Automatic discovery and optimization of chemical processes

This paper presents the first overview of recent developments in techniques and methods that enable closed-loop optimization, also sometimes called ‘self optimization’, as well as discovery in different areas of molecular sciences. The closed-loop experimental platforms offer tremendous new opportunities by significantly increasing productivity, as well as enabling completely new types of experiments to be performed. Such experiments involve three main enabling technology areas: automated experimental systems, analytical instruments connected to automated chemoinformatics software and optimization or decision-making algorithms. We review the most exciting developments concerning robotic experiments, 3D printed lab-ware, experimental systems with multiple analytical instruments and advanced optimization algorithms based on machine learning approaches. A range of different chemical problems is described, which show the breadth of potential applications of this emerging experimental approach.This work was in part funded by EPSRC project “Closed Loop Optimization for Sustainable Chemical Manufacture” [EP/L003309/1].This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coche.2015.07.00

Happy eating: the single target implicit association test predicts overeating after positive emotions

For many years, questionnaires have been considered the standard when examining emotional eating behavior. However, recently, some controversy has arisen about these questionnaires, and their usefulness in identifying emotional eaters has been questioned. The current study aimed to investigate the Single Target Implicit Association Test (ST-IAT) as a measure of emotional eating. Two ST-IATs (assessing food-positive and food-negative associations respectively) and the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) were compared in undergraduate students. A positive, negative or neutral mood was induced by means of a film clip, and milkshake consumption was measured during and after the mood induction. It was hypothesized that participants with strong emotion-food associations on the ST-IATs (i.e., IAT-emotional eaters) would consume more food in the emotion induction condition corresponding to that emotion, as compared to those with weak emotion-food associations as well as to those in the neutral condition. Participants who scored high on both the positive and negative ST-IATs ate more during a positive mood induction than during a negative mood induction. This effect did not extend to milkshake consumption after the mood induction procedure. In addition, IAT-positive emotional eaters consumed more food than IAT-non-emotional eaters. No effects of the DEBQ on milkshake consumption were found. It is concluded that the ST-IAT has potential as a measure of emotional eating

Multilevel analysis of nuclear dynamics in lamin perturbed fibroblasts

The nuclear lamina provides structural support to the nucleus and has a central role in defining nuclear organization. Defects in its filamentous constituents, the lamins, lead to a class of diseases collectively referred to as laminopathies. On the cellular level, lamin mutations affect the physical integrity of nuclei and nucleo-cytoskeletal interactions, resulting in increased susceptibility to mechanical stress and altered gene expression [1]. Most studies regarding the mechanical properties of the nucleus in laminopathic conditions are based on the induction of extracellular stress, such as strain or compression, and focus on nuclear integrity and/or nucleo-cytoskeletal interaction [2]. Far less is known about the role of nuclear organization and mobility under basal steady-state conditions. In this study, we quantitatively compared nuclear organization, nuclear deformation and chromatin mobility of fibroblasts from a Hutchinson-Gilford progeria patient with cells from a lamin A/C-deficient patient and wild-type dermal fibroblasts. To this end, we created a toolbox in imageJ for automatically analyzing both nuclear as well as subnuclear dynamics in living cells. Simultaneously, we developed a workflow for comparing cellular morphology and subcellular protein distribution in a high content fashion. We found that the absence of functional lamin A/C leads to increased nuclear plasticity on the hour and minute time scale but also to increased intranuclear mobility down to the seconds time scale. In contrast, progeria cells showed overall reduced nuclear dynamics. In addition, high content analysis revealed marked morphological and topological differences between different culture passages within a cell type and between different pathological variants of culture-age matched laminopathic cell types

Will work less for food:Go/No-Go training decreases the reinforcing value of high-caloric food

Consistently inhibiting responses to palatable food stimuli increases motor suppression for those stimuli and reduces their hedonic value, suggesting a close link between motor inhibition and food reward. The current study aimed to investigate whether GNG training also reduces the motivational, reinforcing value of palatable, high-calorie food. Participants completed either GNG training for high-calorie food or a control task. This was followed by a Concurrent Schedules Task (CST) to measure the reinforcing value of high-calorie food. As hypothesized, participants in the GNG condition showed reduced high-caloric food reinforcement, as indexed by the number of key presses participants were willing to execute to obtain the food, compared to the control condition. This difference between GNG and control, however, was only significant when the response requirement to obtain high-calorie food was high. These results suggest that GNG training not only reduces hedonic food value but also the motivational, reinforcing value of food.</p

Résultats préliminaires sur l'immobilisation chimique de rongeurs africains : l'athérure (Atherurus africanus, Gray 1842) et le cricétome (Cricetomys emini, Waterhouse 1840). Etude portant sur quatre protocoles

Le projet Développement au Gabon de l'élevage de gibier travaille sur la mise au point de référentiels techniques sur l'élevage de plusieurs espèces sauvages parmi lesquelles se trouvent l'athérure africain (Atherurus africanus) et le cricétome (Cricetomys emini). Dans le cadre de leur pratique courante, les auteurs ont été amenés à effectuer sur ces animaux des soins qui ont parfois nécessité une anesthésie. Les effets de quatre protocoles ont été testés à différentes posologies : l'acépromazine, la xylazine, une combinaison de xylazine et de kétamine et une combinaison de zolazépam et de tilétamine. Chez l'athérure, la xylazine seule a entraîné des durées d'induction, d'état et de réveil très variables. L'association de la xylazine à 1 mg/kg et de la kétamine à 5 mg/kg s'est avérée très efficace pour l'obtention d'une anesthésie chirurgicale. Chez le cricétome, l'acépromazine à 5 mg/kg a fourni un état de tranquillisation satisfaisant. Pour obtenir une anesthésie chirurgicale, l'association xylazine à 10 mg/kg et kétamine à 50 mg/kg s'est avérée efficace. L'utilisation de xylazine seule ne semble pas indiquée chez cette espèce. (Résumé d'auteur