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Global Metabolic Shifts in Age and Alzheimer's Disease Mouse Brains Pivot at NAD+/NADH Redox Sites.
Age and Alzheimer's disease (AD) share some common features such as cognitive impairments, memory loss, metabolic disturbances, bioenergetic deficits, and inflammation. Yet little is known on how systematic shifts in metabolic networks depend on age and AD. In this work, we investigated the global metabolomic alterations in non-transgenic (NTg) and triple-transgenic (3xTg-AD) mouse brain hippocampus as a function of age by using untargeted Ultrahigh Performance Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectroscopy (UPLC-MS/MS). We observed common metabolic patterns with aging in both NTg and 3xTg-AD brains involved in energy-generating pathways, fatty acids oxidation, glutamate, and sphingolipid metabolism. We found age-related downregulation of metabolites from reactions in glycolysis that consumed ATP and in the TCA cycle, especially at NAD+/NADH-dependent redox sites, where age- and AD-associated limitations in the free NADH may alter reactions. Conversely, metabolites increased in glycolytic reactions in which ATP is produced. With age, inputs to the TCA cycle were increased including fatty acid β-oxidation and glutamine. Overall age- and AD-related changes were > 2-fold when comparing the declines of upstream metabolites of NAD+/NADH-dependent reactions to the increases of downstream metabolites (p = 10-5, n = 8 redox reactions). Inflammatory metabolites such as ceramides and sphingosine-1-phosphate also increased with age. Age-related decreases in glutamate, GABA, and sphingolipid were seen which worsened with AD genetic load in 3xTg-AD brains, possibly contributing to synaptic, learning- and memory-related deficits. The data support the novel hypothesis that age- and AD-associated metabolic shifts respond to NAD(P)+/NAD(P)H redox-dependent reactions, which may contribute to decreased energetic capacity
Explanation and observability of diffraction in time
Diffraction in time (DIT) is a fundamental phenomenon in quantum dynamics due
to time-dependent obstacles and slits. It is formally analogous to diffraction
of light, and is expected to play an increasing role to design coherent matter
wave sources, as in the atom laser, to analyze time-of-flight information and
emission from ultrafast pulsed excitations, and in applications of coherent
matter waves in integrated atom-optical circuits. We demonstrate that DIT
emerges robustly in quantum waves emitted by an exponentially decaying source
and provide a simple explanation of the phenomenon, as an interference of two
characteristic velocities. This allows for its controllability and
optimization.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Cointegration Between Prices of Pecans and Other Edible Nuts: Forecasting and Implications
Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis,
Co-digestion of source segregated domestic food waste to improve process stability
Cattle slurry and card packaging were used to improve the operational stability of food waste digestion, with the aim of reducing digestate total ammoniacal nitrogen concentrations compared to food waste only. Use of cattle slurry could have major environmental benefits through reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with current management practices; whilst card packaging is closely linked to food waste and could be co-collected as a source segregated material. Both options increase the renewable energy potential whilst retaining organic matter and nutrients for soil replenishment. Co-digestion allowed higher organic loadings and gave a more stable process. A high ammonia inoculum acclimated more readily to cattle slurry than card packaging, probably through supplementation by trace elements and micro-organisms. Long-term operation at a 75-litre scale showed a characteristic pattern of volatile fatty acid accumulation in mono-digestion of food waste, and allowed performance parameters to be determined for the co-digestion substrates.<br/
Anaerobic digestion of two biodegradable municipal waste streams
Landfill avoidance for organic wastes is now a high priority worldwide. Two fractions of the municipal waste stream were considered with respect to their potential for diversion through controlled anaerobic digestion. The physical and chemical properties of source segregated domestic food waste (ss-FW) and of the mechanically-recovered organic fraction of municipal solid waste (mr-OFMSW) were analysed, and their methane yields determined in both batch and semi-continuous digestion. Methane potentials were compared with predicted values based on biochemical composition, elemental analysis and carbon mass balance, and the differences explained by compositional analysis of feedstocks and digestates. The ss-FW had a higher percentage biodegradability and higher energy potential on a dry weight basis due to the high proportion of proteins and fats in this waste, although the energy potential of the mr-OFMSW was slightly higher on a wet weight (WW) basis. The mr-OFMSW showed very stable digestion characteristics, whereas the ss-FW had a high digestate ammoniacal-N concentration and volatile fatty acid accumulation leading to some process instability. Digestates from semi-continuous trials with mr-OFMSW had high concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTE) and a lower nutrient content than ss-FW digestate, making the former unsuitable for application to land used in food productio
Shaping of molecular weight distribution by iterative learning probability density function control strategies
A mathematical model is developed for the molecular weight distribution (MWD) of free-radical styrene polymerization in a simulated semi-batch reactor system. The generation function technique and moment method are employed to establish the MWD model in the form of Schultz-Zimmdistribution. Both static and dynamic models are described in detail. In order to achieve the closed-loop MWD shaping by output probability density function (PDF) control, the dynamic MWD model is further developed by a linear B-spline approximation. Based on the general form of the B-spline MWD model, iterative learning PDF control strategies have been investigated in order to improve the MWD control performance. Discussions on the simulation studies show the advantages and limitations of the methodology
Deformations and quasiparticle spectra of nuclei in the nobelium region
We have performed self-consistent Skyrme Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov calculations
for nuclei close to No. Self-consistent deformations, including
as functions of the rotational frequency, were determined for
even-even nuclei Fm, No, and Rf. The
quasiparticle spectra for N=151 isotones and Z=99 isotopes were calculated and
compared with experimental data and the results of Woods-Saxon calculations. We
found that our calculations give high-order deformations similar to those
obtained for the Woods-Saxon potential, and that the experimental quasiparticle
energies are reasonably well reproduced.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; ICFN5 conference proceeding
Rotational properties of nuclei around No investigated using a spectroscopic-quality Skyrme energy density functional
Nuclei in the mass region represent the heaviest systems where
detailed spectroscopic information is experimentally available. Although
microscopic-macroscopic and self-consistent models have achieved great success
in describing the data in this mass region, a fully satisfying precise
theoretical description is still missing.
By using fine-tuned parametrizations of the energy density functionals, the
present work aims at an improved description of the single-particle properties
and rotational bands in the nobelium region. Such locally optimized
parameterizations may have better properties when extrapolating towards the
superheavy region.
Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogolyubov and Lipkin-Nogami methods were used to
calculate the quasiparticle energies and rotational bands of nuclei in the
nobelium region. Starting from the most recent Skyrme parametrization, UNEDF1,
the spin-orbit coupling constants and pairing strengths have been tuned, so as
to achieve a better agreement with the excitation spectra and odd-even mass
differences in Cf and Bk.
The quasiparticle properties of Cf and Bk were very well
reproduced. At the same time, crucial deformed neutron and proton shell gaps
open up at and , respectively. Rotational bands in Fm, No, and
Rf isotopes, where experimental data are available, were also fairly well
described. To help future improvements towards a more precise description,
small deficiencies of the approach were carefully identified.
In the mass region, larger spin-orbit strengths than those from
global adjustments lead to improved agreement with data. Puzzling effects of
particle-number restoration on the calculated moment of inertia, at odds with
the experimental behaviour, require further scrutiny.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures; to be published in Physical Review
Experimental study of cluster formation in binary mixture of H2O and H2SO4 vapors in the presence of an ionizing radiation source
Molecular clusters formed in pure nitrogen containing H2O and H2SO4 vapors and exposed to a 3 mCi Ni63 beta source were studied in the mass range 50 to 780 amu using a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Measurements were made under several combinations of relative humidity and relative acidity ranging from 0.7 to 7.5 percent and 0.00047 to 0.06333 percent, respectively. The number of H2SO4 molecules in the clusters observed ranged from 1 to 7 whereas the number of H2O molecules ranged from 1 to 16. The experimental cluster spectra differ considerably from those calculated using the classical nucleation theory. First order calculations using modified surface tension values and including the effects of multipole moments of the nucleating molecules indicate that these effects may be enough to explain the difference between the measured and the calculated spectra
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