Hull-less Barley Varieties: Storage Proteins and Amino Acid Distribution in Relation to Nutritional Quality

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) has had an important impact on human nutrition. Hull-less barley is a genetically improved type that has been widely used in recent years. Six Brazilian hull-less barley varieties (IAC-IBON 214-82; IAC 8612-421; IAC 8501-31; IAC 8501-12; IAPAR 39-ACUMAI; IAC 8501-22) were analyzed for storage protein constituents, amino acid contents, and similarity among the hull-less barley varieties. Albumins, globulins, prolamins I and II, and glutelins were extracted and separated by SDS-PAGE. The total protein amino acid contents of the flour were also determined for each variety by TLC and HPLC. Variations in intensity and appearance and disappearance of protein bands were observed among the varieties suggesting genetic variability. However, the amino acid profile did not indicate any major variations in the amino acid concentrations. The high lysine and threonine total concentrations detected in the seeds of the hull-less barley varieties encouraged an investigation into the regulation of amino acid metabolism and storage protein synthesis.     

Time‐dependent heat transfer coefficient of a wall

A time‐dependent coefficient of heat transfer is proposed for the computation of thermal power required, so that a room temperature reaches a desired value within a given time. A mathematical formulation of the room heating transient phenomenon is constructed in a dimensionless form. Using an integral approximate solution an analytical expression for this coefficient is provided and it is verified by diagrams adopted by DIN 4701. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining the significance of high-level programming features in source code author classification

The use of Source Code Author Profiles (SCAP) represents a new, highly accurate approach to source code authorship identification that is, unlike previous methods, language independent. While accuracy is clearly a crucial requirement of any author identification method, in cases of litigation regarding authorship, plagiarism, and so on, there is also a need to know why it is claimed that a piece of code is written by a particular author. What is it about that piece of code that suggests a particular author? What features in the code make one author more likely than another? In this study, we describe a means of identifying the high-level features that contribute to source code authorship identification using as a tool the SCAP method. A variety of features are considered for Java and Common Lisp and the importance of each feature in determining authorship is measured through a sequence of experiments in which we remove one feature at a time. The results show that, for these programs, comments, layout features and package-related naming influence classification accuracy whereas user-defined naming, an obvious programmer related feature, does not appear to influence accuracy. A comparison is also made between the relative feature contributions in programs written in the two languages.     

ComPLuS model: A new insight in pupils’ collaborative talk, actions and balance during a computer-mediated music task

This exploratory work describes and analyses the collaborative interactions that emerge during computer-based music composition in the primary school. The study draws on socio-cultural theories of learning, originated within Vygotsky’s theoretical context, and proposes a new model, namely Computer-mediated Praxis and Logos under Synergy (ComPLuS). In this model, peers’ dialogue is categorised into five types; disputational, cumulative, exploratory, operational, and reflective, with each one corresponding to different types of spoken contributions. Moreover, peers’ actions are categorised as individual or joint and are used to evaluate the effect of computer mediation on the collaborative activity and its balance within a pair. The potential and effectiveness of the realisation of the ComPLuS model in practice, as far as peers’ collaboration is concerned, are evaluated from its trialling in an experimental case-study, in which a group of 11-yr old pupils worked in pairs to compose short melodies using computers at the computer room of their school. Emphasis was placed upon the types of social modes of thinking with regard to pupils’ spoken contributions and talk types during their conversation; pupils’ actions when manipulating software, and the balance of talk and action between the pair members. Their ongoing peer-to-peer communication and actions formed the research data. A mixed (qualitative and quantitative) analysis revealed that peers usually adopted cumulative and exploratory talk. Moreover, the action type which dominated their work was based on a consensual decision. Nevertheless, it was found that lead on collaborative talk does not mean lead on joint action and does not always sustain a balance in peers’ collaboration. Experimentation with the music software, in conjunction with pupils’ musical background, facilitated their joint action, exploratory and reflective talk. However, audio feedback provided by the software did not seem to affect peers’ talk types. These results suggest that the ComPLuS model captures the characteristics of peers’ collaborative interactions during their shared discussions and actions, and can lead to a better understanding of the nature of computer-supported collaborative creativity in primary music education.     

0.5‐V fractional‐order companding filters

Novel configurations of fractional‐order filter topologies, realized through the employment of the concept of companding filtering, are introduced in this paper. As a first step, the design procedure is presented in a systematic algorithmic way, while in the next step, the basic building blocks of sinh‐domain and log‐domain integrators are presented. Because of the employment of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) transistors operated in the subthreshold region, the derived filter structures offer the capability for operation in an ultra‐low‐voltage environment. In addition, because of the offered resistorless realizations, the proposed topologies are reconfigurable, in the sense that the order of the filter could be chosen through appropriate bias current sources. The performance of the derived fractional‐order filters has been evaluated through simulation and comparison results using the Analog Design Environment of the Cadence software and MOS transistor parameters provided by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 180‐nm complementary MOS (CMOS) process. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unraveling the Immune Microenvironment of Thymic Epithelial Tumors: Implications for Autoimmunity and Treatment

Thymic Epithelial Tumors (TETs) represent a rare tumor family, originating from the epithelial component of the thymus gland. Clinicopathologically, they are segregated into six major subtypes, associated with distinct histological features and clinical outcomes. Their emergence and evolution are accompanied by the generation of a complex tumor microenvironment (TME), dominated by phenotypically and functionally divergent immune cellular subsets, in different maturation states and in analogies that vary significantly among different subtypes. These heterogenous leukocyte populations exert either immune-permissive and tumor-suppressive functions or vice versa, and the dynamic equilibrium established among them either dictates the tumor immune milieu towards an immune-tolerance state or enables the development of a productive spontaneous tumoricidal response. The immunologically “hot” microenvironment, defining a significant proportion of TETs, makes them a promising candidate for the implementation of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). A number of phase I and II clinical trials have already demonstrated significant, type-specific clinical efficacy of PD-L1 inhibitors, even though substantial limitations in their utilization derive from their immune-mediated adverse effects. Moreover, the completed clinical studies involved relatively restricted patient samples and an expansion in the enrolled cohorts is required, so that more trustworthy conclusions regarding the benefit from ICIs in TETs can be extracted.     

Using functional programming to recognize named structure in an optimization problem: Application to pooling

Branch‐and‐cut optimization solvers typically apply generic algorithms, e.g., cutting planes or primal heuristics, to expedite performance for many mathematical optimization problems. But solver software receives an input optimization problem as vectors of equations and constraints containing no structural information. This article proposes automatically detecting named special structure using the pattern matching features of functional programming. Specifically, we deduce the industrially‐relevant nonconvex nonlinear Pooling Problem within a mixed‐integer nonlinear optimization problem and show that we can uncover pooling structure in optimization problems which are not pooling problems. Previous work has shown that preprocessing heuristics can find network structures; we show that we can additionally detect nonlinear pooling patterns. Finding named structures allows us to apply, to generic optimization problems, cutting planes or primal heuristics developed for the named structure. To demonstrate the recognition algorithm, we use the recognized structure to apply primal heuristics to a test set of standard pooling problems. © 2016 The Authors AIChE Journal published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 3085–3095, 2016     

Modeling of fermentative hydrogen production from sweet sorghum extract based on modified ADM1

The Anaerobic digestion model 1 (ADM1) framework can be used to predict fermentative hydrogen production, since the latter is directly related to the acidogenic stage of the anaerobic digestion process. In this study, the ADM1 model framework was used to simulate and predict the process of fermentative hydrogen production from the extractable sugars of sweet sorghum biomass. Kinetic parameters for sugars’ consumption and yield coefficients of acetic, propionic and butyric acid production were estimated using the experimental data obtained from the steady states of a CSTR. Batch experiments were used for kinetic parameter validation. Since the ADM1 does not account for metabolic products such as lactic acid and ethanol that are crucial during the fermentative hydrogen production process, the structure of the model was modified to include lactate and ethanol among the metabolites and to improve the predictions. The modified ADM1 simulated satisfactorily batch experiments although further modifications could be made in order to further improve the predictions for the hydrogenogenic process.     

Local difference patterns for drunk person identification

In this work, facial thermal infrared images are employed for intoxicated person discrimination. Specifically, the region of the forehead of the face of the sober and the corresponding intoxicated person is used to test if the employed Local Difference Patterns (LDPs) constitute discriminative features. For an intoxicated person, vessels on the forehead become more active so that the intensity of the pixels in this region is affected accordingly. The LDPs employed ignore orientation of the pixels distribution and give emphasis on the first and second norms of the differences as well as the ordered values of the pixels in the employed kernels. The statistics of the LDPs for the drunk person are different from those of the sober one and accordingly drunkenness can be ascertained by comparing the thermal infrared image of the corresponding sober and intoxicated person. Six from the eight LDPs examined to be used as features for drunk identification were proved successful. Their classification success rate was over 73 and up to 85%. The proposed method can be incorporated into a non-invasive inspection commercial system to be used by the police as a first step for intoxicated person detection. Forty one participants in the experiment have contributed to the creation of the unique sober–drunk database which is available on the web and contains over 4.000 images.