Stoffwechselwirkungen von ω-3-Fettsäuren

Metabolic Effects of ω-3 Fatty Acids Biological effects of ω-3 fatty acids are related to their properties as structural components of cell membranes, their role as precursors of eicosanoids and their effects on lipoprotein metabolism. This is the basis for a great variety of metabolic effects, many of which of increasing medical interest. Particularly in the cardiovascular field, ω-3 fatty acids have been shown to have a wide spectrum of potentially antiatherogenic effects. Among these are the inhibition of platelet aggregation, reduction of blood viscosity, lowering of blood pressure and suppression of inflammatory reactions in the arteriosclerotic plaque. The principal actions in lipid metabolism are a reduction in triglycerides and a small increase in HDL₂. The effect on LDL-cholesterol is complex and an adverse LDL-increase may occur in particular hyperlipoproteinemias.     

Convective drying of wood-waste in air and superheated steam

The convective batch drying of Western Hemlock hog fuel-sized particles in fixed beds under various operating conditions quantiatively established the effect of factors which govern the drying process. A correlation was obtained for the Nusselt number during the heat transfer controlled period. Under specific conditions, the existence of a unified characteristic drying rate curve was confirmed. Drying behaviour as described by the receding plane model provided a mathematical expression for such a curve. The existence of an inversion point temperature was experimentally confirmed.     

Changes in serum lipids in rats treated with oral cooper

Disturbances in lipid metabolism during copper deficiency in rats are well recognized. Copper deficiency is associated with the spontaneous retention of hepatic iron. Previous studies have reported that hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia are associated with elevated hepatic iron concentrations in copper deficient rats. There was a direct relationship between the magnitude of blood lipids and the concentration of hepatic iron. Based on these data, it has been hypothesized that iron was responsible for the development of lipemia of copper deficiency. In this study was determined the effect of increasing doses of Cu(10, 20 and 50 ppm) in the diet, on the serum total lipids, total cholesterol, triglycerides (triacylglicerols), phospholipids, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and liver iron and zinc concentrations in normal rats. The results were compared with normal rats that received a balanced diet containing 0.6 and 6 ppm of Cu, respectively. The results show that Cu-supplement diminished the cholesterol and triglyceride serum levels, increased the level of phospholipids, NEFA and concomitantly decreased the hepatic concentrations of Fe and Zn. There was a statistically significant (p < 0.05) simple correlation between triglycerides and liver Fe (r = 0.917; R2 = 64.03%), cholesterol and liver Zn (r = 0.872; R2 = 76.07%), cholesterol and liver Fe (r = 0.995; R2 = 99.10%), liver Fe and liver Cu (r = -0.612), liver Fe and liver Zn (r = 0.837), liver Cu and liver Zn (r = -0.612), and serum triglycerides and liver Zn (r = 0.967). The mechanism(s) by which Fe and Zn determine these changes is not known; none of the enzymes that act in cholesterol and triglyceride metabolism and biosynthesis require Fe and/or Zn. The increase of NEFA is due to changes in the process of lipolysis and re-esterification of the fatty acids in blood. However, additional studies are needed for the precise mechanisms of this interrelationships to be clarified.     

Exhaust Emissions from an Engine Fueled with Biodiesel from High-Oleic Soybeans

Biodiesel is a fuel comprising mono-alkyl esters of medium to long-chain fatty acids derived from vegetable oils or animal fats. Typically, engines operated on soybean-based biodiesel exhibit higher emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) compared with petroleum diesel. The increase in NOx emissions might be an inherent characteristic of soybean oil’s polyunsaturation, because the level of saturation is known to affect the biodiesel’s cetane number, which can affect NOx. A feedstock that is mostly monounsaturated (i.e. oleate) helps to balance the tradeoff between cold flow and oxidative stability. Genetic modification has produced a soybean event, designated 335-13, with a fatty acid profile high in oleic acid (>85%) and with reduced palmitic acid (<4%). This high-oleic soybean oil was converted to biodiesel and run in a John Deere 4045T 4.5-L four-stroke, four-cylinder, turbocharged direct-injection diesel engine. The exhaust emissions were compared with those from conventional soybean oil biodiesel and commercial No. 2 diesel fuel. There was a significant reduction in NOx emissions (α = 0.05) using the high-oleic soybean biodiesel compared with regular soybean oil biodiesel. No significant differences were found between the regular and high-oleic biodiesel for unburned hydrocarbon and smoke emissions.     

Optimal motion planning for parallel robots via convex optimization and receding horizon

In this paper, the problem of motion planning for parallel robots in the presence of static and dynamic obstacles has been investigated. The proposed algorithm can be regarded as a synergy of convex optimization with discrete optimization and receding horizon. This algorithm has several advantages, including absence of trapping in local optimums and a high computational speed. This problem has been fully analyzed for two three-DOF parallel robots, ie 3s-RPR parallel mechanism and the so-called Tripteron, while the shortest path is selected as the objective function. It should be noted that the first case study is a parallel mechanism with complex singularity loci expression from a convex optimization problem standpoint, while the second case is a parallel manipulator for which each limb has two links, an issue which increases the complexity of the optimization problem. Since some of the constraints are non-convex, two approaches are introduced in order to convexify them: (1) A McCormick-based relaxation merged with a branch-and-prune algorithm to prevent it from becoming too loose and (2) a first-order approximation which linearizes the non-convex quadratic constraints. The computational time for the approaches presented in this paper is considerably low, which will pave the way for online applications.     

Fast image retrieval using color-spatial information

In this paper, we present an image retrieval system that employs both the color and spatial information of images to facilitate the retrieval process. The basic unit used in our technique is a single-colored cluster, which bounds a homogeneous region of that color in an image. Two clusters from two images are similar if they are of the same color and overlap in the image space. The number of clusters that can be extracted from an image can be very large, and it affects the accuracy of retrieval. We study the effect of the number of clusters on retrieval effectiveness to determine an appropriate value for “optimal' performance. To facilitate efficient retrieval, we also propose a multi-tier indexing mechanism called the Sequenced Multi-Attribute Tree (SMAT). We implemented a two-tier SMAT, where the first layer is used to prune away clusters that are of different colors, while the second layer discriminates clusters of different spatial locality. We conducted an experimental study on an image database consisting of 12,000 images. Our results show the effectiveness of the proposed color-spatial approach, and the efficiency of the proposed indexing mechanism. Received August 1, 1997 / Accepted December 9, 1997     

Single crystal silicon nanopillars, nanoneedles and nanoblades with precise positioning for massively parallel nanoscale device integration

Arrays of precisely positioned single crystal silicon nanopillars, nanoneedles, and nanoblades with minimum feature sizes as small as 30 nm are fabricated using entirely scalable top-down fabrication techniques. Using the same scalable technologies, devices consisting of electrically connected silicon nanopillars with multiple addressable electrodes for each nanostructure are realized. The arrays of nanopillars, nanoneedles, and nanoblades are shown to exhibit Raman signal enhancement on 1,2-benzenedithiol monolayers, opening a path to nanodevices that manipulate, position, detect and analyze molecules.     

Adhesive surface interactions of cellulose nanocrystals from different sources

Adhesion plays an important role in the final properties of nanocomposites. This study explored the surface interaction of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and the effect of CNC sources on adhesion between individual CNCs and the Si tip of an AFM cantilever using a force mapping technique called FMap. The adhesion between CNCs and a Si tip from five different sources has been studied: cotton, Whatman filter paper, hemp, softwood chemical kraft pulp, and softwood-dissolving pulp (alistaple). Mica was used as the background substrate to act as an internal standard. This study’s findings suggest that adhesion is not the same for all CNCs. Transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy were used to determine the size and shape of each CNC. The experimental quantitative data showed that adhesion between CNCs and the Si tip has a close correlation with the diameter of the CNCs. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed the presence of sulfate groups on the surface of the CNCs and a correlation between adhesion and surface chemistry of the CNCs was observed.