The effect of heat treatments and homogenisation of cows' milk on gastrointestinal symptoms, inflammation markers and postprandial lipid metabolism

Dairy products are often reported as a source of stomach discomfort, and processing of cows' milk has been claimed to be one reason for this. To investigate the role of milk processing on adverse gastrointestinal symptoms, a cross-over, double blind clinical trial with fourteen milk sensitive subjects was set up. Pasteurised, pasteurised and homogenised, and ultra-high temperature-treated and homogenised milk, representing products from the mildest and hardest processing, were used as study meals. The amount, severity or duration of the reported symptoms or postprandial lipaemia did not differ, while significant differences were seen in the postprandial fatty acid composition of plasma between the milk types. The 92 inflammation markers measured in plasma did not differ between the subjects who consumed different types of milk. The results of the present study do not support the hypothesis that cows' milk processing could induce gastrointestinal symptoms in milk sensitive but lactose tolerant subjects. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Towards a Technology of Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication is the main channel through which we experience inner life of others, including their emotions, feelings, moods, social attitudes, etc. This attracts the interest of the computing community because nonverbal communication is based on cues like facial expressions, vocalizations, gestures, postures, etc. that we can perceive with our senses and can be (and often are) detected, analyzed and synthesized with automatic approaches. In other words, nonverbal communication can be used as a viable interface between computers and some of the most important aspects of human psychology such as emotions and social attitudes. As a result, a new computing domain seems to emerge that we can define “technology of nonverbal communication”. This chapter outlines some of the most salient aspects of such a potentially new domain and outlines some of its most important perspectives for the future

Synthesis and liquid-crystalline properties of polyacrylates containing prochiral sulfide substituents

The synthesis and thermal behaviour of a new series of side-chain liquid-crystalline polyacrylates 1a-h containing prochiral alkyl sulfide substituents with a variable number n of carbon atoms are described. No liquid-crystalline behaviour was exhibited in the melt by the relevant monomers and intermediate compounds. In contrast, all polymers displayed thermotropic properties. The lower homologues 1a-f(n less than or equal to 6) displayed smectic B1 and smectic A1 mesophases, while the higher homologue 1h (n = 10) formed a bilayer, partly interdigitated smectic C mesophase. A special position was held by 1g with a sulfide substituent of intermediate length (n = 8), for which monolayer and bilayer smectic mesophases coexisted over a wide temperature range

Synthesis and liquid crystalline properties of thermotropic poly(ester-urethane)s

Seven new mesogenic diol monomers CmCn, consisting of two bis(p-oxybenzoyl) units interconnected by a polymethylene segment containing n methylene groups and Ranked by two linear o-hydroxyalkyl segments containing m methylene groups were reacted with 1,6-hexamethylenediisocyanate (HDI) to give a new series of liquid-crystalline poly(ester-urethane)s HDI-CmCn. All of the precursors CmCn exhibited a nematic phase, and in two of them a smectic mesophase also occurred. Poly(ester-urethane)s HDI-CmCn were semicrystalline and formed a monotropic mesophase. The mesomorphic properties of the polymers were studied as a function of their chemical structure by changing alternatively m or n. The effect of the molecular weight of the polymers on the stability of the mesophase was also investigated for various samples of poly(ester-urethane) HDI-C6C6 (M(n) = 3000-22,000). It was found that a competition existed between the tendencies of the polymer to crystallinity and liquid-crystallinity, and the molecular weight dependence of the crystallization temperature determined the onset of a monotropic mesophase

An X-ray diffraction study of the different nematic mesophases of liquid-crystalline poly(urethane-ester)s

n x-ray investigation on powder specimens and stretched oriented fibers of poly(urethane-ester)s s TDI-CmCn, derived from various mesogenic alkylene di[4-(omega-hydroxyalkyloxy-4-oxybenzoyl)oxybenzoate]s (CmCn; m = 2, 4, or 6, and n = 4, 6, 8, or 10) and 2,4-toluene-diisocyanate (TDI), is reported. Evidence is provided for the formation of two different nematic mesophases in the polymers, namely a cybotactic nematic and a conventional nematic mesophase. Whereas samples TDI-C2C6, TDI-C6C4, and TDI-C6C10 formed one cybotactic nematic mesophase, samples TDI-C4C6, TDI-C6C6, and TDI-C6C8 exhibited both cybotactic nematic and conventional nematic mesophases in a sequence with increasing temperature, which were connected by a first-order transition. The analysis of the various features of the small-angle x-ray diffraction patterns indicates that two structural arrangements, namely smectic C-like and conventional nematic structures, coexist inside the cybotactic nematic mesophase of these poly(urethane-ester)s