A 52-week feeding study of genetically modified soybeans in F344 rats

A chronic feeding study to evaluate the safety of the genetically modified glyphosate-tolerant soybeans (GM soybeans) was conducted using rats. F344 DuCrj rats were fed diet containing GM soybeans or Non-GM soybeans at the concentration of 30% in basal diet. Non-GM soybeans were closely related strain of GM soybeans. These two diets were adjusted to an identical nutrient level. In this study, the influence of GM soybeans on rats was compared with that of the Non-GM soybeans, and furthermore, to assess the effect of soybeans themselves, the groups of rats fed GM and Non-GM soybeans were compared with a group fed commercial diet (CE-2). General conditions were observed daily and body weight and food consumption were recorded. At the intermediate examination (26 weeks), and at the termination (52 weeks), animals were subjected to hematology, serum biochemistry, and pathological examination. There were several differences in animal growth, food intake, serum biochemical parameters and histological findings between the rats fed the GM and/or Non-GM soybeans and the rats fed CE-2. However, body weight and food intake were similar for the rats fed the GM and Non-GM soybeans. Gross necropsy findings, hematological and serum biochemical parameters, organ weights, and pathological findings showed no meaningful difference between rats fed the GM and Non-GM soybeans. These results indicate that long-term intake of GM soybeans at the level of 30% in diet has no apparent adverse effect in rats.     

Current status of biobased and biodegradable food packaging materials: Impact on food quality and effect of innovative processing technologies

Fossil-based plastic materials are an integral part of modern life. In food packaging, plastics have a highly important function in preserving food quality and safety, ensuring adequate shelf life, and thereby contributing to limiting food waste. Meanwhile, the global stream of plastics into the oceans is increasing exponentially, triggering worldwide concerns for the environment. There is an urgent need to reduce the environmental impacts of packaging waste, a matter raising increasing consumer awareness. Shifting part of the focus toward packaging materials from renewable resources is one promising strategy. This review provides an overview of the status and future of biobased and biodegradable films used for food packaging applications, highlighting the effects on food shelf life and quality. Potentials, limitations, and promising modifications of selected synthetic biopolymers; polylactic acid, polybutylene succinate, and polyhydroxyalkanoate; and natural biopolymers such as cellulose, starch, chitosan, alginate, gelatine, whey, and soy protein are discussed. Further, this review provides insight into the connection between biobased packaging materials and innovative technologies such as high pressure, cold plasma, microwave, ultrasound, and ultraviolet light. The potential for utilizing such technologies to improve biomaterial barrier and mechanical properties as well as to aid in improving overall shelf life for the packaging system by in-pack processing is elaborated on.     

Electrical characteristics of Ge-based metal-insulator-semiconductor devices with Ge3N4 dielectrics formed by plasma nitridation

We have fabricated pure germanium nitrides (Ge3N4) using high-density plasma nitridation and investigated electrical properties of Au/Ge3N4/Ge capacitors. We achieved equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of 1.4 nm, and dielectric constant of Ge3N4 was estimated to be 9.7. The gate leakage current density of 4.3 A/cm2 in the accumulation condition at V(fb)-1 V, where V(fb) is the flatband voltage, was one order of magnitude lower than that of conventional poly-Si/SiO2/Si stacks. The interface state density (D(it)) of Ge3N4/Ge interfaces evaluated by a low-temperature conductance method exhibited a minimum value of 9.4 x 10(11) cm(-2)eV(-1) at E - E(v) = 0.27 eV. Furthermore, the insulating property and interface quality of Ge3N4/Ge system was found to be thermally stable up to 650 degrees C. These results indicate that Ge3N4 is a promising candidate for either a gate insulator or an interfacial layer under high-k dielectrics for Ge-MIS devices.     

Green‐Chemical Synthesis of Ultrathin β‐MnOOH Nanofibers for Separation Membranes

Ultrathin β‐MnOOH nanofibers can be produced on a large scale via a green‐chemical method using an aqueous solution of very dilute Mn(NO₃)₂ and aminoethanol at room temperature. High‐magnification electron microscopy demonstrates that the β‐MnOOH nanofibers are 3–5 nm thin and up to 1 micrometer long and the nanofibers are parallel assembled into bundles with an average diameter of 25 nm. By a filtration process, ultrathin mesoporous membranes with strong mechanical, thermal, and chemical stabilities are prepared from the β‐MnOOH nanofiber bundles. The membranes can separate 10‐nm nanoparticles from water at a flux of 15120 L m^?2·h^?1·bar^?1, which was 2–3 times higher than that of commercial membranes with similar rejection properties. Based on the Young‐Laplace equation, β‐MnOOH nanofiber/polydimethylsiloxane composite membranes are developed through a novel downstream‐side evaporation process. From nanoporous to dense separation membranes can be achieved by optimizing the experimental conditions. The membranes show desirable separation performance for proteins, ethanol/water mixtures, and gases. The synthesis method of β‐MnOOH nanofibers is simple and environmentally friendly, and it is easily scalable for industry and applicable to other metal oxide systems. These composite membranes constitute a significant contribution to advanced separation technology.     

Palladium‐Catalyzed Benzylic C?H Benzylation via Bis‐Benzylpalladium(II) Complexes in Water: An Effective Pathway for the Direct Construction of N‐(1,2‐Diphenylethyl)anilines

A strategy for the N‐benzylation/benzylic C H benzylation cascade of anilines by the π‐benzylpalladium system using a water‐soluble palladium(0)/sodium diphenylphosphinobenzene‐3‐sulfonate (TPPMS) catalyst and benzyl alcohol in water has been developed. This tandem process is devised as a novel and efficient synthetic route for N‐(1,2‐diphenylethyl)anilines. Benzylic C H activation of a mono‐N‐benzylated intermediate with a π‐benzylpalladium(II) complex affords a bis‐π‐benzylated palladium(II) intermediate. The nucleophilic η¹‐σ‐benzyl anion ligand attacks the electrophilic η³‐π‐benzyl ligand to give a dibenzylated product. The intermolecular competition between mono‐N‐benzylaniline and its monodeuterated form (monodeuterated at the benzylic group) with benzyl alcohol gave a KIE=4.6, suggesting that C H bond cleavage was involved in the rate‐determining step. Hammett studies on the rate constants of benzylation by various substituted anthranilic acids and mono‐N‐benzylanilines show a good correlation between the log(k_X/k_H) and the σ values of the respective substituents. From the slope, negative ρ values are obtained, suggesting that there is a build‐up of positive charge in the transition state. The reaction of anilines with electron‐donating and electron‐withdrawing groups affords the corresponding N‐(1,2‐diphenylethyl)anilines in moderate to good yields (54–86%). Interestingly, the reaction of anthranilic acids proceeded smoothly to give only the corresponding dibenzylated products in good to excellent yields (70–87%). The carboxyl group of the anthranilic acids acts as a directing group in the benzylic C H activation process.

     

A Real-time Scalable Object Detection System using Low-power HOG Accelerator VLSI

As described in this paper, a real-time object detection system using a Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) feature extraction accelerator VLSI is presented. The VLSI [1, 2] enables the system to achieve real-time performance and scalability for multiple object detection under limited power condition. The VLSI employs three techniques: a VLSI-oriented HOG algorithm with early classification in Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification, a dual-core architecture for parallel feature extraction, and a detection-window-size scalable architecture with a reconfigurable MAC array for processing objects of different shapes. The test chip was fabricated using 65 nm CMOS technology. The measurement result shows that the VLSI consumes 43 mW at 42.9 MHz and 1.1 V to process HDTV (1920?×?1080 pixels) at 30 frames per second (fps). A multiple object detection system and a multiple scale object detection system are presented to demonstrate the system flexibility and scalability realized by VLSI and applicability for versatile application of object detection. On the multiple object detection system, a real-time object detection for HDTV resolution video is achieved with 84 mW of power consumption on a task to detect 2 types of targets while keeping comparable detection accuracy as software-based system. On the multiple scale object detection system, a task to detect 5 scales of a target is accomplished using a single VLSI. The power consumption of the VLSI is estimated to 102 mW on the task.     

Maritime VHF communications with polarization diversity over a Rician channel

In this paper, we propose a polarization diversity scheme to enhance maritime VHF communications. Multiple antenna systems require an antenna separation of 5–10 wavelengths to keep the correlation coefficient below 0.7 to permit the realization of space diversity. However, this may be difficult to implement in a maritime VHF system, because the maritime VHF is working in the frequency range from 156 to 174 MHz, with wavelength of approximately 2 m. On the other hand, the polarization device technique allows two co‐located antennas by using a micro‐strip technique. For this reason, the polarization technique is a practical method of attaining diversity. However, the theoretical model of polarization is very difficult and complex. Therefore, we express the cross correlation of each polarization antenna and the cross polarization discrimination of multiple polarization antennas with a simple model. Simulations show that the polarization diversity of a maritime VHF system shows better BER performance than that of the conventional reception diversity on the basis of vertical antenna with the antenna separation of 10 wavelengths. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiple visual targets tracking via probability hypothesis density filter and feature measurement

The probability hypothesis density (PHD) filter is a practical alternative to the optimal Bayesian multiple‐targets filter based on random finite sets (RFS). It propagates the posterior intensity of the random sets of targets. In this paper, we apply the PHD filter to track a random number of moving targets in visual sequences. The PHD filter is implemented using a Gaussian mixture. Obtaining the PHD only for one visual frame at a time remains a challenge. To meet this challenge, we propose a method to approximate the posterior intensity using feature measurement. To improve the representability of tracking target, we adopt an adaptive weight to fuse the color and local binary pattern (LBP) features which are extracted by the Monte Carlo method. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Heat stress diminishes gonadotropin receptor expression and enhances susceptibility to apoptosis of rat granulosa cells

Heat stress inhibits ovarian follicular development in mammalian species. We hypothesized that heat stress inhibits the function of follicular granulosa cells and suppresses follicular development. To test this, immature female rats were injected with pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) at 48 h after the start of temperature treatment (control: 25 degrees C, 50% RH; heat stress: 35 degrees C, 70% Relative Humidity). The ovaries and granulosa cells of follicles at different developmental stages were analyzed for gonadotropin receptor levels and aromatase activity; estradiol levels were measured in follicular fluid. Before injection, heat stress diminished only the amount of FSH receptor on granulosa cells of antral follicles. During PMSG-stimulated follicular development, heat stress strongly inhibited gonadotropin receptor levels and aromatase activity in granulosa cells, and estradiol levels in the follicular fluid of early antral, antral and preovulatory follicles. To examine apoptosis and mRNA levels of bcl-2 and bax in granulosa cells, follicles harvested 48 h after PMSG injection were cultured in serum-free conditions. Heat-stressed granulosa cells showed a time-dependent increase in apoptosis. The bcl-2 mRNA levels were similar in control and heat-stressed granulosa cells; bax mRNA levels were increased in heat-stressed granulosa cells. According to these results, heat stress inhibits expression of gonadotropin receptors in granulosa cells and attenuates estrogenic activity of growing follicles, granulosa cells of heat-stressed follicles are susceptible to apoptosis, and the bcl2/bax system is not associated with heat-stress-induced apoptosis of granulosa cells. Our study suggests that decreased numbers and function of granulosa cells may cause ovarian dysfunction in domestic animals in summer.     

Shelf Life and Microbial Quality of Fresh-cut Mango Cubes Stored in High CO2 Atmospheres

ABSTRACT: Fresh-cut'Carabao'and'Nam Dokmai'mango cubes were stored in air or in high CO₂ atmospheres (3%, 5%, and 10%) at 5 °C and 13 °C. Freshly sliced'Carabao'mango cubes had a lower respiration rate and total bacterial count and higher L-ascorbic acid content and firmness than'Nam Dokmai'mango cubes. The shelf life of fresh-cut mango, based on browning discoloration and water-soaked appearance, was 6 d at 5 °C and 4 d at 13 °C for'Carabao'and 2 d at 5 °C and less than 1 d at 13 °C for'Nam Dokmai'. High CO₂ atmospheres retarded the development of water-soaked'Carabao'cubes at 5 °C and 13 °C and'Nam Dokmai'cubes at 5 °C. Texture of'Carabao'cubes was enhanced by high CO₂, but ethanol and L-ascorbic acid contents were not affected at 5 °C and 13 °C. Total bacterial count was lower in'Carabao'cubes than in'Nam Dokmai'cubes during storage at both temperatures, and a 10% CO₂ only reduced the bacterial count on'Carabao'and'Nam Dokmai'cubes stored at 13 °C. Bacterial flora in'Nam Dokmai'mango cubes consisted mostly of Gram-negative rods assigned primarily to phytopathogenic bacteria such as Pantoea agglomerans and Burkholderia cepacia . The genera of bacteria isolated from cubes stored in 10% CO₂ were similar to those from cubes on the initial day.