Apparent lack of effect of obesity on the soluble phosphatidic acid phosphatase activity in human adipose tissue

In view of previous reports that the activity of the Mg⁺⁺-dependent phosphatidic acid phosphatase in adipose tissues of rat and mouse is elevated in obesity, we attempted to assay this activity in biopsies of human omental adipose tissue obtained from normal-weight and morbidly obese subjects in connection with operations. The major portion of the phosphatidic acid phosphatase activity was found in the cytosol, and the small amount found in the microsomal fraction was too low for accurate measurement. It was not possible to assay the activity in the crude cytosol. After precipitation with ammonium sulfate, however, the enzyme activity was linear with both the incubation time and the concentration of enzyme. It was not possible to obtain substrate saturation of the enzyme under the conditions employed. When assayed in the presence of a high concentration of substrate (0.6 mmol/l) the activity obtained in normalweight pateints, 7.8±2.4 nmol/mg protein/min (n=10), was not significantly different from that in morbidly obese patients, 5.6±0.8 nmol/mg protein/min (n=10). There was no relation between the size of adipose cells and phosphatidic acid phosphatase activity. Furthermore, there was no apparent relation between phosphatidic acid phosphatase activity in omental adipose tissue and that in the liver The findings suggest that the increased biosynthesis of triglycerides in human obesity is not associated with an increased capacity of the soluble phosphatidic acid phosphatase in adipose tissue.     

Comparison and validation of capacitive accelerometers for health care applications

Fall detection, gait analysis and context recognition are examples of applications where capacitive accelerometers are widely used in health care. In most of the existing work, algorithms were developed for a specific platform and accelerometers were used without explicitly choosing a specific type. With this work we present an inexpensive and practical test setup for replicable and repeatable testing of accelerometers. In addition we use this setup to evaluate six of the most commonly available accelerometers today and list their outcomes for linearity, power consumption and correlation of the tested sensors. We also attempt to an answer to the question of whether applications and algorithms developed for one platform and one type of accelerometer can be easily transferred to another accelerometer.     

Enhanced Electrochemical CO2 Reduction of Cu@CuxO Nanoparticles Decorated on 3D Vertical Graphene with Intrinsic sp3‐type Defect

Defective 3D vertical graphene (VG) with a relatively large surface area, high defect density, and increased surface electrons is synthesized via a scalable plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method, together with a postsynthesis Ar‐plasma treatment (VG‐Ar). Subsequently, Cu@Cu_xO nanoparticles are deposited onto VG‐Ar (Cu/VG‐Ar) through a galvanostatic pulsed electrodeposition method. These Cu@Cu_xO nanocatalyst systems exhibit a superior electrochemical CO₂ reduction performance when compared to Cu‐based catalysts supported on commercial graphene paper or pristine VG without postsynthesis Ar‐plasma treatment. The Cu/VG‐Ar achieves the highest CO₂ reduction Faradaic efficiency of 60.6% (83.5% of which are attributed to liquid products, i.e., formate, ethanol, and n‐propanol) with a 5.6 mA cm^?2 partial current density at ?1.2 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The improved CO₂ reduction performance of Cu/VG‐Ar originates from the well‐dispersed Cu@Cu_xO nanoparticles deposited on the defective VG‐Ar. The intrinsic carbon defects on VG‐Ar can suppress the hydrogen evolution reaction as well as tune the interaction between VG and Cu@Cu_xO, thus impeding the excessive oxidation of Cu₂O species deposited on VG‐Ar. The defective VG‐Ar and stabilized Cu@Cu_xO enhances CO₂ adsorption and promotes electron transfer to the adsorbed CO₂ and intermediates on the catalyst surface, thus improving the overall CO₂ reduction performance.     

The category-theoretic solution of recursive metric-space equations

It is well known that one can use an adaptation of the inverse-limit construction to solve recursive equations in the category of complete ultrametric spaces. We show that this construction generalizes to a large class of categories with metric-space structure on each set of morphisms: the exact nature of the objects is less important. In particular, the construction immediately applies to categories where the objects are ultrametric spaces with ‘extra structure’, and where the morphisms preserve this extra structure. The generalization is inspired by classical domain-theoretic work by Smyth and Plotkin.For many of the categories we consider, there is a natural subcategory in which each set of morphisms is required to be a compact metric space. Our setting allows for a proof that such a subcategory always inherits solutions of recursive equations from the full category.As another application, we present a construction that relates solutions of generalized domain equations in the sense of Smyth and Plotkin to solutions of equations in our class of categories.Our primary motivation for solving generalized recursive metric-space equations comes from recent and ongoing work on Kripke-style models in which the sets of worlds must be recursively defined. We show a series of examples motivated by this line of work.     

A review and comparison of strategies for handling missing values in separate-and-conquer rule learning

In this paper, we review possible strategies for handling missing values in separate-and-conquer rule learning algorithms, and compare them experimentally on a large number of datasets. In particular through a careful study with data with controlled levels of missing values we get additional insights on the strategies’ different biases w.r.t. attributes with missing values. Somewhat surprisingly, a strategy that implements a strong bias against the use of attributes with missing values, exhibits the best average performance on 24 datasets from the UCI repository.     

Model-based development of a course of action scheduling tool

This paper shows how a formal method in the form of Coloured Petri Nets (CPNs) and the supporting CPN Tools have been used in the development of the Course of Action Scheduling Tool (COAST). The aim of COAST is to support human planners in the specification and scheduling of tasks in a Course of Action. CPNs have been used to develop a formal model of the task execution framework underlying COAST. The CPN model has been extracted in executable form from CPN Tools and embedded directly into COAST, thereby automatically bridging the gap between the formal specification and its implementation. The scheduling capabilities of COAST are based on state space exploration of the embedded CPN model. Planners interact with COAST using a domain-specific graphical user interface (GUI) that hides the embedded CPN model and analysis algorithms. This means that COAST is based on a rigorous semantical model, but the use of formal methods is transparent to the users. Trials of operational planning using COAST have been conducted within the Australian Defence Force. The work of Lin Zhang was done while he was with the Command and Control Division of the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation.     

Development of an optimized refolding process for recombinant Ala-Glu-IGF-1

Denatured and reduced N-terminal extended insulin-like growthfactor-1 (AE-IGF-1) was purified from Escherichia coli extractsand subjected to in vitro folding. The renaturation processwas shown to be a function of the redox potential of the solution.Folding by different methods had no significant effect on therenaturation. A maximal yield of 60% (w/w)was obtained. Thefolded AE-IGF-1 was enzymatically converted to IGF-1. The majorby-product (20% w/w) was identified as scrambled IGF-1. Enzymaticdigestion at alkaline and acidic pH suggested two possible disulphidebond arrangements: (i) Cys⁶–Cys⁴⁷, Cys¹⁸–Cys⁶¹,Cys⁴⁸–Cys⁵²; or (if) Cys⁶–Cys⁵², Cys^l8–Cys⁶¹,Cys⁴⁷ and Cys⁴⁸ being in their reduced forms. Energy minimizationand molecular modelling suggested that the scrambled IGF-1,having reduced cysteines at positions 47 and 48, was the energeticallymost stable conformation of the two.     

Improving the quality of phase maps in phase object digital holographic interferometry by finding the right reconstruction distance

Improved quality of phase maps in pulsed digital holographic interferometry is demonstrated by finding the right reconstruction distance. The objective is to improve the optical phase information when the object under study is a phase object and when it is out of focus, leading to low contrast fringes in the phase map. A numerical refocusing is performed by introducing an ideal lens as a multiplication by a phase field in the Fourier domain, and then a region of maximum speckle correlation is found by comparing undisturbed and disturbed subimages in different refocused imaging planes. After finding the right reconstruction distance, a phase map of high visibility is constructed. By this technique a 30% reduction of the phase error for a flow of helium gas and a 50% reduction of the phase error for a weak thin lens were obtained, which resulted in a significant improvement of the visual appearance of the phase maps.     

Direction sensitive bending sensors based on multi-wall carbon nanotube/epoxy nanocomposites

In the present work, a direction sensitive bending strain sensor consisting of a single block of epoxy/multi-wall carbon nanotube composite was developed. Moreover, the manufacturing could be realized in a straightforward single-step processing route. The directional sensitivity to bending deformations is related to the change in electrical resistance, which becomes positive or negative, depending on the direction of bending deflection. This effect is achieved by generating a gradient in electrical conductivity throughout the material. The resistance versus strain behaviour of these devices is investigated in detail and related to the microstructure of the nanocomposites.