Kea (Nestor notabilis) consider spatial relationships between objects in the support problem

The ‘Support Problem’ is a benchmark test to investigate the understanding of spatial relationships between objects. We tested kea parrots'' performance in a paradigm that has previously been studied in primates. Kea perform comparably well to tamarins when they are confronted with a choice between two support devices, one of which has a reward resting on it and the other slightly next to it, or when given a choice between a continuous and a disrupted support. Kea did better than chimpanzees in some tasks in which the perceptual connection of the food to the support was altered. The results indicate that kea are capable of assessing the spatial means–end relationships of this problem spontaneously and in a way that is comparable with primates.     

Developing an instrument to support oral care in the elderly

Background: The dramatic increase in the number of dependent elderly in developed countries has created a great need for their improved oral care. However, optimal oral care by caregivers is not possible because of time constraints, difficulty involved in brushing other individuals' teeth, lack of co‐operation, and the lack of perceived need. Therefore, the development of an effective instrument simplifying and supporting oral care to relieve the strain on caregivers is a matter of some urgency. Purpose: In order to clean the mouths of elderly dependent patients, we have developed a new oral care support instrument (an electric toothbrush in combination with an antibacterial‐agent supply and suction system). The purpose of the present study was to develop and evaluate a new oral care support instrument. Methods: a) Plaque removal study: The plaque‐ removing ability of this new instrument in 70 outpatients was compared with the Plak Control D9011 (Braun Gillette Japan Inc.) as a control by means of the Turesky modification of the Quigley and Hein plaque index, b) Clinical study: The subjects were 10 dependent elderly who received oral care using the new oral care support instrument for two weeks. The plaque and gingival indices were used for clinical evaluations. Results: a) Plaque removal study: Brushing with the new oral care support instrument removed significantly more plaque than with the Plak Control D9011. b) Clinical study: The new oral care support instrument allows a more effective removal of dental plaque and shows a significant improvement in the gingival indices in dependent elderly. Conclusion: It is concluded that the new oral care support instrument is effective and can be recommended for oral care in the dependent elderly.     

Environmental decision support systems: A new approach to support the operation and maintenance of horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands

This paper describes the development and operation of an Environmental Decision Support System (EDSS) to improve the operation and maintenance of horizontal subsurface-flow constructed wetlands (EDSS-maintenance). Constructed wetlands (CWs) allow wastewater treatment in a sustainable manner since they involve low energy consumption, low construction and functioning costs and low environmental impact. However, operation and maintenance activities are essential to guarantee reliability in CWs performance. The definition of operation and maintenance protocols depends on several quantitative and qualitative aspects such as wastewater treatment plant configuration, CW design, influent characteristics, sensitivity of the receiving media, etc. Bearing this in mind and considering the limited technical knowledge about CWs, the need for a new tool to support CW performance is clear. In this sense, EDSSs offer a new approach because they can tackle problems of complex and uncertain systems. The EDSS-maintenance provides operation and maintenance manuals specifically defined for every CW. To achieve it, the required knowledge was implemented within a rule-based system, which forms the backbone of the EDSS. Several features presented in this paper demonstrate how the EDSS-maintenance provides a proper platform to support the necessary collaborative work in the ecological engineering problem of horizontal subsurface flow CWs operation and maintenance.     

Local sequence information-based support vector machine to classify voltage-gated potassium channels

In our previous work,we developed a computational tool,PreK-ClassK-ClassKv,to predictand classify potassium (K~ ) channels.For K channel prediction (PreK) and classification at family level(ClassK),this method performs well.However,it does not perform so well in classifying voltage-gatedpotassium (Kv) channels (ClassKv).In this paper,a new method based on the local sequence information ofKv channels is introduced to classify Kv channels.Six transmembrane domains of a Kv channel protein areused to define a protein,and the dipeptide composition technique is used to transform an amino acid sequenceto a numerical sequence.A Kv channel protein is represented by a vector with 2000 elements,and a supportvector machine algorithm is applied to classify Kv channels.This method shows good performance withaverages of total accuracy (Acc),sensitivity (SE),specificity (SP),reliability (R) and Matthews correlationcoefficient (MCC) of 98.0%,89.9%,100%,0.95 and 0.94 respectively.The results indicate that the localsequence information-based method is better than the global sequence information-based method to classifyKv channels.     

Investigating the use of column inserts to achieve better chromatographic bed support

Chromatography plays an important role in the downstream processing of proteins. Over the past years, there has been a steady move toward the adoption of more rigid, porous particles to combine ease of manufacture with increased levels of productivity. The latter is still constrained by the onset of compression where the level of wall support becomes incapable of withstanding flow‐induced particle drag. In this study, we investigate how, by the installation of cylindrical column inserts, it is possible to enhance the level of wall support. Experiments were conducted to examine the effect of the position of the insert in the column, and also of the insert dimensions on the critical velocity at which the onset of compression occurs. It was found that when installed at the bottom of the column, inserts can provide up to a 20% increase in critical velocity without significantly affecting column hydrodynamics, as measured by the level of axial dispersion. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2012     

Decoupling the electronic,geometric and interfacial contributions to support effects in heterogeneous catalysis

We examine the role of the oxide support in modulating the activity and selectivity of common oxide-supported transition metal heterogeneous catalysts. Using representative models of various supported nanoparticle systems, we use computational studies based on density functional theory to decouple the metal–support interaction in terms of electronic and geometric effects, including the role of support oxygen vacancies and the reactivity of perimeter sites at the metal–oxide boundary. We target Fischer–Tropsch conversion on silica- and titania-supported Rh as a representative catalyst system but interpret our results in terms of a fairly general model of the metal–support interaction and its associated catalytic relevance. We find that geometric restructuring of the nanoparticle in the presence of the support generally leads to stronger adsorption energies, while the electronic interaction (primarily via charge transfer) depends strongly on the nature of the oxide and is modulated by oxygen vacancies on reducible supports. We show that these changes in adsorption energies lead to associated modifications of reaction thermodynamics and kinetics. We also show that ‘dual’ sites at the metal–oxide interface often represent the thermodynamically favourable binding sites for oxygen-containing species, particularly when associated with adjacent support vacancy sites. Our studies suggest a conceptually simple model for considering the influence of oxide supports on catalytic activity and highlight the potential importance of accounting for interfacially bound adsorbates in kinetic models.     

Bamboo as a support material in anaerobic reactors

The changes in 2.5-cm thick bamboo rings during their use as a support material in an anaerobic reactor show that the wash out and degradation processes are largely completed within 6 months to a year. The dry mass of the bamboo used decreased more quickly in the first half of the year than during the second half and asymptotically approached a loss limit of approximately 15% (w/w). The decrease in substances contained in the bamboo during the 2-year experimental period led to reductions in wall thickness of the rings of 0.8 mm and in the absorbable pressure of 21%. Bamboo thus appears to be suitable for long-term use in an anaerobic reactor.     

Natural silk fibroin as a support for enzyme immobilization

Silk fibroin derived from Bombyx mori cocoon is being developed and utilized for purposes besides traditional textile material. Fibroin can be easily made up into various forms, several of which can serve as enzyme-immobilized supports. There are numerous reports on immobilized enzymes using these forms of silk fibroin as supports in which the enzyme-immobilized fibroin membranes were characterized in detail by means of spectrophotometry, infrared spectra, NMR, ESR. Enzyme-immobilized fibroin membranes have been successfully used in several biosensors for the determinations of glucose, hydrogen peroxide and uric acid in which glucose and urate biosensors in a flow injection system were able rapidly to analyze various biosamples including human whole blood or serum.     

Operational optimization of a turbine blade reactor using macroporous support and its application to rice callus regeneration

Optimal operation condition was investigated for immobilized rice callus culture using a turbine blade reactor (TBR²) with polyurethane foam supports. By using polyurethane foam block as immobilization support, the inhibition of cell growth at a high agitation speed was avoided because the hydrodynamic stress against immobilized cell was probably reduced. Experimental results in each operational condition were assessed by means of rice callus growth, immobilization ratio in TBR and those regeneration frequencies in regeneration culture using solid medium. Concerning with pore size of polyurethane foam and support size, three-millimeter cube support of polyurethane foam with an average pore size of 1.3 mm was the most suitable support. The maximum immobilization ratio was 50% under 5% support volume by volume of growth medium. For improving the immobilization ratio of rice callus in the TBR, the optimum TBR operation and modification were investigated further. By repeating a periodic operation 3 times (agitating at 300 rpm for 5 min and then 50 rpm for 2 min, and then 200 rpm of constant agitation speed during the remaining time), almost all supports could entrap rice callus and homogeneous immobilization was attained. The immobilization ratio was improved as compared with that using a constant operation at 200 rpm. Next, the TBR was modified by setting an air sparger inside the stainless mesh cylinder. In the modified TBR, the floating support by air bubbles was reduced, and the immobilization ratio increased further and reached 86.3% when we increased the support volume to 15% under periodic operation on a daily basis. The regeneration frequency of immobilized callus was also slightly increased by periodic operation and modification of the TBR.     

Satellite cells attract monocytes and use macrophages as a support to escape apoptosis and enhance muscle growth

Once escaped from the quiescence niche, precursor cells interact with stromal components that support their survival, proliferation, and differentiation. We examined interplays between human myogenic precursor cells (mpc) and monocyte/macrophages (MP), the main stromal cell type observed at site of muscle regeneration. mpc selectively and specifically attracted monocytes in vitro after their release from quiescence, chemotaxis declining with differentiation. A DNA macroarray-based strategy identified five chemotactic factors accounting for 77% of chemotaxis: MP-derived chemokine, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, fractalkine, VEGF, and the urokinase system. MP showed lower constitutive chemotactic activity than mpc, but attracted monocytes much strongly than mpc upon cross-stimulation, suggesting mpc-induced and predominantly MP-supported amplification of monocyte recruitment. Determination of [3H]thymidine incorporation, oligosomal DNA levels and annexin-V binding showed that MP stimulate mpc proliferation by soluble factors, and rescue mpc from apoptosis by direct contacts. We conclude that once activated, mpc, which are located close by capillaries, initiate monocyte recruitment and interplay with MP to amplify chemotaxis and enhance muscle growth.     

Phenotypic responses of the twining vine Ipomoea purpurea (Convolvulaceae) to physical support availability in sun and shade

Vines depend on external support to prevent shading by neighbouringplants. Hence, it is important to determine whether shading enhances thephenotypic responses of vines to support availability. I evaluated theconsequences of support availability (a vertical stake) on shoot and leaftraitsof the morning glory Ipomoea purpurea (Convolvulaceae)under full sunlight and extreme shade. It was hypothesised that phenotypicresponses of vines to support availability should be greater in the shade. Inaddition, to investigate possible constraints to such phenotypic responses, thecorrelations among phenotypic traits and the plasticity of such correlationswere evaluated. The phenotypic variation of the main stem length and of thenumber of branches was consistent with the hypothesis, i.e. greater responsestosupport availability in the shade. In contrast, both internode length and leafarea (two traits that showed a significant and positive correlation) decreasedin the sun and increased in the shade with support availability. Petiole lengthdecreased with support in the sun but had no response in the shade. On theotherhand, the number of significant trait correlations found in plants in the sunand supported plants was higher than those of shade and non-supported plants,respectively. Several of the correlations were significantly sensitive to theenvironment. Flowering only occurred in the sun treatment. Whereas no shoot orleaf trait was significantly correlated with flower number in supported plants,both petiole length and shoot biomass showed a significant correlation withsuchestimate of plant fitness in non-supported plants.     

InraPorc: A model and decision support tool for the nutrition of sows

From results obtained over the last 20 years on energy and amino acid utilisation in reproductive sows, it has become possible to improve the determination of nutrient requirements (factorial approach) and the prediction of an animal's response to nutrient supplies (modelling). The objective of this project was to integrate the current state of knowledge in a nutritional model for growing pigs and for sows and make it available as a software tool to end-users, mainly nutritionists involved in the pig industry and students in animal nutrition. The aim of this paper is to describe the basis of the sow model. The sow is represented as different compartments that change over the reproductive cycle. Nutrient flows considered are those of energy and digestible amino acids. Nutrients are used with the highest priority for maintenance and uterine growth or milk production. Subsequently, deposition and/or mobilisation of body proteins and lipids are determined and used for estimating the changes in body weight and backfat thickness of the sow. A decision support tool was built from the set of equations given, with additional modules to describe animal's characteristics and adjust some model parameters to account for variations in genotypes and performance. This tool can be used to determine energy and amino acids requirements of sows according to production objectives, or to predict body composition changes according to a given feeding strategy. The use of the decision support tool is illustrated through some examples.     

Molluscan mobile elements similar to the vertebrate Recombination-Activating Genes

Animal genomes contain ∼20,000 genes. Additionally millions of genes for antigen receptors are generated in cells of the immune system from the sets of separate gene segments by a mechanism known as the V(D)J somatic recombination. The components of the V(D)J recombination system, Recombination-Activating Gene proteins (RAG1 and RAG2) and recombination signal sequence (RSS), are thought to have “entered” the vertebrate genome as a hypothetical “RAG transposon”. Recently discovered mobile elements have terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) similar to RSS and may encode proteins with a different degree of similarity to RAG1. We describe a novel N-RAG-TP transposon identified from the sea slug Aplysia californica that encodes a protein similar to the N-terminal part of RAG1 in vertebrates. This refines the “RAG transposon” hypothesis and allows us to propose a scenario for V(D)J recombination machinery evolution from a relic transposon related to the existing mobile elements N-RAG-TP, Chapaev, and Transib.     

Adapting to the human world: Dogs’ responsiveness to our social cues

Dogs are more skilful than a host of other species at tasks which require they respond to human communicative gestures in order to locate hidden food. Four basic interpretations for this proficiency surface from distilling the research findings. One possibility is that dogs simply have more opportunity than other species to learn to be responsive to human social cues. A different analysis suggests that the domestication process provided an opening for dogs to apply general cognitive problem-solving skills to a novel social niche. Some researchers go beyond this account and propose that dogs’ co-evolution with humans equipped them with a theory of mind for social exchanges. Finally, a more prudent approach suggests that sensitivity to the behaviours of both humans and conspecifics would be particularly advantageous for a social scavenger like the dog. A predisposition to attend to human actions allows for rapid early learning of the association between gestures and the availability of food.     

The effect of intertrial interval food presentions on pigeons' delayed matching to sample accuracy

Parallel effects of temporal variables on autoshaping and on delayed matching to sample performance suggest that delayed matching, like autoshaping, might depend upon the within-trial expectancy of reinforcement relative to the overall expectancy of reinforcement in the session. This possibility was assessed by presenting free food at different times during a 30-sec intertrial interval (ITI) in a delayed matching to sample procedure with pigeons. In three conditions a single free food presentation occurred, either early, mid-way, or late in each ITI; in another condition, three food presentations occurred during each ITI, one at each time location. Relative to a baseline condition, in which free food never occurred during the ITI, only food presentations late in the ITI produced a significant disruption in accuracy, and this effect occurred only at the longest of three delays tested. Three free food presentations in each ITI disrupted accuracy only to the same degree as a single, late, ITI food presentation. Thus, accuracy was affected by the temporal location rather than the frequency of ITI food presentations. These effects appear to differ from those of ITI food presentations on autoshaping and do not seem to be understandable in terms of changes in the background expectancy of reinforcement. It was suggested instead that food presented late in the ITI might disrupt subsequent memory processes.     

Xin-repeats and nebulin-like repeats bind to F-actin in a similar manner

Xin and nebulette are striated muscle-specific actin-binding proteins that both contain multiple actin-binding repeats. The nature of these repeats is different: nebulette has nebulin-like repeats, while Xin contains its own unique repeats. However, the suggestion was made from biochemical data that the Xin-repeats may bind to multiple sites on the actin molecule as was found for nebulin. We have used electron microscopy and the iterative helical real space reconstruction to visualize complexes of F-actin with Xin fragments containing either three or six Xin-repeats, and with the CN5-nebulette fragment, containing five nebulin-like repeats. Our results indicate that Xin and nebulette fragments bind to F-actin in a similar manner and in two distinct modes: in one mode actin subdomain 1 is bound, while in the second mode the binding bridges between a different site on actin subdomains 1/2 of one protomer and subdomains 3/4 of an adjacent actin protomer. Taken together with published data about nebulin, tropomyosin and ADF/cofilin, our results suggest that the ability to bind in multiple modes to the actin protomer is a general property of many actin-binding proteins.     

Predictive modeling of human operator cognitive state via sparse and robust support vector machines

The accurate prediction of the temporal variations in human operator cognitive state (HCS) is of great practical importance in many real-world safety-critical situations. However, since the relationship between the HCS and electrophysiological responses of the operator is basically unknown, complicated and uncertain, only data-based modeling method can be employed. This paper is aimed at constructing a data-driven computationally intelligent model, based on multiple psychophysiological and performance measures, to accurately estimate the HCS in the context of a safety-critical human–machine system. The advanced least squares support vector machines (LS-SVM), whose parameters are optimized by grid search and cross-validation techniques, are adopted for the purpose of predictive modeling of the HCS. The sparse and weighted LS-SVM (WLS-SVM) were proposed by Suykens et al. to overcome the deficiency of the standard LS-SVM in lacking sparseness and robustness. This paper adopted those two improved LS-SVM algorithms to model the HCS based solely on a set of physiological and operator performance data. The results showed that the sparse LS-SVM can obtain HCS models with sparseness with almost no loss of modeling accuracy, while the WLS-SVM leads to models which are robust in case of noisy training data. Both intelligent system modeling approaches are shown to be capable of capturing the temporal fluctuation trends of the HCS because of their superior generalization performance.     

RAPD marker in grapevine (Vitis spp.) similar to plant retrotransposons

When assaying for sequence heterogeneity within monomorphic RAPD-PCR products in grapevines (Vitis spp.), we observed partial digestibility of a marker with the restriction enzyme MspI. The degree of digestion varied reproducibly between different cultivars. To study this phenomenon, two of the amplification products were cloned and sequenced. They show 91.7% similarity to each other. The DNA analysed was found to possess high similarity to retrotransposons from higher plants. This element seems repetitive and dispersed throughout the genome. To our knowledge, this is the first report of retrotransposon-like elements in woody plants. Received: 15 August 1996 / Revision received: 7 October 1996 / Accepted: 20 October 1996     

Culture of primary rat hepatocytes within a flat hollow fibre cassette for potential use as a component of a bioartificial liver support system

Primary rat hepatocytes were cultured in a flat, hollow-fibre cassette, `The Tecnomouse', which provided direct oxygenation and a homogeneous environment for cells within the cassette. Most hollow fibre systems utilise media oxygenators to provide O₂ to cells; in the Tecnomouse cassette, cells are provided with direct oxygenation via gas channels in the silicone membrane surrounding the hollow fibres. Hepatocyte functionality was monitored by following urea production, albumin production and cytochrome P-450 enzyme activities. The system could maintain cells in a viable state and the presence of specific hepatocyte functions including albumin production and cytochrome P-450 activity. Electron microscopy showed aggregated spherical hepatocytes and apparent high extent of necrosis.     

A further application of the active time model to multiple concurrent variable-interval schedules

In this experiment we show that the active time model (ATM) accurately predicts probe data from multiple concurrent VI VI schedules. Subjects were trained under a concurrent VI 30-s VI 60-s and a concurrent VI 60-s VI 120-s schedule. Two types of unreinforced probes were then conducted. The first paired the two VI 60-s stimuli. These stimuli, while equivalent in their associated absolute rates of reinforcement, differed in their relative rates of reinforcement. The second probe paired the VI 30-s stimulus with the relatively rich VI 60-s stimulus. In contrast with the first probe, these stimuli differed in their absolute rates of reinforcement, while being similar in their relative rates. During the first set of probes, birds preferred the VI 60-s stimulus trained with the VI 120-s schedule. During the second set of probes, birds were indifferent to the two stimuli. These results are less extreme than others reported in the literature. Nonetheless, we found that ATM accurately fit individual subject data in both sets of probes. In contrast a variant of scalar expectancy theory did not fit the data at either the individual or group level.