Fish sauce from two species of unexploited deep sea fish Peristedion adeni and Peristedion weberi

Two species of unexploited deep sea fish Peristedion adeni and Peristedion weberi caught from the Exclusive Economic Zone of India were subjected to fermentation at ambient temperature (30 ± 2°C) in the presence of salt in 4:1 ratio. Periodical analysis of the fermented product was carried out up to one year. The sauces had brownish yellow colour and conformed to special grade of the standards prescribed by the Food and Drug Administration. Further solubilization of protein after 9 month's maturation was not appreciable.

HSPC117 deficiency in cloned embryos causes placental abnormality and fetal death

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has been successfully used in many species to produce live cloned offspring, albeit with low efficiency. The low frequency of successful development has usually been ascribed to incomplete or inappropriate reprogramming of the transferred nuclear genome. Elucidating the genetic differences between normal fertilized and cloned embryos is key to understand the low efficiency of SCNT. Here, we show that expression of HSPC117, which encodes a hypothetical protein of unknown function, was absent or very low in cloned mouse blastocysts. To investigate the role of HSPC117 in embryo development, we knocked-down this gene in normal fertilized embryos using RNA interference. We assessed the post-implantation survival of HSPC117 knock-down embryos at 3 stages: E9 (prior to placenta formation); E12 (after the placenta was fully functional) and E19 (post-natal). Our results show that, although siRNA-treated in vivo fertilized/produced (IVP) embryos could develop to the blastocyst stage and implanted without any difference from control embryos, the knock-down embryos showed substantial fetal death, accompanied by placental blood clotting, at E12. Furthermore, comparison of HSPC117 expression in placentas of nuclear transfer (NT), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and IVP embryos confirmed that HSPC117 deficiency correlates well with failures in embryo development: all NT embryos with a fetus, as well as IVP and ICSI embryos, had normal placental HSPC117 expression while those NT embryos showing reduced or no expression of HSPC117 failed to form a fetus. In conclusion, we show that HSPC117 is an important gene for post-implantation development of embryos, and that HSPC117 deficiency leads to fetal abnormalities after implantation, especially following placental formation. We suggest that defects in HSPC117 expression may be an important contributing factor to loss of cloned NT embryos in vivo. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Classification and choice in product design

Life is full of difficult choices. Everyone has their own way of dealing with these, some effective, some not. The problem is particularly acute in engineering design because of the vast amount of information designers have to process. This paper deals with a subset of this set of problems: the subset of selecting materials and processes, and their links to the design of products. Even these, though, present many of the generic problems of choice, and the challenges in creating tools to assist the designer in making them. The key elements are those of classification, of indexing, of reaching decisions using incomplete data in many different formats, and of devising effective strategies for selection. This final element - that of selection strategies - poses particular challenges. Product design, as an example, is an intricate blend of the technical and (for want of a better word) the aesthetic. To meet these needs, a tool that allows selection by analysis, by analogy, by association and simply by 'browsing' is necessary. An example of such a tool, its successes and remaining challenges, will be described.

Feasibility study of biofuel production from freshwater fern, Azolla sp in Anzali Wetland

Production of bioethanol through acidic and enzymatic hydrolysis of aquatic Azolla sp., as a new source of bio-mass, has been performed, as a means to control increasing growth and reducing undesirable effects of this plant in Anzali lagoon. After sampling, drying and crushing, Azolla was hydrolyzed, using diluted acid and enzyme. Diluted acid hydrolysis was done using both autoclave and a high-pressure system (Batch Synth® Microwave synthesizer). The effects of temperature and time (in autoclave) and concentration of acid (in both) were compared. Cellubrix®, a ommercial cellulase source, was used for enzymatic hydrolysis process. The amounts of reducing sugars, glucose and furfural, released from hydrolyzate, were measured. To produce alcohol, Sacchromyces cerevisiae (to ferment sixcarbon sugars), Zygowilliopsis californica and Pichia stipitis (to ferment five-carbon and sixcarbon sugars) were used. Maximum amounts of glucose (4.83% w/w) and reducing sugars (14.15% w/w) were obtained using acid hydrolysis in autoclave. In the microwave oven, maximum glucose (5.04% w/w) and reducing sugars (13.27 w/w) were obtained at 180 and 200 °C, respectively. Under these conditions, maximum produced furfural was 1.54 g/L. The difference between amounts of furfural obtained from acid hydrolysis of Azolla in microwave oven compared to autoclave was statistically significant. Amounts of alcohol produced and its yields were 3.99 g/L and 33.13% for S. cerevisiae in 48 hours, 3.73 g/L and 30.45% for Pichia stipites in 48 hours, and 3.73 g/L and 30.45% for Z. californica in 24 hours after inoculation, respectively, with significant differences. Statistical comparison of results showed significant differences (P<0.05) in glucose production, at different conditions. Amounts of reducing sugars and glucose increased after optimization of levels of acid, time, and temperature. The overall optimum released sugar and glucose were obtained with 1.67% (w/v) acid using autoclave. Higher temperatures in microwave oven caused a significant increase (P<0.05) in furfural. Furfural severely inhibits fermentation. Hence, regarding the issues of energy consumption and time, amounts of inhibiting substances and sugar production, autoclave is found to be superior to the high temperature and pressure, generated in microwave oven, for hydrolyzing Azolla. Furthermore, given the amounts of Azolla in Anzali lagoon, it may be recommendable to use this plant as a biomass resource.

Towards the development of an integrated design framework using the Blackboard model

Current research into the process of engineering design is extending the use of computers towards the acquisition, representation and application of design process knowledge in addition to the existing storage and manipulation of product-based models of design objects. This is a difficult task because the design of mechanical systems is a complex, often unpredictable process involving ill-structured problem solving skills and large amounts of knowledge, some which may be of an incomplete and subjective nature. Design problems require the integration of a variety of modes of working such as numerical, graphical, algorithmic or heuristic and demand products through synthesis, analysis and evaluation activities.

This report presents the results of a feasibility study into the blackboard approach and discusses the development of an initial prototype system that will enable an alphanumeric design dialogue between a designer and an expert to be analysed in a formal way, thus providing real-life protocol data on which to base the blackboard message structures.

Survey of biosystematic and sexual reproductive physiology in Holothuroidea on Hormozgan Province

Sea cucumbers belong to phylum Echinodermata, order Holothuroidea are an abundant and diverse group of Invertebrates, with over 1400 species occuring from the intertidal to the deepest oceanic trenches. Sea cucumbers are important components of the food chain in temperate and coral reef ecosystems and they play an important role as deposite feeders and suspension feeders. Rapid decline in populations may have serious consequences for the survival of other species that are part of the same complex food web,as the eggs, larve and juveniles constitute an important food source for the other marine species including crustaceans, fish and mollusks. In addition sea cucumbers are often called the earthworms of the sea, because they are responsible for the extensive shifting and mixing of the substrate, and recycling of detrital matter. Sea cucumbers consume and grind sediment and organic material into finer particles , turning over the top layers of sediment in lagoons , reefs and other habitats and allowing the penetration of oxygen. While the taxonomy of the holothurian families is generally well known , the distinction of similar species is difficult. There are relatively few holothurian taxonomist.Most sea cucumber species can be identified by Holothurin taxonomists by using the calcareous skeletal ossicles found in the body wall. In this study , at first a sea cucumber from Kish island in Persian gulf has recognized. Individuals collected from west and east extend far away into north and south of coral reefs by diving. I have checked them morphologically and anatomically.Then with key to the orders of the Holothuroidea, They belong to the Aspidochirotida with key to the families of Aspidochirotida, they were in Stichopodidae families and with key to the genus of Stchopodidae, they were Stichopus. Then ossicles were extracted at National Museum of Natural History, by Dr David Pawson. The ossicles were measured on a transect across a slide prepared from the mid-dorsal region of each specimen.The one we have in the shallow waters of Kish island, is Stichopus hermanni, a massive holothurian, body broad, considerably flattened ventraly ,the dorsal side slightly arched and the lateral sides almost vertical; body wall fairy thick and soft ; mouth subterminal; anus central; tentacles usually 20 in number of length and leaf shaped. Numerous ossicles consisting of table with large discs having usually 7 to 15 peripheral holes, but often irregular or incomplete and spire of moderate height ending in a group of spinelets, rosettes of variable development, and c-shaped rods. Color (exept papillae)partly remained after preservation in alcohol which is found at the depth of 4 to 8 meters, on coral reef. Furthermore, the sexual reproductive cycle was described using standard methods. Gonads were removed and transferred to Bouin's fixative for four weeks and then processed according to standard embedding technique. To prevent the loss of tubule contents during embedding, the tubule sections, were cut well beyond the segment selected for sectioning. For each individual, six sections, each section with 5µm diameter by microtome were cut from tubules. These sections were first placed on gelatin coated slides (the gelatin was heated to 42°c) and then transferred to the oven at 37°c for one hour. This technique usually prevents the fragil tubules from breaking and the loss of gametes. The slides were stained with Eosin and Hematoxylin, and good resolution of the various cell types achieved.A second series of slides was stained with the Periodic Acid Schiff(PAS) to identify polysaccharides(glycogen). Monthly sampling was occurred.The sexual reproductive cycle was defined through the combined use of these criteria: Monthly percentages of the gonad stages for each sex, the monthly gonad index (GI) , given as the ratio of the wet gonad weight (G) to the dray weight (DW)and the monthly percentage of individuals that undetermined sex. The gonad consists of two tufts of tubules on which saccules develop. Gonadal development was classified into five stages: post spawning, recovery, growth, advanced growth, and mature stage that were adapted from the earlier studies of holothurians. Histological preparations showed that the sex of larger individuals could be identified by the presence of oogonia and young oocytes in females, and spermatogonic stages in males.The mean diameter of the tubules and gonadal mass follow annual cycles, increasing from late winter through spring, and dropping abruptly after spawning in the summer. Gametogenesis is generally a prolongate process and begins in March. By summer the ovarian tubules contain oocytes with diameter of 120-240 pm and the testicular tubules contain an abundance of spermatozoa (diameter 5-6 gm ).Following spawning the predominant activity within the spent tubules is phagocytosis of the residual gamets.The active phase of gametogenesis (March to July), coincides with an increasing photoperiod regim, and an accelerated gametogenesis occurs in July when temperature is high. Throughout the year, the gonad of Stichopus hermanni is larger in males than in females, and this is due to the number of tubules in the testis rather than to tubules length or diameter.

Paracobitis nanpanjiangensis, a new loach (Balitoridae: Nemacheilinae) from Yunnan, China

A new species of the genus Paracobitis, Paracobitis nanpanjiangensis is described from tributaries of the Nanpanjiang River drainage in China. It is distinguished from its congeners, except P. oligolepis and P. wujiangensis, by body scaleless or with rudimentary scales (caudal peduncle with several deeply embedded scales). It can be differentiated from P. wujiangensis by the complete lateral line (vs. incomplete), lower dorsal crest reaching the vertical of origin of anal fin (vs. shorter and higher dorsal crest not reaching the base of anal fin). It is distinguished from P. oligolepis by the following characters: branched dorsal fin with 81/2 (a few 91/2) rays (vs. 91/2), interspaces between bars in front of dorsal fin conspicuously thinner than those behind (vs. vermiform markings), dorsal head without vermiform markings or obscure (vs. clearly vermiform markings on dorsal head), vertebrae 4 + 36-38 (vs. 4 + 39-41).

The search of 'novel' mtDNA mutations in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: MITOMAPping as a risk factor

MITOMAP is by far the most frequently cited Web resource that is referred to in substantiating novelty of an mtDNA mutation. This database, as is now known, has quite an incomplete coverage of the mtDNA mutations from the literature. This circumstance has

The Bayesian view of extreme events

The Bayesian perspective of designing for the consequences of hazard is discussed. Structural engineers should be educated in Bayesian theory and its underlying philosophy, and about the centrality to the prediction problem of the predictive distribution. The primary contribution that Bayesianism can make to the debate about extreme possibilities is its clarification of the language of and thinking about risk. Frequentist methodologies are the wrong approach to the decisions that engineers need to make, decisions that involve assessments of abstract future possibilities based on incomplete and abstract information.

Air quality and public health impacts of UK airports. Part I: Emissions

The potential adverse human health and climate impacts of emissions from UK airports have become a significant political issue, yet the emissions, air quality impacts and health impacts attributable to UK airports remain largely unstudied. We produce an inventory of UK airport emissions - including aircraft landing and takeoff (LTO) operations and airside support equipment - with uncertainties quantified. The airports studied account for more than 95% of UK air passengers in 2005. We estimate that in 2005, UK airports emitted 10.2 Gg [-23 to +29%] of NOx, 0.73 Gg [-29 to +32%] of SO2, 11.7 Gg [-42 to +77%] of CO, 1.8 Gg [-59 to +155%] of HC, 2.4 Tg [-13 to +12%] of CO2, and 0.31 Gg [-36 to +45%] of PM2.5. This translates to 2.5 Tg [-12 to +12%] CO2-eq using Global Warming Potentials for a 100-year time horizon. Uncertainty estimates were based on analysis of data from aircraft emissions measurement campaigns and analyses of aircraft operations.The First-Order Approximation (FOA3) - currently the standard approach used to estimate particulate matter emissions from aircraft - is compared to measurements and it is shown that there are discrepancies greater than an order of magnitude for 40% of cases for both organic carbon and black carbon emissions indices. Modified methods to approximate organic carbon emissions, arising from incomplete combustion and lubrication oil, and black carbon are proposed. These alterations lead to factor 8 and a 44% increase in the annual emissions estimates of black and organic carbon particulate matter, respectively, leading to a factor 3.4 increase in total PM2.5 emissions compared to the current FOA3 methodology. Our estimates of emissions are used in Part II to quantify the air quality and health impacts of UK airports, to assess mitigation options, and to estimate the impacts of a potential London airport expansion. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

Know thy neighbour: A normative theory of synaptic depression

Synapses exhibit an extraordinary degree of short-term malleability, with release probabilities and effective synaptic strengths changing markedly over multiple timescales. From the perspective of a fixed computational operation in a network, this seems like a most unacceptable degree of added variability. We suggest an alternative theory according to which short-term synaptic plasticity plays a normatively-justifiable role. This theory starts from the commonplace observation that the spiking of a neuron is an incomplete, digital, report of the analog quantity that contains all the critical information, namely its membrane potential. We suggest that a synapse solves the inverse problem of estimating the pre-synaptic membrane potential from the spikes it receives, acting as a recursive filter. We show that the dynamics of short-term synaptic depression closely resemble those required for optimal filtering, and that they indeed support high quality estimation. Under this account, the local postsynaptic potential and the level of synaptic resources track the (scaled) mean and variance of the estimated presynaptic membrane potential. We make experimentally testable predictions for how the statistics of subthreshold membrane potential fluctuations and the form of spiking non-linearity should be related to the properties of short-term plasticity in any particular cell type.

Branching toughens fibrous networks.

Fibrous collagenous networks are not only stiff but also tough, due to their complex microstructures. This stiff yet tough behavior is desirable for both medical and military applications but it is difficult to reproduce in engineering materials. While the nonlinear hyperelastic behavior of fibrous networks has been extensively studied, the understanding of toughness is still incomplete. Here, we identify a microstructure mimicking the branched bundles of a natural type I collagen network, in which partially cross-linked long fibers give rise to novel combinations of stiffness and toughness. Finite element analysis shows that the stiffness of fully cross-linked fibrous networks is amplified by increasing the fibril length and cross-link density. However, a trade-off of such stiff networks is reduced toughness. By having partially cross-linked networks with long fibrils, the networks have comparable stiffness and improved toughness as compared to the fully cross-linked networks. Further, the partially cross-linked networks avoid the formation of kinks, which cause fibril rupture during deformation. As a result, the branching allows the networks to have stiff yet tough behavior.

Fracture toughness of fibrous membranes

Random fibrous networks exist in both natural biological and engineering materials. While the nonlinear deformation of fibrous networks has been extensively studied, the understanding of their fracture behaviour is still incomplete. To study the fracture toughness of fibrous materials, the near-tip region is crucial because failure mechanisms such as fibril rupture occur in this region. The consideration of this region in fracture studies is, however, a difficult task because it involves microscopic mechanical responses at a small length scale. This paper extends our previous finite element analysis by incorporating the microscopic responses into a macroscopic domain by using a submodeling technique. The detailed study of microstructures at crack tips show a stochastic toughness of membranes due to the random nature of fibrous networks. Further, the sizes of crack tip region, which are sufficient to provide a reasonable prediction of fracture behaviour in a specific type of fibrous network, were presented. Future work includes improving the current linear assumption in the macroscopic models to become nonlinear.

Palm frond biochar production and characterisation

Palm oil has been the world's main source of oil and fats since 2004, producing over 45 million tonnes in 2009. Malaysia alone has over 4·5 million hectares planted with oil palm and, based on common practice, ~300 palm fronds are pruned per hectare per year. This agricultural waste is currently either being used as roughage feed or, more frequently, being left between rows of palm trees to prevent soil erosion, or for nutrient recycling purposes. This paper proposes an alternative use for palm frond as a source of biochar. A traditional method commonly use by gardeners in Malaysia to improve soil fertility was used to produce the biochar. A shallow earth pit was dug in the ground for the carbonisation process. The process is described and the impact of carbonisation on the earth wall is analysed and presented. The process was later re-assessed by using TGA-FTIR. Most of the hemicelluloses had fully disintegrated, but the depolymerisation of the cellulose was still incomplete at the carbonisation temperature. Most of the lignin aromatic structure was still present in the biochar. The carbonisation process was repeated in the laboratory and biochar was characterised by using BET, SEM and FTIR. An adsorption isotherm study was conducted and the experimental data were fitted to the Langmuir model. The model predicted Pb2+ adsorption rates of 83·3 mg/g, Cu2+ 41·4 mg/g, Ni2+ 13·0 mg/g and Zn2+ 19·7 mg/g. Copyright © The Royal Society of Edinburgh 2012.

Optimization of burnable poison design for Pu incineration in fully fertile free PWR core

The design challenges of the fertile-free based fuel (FFF) can be addressed by careful and elaborate use of burnable poisons (BP). Practical fully FFF core design for PWR reactor has been reported in the past [1]. However, the burnable poison option used in the design resulted in significant end of cycle reactivity penalty due to incomplete BP depletion. Consequently, excessive Pu loading were required to maintain the target fuel cycle length, which in turn decreased the Pu burning efficiency. A systematic evaluation of commercially available BP materials in all configurations currently used in PWRs is the main objective of this work. The BP materials considered are Boron, Gd, Er, and Hf. The BP geometries were based on Wet Annular Burnable Absorber (WABA), Integral Fuel Burnable Absorber (IFBA), and Homogeneous poison/fuel mixtures. Several most promising combinations of BP designs were selected for the full core 3D simulation. All major core performance parameters for the analyzed cases are very close to those of a standard PWR with conventional UO2 fuel including possibility of reactivity control, power peaking factors, and cycle length. The MTC of all FFF cores was found at the full power conditions at all times and very close to that of the UO2 core. The Doppler coefficient of the FFF cores is also negative but somewhat lower in magnitude compared to UO2 core. The soluble boron worth of the FFF cores was calculated to be lower than that of the UO2 core by about a factor of two, which still allows the core reactivity control with acceptable soluble boron concentrations. The main conclusion of this work is that judicial application of burnable poisons for fertile free fuel has a potential to produce a core design with performance characteristics close to those of the reference PWR core with conventional UO2 fuel.