Milk from cows fed a diet with a high forage:concentrate ratio improves inflammatory state,oxidative stress,and mitochondrial function in rats

Excessive energy intake may evoke complex biochemical processes characterized by inflammation, oxidative stress, and impairment of mitochondrial function that represent the main factors underlying noncommunicable diseases. Because cow milk is widely used for human nutrition and in food industry processing, the nutritional quality of milk is of special interest with respect to human health. In our study, we analyzed milk produced by dairy cows fed a diet characterized by a high forage:concentrate ratio (high forage milk, HFM). In view of the low n-6:n-3 ratio and high content of conjugated linoleic acid of HFM, we studied the effects of this milk on lipid metabolism, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress in a rat model. To this end, we supplemented for 4 wk the diet of male Wistar rats with HFM and with an isocaloric amount (82 kJ, 22 mL/d) of milk obtained from cows fed a diet with low forage:concentrate ratio, and analyzed the metabolic parameters of the animals. Our results indicate that HFM may positively affect lipid metabolism, leptin:adiponectin ratio, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress, providing the first evidence of the beneficial effects of HFM on rat metabolism.     

Generation of Non-Classical States through QND-like Processes

In the spirit of quantum nondemolition measurement we show that repeatedly measuring the atomic state of a trapped ion subjected to suitable vibronic couplings it is possible to extract interesting nonclassical states. The possibility of generating angular momentum Schrödinger cat is demonstrated.     

Pulse height defect in pCVD and scCVD diamond based detectors

Polycrystalline (pCVD) and single crystal (scCVD) diamond films grown from Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD), if sufficiently pure at Raman analysis, are very good materials for beam or flux monitors inside accelerators or nuclear reactors. This is because they are very hard to damage in high radiation fields and very resistant to high temperatures. Films of pCVD diamond are, however, not so good as spectroscopy detectors due to inhomogeneities induced by their growth in grains with the consequent presence of grain boundaries which worsen their energy resolution. The latter can be significantly improved by growing scCVD diamond films onto HPHT synthetic diamond substrates. We have shown that it is possible to measure the density of defects inside diamond specimens using as probes suitable penetrating nuclear radiations. With the preliminary results reported here we'll show that, bombarding CVD diamond films grown at Roma “Tor Vergata” with energetic protons and ⁴He, ⁶Li and ¹²C ions produced in the accelerators of Catania laboratories, the pulse height defects are higher than those in silicon detectors and likewise well described by a power law in the deposited energy. Furthermore, we'll show that pulse heights for the same particles seem to depend on the duration of the measurement, thus exhibiting a sort of depolarization of the insulator when exposed to the electric voltage which makes it a particle detector.     

Mécanisme de la réduction electrochimique en milieu non aqueux de materiaux cathodiques utilisés dans les piles au lithium,III. Réduction électrochimique d'électrodes membranaires de sulfures et oxydes de cuivre dans le mélange carbonate de propylène-1,2-diméthoxyéthane

Résumé L'étude de la réduction électrochimique d'électrodes membranaires de CuS et de CuO dans le mélange de solvant constitué par 20% en volume de carbonate de propylène et 80% de 1, 2-diméthoxyéthane, nous a conduits à admettre un mécanisme de réduction par insertion progressive d'électrons et d'ions Li⁺ dans le réseau cristallin de ces deux matériaux. En ce qui concerne CuS, cette insertion correspond à la réaction élémentaire en phase solide CuS+xe+xLi⁺ CuSLi _x . L'espèce formée à l'issue de cette réaction évoluerait alors soit vers la formation de Cu₂S dans le cas des faibles régimes de décharge, soit directement vers la formation de cuivre dans le cas des forts régimes de décharge. En ce qui concerne CuO, cette insertion correspondrait à la réaction CuO+xe+xLi⁺ CuOLi _x mais dans ce cas la formation de Cu₂O ne serait jamais possible, l'espèce intermédiaire formée évoluerait directement vers la formation de cuivre quels que soient les régimes de décharge.

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The study of the electrochemical reduction of CuS and CuO membrane electrodes in 20 vol% propylene carbonate/80 vol% 1, 2-dimethoxyethane shows that the reaction proceeds via insertion of electrons and lithium ions into the crystalline lattice of the two materials. In the case of CuS, the overall reaction in the solid phase is CuS+2e+xLi⁺ CuSLi _x . At low discharge rates Cu₂S is formed but at high rates of discharge the reaction proceeds through to Cu metal. With CuO the reaction is CuO+xe+xLi⁺ CuOLi _x but the formation of Cu₂O never occurs; the reaction goes to Cu under all discharge conditions.

     

Maximally entangled states of a bimodal cavity field

Abstract

A simple scheme for the generation of a class of maximally entangled two-mode field states is presented. Our proposal provides the possibility of manipulating the quantum coherence between the superposed states, simply varying an experimentally easily controllable parameter. The practical feasibility of the method here reported is carefully discussed.     

Conditional generation of non-classical states in a non-degenerate two-photon micromaser: Single-mode fock states preparation. II

Abstract

A conditional generation of single-mode Fock states in the framework of a non-degenerate two-photon micromaser theory is reported. The exact expression for the probability of success of the experiment is obtained. We show that it is possible to conjugate experimentally interesting values of this probability, with the generation of number states having a controllable high intensity. This objective is reached by constructing analytically detailed rules about the cavity state at t = 0 as well as the atom–field interaction times as functions of the available operating conditions. These rules play a central role in our Fock-state-building process, leading to an essential countering of the Stark-shift-induced detuning effects. The practical reliability of the proposal is carefully discussed from several points of view. Some possible applicative potentialities of our scheme are briefly pointed out.     

Benchmarking advanced architecture computers

Recently, a number of advanced architecture machines have become commercially available. These new machines promise better cost performance than traditional computers, and some of them have the potential of competing with current supercomputers, such as the CRAY X-MP, in terms of maximum performance. This paper describes the methodology and results of a pilot study of the performance of a broad range of advanced architecture computers using a number of complete scientific application programs. The computers evaluated include:

• 1 shared-memory bus architecture machines such as the Alliant FX/8, the Encore Multimax, and the Sequent Balance and Symmetry
• 2 shared-memory network-connected machines such as the Butterfly
• 3 distributed-memory machines such as the NCUBE, Intel and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/Caltech hypercubes
• 4 very long instruction word machines such as the Cydrome Cydra-5
• 5 SIMD machines such as the Connection Machine
• 6 ‘traditional’ supercomputers such as the CRAY X-MP, CRAY-2 and SCS-40.

Seven application codes from a number of scientific disciplines have been used in the study, although not all the codes were run on every machine. The methodology and guidelines for establishing a standard set of benchmark programs for advanced architecture computers are discussed. The CRAYs offer the best performance on the benchmark suite; the shared memory multiprocessor machines generally permitted some parallelism, and when coupled with substantial floating point capabilities (as in the Alliant FX/8 and Sequent Symmetry), provided an order of magnitude less speed than the CRAYs. Likewise, the early generation hypercubes studied here generally ran slower than the CRAYs, but permitted substantial parallelism from each of the application codes.     

Power curve control in micro wind turbine design

In this work, a micro wind turbine will be designed and built for a series of wind tunnel tests (rotor dynamics and Wind Turbine (WT) start-up velocity). Its design stems from an original numerical code, developed by the authors, based on the Blade Element Momentum (BEM) Theory.     

Discrete-time certainty equivalence output feedback: allowing discontinuous control laws including those from model predictive control

We present certainty equivalence output feedback results for discrete-time nonlinear systems that employ possibly discontinuous control laws in the feedback loop. Coupling assumptions of nominal robustness with uniform observability or detectability assumptions, we assert nominally robust stability for output feedback closed loops. We further show that model predictive control (MPC) can be used to generate a feedback control law that is robustly globally asymptotically stabilizing when used in a certainty equivalence output feedback closed loop. Allowing for discontinuous feedback control laws is important for systems employing MPC, since the method can, and sometimes necessarily does, result in discontinuous control laws.