Photometric assay for polyphenol oxidase activity in olives, olive pastes, and virgin olive oils

A photometric method is proposed that allows the determination of phenolase activity in olive fruits, olive pastes, and virgin olive oil. The method can also be used to quantify partially purified phenolase from olives, and is based on the coupling between 4-methyl-o-benzoquinone, the reaction product of phenolase toward its substrate 4-methylcatechol, and the aromatic amine 4-amino-N,N-diethylaniline. The deep-blue adduct arising from this reaction has been characterized by means of nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometric techniques and identified as 4-(4′-diethylaminophenylimino)-2-hydroxy-5-methyl-cyclohexa-2,5-dienone. This compound shows an absorption band, centered (in dichloromethane) at 617 nm, with an ε of 11,080 M⁻¹cm⁻¹. The main advantage of the proposed method resides in the high absorption coefficient of the adduct and its ultraviolet/visible absorption pattern, with a λ_max in a spectral region void of significant interferences by the pigments that ultimately will probably be present in the extracts to be tested by this proposed method. The method has proven to be sensitive, specific, and reliable. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor Francesco Corongiu, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, University of Cagliari, prematurely deceased one year ago.     

Effects of functional electrical stimulation on the joints of adolescents with spinal cord injury

Nineteen adolescent subjects with complete spinal cord injuries resulting in paraplegia or tetraplegia participated in a functional electrical stimulation (FES) program consisting of computerized, controlled exercise and/or weight bearing. The effects of stimulated exercise and standing/walking on the lower extremity joints were prospectively studied. Plain radiographs and MRIs were obtained prior to and following completion of the exercise and standing and walking stages. In addition, the joints of five subjects were studied with synovial biopsies, arthroscopy, and the analysis of serum and synovial fluid for a 550 000 dalton cartilage matrix glycoprotein (CMGP). Pre-exercise joint abnormalities secondary to the spinal cord injury improved following the stimulation program. None of the subjects developed Charcot joint changes. Upon standing with FES, one subject with poor hip coverage prior to participation developed hip subluxation which required surgical repair. No other detrimental clinical effects occurred in the lower extremity joints of subjects participating in an FES program over a 1-year period.     

The Linguistic Design of the EuroWordNet Database

In this paper the linguistic design of the database under construction within the EuroWordNet project is described. This is mainly structured along the same lines as the Princeton WordNet, although some changes have been made to the WordNet overall design due to both theoretical and practical reasons. The most important reasons for such changes are the multilinguality of the EuroWordNet database and the fact that it is intended to be used in Language Engineering applications. Thus, i) some relations have been added to those identified in WordNet; ii) some labels have been identified which can be added to the relations in order to make their implications more explicit and precise; iii) some relations, already present in the WordNet design, have been modified in order to specify their role more clearly.     

Ion-pair formation in water methanol and water-ethylene carbonate mixtures at 25°C

Conductances at 25°C were measured in the following systems: Potassium chlorate in water-methanol and in water-ethylene carbonate mixtures, and sodium-chlorate in some water-methanol mixtures. Both salts are poorly associated in water but addition of small amounts of methanol or of ethylene carbonate markedly increases and decreases respectively the association. These results, not explained on the basis of a continuum model, can be rationalized considering a specific solvation in connection with the structure of the solvent mixtures.     

Natural gas‐based transportation in the USA: economic evaluation and policy implications based on MARKAL modeling

The recent divergence in domestic energy costs between oil and natural gas drives an investigation of the potential for further demand‐side utilization of natural gas in the USA. An economic assessment of the US transportation sector was conducted with a focus on the penetration of technologies that use natural gas as a fuel. Bottom‐up modeling of the US energy system using the market allocation framework enabled estimation of the optimal technology mix in both the light‐duty and heavy‐duty vehicle segments, over a 40‐year time horizon, under various scenarios of technical learning rates and natural gas prices. A modified functional form of Moore's law was developed and anchored to municipal transit bus data, to represent technical learning with regard to natural gas vehicle costs. Modeling results suggest that the present levels of natural gas vehicle penetration are suboptimal and a number of market failures were identified, which are most likely to propagate under‐adoption into the foreseeable future. Some policy guidelines, aimed at the federal level, were outlined as potential responses to the market failures discussed herein. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Petri nets for modelling metabolic pathways: a survey

In the last 15 years, several research efforts have been directed towards the representation and the analysis of metabolic pathways by using Petri nets. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, we discuss how the knowledge about metabolic pathways can be represented with Petri nets. We point out the main problems that arise in the construction of a Petri net model of a metabolic pathway and we outline some solutions proposed in the literature. Second, we present a comprehensive review of recent research on this topic, in order to assess the maturity of the field and the availability of a methodology for modelling a metabolic pathway by a corresponding Petri net.     

Assessing the quality of Shared Priorities in teams using content analysis in a microworld experiment

Objective, easy to use, and easy to comprehend assessment methods for measuring shared understanding in teams are hard to find. This paper describes an experiment where a measure called Shared Priorities, which is based on ranking of self-generated strategic items, is assessed. Trained teams were compared to non-trained teams in a dynamic problem-solving task. The maturity of the participating teams was also assessed using a content analysis measure. The Shared Priorities measure was used alongside other well-documented measures of team awareness based on self-rating. Results show that the Shared Priorities measure correlates with task performance and could also distinguish between trained and non-trained teams. However, the Shared Priorities measure did not correlate with the other team measures (cf. CARS – Crew Awareness Rating Scale – and DATMA – Distributed Assessment of Team Mutual Awareness), suggesting that it captures a different quality of teamwork than the self-rating measures. Further, the Shared Priorities measure was found to be easily administered.     

LMF-aware Web services for accessing semantic lexicons

This paper demonstrates that Wordnet-LMF, a version of ISO LMF, allows us to effectively design and implement Web services for accessing WordNet-type semantic lexicons that conform to the REST Web service architecture. The implemented prototype service currently provides access to native wordnets as well as to a bilingual concept dictionary. This paper thus describes slight revisions that were made to the Wordnet-LMF specifications to model and accommodate a non-wordnet-native bilingual concept dictionary.