The effect of a controlled manipulation of maternal dietary fat intake on medium and long chain fatty acids in human breast milk in Saskatoon, Canada

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Background Few studies in recent years have demonstrated the effect of maternal diet on fatty acid composition of human milk. Methods Fourteen free-living lactating women participated in a cross-over dietary intervention study, consuming a low fat diet (17.6% of energy as fat, 14.4% of energy as protein, 68.0% of energy as carbohydrate) and a high fat diet (40.3% of energy as fat, 14.4% of energy as protein, 45.3% of energy as carbohydrate) each for periods of 4 days, in randomised order. Each mother was her own control. Mature milk samples were collected during each period and analysed for medium and long chain fatty acids. Results The concentration of medium chain fatty acids (MCFA), was 13.6% in breast milk for the low fat diet compared to 11.4% for the high fat (p < 0.05). Arachidonic acid (C20:4n-6) levels were significantly higher in breast milk when women consumed the low fat diet. Increased dietary intake of stearic acid (C18:0) and alpha-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3) on the high fat diet significantly increased proportions of these fatty acids in breast milk (p < 0.05) in 4 days. Conclusions Changing maternal dietary fat intake has a rapid response in terms of changes to fatty acids in breast milk.Published versio

Dopant Profile Extraction by Inverse Modeling of Scanning Capacitance Microscopy Using Peak dC/dV

Scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) has proven to be successful for junction delineation. However quantitative dopant profile extraction by SCM still remains a difficult challenge, due to limited understanding of relevant physics especially at p-n junction, as well as difficulties to accurately quantify all parameters in modeling. In this paper we present a new procedure, the use of peak dC/dV at every spatial point, for dopant profile extraction. The advantage of such a technique is twofold. First it eliminates problems encountered using a fixed dc bias such as contrast reversal. Second, it also excludes the need to model interface traps. This is because the peak dC/dV value is independent of the presence of interface traps, as demonstrated in our experimental results. Furthermore, based on our understanding of the influence of mobility degradation at p-n junction, we propose that low surface mobility model should be used in simulation so that only the accumulation-to-depletion dC/dV is extracted

Monitoring oxide quality using the spread of the dC/dV peak in scanning capacitance microscopy measurements

This article proposes a method for evaluating the quality of the overlying oxide on samples used in scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) dopant profile extraction. The method can also be used generally as a convenient in-process method for monitoring oxide quality directly after the oxidation process without prior metallization of the oxide-semiconductor sample. The spread of the differential capacitance characteristic (dC/dV versus V plot), characterized using its full width at half maximum (FWHM), was found to be strongly dependent on the interface trap density as a consequence of the stretch-out effect of interface traps on the capacitance-voltage (C-V) curve. Results show that the FWHM of the dC/dV characteristic is a sensitive monitor of oxide quality (in terms of interface trap density) as it is not complicated by localized oxide charging effects as in the case of the SCM probe tip voltage corresponding to maximum dC/dV. The magnitude of the dC/dV peak, at any given surface potential, was also found to be independent of the interface traps and only dependent on the substrate dopant concentration, which makes SCM dopant profile extraction possible

Dissolved heavy metals and water quality in the surface waters of rivers and drainages of the West Peninsular Malaysia

The dissolved concentrations of metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, Fe and Zn), temperature, total dissolved solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, salinity and conductivity were determined in the surface waters of 24 geographical sampling sites including city and urban drainages and rivers, from the west Peninsular Malaysia, collected in January to April 2005. From these sampling sites, the ranges (min-max) of dissolved metal concentrations (mg/L) were Cd: 0.001-0.055, Cu: 0.001-0.1773, Pb: 0.001-1.523, Ni: 0.001-0.246, Fe: 0.001-35.67 and Zn: 0.0001-0.609 while for the water quality are pH: 4.96-9.81, dissolved oxygen (0.39-7.26 mg/L), total dissolved solids (0.002-10.02 mg/L), salinity (0.00-8.93 ppt), conductivity (3.33-17423 μS/cm) and temperature (27.8-35.3�). Some sites with elevated dissolved concentrations of heavy metals and poor water quality indicated the anthropogenic inputs of industrial and urban wastes. Regular monitoring of water quality in all drainage waters is recommended

Outpatient-Based Therapy of Oral Fludarabine and Subcutaneous Alemtuzumab for Asian Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Background. Intravenous alemtuzumab and fludarabine are effective in combination for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), but require hospital visits for intravenous injection. We performed a pilot study to assess the safety and efficacy of outpatient-based oral fludarabine with subcutaneous alemtuzumab (OFSA) for the treatment of relapsed/refractory CLL. Results. Depending on their response, patients were given two to six 28-day cycles of subcutaneous alemtuzumab 30 mg on days 1,3, and 5 and oral fludarabine 40 mg/m2/day for 5 days. Median patient age was 74. The lymphocyte counts of all five patients fell after the 1st cycle of treatment and reached normal/low levels on completion of 2 to 6 cycles of therapy. Platelet counts and hemoglobin were unaffected. All five patients achieved complete hematological remission, while two attained minimal residual disease negativity on 4-color flow cytometry. Conclusions. Our OFSA regimen was effective in elderly Asian patients with relapsed/refractory CLL, and it should be investigated further

Controlled assembly of SNAP-PNA-fluorophore systems on DNA templates to produce fluorescence resonance energy transfer

The SNAP protein is a widely used self-labeling tag that can be used for tracking protein localization and trafficking in living systems. A model system providing controlled alignment of SNAP-tag units can provide a new way to study clustering of fusion proteins. In this work, fluorescent SNAP-PNA conjugates were controllably assembled on DNA frameworks forming dimers, trimers, and tetramers. Modification of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) with the O6-benzyl guanine (BG) group allowed the generation of site-selective covalent links between PNA and the SNAP protein. The modified BG-PNAs were labeled with fluorescent Atto dyes and subsequently chemo-selectively conjugated to SNAP protein. Efficient assembly into dimer and oligomer forms was verified via size exclusion chromatography (SEC), electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and fluorescence spectroscopy. DNA directed assembly of homo- and hetero-dimers of SNAP-PNA constructs induced homo- and hetero-FRET, respectively. Longer DNA scaffolds controllably aligned similar fluorescent SNAP-PNA constructs into higher oligomers exhibiting homo-FRET. The combined SEC and homo-FRET studies indicated the 1:1 and saturated assemblies of SNAP-PNA-fluorophore:DNA formed preferentially in this system. This suggested a kinetic/stoichiometric model of assembly rather than binomially distributed products. These BG-PNA-fluorophore building blocks allow facile introduction of fluorophores and/or assembly directing moieties onto any protein containing SNAP. Template directed assembly of PNA modified SNAP proteins may be used to investigate clustering behavior both with and without fluorescent labels which may find use in the study of assembly processes in cells

Optimization of Naked DNA Delivery for Interferon Subtype Immunotherapy in Cytomegalovirus Infection

Type I interferon (IFN) gene therapy modulates the immune response leading to inflammatory heart disease following cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in a murine model of post-viral myocarditis. Efficacy of different immunisation protocols for the IFN constructs was influenced by the dose of DNA, subtype choice, combination use, pre-medication, and timing of DNA administration. Optimal efficacy was found with bupivacaine treatment prior to DNA inoculation of 200mg IFN DNA 14 days prior to virus challenge. Maximal antiviral and antimyocarditic effects were achieved with this vaccination schedule. Furthermore, inoculation of synergistic IFN subtypes demonstrated enhanced efficacy when delivered either alone or with CMV gB DNA vaccination in the CMV model. Thus naked DNA delivery of IFN provides an avenue of immunotherapy for regulating herpesvirus-induced diseases

Single layer microwave absorber based on rice husk-mwcnts composites

In this paper, rice husk (RH) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) composite have been fabricated as single layer microwave absorber. The MWCNTs with various weight ratio composites with RH have been prepared. Three different weight ratio 3 wt% MWCNTs, 5 wt% MWCNTs, and 15 wt% MWCNTs of the RH-CNTs have been designed and fabricated. Moreover, the dielectric properties of different RH-CNTs specimens have been verified by using rectangular waveguide transmission line technique. Furthermore, the microwave absorption of these RH-CNTs has been analyzed using free space measurement and CST Microwave Studio (CST-MWS). The dielectric properties and microwave absorption of different RH-CNTs were investigated in 8.2-12.4 GHz (X-band). From the measurement, the dielectric properties parameter of RH-CNTs is analyzed. The dielectric constant and loss factor of the RH-CNTs composite increases with increasing of MWCNTs weight ratio. However, the magnetic properties of RH-CNTs remain constant, ur= 1-j0. The measurement and simulation result show that such RH-CNTs composites has excellent microwave absorption up to 33 dB in a certain frequency rang

Consumer Adoption of Self-Service Technologies in the Context of the Jordanian Banking Industry: Examining the Moderating Role of Channel Types

YesThis study aimed to examine the key factors predicting Jordanian consumers’ intentions and usage of three types of self-service banking technologies. This study also sought to test if the impacts of these main predictors could be moderated by channel type. This study proposed a conceptual model by integrating factors from the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), along with perceived risk. The required data were collected from a convenience sample of Jordanian banking customers using a survey questionnaire. The statistical results strongly support the significant influence of performance expectancy, social influence, and perceived risk on customer intentions for the three types of SSTs examined. The results of the X2 differences test also indicate that there are significant differences in the influence of the main predictors due to the moderating effect of channel type. One of the key contributions of this study is that three types of SSTs were tested in a single study, which had not been done before, leading to the identification of the factors common to all three types, as well as the salient factors unique to each type