κ-Opioid Signaling in the Lateral Hypothalamic Area Modulates Nicotine-Induced Negative Energy Balance

Several studies have reported that nicotine, the main bioactive component of tobacco, exerts a marked negative energy balance. Apart from its anorectic action, nicotine also modulates energy expenditure, by regulating brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis and white adipose tissue (WAT) browning. These effects are mainly controlled at the central level by modulation of hypothalamic neuropeptide systems and energy sensors, such as AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). In this study, we aimed to investigate the kappa opioid receptor (κOR)/dynorphin signaling in the modulation of nicotine’s effects on energy balance. We found that body weight loss after nicotine treatment is associated with a down-regulation of the κOR endogenous ligand dynorphin precursor and with a marked reduction in κOR signaling and the p70 S6 kinase/ribosomal protein S6 (S6K/rpS6) pathway in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA). The inhibition of these pathways by nicotine was completely blunted in κOR deficient mice, after central pharmacological blockade of κOR, and in rodents where κOR was genetically knocked down specifically in the LHA. Moreover, κOR-mediated nicotine effects on body weight do not depend on orexin. These data unravel a new central regulatory pathway modulating nicotine’s effects on energy balance.     

Description of the thermodynamic properties and fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of linear,branched, and cyclic amines

The SAFT-γ Mie group-contribution equation of state is used to represent the fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of a variety of linear, branched, and cyclic amines. New group interactions are developed in order to model the mixtures of interest, including the like and unlike interactions between alkyl primary, secondary, and tertiary amine groups (NH₂, NH, N), cyclic secondary and tertiary amine groups (cNH, cN), and cyclic methine-amine groups (cCHNH, cCHN) with water (H₂O). The group-interaction parameters are estimated from appropriate experimental thermodynamic data for pure amines and selected mixtures. By taking advantage of the group-contribution nature of the method, one can describe the fluid-phase behavior of mixtures of molecules comprising those groups over broad ranges of temperature, pressure, and composition. A number of aqueous solutions of amines are studied including linear, branched aliphatic, and cyclic amines. Liquid–liquid equilibria (LLE) bounded by lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) have been reported experimentally and are reproduced here with the SAFT-γ Mie approach. The main feature of the approach is the ability not only to represent accurately the experimental data employed in the parameter estimation, but also to predict the vapor–liquid, liquid–liquid, and vapor–liquid–liquid equilibria, and LCSTs with the same set of parameters. Pure compound and binary phase diagrams of diverse types of amines and their aqueous solutions are assessed in order to demonstrate the main features of the thermodynamic and fluid-phase behavior.     

Contrasting Rootstock-Mediated Growth and Yield Responses in Salinized Pepper Plants (Capsicum annuum L.) Are Associated with Changes in the Hormonal Balance

Salinity provokes an imbalance of vegetative to generative growth, thus impairing crop productivity. Unlike breeding strategies, grafting is a direct and quick alternative to improve salinity tolerance in horticultural crops, through rebalancing plant development. Providing that hormones play a key role in plant growth and development and stress responses, we hypothesized that rootstock-mediated reallocation of vegetative growth and yield under salinity was associated with changes in the hormonal balance. To test this hypothesis, the hybrid pepper variety (Capsicum annuum L. “Gacela F1”) was either non-grafted or grafted onto three commercial rootstocks (Creonte, Atlante, and Terrano) and plants were grown in a greenhouse under control (0 mM NaCl) and moderate salinity (35 mM NaCl) conditions. Differential vegetative growth versus fruit yield responses were induced by rootstock and salinity. Atlante strongly increased shoot and root fresh weight with respect to the non-grafted Gacela plants associated with improved photosynthetic rate and K⁺ homeostasis under salinity. The invigorating effect of Atlante can be explained by an efficient balance between cytokinins (CKs) and abscisic acid (ABA). Creonte improved fruit yield and maintained the reproductive to vegetative ratio under salinity as a consequence of its capacity to induce biomass reallocation and to avoid Na⁺ accumulation in the shoot. The physiological responses associated with yield stability in Creonte were mediated by the inverse regulation of CKs and the ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid. Finally, Terrano limited the accumulation of gibberellins in the shoot thus reducing plant height. Despite scion compactness induced by Terrano, both vegetative and reproductive biomass were maintained under salinity through ABA-mediated control of water relations and K⁺ homeostasis. Our data demonstrate that the contrasting developmental and physiological responses induced by the rootstock genotype in salinized pepper plants were critically mediated by hormones. This will be particularly important for rootstock breeding programs to improve salinity tolerance by focusing on hormonal traits.     

Contribution of a disulfide bridge to the stability of 1,3-1,4-P-D-glucan 4-glucanohydrolase from Bacillus licheniformis

Bacillus 1,3-1,4-ß-glucanases possess a highly conserveddisulfide bridge connecting a ß-strand with a solventexposedloop lying on top of the extended binding site cleft The contributionof the disulfide bond and of both individual cysteines (Cys61and Cys90) in the Bacillus licheniformis enzyme to stabilityand activity has been evaluated by protein engineering methods.Reduction of the disulfide bond has no effect on kinetic parameters,has only a minor effect on the activity-temperature profileat high temperatures, and destabilizes the protein by less than0.7 kcal/mol as measured by equilibrium urea denatu ration at37°C. Replacing either of the Cys residues with Ala destabilizesthe protein and lowers the specific activity. C90A retains 70%of wild-type (wt) activity (in terms of Vmax), whereas C61Aand the double mutant C61A–C90A have 10% of wt V_max. Alarger change in free energy of unfolding is seen by equilibriumurea denaturation for the C61A mutation (loop residue, 3.2 kcal/molrelative to reduced wt) as compared with the C90A mutation (ß-strandresidue, 1.8 kcal/mol relative to reduced wt), while the doublemutant C61A–C90A is 0.8 kcal/mol less stable than thesingle C61A mutant. The effects on stability are interpretedas a result of the change in hydrophobic packing that occursupon removal of the sulfur atoms in the Cys to Ala mutations     

Correct behavior identification system in a Tagged World

This paper presents a system that is able to process the information provided by a Tagged World to identify user’s behavior and to produce alarms in dangerous situations. The system inputs are signals from sensors, which are used to recognize correct behavior (action sequences) by Inductive Learning, using Data Mining techniques. The inference engine is a reasoning device that is implemented by means of Regular Grammars. It permits us to control user’s behavior. As output, the system produces and sends alarms when a user action sequence is wrong, indicating the erroneous actions, forgotten future, and so on. To test our system, the Tagged World is supposed to be at a house, where we have used RFID technology to control the objects inside it.     

Morphology and Stability of Edible Lycopene-Containing Micro- and Nanocapsules Produced Through Electrospraying and Spray Drying

Food and Bioprocess Technology - In this work, lycopene was encapsulated through electrospraying and spray drying (using a microporous membrane cap) within different edible biopolymeric matrices....     

Automatic bearing fault diagnosis based on one-class ν-SVM

Rolling-element bearings are among the most used elements in industrial machinery, thus an early detection of a defect in these components is necessary to avoid major machine failures. Vibration analysis is a widely used condition monitoring technique for high-speed rotating machinery. Using the information contained in the vibration signals, an automatic method for bearing fault detection and diagnosis is presented in this work. Initially, a one-class ν-SVM is used to discriminate between normal and faulty conditions. In order to build a model of normal operation regime, only data extracted under normal conditions is used. Band-pass filters and Hilbert Transform are then used sequentially to obtain the envelope spectrum of the original raw signal that will finally be used to identify the location of the problem. In order to check the performance of the method, two different data sets are used: (a) real data from a laboratory test-to-failure experiment and (b) data obtained from a fault-seeded bearing test. The results showed that the method was able not only to detect the failure in an incipient stage but also to identify the location of the defect and qualitatively assess its evolution over time.