The nutritive value of protein isolates and fibres from meat industry by-products

Protein isolates extracted from rumen, lung and plasma by alkaline solubilisation were spun into protein fibres and were evaluated for protein quality by rat feeding trials and by amino acid analyses. The net protein utilisation (NPU) of the fibres ranged from 53·0 to 76·9 for plasma and rumen fibres respectively, methionine plus cystine and valine being limiting amino acids. Lysine was not found to be a limiting amino acid in any sample and lysine availability was high in isolates and fell only slightly on spinning. There was a marked discrepancy between chemical score and NPU for rumen isolate and it is postulated that an anti-nutritional factor, possibly a trypsin inhibitor, normally present in bovine organs, could be active in the isolate by lowering methionine availability to the animal and decreasing NPU. Spinning the proteins, however, either destroys the inhibitor or decreases its concentration since NPU and chemical score become equal.     

The microRNA-455 Null Mouse Has Memory Deficit and Increased Anxiety,Targeting Key Genes Involved in Alzheimer’s Disease

The complete molecular mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remain to be elucidated. Recently, microRNA-455-3p has been identified as a circulating biomarker of early AD, with increased expression in post-mortem brain tissue of AD patients. MicroRNA-455-3p also directly targets and down-regulates APP, with the overexpression of miR-455-3p suppressing its toxic effects. Here, we show that miR-455-3p expression decreases with age in the brains of wild-type mice. We generated a miR-455 null mouse utilising CRISPR-Cas9 to explore its function further. Loss of miR-455 resulted in increased weight gain, potentially indicative of metabolic disturbances. Furthermore, performance on the novel object recognition task diminished significantly in miR-455 null mice (p = 0.004), indicating deficits in recognition memory. A slight increase in anxiety was also captured on the open field test. BACE1 and TAU were identified as new direct targets for miR-455-3p, with overexpression of miR-455-3p leading to a reduction in the expression of APP, BACE1 and TAU in neuroblastoma cells. In the hippocampus of miR-455 null mice at 14 months of age, the levels of protein for APP, BACE1 and TAU were all increased. Such findings reinforce the involvement of miR-455 in AD progression and demonstrate its action on cognitive performance.     

Location of an irregularity in a microwave array by optical signal processing of its microwave hologram

It is demonstrated that an irregularity in a microwave array can be diagnosed optically from its microwave hologram with the aid of a complex spatial filter which stores the elemental far-field pattern. This process yields information about the original object which may not be readily apparent in the direct optical image and far-field pattern.     

Ion formation in the flame ionization detector

The spatial distribution of positive ions in the flame ionization detector (FID) has been studied by a mass-spectrometric method. Except in the region well upstream from the flame front, the ions formed are the same for hydrocarbons, alcohols, and ketones. A mechanism is proposed for the formation of ions, which leads to the experimentally observed FID relationships connecting ionization with additive structure and concentration.     

Pathogenic mechanisms of neuronal damage in the AIDS dementia complex

Understanding the causes of cancer remains a major area of uncertainty, and many serious proposals have been made from a variety of standpoints over the years. This article discusses the first genetic hypothesis from the turn of the century and two other totally different early approaches to the problem.     

Intermittency phenomena in electrical connectors

Fretting is known to be a major cause of contact deterioration and failure, particularly in tin-plated contacts. During fretting the contact resistance generally increases slowly with time. Superimposed on this slow increase in contact resistance are rapid changes in contact resistance within fractions of a second, called intermittences or short duration discontinuities. Although intermittences have been reported by several authors, they are frequently overlooked in traditional fretting experiments and not much is known about their origin. The present study aims at filling this gap. A test apparatus has been built to measure the contact voltage-drop profile during an intermittence and fretting experiments on tin-plated copper contacts have been carried out. The results lead to a set of requirements for a model to explain intermittency phenomena     

Financial prediction: Some pointers,pitfalls and common errors

There is growing interest both in the field of neural computing and in the financial world in the possibility of using neural networks to forecast the future changes in prices of stocks, exchange rates, commodities and other financial time series. Since networks have been shown to be capable of modelling the underlying structure of a time series, many attempts have been made at exploiting that capability in order to carry out a technical analysis of such prices. If the efficient markets hypothesis is true, however, there is no underlying structure to be modelled, and the whole endeavour is doomed to failure. This paper investigates the common methods for such an approach, and outlines the major pitfalls and common errors to avoid. The author hopes that by pointing out the possible pitfalls now, we can avoid making claims to the commercial world before we are properly ready to do so.     

A review of dielectrics for flexible superconducting cables

The tape materials for the dielectric of a flexible superconducting cable are discussed. The tape is wrapped around the superconductor and is impregnated with supercritical helium. Based on mechanical and electrical performance the most promising materials are Valeron, high density polyethylene, polypropylene, and nylon 11. A final assessment is made based on life expectancy and mechanism of electrical failure both of which are a function of discharge activity in the tapes.     

Influence of coagulating bath composition on the texture of fibres spun from blood plasma

The effect of the composition of the coagulating bath on the formation of spun fibres from blood plasma protein has been investigated. The texture of these fibres is affected by the concentration of the coagulants, especially at low levels. The fibre retained an amount of sodium chloride, proportional to the salt level in the bath, which could be washed free from the fibre without redissolution. As a result a satisfactory level of ash in the textured product could be obtained.