There is increasing interest in the bidirectional communication between the mammalian host and prokaryotic cells. Catecholamines (CA), candidate molecules for such communication, are presumed to play an important role in the gut lumen; however, available evidence is limited because of the lack of actual data about luminal CA. This study evaluated luminal CA levels in the gastrointestinal tract ...

Birds play a central role in WNV epidemiology by spreading and amplifying the virus. Increasing numbers of WNV isolates are detected in Europe, and the virulence of these genetically variable isolates is not well characterized for birds. Therefore, we investigated whether SPF chickens could be a valuable avian model for the pathotyping of WNV strains. One-day-old SPF chickens were inoculated su...

OBJECTIVE Quantitative balance studies were performed to compare fat and calcium absorption in healthy, full term infants fed casein hydrolysate-based (CHF) and soy protein-based (SPF) infant formulas with or without palm olein (PO). Previous studies have reported that PO significantly reduced absorption of both fat and calcium in cow's milk-based formulas in which most of the calcium is inhere...

Testing Function Block Diagram (FBD) programs for safety-critical software components is of significant importance. Their failure or malfunction may result in a serious outcome and may cause severe damage. Consequently, a certain degree of certification is required to guarantee that the provided test cases cover the logical structure of the safety-critical software components. In practise, test...

The use of a single broad-spectrum human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA-based PCR test may fail to detect lower concentrations of HPV DNA due to competition between different genotypes in mixed infections. To improve HPV detection by PCR, broad-spectrum and type-specific (TS) PCRs were combined, with a focus on HPV-16 and HPV-18. Cervical and cervicovaginal cell samples were obtained from 1,113 healt...

The urea cycle functions to incorporate ammonia, generated by normal metabolism, into urea. Urea cycle disorders (UCDs) are caused by loss of function in any of the enzymes responsible for ureagenesis, and are characterized by life-threatening episodes of acute metabolic decompensation with hyperammonemia (HA). A prospective analysis of interim HA events in a cohort of individuals with ornithin...

The composite flour was produced with wheat flour, sweet potato chick pea and soybean (WF:SPF:CPF:SF) in the proportions of 100:0:0:0 (control), 0:100:0:0 (100% SPF), 70:10:10:10 (10% 60:20:10:10 (20% 50:30:10:10 (30% 40:40:10:10 (40% 30:50:10:10 (50% 20:60:10:10 (60% 10:70:10:10 (70% SPF). addition SPF blends leads to elevation fiber, ash, minerals, bioactive components. Protein content increa...

Superplastic forming (SPF) is introduced in this article as a net-shape processing method for bulk metallic glasses (BMGs), commercially known as Liquidmetal® alloys. This method decouples fast cooling and forming of the BMG. Forming takes place in the supercooled liquid region, where the BMG exists as a highly viscous liquid and increases its fl uidity with increasing temperature. The SPF meth...

Existing process mining techniques provide summary views of the overall process performance over a period of time, allowing analysts to identify bottlenecks and associated performance issues. However, these tools are not designed to help analysts understand how bottlenecks form and dissolve over time nor how the formation and dissolution of bottlenecks – and associated fluctuations in demand an...

In this paper, we report our experimental study on directly coupling a micro/nano fiber (MNOF) ring with a side-polished fiber(SPF). As a result of the study, the behavior of an add-drop filter was observed. The demonstrated add-drop filter explored the wavelength dependence of light coupling between a MNOF ring and a SPF. The characteristics of the filter and its performance dependence on the ...