Sleep Disturbance and Metabolic Dysfunction: The Roles of Adipokines

Adipokines are a growing group of peptide or protein hormones that play important roles in whole body metabolism and metabolic diseases. Sleep is an integral component of energy metabolism, and sleep disturbance has been implicated in a wide range of metabolic disorders. Accumulating evidence suggests that adipokines may play a role in mediating the close association between sleep disorders and systemic metabolic derangements. In this review, we briefly summarize a group of selected adipokines and their identified function in metabolism. Moreover, we provide a balanced overview of these adipokines and their roles in sleep physiology and sleep disorders from recent human and animal studies. These studies collectively demonstrate that the functions of adipokine in sleep physiology and disorders could be largely twofold: (1) adipokines have multifaceted roles in sleep physiology and sleep disorders, and (2) sleep disturbance can in turn affect adipokine functions that likely contribute to systemic metabolic derangements.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Eu3+‐Doped Transparent Glass–ceramics Containing Nanocrystalline SrIINbIVO3

The glass–ceramics containing a rarely achievable nanocrystalline Sr^IINb^IVO₃ phase in the 53.75SiO₂–18.25K₂O–9Bi₂O₃–9SrO–9Nb₂O₅–0.5CeO₂–0.5Eu₂O₃ (mol%) glass system were prepared by the melt‐quench technique followed by a two‐stage controlled heat treatment. The unusual oxidation state of Nb in Sr^IINb^IVO₃ crystal is 4+ and upon heat treatment of the samples at lower temperature of 500°C for several hours, the glass composition and chemical environment around Nb ions played a key role for the formation of Sr^IINb^IVO₃ in the glass–ceramics. The microstructure of the glass–ceramics was studied using TEM and FESEM. The TEM images advocate 10–40 nm crystallite size of Sr^IINb^IVO₃. FTIR study confirms that all the samples consist of SiO₄, BiO₃, BiO₆, and NbO₆ structural units. The refractive index at different wavelengths was found to vary in the range 1.7105–1.7905 and increase with increase in heat‐treatment time. The luminescence spectra of Eu³⁺‐doped glass and glass–ceramics were recorded at 465 nm excitation wavelength and the luminescence intensity is found to be increased with heat‐treatment time due to increase in crystallinity. The high intensity ratio of ⁵D₀→⁷F₂ to ⁵D₀→⁷F₁ indicates that the Eu³⁺‐doped nanocrystalline Sr^IINb^IVO₃ glass–ceramics are promising candidate materials as red‐light source.     

Analysis of wave switched-capacitor filters

For a special class of switched-capacitor filters, the wave SC filters, a very efficient analysis method will be given. It is based on a block partitioning technique, i.e. the whole wave SC network is divided into small subnetworks. Only small matrices have to be processed which saves computation time, so that even large wave SC filters can be analysed very fast and with high accuracy. It will also be shown that the methods can be extended for the analysis of other SC networks. Some numerical examples of different wave SC structures will be given.     

Composition and characterization of simulated putrescible garbage

The composition and characterization of liquidised garbage (LG) during liquidisation process were carried out to access various properties, viz., moisture, organics, ash, elemental composition, suspension stability, flow characteristics, higher heating value (HHV), glucose and total organic carbon (TOC) for getting preliminary information about liquidisation as a pre-treatment process for anaerobic digestion of simulated garbage (SG). Minimum moisture and maximum organic content were found as 750 and 850 g kg⁻¹, respectively. From elemental analysis, C/N ratio obtained was suitable for the growth of microbes. The HHV of dried solid phase for LG at 393 K was higher than that of mechanically ground garbage (MEC). The LG was regarded as a pseudo plastic liquid from values of flow behaviour index obtained. The amount of glucose was found to be decreased during liquidisation process. The amount of TOC in both solid and liquid phase of LG was more as compared to MEC.     

VIS-SC filters for higher clock frequency applications

A method is described by which switched-capacitor filters employing voltage invertor switches can be designed using a two-phase clock. The resulting circuits are completely insensitive to bottom plate parasitics and the operating rate of the amplifiers is only twice the operating rate of the filter so that this method is suitable for higher clock frequency applications. Furthermore, the SC filters have low attenuation sensitivity to element variations, due to the one-to-one correspondence between the capacitors and the elements of the reference filter and owing to the fact that no matching is required between the network capacitors and the auxiliary hold capacitors.     

Development of biodegradable scaffold using polylactic acid and polycaprolactone for cardiovascular application

The limitations of newly synthesized biodegradable stents are low mechanical strength, fracture stiffness, and fast degradability of the polymers. A cylindrical polymeric scaffold was proposed in combination of polylactic acid and polycaprolactone. The tensile strength of the blend was increased twice, though elongation has reduced threefold. The blend illustrated no chemical interaction between polymers. The scaffold was coated with docetaxel, and sustained release profile was observed for 56 days. The degradation of the scaffold was evaluated through change in mechanical properties, weight variation, and morphological studies. The developed hemocompatible polymeric scaffold may be used as for the cardiovascular application.     

In situ measurements of optical parameters in Lake Baikal with the help of a Neutrino telescope

We present results of an experiment performed in Lake Baikal at a depth of approximately 1 km. The photomultipliers of an underwater neutrino telescope under construction at this site were illuminated by a distant laser. The experiment not only provided a useful cross-check of the time calibration of the detector but also allowed us to determine inherent optical parameters of the water in a way that was complementary to standard methods. In 1997 we measured an absorption length of 22 m and an asymptotic attenuation length of 18 m. The effective scattering length was measured as 480 m. By use of (cos theta) = 0.95 (0.90) for the average scattering angle, this length corresponds to a geometric scattering length of 24 (48) m.     

Novel switched-capacitor pseudo-N-path filter

The letter presents novel fully stray-insensitive switched-capacitor (SC) pseudo-N-path filters based on the theory of wave-flow networks. N-path filters are well suited for the realisation of narrowband bandpass and bandreject filters. The two main drawbacks of N-path filters, i.e. unwanted mirror frequencies due to path mismatch, and clock feedthrough located in the passband, are overcome by applying the pseudo-N-path principle. The design procedure will be demonstrated using an example of a 6-path filter based on a 3rd-order highpass prototype filter.     

A comparative study of the parabolized Navier-Stokes code using various grid-generation techniques

The parabolized Navier-Stokes (PNS) equations are used to calculate the flow-field characteristics about the hypersonic research aircraft X-24C. A comparison of the results obtained using elliptic, hyperbolic and algebraic grid generators is presented. The outer bow shock is treated as a sharp discontinuity, and the discontinuities within the shock layer are captured. Surface pressures and heat-transfer results at angles of attack of 6° and 20°, obtained using the three grid generators, are compared. The PNS equations are marched downstream over the body in both Cartesian and cylindrical base coordinate systems, and the results are compared. A robust marching procedure is demonstrated by successfully using large marching-step size with the implicit shock fitting procedure. A correlation is found between the marching-step size. Reynolds number and the angle of attack at fixed values of smoothing and stability coefficients for the marching scheme.