N-epsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine content of foods commonly consumed in a Western style diet

The potential adverse effects on health of diet-derived advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) is of current interest, due to their proposed involvement in the disease progression of diabetic and uraemic conditions. However, accurate information about levels of AGEs in foods is lacking. The objective of this investigation was to determine the level of one particular AGE, N-epsilon-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML), a marker of AGE formation, in a wide range of foods commonly consumed in a Western style diet. Individual foods (n = 257) were mixed, lyophilised, ground, reduced, fat-extracted, hydrolysed, and underwent solid-phase extraction. Extracts were analysed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Cereal (2.6 mg/100 g food) and fruit and vegetable (0.13 mg/100 g food) categories had the highest and lowest mean level of CML, respectively, when expressed in mg/100 g food. These data can be used for estimating potential consumer intakes, and provide information that can be used to educated consumers on how to reduce their CML intake. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Association of dietary fat intakes with risk of esophageal and gastric cancer in the NIH-AARP diet and health study

The aim of our study was to investigate whether intakes of total fat and fat subtypes were associated with esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), gastric cardia or gastric noncardia adenocarcinoma. From 1995–1996, dietary intake data was reported by 494,978 participants of the NIH-AARP cohort. The 630 EAC, 215 ESCC, 454 gastric cardia and 501 gastric noncardia adenocarcinomas accrued to the cohort. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to examine the association between the dietary fat intakes, whilst adjusting for potential confounders. Although apparent associations were observed in energy-adjusted models, multivariate adjustment attenuated results to null [e.g., EAC energy adjusted hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.66 (1.27–2.18) p for trend <0.01; EAC multivariate adjusted HR (95% CI) 1.17 (0.84–1.64) p for trend 5 0.58]. Similar patterns were also observed for fat subtypes [e.g., EAC saturated fat, energy adjusted HR (95% CI) 1.79 (1.37–2.33) p for trend <0.01; EAC saturated fat, multivariate adjusted HR (95% CI) 1.27 (0.91–1.78) p for trend 5 0.28]. However, in multivariate models an inverse association for polyunsaturated fat (continuous) was seen for EAC in subjects with a body mass index (BMI) in the normal range (18.5–<25 kg/m2) [HR (95% CI) 0.76 (0.63–0.92)], that was not present in overweight subjects [HR (95% CI) 1.04 (0.96–1.14)], or in unstratified analysis [HR (95% CI) 0.97 (0.90–1.05)]. p for interaction 5 0.02. Overall, we found null associations between the dietary fat intakes with esophageal or gastric cancer risk; although a protective effect of polyunsaturated fat intake was seen for EAC in subjects with a normal BMI.

ARE ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETS AS SMART AS A RAT

The origins of artificial neural networks are related to animal conditioning theory: both are forms of connectionist theory, which in turn derives from the empiricist philosophers' principle of association. The parallel between animal learning and neural nets suggests that interaction between them should benefit both sides.

Determining propeller induced erosion alongside quay walls in harbours using Artificial Neural Networks

In shallow waters, such as those found close to berth structures, the wash from a manoeuvring ship’s propeller can cause erosion of the seabed. This erosion can be increased if the wash intersects a berth structure. A number of researchers have undertaken model studies and used regression analysis to develop predictive relationships for the scouring action. This paper presents an experimental investigation with Artificial Neural Networks (ANN’s), used to analyse the results. The purpose of using ANN’s was to examine the prediction accuracy of the Networks in comparison with previous regression analysis methods. ANN’s were found to provide a more accurate method of predicting propeller wash scour than the equations presented by previous investigators.

Optimal diet choice for large herbivores: an extended contingency model

1. A more general contingency model of optimal diet choice is developed, allowing for simultaneous searching and handling, which extends the theory to include grazing and browsing by large herbivores.</p><p>2. Foraging resolves into three modes: purely encounter-limited, purely handling-limited and mixed-process, in which either a handling-limited prey type is added to an encounter-limited diet, or the diet becomes handling-limited as it expands.</p><p>3. The purely encounter-limited diet is, in general, broader than that predicted by the conventional contingency model,</p><p>4. As the degree of simultaneity of searching and handling increases, the optimal diet expands to the point where it is handling-limited, at which point all inferior prey types are rejected,</p><p>5. Inclusion of a less profitable prey species is not necessarily independent of its encounter rate and the zero-one rule does not necessarily hold: some of the less profitable prey may be included in the optimal diet. This gives an optimal foraging explanation for herbivores' mixed diets.</p><p>6. Rules are shown for calculating the boundary between encounter-limited and handling-limited diets and for predicting the proportion of inferior prey to be included in a two-species diet,</p><p>7. The digestive rate model is modified to include simultaneous searching and handling, showing that the more they overlap, the more the predicted diet-breadth is likely to be reduced.</p>

Demo: Have a Chat with Sensitive Artificial Listeners

Sensitive Artificial Listeners (SAL) are virtual dialogue partners based on audiovisual analysis and synthesis. Despite their very limited verbal understanding, they intend to engage the user in a conversation by paying attention to the user’s emotions and non- verbal expressions. The SAL characters have their own emotionally defined personality, and attempt to drag the user towards their dom- inant emotion through a combination of verbal and non-verbal ex- pression. The demonstrator shows the publicly available, fully au- tonomous SAL system.