52 and 80 NRBCs, respectively, were found to be positive for fetal haemoglobin. In 47 per cent of these cells, FISH analysis for X and Y chromosomes confirmed the fetal sex. Moreover, 48 per cent of these NRBCs showed three fluorescent signals for a chromosome 13 probe, which confirmed the diagnosis of trisomy 13, previously detected at CVS karyotyping. This is the first report of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 13, i.e., pre-CVS, in the first trimester. The high number of fetal NRBCs detected indicates a connection with aneuploidy, probably due to early impairment of the feto-maternal barrier.     

Effect of oil degradation during frying on the color of fried, battered squid rings

Oil degradation caused by the number of fryings performed and the effect of oil degradation on the color of fried battered squid rings were studied. Spectrophotometric techniques with absorbance in the UV and visible ranges, and iodine, peroxide, and acid values were used to determine oil degradation. Determination of various CIELAB parameters in order to study the external color of the fried battered squid rings revealed no differences in color due to the number of fryings. A study of the color of the battered squid rings at various frying times and temperatures showed significant differences for both variables. Although there was some degradation in the oil after 20 fryings, appearing as a slight darkening, it did not affect the final color of the fried, battered squid rings.     

Supercritical CO2 impregnation of Radiata pine with organic fungicides: Effect of operating conditions and two-parameters modeling

Supercritical impregnation of Radiata pine with ethyl acetate and decanal using CO₂ as carrier solvent has been studied at pilot plant scale. Radiata pine is one of the most common wood species that is originally from Australia and is widely grown in Spain and Portugal and ethyl acetate and decanal were selected as organic compounds.Some experiences were carried out to obtain the optimal operating conditions for the supercritical impregnation process. Experiments were conducted at pressures of 7–15 MPa, temperatures of 35–50 °C and solvent flow rate between 1.5 and 3.5 kg/h. The results of this study have indicated that the treatment gives much better preservative penetration and retention operating with low pressures (7.5 MPa), low temperatures (close to 35 °C) and moderate CO₂ flow rate (3.5 kg/h) in the selected operating range. Moreover, a simple mathematical model of two adjustable parameters (external mass transfer coefficient and partition coefficient) has demonstrated to fit the experimental impregnation curves with reasonable accuracy (average absolute deviation, 3–10%).     

Domain structure of the Fib-1 and Fib-2 regions of human fibronectin. Thermodynamic properties of the type I finger module

The stability of the Fib-1 (29 kDa) and Fib-2 (19 kDa) fragments of human fibronectin as well as several different subfragments and isolated type I "finger" modules were studied under various solvent conditions by differential scanning calorimetry and fluorescence spectroscopy. It was established that all fibronectin fingers constitute independently folded domains whose melting temperatures range from 54 to 108 degrees C. The difference between heat capacities of the native and denatured states (delta Cp) is low, about 0.03 cal/K-g, which is consistent with the relatively low percentage of hydrophobic amino acids and the consequent small change in non-polar surface area exposed to the solvent upon denaturation. The free energy of unfolding at 25 degrees, as calculated from the calorimetric data or measured directly by titration with GdmSCN is also small, in the range of 2.4 to 6.7 kcal/mol. The small delta G value and its flat dependence on temperature (determined by delta Cp) translates the small variations in delta G between fingers into large variations in tm. The small value of delta G also indicates that finger modules are structurally rather fragile which may account for their sensitivity to proteolysis; almost any cleavage within either of the two disulfide loops destroys the cooperative structure and abolishes the corresponding melting transition. The fact that some fingers exhibit large decreases in tm upon separation from more stable neighbors with which they interact can also be viewed as a consequence of the low values of delta G and delta Cp.     

Microstructure and Processing of 3D Printed Tungsten Microlattices and Infiltrated W–Cu Composites

Tungsten is of industrial relevance due its outstanding intrinsic properties (e.g., highest melting‐point of all elements) and therefore difficult to 3D‐print by conventional methods. Here, tungsten micro‐lattices are produced by room‐temperature extrusion‐based 3D‐printing of an ink comprising WO₃–0.5%NiO submicron powders, followed by H₂‐reduction and Ni‐activated sintering. The green bodies underwent isotropic linear shrinkage of ≈50% during the thermal treatment resulting in micro‐lattices, with overall 35–60% open‐porosity, consisting of 95–100% dense W–0.5%Ni struts having ≈80–300 μm diameter. Ball‐milling the powders and inks reduced the sintering temperature needed to achieve full densification from 1400 to 1200 °C and enabled the ink to be extruded through finer nozzles (200 μm). Partial sintering of the struts is achieved when NiO is omitted from the ink, with submicron interconnected‐porosity of ≈34%. Several tungsten micro‐lattices are infiltrated with molten copper at 1300 °C under vacuum, resulting in dense, anisotropic W–Cu composites with 40–65% tungsten volume fraction. Partially sintered struts (containing nickel) with submicron open porosity are also infiltrated with Cu, resulting in co‐continuous W–Cu composites with wide W struts/Cu channels at the lattice scale (hundreds of micrometers), and fine W–Cu interpenetrating network at the strut scale (hundreds of nanometers) allowing for the design of anisotropic mechanical and electrical properties.

     

Infective endocarditis complicated with rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis: a case report

Despite a general national decline in criminal activities in the 1990s, juvenile criminal offenses continue to increase, (including violent, property, and delinquency acts). In addition increased numbers of children are being held in juvenile jails. It is all but impossible for pediatric health providers to think that "their patients" and "their practices" are immune from the epidemic of crime that affects and is caused by "just kids."     

A class of aggregation functions encompassing two-dimensional OWA operators

In this paper we prove that, under suitable conditions, Atanassov’s K_α operators, which act on intervals, provide the same numerical results as OWA operators of dimension two. On one hand, this allows us to recover OWA operators from K_α operators. On the other hand, by analyzing the properties of Atanassov’s operators, we can generalize them. In this way, we introduce a class of aggregation functions - the generalized Atanassov operators - that, in particular, include two-dimensional OWA operators. We investigate under which conditions these generalized Atanassov operators satisfy some properties usually required for aggregation functions, such as bisymmetry, strictness, monotonicity, etc. We also show that if we apply these aggregation functions to interval-valued fuzzy sets, we obtain an ordered family of fuzzy sets.