Dietary krill oil increases docosahexaenoic acid and reduces 2-arachidonoylglycerol but not N-acylethanolamine levels in the brain of obese Zucker rats

Evidence suggests that dietary long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFAs), and particularly those belonging to the n-3 family, may influence the brain fatty acid profile and, thereby, the biosynthesis of endocannabinoids in rodents. However, the doses used are usually quite high and not comparable with human intake. Recently, we have shown that relatively low doses of dietary n-3 LCPUFAs (4 weeks), in the form of either fish or krill oil, balanced for EPA and DHA content, and against a control diet with no EPA and DHA and similar contents of oleic, linoleic and α-linolenic acids, lower the concentrations of the endocannabinoids, anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), in the visceral adipose tissue, and of AEA in the liver and heart, of obese Zucker rats. This, in turn, is associated with lower levels of arachidonic acid in membrane phospholipids and with amelioration of some metabolic syndrome parameters. We investigated here whether in Zucker rats, under the same conditions, fish and krill oil are also able to influence LCPUFA and endocannabinoid profiles in brain. Only krill oil was able to increase significantly DHA levels in brain phospholipids, with no changes in arachidonic acid. DHA increase was associated with lower levels of 2-AG in the brain, whereas AEA and its congeners, N-palmitoylethanolamine and N-oleoylethanolamine, were unchanged. We conclude that, despite the strong impact of dietary n-3 fatty acid on endocannabinoid levels previously observed in peripheral tissues, in the brain only 2-AG is affected by dietary krill oil, suggesting that the beneficial effect of the latter on the metabolic syndrome is mostly exerted by modifying peripheral endocannabinoids. Nevertheless, possible effects of dietary krill oil in the brain through modification of 2-AG levels deserve further investigation.     

Moving home: houses,new occupants and the formation of heating practices

This paper examines the formation of heating practices at the time of moving house. Interviews on occupant changes in Finnish single-family houses with a focus on heating arrangements and thermal comfort reveal that practice formation in and around occupant changes is a complex process of aligning elements where the house stands out as a coordinative and coordinated aggregate. As houses pass from one set of occupants to the next, they carry practices and delineate new ways of operation to the new occupants. The study demonstrates the temporal unfolding of the hidden complexity to what seems like a straightforward process of residents interacting with a new heating system and home. The findings contribute to the understanding of the domestic sphere as a space for practice formation.     

Water hydraulic manipulator for fail safe and fault tolerant remote handling operations at ITER

Department of Intelligent Hydraulics and Automation (IHA) of Tampere University of Technology has been involved in the European Fusion program since 1994 within the ITER reactor maintenance activities. In this paper we discuss the design and development of a six degrees of freedom water hydraulic manipulator with a force feedback for teleoperation tasks. The manipulator is planned to be delivered to Divertor Test Platform 2 (DTP2) during year 2008. The paper also discusses the possibility to improve the fail safe and redundant operation of the manipulator. During the design of the water hydraulic manipulator, special provisions have been made in order to meet the safety requirements such as servo valve block for redundant operation and safety vane brakes for fail safe operation.     

Considerations for Synchronization in Body Area Networks for Human Activity Monitoring

In this paper, we highlight considerations for synchronization issues in body area networks. Requirements for the synchronization accuracy in body area networks depend on the application at hand. Synchronization may be needed for power management, sample ordering, calculation of stimulus responses and for sensor fusion. This paper provides a theoretical exercise to help understand the accuracy required for typical human motion sensing. It gives an overview of various synchronisation strategies used and implemented in prototype systems. Lessons learnt from practical implementations using Bluetooth, an IEEE 802.15.4 proprietary network and Nanonet are presented to illustrate the principles involved. The discussion provides some considerations and the requirements for typical WBAN applications.     

Development of testing procedure for ceramic disc filters

Small-scale laboratory tests for sizing and designing disc filters are typically performed by using leaf test equipment. Although the basic tests are fairly simple and quick, the accuracy and repeatability of the results may be poor due to various reasons. In addition to errors caused by variations in the structure of the equipment, also the skills and experience of the person performing the tests is of great importance. This paper introduces an experimental study carried out for defining the most important sources of errors in these kinds of laboratory tests and for estimating their influence on the final test results. The results obtained in this study were utilized for designing an improved version of the test equipment and also for creating a standard procedure for performing the tests. The results acquired with the small-scale laboratory tests were in good agreement with the performance results obtained from full-scale ceramic disc filters operating in industrial processes.     

3‐Heterocycle‐Phenyl N‐Alkylcarbamates as FAAH Inhibitors: Design,Synthesis and 3D‐QSAR Studies

Carbamates are a well‐established class of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitors. Here we describe the synthesis of meta‐substituted phenolic N‐alkyl/aryl carbamates and their in vitro FAAH inhibitory activities. The most potent compound, 3‐(oxazol‐2yl)phenyl cyclohexylcarbamate ( 2 a ), inhibited FAAH with a sub‐nanomolar IC₅₀ value (IC₅₀=0.74 nM ). Additionally, we developed and validated three‐dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationships (QSAR) models of FAAH inhibition combining the newly disclosed carbamates with our previously published inhibitors to give a total set of 99 compounds. Prior to 3D‐QSAR modeling, the degree of correlation between FAAH inhibition and in silico reactivity was also established. Both 3D‐QSAR methods used, CoMSIA and GRID/GOLPE, produced statistically significant models with coefficient of correlation for external prediction (R²_PRED) values of 0.732 and 0.760, respectively. These models could be of high value in further FAAH inhibitor design.     

Coarse-Grain Coherence Tracking: RegionScout and Region Coherence Arrays

Coarse-grain coherence tracking is a new technique that extends a conventional coherence mechanism and optimizes coherence enforcement. It monitors the coherence status of large regions of memory and uses that information to avoid unnecessary broadcasts and filter unnecessary cache tag lookups, thus improving system performance and power consumption.     

The effect of surface waviness on friction between Neolite and quarry tiles

Friction is widely used as an indicator of surface slipperiness in preventing accidents in slips and falls. Surface texture affects friction, but it is not clear which surface characteristics are better correlated with friction. Highly correlated surface characteristics could be used as potential interventions to prevent slip and fall accidents. The dynamic friction between quarry tiles and a commonly used sole testing material, Neolite, using three different mixtures of glycerol and water as contaminants at the interface was correlated with the surface parameters of the tile surfaces. The surface texture was quantified with various surface roughness and surface waviness parameters using three different cut-off lengths to filter the measured profiles for obtaining the profiles of either surface roughness or surface waviness. The correlation coefficients between the surface parameters and the measured friction were affected by the glycerol contents and cut-off lengths. Surface waviness parameters could potentially be better indicators of friction than commonly used surface roughness parameters, especially when they were measured with commonly used cut-off lengths or when the viscosity of the liquid contaminant was high.     

A Self-Calibrated Pipeline ADC with 200 MHz IF-Sampling Frontend

A 13-bit, 50-MS/s pipeline ADC with IF-sampling capability is presented. A high sampling linearity is obtained through the use of bootstrapped switches. A digital self-calibration algorithm with modified capacitor measurement scheme is employed to improve the accuracy of the first two pipeline stages. The prototype, implemented with a 0.35-m BiCMOS (SiGe) technology, shows a 76.5-dB SFDR at a 194.2-MHz signal frequency and dissipates 715 mW power from a 2.9-V supply.     

Pedestrian navigation aids: information requirements and design implications

Recent years have seen an increased interest in navigational services for pedestrians. To ensure that these services are successful, it is necessary to understand the information requirements of pedestrians when navigating, and in particular, what information they need and how it is used. A requirements study was undertaken to identify these information requirements within an urban navigation context. Results show that landmarks were by far the most predominant navigation cue, that distance information and street names were infrequently used, and that information is used to enable navigation decisions, but also to enhance the pedestrians confidence and trust. The implications for the design of pedestrian navigation aids are highlighted.