Anthraquinone profile,antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of bark extracts of Rhamnus alaternus, R. fallax, R. intermedia and R. pumila

The quantity of phenols, as well as antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, were investigated in bark of Rhamnus alaternus L., R. fallax Boiss., R. intermedia Steud. et Hochst., and R. pumila Turra from natural stands in Croatia. The most abundant anthraquinones in the investigated extracts were chrysophanol in R. alaternus (3.14 mg/g), emodin in R. pumila (0.339 mg/g), and physcion in R. fallax (2.70 mg/g) and R. intermedia (0.285 mg/g). The species exhibiting the highest antioxidant activity were R. fallax and R. pumila. A positive correlation was observed between total phenolic and flavonoid levels of the extracts and antioxidant activity in some of the assays. All species showed antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger and Microsporum gypseum with minimal inhibitory concentrations equal to or below 2.500 mg/mL. The results indicate that the investigated Rhamnus species are a source of anthraquinones and other phenols, which act as multifunctional antioxidants with antimicrobial activity.     

Thermal and mechanical properties of LaNbO4-based ceramics

Thermal and mechanical properties of polycrystalline La_1−xA_xNbO₄ (x = 0, 0.005, 0.02 and A = Ca, Sr and Ba) are reported. The materials possess a ferroelastic to paraelastic phase transition close to 500 °C, and the linear thermal expansion is significantly lower (8.6 ± 0.5 × 10⁻⁶ °C⁻¹) for the paraelastic phase compared to the ferroelastic phase (15 ± 3 × 10⁻⁶ °C⁻¹). The hardness was significantly higher for acceptor doped materials (6 GPa) compared to pure LaNbO₄ (3 GPa) due to a significantly smaller average grain size. The fracture toughness of La_0.98Sr_0.02NbO₄, measured by single edge V-notched beam method, was 1.7 ± 0.2 MPa m^1/2 independent of temperature up to 600 °C. The ferroelastic properties of the materials were confirmed by non-linear relationships between stress and strain during compression/decompression, a remnant strain after decompression and the presence of ferroelastic domains. The mechanical properties of LaNbO₄-based materials are discussed with focus on ferroelasticity, microcracking due to crystallographic anisotropy and pinning of ferroelastic domain boundaries.     

Yield,nitrogen recovery efficiency and quality of vegetables grown with organic waste-derived fertilisers

More sustainable production of high-quality, nutritious food is of worldwide interest. Increasing nutrient recycling into food systems is a step in this direction. The objective of the present study was to determine nitrogen (N) fertiliser effects of four waste-derived and organic materials in a cropping sequence of broccoli, potato and lettuce grown at two latitudes (58° and 67°N) in Norway during 3 years. Effects of anaerobically digested food waste (AD), shrimp shell (SS), algae meal (AM) and sheep manure (SM) at different N application rates (80 and 170 kg N ha^?1 for broccoli, and 80 and 60 kg N ha^?1 for potato and lettuce, respectively) and residual effects were tested on crop yield, N uptake, N recovery efficiency (NRE), N balance, N content in produce, mineral N in soil, product quality parameters and content of nitrate in lettuce. Mineral fertiliser (MF) served as control. Effects on yield, N uptake, NRE, N balance and product quality parameters could to a great extent be explained by estimated potentially plant-available N, which ranked in the order of AD > SS > SM > AM. Results for crops fertilised with AD and SS were not significantly different from MF at the same N application rate, while AM, in agreement with its negative effect on N mineralisation, gave negative or near-neutral effects compared to the control. No residual effect was detected after the year of application. The results showed that knowledge about N dynamics of relevant organic waste-derived fertilisers is necessary to decide on the timing and rate of application.     

Effects of transference work in the context of therapeutic alliance and quality of object relations.

Objective: Transference interpretation is considered as a core active ingredient in dynamic psychotherapy. In common clinical theory, it is maintained that more mature relationships, as well as a strong therapeutic alliance, may be prerequisites for successful transference work. In this study, the interaction between quality of object relations, transference interpretation, and alliance is estimated. Method: One hundred outpatients seeking psychotherapy for depression, anxiety, and personality disorders were randomly assigned to 1 year of weekly sessions of dynamic psychotherapy with transference interpretation or to the same type and duration of treatment, but without the use of transference interpretation. Quality of Object Relations (QOR)–lifelong pattern was evaluated before treatment (P. H?glend, 1994). The Working Alliance Inventory (A. O. Horvath & L. S. Greenberg, 1989; T. J. Tracey & A. M. Kokotovic, 1989) was rated in Session 7. The primary outcome variable was the Psychodynamic Functioning Scales (P. H?glend et al., 2000), measured at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 1 year after treatment termination. Results: A significant Treatment Group × Quality of Object Relations × Alliance interaction was present, indicating that alliance had a significantly different impact on effects of transference interpretation, depending on the level of QOR. The impact of transference interpretation on psychodynamic functioning was more positive within the context of a weak therapeutic alliance for patients with low quality of object relations. For patients with more mature object relations and high alliance, the authors observed a negative effect of transference work. Conclusion: The specific effects of transference work was influenced by the interaction of object relations and alliance, but in the direct opposite direction of what is generally maintained in mainstream clinical theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of diet plus exercise on weight change in parents and children.

Obese children (aged 8–12 yrs) and parents from 53 families were randomly assigned to 3 groups: diet, diet plus exercise, and no-treatment control. At 6 mo, parents and children in both treatment groups had equal and significantly better weight change than members of the control group. At 1 yr, however, parents given diet plus exercise showed better weight losses than parents given diet alone. No treatment group differences were found for children after 1 yr. Parent and child weight changes observed during the 1st 6 mo of treatment were highly correlated, but those observed during Months 6–22 were uncorrelated. Discriminant analyses showed that initial relative weight was the best predictor of 12-mo relative weight for both parents and children but that exposure to the exercise program during treatment was a predictor of maintenance of nonobesity. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of stimulants on electrodermal studies in Fragile X syndrome

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is seen in the majority of children with Fragile X Syndrome (FraX). Previous work has documented an enhanced sweat response to stimuli in children with FraX compared to controls utilizing electrodermal response (EDR) measures. The present study assesses the EDRs both on and off stimulants in 19 children with ADHD and FraX compared to 17 age- and IQ-matched control patients with ADHD and developmental delays. Although the baseline EDRs were comparable between FraX patients and controls, the patients with FraX had a significant decrease in EDR amplitude and number of peaks when treated with stimulants compared to controls. This suggests that patients with FraX are more responsive to the enhancement of inhibitory systems that occur with stimulant use for ADHD. The use of a quantifiable measure, such as EDR, is recommended in future studies of treatment efficacy.     

Illumination robust face recognition using random projection and sparse representation

Under uneven illumination, the performances degrade significantly for some existing face recognition methods. It is a challenge for face recognition methods to work effectively under different illumination conditions. In this paper, an illumination robust face recognition method, based on random projection and sparse representation, is proposed. In the proposed method, face images are preliminary illumination normalized by gamma correction and difference of Gaussian filtering, and then several projection spaces are obtained by iterative random projection, followed by constructing an initial sample space using Fisher discrimination analysis. This scheme enriches the discrimination abilities of sample features and achieves the security and completeness for biometric template. Test samples are sparsely decomposed into each subspace, and based on statistical average residual, a modified sparse representation method is proposed to realize face recognition with higher stability and illumination robustness. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method provides competitive performance with acceptable computational efficiency. Specifically, for the five subsets of Yale B database, our approach achieves 99.74% average recognition rate, which performs higher accuracy than that of comparative methods.     

Atomic Structures of Precipitates in Al–Mg–Si Alloys with Small Additions of Other Elements

In Al–Mg–Si alloys, additions of only a few weight percent of Mg and Si enable formation of hardening precipitates during heat treatment. The precipitation is complex and is influenced by chemical compositions and thermo‐mechanical treatment. Structural analysis at the atomic scale has played an important role for understanding the Al–Mg–Si system. This review paper gives a summary of the influence of elements on the precipitate structures of Al–Mg–Si alloys at the atomic scale. The structures are modified by small additions of different elements, but all the encountered precipitates are structurally connected with the Si network, except for the main hardening phase which exhibit a partially discontinuous Si network. The influence of the selected elements (Li, Cu, Zn, Ge, Ag, Ni, Co, and Au) is discussed in detail.