Effects of processing and storage conditions on the stability of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) leaf flavonoids

The effect of heat, high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) treatment, pH, light, temperature and simulated digestion on sweet potato leaf flavonoids (SPLF) stability was studied. Results showed heat treatment at 75 °C for 90 min or HHP treatment at 600 MPa for 30 min did not cause significant effect on SPLF. Heat treatment at 100 °C for 60 min and 90 min led to decrease in antioxidant activity by 20% and 25%, respectively, while pH 7.0 and 8.0 significantly decreased amount of SPLF by approximately 75%, decreased antioxidant activity by about 30% and 47% separately. Light treated samples recorded a decrease in SPLF by 52% and antioxidant activity by 24%. No significant effect on SPLF was observed for samples stored at −18 °C, 4 °C or room temperature. The retention of flavonoids and antioxidant activity was 45.9 ± 3.6% and 56.2 ± 2.6%, individually in SPLF after simulated digestion.     

Deletion of Trpm4 Alters the Function of the Nav1.5 Channel in Murine Cardiac Myocytes

Transient receptor potential melastatin member 4 (TRPM4) encodes a Ca²⁺-activated, non-selective cation channel that is functionally expressed in several tissues, including the heart. Pathogenic mutants in TRPM4 have been reported in patients with inherited cardiac diseases, including conduction blockage and Brugada syndrome. Heterologous expression of mutant channels in cell lines indicates that these mutations can lead to an increase or decrease in TRPM4 expression and function at the cell surface. While the expression and clinical variant studies further stress the importance of TRPM4 in cardiac function, the cardiac electrophysiological phenotypes in Trpm4 knockdown mouse models remain incompletely characterized. To study the functional consequences of Trpm4 deletion on cardiac electrical activity in mice, we performed perforated-patch clamp and immunoblotting studies on isolated atrial and ventricular cardiac myocytes and surfaces, as well as on pseudo- and intracardiac ECGs, either in vivo or in Langendorff-perfused explanted mouse hearts. We observed that TRPM4 is expressed in atrial and ventricular cardiac myocytes and that deletion of Trpm4 unexpectedly reduces the peak Na⁺ currents in myocytes. Hearts from Trpm4^−/− mice presented increased sensitivity towards mexiletine, a Na⁺ channel blocker, and slower intraventricular conduction, consistent with the reduction of the peak Na⁺ current observed in the isolated cardiac myocytes. This study suggests that TRPM4 expression impacts the Na⁺ current in murine cardiac myocytes and points towards a novel function of TRPM4 regulating the Na_v1.5 function in murine cardiac myocytes.     

Myomectomy by laparoscopy and infertility: status of the controversy

The authors report a case of fibroplastic endocarditis discovered during echocardiography in an asymptomatic patient in the context of assessment of systematized electrocardiographic modifications. The diagnosis, strongly suspected on the basis of the cardiac MRI findings, was finally confirmed by endocardial biopsy.     

Chemoenzymatic synthesis of branched oligo- and polysaccharides as potential substrates for starch active enzymes

Oligo- and polysaccharides embodying the alpha-maltotriosyl-6(II)-maltotetraosyl structure were readily synthesized by transglycosylation of maltosyl fluoride onto panose and pullulan catalysed by the bacterial transglycosylase cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (CGTase). The two products obtained proved useful for increasing the knowledge of substrate binding and processing at the active site of barley limit dextrinase that is involved in the metabolism of amylopectin by acting upon its branch points.     

Topology-Preserving Conditions for 2D Digital Images Under Rigid Transformations

In the continuous domain $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ , rigid transformations are topology-preserving operations. Due to digitization, this is not the case when considering digital images, i.e., images defined on $\mathbb{Z}^{n}$ . In this article, we begin to investigate this problem by studying conditions for digital images to preserve their topological properties under all rigid transformations on $\mathbb{Z}^{2}$ . Based on (i) the recently introduced notion of DRT graph, and (ii) the notion of simple point, we propose an algorithm for evaluating digital images topological invariance.     

The advantages of directly identifying continuous-time transfer function models in practical applications

The direct identification and estimation of continuous-time models from sampled data is now mature. This paper does not present any new methodology, nor does it compare the performance of existing methods. Its main aim is to discuss the advantages of direct, continuous-time model identification with the help of illustrative examples that are all based on real data from practical applications. Although the specific method of statistical parameter estimation is relatively unimportant in this regard, the latest and most sophisticated time domain identification algorithm that is freely available to the reader is used in these examples in order to ensure that the results reflect the best performance that can be achieved at this time by time-domain identification.     

Extending the enforcement power of truncation monitors using static analysis

Runtime monitors are a widely used approach to enforcing security policies. Truncation monitors are based on the idea of truncating an execution before a violation occurs. Thus, the range of security policies they can enforce is limited to safety properties. The use of an a priori static analysis of the target program is a possible way of extending the range of monitorable properties. This paper presents an approach to producing an in-lined truncation monitor, which draws upon the above intuition. Based on an a priori knowledge of the program behavior, this approach allows, in some cases, to enforce more than safety properties and is more powerful than a classical truncation mechanism. We provide and prove a theorem stating that a truncation enforcement mechanism considering only the set of possible executions of a specific program is strictly more powerful than a mechanism considering all the executions over an alphabet of actions.     

The disagreement power of an adversary

At the heart of distributed computing lies the fundamental result that the level of agreement that can be obtained in an asynchronous shared memory model where t processes can crash is exactly t?+?1. In other words, an adversary that can crash any subset of size at most t can prevent the processes from agreeing on t values. But what about all the other ${2^{2^n - 1} - (n+1)}$ adversaries that are not uniform in this sense and might crash certain combination of processes and not others? This paper presents a precise way to classify all adversaries. We introduce the notion of disagreement power: the biggest integer k for which the adversary can prevent processes from agreeing on k values. We show how to compute the disagreement power of an adversary and derive n equivalence classes of adversaries.     

A Spatial Regularization Approach for Vector Quantization

Quantization, defined as the act of attributing a finite number of levels to an image, is an essential task in image acquisition and coding. It is also intricately linked to image analysis tasks, such as denoising and segmentation. In this paper, we investigate vector quantization combined with regularity constraints, a little-studied area which is of interest, in particular, when quantizing in the presence of noise or other acquisition artifacts. We present an optimization approach to the problem involving a novel two-step, iterative, flexible, joint quantizing-regularization method featuring both convex and combinatorial optimization techniques. We show that when using a small number of levels, our approach can yield better quality images in terms of SNR, with lower entropy, than conventional optimal quantization methods.