Proteome changes in lamb semimembranosus muscles associated with the inclusion of sunflower cake in their diet

A diet based on sunflower cake for lambs was assayed in order to reuse biodiesel industrial by-products with the aim of reducing livestock costs and evaluating their influence on meat quality. To achieve these goals, sixteen male lambs were fed diets containing different levels of sunflower cake (control, 5%, 10% and 15%). Afterwards, their semimembranosus muscles were analysed by two-dimensional electrophoresis coupled to mass spectrometry and their functional protein association was examined using STRING. Structural and metabolic proteins in the lambs’ proteomes changed significantly according to their diet. Fifteen proteins showed significant changes caused by the inclusion of sunflower cake, and the most differentially abundant structural proteins were detected in 2-DE gels from the lambs. Differentially abundant metabolic proteins such as ENO3 (enolase 3), MDH1 (malate dehydrogenase) and ALDH1A1 (retinal dehydrogenase) have been proposed as biomarkers of quality parameters in other species.     

Microscopic investigation of the formation of a thermoset wheat gluten network in a model system relevant for bread making

Although the impact of heat on molecular properties of wheat gluten is well understood, changes in its microstructure have rarely been studied. Here, formation of the thermoset gluten network in a model system relevant for bread baking was studied with confocal laser scanning microscopy and protein network analysis. From 65 °C onwards, gluten converts from thick aligned protein strands in a highly branched and homogeneous network of small thin protein threads. Neither gliadin incorporation in the network nor application of aqualysin 1, the thermo-active serine peptidase from Thermus aquaticus which recently has been reported to hydrolyse gluten proteins in dough only at temperatures exceeding 80 °C, impacts on the gluten microstructure. As starch causes structure setting itself and thereby decreases protein mobility, molecular scale changes in the gluten network at temperatures exceeding 80 °C brought about by aqualysin 1 do not impact its microstructure.     

Compiler compatible 5.66 Mb/mm2 8T 1R1W register file in 14 nm FinFET technology

1-read/1-write (1R1W) register file (RF) is a popular memory configuration in modern feature rich SoCs requiring significant amount of embedded memory. A memory compiler is constructed using the 8T RF bitcell spanning a range of instances from 32 b to 72 Kb. An 8T low-leakage bitcell of 0.106 μm² is used in a 14 nm FinFET technology with a 70 nm contacted gate pitch for high-density (HD) two-port (TP) RF memory compiler which achieves 5.66 Mb/mm² array density for a 72 Kb array which is the highest reported density in 14 nm FinFET technology. The density improvement is achieved by using techniques such as leaf-cell optimization (eliminating transistors), better architectural planning, top level connectivity through leaf-cell abutment and minimizing the number of unique leaf-cells. These techniques are fully compatible with memory compiler usage over the required span. Leakage power is minimized by using power-switches without degrading the density mentioned above. Self-induced supply voltage collapse technique is applied for write and a four stack static keeper is used for read Vmin improvement. Fabricated test chips using 14 nm process have demonstrated 2.33 GHz performance at 1.1 V/25 °C operation. Overall V_min of 550 mV is achieved with this design at 25 °C. The inbuilt power-switch improves leakage power by 12x in simulation. Approximately 8% die area of a leading 14 nm SoC in commercialization is occupied by these compiled RF instances.     

A novel multi-focus image fusion method based on distributed compressed sensing

Multi-focus image fusion aims to produce an all-in-focus image by merging multiple partially focused images of the same scene. The main work is identifying the focused region and then composing all the focused regions. In this paper, a novel efficient multi-focus image fusion method based on distributed compressed sensing (DCS) is proposed. Firstly, the low-frequency and high-frequency images are obtained by comparing the variance of the source images, which are further utilized to get the low-frequency and high-frequency dictionaries. Secondly, DCS using joint sparsity model-1 (JSM-1) is applied to reconstruct the precise high-frequency images. Thirdly, the decision map is obtained based on all the high-frequency images and then improved by the morphological processing. Finally, the focused pixels are chosen from the source images through the decision map. Experimental results indicate that the proposed DCS-based method can be competitive with or even outperform some state-of-the-art methods in terms of both visual and quantitative metric evaluations.     

An autothermal reforming system for diesel and jet fuel with quick start-up capability

A quick, low energy consuming and reliable start-up is essential for fuel cell systems utilizing diesel and jet fuel. A compact fuel processor for coupling with a high-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell is developed with electrically-heated reactors in the 28 kW_th power class. Based on this set-up, start-up strategies are developed and validated. With the basic strategy, 14 min are required in the best case to commence reforming and achieve self-sustaining operation with desired CO concentration at full load using NExBTL diesel and, respectively, 16 min using Jet A-1. However, using premium diesel, the basic strategy leads to a strong increase in the concentrations of ethane and benzene. An advanced strategy enables 16 min start time with premium diesel suppressing these undesired side products. This result is within the 30 min start-up time target for auxiliary power units for 2020 and offers a reliable option for real world applications.