Feasibility of fishmeal replacement by shrimp head silage protein hydrolysate in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L) diets

This study provides information on the use of shrimp head silage protein hydrolysate (SPH) as an alternative protein source for tilapia feeding. Six diets (28% protein, 12% lipid) were prepared where fishmeal protein was replaced at levels of 0 (control), 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30% with the hydrolysate. The diets were supplied to Nile tilapia fry (338 mg initial weight) stocked in plastic recirculating 20 l tanks (10 animals per tank), with three replicates per treatment. After an 8 week experimental period, fish fed the diets containing 10 and 15% SPH showed significantly better performance in terms of final body weight, weight gain (%), mean daily weight gain (mg day^?1), specific growth ratio and feed conversion ratio than those fed the control diet (fishmeal as protein source) and higher‐SPH diets. It is concluded that shrimp head hydrolysate is a promising alternative protein source for tilapia feeding, improving growth ratio at dietary inclusion levels as high as 15%. In addition, the diets with added shrimp silage protein were well accepted by the fish, which avidly consumed the feed during the experiment. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

Chronic liver disease in Peru: role of viral hepatitis

Autologous or glutaraldehyde treated bovine pericardial valved patch was utilized for widening of the right ventricular outflow tract in 20 patients with tetralogy of Fallot (autologous pericardium group in 10 patients and bovine pericardium group in 10). Pericardial valve function of the both materials was evaluated by postoperative cardiac catheterization performed 1 year after the operation. There were no significant differences in pulmonary arterial and right ventricular pressures, and right ventricular ejection fraction and end-diastolic volume between the 2 groups. Pulmonary angiogram in the autologous pericardium group patients demonstrated the pulmonary regurgitation (PR) of grade 1 in 5 patients, grade 2 in 4 and grade 3 in 1. On the other hand, 1, 3 and 6 patients in the bovine pericardium group demonstrated no-PR, grade 1 PR and grade 2 PR, respectively. It was concluded that there were no significant differences between autologous and glutaraldehyde treated bovine pericardium as a material of valved patch for widening of the right ventricular outflow tract of tetralogy of Fallot.     

WO3 pillar-type and helical-type thin film structures to be used in microbatteries

In the present study WO₃ thin films were deposited by sputtering onto ITO glass, W/ITO and Si substrates by using the glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique, with the objective of applying these materials in electrochemical intercalation devices. The thin films microstructure and electrochemical behavior were determined through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cycling at constant current with potential limitation. By mainly adjusting the substrate holder speed rotation, pillar-type and helical-type structures were obtained under high and low speed rotation levels, respectively. The electrochemical results showed that the best charge capacity performance was obtained for the WO₃/W/ITO films with pillar-type structures, which are more porous.     

CONTEXTUAL LANGUAGE MODELS FOR RANKING ANSWERS TO NATURAL LANGUAGE DEFINITION QUESTIONS

Question–answering systems make good use of knowledge bases (KBs, e.g., Wikipedia) for responding to definition queries. Typically, systems extract relevant facts from articles regarding the question across KBs, and then they are projected into the candidate answers. However, studies have shown that the performance of this kind of method suddenly drops, whenever KBs supply narrow coverage. This work describes a new approach to deal with this problem by constructing context models for scoring candidate answers, which are, more precisely, statistical n‐gram language models inferred from lexicalized dependency paths extracted from Wikipedia abstracts. Unlike state‐of‐the‐art approaches, context models are created by capturing the semantics of candidate answers (e.g., “novel,”“singer,”“coach,” and “city”). This work is extended by investigating the impact on context models of extra linguistic knowledge such as part‐of‐speech tagging and named‐entity recognition. Results showed the effectiveness of context models as n‐gram lexicalized dependency paths and promising context indicators for the presence of definitions in natural language texts.     

A new structure of universal motor using soft magnetic composites

The universal or ac commutator motor, widely used in hand tools and domestic appliances generally uses a two-pole stator with a concentrated winding and an armature with interlocked coils elements. The copper volume and the axial length of the end windings of such conventional structures are then usually very important. In this paper, the authors present a new universal motor structure based on an efficient use of the isotropic magnetic properties of the soft magnetic composites and on the concentrated winding technique. The stator core presents a claw-pole structure and the armature has a concentrated winding with several coils wound around the same tooth. With this new ac commutator motor structure, a reduction of the total volume by a ratio equal to 200% is obtained when compared to a classical universal motor structure with nearly identical performance.     

The effect of noble gas bombarding on nitrogen diffusion in steel

The low energy (∼50–350 eV) noble gases ion bombardment of the steel surface shows that the pre-treatments increase nitrogen diffusion by modifying the outermost structure of the material. The surface microstructure and morphology of the studied samples were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The crystalline and chemical structures in the outermost layers of the surface were analyzed by grazing angle X-ray diffraction (GAXRD) and photoemission electron spectroscopy (XPS). Temperature effusion studies of the implanted ions are used to elucidate the noble gases site localization in the network. The local compressive stress induced by the nearby iron atoms on the core level electron wave functions of the trapped noble gases are studied by photoemission electron spectroscopy (XPS) and interpreted considering a simple mechanical model. Nano-hardness measurements show the dependence of the material elastic constant on the energy of the implanted noble gases. Although the ion implantation range is about few nanometers, the atomic attrition effect is larger enough to modify the material structure in the range of micrometers. Two material stress zones were detected where the outermost layers shows compressive stress and the underneath layers shows tensile stress. The implanted noble gases can be easily removed by heating. A diffusion model for polycrystalline-phase systems is used in order to discuss the influence of the atomic attrition on the N diffusion coefficient. The concomitant effect of grain refining, stress, and surface texture on the enhancing nitrogen diffusion effect is discussed.     

Evaluation of the Sorption Equilibrium and Effect of Drying Temperature on the Antioxidant Capacity of the Jaboticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora)

In recent years, interest toward berries has increased (e.g., Myrciaria cauliflora or jaboticaba) because of their high phenolic content (phenolic acids, flavonoids, and anthocyanins) that has been associated with positive effects on consumer health and which play an important role in the antioxidant properties of food. This study analyzed the sorption isotherms, thermodynamic properties of sorption (isosteric heat and Gibbs free energy), and the evolution of the antioxidant capacity during the drying process. The effects of drying temperatures of 40°, 50°C, and 60°C on the antioxidant capacity and thermodynamic properties of sorption were evaluated. The gravimetric static method for sorption isotherm determination over a range of relative humidity levels from 0.10 to 0.90 was used. The sorption isotherms exhibited a Type II behavior, typical for many foods. The Guggenheim, Anderson, and Boer (GAB); Oswin; Peleg; and Lewicki models were used to fit the experimental data, and it was determined that the GAB and Peleg models were most appropriate for describing the sorption curves. The isosteric heat and Gibbs free energy were obtained from the experimental sorption equilibrium. The isosteric heat of adsorption decreased when the moisture content increased, while the Gibbs free energy increased. In addition, the phenolic content and antioxidant capacity increased while drying at 50°C and 60°C, whereas these factors decreased at 40°C. Our results provide the food industry with information concerning the best drying conditions to preserve antioxidant properties.     

Penta‐Twinned Copper Nanorods: Facile Synthesis via Seed‐Mediated Growth and Their Tunable Plasmonic Properties

The use of seed‐mediated growth as a versatile approach to the synthesis of penta‐twinned Cu nanorods with uniform diameters and controllable aspect ratios is reported. The success of this approach relies on our recent synthesis of uniform Pd decahedra, with sizes in the range of 6–20 nm. The Pd decahedral seeds can direct the heterogeneous nucleation and growth of Cu along the fivefold axis to produce nanorods with uniform diameters defined by the lateral dimension of the original seeds. Due to a large mismatch in the lattice constants between Cu and Pd (7.1%), the deposited Cu is forced to grow along one side of the Pd decahedral seed, generating a nanorod with an asymmetric distribution of Cu, with the Pd seed situated at one of the two ends. According to extinction spectra, the as‐obtained Cu nanorods can be stored in water under the ambient conditions for at least six months without noticeable degradation. This excellent stability allows us to systematically investigate the size‐dependent surface plasmon resonance properties of the penta‐twinned Cu nanorods. With the nanorod transverse modes positioned at 560 nm, the longitudinal modes can be readily tuned from the visible to the near‐infrared region by controlling the aspect ratio.