Flt-3 ligand increases microchimerism but can prevent the therapeutic effect of donor bone marrow in transiently immunosuppressed cardiac allograft recipients

C3H (H2k) mice received 50 x 10(6) B10 (H2b) bone marrow (BM) cells either alone or with flt-3 ligand (FL) (10 microg/day), tacrolimus (2 mg/kg/day), or both agents for 7 days. Donor MHC class II+ (IAb+) cells were quantitated in spleens by immunohistochemical analysis, and donor class II DNA detected in BM by PCR. Donor cells were rare in the BM alone and BM + FL groups, whereas there was a substantial increase in chimerism in the BM + tacrolimus group. Addition of FL to BM + tacrolimus led to a further eightfold increase in donor cells and enhanced donor DNA compared with the BM + tacrolimus group. This increase in donor cells was almost 500-fold compared with BM alone. C3H recipients of B10 heart allografts given perioperative B10 BM and tacrolimus (days 0-13) exhibited a markedly extended median graft survival time (MST, 42 days) compared with those given tacrolimus alone (MST, 22 days). Addition of FL (10 microg/day; 7 days) to BM + tacrolimus prevented the beneficial effect of donor BM (MST, 18 days). BM alone or BM + FL resulted in uniform early heart graft failure (MST < 8 days). Functional studies revealed maximal antidonor MLR and CTL activities in the BM- and BM + FL-treated groups, with minimal activity in the tacrolimus-treated groups. Thus, dramatic growth factor-induced increases in chimerism achieved under cover of immunosuppression may result in augmented antidonor T cell reactivity and reduced graft survival after immunosuppressive drug withdrawal. With FL, this may reflect striking augmentation of immunostimulatory dendritic cells.     

Master's-level training and employment in community mental health.

The training and employment of master's-level psychologists have long been controversial issues. We describe a master's-level program for training community mental health practitioners, and we present information on the placement of program graduates. The information suggests that there continues to be a demand for well-trained, master's-level practitioners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physicochemical properties and amylopectin chain profiles of cowpea,chickpea and yellow pea starches

Starches from cowpea and chickpea seeds were isolated and their properties were compared with those of commercial yellow pea starch. Amylose contents were 25.8%, 27.2%, and 31.2%, and the volume mean diameter of granules, determined in the dry state, were 15.5, 17.9, and 33.8 μm for cowpea, chickpea and yellow pea starches, respectively. All three legume starches showed a C-type X-ray diffraction pattern and two-stage swelling pattern. Amylopectin populations were isolated and the unit chain profiles were analyzed by HPLC after debranching with pullulanase. The degree of polymerization (DP) of short chain populations was about 6–50 and the populations of long chain had a DP of 50–80. Cowpea showed a lower weight ratio of short:long chains than chickpea and yellow pea starches. The larger portion of long side chains in cowpea amylopectin can be correlated with a higher gelatinization temperature, greater pasting peak and a slight difference in crystalline structure found for cowpea starch. Chickpea and yellow pea starches exhibited similarity in unit chain profile of amylopectin as well as in gelatinization temperature and pasting profile, while they differed in amylose content, particle size and syneresis. It is assumed that the chain length distribution of amylopectin has a large influence on starch properties.     

Effect of light, solvents and commercial enzymes on the solubility and stability of sesquiterpene lactones from chicory roots

Summary The solubility of lactucin, 8-deoxylactucin and lactucopicrin, all sesquiterpene lactones of chicory roots, was determined as a function of pH (pH 1–10) in the presence and absence of polysaccharides. The stability of the sesquiterpene lactones, when dissolved in water, decreased under influence of daylight as a function of pH. Enzymatic hydrolysis of lactucopicrin by commercial enzyme preparations, used for liquefaction of chicory roots into lactucin and p-hydroxyphenylacetic acid, was not found.

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Einfluß von Licht, Lösungsmittel und Handelsenzymen auf die Löslichkeit und Stabilität der Sesquiterpen-Lactone von Zichorienwurzeln

Zusammenfassung Die Stabilität von LaCA Bussurnctucin, 8-Deoxylactucin und Lactucopicrin (alles SesquiterpenLactone der Zichorienwurzel) wurde in Abhängigkeit vom pH-Wert beim Aufbewahren im Licht studiert. Es konnte ein Abbau dieser Verbindungen nachgewiesen werden. Die Löslichkeit dieser drei Verbindungen wurde in Abhängigkeit vom pH-Wert mit und ohne Polysaccharide bestimmt. Es wurde keine Hydrolyse des Lactucopicrins unter der Einwirkung von kommerziellen Enzymen, die bei der Verflüssigung von Zichorienwurzeln verwendet werden, gefunden.

     

Leaving randstad Holland: An analysis of housing preferences with decision plan nets

This article considers the willingness of Randstad residents to move out of this urban region. The research question is “Which households plan to leave the Randstad and under what conditions?” The focus is on growth centers, which were developed to resolve soccial and environmental problems in the congested cities and to prevent urban sprawl. After giving some theoretical background on the phenomenon of mobility, the article considers migration from the Randstad to other parts of the country. That discussion is based on the literature and on empirical data. The design of our own investigation is presented, with an emphasis on the method we used, namely Decision Plan Nets. This method allows the investigator to query people with a propensity to move more explicitly on their housing preferences. The main conclusions of our research are that residents of growth centers generally express very little desire to leave the Randstad, even upon further probing. If they want to leave, they would only do so under certain conditions, primarily related to employment opportunities outside the Randstad.     

Study of a new energy efficient process for French fries production

A new, energy efficient production process for French fries was developed and evaluated. Superheated steam (SHS) was used for evaporation of water instead of pre-drying with air and par-frying with oil. The product was frozen by vacuum cooling. Unfortunately, with this process it was not possible to reach the quality of conventional French fries. Sensory analysis indicated that the main quality defect was a tough crust with a fatty appearance. Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy showed that this was caused by skin formation on the surface during both SHS drying and vacuum cooling. A frying step was necessary to obtain a porous crust. A satisfactory product quality was feasible after drying with SHS instead of air. Due to the concessions made for the product quality, the final energy reduction was limited. Nevertheless, this study has gained more insight into how processing affects potato tissue on micro-scale and it has shown that a porous structure is essential for good quality French fries.     

Bifidobacterium carbohydrases-their role in breakdown and synthesis of (potential) prebiotics

There is an increasing interest to positively influence the human intestinal microbiota through the diet by the use of prebiotics and/or probiotics. It is anticipated that this will balance the microbial composition in the gastrointestinal tract in favor of health promoting genera such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus. Carbohydrates like non-digestible oligosaccharides are potential prebiotics. To understand how these bacteria can grow on these carbon sources, knowledge of the carbohydrate-modifying enzymes is needed. Little is known about the carbohydrate-modifying enzymes of bifidobacteria. The genome sequence of Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Bifidobacterium longum biotype longum has been completed and it was observed that for B. longum biotype longum more than 8% of the annotated genes were involved in carbohydrate metabolism. In addition more sequence data of individual carbohydrases from other Bifidobacterium spp. became available. Besides the degradation of (potential) prebiotics by bifidobacterial glycoside hydrolases, we will focus in this review on the possibilities to produce new classes of non-digestible oligosaccharides by showing the presence and (transglycosylation) activity of the most important carbohydrate modifying enzymes in bifidobacteria. Approaches to use and improve carbohydrate-modifying enzymes in prebiotic design will be discussed.     

Iterative nonlinear detection for SFBC SC–FDMA uplink MIMO transmission systems

Single‐carrier frequency division multiple access (SC‐FDMA) systems with space frequency block coding (SFBC) transmissions achieve both spatial and frequency diversity gains in wireless communications. However, SFBC SC‐FDMA schemes using linear detectors suffer from severe performance deterioration because of noise enhancement propagation and additive noise presence in the detected output. Both issues are similar to inter‐symbol‐interference (ISI). Traditionally, SC‐FDMA system decision feedback equalizer (DFE) is often used to eliminate ISI caused by multipath propagation. This article proposes frequency domain turbo equalization based on nonlinear multiuser detection for uplink SFBC SC‐FDMA transmission systems. The presented iterative receiver performs equalization with soft decisions feedback for ISI mitigation. Its coefficients are derived using minimum mean squared error criteria. The receiver configuration study is Alamouti's SFBC with two transmit and two receive antennas. New receiver approach is compared with the recently proposed suboptimal linear detector for SFBC SC‐FDMA systems. Simulation results confirm that the performance of the proposed iterative detection outperforms conventional detection techniques. After a few iterations, bit‐error‐rate performance of the proposed receiver design is closely to the matched filter bound. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of food matrix on absorption of flavour compounds by linear low‐density polyethylene: proteins and carbohydrates

The effects of differences in food matrices on the absorption of four flavour compounds (limonene, decanal, linalool and ethyl 2‐methyl butyrate) into linear low‐density polyethylene (LLDPE) were studied using a large volume injection GC ‘in vial’ extraction method. Food components investigated included β‐lactoglobulin (β‐lg), casein, pectin, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), lactose and saccharose. β‐lg interacted irreversibly with decanal (P < 0.01) and suppressed absorption of the latter by LLDPE by more than 50% after 14 days of exposure. Casein was capable of binding limonene and decanal (p < 0.05) by hydrophobic and covalent interactions, resulting in decreased absorption of 40% and 90%, respectively. The absorption rates of limonene, and to a leaser extent decanal, were decreased in presence of pectin and CMC. Increasing viscosity slowed down diffusion of flavour compounds from the matrix to LLDPE. An increase of absorption (p < 0.01) was observed for linalool and ethyl 2‐methyl butyrate, due to a ‘salting out’ effect caused by lactose and saccharose. The absorption of decanal was decreased (p < 0.01) after 14 days of exposure in the presence of lactose, saccharose and CMC. There might be an interactive effect between a sugar (residue) and decanal. Knowledge of the composition of a food matrix and packaging material is necessary to estimate the amount of flavour absorption. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry