Spraying opened sugar beet pulp silage with oregano essential oil helps to sustain quality and stability

This study was conducted to determine the effects of spraying oregano essential oil (OEO) onto sugar beet pulp silage (SBPS) on silage quality and aerobic stability after opening. A factorial experiment with three replicates of three treatments and four time periods was conducted using laboratory-type plastic silos. The treatments were an untreated control, silage sprayed with 10 ml/75 cm2 OEO, and silage sprayed with 20 ml/75 cm2 OEO. The silages were sampled at 0, 72, 120, and 168 hours after spraying. Temperature, L*, a*, and b* colour values, pH, water-soluble carbohydrates, crude nutrient contents, Fleig score, metabolizable energy (ME) value, lactic acid bacteria (LAB), total live bacteria (TLB), yeast, and mould formation were assessed. Spraying OEO onto SBPS did not affect L*, a*, and b* values, pH, water-soluble carbohydrates, and Fleig score values, but decreased temperature. Spraying OEO onto the silage increased organic matter, ether extract, acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent lignin contents without affecting crude protein, crude fibre, nitrogen free extract, and ME contents. Irrespective of treatment, crude protein, ether extract, acid detergent fibre, acid detergent lignin, nitrogen free extract, Fleig score, and ME contents of silages increased with time after spraying. The OEO spraying reduced LAB, TLB, and yeast contents in silages. In conclusion, OEO spraying onto opened SBPS reduced LAB, TLB, and yeast formation and stopped mould growth up to 72 hours without affecting their nutritional properties, suggesting that OEO could be used to ensure the stability of SBPS. Keywords: aerobic stability, mould growth, silage microbiology, nutrients, feeding managemen

Disposable Nafion-Coated Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Test Strip for Electrochemical Quantitative Determination of Acetaminophen in a Finger-Prick Whole Blood Sample

A disposable electrochemical test strip for the quantitative point-of-care (POC) determination of acetaminophen (paracetamol) in plasma and finger-prick whole blood was fabricated. The industrially scalable dry transfer process of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and screen printing of silver were combined to produce integrated electrochemical test strips. Nafion coating stabilized the potential of the Ag reference electrode and enabled the selective detection in spiked plasma as well as in whole blood samples. The test strips were able to detect acetaminophen in small 40 mu L samples with a detection limit of 0.8 mu M and a wide linear range from 1 mu M to 2 mM, well within the required clinical range. After a simple 1:1 dilution of plasma and whole blood, a quantitative detection with good recoveries of 79% in plasma and 74% in whole blood was achieved. These results strongly indicate that these electrodes can be used directly to determine the unbound acetaminophen fraction without the need for any additional steps. The developed test strip shows promise as a rapid and simple POC quantitative acetaminophen assay.Peer reviewe

Low Resistance Polycrystalline Diamond Thin Films Deposited by Hot Filament Chemical Vapour Deposition

Polycrystalline diamond thin films with outgrowing diamond (OGD) grains were deposited onto silicon wafers using a hydrocarbon gas (CH4) highly diluted with H2 at low pressure in a hot filament chemical vapour deposition (HFCVD) reactor with a range of gas flow rates. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and SEM showed polycrystalline diamond structure with a random orientation. Polycrystalline diamond films with various textures were grown and (111) facets were dominant with sharp grain boundaries. Outgrowth was observed in flowerish character at high gas flow rates. Isolated single crystals with little openings appeared at various stages at low gas flow rates. Thus, changing gas flow rates had a beneficial influence on the grain size, growth rate and electrical resistivity. CVD diamond films gave an excellent performance for medium film thickness with relatively low electrical resistivity and making them potentially useful in many industrial applications

Incidence of synchronous appendiceal neoplasm in patients with colorectal cancer and its clinical significance

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aims of this study were to evaluate the incidence of synchronous appendiceal neoplasm in patients with colorectal cancer, and to determine its clinical significance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Pathological reports and medical records were reviewed of patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma who underwent oncological resection of the tumor together with appendectomy at the Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand between September 2000 and April 2008.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study included 293 patients with an average age of 62 years (range 19–95) and 51 percent were male. Of the patients studied, 228 (78 percent) had right hemicolectomy, whereas the others (22 percent) had surgery for left-sided colon cancer or rectal cancer. One patient (0.3 percent) had epithelial appendiceal neoplasm (mucinous cystadenoma) and 3 patients (1.0 percent) had metastatic colorectal cancer in the mesoappendix. However, the presence of synchronous appendiceal tumors and/or metastasis did not alter postoperative management, as these patients had received adjuvant therapy and were scheduled for surveillance program because of nodal involvement.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The incidence of synchronous primary appendiceal neoplasm and secondary (metastatic) appendiceal neoplasm in colorectal cancer patients was 0.3 and 1.0 percent, respectively. However, these findings did not change the postoperative clinical management.</p

Task-dependent evaluative processing of moral and emotional content during comprehension: an ERP study

Recently, we showed that when participants passively read about moral transgressions (e.g., adultery) they implicitly engage in the evaluative (good–bad) categorization of incoming information, as indicated by a larger event-related brain potential (ERP) positivity to immoral than moral scenarios (Leuthold, Kunkel, Mackenzie, & Filik, 2015). Behavioral and neuroimaging studies indicated that explicit moral tasks prioritize the semantic-cognitive analysis of incoming information but that implicit tasks, as used in Leuthold et al. (2015), favor their affective processing. Therefore, it is unclear whether an affective categorization process is also involved when participants perform explicit moral judgments. Thus, in two experiments, we used similarly constructed morality and emotion materials for which their moral and emotional content had to be inferred from the context. Target sentences from negative vs. neutral emotional scenarios and from moral vs. immoral scenarios were presented using rapid serial visual presentation. In Experiment 1, participants made moral judgments for moral materials and emotional judgments for emotion materials. Negative compared to neutral emotional scenarios elicited a larger posterior ERP positivity (LPP) about 200 ms after critical word onset, whereas immoral compared to moral scenarios elicited a larger anterior negativity (500-700 ms). In Experiment 2, where the same emotional judgment to both types of materials was required, a larger LPP was triggered for both types of materials. These results accord with the view that morality scenarios trigger a semantic-cognitive analysis when participants explicitly judge the moral content of incoming linguistic information but an affective evaluation when judging their emotional content

Inner Speech during Silent Reading Reflects the Reader's Regional Accent

While reading silently, we often have the subjective experience of inner speech. However, there is currently little evidence regarding whether this inner voice resembles our own voice while we are speaking out loud. To investigate this issue, we compared reading behaviour of Northern and Southern English participants who have differing pronunciations for words like ‘glass’, in which the vowel duration is short in a Northern accent and long in a Southern accent. Participants' eye movements were monitored while they silently read limericks in which the end words of the first two lines (e.g., glass/class) would be pronounced differently by Northern and Southern participants. The final word of the limerick (e.g., mass/sparse) then either did or did not rhyme, depending on the reader's accent. Results showed disruption to eye movement behaviour when the final word did not rhyme, determined by the reader's accent, suggesting that inner speech resembles our own voice

Metal-organic framework glasses with permanent accessible porosity.

To date, only several microporous, and even fewer nanoporous, glasses have been produced, always via post synthesis acid treatment of phase separated dense materials, e.g. Vycor glass. In contrast, high internal surface areas are readily achieved in crystalline materials, such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). It has recently been discovered that a new family of melt quenched glasses can be produced from MOFs, though they have thus far lacked the accessible and intrinsic porosity of their crystalline precursors. Here, we report the first glasses that are permanently and reversibly porous toward incoming gases, without post-synthetic treatment. We characterize the structure of these glasses using a range of experimental techniques, and demonstrate pores in the range of 4 - 8 Å. The discovery of MOF glasses with permanent accessible porosity reveals a new category of porous glass materials that are elevated beyond conventional inorganic and organic porous glasses by their diversity and tunability

Brand Suicide? Memory and Liking of Negative Brand Names

Negative brand names are surprisingly common in the marketplace (e.g., Poison perfume; Hell pizza, and Monster energy drink), yet their effects on consumer behavior are currently unknown. Three studies investigated the effects of negative brand name valence on brand name memory and liking of a branded product. Study 1 demonstrates that relative to nonnegative brand names, negative brand names and their associated logos are better recognised. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate that negative valence of a brand name tends to have a detrimental influence on product evaluation with evaluations worsening as negative valence increases. However, evaluation is also dependent on brand name arousal, with high arousal brand names resulting in more positive evaluations, such that moderately negative brand names are equally as attractive as some non-negative brand names. Study 3 shows evidence for affective habituation, whereby the effects of negative valence reduce with repeated exposures to some classes of negative brand name