In the words of experts: the interpretive process of the food irradiation debate

Irradiation has been touted as a way to safeguard the food supply. When we asked oyster harvesters in Southern Louisiana about their awareness and knowledge concerning this postharvest technology, we found that nearly half of them had never heard about it. We decided to look closer at the irradiation debate that has been taking place in two regional newspapers (Louisiana and Florida) to try to understand why the coverage of this issue may not be of interest to oyster harvesters. We interviewed reporters and sources who were involved in this coverage, and argue that one possible reason is that journalists have decided who the experts are on the issue, and have framed the controversy over irradiation as a public relations battle, and sources have not been overly opposed to this type of newswork. This type of journalism may have the effect of alienating those individuals whose livelihoods may be greatly impacted by the adoption of this technology. In addition, these findings have implications for individuals and groups interested in attracting the media spotlight concerning food safety issues.     

Isolation of saponin-free fraction from Ginseng (Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer) and its effects on the function of neutrophils

A method of isolation of bioactive water-soluble saponin-free subfraction (RG-ws-1-1-1) from Korean red ginseng using solvent extraction, ultrafiltration and chromatography on Diaion HP-20 resin was developed. To evaluate the potency of RG-ws-1-1-1 to effect on the heat stress (HS) response and anti-inflammatory response in neutrophils, the oxygen consumption (OC) and formation of Superoxide radicals (FSR) were assayed in suspensions of neutrophils from mice. Supplementation of RG-ws-1-1-1 to micein vivo (200 mg/kg, 14 days intraperitoneally) results in the increase OC by neutrophils assayedex vivo at 37 ℴC. OC and FSR by neutrophils were suppressed when cells obtained from the control animals were incubated at 42 ℴC. Preincubation of neutrophils with RG-ws-1-1-1 reduces HS related depression of FSR. Supplementation of RG-ws-1-1-1 to micein vivo decreases HS related suppression of OC. RG-ws-1-1-1 subfraction significantly improves an oxygen-dependent anti-microbial function of neutrophils, also studied under the HS conditions.     

WTO／TBT对我国制笔业发展的影响及对策

WTO和前身GATT从1947年以来经过多年努力,共进行了八个回合多边贸易谈判,使发达国家工业制成品的加权平均关税目前已降至3．8%,转型国家为4%,发展中国家为12%。这样关税问题的重要性已逐步降低,而非关税问题中的贸易技术壁垒问题则变成     

Protein docking using continuum electrostatics and geometric fit

The computer program DOT quickly finds low-energy docked structuresfor two proteins by performing a systematic search over sixdegrees of freedom. A novel feature of DOT is its energy function,which is the sum of both a Poisson–Boltzmann electrostaticenergy and a van der Waals energy, each represented as a grid-basedcorrelation function. DOT evaluates the energy of interactionfor many orientations of the moving molecule and maintains separatelists scored by either the electrostatic energy, the van derWaals energy or the composite sum of both. The free energy isobtained by summing the Boltzmann factor over all rotationsat each grid point. Three important findings are presented.First, for a wide variety of protein–protein interactions,the composite-energy function is shown to produce larger clustersof correct answers than found by scoring with either van derWaals energy (geometric fit) or electrostatic energy alone.Second, free-energy clusters are demonstrated to be indicatorsof binding sites. Third, the contributions of electrostaticand attractive van der Waals energies to the total energy termappropriately reflect the nature of the various types of protein–proteininteractions studied.     

Where and when are nanodiamonds formed under explosion?

The formation of nano-sized diamonds during the detonation of a TNT/RDX explosive with 50/50 composition was investigated experimentally in situ by means of small-angle X-ray scattering using synchrotron radiation with nanosecond time resolution. No nanodiamonds were observed immediately after the detonation front, as only the nucleation of nanodiamonds takes place at this moment. The increase in small-angle X-ray scattering which was observed during 2 μs was the cause of the dynamic growth of nanodiamonds. The inclusion of a very thin shell around the explosive causes a significant increase in this time, because the kinetic of nanodiamonds growth was changed.

In another set of experiments, the nanodiamonds were artificially introduced into different explosives before explosion. The nanodiamonds were not destroyed in RDX immediately after the detonation front, but burned in an oxidants with some delay. In TNT, the nanodiamonds were not destroyed at all.     

Transmission of 32-Tb/s Capacity Over 580 km Using RZ-Shaped PDM-8QAM Modulation Format and Cascaded Multimodulus Blind Equalization Algorithm

In this paper, we propose a novel synthesizing method for high-speed 8-ary quadratic-amplitude modulation (QAM) optical signal generation using commercial optical modulators with binary electrical driving signals. Using this method, we successfully generated 114-Gb/s pulse-duration modulation (PDM)-8QAM optical signals. Intradyne detection of PDM-8QAM optical signals with robust blind polarization demultiplexing has been demonstrated by using a new cascaded multimodulus equalization algorithm. With return-to-zero-shaped PDM-8QAM modulation and the proposed blind polarization demultiplexing algorithm, we demonstrate transmission of a record 32-Tb/s fiber capacity (320$,times,$114 Gb/s) over 580 km of ultralow-loss single-mode fiber-28 fiber by utilizing ${rm C}+{rm L}$-band erbium-doped fiber-amplifier-only optical amplification and single-ended coherent detection technique at an information spectral efficiency of 4.0 bit/s$cdot$Hz.