Relative Role of Individual Phospholipids on Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances Formation in Chicken Meat, Skin and Swine Aorta

Fatty acid profiles and distribution of individual phospholipids (PL) in the total PL were determined in chicken meat and skin and swine aortas, and the contribution of each PL to malondialdehyde (MDA) formation was studied. Results indicate that phosphatidyl choline (PC) and phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PE) produced 70-77% of the total PL MDA while 16-25% of the MDA was formed by phosphatidyl inositol (PI) and phosphatidyl serine (PS). Much lower concentrations of MDA (3-6%) were formed by sphingomyelin (SP), cardiolipin (CL) and lysophosphatidyl choline (LyPC). In all analyzed tissues, both the MDA concentration and the percentage of polyenoic fatty acids, especially arachidonic acid, were highest in PI followed by PE, PS, PC, CL LyPC, and SP.     

FROM PLAN CRITIQUING TO CLARIFICATION DIALOGUE FOR COOPERATIVE RESPONSE GENERATION*

Recognizing the plan underlying a query aids in the generation of an appropriate response. In this paper, we address the problem of how to generate cooperative responses when the user's plan is ambiguous. We show that it is not always necessary to resolve the ambiguity, and provide a procedure that estimates whether the ambiguity matters to the task of formulating a response. The procedure makes use of the critiquing of possible plans and identifies plans with the same fault. We illustrate the process of critiquing with examples. If the ambiguity does matter, we propose to resolve the ambiguity by entering into a clarification dialogue with the user and provide a procedure that performs this task. Together, these procedures allow a question-answering system to take advantage of the interactive and collaborative nature of dialogue in order to recognize plans and resolve ambiguity. This work therefore presents a view of generation in advice-giving contexts which is different from the straightforward model of a passive selection of responses to questions asked by users. We also report on a trial implementation in a course-advising domain, which provides insights on the practicality of the procedures and directions for future research.     

NATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION: PROPOSED CONGRESSIONAL MANDATE FOR THE SOCIAL SCIENCES.

POINTS OUT THE LACK OF PUBLIC SUPPORT AND RECOGNITION FOR WORK IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. A BILL WHICH HAS BEEN INTRODUCED TO THE SENATE TO CREATE A NATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION IS EXAMINED IN VIEW OF THE EXISTING LIMITS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Local Atomic Arrangements in a Magnesiowustite Solid Solution

Quantitative studies of diffuse X-ray scattering and measurements of magnetization are reported for (Fe,Mg)O with 15.7 cation % Fe held in a reducing atmosphere at 1400°C and quenched. The diffuse scattering is greater for fast cooling than for slow cooling; in both cases, spinel precipitation occurs, but the amount is much larger in the latter case. From this scattering, short-range order parameters were determined for the clustering between cations, and displacements were obtained between cations and anions. From the magnetic measurements the size of magnetic Fe ion clusters was obtained. Computer simulations of the cation arrangement with the measured short-range order parameters indicate that the magnetic clusters cannot be accounted for by nearest-neighbor Fe^2+] clusters. However, clusters of Fe ions related by first- and/or second-neighbor vectors are of the size found from the magnetic data.     

OPTIMAL OPERATION OF MULTI-QUALITY WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS-I: INTRODUCTION AND THE Q-C MODEL

One of three complementary models for optimal operation of multi-quality water supply systems is presented. The other two models are the subject of companion papers. The model, which is known as the Q-C (flow-quality) model, includes mass continuity of water and constituents. However, the hydraulic constraints do not appear explicitly. To prevent infeasibilities or unreasonable hydraulic conditions arising from the lack of hydraulic constraints, limits and a cost are associated with the flow in each pipe. The constraints in the model include dilution conditions which depend on flow direction. These dilution conditions are introduced into the model by an exponential function, resulting in a smooth continuous nonlinear programming problem, which is transformed into an equivalent problem and solved by a modified projected gradient method. The method is insensitive to scaling of variables, and the computational complexity depends only slightly on the number of water quality parameters. The method is demonstrated by application to two examples: the solution for a small network is presented in detail, and main results are shown for a larger one. The results of these two applications indicate the method's applicability to real networks.     

TEXTURE OF SEMI-SOLIDS: SENSORY FLAVOR-TEXTURE INTERACTIONS FOR CUSTARD DESSERTS

Possible interactions between flavor and oral texture sensations were investigated for four flavorants, diacetyl, benzaldehyde, vanillin, and caffeine, added in two concentrations to model vanilla custard desserts. The flavorants affected viscosities and resulted in corresponding changes in perceived thickness and melting sensations. In addition, flavorants affected prickling sensations, probably via activation of the trigeminal nerve system, and sensations of roughness, astringency, and dryness/mealiness. Finally, the effects of flavorants on these individual texture attributes also resulted in flavorant effects on creaminess and fattiness, sensations based on combinations of the above attributes.     

Image Processing for Sequences of Oceanographic Images

This paper is concerned with three main problems of image processing occuring on temporal sequences of satellite oceanographic images: approximate localization of the interesting structures on the images; segmentation or determination of the boundary of the structures; and temporal tracking of these boundaries to illustrate their evolution. In this paper, application is done on vortices and results are displayed all over the paper. For this purpose, we propose a new method for optical flow computation and interpretation and a geometric modelling of the structures. Oceanographic images obtained from environmental satellite platforms present a new challenge in computer science. The huge amount of data collected each day and the need for characterizing some specific structures on these images for oceanographic monitoring justify our approach for the detection and tracking of vortices on oceanographic images.