Plant Copper Amine Oxidases: Key Players in Hormone Signaling Leading to Stress-Induced Phenotypic Plasticity

Polyamines are ubiquitous, low-molecular-weight aliphatic compounds, present in living organisms and essential for cell growth and differentiation. Copper amine oxidases (CuAOs) oxidize polyamines to aminoaldehydes releasing ammonium and hydrogen peroxide, which participates in the complex network of reactive oxygen species acting as signaling molecules involved in responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. CuAOs have been identified and characterized in different plant species, but the most extensive study on a CuAO gene family has been carried out in Arabidopsis thaliana. Growing attention has been devoted in the last years to the investigation of the CuAO expression pattern during development and in response to an array of stress and stress-related hormones, events in which recent studies have highlighted CuAOs to play a key role by modulation of a multilevel phenotypic plasticity expression. In this review, the attention will be focused on the involvement of different AtCuAOs in the IAA/JA/ABA signal transduction pathways which mediate stress-induced phenotypic plasticity events.     

Enoxaparin in the prevention of deep venous thrombosis after major surgery: multicentric study. The Italian Study Group

Four hundred forty-six patients with Tourette Syndrome (TS) and/or their parents completed a 52-item self-report survey about vocal and motor tics, and the frequency of associated co-morbid conditions of aggression, obsessions and compulsions, attentional problems, sleep disturbance, mood disturbance, anxiety, and self-mutilative behaviours which have been frequently reported in the literature on TS. Respondents also responded to an open-ended question regarding the most disabling aspects of TS. Results were analyzed within two age groups; under 18 years of age (N = 245) and 18 years of age or older (N = 177). Tics and associated conditions were the most frequently reported disabling aspect by both age groups. Subjects under age 18, however, reported significantly more frequent problems with hyperactivity, temper control, aggressive behaviours and sleepwalking than adults with TS.     

Volatile compounds produced by irradiation of butterfat

Anhydrous butterfat was irradiated at 6 megarads in a special glass reaction flask, and the headspace and total condensate samples were examined by wide-range (−180C to 125C) gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry. The nature and amounts of volatile compounds were not greatly influenced by whether the butterfat was irradiated under oxygen or under vacuum, nor (apart fromn-alkanoic acids) by storage for 1 and 9 weeks. Carbon dioxide was produced in greatest amount. Of the remaining compounds, aliphatic hydrocarbons predominated both in number and amount. Aliphatic oxygenated compounds including carbonyl compounds were isolated in relatively small amounts. The following compounds were identified positively: C_1–13 n-alkanes; C_4–9 2-methylalkanes; C_2–14 alk-l-enes; C_2–9 alk-l-ynes; C_2–5 n-alkanoic acids; C_1–5 n-alkan-l-ols and propan-2-ol; C_2–8 n-alkanals and 2-methylbut-2-enal; C_3–5,7 alkan-2-ones; C_1–4 n-alkyl formates, vinyl and isoamyl formate, methyl acetate and methyln-hexanoate; and carbon dioxide. Visiting Scientist from Division of Dairy Research, C.S.I.R.O., Highett, Victoria, Australia.     

Portfolio approaches for constraint optimization problems

Within the Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSP) context, a methodology that has proven to be particularly performant consists of using a portfolio of different constraint solvers. Nevertheless, comparatively few studies and investigations have been done in the world of Constraint Optimization Problems (COP). In this work, we provide a generalization to COP as well as an empirical evaluation of different state of the art existing CSP portfolio approaches properly adapted to deal with COP. The results obtained by measuring several evaluation metrics confirm the effectiveness of portfolios even in the optimization field, and could give rise to some interesting future research.     

Interactive teaching of task-oriented robot grasps

This paper focuses on the problem of grasp stability and grasp quality analysis. An elegant way to evaluate the stability of a grasp is to model its wrench space. However, classical grasp quality measures suffer from several disadvantages, the main drawback being that they are not task related. Indeed, constructive approaches for approximating the wrench space including also task information have been rarely considered. This work presents an effective method for task-oriented grasp quality evaluation based on a novel grasp quality measure. We address the general case of multifingered grasps with point contacts with friction.The proposed approach is based on the concept of programming by demonstration and interactive teaching, wherein an expert user provides in a teaching phase a set of exemplar grasps appropriate for the task. Following this phase, a representation of task-related grasps is built. During task planning and execution, a grasp could be either submitted interactively for evaluation by a non-expert user or synthesized by an automatic planning system. Grasp quality is then assessed based on the proposed measure, which takes into account grasp stability along with its suitability for the task. To enable real-time evaluation of grasps, a fast algorithm for computing an approximation of the quality measure is also proposed. Finally, a local grasp optimization technique is described which can amend uncertainties arising in supplied grasps by non-expert users or assist in planning more valuable grasps in the neighborhood of candidate ones.The paper reports experiments performed in virtual reality with both an anthropomorphic virtual hand and a three-fingered robot hand. These experiments suggest the effectiveness and task relevance of the proposed grasp quality measure.     

Stability of the passive state of Zr–Nb crystalline alloys

Stability of the passive state was assessed for pure Zr and four Zr–Nb alloys (2.5, 5.0, 10.0, 25.0 at.% Nb) after 24 h exposure to naturally aerated 3.5% NaCl solution (pH = 6). Open circuit potential values indicated that all the Zr–Nb alloys studied and the pure Zr undergo spontaneous passivation due to spontaneously formed oxide film passivating the metallic surface. It also indicated that the addition of increasing Nb contents to pure Zr seems to improve the protection characteristics of its spontaneous oxides. Potentiodynamic polarization curves showed an increase of the breakdown potential and the extent of the passive range following an increased niobium amount in the alloy. This leads to the conclusion that a progressive increase of niobium content positively affects the localized corrosion behaviour of the Zr–Nb alloys by enhancing the electrochemical stability of the passive film. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) studies showed high impedance values for all the samples, and its increase on increased niobium content in the alloy indicated an improvement in the corrosion resistance of the spontaneous oxide film. The fit obtained suggests a single passive film present on the metal surface, with resistance improving with the increase of niobium amount in the alloy. All these electrochemical results show the beneficial effect of increasing niobium contents on the passive state stability of the Zr–Nb alloys.     

Glass and Jamming Rheology in Soft Particles Made of PNIPAM and Polyacrylic Acid

The phase behaviour of soft colloids has attracted great attention due to the large variety of new phenomenologies emerging from their ability to pack at very high volume fractions. Here we report rheological measurements on interpenetrated polymer network microgels composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and polyacrylic acid (PAAc) at fixed PAAc content as a function of weight concentration. We found three different rheological regimes characteristic of three different states: a Newtonian shear-thinning fluid, an attractive glass characterized by a yield stress, and a jamming state. We discuss the possible molecular mechanisms driving the formation of these states.     

Surface modification of activated carbon fabric with ozone. Part 2: Thermal analysis with TGA-FTIR and DTA

Two samples of activated carbon fabrics (ACF) with very high surface area (>1300 to >1800 m²/g) fully ozonized in the part 1 of this study were analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) coupled both with differential thermal analysis (DTA) and FT-IR spectroscopy (TGA-FTIR). The adsorbed water and the amount of oxygenated functional groups were determined. The ozonized ACF shows an exothermal decomposition at about 181–189°C which may be due at least in part to the decomposition of ozonide and/or peroxide groups. The TGA-FTIR has revealed that the main products released from the thermal decomposition are CO₂ followed by CO. Formic acid was detected only in correspondence to the exothermal transition at 181°C and was taken as a proof of the decomposition of secondary ozonides.