Growth in brine, at low temperature and different organic acids, of yeasts from table olives

The evolution of the main yeast species related to table olives (Pichia anomala, Pichia membranaefaciens, Pichia minuta, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida diddensii, Candida famata, and Debaryomyces hansenii) at low temperature (7ºC) and different physico-chemical brine conditions was studied, using the log of the relative growth as response. In general, the NaCl concentration had a reduced effect, which was slightly greater at pH 3.5, although it was never significant. The effects of pH and type of acid were significant: the presence of acetic acid always diminished the yeast population with time; however the population was maintained, or even slightly increased, in the presence of lactic acid. Such effects were higher at pH 3.5 than at pH 4.0. The behavior of the yeast species was diverse. Sacch. cerevisiae, P. membranaefaciens, C. famata y Deb. hansenii disminished with time in 8% NaCl. The yeast population markedly decreased at pH 3.5, mainly in the case of Sacch. cerevisiae and C. famata. The presence of acetic acid decreased the yeast population in most species and always lead to a progressive diminution of it with time. No differences between species due to lactic acid was observed. These results can be of interest for the development of commercial presentations of table olives to be preserved at low temperature and with a reduced level of sodium.Se ha estudiado la evolución de las principales especies de levaduras relacionadas con las aceitunas de mesa (Pichia anomala, Pichia membranaefaciens, Pichia minuta, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida diddensii, Candida famata , y Debaryomyces hansenii) a baja temperara (7ºC) y en diversas condiciones físico-químicas en las salmueras, utilizando el log del crecimiento relativo como respuesta. En general, la concentración de sal tiene un efecto muy limitado, que se aprecia algo más a pH 4, pero sin llegar a ser significativo. Los efectos del tipo de ácido y pH fueron significativos; la presencia de acético disminuye la población con el tiempo, mientras que con el láctico se mantiene e, incluso, se eleva ligeramente. Estos efectos se acentúan a pH 3,5. El comportamiento de cada levadura frente a las diferentes variables ha sido diverso. La población relativa de las especies Sacch. cerevisiae , P. membranaefaciens , C. famata y Deb. hansenii disminuyó con el tiempo en presencia del 8 % de NaCl. A pH 3,5 disminuye muy sensiblemente la población inicial en todos los casos, siendo tal influencia más destacada en Sacch. cerevisiae y C. famata. La presencia de acético disminuye de forma importante la población inicial inoculada en la mayoría de los casos y provocó siempre un descenso paulatino en las mismas. No se observó diferencias entre las especies debido al ácido láctico. Estos estudios pueden ser de interés para el desarrollo de presentaciones comerciales de aceitunas de mesa refrigeradas y con reducido nivel de sodio.Los autores desean expresar su gratitud a la CICYT (AGL2000-1539-CO2-01) y a la Unión Europea (FAIR-97-9526) por la financiación parcial de esta investigación.Peer reviewe

Stability limits of n-nonane calculated from molecular dynamics interface simulations

Based on molecular dynamics simulation of the vapor-liquid interface the classical thermodynamic spinodal for n-nonane is estimated using an earlier developed method. The choice of n-nonane as investigated molecule originates from the question whether a deviation from the spherical symmetry of a molecule affects the prediction of the stability limit data. As a result we find that the estimated stability limit data for n-nonane are consistent within the experimental data available for the homologous series of the n-alkanes. It turns out that the slight alignment of the molecules parallel to the interface reported in the literature does not affect the method of transferring interface properties to the bulk phase stability limit

Marine seismic surveys and ocean noise : time for coordinated and prudent planning

Marine seismic surveys use intense (eg >= 230 decibel [dB] root mean square [RMS]) sound impulses to explore the ocean bottom for hydrocarbon deposits, conduct geophysical research, and establish resource claims under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The expansion of seismic surveys necessitates greater regional and international dialogue, partnerships, and planning to manage potential environmental risks. Data indicate several reasons for concern about the negative impacts of anthropogenic noise on numerous marine species, including habitat displacement, disruption of biologically important behaviors, masking of communication signals, chronic stress, and potential auditory damage. The sound impulses from seismic surveys - spanning temporal and spatial scales broader than those typically considered in environmental assessments - may have acute, cumulative, and chronic effects on marine organisms. Given the international and transboundary nature of noise from marine seismic surveys, we suggest the creation of an international regulatory instrument, potentially an annex to the existing International Convention on the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, to address the issue.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

FfDL : A Flexible Multi-tenant Deep Learning Platform

Deep learning (DL) is becoming increasingly popular in several application domains and has made several new application features involving computer vision, speech recognition and synthesis, self-driving automobiles, drug design, etc. feasible and accurate. As a result, large scale on-premise and cloud-hosted deep learning platforms have become essential infrastructure in many organizations. These systems accept, schedule, manage and execute DL training jobs at scale. This paper describes the design, implementation and our experiences with FfDL, a DL platform used at IBM. We describe how our design balances dependability with scalability, elasticity, flexibility and efficiency. We examine FfDL qualitatively through a retrospective look at the lessons learned from building, operating, and supporting FfDL; and quantitatively through a detailed empirical evaluation of FfDL, including the overheads introduced by the platform for various deep learning models, the load and performance observed in a real case study using FfDL within our organization, the frequency of various faults observed including unanticipated faults, and experiments demonstrating the benefits of various scheduling policies. FfDL has been open-sourced.Comment: MIDDLEWARE 201

Learning Generalized Linear Models Over Normalized Data

Enterprise data analytics is a booming area in the data man-agement industry. Many companies are racing to develop toolkits that closely integrate statistical and machine learn-ing techniques with data management systems. Almost all such toolkits assume that the input to a learning algorithm is a single table. However, most relational datasets are not stored as single tables due to normalization. Thus, analysts often perform key-foreign key joins before learning on the join output. This strategy of learning after joins introduces redundancy avoided by normalization, which could lead to poorer end-to-end performance and maintenance overheads due to data duplication. In this work, we take a step towards enabling and optimizing learning over joins for a common class of machine learning techniques called generalized linear models that are solved using gradient descent algorithms in an RDBMS setting. We present alternative approaches to learn over a join that are easy to implement over existing RDBMSs. We introduce a new approach named factorized learning that pushes ML computations through joins and avoids redundancy in both I/O and computations. We study the tradeoff space for all our approaches both analytically and empirically. Our results show that factorized learning is often substantially faster than the alternatives, but is not always the fastest, necessitating a cost-based approach. We also discuss extensions of all our approaches to multi-table joins as well as to Hive

Oxytocin receptor antagonists as a novel pharmacological agent for reducing smooth muscle tone in the human prostate

Pharmacotherapies for the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) are targeted at reducing cellular proliferation (static component) or reducing smooth muscle tone (dynamic component), but response is unpredictable and many patients fail to respond. An impediment to identifying novel pharmacotherapies is the incomplete understanding of paracrine signalling. Oxytocin has been highlighted as a potential paracrine mediator of BPH. To better understand oxytocin signalling, we investigated the effects of exogenous oxytocin on both stromal cell proliferation, and inherent spontaneous prostate contractions using primary models derived from human prostate tissue. We show that the Oxytocin Receptor (OXTR) is widely expressed in the human prostate, and co-localises to contractile cells within the prostate stroma. Exogenous oxytocin did not modulate prostatic fibroblast proliferation, but did significantly (p < 0.05) upregulate the frequency of spontaneous contractions in prostate tissue, indicating a role in generating smooth muscle tone. Application of atosiban, an OXTR antagonist, significantly (p < 0.05) reduced spontaneous contractions. Individual tissue responsiveness to both exogenous oxytocin (R2 = 0.697, p < 0.01) and atosiban (R2 = 0.472,p < 0.05) was greater in tissue collected from older men. Overall, our data suggest that oxytocin is a key regulator of inherent spontaneous prostate contractions, and targeting of the OXTR and associated downstream signalling is an attractive prospect in the development of novel BPH pharmacotherapies

Singing the same tune? International continuities and discontinuities in how police talk about using force

This article focuses on a research project conducted in six jurisdictions: England, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Venezuela, and Brazil. These societies are very different ethnically, socially, politically, economically, historically and have wildly different levels of crime. Their policing arrangements also differ significantly: how they are organised; how their officers are equipped and trained; what routine operating procedures they employ; whether they are armed; and much else besides. Most relevant for this research, they represent policing systems with wildly different levels of police shootings, Police in the two Latin American countries represented here have a justified reputation for the frequency with which they shoot people, whereas at the other extreme the police in England do not routinely carry firearms and rarely shoot anyone. To probe whether these differences are reflected in the way that officers talk about the use of force, police officers in these different jurisdictions were invited to discuss in focus groups a scenario in which police are thwarted in their attempt to arrest two youths (one of whom is a known local criminal) by the youths driving off with the police in pursuit, and concludes with the youths crashing their car and escaping in apparent possession of a gun, It might be expected that focus groups would prove starkly different, and indeed they were, but not in the way that might be expected. There was little difference in affirmation of normative and legal standards regarding the use of force. It was in how officers in different jurisdictions envisaged the circumstances in which the scenario took place that led Latin American officers to anticipate that they would shoot the suspects, whereas officers in the other jurisdictions had little expectation that they would open fire in the conditions as they imagined them to be