Health claims in the labelling and marketing of food products:: the Swedish food sector's Code of Practice in a European perspective

Since 1990 certain health claims in the labelling and marketing of food products have been allowed in Sweden within the food sector's Code of Practice. The rules were developed in close dialogue with the authorities. The legal basis was a decision by the authorities not to apply the medicinal products’ legislation to “foods normally found on the dinner table” provided the rules defined in the Code were followed. The Code of Practice lists nine well-established diet–health relationships eligible for generic disease risk reduction claims in two steps and general rules regarding nutrient function claims. Since 2001, there has also been the possibility for using “product-specific physiological claims (PFP)”, subject to premarketing evaluation of the scientific dossier supporting the claim. The scientific documentation has been approved for 10 products with PFP, and another 15 products have been found to fulfil the Code's criteria for “low glycaemic index”. In the third edition of the Code, active since 2004, conditions in terms of nutritional composition were set, i.e. “nutrient profiles”, with a general reference to the Swedish National Food Administration's regulation on the use of a particular symbol, i.e. the keyhole symbol. Applying the Swedish Code of practice has provided experience useful in the implementation of the European Regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods, effective from 2007

Transport coefficients for electrolytes in arbitrarily shaped nano and micro-fluidic channels

We consider laminar flow of incompressible electrolytes in long, straight channels driven by pressure and electro-osmosis. We use a Hilbert space eigenfunction expansion to address the general problem of an arbitrary cross section and obtain general results in linear-response theory for the hydraulic and electrical transport coefficients which satisfy Onsager relations. In the limit of non-overlapping Debye layers the transport coefficients are simply expressed in terms of parameters of the electrolyte as well as the geometrical correction factor for the Hagen-Poiseuille part of the problem. In particular, we consider the limits of thin non-overlapping as well as strongly overlapping Debye layers, respectively, and calculate the corrections to the hydraulic resistance due to electro-hydrodynamic interactions.Comment: 13 pages including 4 figures and 1 table. Typos corrected. Accepted for NJ

Ericsson INC., AND Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson v. Samsung Elecs. CO, LTD., Samsung Elecs. America

Unopposed Motion for Leave to File Brief of International Intellectual Property Law Professors as Amici Curiae in Support of Neither Part

Ectopic expression of the beta-cell specific transcription factor Pdx1 inhibits glucagon gene transcription

Aims/hypothesis: The transcription factor Pdx1 is required for the development and differentiation of all pancreatic cells. Beta-cell specific inactivation of Pdx1 in developing or adult mice leads to an increase in glucagon-expressing cells, suggesting that absence of Pdx1could favour glucagon gene expression by a default mechanism. Method: We investigated the inhibitory role of Pdx1 on glucagon gene expression in vitro. The glucagonoma cell line InR1G9 was transduced with a Pdx1-encoding lentiviral vector and insulin and glucagon mRNA levels were analysed by northern blot and real-time PCR. To understand the mechanism by which Pdx1 inhibits glucagon gene expression, we studied its effect on glucagon promoter activity in non-islet cells using transient transfections and gel-shift analysis. Results: In glucagonoma cells transduced with a Pdx1-encoding lentiviral vector, insulin gene expression was induced while glucagon mRNA levels were reduced by 50 to 60%. In the heterologous cell line BHK-21, Pdx1 inhibited by 60 to 80% the activation of the α-cell specific element G1 conferred by Pax-6 and/or Cdx-2/3. Although Pdx1 could bind three AT-rich motifs within G1, two of which are binding sites for Pax-6 and Cdx-2/3, the affinity of Pdx1 for G1 was much lower as compared to Pax-6. In addition, Pdx1 inhibited Pax-6 mediated activation through G3, to which Pdx1 was unable to bind. Moreover, a mutation impairing DNA binding of Pdx1 had no effect on its inhibition on Cdx-2/3. Since Pdx1 interacts directly with Pax-6 and Cdx-2/3 forming heterodimers, we suggest that Pdx1 inhibits glucagon gene transcription through protein to protein interactions with Pax-6 and Cdx-2/3. Conclusion/interpretation: Cell-specific expression of the glucagon gene can only occur when Pdx1 expression extinguishes from the early α cell precurso

Technoeconomic and life-cycle analysis of single-step catalytic conversion of wet ethanol into fungible fuel blendstocks

Technoeconomic and life-cycle analyses are presented for catalytic conversion of ethanol to fungible hydrocarbon fuel blendstocks, informed by advances in catalyst and process development. Whereas prior work toward this end focused on 3-step processes featuring dehydration, oligomerization, and hydrogenation, the consolidated alcohol dehydration and oligomerization (CADO) approach described here results in 1-step conversion of wet ethanol vapor (40 wt% in water) to hydrocarbons and water over a metal-modified zeolite catalyst. A development project increased liquid hydrocarbon yields from 36% of theoretical to >80%, reduced catalyst cost by an order of magnitude, scaled up the process by 300-fold, and reduced projected costs of ethanol conversion 12-fold. Current CADO products conform most closely to gasoline blendstocks, but can be blended with jet fuel at low levels today, and could potentially be blended at higher levels in the future. Operating plus annualized capital costs for conversion of wet ethanol to fungible blendstocks are estimated at $2.00/GJ for CADO today and$1.44/GJ in the future, similar to the unit energy cost of producing anhydrous ethanol from wet ethanol ($1.46/GJ). Including the cost of ethanol from either corn or future cellulosic biomass but not production incentives, projected minimum selling prices for fungible blendstocks produced via CADO are competitive with conventional jet fuel when oil is$100 per barrel but not at $60 per barrel. However, with existing production incentives, the projected minimum blendstock selling price is competitive with oil at$60 per barrel. Life-cycle greenhouse gas emission reductions for CADO-derived hydrocarbon blendstocks closely follow those for the ethanol feedstock

Laser enhanced high-intensity focused ultrasound thrombolysis: An in vitro study

This is the Published Version made available with the permission of the publisher. Copyright, Ecological Society of America.Laser-enhanced thrombolysis by high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment was studied in vitro with bovine blood clots. To achieve laser-enhanced thrombolysis, laser light was employed to illuminate the sample concurrently with HIFU radiation, and ultrasound and laser parameters were optimized to achieve better thrombolysis efficiency. The results indicated that the thrombolysis efficiency increased when pulse length of HIFU wave, HIFU pressure, or laser fluence increases. Also, with the presence of laser, an enhanced effect of thrombolysis was observed.This study was supported in part byNIH Grant No. 1R03EB015077-01A1