Consumption of c9,t11-18:2 or t10,c12-18:2 enriched dietary supplements does not influence milk macronutrients in healthy, lactating women

Substantial research suggests that the t10,c12–18:2, but not the c9,t11–18:2, isomer of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) reduces milk fat synthesis in lactating bovine and rodent species. Because fat is the major energy-yielding component in human milk, we were interested in whether this is true for women as well. Thus, the effects of c9,t11–18:2 and t10,c12–18:2 on milk fat were examined in breast-feeding women (n = 12) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study with latin-square design. The study was divided into six periods: baseline (3 days), three intervention periods (5 days each), and two washout periods (9 days each). During each intervention period, women consumed 750 mg/day of a supplement containing predominantly c9,t11–18:2, t10,c12–18:2, or 18:1 (olive oil placebo). Milk was collected by complete breast expression on the final day of each period. Infant milk consumption was estimated by 24 h weighing on the penultimate day of each intervention and washout period, and maternal adiposity (% body fat) was determined at baseline using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Milk c9,t11–18:2 and t10,c12–18:2 concentrations were greater (P < 0.05) during the corresponding CLA treatment periods as compared to the placebo period, providing strong evidence of subject compliance. Both CLA isomers were transferred into milk fat at relatively high efficiency; average transfer efficiency was estimated to be 23.3%. Compared to the placebo treatment, milk fat content was not reduced during either CLA treatment. Data indicate that body fatness did not modify any putative effect of isomeric CLA consumption on milk fat concentration. The evidence from this study suggests that the sensitivity of lactating women’s mammary tissue to an anti-lipogenic effect of the t10,c12–18:2 isoform of CLA may be less than previously hypothesized.     

Constructive Backpropagation for Recurrent Networks

Choosing a network size is a difficult problem in neural network modelling. In many recent studies, constructive or destructive methods that add or delete connections, neurons or layers have been studied in order to solve this problem. In this work we consider the constructive approach, which is in many cases a very computationally efficient approach. In particular, we address the construction of recurrent networks by the use of constructive backpropagation. The benefits of the proposed scheme are firstly that fully recurrent networks with an arbitrary number of layers can be constructed efficiently. Secondly, after the network has been constructed we can continue the adaptation of the network weights as well as we can of its structure. This includes both addition and deletion of neurons/layers in a computationally efficient manner. Thus, the investigated method is very flexible compared to many previous methods. In addition, according to our time series prediction experiments, the proposed method is competitive in terms of modelling performance and training time compared to the well-known recurrent cascade-correlation method.     

Compensatory fertilization of Scots pine stands polluted by heavy metals

The results from four compensatory fertilization experiments located at different distances (0.5, 2, 4 and 8 km) along a heavy metal deposition gradient extending from the Harjavalta Cu-Ni smelter in SW Finland are presented. The experiments were established in middle-age Scots pine stands growing on dryish sites of sorted glaciofluvial sediments. The soil type in all the experiments is ferric podsol. The treatments in the experiments consisted of liming, a powdered slow-release mineral mixture and stand-specific fertilization which comprised at least methylene urea and ammonium nitrate.Monitoring of deposition and soil solution and studies on soil chemical and microbiological properties, on the nutrient status of trees and needle litterfall, on fine root dynamics and on the growth of the tree stands were carried out during a 5-year period.There was a severe shortage of exchangeable Ca and Mg in the organic layer of the most polluted stands. Although the uppermost mineral soil layer had relatively high exchangeable Ca and Mg concentrations, the trees were not able to utilize these nutrient reserves presumably due to the toxic effects of Cu and Ni on the plant roots and mycorrhizas.The treatments that included limestone markedly decreased the Cu and Ni concentrations in the soil solution and soil organic layer, presumably due to immobilisation through precipitation or absorption. The Ca and Mg concentrations correspondingly increased, which certainly contributed to the partial recovery of fine root and stand growth. The powdered mineral mixture and the combination of methylene urea and ammonium nitrate had no short-term effect on the microbial biomass and activity. All the fertilizer treatments increased volume growth in the most polluted stand. The stand-specific fertilization increased needle mass in heavily polluted stands, but the response of the needle mass to fertilizer treatments was low in the less polluted stands. No clear evidence was found to support the role of nutrient status in tree resistance.     

Second-harmonic generation imaging of metal nano-objects with cylindrical vector beams

We introduce an imaging technique based on second-harmonic generation with cylindrical vector beams that is extremely sensitive to three-dimensional orientation and nanoscale morphology of metal nano-objects. Our experiments and second-harmonic field calculations based on frequency-domain boundary element method are in very good agreement. The technique provides contrast for structural features that cannot be resolved by linear techniques or conventional states of polarization and shows great potential for simple and cost-effective far-field optical imaging in plasmonics.     

I'll Find it Where I Can: Exploring the Role of Resource and Financial Constraints in Search Behaviour among Innovators

The search for new knowledge is often driven by problems that firms face in their innovative activities. Although a considerable effort has been made to explore the search for innovation, little attention has been placed on the concept of problemistic search. Indeed, there are only few studies that examine how the challenges that firms face in their innovation processes shape the nature and direction of their search activities. Using the Finnish Innovation Survey, this study explores the impact of different types of problems on the use of internal and external knowledge sources. The results show that firms under resource constraints tend to use external sources of knowledge in their search activities rather than internal ones. However, those firms who are constrained by finance tend to search both internally and externally. The paper explores the implications of these results for theory and future empirical research.     

Anti-icing Behavior of Thermally Sprayed Polymer Coatings

Surface engineering shows an increasing potential to provide a sustainable approach to icing problems. Currently, several passive anti-ice properties adoptable to coatings are known, but further research is required to proceed for practical applications. This is due to the fact that icing reduces safety, operational tempo, productivity and reliability of logistics, industry and infrastructure. An icing wind tunnel and a centrifugal ice adhesion test equipment can be used to evaluate and develop anti-icing and icephobic coatings for a potential use in various arctic environments, e.g., in wind power generation, oil drilling, mining and logistic industries. The present study deals with evaluation of icing properties of flame-sprayed polyethylene (PE)-based polymer coatings. In the laboratory-scale icing tests, thermally sprayed polymer coatings showed low ice adhesion compared with metals such as aluminum and stainless steel. The ice adhesion strength of the flame-sprayed PE coating was found to have approximately seven times lower ice adhesion values compared with metallic aluminum, indicating a very promising anti-icing behavior.     

Bi-level optimization for a dynamic multiobjective problem

In this article, a bi-level optimization problem covering upper (design) and lower (operation) levels is defined and a solution procedure for bi-level optimization problems is presented. This is devised as a dynamic multiobjective optimization problem, i.e. the values of the control and state variables change over a predefined time horizon and several competing criteria are optimized simultaneously. Moreover, the interaction between the upper and lower levels is analysed. The benefits of bi-level dynamic multiobjective optimization are illustrated in detail by examining an industrial case in which the design of a paper mill (upper level) and the mill operation (lower level) are optimized at the same time. However, the problem definition and the solution procedure are not limited to any specific application but can be exploited in many different industrial areas.     

Atomic layer deposition process with TiF4 as a precursor for depositing metal fluoride thin films

A novel atomic layer deposition process for the preparation of fluoride thin films in a temperature range of 225 degrees C-400 degrees C is introduced. The crystallinity, morphology, composition, thicknesses, refractive indices, and transmittance of the films are analyzed. Low impurity levels are obtained at 350 degrees C-400 degrees C with good stoichiometry. Refractive indices of 1.34-1.42 for MgF(2), 1.43 for CaF(2), and 1.57-1.61 for LaF(3) films are obtained.     

Identification of late-stage glycosylation steps in the biosynthetic pathway of the anthracycline nogalamycin

Nogalamycin is an anthracycline antibiotic that has been shown to exhibit significant cytotoxicity. Its biological activity requires two deoxysugar moieties: nogalose and nogalamine, which are attached at C7 and C1, respectively, of the aromatic polyketide aglycone. Curiously, the aminosugar nogalamine is also connected through a C-C bond between C2 and C5'. Despite extensive molecular genetic characterization of early biosynthetic steps, nogalamycin glycosylation has not been investigated in detail. Here we show that expression of the majority of the gene cluster in Streptomyces albus led to accumulation of three new anthracyclines, which unexpectedly included nogalamycin derivatives in which nogalamine was replaced either by rhodosamine with the C-C bond intact (nogalamycin R) or by 2-deoxyfucose without the C-C bond (nogalamycin F). In addition, a monoglycosylated intermediate-3',4'-demethoxynogalose-1-hydroxynogalamycinone-was isolated. Importantly, when the remaining biosynthetic genes were introduced into the heterologous host by using a two-plasmid system, nogalamycin could be isolated from the cultures, thus indicating that the whole gene cluster had been identified. We further show that one of the three glycosyltransferases (GTs) residing in the cluster-snogZ-appears to be redundant, whereas gene inactivation experiments revealed that snogE and snogD act as nogalose and nogalamine transferases, respectively. The substrate specificity of the nogalamine transferase SnogD was demonstrated in vitro: the enzyme was able to remove 2deoxyfucose from nogalamycin F. All of the new compounds were found to inhibit human topoisomerase I in activity measurements, whereas only nogalamycin R showed minor activity against topoisomerase II.     

System- and circuit-level optimization of PLL designs for DVB-T/H receivers

This article proposes a framework for the optimization of voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) designs in frequency synthesizers for digital video broadcasting ?C terrestrial/handheld (DVB-T/H) receivers. Linear time-invariant phase-domain model of a charge-pump phase-locked loop (PLL) is devised and includes both flicker (1/f) and thermal noise contributions from the loop oscillators. By modeling the entire receiver, it is shown that there are combinations of flicker and thermal noise contributions that result in a constant sum of inter-carrier interference (ICI) and adjacent channel interference, and constant symbol error rate as well. Consequently, optimization of the VCO phase noise spectrum is defined while maintaining the standard-specified symbol-error rate. Link-level performance evaluation is carried out to validate the stipulated trade-off. The effect of ICI mitigation schemes is discussed. Circuit-level VCO design approaches utilizing the derived trade-off are finally presented. The proposed optimization procedure is generic and is also applicable to other systems based on Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing.