A Canted Double Undulator System with a Wide Energy Range for EMIL

At BESSY II a canted double undulator system for the Energy Materials In situ Laboratory EMIL is under construction. The energy regime is covered with two undulators, an APPLE II undulator for the soft and a cryogenic permanent magnet undulator CPMU 17 for the hard photons. The layout and the performance of the undulators are presented in detail. The minimum of the vertical betatron function is shifted to the center of the CPMU 17. The neighboring quadrupoles and an additional quadrupole between the undulators control the vertical betatron function. Prior to the undulator installation a testing chamber with four movable vertical scrapers has been implemented at the CPMU 17 location. Utilizing the scrapers the new asymmetric lattice optics will be tested and optimize

Obesity and immune function relationships.

The immunological processes involved in the collaborative defence of organisms are affected by nutritional status. Thus, a positive chronic imbalance between energy intake and expenditure leads to situations of obesity, which may influence unspecific and specific immune responses mediated by humoral and cell mediated mechanisms. Furthermore, several lines of evidence have supported a link between adipose tissue and immunocompetent cells. This interaction is illustrated in obesity, where excess adiposity and impaired immune function have been described in both humans and genetically obese rodents. However, limited and often controversial information exist comparing immunity in obese and non-obese subjects as well as about the cellular and molecular mechanisms implicated. In general terms, clinical and epidemiological data support the evidence that the incidence and severity of specific types of infectious illnesses are higher in obese persons as compared to lean individuals together with the occurrence of poor antibody responses to antigens in overweight subjects. Leptin might play a key role in linking nutritional status with T-cell function. The complexities and heterogeneity of the host defences concerning the immune response in different nutritional circumstances affecting the energy balance require an integral study of the immunocompetent cells, their subsets and products as well as specific and unspecific inducer/regulator systems. In this context, more research is needed to clarify the clinical implications of the alterations induced by obesity on the immune function

Pre-treatment and extraction techniques for recovery of added value compounds from wastes throughout the agri-food chain

The enormous quantity of food wastes discarded annually force to look for alternatives for this interesting feedstock. Thus, food bio-waste valorisation is one of the imperatives of the nowadays society. This review is the most comprehensive overview of currently existing technologies and processes in this field. It tackles classical and innovative physical, physico-chemical and chemical methods of food waste pre-treatment and extraction for recovery of added value compounds and detection by modern technologies and are an outcome of the COST Action EUBIS, TD1203 Food Waste Valorisation for Sustainable Chemicals, Materials and Fuels