Uncertainties in the determination of pyrrolizidine alkaloid levels in naturally contaminated honeys and comparison of results obtained by different analytical approaches

The contamination of honey with hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) is a well-known hazard for food safety. While management strategies and controls of the honey industry aim to reduce the PA levels, uncertainties remain with regard to the safety of regionally produced and marketed honey. In addition, a previous study showed large differences of results obtained after various periods of storage and apparent differences between the analytical results of different laboratories. Therefore, this study aimed at examining these uncertainties by monitoring the impact of storage on the PA and PA N-oxide (PANO) content of two freshly harvested honeys and on possible demixing effects caused by pollen settling. Additionally, three analytical approaches – target analysis with matrix-matched calibration or standard addition and a sum parameter method – were applied for a comparative analysis of 20 honeys harvested in summer 2016. All samples originated from Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany where the PA plant Jacobaea vulgaris is currently observed on a massive scale. The results of the time series analyses showed that PANO levels markedly decreased within a few weeks and practically reached the LOD 16 weeks after harvest. Tertiary PAs, by contrast, remained stable and did not increase as a consequence of PANO decrease. The experiments on a putative demixing, which may result in a heterogeneous distribution of PAs/PANOs, revealed that there was no such effect during storage of up to 12 weeks. A comparison of the PA/PANO levels obtained by different analytical approaches showed that in some cases the sum parameter method yielded much higher levels than the target approaches, whereas in other cases, the target analysis with standard addition found higher levels than the other two methods. In summary, the results of this study highlight uncertainties regarding the validity and comparability of analytical results and consequently regarding health risk assessment.     

Pull-Down of Metalloproteins in Their Native States by Using Desthiobiotin-Based Probes

One-third of all proteins are estimated to require metals for structural stability and/or catalytic activity. Desthiobiotin probes containing metal binding groups can be used to capture metalloproteins with exposed active-site metals under mild conditions so as to prevent changes in metallation state. The proof-of-concept was demonstrated with carbonic anhydrase (CA), an open active site, Zn²⁺-containing protein. CA was targeted by using sulfonamide derivatives. Linkers of various lengths and structures were screened to determine the optimal structure for capture of the native protein. The optimized probes could selectively pull down CA from red blood cell lysate and other protein mixtures. Pull-down of differently metallated CAs was also investigated.     

Abnormal selection of antibody repertoires in retrovirus-induced murine AIDS

The mature B cell repertoire in the course of murine AIDS (MAIDS) was investigated. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify a large diversity of rearranged Ig H chain genes in normal or infected mice, 2 and 8 wk after virus inoculation. Libraries were constructed from the polymerase chain reaction products. By sequencing V-D-J clones in these libraries and analyzing the respective complementary determining region 3 (CDR3), we have shown at 8 wk the emergence of a population of B cells with significantly less N diversity, some sequences lacking any N addition, a typical feature of fetal repertoires known for degeneracy, and autoreactivities. This decreased N diversity was not present 2 wk after inoculation and could not be related to a defect in terminal deoxytransferase expression because the steady-state levels of terminal deoxytransferase mRNA were found normal in MAIDS bone marrow 8 wk after inoculation. FACS analyses revealed a decreased number of bone marrow B cells (B220+, sIgM+) in MAIDS already present at 2 wk, suggesting an alteration in the pathway of B cell differentiation and resulting in a decrease of peripheral B cells renewal. A relative enrichment of spleen cells in long lived B cells as a consequence of this blockade may participate in the abnormal antibody repertoire selection occurring in MAIDS. These data suggest in the MAIDS pathogeny the relationship between an abnormal repertoire selection and the pathologic process.     

Application, design, and evolution of DWDM in Pan-European Transport Networks

This article is a follow-up to our March 2000 article, "Application, design, and evolution of WDM in GTS's pan-European transport network" (Struyve et al. 2000). Since then, many events have led toward dismantling the GTS pan-European transport network. In this article we choose to reiterate the main statements of our previous article that are still valid today, and give a general overview of the current status and possible evolution trends of DWDM-based transport networks.     

Identifying the criterion spontaneously minimized during the take-off phase of a sub-maximal long jump through optimal synthesis

Optimal synthesis of human movement or the prediction of the kinematics of a new movement require not only that the multi-body system be modeled but also that a performance criterion is specified. For sub-maximal movements the selection of a suitable performance criterion, able to generate realistic dynamic behavior is difficult. A two-dimensional simulation model of the take-off phase of a sub-maximal long jump was developed to study the effect of criterion choice on the realism of simulated movements. A parametric optimization technique was employed to obtain solutions to the constrained equations of motion. Seven different criteria were evaluated, by comparing simulated movements with an actual performance, to identify the criterion which most closely approximated that spontaneously minimized by the athlete. Synthesis of the take-off phase of a sub-maximal long jump was found to be sensitive to the chosen criterion, with a criterion based on minimizing joint intersegmental forces found to perform well.     

Thermal analysis of polymer–water interactions and their relation to gas hydrate inhibition

Gas hydrates formed in oil production pipelines are crystalline solids where hydrocarbon gas molecules such as methane, propane, and their mixtures are trapped in a cagelike structure by hydrogen‐bonded water molecules to form undesirable plugs. Methanol and glycol are currently used to prevent these plugs via thermodynamic inhibition. Small amounts of water‐soluble polymers may provide an alternate approach for preventing gas hydrates. In this study, we expand the fundamental understanding of water–polymer systems with differential scanning calorimetry. Nonfreezable bound water was used to quantify polymer–water interactions and relate them to the chemical structure for a series of polymers, including acrylamides, cyclic lactams, and n‐vinyl amides. For good interactions, the water structure needs to be stabilized through hydrophobic interactions. An increased hydrophobicity of the pendant group also appears to favor polymer performance as a gas hydrate inhibitor. Good inhibitors, such as poly(diethyl acrylamide) and poly(N‐vinyl caprolactam), also show higher heat capacities, which indicate higher hydrophobicity, than poor performers such as polyzwitterions, in which hydrophilicity dominated. The phase behavior and thermodynamic properties of dilute polymer solutions were also evaluated through measurements of the heat of demixing and lower critical solution temperature. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 2642–2653, 2007     

Color object segmentation and tracking using flexible statistical model and level-set

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This study presents an unsupervised novel algorithm for color image segmentation, object detection and tracking based on unsupervised learning step followed with...     

Effect of substrate surface roughness on the adherence of NiCrAlY thermal spray coatings

The adherence of plasma sprayed NiCrAlY bond coats can be improved by an appropriate substrate surface finish. The interface fracture energy for crack propagation along the coating/substrate interface has been measured for different surface roughness by means of a specially designed four-point bending test. An increase of the interface fracture energy of about 15% was observed for a three times higher surface roughness. In addition, four-point bending tests with the coating on the side face of bending specimens were performed to analyze the fracture and spalling behavior of the coatings both under large tensile and compressive substrate deformations.     

Multi-switching adaptive synchronization of two fractional-order chaotic systems with different structure and different order

In this work, we combine the active and adaptive control theories, and propose a novel synchronization scheme for a class of fractional-order chaotic systems with different structure and different order. Based on the new version of fractional-order Lyapunov stability theory, we design the adaptive controllers and updating laws of different switching. We use the fractional-order Lorenz chaotic system and the fractional-order Chen chaotic system as examples to analyze the multi-switching synchronization process for fractional-order chaotic systems with different structures and different orders. Finally, numerical simulations are also given to illustrate the effectiveness and validation of the proposed method, and the model uncertainties and external disturbances are added to the considered systems to verify the robustness of the proposed controllers.     

Recovery in multilayer optical networks

The integration of different network technologies into a multilayer network, as in Internet-based networks carried by optical transport networks (OTNs), creates new opportunities but also challenges with respect to network survivability. In different network layers, recovery mechanisms that are active can be exploited jointly to reach a more efficient or faster recovery from failures. This interworking is also indispensable in order to overcome the variety of failure scenarios that can occur in the multilayer-network environment. A well-considered coordination between the different layers and their recovery mechanisms is crucial in order to attain high performance recovery. This paper provides an overview of multilayer recovery issues and solutions in an Internet protocol (IP)-over-optical-network environment, which is illustrated by quantitative case studies.