Effect of marine oils supplementation on coagulation and cellular activation in whole blood

A study was performed to explore the effects of supplemental intake of various marine oils known to be part of the Eskimo diet. Healthy men and women (134) were randomly selected to consume 15 mL/d of oil from blubber of seal, cod liver, seal/cod liver, blubber of Minke whale, or no oil for ten weeks. Total cholesterol was unchanged in the oil groups, whereas high density lipoprotein cholesterol increased 7% in the seal/cod liver oil (CLO) group (P<0.05) and 11% in the whale oil group (P<0.005). Triacylglycerol was significantly reduced in the CLO group only. The concentration of prothrombin fragment 1+2 was reduced 25% (P<0.05) after whale oil supplementation. No change in fibrinogen or factor VIIc was detected. Tumor necrosis factor generation in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated blood was 30% reduced after whale oil (P<0.05), but was unaffected by intake of seal or CLO. The LPS-induced tissue factor activity in monocytes was reduced to a significant degree only in the seal/CLO group (34%) and whale oil group (35%) (P<0.05). The most dramatic change in thromboxane B₂ in LPS-stimulated blood was seen after whale oil intake with 44% reduction (P<0.01). Supplementation of a regular diet with a combination of seal oil and CLO and especially with whale oil seems to have beneficial effects on several products thought to be associated with cardiovascular and thrombotic diseases.     

Lipids rich in phosphatidylethanolamine from natural gas-utilizing bacteria reduce plasma cholesterol and classes of phospholipids: A comparison with soybean oil

We compared the effects of three different high-lipid diets on plasma lipoproteins and phospholipids in mink (Mustela vison). The 18 mink studied were fed one of the three diets during a 25-d period in a parallel group design. The compared diets had 0,17, and 67% extracted lipids from natural gas-utilizing bacteria (LNGB), which were rich in PE. The group with 0% LNGB was fed a diet for which the lipid content was 100% soybean oil. The total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol of animals consuming a diet with 67% LNGB (67LNGB-diet), were significantly lowered by 35, 49, and 29%, respectively, and unesterified cholesterol increased by 17% compared with the animals fed a diet of 100% lipids from soybean oil (SB-diet). In addition, the ratio of LDL cholesterol to HDL cholesterol was 27% lower in mink fed the 67LNGB-diet than those fed the SB-diet. When the mink were fed the 67LNGB-diet, plasma PC, total phospholipids, lysoPC, and PI were lowered significantly compared with the mink fed a SB-diet. Plasma total cholesterol was correlated with total phospholipids as well as with PC (R=0.8, P<0.001). A significantly higher fecal excretion of unesterified cholesterol, cholesteryl ester, PC, lysoPC, and PE was observed in the 67LNGB-fed mink compared with the SB-fed mink. We conclude that phospholipids from the 67LNGB-diet decreased plasma lipoprotein levels, the LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio, and plasma phospholipid levels, especially lysoPC and PC, compared with the highly unsaturated soybean oil. Our findings indicate that the decrease of plasma cholesterol is mainly caused by a specific mixture of phospholipids containing a high level of PE, and not by the dietary FA composition. The lack of significant differences in the level of plasma PE due to the diets indicates that most of the PE from LNGB has been converted to PC in the liver. Thus, plasma cholesterol may at least be partly regulated by phospholipid methylation from PE to PC in the liver.     

CaPiTo: protocol stacks for services

CaPiTo allows the modelling of service-oriented applications using process algebras at three levels of abstraction. The abstract level focuses on the key functionality of the services; the plug-in level shows how to obtain security using standardised protocol stacks; finally, the concrete level allows to consider how security is obtained using asymmetric and symmetric cryptographic primitives. The CaPiTo approach therefore caters for a variety of developers that need to cooperate on designing and implementing service-oriented applications. We show how to formally analyse CaPiTo specifications for ensuring the absence of security flaws. The method used is based on static analysis of the corresponding LySa specifications. We illustrate the development on two industrial case studies; one taken from the banking sector and the other a single sign-on protocol.     

Quantitative modelling and analysis of a Chinese smart grid: a stochastic model checking case study

Cyber-physical systems integrate information and communication technology with the physical elements of a system, mainly for monitoring and controlling purposes. The conversion of traditional power grid into a smart grid, a fundamental example of a cyber-physical system, raises a number of issues that require novel methods and applications. One of the important issues in this context is the verification of certain quantitative properties of the system. In this paper, we consider a specific Chinese smart grid implementation as a case study and address the verification problem for performance and energy consumption. We employ stochastic model checking approach and present our modelling and analysis study using PRISM model checker.     

Water distribution in smoked salmon

Low‐field ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tranverse relaxations were measured on intact and minced muscle from raw and smoked salmon differing in size (small or large) and storage days after smoking (1, 11 and 20 days). Water distribution in the samples was calculated from the NMR signals by the use of multi‐way data analysis. For intact and minced salmon samples, three water ‘pools’ with T₂ values of 38, 50 and 182 ms and of 33, 50 and 183 ms, respectively, were identified. For both intact and minced samples, the size of water pool I and II were affected by storage time after smoking, whereas the size of pool III was affected by the size of the fish. Intact fillet samples taken near the skin and near the middle of the fillet differed with respect to shape of the NMR relaxation signal reflecting a non‐uniform distribution of the size of the three water pools in intact fillet. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Integrating a full carbon capture scheme onto a 450 MWe NGCC electric power generation hub for offshore operations: Presenting the Sevan GTW concept

Sevan Marine and Siemens have developed a floating power plant – entitled Sevan GTW (gas-to-wire) – based on Sevan’s cylindrical platform and Siemens’ SCC-800 combined cycle, and SINTEF has adapted a post-combustion CO₂ capture process for on board integration including compression and preconditioning of the CO₂. Main emphasis has been placed on developing an optimised conceptual design within the structural constraints, and assessing how efficient the capture unit may be operated in consideration of the dynamic behaviour induced by the sea on the absorber and desorber columns via the floating carrier. The rational behind this technology selection is the urgency in making appropriate steps for a quick start for remote power generation at sea with the inclusion of CCS to serve offshore oil and gas operations. This calls for modular power blocks made up by high efficient combined power cycles with post-combustion exhaust gas cleaning. From this point of view a system with four absorption columns and one desorber unit has been determined based on structured packing material. The capture process has been integrated with the power cycle in due consideration of the sea forces. It is shown that a permanent tilt becomes more important than periodic movements provided the harmonic periods are kept within a certain level (<20 s). Operational conditions and constraints vis-à-vis movements and trimming of the floater have been addressed and discussed with reference to available literature. This also includes the liquid hold-up and gas–liquid interfacial area in the absorption columns linked with tilting. Optimisation reveals that a reboiler duty of 3.77 GJ/ton CO₂ would result in the lowest capture cost. With a energy penalty of 9%-points the Sevan GTW concept presents itself as a realistic concept deemed to be within reach today.     

Does perceived race affect discrimination and recognition of ambiguous-race faces? A test of the sociocognitive hypothesis.

Discrimination and recognition are often poorer for other-race than own-race faces. These other-race effects (OREs) have traditionally been attributed to reduced perceptual expertise, resulting from more limited experience, with other-race faces. However, recent findings suggest that sociocognitive factors, such as reduced motivation to individuate other-race faces, may also contribute. If the sociocognitive hypothesis is correct, then it should be possible to alter discrimination and memory performance for identical faces by altering their perceived race. We made identical ambiguous-race morphed faces look either Asian or Caucasian by presenting them in Caucasian or Asian face contexts, respectively. However, this perceived-race manipulation had no effect on either discrimination (Experiment 1) or memory (Experiment 2) for the ambiguous-race faces, despite the presence of the usual OREs in discrimination and recognition of unambiguous Asian and Caucasian faces in our participant population. These results provide no support for the sociocognitive hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)