Abstracts of the 7th International Conference on Lactoferrin / Résumés de la 7e Conférence internationale sur la lactoferrine

The article presents abstracts on lactoferrin research. They include "Oral administration of lactoferrin raises NK cell activity in mice,"Comparison of antimicrobial activity between lactoferricin B 15 derivative and antibiotics" and "Batch extraction of lactoferrin from raw whole milk.

Cyclic peptide oral bioavailability: lessons from the past

Achieving high oral bioavailability for drugs is a key design objective in drug development. It is not surprising then that with the growing expectation of peptides as future drugs, there has also been an increasing interest in developing oral peptide therapeutics. Brought to the fore are questions such as what makes peptides orally bioavailable and how this can be achieved; questions which have inspired research into the area for decades. Early research in the area focused on linear peptides with more recent literature focusing on cyclic peptides, motivated in part by cyclic peptides like cyclosporine A that have demonstrated drug-like oral bioavailability. In this review, we take a look at research on the oral bioavailability of peptides, focusing on factors that affect passive permeability

Direct Assessment of IS Student Learning Using an Integrative Exercise

The assessment of learning objectives has become an important element in the improvement and accreditation of academic programs, including information systems (IS). Indirect assessments have been common in these endeavors, but direct assessments have been sparse. In the first semester at Brigham Young University (BYU), IS students take four “integrated core” IS courses simultaneously. In an effort to assess the students’ comprehensive learning the last week of the semester in all four courses is dedicated to a comprehensive, cross functional integrative exercise (INTEX): a very intensive, group case exercise that requires student teams to apply IS and other business skills. Case deliverables include a formal presentation of an IS solution, a large set of documentation including use cases and data models, and a passive prototype of some system elements. Team work is essential to achieving acceptable results. Together with representatives from a leading industry consulting firm (who usually fly in for the event), faculty and graduate students assess the presentation and supporting materials. This direct assessment is a significant element in the grade for all four core courses. Though students find the INTEX to be intense, feedback from graduation exit interviews suggests it is one of their most valuable learning experiences. This paper explains the structure of the INTEX and its benefits to IS majors

Modelling of atmospheric boundary layer: Generation of shear.

Roughness length, z0 and friction velocity, u* are the defining parameters of wind log profile that must be matched in wind tunnel simulation. To fully understand the role of these parameters, the basics and review from the primitive equations and its relation to the logarithmic profile obtained for wind tunnel conditions were discussed. The problem of roughness, although well known, still needs to be addressed more rigorously especially when determining values of z0 and u* from wind tunnel data and their relation to the roughness element geometry. A review of classic literature and new published material were carried out, focusing on the applicability to wind tunnel modelling

On some applications of Galois Fourier transforms to Goppa codes

In this paper we present a Galois-Fourier transform applicable to the class of Goppa codes . Such a transform presents all the classical properties of a discrete Galois-Fourier transform without being necessarily generated through a primitive root of unity . A direct application of this technique has allowed us to unify the relationship between Goppa and cyclic codes . Furthermore we show how the decoding problem of this class of codes becomes greatly simplified when expressed in the transform domain and demonstrate the applicability of Blahut's decoding technique in the transform domain . Consequently, since efficient and fast procedures are known for the computation of Fourier type transforms, this new approach appears to be of great value for practical applications .Dans cet article, nous présentons une transformation de Galois-Fourier applicable à l'analyse des codes de Goppa et qui possède toutes les propriétés d'une transformée classique de Galois-Fourier discrète bien que n'utilisant pas nécessairement une racine primitive de l'unité. Une application de cette technique nous permet d'identifier de façon unifiée les connexions entre les codes de Goppa et les codes cycliques . D'autre part, lorsque le problème du décodage algébrique de ces codes est exprimé dans l'espace des transformées, l'algorithme correspondant se trouve grandement simplifié et la technique de décodage par transformées de Blahut devient directement applicable . Compte tenu des développements récents en matière de calculs rapides des transformées de Fourier, cette nouvelle approche devrait présenter un intérêt certain pour les applications pratiques

Atmosphere-like turbulence generation with surface-etched phase-screens

We built and characterized an optical system that emulates the optical characteristics of an 8m-class telescope like the Very Large Telescope. The system contains rotating glass phase-screens to generate realistic atmosphere-like optical turbulence, as needed for testing multi-conjugate adaptive optics systems. In this paper we present an investigation of the statistical properties of two phase-screens etched on glass-plate surfaces, obtained from Silios Technologies. Those etched screens are highly transmissive (above 85%) from 0.45 to 2.5 microns. From direct imaging, their Fried parameter r0 values (0.43+-0.04 mm and 0.81+-0.03 mm, respectively, at 0.633 microns) agree with the expectation to within 10%. This is also confirmed by a comparison of measured and expected Zernike coefficient variances. Overall, we find that those screens are quite reproducible, allowing sub-millimetre r0 values, which were difficult to achieve in the past. We conclude that the telescope emulator and phase-screens form a powerful atmospheric turbulence generator allowing systematic testing of different kinds of AO instrumentation.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 3 mpeg movies. Submitted to Optics Expres

Kalman-filter control schemes for fringe tracking. Development and application to VLTI/GRAVITY

The implementation of fringe tracking for optical interferometers is inevitable when optimal exploitation of the instrumental capacities is desired. Fringe tracking allows continuous fringe observation, considerably increasing the sensitivity of the interferometric system. In addition to the correction of atmospheric path-length differences, a decent control algorithm should correct for disturbances introduced by instrumental vibrations, and deal with other errors propagating in the optical trains. We attempt to construct control schemes based on Kalman filters. Kalman filtering is an optimal data processing algorithm for tracking and correcting a system on which observations are performed. As a direct application, control schemes are designed for GRAVITY, a future four-telescope near-infrared beam combiner for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). We base our study on recent work in adaptive-optics control. The technique is to describe perturbations of fringe phases in terms of an a priori model. The model allows us to optimize the tracking of fringes, in that it is adapted to the prevailing perturbations. Since the model is of a parametric nature, a parameter identification needs to be included. Different possibilities exist to generalize to the four-telescope fringe tracking that is useful for GRAVITY. On the basis of a two-telescope Kalman-filtering control algorithm, a set of two properly working control algorithms for four-telescope fringe tracking is constructed. The control schemes are designed to take into account flux problems and low-signal baselines. First simulations of the fringe-tracking process indicate that the defined schemes meet the requirements for GRAVITY and allow us to distinguish in performance. In a future paper, we will compare the performances of classical fringe tracking to our Kalman-filter control.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&