Aromatic l-amino acid decarboxylase : histochemical localization in rat kidney and lack of effect of dietary potassium or sodium loading on enzyme distribution

Utilizing a mono-specific antiserum produced in rabbits to hog kidney aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC), the enzyme was localized in rat kidney by immunoperoxidase staining. AADC was located predominantly in the proximal convoluted tubules; there was also weak staining in the distal convoluted tubules and collecting ducts. An increase in dietary potassium or sodium intake produced no change in density or distribution of AADC staining in kidney. An assay of AADC enzyme activity showed no difference in cortex or medulla with chronic potassium loading. A change in distribution or activity of renal AADC does not explain the postulated dopaminergic modulation of renal function that occurs with potassium or sodium loading.

Validation of a new hand-held electronic data capture method for continuous monitoring of subjective appetite sensations

Background When large scale trials are investigating the effects of interventions on appetite, it is paramount to efficiently monitor large amounts of human data. The original hand-held Electronic Appetite Ratings System (EARS) was designed to facilitate the administering and data management of visual analogue scales (VAS) of subjective appetite sensations. The purpose of this study was to validate a novel hand-held method (EARS II (HP® iPAQ)) against the standard Pen and Paper (P&P) method and the previously validated EARS. Methods Twelve participants (5 male, 7 female, aged 18-40) were involved in a fully repeated measures design. Participants were randomly assigned in a crossover design, to either high fat (>48% fat) or low fat (<28% fat) meal days, one week apart and completed ratings using the three data capture methods ordered according to Latin Square. The first set of appetite sensations was completed in a fasted state, immediately before a fixed breakfast. Thereafter, appetite sensations were completed every thirty minutes for 4h. An ad libitum lunch was provided immediately before completing a final set of appetite sensations. Results Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted for ratings of hunger, fullness and desire to eat. There were no significant differences between P&P compared with either EARS or EARS II (p > 0.05). Correlation coefficients between P&P and EARS II, controlling for age and gender, were performed on Area Under the Curve ratings. R2 for Hunger (0.89), Fullness (0.96) and Desire to Eat (0.95) were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusions EARS II was sensitive to the impact of a meal and recovery of appetite during the postprandial period and is therefore an effective device for monitoring appetite sensations. This study provides evidence and support for further validation of the novel EARS II method for monitoring appetite sensations during large scale studies. The added versatility means that future uses of the system provides the potential to monitor a range of other behavioural and physiological measures often important in clinical and free living trials.

The backfilled GEI : a cross-capture modality gait feature for frontal and side-view gait recognition

In this paper, we propose a novel direction for gait recognition research by proposing a new capture-modality independent, appearance-based feature which we call the Back-filled Gait Energy Image (BGEI). It can can be constructed from both frontal depth images, as well as the more commonly used side-view silhouettes, allowing the feature to be applied across these two differing capturing systems using the same enrolled database. To evaluate this new feature, a frontally captured depth-based gait dataset was created containing 37 unique subjects, a subset of which also contained sequences captured from the side. The results demonstrate that the BGEI can effectively be used to identify subjects through their gait across these two differing input devices, achieving rank-1 match rate of 100%, in our experiments. We also compare the BGEI against the GEI and GEV in their respective domains, using the CASIA dataset and our depth dataset, showing that it compares favourably against them. The experiments conducted were performed using a sparse representation based classifier with a locally discriminating input feature space, which show significant improvement in performance over other classifiers used in gait recognition literature, achieving state of the art results with the GEI on the CASIA dataset.

Re-targeting choreographic enquiry through motion capture

This creative work is the outcome of preliminary experiments through practice aiming to explore the collaboration of a Dancer/choreographer with an Animator, along with enquiry into the intergeneration of motion capture technologies within the work-flow. The animated visuals derived from the motion capture data is not aimed at just re-targeting of movement from one source to another but looks at describing the thought and emotions of the choreographed dance through visual aesthetics.

Investigation of the airborne submicrometer particles emitted by dredging vessels using a plume capture method

This paper presents a method for investigating ship emissions, the plume capture and analysis system (PCAS), and its application in measuring airborne pollutant emission factors (EFs) and particle size distributions. The current investigation was conducted in situ, aboard two dredgers (Amity: a cutter suction dredger and Brisbane: a hopper suction dredger) but the PCAS is also capable of performing such measurements remotely at a distant point within the plume. EFs were measured relative to the fuel consumption using the fuel combustion derived plume CO2. All plume measurements were corrected by subtracting background concentrations sampled regularly from upwind of the stacks. Each measurement typically took 6 minutes to complete and during one day, 40 to 50 measurements were possible. The relationship between the EFs and plume sample dilution was examined to determine the plume dilution range over which the technique could deliver consistent results when measuring EFs for particle number (PN), NOx, SO2, and PM2.5 within a targeted dilution factor range of 50-1000 suitable for remote sampling. The EFs for NOx, SO2, and PM2.5 were found to be independent of dilution, for dilution factors within that range. The EF measurement for PN was corrected for coagulation losses by applying a time dependant particle loss correction to the particle number concentration data. For the Amity, the EF ranges were PN: 2.2 - 9.6 × 1015 (kg-fuel)-1; NOx: 35-72 g(NO2).(kg-fuel)-1, SO2 0.6 - 1.1 g(SO2).(kg-fuel)-1and PM2.5: 0.7 – 6.1 g(PM2.5).(kg-fuel)-1. For the Brisbane they were PN: 1.0 – 1.5 x 1016 (kg-fuel)-1, NOx: 3.4 – 8.0 g(NO2).(kg-fuel)-1, SO2: 1.3 – 1.7 g(SO2).(kg-fuel)-1 and PM2.5: 1.2 – 5.6 g(PM2.5).(kg-fuel)-1. The results are discussed in terms of the operating conditions of the vessels’ engines. Particle number emission factors as a function of size as well as the count median diameter (CMD), and geometric standard deviation of the size distributions are provided. The size distributions were found to be consistently uni-modal in the range below 500 nm, and this mode was within the accumulation mode range for both vessels. The representative CMDs for the various activities performed by the dredgers ranged from 94-131 nm in the case of the Amity, and 58-80 nm for the Brisbane. A strong inverse relationship between CMD and EF(PN) was observed.

The Use of a Nitroxide Probe in DMSO to Capture Radicals in Particulate Pollution

A profluorescent nitroxide was used to evaluate the oxidative potential of pollution derived from a compression ignition engine fuelled with biodiesel. The reaction products responsible for the observed fluorescence increase when a DMSO solution of nitroxide was exposed to biodiesel exhaust were determined by using HPLC/MS. The main fluorescent species was identified as a methanesulfonamide adduct arising from the reaction of the nitroxide with DMSO-derived sulfoxyl radicals.

Malaria antibody persistence correlates with duration of exposure

Background and Objectives  In Australia, the risk of transfusion-transmitted malaria is managed through the identification of ‘at-risk’ donors, antibody screening enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA) and, if reactive, exclusion from fresh blood component manufacture. Donor management depends on the duration of exposure in malarious regions (>6 months: ‘Resident’, <6 months: ‘Visitor’) or a history of malaria diagnosis. We analysed antibody testing and demographic data to investigate antibody persistence dynamics. To assess the yield from retesting 3 years after an initial EIA reactive result, we estimated the proportion of donors who would become non-reactive over this period. Materials and Methods  Test results and demographic data from donors who were malaria EIA reactive were analysed. Time since possible exposure was estimated and antibody survival modelled. Results  Among seroreverters, the time since last possible exposure was significantly shorter in ‘Visitors’ than in ‘Residents’. The antibody survival modelling predicted 20% of previously EIA reactive ‘Visitors’, but only 2% of ‘Residents’ would become non-reactive within 3 years of their first reactive EIA. Conclusion  Antibody persistence in donors correlates with exposure category, with semi-immune ‘Residents’ maintaining detectable antibodies significantly longer than non-immune ‘Visitors’.

Charge-controlled switchable CO2 capture on boron nitride nanomaterials

Increasing concerns about the atmospheric CO2 concentration and its impact on the environment are motivating researchers to discover new materials and technologies for efficient CO2 capture and conversion. Here, we report a study of the adsorption of CO2, CH4, and H2 on boron nitride (BN) nanosheets and nanotubes (NTs) with different charge states. The results show that the process of CO2 capture/release can be simply controlled by switching on/off the charges carried by BN nanomaterials. CO2 molecules form weak interactions with uncharged BN nanomaterials and are weakly adsorbed. When extra electrons are introduced to these nanomaterials (i.e., when they are negatively charged), CO2 molecules become tightly bound and strongly adsorbed. Once the electrons are removed, CO2 molecules spontaneously desorb from BN absorbents. In addition, these negatively charged BN nanosorbents show high selectivity for separating CO2 from its mixtures with CH4 and/or H2. Our study demonstrates that BN nanomaterials are excellent absorbents for controllable, highly selective, and reversible capture and release of CO2. In addition, the charge density applied in this study is of the order of 1013 cm–2 of BN nanomaterials and can be easily realized experimentally.

A density functional theory study on CO2 capture and activation by graphene-like boron nitride with boron vacancy

First principle calculations for a hexagonal (graphene-like) boron nitride (g-BN) monolayer sheet in the presence of a boron-atom vacancy show promising properties for capture and activation of carbon dioxide. CO2 is found to decompose to produce an oxygen molecule via an intermediate chemisorption state on the defect g-BN sheet. The three stationary states and two transition states in the reaction pathway are confirmed by minimum energy pathway search and frequency analysis. The values computed for the two energy barriers involved in this catalytic reaction after enthalpy correction indicate that the catalytic reaction should proceed readily at room temperature.

CO2 capture and gas separation on boron carbon nanotubes

Concern about the increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration and its impact on the environment has led to increasing attention directed toward finding advanced materials and technologies suited for efficient CO2 capture, storage and purification of clean-burning natural gas. In this letter, we have performed comprehensive theoretical investigation of CO2, N2, CH4 and H2 adsorption on B2CNTs. Our study shows that CO2 molecules can form strong interactions with B2CNTs with different charge states. However, N2, CH4 and H2 can only form very weak interactions with B2CNTs. Therefore, the study demonstrates B2CNTs could sever as promising materials for CO2 capture and gas separation.

Effects of soluble dietary cellulose on specific growth rate, survival and digestive enzyme activities in three freshwater crayfish (Cherax) species

Three native freshwater crayfish Cherax species are farmed in Australia namely; Redclaw (Cherax quadricarinatus), Marron (C. tenuimanus), and Yabby (C. destructor). Lack of appropriate data on specific nutrient requirements for each of these species, however, has constrained development of specific formulated diets and hence current use of over-formulated feeds or expensive marine shrimp feeds, limit their profitability. A number of studies have investigated nutritional requirements in redclaw that have focused on replacing expensive fish meal in formulated feeds with non-protein, less expensive substitutes including plant based ingredients. Confirmation that freshwater crayfish possess endogenous cellulase genes, suggests their potential ability to utilize complex carbohydrates like cellulose as nutrient sources in their diet. To date, studies have been limited to only C. quadricarinatus and C. destructor and no studies have compared the relative ability of each species to utilize soluble cellulose in their diets. Individual feeding trials of late-juveniles of each species were conducted separately in an automated recirculating culture system over 12 week cycles. Animals were fed either a test diet (TD) that contained 20% soluble cellulose or a reference diet (RD) substituted with the same amount of corn starch. Water temperature, conductivity and pH were maintained at constant and optimum levels for each species. Animals were fed at 3% of their body weight twice daily and wet body weight was recorded bi-weekly. At the end of experiment, all animals were harvested, measured and midgut gland extracts assayed for alpha-amylase, total protease and cellulase activity levels. After the trial period, redclaw fed with RD showed significantly higher (p<0.05) specific growth rate (SGR) compare with animals fed the TD while SGR of marron and yabby fed the two diets were not significantly different (p<0.05). Cellulase expression levels in redclaw were not significantly different between diets. Marron and yabby showed significantly higher cellulase activity when fed the RD. Amylase and protease activity in all three species were significantly higher in the animals fed with RD (Table 1). These results indicate that test animals of all species can utilize starch better than dietary soluble cellulose in their diet and inclusion of 20% soluble cellulose in diets does not appear to have any significant negative effect on their growth rate but survival was impacted in C. quadricarinatus while not in C. tenuimanus or C. destructor.

Effects of soluble dietary cellulose on specific growth rate, survival and digestive enzyme activities in three freshwater crayfish (Cherax) species

The current study evaluated the effect of soluble dietary cellulose on growth, survival and digestive enzyme activity in three endemic, Australian freshwater crayfish species (redclaw: Cherax quadricarinatus, marron: C. tenuimanus, yabby: C. destructor). Separate individual feeding trials were conducted for late-stage juveniles from each species in an automated recirculating freshwater, culture system. Animals were fed either a test diet (TD) that contained 20% soluble cellulose or a reference diet (RD) substituted with the same amount of corn starch, over a 12 week period. Redclaw fed with RD showed significantly higher (p<0.05) specific growth rates (SGR) compared with animals fed the TD, while SGR of marron and yabby fed the two diets were not significantly different. Expressed cellulase activity levels in redclaw were not significantly different between diets. Marron and yabby showed significantly higher cellulase activity when fed the RD (p<0.05). Amylase and protease activity in all three species were significantly higher in the animals fed with RD (p<0.05). These results indicate that test animals of all three species appear to utilize starch more efficiently than soluble dietary cellulose in their diet. The inclusion of 20% soluble cellulose in diets did not appear, however, to have a significant negative effect on growth rates.

Effect of pretreatment on saccharification of sugarcane bagasse by complex and simple enzyme mixtures

Saccharification of sugarcane bagasse pretreated at the pilot-scale with different processes (in combination with steam-explosion) was evaluated. Maximum glucan conversion with Celluclast 1.5 L (15–25 FPU/g glucan) was in the following order: glycerol/HCl > HCl > H2SO4 > NaOH, with the glycerol system achieving ∼100% conversion. Surprisingly, the NaOH substrate achieved optimum saccharification with only 8 FPU/g glucan. Glucan conversions (3.6–6%) obtained with mixtures of endo-1,4-β-glucanase (EG) and β-glucosidase (βG) for the NaOH substrate were 2–6 times that of acid substrates. However, glucan conversions (15–60%) obtained with mixtures of cellobiohydrolase (CBH I) and βG on acidified glycerol substrate were 10–30% higher than those obtained for NaOH and acid substrates. The susceptibility of the substrates to enzymatic saccharification was explained by their physical and chemical attributes. Acidified glycerol pretreatment offers the opportunity to simplify the complexity of enzyme mixtures required for saccharification of lignocellulosics.