Norepinephrine Protects against Methamphetamine Toxicity through β2-Adrenergic Receptors Promoting LC3 Compartmentalization

Norepinephrine (NE) neurons and extracellular NE exert some protective effects against a variety of insults, including methamphetamine (Meth)-induced cell damage. The intimate mechanism of protection remains difficult to be analyzed in vivo. In fact, this may occur directly on target neurons or as the indirect consequence of NE-induced alterations in the activity of trans-synaptic loops. Therefore, to elude neuronal networks, which may contribute to these effects in vivo, the present study investigates whether NE still protects when directly applied to Meth-treated PC12 cells. Meth was selected based on its detrimental effects along various specific brain areas. The study shows that NE directly protects in vitro against Meth-induced cell damage. The present study indicates that such an effect fully depends on the activation of plasma membrane β2-adrenergic receptors (ARs). Evidence indicates that β2-ARs activation restores autophagy, which is impaired by Meth administration. This occurs via restoration of the autophagy flux and, as assessed by ultrastructural morphometry, by preventing the dissipation of microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) from autophagy vacuoles to the cytosol, which is produced instead during Meth toxicity. These findings may have an impact in a variety of degenerative conditions characterized by NE deficiency along with autophagy impairment.     

Rocket salad (Diplotaxis and Eruca spp.) sensory analysis and relation with glucosinolate and phenolic content

BACKGROUND: Salad crops of the Brassicaceae family, such as Diplotaxis tenuifolia and Eruca vesicaria, commonly referred to as ‘rocket salads’, have attracted considerable interest as culinary vegetables because of their strong flavour and their content of putative health‐promoting compounds. Among such compounds, glucosinolates and phenolics are well‐known phytochemicals with an important role also in determining the characteristic flavour of these species. In this study, to identify potentially high‐value rocket salads, 37 cultivated types were examined for sensory characters and their relations with glucosinolate and phenolic contents, which ranged from 0.76 to 3.03 g kg^?1 dry weight (DW) and from 4.68 to 31.39 g kg^?1 DW, respectively. RESULTS: The perception of bitter taste was significantly affected by specific glucosinolates, namely progoitrin/epiprogoitrin and dimeric glucosativin. Aroma intensity was negatively related to glucoalyssin content, whereas pungency was significantly related to total glucosinolate content. Kaempferol‐3‐(2‐sinapoyl‐glucoside)‐4′‐glucoside was positively and significantly related to all flavour trait perceptions. Aroma intensity, pungency, crunchiness and juiciness were positively related to typical rocket salad flavour perception through a prominent direct effect. CONCLUSION: Aroma intensity, pungency, crunchiness and juiciness were strong determinants of overall rocket salad flavour perception. Visual traits also characterised sensory components. Bitterness, usually considered a negative flavour trait, was moderately perceived in the examined material, without negatively affecting typical flavour perception. In the range of the examined material, glucosinolate content did not contrast with typical flavour, demonstrating that good taste and putative health‐promoting properties may coexist. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Transient measurement of phononic states with covariance-based stochastic spectroscopy

We present a novel approach to transient Raman spectroscopy, which combines stochastic probe pulses and a covariance-based detection to measure stimulated Raman...     

Variable-gradient generator for micro- and nano-HPLC

A new, simple device generates accurate nano- and microflow rate gradients from any conventional HPLC system. The core of the new device is represented by an electric-actuated, computer-controlled, multiposition HPLC valve. The valve hosts six reservoirs for as many different mobile-phase compositions of increasing strength. A low flow rate stream pushes the weakest solvent through the column as long as required and at the desired flow rate, until the chromatographic run is started. From this time on, the electric actuation allows one to select which reservoir will be on-line with the column and for how long, thus generating a specific solvent gradient, through a sequence of controlled segments of precise mobile-phase composition. This permits one not only to exactly reproduce the programmed slope but also to achieve different gradient shapes (i.e., linear, convex, concave) for different separation needs. The new device has proven to be reliable and reproducible even at the lowest flow rate tested (250 nL x min(-1)) and in different chromatographic conditions.     

Die Chlorverluste beim Veraschen von kochsalzhaltigen Nahrungsmitteln, eine Reaktion zwischen Chlornatrium und Kohlenstoff

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Optimal ensemble construction via meta-evolutionary ensembles

In this paper, we propose a meta-evolutionary approach to improve on the performance of individual classifiers. In the proposed system, individual classifiers evolve, competing to correctly classify test points, and are given extra rewards for getting difficult points right. Ensembles consisting of multiple classifiers also compete for member classifiers, and are rewarded based on their predictive performance. In this way we aim to build small-sized optimal ensembles rather than form large-sized ensembles of individually-optimized classifiers. Experimental results on 15 data sets suggest that our algorithms can generate ensembles that are more effective than single classifiers and traditional ensemble methods.     

Empirical Evaluation of Software Maintenance Technologies

Technology evaluation is part of the decision-making process of any software organization. Unlike conventional wisdom, empirical evaluation strives to avoid biased conclusions by relying on observation and looking for pitfalls in the evaluation process. In this paper, we provide a summary of the maintenance studies presented in the session ‘Study and assessment of (new) technologies’ of the International Workshop on Empirical Studies of Software Maintenance (WESS '96), and also report on the working group discussion which focused on common problems and open issues in the field of technology evaluation. These empirical studies are then classified according to a multi-dimensional framework to synthesize the state of the research in technology evaluation and ultimately discover interesting patterns. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Multistrategy Learning and Theory Revision

This article presents the system WHY, which learns and updates a diagnostic knowledge base using domain knowledge and a set of examples. The a priori knowledge consists of a causal model of the domain that states the relationships among basic phenomena, and a body of phenomenological theory that describes the links between abstract concepts and their possible manifestations in the world. The phenomenological knowledge is used deductively, the causal model is used abductively, and the examples are used inductively. The problems of imperfection and intractability of the theory are handled by allowing the system to make assumptions during its reasoning. In this way, robust knowledge can be learned with limited complexity and a small number of examples. The system works in a first-order logic environment and has been applied in a real domain.     

The empirical investigation of Perspective-Based Reading

We consider reading techniques a fundamental means of achieving high quality software. Due to the lack of research in this area, we are experimenting with the application and comparison of various reading techniques. This paper deals with our experiences with a family of reading techniques known as Perspective-Based Reading (PBR), and its application to requirements documents. The goal of PBR is to provide operational scenarios where members of a review team read a document from a particular perspective, e.g., tester, developer, user. Our assumption is that the combination of different perspectives provides better coverage of the document, i.e., uncovers a wider range of defects, than the same number of readers using their usual technique.To test the effectiveness of PBR, we conducted a controlled experiment with professional software developers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC) Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL). The subjects read two types of documents, one generic in nature and the other from the NASA domain, using two reading techniques, a PBR technique and their usual technique. The results from these experiments, as well as the experimental design, are presented and analyzed. Teams applying PBR are shown to achieve significantly better coverage of documents than teams that do not apply PBR.We thoroughly discuss the threats to validity so that external replications can benefit from the lessons learned and improve the experimental design if the constraints are different from those posed by subjects borrowed from a development organization.