SURF1, encoding a factor involved in the biogenesis of cytochrome c oxidase, is mutated in Leigh syndrome

A drug with cationic characteristics such as procaine can be conveyed in a Carbomer hydrogel in two different ways: (i) in the form of salt in solution in the aqueous phase, and (ii) in the base form salified with the same polymer. Introduction of the drug into the hydrogel with different concentrations of polymer produced, in both cases, a reduction in viscosity in relation to drug concentration. The gels with procaine salified with the polymer showed greater viscosity. The drug release rate, in general, diminished with the increase in polymer concentration. Nevertheless, when this concentration was maintained, there was no variation in release rate when the viscosity produced as a consequence of drug concentration was changed. Gels with procaine salified with the carboxyvinylic polymer had a faster release rate than those with procaine in the hydrochloride form dissolved in the aqueous phase. These results have also been confirmed by a simulated absorption test.     

Regulation of hepatic 7 alpha-hydroxylase expression and response to dietary cholesterol in the rat and hamster

Although dietary cholesterol raises plasma total and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol concentrations, the response to a given intake of cholesterol varies enormously among different species and even among individuals of the same species. The mechanisms responsible for differing sensitivity to dietary cholesterol were examined by comparing the rat, which is able to adapt to large fluctuations in sterol intake or loss with little change in plasma LDL levels, with the hamster, where changes in sterol balance strongly influence plasma LDL concentrations. When fed the same cholesterol-free diet, hepatic 7 alpha-hydroxylase activity was 16-fold higher in the rat than in the hamster. As a consequence, rates of hepatic cholesterol synthesis were 20-fold higher in the rat than in the hamster. In both species, hepatic cholesterol synthesis was suppressed > 90% in response to increasing loads of dietary cholesterol. However, the quantitative importance of this adaptive mechanism was much greater in the rat since the absolute reduction in hepatic cholesterol synthesis in the rat (2,110 nmol/h/g) was much larger than in the hamster (103 nmol/h/g). In the rat, the high basal level of 7 alpha-hydroxylase expression was further induced by substrate (cholesterol) allowing these animals to convert excess dietary cholesterol to bile acids efficiently. In contrast, the low basal level of enzyme expression in the hamster was not induced by dietary cholesterol. Thus, the low basal rates of bile acid and cholesterol synthesis coupled with a lack of 7 alpha-hydroxylase induction by cholesterol render the hamster much more sensitive than the rat to the cholesterolemic effects of dietary cholesterol.     

即时通信蠕虫传播建模

基于对即时通信蠕虫和即时通信网络特点的分析,使用离散时间方法,提出一个即时通信蠕虫离散数学传播模型。开发即时通信蠕虫传播仿真软件用于验证模型的正确性。基于仿真软件进行的大量仿真实验表明,该蠕虫传播模型是正确的,可以用于分析蠕虫的传播行为并预测传播趋势。     

Factorial 2 p–q Plans Robust Against Linear and Quadratic Trends

When the substrate of a 2 ^n–q factorial or fractional factorial experiment may be expected to show trends representable by linear and quadratic terms in time, then certain orderings spaced at equal time-intervals permit better estimation of the effects than do others. Some of these ordered plans are given for p – q = 2, 3, 4, 5. Simple methods are given for computing effects, trends, and efficiencies.     

Pasting,thermal, gel texture,resistant starch and colour properties of unripe banana flour from 10 desert banana varieties cultivated in South Africa

Unripe banana flour is a potential commercial ingredient in various food products for increased resistant starch and reduced gluten contents. In the present study, the pasting (rapid visco-analysis), gel texture (penetration test), thermal (differential scanning calorimetry), colour (tri-stimulus colour indices) and the resistant starch properties of unripe banana flour produced from different dessert banana varieties (n?=?10) cultivated in South Africa, were analysed and juxtaposed to wheat and maize flour. The functional properties varied significantly (p?≤?0.05) between banana varieties, and from wheat and maize flours, to various extents. Selected functional property ranges of unripe banana, wheat and maize flours, respectively included; flour colour index (63.16–76.42, 77.34 and 80.96), paste viscosity (405.5–556.6, 124.7 and 115.6 RVU), gelatinization temperature (64.67–71.21, 71.11 and 69.95?°C), gel firmness (7.24–11.44?×?10^??2 N, 3.49?×?10^??2 N and 6.56?×?10^??2 N) and resistant starch content (19.9–47.4, 2.8 and 2.2% w/w). Multivariate analysis (principle component analysis) showed that the unripe banana flours from different varieties were distinguished from each other based on the pasting temperature. The unripe banana flours were distinguished from both wheat and maize flour based on breakdown and peak paste viscosities. The breakdown viscosity was the most positively related measure to the resistant starch content with a linear regression R-squared value of 0.898, indicating a significant role played by granule structure in resistance to enzymatic hydrolysis. The present research demonstrates that selection of appropriate dessert banana variety is important when replacing staple flours (wheat and maize) with unripe dessert banana flour as a functional ingredient.     

Friction and Wear Reduction Mechanism of Polyalkylene Glycol-Based Engine Oils

Polyalkylene glycols (PAG) have been explored as a possible base stock for engine oil formulation. The friction, wear, and load-carrying capacity of five different PAG chemistries were evaluated either as a base stock or as formulated oils in pure sliding and sliding-rolling conditions using various laboratory bench test rigs operating under boundary and mixed lubrication regimes. The results were compared against GF-5 SAE 5W-20 and a mineral-based oil. The wear surfaces were also characterized using various surface-sensitive techniques for analysis of tribofilms to understand the mechanism of friction reduction. The results indicated that PAG oils show lower friction/traction coefficients and improved load-carrying capability, depending on the formulation, than those of the GF-5 SAE 5W-20 and mineral-based oil. The adsorption of PAG molecules on the surface appeared to be responsible for the lower friction characteristics.     

An Efficient Trajectory Planning for Cellular-Connected UAV under the Connectivity Constraint

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)acting as aerial users to access the cellular network form a promising solution to guarantee its safe and efficient operations via the high-quality communication.Due to the flexible mobility of UAVs and the coverage range limits of ground base station(GBS),the signalto-noise ratio(SNR)of the communication link between UAVs and GBS will fluctuate.It is an important requirement to maintain the UAV’s cellular connection to meet a certain SNR requirement during the mission for UAV flying from take off to landing.In this paper,we study an efficient trajectory planning method that can minimize a cellular-connected UAV’s mission completion time under the connectivity requirement.The conventional method to tackle this problem adopts graph theory or a dynamic programming method to optimize the trajectory,which generally incurs high computational complexities.Moreover,there is a nonnegligible performance gap compared to the optimal solution.To this end,we propose an iterative trajectory optimizing algorithm based on geometric planning.Firstly,we apply graph theory to obtain all the possible UAV-GBS association sequences and select the candidate association sequences based on the topological relationship among UAV and GBSs.Next,adopting the triangle inequality property,an iterative handover location design is proposed to determine the shortest flight trajectory with fast convergence and low computation complexity.Then,the best flight trajectory can be obtained by comparing all the candidate trajectories.Lastly,we revealed the tradeoff between mission completion time and flight energy consumption.Numerical results validate that our proposed solution can obtain the effectiveness with set accuracy and outperform against the benchmark schemes with affordable computation time.     

Integration of superconducting magnets with cryogen-free dilution refrigerator systems

There has been much recent research interest into “cryogen-free” dilution refrigerators. Cryogen-free systems have some advantages from a safety and convenience point of view as liquid cryogens are unnecessary. However, this also makes integrating the low-temperature system with a high magnetic field environment much more challenging. Here we shall describe recent successes of integrating superconducting magnets and dilution refrigerators into one system requiring a single pulse tube cooler. The resulting environment provides experimental temperatures between 7 mK and 30 K and magnetic fields up to 12 T. We shall describe the effects of AC loss heating in such systems on the pulse tube refrigerator when the field is ramped and also the effects of eddy current heating on the mixing chamber in sweeping fields.     

FIR digital filters designed to a group-delay characteristic

In the letter a new design method for FIR digital filters is presented. This method considers designs specified in terms of the group delay rather than the phase characteristic, and it is shown by the results presented in the letter that this technique has certain advantages.