Grass-based ruminant production methods and human bioconversion of vaccenic acid with estimations of maximal dietary intake of conjugated linoleic acids

Reports on human conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) intake vary, and usually don't consider food production methods and vaccenic acid (VA)-induced CLA biosynthesis in humans. The aim of this review was to estimate the achievable CLA intake considering both food sources produced by feeding patterns natural to animals and human VA bioconversion. Exogenous CLA supply from milk, cheese, lamb, and beef from grass-based ruminant production methods, was calculated to be about double that of estimates based on modern production methods (respectively, from the four sources: 1.25, 1.50, 1.44, and 0.69% of total fatty acids). Using available human consumption data this resulted in an estimated achievable CLA intake (including VA bioconversion) of between 711 and 1107 mg d^?1. Intake of products from natural grass-fed ruminants leads to a several-fold higher CLA food content and, along with consideration of endogenously formed CLA from VA, results in a substantially higher CLA availability than previously estimated.     

Lexical effects in naming pseudowords in shallow orthographies: Further empirical data.

Pseudoword reading in Italian, a language with a regular but context-sensitive mapping from orthography to phonology, was investigated. Pairs of pseudowords were derived from words by changing the vowel following a target letter. In 1 of the pseudowords, pronunciation of the target grapheme was the same as in the original word (consistent), whereas in the other it was different (inconsistent). In Experiment 1, pseudowords were mixed with words. In the other 2 experiments, only pseudowords were presented. Consistency effects in naming the pseudowords emerged in Experiment 1 but disappeared in Experiments 2 and 3. The pattern of results constrains the functional architecture of reading models because the list composition effect is compatible with a dual-route model but is difficult to reconcile with a single-route framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microphysical aerosol parameters from multiwavelength lidar

The hybrid regularization technique developed at the Institute of Mathematics of Potsdam University (IMP) is used to derive microphysical properties such as effective radius, surface-area concentration, and volume concentration, as well as the single-scattering albedo and a mean complex refractive index, from multiwavelength lidar measurements. We present the continuation of investigations of the IMP method. Theoretical studies of the degree of ill-posedness of the underlying model, simulation results with respect to the analysis of the retrieval error of microphysical particle properties from multiwavelength lidar data, and a comparison of results for different numbers of backscatter and extinction coefficients are presented. Our analysis shows that the backscatter operator has a smaller degree of ill-posedness than the operator for extinction. This fact underlines the importance of backscatter data. Moreover, the degree of ill-posedness increases with increasing particle absorption, i.e., depends on the imaginary part of the refractive index and does not depend significantly on the real part. Furthermore, an extensive simulation study was carried out for logarithmic-normal size distributions with different median radii, mode widths, and real and imaginary parts of refractive indices. The errors of the retrieved particle properties obtained from the inversion of three backscatter (355, 532, and 1064 nm) and two extinction (355 and 532 nm) coefficients were compared with the uncertainties for the case of six backscatter (400, 710, 800 nm, additionally) and the same two extinction coefficients. For known complex refractive index and up to 20% normally distributed noise, we found that the retrieval errors for effective radius, surface-area concentration, and volume concentration stay below approximately 15% in both cases. Simulations were also made with unknown complex refractive index. In that case the integrated parameters stay below approximately 30%, and the imaginary part of the refractive index stays below 35% for input noise up to 10% in both cases. In general, the quality of the retrieved aerosol parameters depends strongly on the imaginary part owing to the degree of ill-posedness. It is shown that under certain constraints a minimum data set of three backscatter coefficients and two extinction coefficients is sufficient for a successful inversion. The IMP algorithm was finally tested for a measurement case.     

Mediterranean Balloon Experiment: ocean wind speed sensing from the stratosphere, using GPS reflections

The MEditerranean Balloon EXperiment (MEBEX), conducted in August 99 from the middle-up stratosphere, was designed to assess the wind retrieval sensitivity of Global Navigation Satellite Systems Reflections (GNSSR) technology from high altitudes. Global Positioning System reflected signals (GPSR) collected at altitudes around 37 km with a dedicated receiver have been inverted to mean square slopes (MSS) of the sea surface and wind speeds. The theoretical tool to interpret the geophysical parameters was a bistatic model, which also depends on geometrical parameters. The results have been analyzed in terms of internal consistency, repeatability and geometry-dependent performance. In addition, wind velocities have been compared to independent measurements by QuikSCAT, TOPEX, ERS/RA and a Radio Sonde, with an agreement better than 2 m/s. A Numerical Weather Prediction Model (NWPM, the MM5 mesoscale forecast model) has also been used for comparison with varying results during the experiment. The conclusion of this study confirms the capability of high altitude GPSR/Delay-map receivers with low gain antennas to infer surface winds.     

Hyperbolic representation of light propagation in a multilayer medium

By analogy with the representation of the polarization of light on the Poincaré sphere, we describe the propagation and the reflection/transmission of light in a multilayer on a hyperbolic surface. We show that the propagation of light corresponds to a classical rotation on this surface and that its reflection/transmission corresponds to a hyperbolic rotation.     

High-resolution capillary tube NMR. A miniaturized 5-microL high-sensitivity TXI probe for mass-limited samples,off-line LC NMR,and HT NMR

A new triple-resonance (TXI) (1H, 13C, 15N) high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) capillary probe with 2.5-microL NMR-active sample volume (V(obs)) was built and tested for applications with mass- and volume-limited samples and for coupling of microbore liquid chromatography to NMR. This is the first microliter probe with optimized coil geometry for use with individual capillary tubes with an outer diameter of 1 mm. The 90 degree pulse lengths of the 1-mm microliter probe were below 2 micros for proton, below 8 micros for carbon, and below 20 micros for nitrogen, and a spectral line width at signal half-height below 1 Hz was obtained. Compared to a conventional 5-mm probe, the new 600-MHz 1-mm TXI microliter probe with z-gradient shows an increase in mass sensitivity by a factor of 5, corresponding to a 25-fold reduction in measuring time. The consumption of costly deuterated solvent is reduced by at least 2 orders of magnitude. The 1-mm TXI microliter probe with z-gradient allows the measurement of one-dimensional 1H NMR and two-dimensional heteronuclear NMR spectra with a few nanomoles (micrograms) of compound with high sensitivity, speed, and quality. This is a breakthrough for discrete sample NMR spectroscopy with paramount importance for structure elucidation in natural compound chemistry and metabolic research. It offers also advantages for linking chromatographic methods to NMR in a nindustrial environment. Capillary tube NMR may find new applications in areas where high sample throughput is essential, e.g., in the quality control of large sample arrays from parallel chemistry, screening, and compound depositories. It has the potential to increase the sample throughput by 1 order of magnitude or more if new hardware for fast sample handling and exchange becomes available.     

Linear objects: Logical processes with built-in inheritance

We present a new framework for amalgamating two successful programming paradigms: logic programming and object-oriented programming. From the former, we keep the delarative reading of programs. From the latter, we select two crucial notions: (i) the ability for objects to dynamically change their internal state during the computation; (ii) the structured representation of knowledge, generally obtained via inheritance graphs among classes of objects. We start with the approach, introduced in concurrent logic programming languages, which identifies objects with proof processes and object states with arguments occurring in the goal of a given process. This provides a clean, side-effect free account of the dynamic behavior of objects in terms of the search tree—the only dynamic entity in logic programming languages. We integrate this view of objects with an extension of logic programming, which we call Linear Objects, based on the possibility of having multiple literals in the head of a program clause. This contains within itself the basis for a flexible form of inheritance, and maintains the constructive property of Prolog of returning definite answer substitutions as output of the proof of non-ground goals. The theoretical background for Linear Objects is Linear Logic, a logic recently introduced to provide a theoretical basis for the study of concurrency. We also show that Linear Objects can be considered as constructive restriction of full Classical Logic. We illustrate the expressive power of Linear Objects compared to Prolog by several examples from the object-oriented domain, but we also show that it can be used to provide elegant solutions for problems arising in the standard style of logic programming.     

Quantitative modeling of the transduction of electromagnetic acoustic transducers operating on ferromagnetic media

The noncontact nature of electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) offers a series of advantages over traditional piezoelectric transducers, but these features are counter-balanced by their relatively low signal-to-noise ratio and their strong dependence on material properties such as electric conductivity, magnetic permeability, and magnetostriction. The implication is that full exploitation of EMATs needs detailed modeling of their operation. A finite element model, accounting for the main transduction mechanisms, has been developed to allow the optimization of the transducers. Magnetostriction is included and described through an analogy with piezoelectricity. The model is used to predict the performance of a simple EMAT: a single current-carrying wire, parallel to a bias magnetic field generating shear horizontal waves in a nickel plate close to it. The results are validated against experiments. The model is able to successfully predict the wave amplitude dependence on significant parameters: the static bias field, the driving current amplitude, and the excitation frequency. The comparison does not employ any arbitrary adjustable parameter; for the first time an absolute validation of a magnetostrictive EMAT model has been achieved. The results are satisfactory: the discrepancy between the numerical predictions and the measured values of wave amplitude per unit current is less than 20% over a 200 kHz frequency range. The study has also shown that magnetostrictive EMAT sensitivity is not only a function of the magnetostrictive properties, because the magnetic permeability also plays a significant role in the transduction mechanism, partly counterbalancing the magnetostrictive effects.