Effect of pH, temperature, and moisture on the formation of volatile compounds in glycine/glucose model systems

Mixtures of glycine, glucose, and starch were extrusion cooked using sodium hydroxide at 0, 3, and 6 g/L of extruder water feed, 18% moisture, and 120, 150, and 180 degreesC target die temperatures, giving extrudates with pH values of 5.6, 6.8, and 7.4. Freeze-dried equimolar solutions of glucose and glycine were heated either dry or after equilibration to similar to 13% moisture at 180 degreesC in a reaction-tube system designed to mimic the heating profile in an extruder. Volatile compounds were isolated onto Tenax and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. For the extrudates, total yields of volatiles increased with decreasing pH at 180 degreesC, reached a maximum at pH 6.S at 150 degreesC, and increased with increasing pH at 120 degreesC. Amounts increased with temperature at all pH values. Pyrazines were the most abundant class for all sets of conditions (54-79% of total volatiles). Pyrroles, ketones, furans, oxazoles, and pyridines were also identified. Yields of volatiles from the reaction-tube samples increased by > 60% in the moist system. Levels of individual classes also increased in the presence of moisture, except pyrazines, which decreased similar to3.5-fold. Twenty-one of the compounds were common to the reaction-tube samples and the extrudates.

The unit ball of the complex P(3H)

Let H be a two-dimensional complex Hilbert space and P(3H) the space of 3-homogeneous polynomials on H. We give a characterization of the extreme points of its unit ball, P(3H), from which we deduce that the unit sphere of P(3H) is the disjoint union of the sets of its extreme and smooth points. We also show that an extreme point of P(3H) remains extreme as considered as an element of L(3H). Finally we make a few remarks about the geometry of the unit ball of the predual of P(3H) and give a characterization of its smooth points.

Developing a conceptual model of lead performance measurement and benchmarking: A multiple case analysis

Purpose: Environmental turbulence including rapid changes in technology and markets has resulted in the need for new approaches to performance measurement and benchmarking. There is a need for studies that attempt to measure and benchmark upstream, leading or developmental aspects of organizations. Therefore, the aim of this paper is twofold. The first is to conduct an in-depth case analysis of lead performance measurement and benchmarking leading to the further development of a conceptual model derived from the extant literature and initial survey data. The second is to outline future research agendas that could further develop the framework and the subject area.

Design/methodology/approach: A multiple case analysis involving repeated in-depth interviews with managers in organisational areas of upstream influence in the case organisations.

Findings: It was found that the effect of external drivers for lead performance measurement and benchmarking was mediated by organisational context factors such as level of progression in business improvement methods. Moreover, the legitimation of the business improvement methods used for this purpose, although typical, had been extended beyond their original purpose with the development of bespoke sets of lead measures.

Practical implications: Examples of methods and lead measures are given that can be used by organizations in developing a programme of lead performance measurement and benchmarking.

Originality/value: There is a paucity of in-depth studies relating to the theory and practice of lead performance measurement and benchmarking in organisations.

Comparisons, mental models, and the action effect in judgments of regret

People tend to attribute more regret to a character who has decided to take action and experienced a negative outcome than to one who has decided not to act and experienced a negative outcome. For some decisions, however, this finding is not observed in a between-participants design and thus appears to rely on comparisons between people's representations of action and their representations of inaction. In this article, we outline a mental models account that explains findings from studies that have used within- and between-participants designs, and we suggest that, for decisions with uncertain counterfactual outcomes, information about the consequences of a decision to act causes people to flesh out their representation of the counterfactual states of affairs for inaction. In three experiments, we confirm our predictions about participants' fleshing out of representations, demonstrating that an action effect occurs only when information about the consequences of action is available to participants as they rate the nonactor and when this information about action is informative with respect to judgments about inaction. It is important to note that the action effect always occurs when the decision scenario specifies certain counterfactual outcomes. These results suggest that people sometimes base their attributions of regret on comparisons among different sets of mental models.

Compactness properties of operator multipliers

We continue the study of multidimensional operator multipliers initiated in~cite{jtt}. We introduce the notion of the symbol of an operator multiplier. We characterise completely compact operator multipliers in terms of their symbol as well as in terms of approximation by finite rank multipliers. We give sufficient conditions for the sets of compact and completely compact multipliers to coincide and characterise the cases where an operator multiplier in the minimal tensor product of two C*-algebras is automatically compact. We give a description of multilinear modular completely compact completely bounded maps defined on the direct product of finitely many copies of the C*-algebra of compact operators in terms of tensor products, generalising results of Saar

A lysimeter experimental study and numerical characterisation of the leaching of incinerator bottom ash waste

Incinerator bottom ash (IBA) is a residual produced from incinerating municipal solid waste. In the past, IBA presented a big waste disposal problem; however, various recycling approaches have been adopted in recent years to mitigate this problem, as well as to provide a useful alternative to using primary aggregate resources. The use of IBA as an alternative to conventional aggregates in different civil engineering construction applications helps to conserve premium grade aggregate supplies; however, when IBA is in contact with water in the field, as a consequence of precipitation events or changes in water table, elements, such as salts and heavy metals, may be released to the soil and ground water. In this work, IBA waste was mixed with limestone aggregate to produce a blend with acceptable mechanical properties and minimum environmental risks for use as road foundation. The study focused on evaluating potential environmental impacts of some constituents, including sulphate, chloride, sodium, copper, zinc and lead in IBA blends using a lysimeter as a large scale leaching tool. Moreover, a specific scenario simulating field conditions was adopted in the lysimeter to assess the potential impact of changing conditions, such as IBA content in the blend, liquid to solid ratio (L/S) and pH value, on long-term release of heavy metals and salts. Then, numerical modelling was used to predict the release of the aforementioned constituents from IBA based on initial measurement of intrinsic material properties and the kinetic desorption process concept. Experimental results showed that zinc and lead were released in very low concentrations but sodium and sulphate were in high concentrations. The control limestone only blend also demonstrated low release concentrations of constituents in comparison to IBA blends, where constituent concentrations increased with increase in IBA content. Experimental results were compared with numerical results obtained using a non-equilibrium desorption model. Good agreement was found between the two sets of data. 

Efficacy of a standard meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus decolonisation protocol in routine clinical practice

Summary

Decolonisation may reduce the risk of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection in individual carriers and prevent transmission to other patients. The aims of this prospective cohort study were to determine the long-term efficacy of a standardised decolonisation regimen and to identify factors associated with failure. Patients colonised with MRSA underwent decolonisation, which was considered to be successful if there was no growth in three consecutive sets of site-specific screening swabs obtained weekly post treatment. If patients were successfully decolonised, follow-up cultures were performed 6 and 12 months later. Of 137 patients enrolled, 79 (58%) were successfully decolonised. Of these 79, 53 (67%) and 44 (56%) remained decolonised at 6 and 12 months respectively. Therefore only 44/137 (32%) patients who completed decolonisation were MRSA negative 12 months later. Outcome was not associated with a particular strain of MRSA. Successful decolonisation was less likely in patients colonised with a mupirocin-resistant isolate (adjusted odds ratio: 0.08; 95% confidence interval: 0.02–0.30), in patients with throat colonisation (0.22; 0.07–0.68) and in patients aged >80 years (0.30; 0.10–0.93) compared with those aged 60–80 years. These findings suggest that although initially successful in some cases, the protocol used did not result in long-term clearance of MRSA carriage for most patients.

Information Disclosure, Market Discipline and the Management of Bank Capital: Evidence from the Chinese Financial Sector

Is there evidence that market forces effectively discipline risk management behaviour within Chinese financial institutions? This study analyses information from a comprehensive sample of Chinese banks over the 1998-2008 period. Market discipline is captured through the impact of four sets of factors namely, market concentration, interbank deposits, information disclosure, and ownership structure. We find some evidence of a market disciplining effect in that: (i) higher (lower) levels of market concentration lead banks to operate with a lower (higher) capital buffer; (ii) joint-equity banks that disclose more information to the public maintain larger capital ratios; (iii) full state ownership reduces the sensitivity of changes in a bank's capital buffer to its level of risk;(iv) banks that release more transparent financial information hold more capital against their non-performing loans. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

The ‘Public Interest’ Agency of International Organizations? The case of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance

This article seeks to outline and explore some of the conditions necessary for International Organizations (IOs) to perform in a public interest fashion through a case study of the Principles of corporate governance formulated by the OECD. Rather than the more commonly documented pathological and dysfunctional behavioural forms of IOs, the case of the Principles, both in their formulation by the OECD, and in their assessment by the World Bank through the ROSC process, represent an episode of IO agency protecting and promoting a wider public interest. In exercising their agency, IO staff, have made the Principles more agreeable to a wider range of interested parties, giving them a general interest orientation, in accordance with a proceduralist definition of public interest. This case should therefore encourage IPE scholars to consider carefully and systematically the sets of circumstances and conditions, which might be required for IO agency to take more socially useful forms. In the final section, three indicators are identified which might be evaluated in future research into the positive public interest agency of IOs across a range of cases.

Association and expression study of synapsin III and schizophrenia

The synapsin III gene, SYN3, which belongs to the family of synaptic vesicle-associated proteins, has been implicated in the modulation of neurotransmitter release and in synaptogenesis, suggesting a potential role in several neuropsychiatric diseases. The human SYN3 gene is located on chromosome 22q12-13, a candidate region implicated in previous linkage studies of schizophrenia. However, association studies of SYN3 and schizophrenia have produced inconsistent results. In this Study, four SYN3 SNPs (rs133945 (-631 C>G), rs133946(-196 G>A), rs9862 and rs1056484) were tested in three sets of totally 3759 samples that comprise 655 affected subjects and 626 controls in the Irish Case-Control Study of Schizophrenia (ICCSS). 1350 samples incorporating 273 pedigrees in the Irish Study of High Density Schizophrenia Families (ISHDSF), and 564 unrelated schizophrenia patients and 564 healthy individuals in a Chinese case-control sample. The expression levels of SYN3 in schizophrenic patients and unaffected controls were compared using postmortem brain cDNAs provided by the Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI). There was no significant association in either the Irish or Chinese case-control samples, nor in the combined samples. Consistent with this finding, we did not find any significant difference in allele or haplotype frequencies when we used the pedigree disequilibrium test to analyze the Irish family sample. In the expression Studies, no significant difference (p = 0.507) was observed between patients and controls. Both the association studies and expression studies didn't support a major role for SYN3 in the susceptibility of schizophrenia in Irish and Chinese populations. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd All rights reserved.

Open Adoption: Adoptive Parents' Experiences of Birth Family Contact and Talking to Their Child about Adoption

The trend towards more open adoption presents adopters with unique parenting challenges associated with satisfying the child’s curiosity about their origins, and maintaining relationships with birth family through contact. This paper focuses on the experiences of 20 sets of adoptive parents who were interviewed as part of the Northern Ireland Care Pathways and Outcomes Study. Interviews were analysed following the principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). It explores adoptive parents’ experience of talking to their child about adoption, and of post-adoption contact with members of the birth family. Adopters discussed adoption sensitively with their child, but were concerned that difficult and complex family histories would present a risk to the child’s self-esteem and emotional well-being. All forms of contact proved emotionally and practically burdensome, however adopters were committed to making it work for the child’s benefit, and were open to increased contact should the child wish it in the future. There was little relationship with birth family outside of formal contact. The study reveals a need for a mechanism to facilitate communication with birth family if adopters are to be able to respond to the child’s changing need for contact and information.

Versatile N,C,N coordination behavior of a monoanionic aryldiamine ligand in ruthenium(II) complexes: Syntheses and crystal structures of [Ru-II(C6H3(CH(2)NMe(2))(2)-2,6)X(L)] (L equals norbornadiene, X=Cl, SO3CF3; L=PPh(3), X=I) and [Ru-II{C6H3(CH(2)NMe(2))(2)-2,6}(2,2':6:2''-terpyridine)]Cl

The monoanionic ligand [C6H3(CH(2)NMe(2))(2)-2,6](-), a potentially terdentate N,C,N bonding system, has been employed to synthesize a series of new ruthenium(II) complexes [Ru{C6H3(CH(2)NMe(2))(2)-2,6}X(L)] (L = PPh(3) X = Cl (2a), I (2b); L = norbornadiene (nbd), X = Cl (4), eta(1)-OSO2CF3 (5)) and [Ru{C6H3(CH(2)NMe(2))(2)-2,6}(2,2':6',2 ''-terpyridine)]Cl (3). X-ray crystal structures of 2b and 3-5 have been determined, in which the N,C,N coordination geometry with respect to the metal center is found to differ considerably. In each complex the aryldiamine ligand is terdentate, eta(3)-N,C,N-bonded as a six electron donor system. However, depending on the other ligands in the Ru(II) coordination sphere, this ligand demonstrates considerable flexibility in adopting coordination geometries which range from meridional in 3 through pseudomeridional in 2b to pseudofacial in 4 and 5. In the structures of 4 and 5 significant distortions of the aryl ring, involving bending of the six-membered ring into a boatlike conformation, are found. The different combinations of the N,C,N ligand with sets of other ligands lead to a range of metal geometries, i.e. square pyramidal in 2b, octahedral in 3, and bicapped tetrahedral in 4 and 5.

Biosynthetic Chlorination of the Piperazate Residue in Kutzneride Biosynthesis by KthP

Kutznerides 2 and 8 of the cyclic hexadepsipeptide family of antifungal natural products from the soil actinomycete Kutzneria sp. 744 contain two sets of chlorinated residues, a 6,7-dichlorohexahydropyrroloindole moiety derived from dichlorotryptophan and a 5-chloropiperazate moiety, as well as a methylcyclopropylglycine residue that may arise from isoleucine via a cryptic chlorination pathway. Previous studies identified KtzD, KtzQ and KtzR as three halogenases in the kutzneride pathway but left no candidate for installing the CS chlorine on piperazate. On the basis of analysis of the complete genome sequence of Kutzneria, we now identify a fourth halogenase in the pathway whose gene is separated from the defined kutzneride cluster by 12 open reading frames. KthP (kutzneride halogenase for piperazate) is a mononuclear nonheme iron halogenase that acts on the piperazyl ring tethered by a thioester linkage to the holo forms of thiolation domains. MS analysis of the protein-bound product confirmed chlorination of the piperazate framework from the (3S)- but not the (3R)-piperazyl-S-pantetheinyl thiolation proteins. After thioesterase-mediated release, nuclear magnetic resonance was used to assign the free imino acid as (3S,5S)-5-chloropiperazate, distinct from the 3S,5R stereoisomer reported in the mature kutznerides. These results demonstrate that a fourth halogenase, KthP, is active in the kutzneride biosynthetic pathway and suggest further processing of the (3S,5S)-5-chloropiperazate during subsequent incorporation into the kutzneride depsipeptide frameworks.

Children’s Reasoning About the Temporal Order of Past and Future Events

Four- and five-year-olds completed two sets of tasks that involved reasoning about the temporal order in which events had occurred in the past or were to occur in the future. Four-year-olds succeeded on the tasks that involved reasoning about the order of past events but not those that involved reasoning about the order of future events, whereas 5-year-olds passed both types of tasks. Individual children who failed the past-event tasks were not particularly likely to fail the more difficult future-event tasks. However, children's performance on the reasoning tasks was predictive of their performance on a task assessing their comprehension of the terms “before” and “after.” Our results suggest that there may be a developmental change over this age range in the ability to flexibly represent and reason about the before-and-after relationships between events.