Probiotics, prebiotics, and the host microbiome: the science of translation

Recent advances in our understanding of the community structure and function of the human microbiome have implications for the potential role of probiotics and prebiotics in promoting human health. A group of experts recently met to review the latest advances in microbiota/microbiome research and discuss the implications for development of probiotics and prebiotics, primarily as they relate to effects mediated via the intestine. The goals of the meeting were to share recent advances in research on the microbiota, microbiome, probiotics, and prebiotics, and to discuss these findings in the contexts of regulatory barriers, evolving healthcare environments, and potential effects on a variety of health topics, including the development of obesity and diabetes; the long-term consequences of exposure to antibiotics early in life to the gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota; lactose intolerance; and the relationship between the GI microbiota and the central nervous system, with implications for depression, cognition, satiety, and mental health for people living in developed and developing countries. This report provides an overview of these discussions.

FORCED CONVECTION TO LAMINAR FLOW OF LIQUID EGG YOLK IN CIRCULAR AND ANNULAR DUCTS

The steady-state heat transfer in laminar flow of liquid egg yolk - an important pseudoplastic fluid food - in circular and concentric annular ducts was experimentally investigated. The average convection heat transfer coefficients, determined by measuring temperatures before and after heating sections with constant temperatures at the tube wall, were used to obtain simple new empirical expressions to estimate the Nusselt numbers for fully established flows at the thermal entrance of the considered geometries. The comparisons with existing correlations for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids resulted in excellent agreement. The main contribution of this work is to supply practical and easily applicable correlations, which are, especially for the case of annulus, rather scarce and extensively required in the design of heat transfer operations dealing with similar shear-thinning products. In addition, the experimental results may support existing theoretical analyses.

Optimal performance fee and flow of funds in asset management contracts

This paper investigates the importance of ow of funds as an implicit incentive in the asset management industry. We build a two-period bi- nomial moral hazard model to explain the trade-o¤s between ow, per- formance and fees where e¤ort depends on the combination of implicit ( ow of funds) and explicit (performance fee) incentives. Two cases are considered. With full commitment, the investor s relevant trade-o¤ is to give up expected return in the second period vis-à-vis to induce e¤ort in the rst period. The more concerned the investor is with today s pay- o¤, the more willing he will be to give up expected return in the second period by penalizing negative excess return in the rst period. Without full commitment, the investor learns some symmetric and imperfect infor- mation about the ability of the manager to obtain positive excess return. In this case, observed returns reveal ability as well as e¤ort choices. We show that powerful implicit incentives may explain the ow-performance relationship with a numerical solution. Besides, risk aversion explains the complementarity between performance fee and ow of funds.

eIF5A has a function in the elongation step of translation in yeast

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Enhancement of optical absorption by modulation of the oxygen flow of TiO2 films deposited by reactive sputtering

Oxygen-deficient TiO2 films with enhanced visible and near-infrared optical absorption have been deposited by reactive sputtering using a planar diode radio frequency magnetron configuration. It is observed that the increase in the absorption coefficient is more effective when the O-2 gas supply is periodically interrupted rather than by a decrease of the partial O-2 gas pressure in the deposition plasma. The optical absorption coefficient at 1.5 eV increases from about 1 x 10(2) cm(-1) to more than 4 x 10(3) cm(-1) as a result of the gas flow discontinuity. A red-shift of similar to 0.24 eV in the optical absorption edge is also observed. High resolution transmission electron microscopy with composition analysis shows that the films present a dense columnar morphology, with estimated mean column width of 40nm. Moreover, the interruptions of the O-2 gas flow do not produce detectable variations in the film composition along its growing direction. X-ray diffraction and micro-Raman experiments indicate the presence of the TiO2 anatase, rutile, and brookite phases. The anatase phase is dominant, with a slight increment of the rutile and brookite phases in films deposited under discontinued O-2 gas flow. The increase of optical absorption in the visible and near-infrared regions has been attributed to a high density of defects in the TiO2 films, which is consistent with density functional theory calculations that place oxygen-related vacancy states in the upper third of the optical bandgap. The electronic structure calculation results, along with the adopted deposition method and experimental data, have been used to propose a mechanism to explain the formation of the observed oxygen-related defects in TiO2 thin films. The observed increase in sub-bandgap absorption and the modeling of the corresponding changes in the electronic structure are potentially useful concerning the optimization of efficiency of the photocatalytic activity and the magnetic doping of TiO2 films. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4724334]

Heat transfer in laminar flow of non-Newtonian fluids in ducts of elliptical section

Laminar forced convection inside tubes of various cross-section shapes is of interest in the design of a low Reynolds number heat exchanger apparatus. Heat transfer to thermally developing, hydrodynamically developed forced convection inside tubes of simple geometries such as a circular tube, parallel plate, or annular duct has been well studied in the literature and documented in various books, but for elliptical duct there are not much work done. The main assumption used in this work is a laminar flow of a power flow inside elliptical tube, under a boundary condition of first kind with constant physical properties and negligible axial heat diffusion (high Peclet number). To solve the thermally developing problem, we use the generalized integral transform technique (GITT), also known as Sturm-Liouville transform. Actually, such an integral transform is a generalization of the finite Fourier transform where the sine and cosine functions are replaced by more general sets of orthogonal functions. The axes are algebraically transformed from the Cartesian coordinate system to the elliptical coordinate system in order to avoid the irregular shape of the elliptical duct wall. The GITT is then applied to transform and solve the problem and to obtain the once unknown temperature field. Afterward, it is possible to compute and present the quantities of practical interest, such as the bulk fluid temperature, the local Nusselt number and the average Nusselt number for various cross-section aspect ratios. (C) 2006 Elsevier. SAS. All rights reserved.

The complex sine-Gordon equation as a symmetry flow of the AKNS hierarchy

It is shown how the complex sine-Gordon equation arises as a symmetry flow of the AKNS hierarchy. The AKNS hierarchy is extended by the 'negative' symmetry flows forming the Borel loop algebra. The complex sine-Gordon and the vector nonlinear Schrodinger equations appear as lowest-negative and second-positive flows within the extended hierarchy. This is fully analogous to the well known connection between the sine-Gordon and mKdV equations within the extended mKdV hierarchy. A general formalism for a Toda-like symmetry occupying the 'negative' sector of the sl(N) constrained KP hierarchy and giving rise to the negative Borel sl(N) loop algebra is indicated.

Forced convection to laminar flow of liquid egg yolk in circular and annular ducts

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Laminar flow of soursop juice through concentric annuli: Friction factors and rheology

Laminar axial flow of a pseudoplastic fluid food (soursop, juice) in annular ducts has been experimentally investigated. In the first part of the manuscript, the rheological behavior of soursop juice, being essential for the annular flow analysis, was completely determined from 9.3 to 49.4 degrees Brix and temperatures from 0.4 degrees C to 68.8 degrees C, using a rotational rheometer equipped with coaxial cylinders. In order to test the adequacy of the rheology results, pressure loss data in the laminar pipe flow were collected and then experimental and theoretical friction factors were compared, showing excellent agreement, which indicated the reliability of the Power-Law model for describing the soursop juices. In the second part, pressure loss in annular regions was measured and used to estimate friction factors, which were then compared to those resulted from analytical and semi-analytical equations. The principal contributions of this article are to provide a review on the determination of friction factors-Reynolds number of pseudoplastic fluids in annuli, and also supply extensive new experimental data on the rheological properties and pressure loss of an important shear-thinning fluid food, which is of particular interest for the food engineering process design. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transient flow of the oil-refrigerant mixture through the radial clearance in rolling piston compressors

Unsteady flow of oil and refrigerant gas through radial clearance in rolling piston compressors has been modeled as a heterogeneous mixture, where the properties are determined from the species conservation transport equation coupled with momentum and energy equations. Time variations of pressure, tangential velocity of the rolling piston and radial clearance due to pump setting have been included in the mixture flow model. Those variables have been obtained by modeling the compression process, rolling piston dynamics and by using geometric characteristics of the pump, respectively. An important conclusion concerning this work is the large variation of refrigerant concentration in the oil-filled radial clearance during the compression cycle. That is particularly true for large values of mass flow rates, and for those cases the flow mixture cannot be considered as having uniform concentration. In presence of low mass flow rates homogeneous flow prevail and the mixture tend to have a uniform concentration. In general, it was observed that for calculating the refrigerant mass flow rate using the difference in refrigerant concentration between compression and suction chambers, a time average value for the gas concentration should be used at the clearance inlet.

On a negative flow of the AKNS hierarchy and its relation to a two-component Camassa-Holm equation?

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)