Journal articles on the topic 'ASME SFA 5.17'

Este trabalho objetivou o estudo comparativo das características do cordão produzido por arames tubulares nacionais dos tipos rutílico (ASME SFA-5.20: E71T-1/E71T-9/E71T-9M), básico (ASME SFA-5.20: E71T-5/E71T-5M) e "metal cored" (ASME SFA-5.18: E70C3M) com 1,2 mm, destinados à soldagem de aços estruturais de baixo e médio teor de carbono. Realizaram-se testes de soldagem, na posição plana, sobre chapas grossas (espessura de 12 mm) de aço carbono comum de baixo carbono utilizando-se uma fonte operando no modo "tensão constante" e com monitoração dos sinais de corrente e tensão do arco e velocidade de alimentação (fusão) do arame. Variaram-se, na soldagem com cada tipo de arame tubular, a composição do gás de proteção (75%Ar-25%CO2 e 100%CO2) e a velocidade de alimentação do arame (7 e 9 m/min). Os demais parâmetros foram mantidos fixos, incluindo-se a polaridade do eletrodo (CC+) e os comprimentos energizado do eletrodo (16 mm) e do arco (3,5 mm). Para os diferentes arames tubulares, avaliaram-se comparativamente as principais características do cordão, incluindo a sua geometria (penetração, reforço, largura, área fundida, área depositada e diluição), presença de descontinuidades, microestrutura e dureza. Levantaram-se as condições operacionais associadas a um cordão com características adequadas à soldagem de chapas grossas de aços estruturais.

Este trabalho objetivou o estudo comparativo das características do cordão produzido por arames tubulares nacionais dos tipos rutílico (ASME SFA-5.20: E71T-1/E71T-9/E71T-9M), básico (ASME SFA-5.20: E71T-5/E71T-5M) e "metal cored" (ASME SFA-5.18: E70C-3M) com 1,2 mm, destinados à soldagem de aços estruturais de baixo e médio teor de carbono. Realizaram-se testes de soldagem com o eletrodo na polaridade negativa (CC-), na posição plana, sobre chapas grossas (espessura de 12 mm) de aço carbono comum de baixo carbono utilizando-se uma fonte operando no modo "tensão constante" e com monitoração dos sinais de corrente e tensão do arco e velocidade de alimentação (fusão) do arame. Variaram-se, na soldagem com cada tipo de arame tubular, a composição do gás de proteção (75%Ar-25%CO2 e 100%CO2) e a velocidade de alimentação do arame (7 e 9 m/min). Os demais parâmetros foram mantidos fixos, incluindo-se, além da polaridade negativa do eletrodo, os comprimentos energizado do eletrodo (16 mm) e do arco (3,5 mm). Para os diferentes arames tubulares, avaliaram-se comparativamente as principais características do cordão, incluindo a sua geometria (penetração, reforço, largura, área fundida, área depositada e diluição), presença de descontinuidades, microestrutura e dureza. Levantaram-se as condições operacionais associadas a um cordão com características adequadas à soldagem de chapas grossas de aços estruturais com a polaridade do eletrodo negativa.

AbstractRecommendations limiting the intake of total fat, SFA, MUFA and PUFA have been established in several countries with the aim of reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as CVD. Studies have shown that intakes of total fat and SFA are above desired recommended intake levels across a wide range of age and sex groups. In addition, intakes of PUFA and MUFA are often reported to be less than the desired recommended intake levels. The aims of the present paper are to provide the first data on estimates of current intakes and main food sources of SFA, MUFA and PUFA in Irish children (aged 5–12 years), teenagers (aged 13–17 years) and adults (aged 18–64 years) and to analyse compliance with current dietary recommendations. Data for this analysis were based on the North/South Ireland Food Consumption Survey (n1379, 18–64 years), the National Children’s Food Survey (n594, 5–12 years) and the National Teen Food Survey (n441, 13–17 years). Results showed that SFA intakes in Irish children, teenagers and adults are high, with only 6 % of children, 11 % of teenagers and 21 % of adults in compliance with the recommended daily intake. The main food groups that contributed to SFA intakes were whole milk; fresh meat; meat products; biscuits, cakes, buns and pastries; and sugars, confectionery and preserves.

The extent and duration of postprandial lipaemia have been linked to risk of CHD but the influence of dietary variables on, and the relative contributions of, exogenous (chylomicron) and endogenous (VLDL) triacylglycerols to the total lipaemic response have not been comprehensively evaluated. In the present study the triacylglycerol, apolipoprotein (apo) B-48 and retinyl ester (RE) responses to three test meals of varying monounsaturated (MUFA) and saturated fatty acid (SFA) content were measured in the triacylglycerol-rich lipoprotein (TRL) fraction of plasma (ρ = 1·006 g/ml) for 9 h after meal consumption. Fifteen healthy normolipidaemic young men consumed, on separate occasions, three test meals which were identical apart from their MUFA and SFA contents. Expressed as a percentage of total energy the MUFA/SFA contents of the meals were: (1) 12 %/17 %; (2) 17 %/12 % and (3) 24 %/5 %. The contribution of the intestinally-derived lipoproteins (chylomicrons) to the lipaemic response was investigated by determining the time to reach peak concentration and the total and incremental areas under the time response curves (AUC and incremental AUC) for RE, apoB-48 and triacylglycerol in the TRL fraction. No significant differences in these measurements were observed for the three meals. However, visual comparison of the postprandial responses to the three meals suggested that as meal MUFA content increased there was a tendency for the triacylglycerol, apoB-48 and RE responses to become biphasic as opposed to the typical monophasic response seen with the 12 % MUFA/17 % SFA meal. Comparison of the apoB-48 and RE responses for the three test meals confirmed other workers’ findings of delayed entry of RE relative to apoB-48 in TRL. The value of the two markers in investigating dietary fat absorption and metabolism is discussed.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of different types of high-fat diets (HFDs) on the proteomic profile of mouse liver. The analysis included four dietary groups of mice fed a standard diet (STD group), a high-fat diet rich in SFAs (SFA group), and high-fat diets dominated by PUFAs with linoleic acid (LA, C18:2n–6) to α-linolenic acid (ALA, C18:3n–3) ratios of 14:1 (14:1 group) and 5:1 (5:1 group). After three months of diets, liver proteins were resolved by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) using 17 cm non-linear 3–10 pH gradient strips. Protein spots with different expression were identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF. The expression of 13 liver proteins was changed in the SFA group compared to the STD group (↓: ALB, APOA1, IVD, MAT1A, OAT and PHB; ↑: ALDH1L1, UniProtKB—Q91V76, GALK1, GPD1, HMGCS2, KHK and TKFC). Eleven proteins with altered expression were recorded in the 14:1 group compared to the SFA group (↓: ARG1, FTL1, GPD1, HGD, HMGCS2 and MAT1A; ↑: APOA1, CA3, GLO1, HDHD3 and IVD). The expression of 11 proteins was altered in the 5:1 group compared to the SFA group (↓: ATP5F1B, FTL1, GALK1, HGD, HSPA9, HSPD1, PC and TKFC; ↑: ACAT2, CA3 and GSTP1). High-PUFA diets significantly affected the expression of proteins involved in, e.g., carbohydrate metabolism, and had varying effects on plasma total cholesterol and glucose levels. The outcomes of this study revealed crucial liver proteins affected by different high-fat diets.

Dietary fatty acids (FA) play a role in several (patho)physiological processes at any age, and different FA have different effects on lipid status and health outcome. The present study aims to describe the FA intake and its main food sources in a population of healthy European adolescents and to assess the variation in intake as a function of non-dietary factors. FA intake was assessed with 24 h recall interviews in 1804 adolescents aged 12·5–17·5 years. Usual intakes were calculated using the multiple source method. Multilevel analyses, adjusting for study centre, were used to investigate the influence of non-dietary factors. The mean total fat intake was 33·3 (sd 1·2) % of total energy intake (%E). The mean SFA intake was 13·8 (sd 1·2) %E, with 99·8 % of the population exceeding the recommendations. SFA was mainly delivered by meat and cake, pies and biscuits. In most adolescents, the PUFA intake was too low, and 35·5 % of the population did not achieve the minimum recommended intake for α-linolenic acid (ALA). The main determinants of FA intake in the present study population were age and sex, as well as physical activity in the male subgroup. No contributions of body composition, socio-economic status or sexual maturation to the variance in FA intake were observed. In conclusion, the most important public health concerns regarding FA intake in this adolescent population were the low intake of ALA and the high intake of SFA, mainly seen in the younger-aged boys. In this group the major contributor to SFA was meat.

Introduction For access-challenged patients with bilateral upper extremity central venous stenosis, solutions include the Hemodialysis Reliable Outflow (HeRO) device or an autogenous AV fistula in the lower limb. We evaluated HeRO grafts and transpositions of the femoral vein in maintaining primary and secondary patency. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 40 patients with a HeRO device and 18 patients with superficial femoral artery to transposed femoral vein autogenous arteriovenous fistula (SFA-tFV). All patients had bilateral central venous obstruction. All procedures were outpatient performed by a single surgeon at one center between 2009-2015. Operative details, intraoperative flows, and flows at the first-week postoperative visit were analyzed, as were primary and secondary patency and intervention rates. Complications were compared between groups. Results The one-year cumulative primary patency was 30% for HeRO grafts and 79% for SFA-tFV fistulas (p = 0.0001); secondary patency was 71% for HeRO grafts and 93% for SFA-tFV fistulas (p = 0.03). To maintain patency, HeRO patients required a mean 2.1 interventions per year and thigh fistula patients required a mean 0.4 interventions per year. Thirty-seven percent of thigh fistula patients had a hematoma or seroma versus 5% of HeRO patients and 17% of thigh fistula patients experienced delayed wound healing versus 2.5% of HeRO patients (p<0.05). None of the thigh fistula patients had distal ischemia. Conclusions HeRO patients had lower primary and secondary patency rates versus thigh fistula patients and HeRO grafts required five-fold more interventions to maintain secondary patency. However, patients with thigh fistulas had significantly more wound healing problems. Thus, the SFA-tFV has become our access of choice for patients with bilateral central venous stenosis.

Abstract In the past, before immunological tests for celiac disease became available, many authors advocated the use of red cell folate (RFA) as a screening test for celiac disease. That is, if the red cell folate were normal, then celiac disease was considered very unlikely. Low red cell folate was found in all 24 cases of celiac disease reported by Hoffbrand et al (J Clin Pathol1966;19:17–28). Since Patients with celiac disease and tropical sprue absorb the folic acid used in the fortification of grain products much better than folate polyglutamates present in food, I decided to investigate whether serum or red cell folate is still useful for screening malabsorption syndrome. Methods: Serum folate (SFA) and red cell folate at St. Boniface General Hospital (SBGH) were determined by L. Casei microbilogical assay. During the 30-month period of July 1,1999 – Dec 31, 2001, the search of Laboratory Information System (LIS) at SBGH, revealed 29 patients with strong laboratory evidence of celiac disease (strongly positive gliadin antibody with positive endomysial and or t-transglutaminase antibodies) who also had SFA or RFA results. LIS was searched for the results of complete blood count (CBC), SFA, RFA, serum ferritin (SFer) and serum B12 (SB12). Results: Five out of 29 patients (17.2%) with laboratory evidence of celiac disease had low SFA. Of these 5 patients with low SFA, 4 also had RFA. Only one of these 4 with low SFA had a low RFA. Eleven of the 29 patients also had RFA and only 2 of these 11 (18%) had low RFA. One of the two with low RFA had a normal SFA; and the other had a low SFA, a low SB12 and a low SFer. Twelve of 29 (41.3%) with celiac disease had low SFer and 6 of 29 (20.6%) had low SB12. Four out of 29 (13.8%) had high mean corpuscular volume (MCV)(&gt; 98 fL). All of the four with high MCV had normal RFA, but had low SB12, indicating that macrocytosis in these 4 cases was due to B12 deficiency. Ten out of 12 with low serum ferritin had low MCV (&lt;80 fL). Discussion: The mandated fortification of grain products in USA and Canada (0.14 mg of folic acid per 100 g of grain) was estimated to add about 0.1 mg of folic acid to the daily folate intake of the average adult. However, some studies have shown that the actual increase in daily folate intake, through folic acid fortification, is about 0.2 mg (J Nutr2002;132:2792–8 and Am J Clin Nutr2003;77:221–5). Patients with celiac disease or tropical sprue can absorb this folic acid much better than the folate polyglutamates present in food. Sheehy et al (Blood1961;18:623–36) have demonstrated that many patients with tropical sprue who had developed folate deficiency megaloblastic anemia, despite consuming more than 1 mg of food folates daily, responded to as little as 0.025 mg of folic acid daily. It is for this reason than most of our celiac patients had normal serum folate but were either iron deficient or B12 deficient. In the past, B12 deficiency was considered to be uncommon in untreated adults with celiac disease. Conclusion: As the result of fortification of grain products with folic acid, red cell folate is no longer a useful test as a screening test for malabsorption syndrome. Now, as our data demonstrate, B12 deficiency is more common than folate deficiency in adults with untreated celiac disease. A patient with celiac disease and macrocytic anemia is more likely to be B12 deficient than folate deficient.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) inoculation, which was administered to increase the quality of einkorn wheat in its fatty acid composition, quality and mineral concentration. Wheat grown from AM inoculated seed (AM+) had increased the dry matter (DM), iron (Fe), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), especially oleic acid, and alpha-linolenic acid, and cis-5,-8,-11,-14, and cis-17 eicosapentaenoic acid from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (P <0.05), but decreased crude ash (CA), potassium (K), and total saturated fatty acids (UFA), especially myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and monounsaturated fatty acids, especially cis-palmitoleic acid, cis-10-heptadecenoic acid, cis-11 eicosenoic acid, erucic acid, and linoleic acid (P <0.05) compared with einkorn wheat grown from non-inoculated seed (AM-). Crude protein (CP) content ranged from 10.56% to 10.68%, and ether extract (EE) content varied between 2.03% and 2.41%, neither of which was significantly different between treatments. Significant increases were observed in UFA, and in the ratios of UFA to SFA and PUFA to SFA in AM+ compared with AM-. Keywords: mycorrhizal inoculation, nutrient composition, Triticum monococcum

Abstract Abstract 3449 Gonadal dysfunction with the absence of sperm production leading to definitive infertility is a common long-term non-malignant effect after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Total body irradiation (TBI) used as part of the conditioning regimen plays a central role in posttransplantation infertility. Younger age at HSCT and longer time interval since HSCT has been associated with spermatogenesis recovery. However, larger and more diverse cohorts of patients are needed to better define sperm recovery after allogeneic HSCT. Therefore, we assessed the chances of sperm recovery after HSCT in a large retrospective multicenter study of male survivors and evaluated factors associated with infertility. Male patients with at least one seminal fluid analysis (SFA) performed after HSCT, and in complete remission were included in this analysis. Ninety EBMT centers were asked to participate; 23 reported having data on SFA, and 15 centers finally contributed reporting a total of 247 patients; 226 out of them were treated with allogeneic HSCT; they compose the population evaluated in the present study. 196 (87%) patients were transplanted for a malignant hematological disease and 155 (63%) of them were transplanted before the year 2000. The median age at HSCT and the age at time of last SFA was 24 (2-59) and 31 (5-64) years, respectively. The median time interval between HSCT and last SFA analysis was 63 months (8 - 275). 145 (65%) patients received TBI with a median dose of 12 Gy (7.5-14.4) as part of the conditioning; 46 (21%) patients received a Busulfan-containing regimen and 31 (14%) were conditioned without TBI and without Busulfan. 193 (86%) patients had a matched sibling donor and 171 (76%) received bone marrow as a source of stem cells. During the follow-up 140 recipients (64%) presented acute GvHD, 133 (63%) chronic GvHD (cGvHD); 29 (23%) of them had ongoing cGvHD at time of SFA and 24 (17%) were still on immunosuppression. Any presence of spermatozoa in SFA was considered as recovery of spermatogenesis. Spermatozoa were detected in 68/218 (31%) patients: 22 (10%) normozoospermia (≥20×10e6/ml); 14 (6%) oligozoospermia (5-20 ×10e6/ml); 28 (13%) severe oligozoospermia (<5 ×10e6/ml); 4 (2%) crypospermia (detected by microscopy observation only). In univariate analysis, conditioning with TBI (p< 0.0001), age > 25 at HSCT (p=0.013), < 8 years follow-up after HSCT (p=0.011), ongoing cGvHD (p< 0.001) as well as immunosuppression at time of SFA (p=0.006) were associated with azoospermia. In the multivariate analysis, age at HSCT was no longer significant (Figure 1). Since TBI was the strongest risk factor, we further evaluated separately patients conditioned with or without TBI: within the TBI group of patients, the most significant adverse factors for spermatogenesis recovery were age > 25 at HSCT and follow-up < 8 years (Figure 2); cGvHD was not related with azoospermia (p=0.102). In contrast, for patients conditioned without TBI, ongoing cGvHD was the most harmful factor for spermatogenesis recovery (p<0.0001); age at HSCT and time interval until SFA did not longer play a role (Figure 2). In conclusion, this is the largest cohort of male survivors where spermatogenesis after allogeneic HSCT has been evaluated. TBI is the most relevant adverse risk factor for sperm production. Factors such age at HSCT and time of follow-up after HSCT might be established as risk factors for patients conditioned with TBI. In patients not conditioned with TBI, even when they are conditioned with Busulfan containing regimen, ongoing chronic GVHD is the main adverse factor for sperm recovery. In this last group, age at HSCT and follow-up time did not show significant influence. Hence, for the first time evidence for graft versus testis effect can be demonstrated as the most relevant adverse factor for sperm recovery in patients conditioned without TBI. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract The relationships between circulating prolactin (PRL), wool follicle growth and daylength were investigated in 24 New Zealand Wiltshire ewes housed indoors from September 1989 to May 1991. Twelve control (C) ewes were maintained under natural photoperiod. Two other groups were held in short days (SD; 8 h light:16 h darkness) commencing from the winter solstice (22 June 1990) for either three (group SD3, n=7) or six (group SD6, n=5) months before reversion to natural daylength. Skin was sampled at one- to four-week intervals for histological determination of percentages of growing primary and secondary follicles. Hourly blood samples over 24 h were collected via jugular cannulae from C sheep in March and July and then monthly from all animals until December 1990 for estimation of mean monthly PRL concentrations for each treatment group. Between autumn (March 1990) and winter (July) primary follicle activity (PFA) and secondary follicle activity (SFA) declined in C ewes (PFA: 97 to 43%, SFA: 100 to 57%). Follicle regrowth during July and August in eight C ewes preceded the initial rise in plasma PRL from the winter minimum (1·6 ng/ml). Across the three groups, four instances of decreased follicle activity were observed, closely following or concurrent with increases in plasma PRL concentrations. The resumption of spring growth in four C sheep was temporarily checked by falls in follicle activities during September and October as PRL concentrations began to increase (3·4 to 8·9 ng/ml). Follicle activity also declined in November and December in eight C sheep, coincident with the rapid rise in PRL to a seasonal maximum in late November (165·4 ng/ml). The increase in SD3 follicle activity over spring was not delayed by short days but during October, after release from treatment, PRL concentrations rose (1·8 to 12·0 ng/ml) and follicle activity declined (PFA: 65 to 38%, SFA: 68 to 43%). In SD6 ewes, PRL concentrations were suppressed (2·1 ng/ml) and relatively constant levels of follicle activity (PFA: 73%, SFA: 95%) were maintained throughout short-day treatment. Release of SD6 ewes into summer photoperiod in January 1991 temporarily interrupted follicle growth (PFA: 68 to 17%, SFA: 96 to 19%) and caused out-ofseason shedding in March and April. Contemporary C follicle activities were high (PFA: 95%, SFA: 98%). These data suggest that natural and experimental increases in daylength have a short-term inhibitory effect on growing wool follicles which could be mediated through rising concentrations of plasma prolactin. Journal of Endocrinology (1996) 148, 157–166

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate trends in total fat and fatty acid intakes and chronic health conditions among Korean adults over nine years between 2007 and 2015.DesignCross-sectional, observational study using a stratified, multistage probability sampling design at a national level. Intakes of total fat and fatty acids were estimated from 24 h dietary recalls by sex and age groups. Trends of total fat and fatty acid intakes were determined by multiple linear regression after adjusting for covariates. Trends in age-standardized prevalence of obesity, hypercholesterolaemia and hypertriacylglycerolaemia were examined by sex.SettingKorea.ParticipantsPopulation data of 47749 healthy adults (aged ≥19 years) derived from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2007 and 2015.ResultsOver the survey period, daily intakes of energy and total, saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, n-3 and n-6 fats (grams and percentage of energy (%E)) increased steadily. In all sex and age groups, significant increases were seen in SFA intake from 9·9 g (4·7 %E) to 12·0 g (5·3 %E) and in MUFA intake from 9·9 g (4·6 %E) to 13·3 g (5·8 %E). The prevalence of hypercholesterolaemia increased from 10·7 to 17·9 % over the same period.ConclusionsIn Korean adults, total fat, SFA and other fatty acids have been increasing along with the prevalence of hypercholesterolaemia. This information can help set adequate macronutrient and fatty acid distribution ranges in developing population-specific preventive strategies against diet-related illness.

Abstract Background Obesity has previously been correlated with poorer survival in both early and metastatic breast cancer. Adipose tissues release proangiogenic factors such as Insulin-like Growth Factor and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor that may ultimately promote tumor growth. CTscan can be used to measure the visceral fat area (VFA) and the subcutaneous fat area (SFA) on the same section. High VFA has been shown to independently predict poorer outcome in patients given first-line bevacizumab-based treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer and metastatic renal cell carcinoma. The prospective multicenter COMET trial included metastatic HER2 negative breast cancer patients receiving bevacizumab and paclitaxel as fist-line chemotherapy. This study was designed to identify and validate reliable factors to predict benefit of bevacizumab and allow for a more personalized use of this antiangiogenic agent. Our aim was to evaluate the prognostic value of BMI (Body Mass Index), VFA and SFA in the COMET cohort and their impact on the quality of life. Patients and Methods Out of the 510 patients included in the COMET trial from 9/2012 to 3/2016, 480 received bevacizumab and paclitaxel as first-line treatment and 360 had available CTscan data. VFA and SFA were measured retrospectively on the CTscans performed before chemotherapy initiation, at the level of the umbilicus with the patient in the supine position. ImageJ software was used to measure pixels with densities in the -190 HU to -30 HU range in order to delineate the subcutaneous and visceral compartments and to compute the cross-sectional area of each in cm2. These measurements were performed by a radiologist blinded to patients’ characteristics and outcomes. For VFA and SFA, we used a threshold at the median value. VFA and SFA levels were tested for their association with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The impact on quality of life was based on the Global Health Status, the Physical functioning, the Emotional functioning, Fatigue and Pain scores. Results The mean age at inclusion was 57 years (range: 28-83). At initial diagnosis, the main histological type was invasive ductal carcinoma (n = 247, 80.7%). Most patients had received prior neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 245, 68.1%) and a large majority (95.4%) had less than 3 metastatic sites. One hundred and forty patients (46.7%) had histological grade II and 41% had grade III tumors. The majority of the patients had positive hormone receptor tumor (n = 238, 79.3 %) and 62 (20.7%) had triple-negative tumor subtype. The median BMI was 24.7 (range : 17-46). After a median follow-up of 60.6 months (95%CI, 60-61.3), median PFS was 9.5 months (95CI, 8.6-10.3). There was no significant correlation between BMI (p = 0.69), VFA (p = 0.24) or SFA (p = 0.58) and PFS in the univariate analysis. The median OS was 29.6 months (95CI, 25.9-32.4). BMI, VFA and SFA were not correlated with OS. Out of the 360 patients, 328 had available data regarding the quality of life. There was no impact of the VFA or the SFA on the different quality of life scores. Conclusions In our prospective cohort of 360 patients with metastatic breast cancer receiving bevacizumab and paclitaxel as first-line treatment, high VFA or high SFA were not associated with a poorer survival. VFA and SFA had no impact on quality of life. Citation Format: Séverine Guiu, Boris Guiu, Marion Chevrier, Oumar Billa, Christelle Levy, Olivier Trédan, Isabelle Desmoulins, Marc Debled, Jean-Marc Ferrero, Christelle Jouannaud, Anthony Gonçalves, Maria Rios, Marie-Ange Mouret-Reynier, Frédérique Berger, Fatima-Zohra TOUMI, Jérôme Lemonnier, Jean-Yves Pierga, Sandrine Dabakuyo, Sophie Gourgou. Visceral fat area as a predictive factor in metastatic HER2 negative breast cancer patients treated by first line chemotherapy with weekly paclitaxel and bevacizumab [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P1-03-04.

Controlled human intervention trials are required to confirm the hypothesis that dietary fat quality may influence insulin action. The aim was to develop a food-exchange model, suitable for use in free-living volunteers, to investigate the effects of four experimental diets distinct in fat quantity and quality: high SFA (HSFA); high MUFA (HMUFA) and two low-fat (LF) diets, one supplemented with 1·24 g EPA and DHA/d (LFn-3). A theoretical food-exchange model was developed. The average quantity of exchangeable fat was calculated as the sum of fat provided by added fats (spreads and oils), milk, cheese, biscuits, cakes, buns and pastries using data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey of UK adults. Most of the exchangeable fat was replaced by specifically designed study foods. Also critical to the model was the use of carbohydrate exchanges to ensure the diets were isoenergetic. Volunteers from eight centres across Europe completed the dietary intervention. Results indicated that compositional targets were largely achieved with significant differences in fat quantity between the high-fat diets (39·9 (sem0·6) and 38·9 (sem0·51) percentage energy (%E) from fat for the HSFA and HMUFA diets respectively) and the low-fat diets (29·6 (sem0·6) and 29·1 (sem0·5) %E from fat for the LF and LFn-3 diets respectively) and fat quality (17·5 (sem0·3) and 10·4 (sem0·2) %E from SFA and 12·7 (sem0·3) and 18·7 (sem0·4) %E MUFA for the HSFA and HMUFA diets respectively). In conclusion, a robust, flexible food-exchange model was developed and implemented successfully in the LIPGENE dietary intervention trial.

AbstractObjectiveTo propose and apply an instrument to assess the breakfast quality of children and adolescents in the Mediterranean area.DesignRandomized, cross-sectional survey of breakfast consumption using a validated semi-quantitative FFQ administered at school by trained dietitians between Tuesday and Friday. A Breakfast Quality Index (BQI) score was developed, assigning a positive value to the consumption of cereals, fruit, vegetables, dairy products, MUFA, Ca and compliance with energy recommendations, and to the absence of SFA and trans-rich fats. Data were analysed by Student's t test and ANOVA.SettingSchools in Granada and Balearic Islands (Spain).SubjectsAll schoolchildren (n 4332) aged 8–17 years at randomly selected and representative schools between 2006 and 2008, stratified by age and sex.ResultsBreakfast was not consumed by 6·5 % of participants. BQI score was highest for children aged 7–9 years and decreased with age (P = 0·001). Females scored higher in all age groups. The lowest score was in males aged 14–17 years and the highest in females aged 7–9 years (P = 0·006).ConclusionsThe proposed BQI appears useful to estimate the breakfast quality of schoolchildren and to form a basis for nutrition education.

Chicken meat from intensive broiler production have different quality compared with meat from native chicken breeds and chicken from a free range production system. The aim of the present study was to evaluate differences in fatty acids content of meat of Naked Neck chickens rared in free range system and two commercial broiler breeds (Cobb 308 and Hybro G+) reared in conventional production system. The trial involved 100 chickens per group. Fattening period lasted 42 days for conventional system and 84 days for free range system. Breast meat of Naked Neck chicken had statistically more 16:0 content compared with Cobb 308 (p?0.05), where in thigh meat the highest content of 16:0 was determined in Hybro G+ breed. Differences for fatty acids composition of breast meat between breeds were also established for 14:0, 17:0, 18:0, 16:1, 18:1, 18:2, 20:2, 22:1 and 22:5 fatty acid. The Naked Neck group showed the highest (p?0.05) percentage of SFA and the Cobb 308 showed the lowest in breast meat. Thigh SFA were also significantly different (p?0.05) between breeds, where Naked Neck chickens had the lowest and Hybro G+ the highest values. Breast MUFA were higher in Hybro G+ than in Naked Neck or Cobb 308 chickens, and thigh MUFA content had opposite trend and it was the lowest in Hybro G+ chicken. In conclusion, free ranged Naked Neck chickens have been shown to have significant different fatty acid composition compared with broiler chickens reared in conventional system.

The contents of protein (P), fat (F), a F:P ratio, and content of individual fatty acids (FA) and groups of FA, including ratio of SFA:UFA (saturated FA-to-unsaturated FA) and MUFA:PUFA (ratio monounsaturated FA-to-polyunsaturated FA) in milk during the first 17 weeks of lactation with respect to the development of NEB demonstrated by the change in cows’ body condition. The differences in fat content were more pronounced than those in protein content. The resulting changes of the fat-to-protein ratio over time are associated with adipose tissue mobilization due to NEB, which was also confirmed by the changes in the BCS during the experimental period. The results indicate the possibility of using both fat content and fat-to-protein ratio as indicators of NEB in early lactation cows. The highest concentrations of saturated FA (SFA) were observed for C14:0, C16:0, C18:0, and also for the SFA with low carbon numbers. The highest concentrations of unsaturated FA (UFA) were determined for C18:1, C18:2, and C16:1. The significant difference in SFA:UFA between cows with decreasing of the BCS and cows without big change in the BCS after calving were not found. The changes in MUFA:PUFA in milk during the first 5 weeks of lactation differed between the cows with low and high decrease of BCS one month after calving. In cows with a greater NEB effect was observed ratio of PUFA:MUFA in milk with a value above 6.5. The results suggest the possibility of using MUFA:PUFA ratios as suitable indicators of NEB in cows after calving.

Increased rates of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) are involved in almost all cancer types, associated with tumor development and progression, causing damage to biomolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids and membrane lipids, in different biological compartments. We used a human tumor xenograft mouse model to evaluate for the first time in parallel the remodeling of fatty acid moieties in erythrocyte membrane phospholipids and the level of ROS-induced DNA lesions in liver and kidney tissues. Using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry the 5’R and 5’S diastereoisomers of 5’,8-cyclo-2’-deoxyadenosine and 5’,8-cyclo-2’-deoxyguanosine, together with 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2’-deoxyadenosine, were determined in mice at young (4- and 5-weeks) and old (17-weeks) ages and compared with control SCID mice without tumor implantation. Tumor-bearing mice showed a higher level of ROS-damaged nucleosides in genomic DNA as the age and tumor progress, compared to controls (1.07–1.53-fold in liver and 1.1–1.4-fold in kidney, respectively). The parallel fatty acid profile of erythrocyte membranes showed a profound lipid remodeling during tumor and age progression consisting of PUFA consumption and SFA enrichment (ca 28% and 58%, respectively, in late stage tumor-bearing mice), markers of enhanced oxidative and proliferative processes, respectively. Membrane lipid remodeling and ROS-induced DNA lesions may be combined to afford an integrated scenario of cancer progression and ageing, reinforcing a holistic vision among molecular markers rather than the biomarker identification in a single compartment.

AbstractStreet food is part of the culture in central Asia. Although nourishing food can be found, unhealthier options are becoming increasingly popular – a marker of nutrition transition. The nutritional composition of street food in urban settings is, however, unknown. The objective of the present study was, thus, to characterise the street food availability in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. A total of 800 street food vending sites in public markets were selected through random and systematic procedures. Trained interviewers collected data on vending sites’ characteristics, location and food available. Samples of the most commonly available food were collected (ninety-nine homemade and thirty-five industrial). Macronutrients were quantified through proximate analysis. Fruit, drinks and food other than fruits were available, respectively, in 4·5, 40·5 and 87·4 %, of the vending sites. Among the latter, 63·6 % sold only homemade (e.g. bread, traditional dishes, snacks, pastries, sandwiches and cakes), 19·3 % only industrial (e.g. bread, snacks, pastries and cookies) and 17·1 % both types of food. Homemade food presented higher energy per serving compared with industrial food (median 452 v. 276 kcal/serving (1891 v. 1155 kJ/serving); P < 0·001). A high content of SFA (soup: 10·9 g/serving) and trans-fatty acids (cakes: 1·8 g/serving) was also found in homemade food. However, industrial wafers showed the highest content of these fatty acids (12·9 g/serving and 2·5 g/serving, respectively). Soft drinks were available in 68·5 % of the vending sites selling beverages. Homemade and industrial street food, with heterogeneous nutritional value, were widely available in Dushanbe. Hence, policies promoting the availability of healthy food should be encouraged.

AbstractObjectiveAn adequate nutritional intake in childhood and adolescence is crucial for growth and the prevention of youth and adult obesity and nutrition-related morbidities. Improving nutrient intake in children and adolescents is of public health importance. The purpose of the present study was to describe and evaluate the nutrient intake in a European sample using the D-A-CH nutrient intake recommendations and the Nutritional Quality Index (NQI).DesignThe HELENA (Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence) Study is a cross-sectional study, the main objective of which is to obtain comparable data on a variety of nutritional and health-related parameters in adolescents aged 12·5–17·5 years.SettingEight cities in Europe.SubjectsThe initial sample consisted of 3528 European adolescents. Among these, 1590 adolescents (54 % female) had sufficient and plausible dietary data on energy and nutrient intakes from two 24 h recalls using the HELENA-DIAT software.ResultsThe intakes of most macronutrients, vitamins and minerals were in line with the D-A-CH recommendations. While the intakes of SFA and salt were too high, the intake of PUFA was too low. Furthermore, the intakes of vitamin D, folate, iodine and F were less than about 55 % of the recommendations. The median NQI was about 71 (of a maximum of 100).ConclusionsThe intakes of most nutrients were adequate. However, further studies using suitable criteria to assess nutrient status are needed. Public health initiatives should educate children and adolescents regarding balanced food choices.

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of increasing levels of propolis addition as a feed additive in seabream (Sparus aurata) diets on the hematological parameters and the fish fatty acids profile. Seabream with an average weight of 12.04 ± 0.01 g were fed 0 (control), by 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 20 g/kg (abbreviated with P1.25; P2.5; P5; P10 and P20 respectively) propolis supplemented diets for 10 weeks. The experiment was conducted in three replications by adding 50 fish to 18 polyester tanks of 400 L. The trial groups were fed twice daily (09:00 and 17:00) by hand to satiation with feed containing 45% protein and 17% lipid. Although the propolis supplementation had no effect on seabream saturated fatty acids (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) contents increased significantly after the addition of 10 g/kg propolis. Therefore, the addition of the propolis to feeds significantly affected the total fatty acid composition of fish (p <0.05). As a result, the propolis supplement improved the quality of seabream fatty acid composition. At the end of the experiment, hematological parameters such as RBC (erythrocyte count in red blood cells), HGB (hemoglobin count in blood) and HCT (erythrocyte and hemoglobin count in blood) in blood samples taken from fish were found to be higher in P20 group than the other groups. There was no significant difference between the experimental groups (p > 0.05). The addition of the propolis to their feed did not have any effect on the hematological parameters of seabream. The results obtained showed that the propolis has the potential to use in seabream feeds.

Abstract Background Altered body composition may negatively impact on the clinical outcome and quality of life of patients with IBD. Sarcopenia, defined as a progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, is commonly observed in patients with IBD and can be reliably assessed by computed tomography (CT) which allows accurate and reproducibile quantification of both abdominal adipose tissues (subcutaneous and visceral), as well as skeletal muscles. We aimed to assess the prevalence of sarcopenia in Crohn’s disease (CD) patients undergoing contrast-enhanced CT(CECT). We further investigated the associations of sarcopenia with visceral fat parameters, disease severity and surgery Methods 40 CD patients (22F, aged 44±16 yrs; BMI 20.8±3.7) who underwent CECT for clinical assessment were retrospectively enrolled. CECT was performed using a 64-rows multi-detector equipment after i.v. injection of non ionic iodinated contrast media with a tailored scan delay. Demographic and clinical data were collected at the date of abdominal CT. Clinical outcome included the rate of surgery within one year. The skeletal muscle index (SMI) at the level of third lumbar vertebra was used to assess sarcopenia defined as a SMI&lt;38.5cm2/m2 in women and &lt;42cm2/m2 in men (Fig1).Clinical malnutrition was defined by a BMI&lt;18.5 kg/m2, while visceral obesity as a visceral fat area ≥130cm2 Results Mean duration of disease was 117 months ± 84. Most patients 60% had a moderate-severe clinical activity based on Harvey Bradshaw index (HBI) &gt;8, whereas 35% had a mild activity (HBI 5–7) and 5% were in remission (HBI&lt;5). Overall, 17(42.5%) patients were sarcopenic. In detail, 14 out of 22 (63.6%) females and only 3 out of 18 (16.6%) males (p=0.04). The majority (65%) had moderate activity of inflammation with a mean of HBI 9.2 ± 1.6. Malnutrition occurred in 41,2% sarcopenic patients with a mean BMI of 16.5±3.75. A significant correlation was observed between BMI and sarcopenia (r=0.4,p&lt;0.001). A total of 25 (62.5%) patients underwent surgery within one year. Among them, 40% patients were sarcopenic, while 60% non sarcopenic (p=0.7). In the total population the mean of visceral fat was 48,03±58.04 and only 4 patients had a visceral fat area ≥104 cm2. The ratio between visceral fat and subcutaneous fat area (VFA/SFA) was 0,57±0.5. The correlation between SMI and visceral fat was significant (r=0.4,p=0.02),while it was not significant with VFA/SFA (p=0.7). For all IBD patients, univariate analysis revealed that female sex (p=0.002) and low BMI (p=0.003) were significantly associated with sarcopenia Conclusion Approximately 42.5%CD patients were sarcopenic. Female sex and low BMI were significantly associated with sarcopenia but this latter did not correlate with the clinical outcome

Three kittens, ages 5, 9, and 17 weeks, were found dead by separate caregivers and were submitted for necropsy. At gross necropsy, each kitten had hemorrhagic or bloody fibrinoserous thoracic fluid and differing distributions of pulmonary consolidation. On histologic examination, the pulmonary lesion in each kitten was similar and was characterized by acute necrotizing and hemorrhagic pneumonia and pleuritis, with numerous intralesional small Gram-negative rods. A pure culture of a distinct serotype of Escherichia coli was identified in lung tissue from each kitten (O4:H5, O6:H7, O6:H5). Lung isolates, genotyped by polymerase chain reaction, carried genes that are characteristic of extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC), including cnf-1, papG allele I, papA, papC, sfa, fim, hlyD, malX, iroN, fyuA, kpsMII, and ompT. Escherichia coli isolates from the intestines of 2 of the kittens were 100% related to the respective lung isolate, as determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Cultures of fecal samples collected from a clinically healthy cohort population of kittens revealed 16 of 19 tested kittens (84%) to be shedding hemolytic E. coli. Ten different serotypes were identified from 43 hemolytic E. coli fecal isolates from the cohort population, each of which had a genetic profile consistent with that typical of ExPEC. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report to describe a cluster of isolated cases of pneumonia in kittens caused by distinct serotypes of ExPEC and to evaluate the prevalence of hemolytic E. coli carrying ExPEC-associated genes in the feces of a cohort population of kittens.

Our genome adapts slowly to changing conditions of existence. Many diseases of civilisation result from mismatches between our Paleolithic genome and the rapidly changing environment, including our diet. The objective of the present study was to reconstruct multiple Paleolithic diets to estimate the ranges of nutrient intakes upon which humanity evolved. A database of, predominantly East African, plant and animal foods (meat/fish) was used to model multiple Paleolithic diets, using two pathophysiological constraints (i.e. protein < 35 energy % (en%) and linoleic acid (LA) >1·0 en%), at known hunter–gatherer plant/animal food intake ratios (range 70/30–30/70 en%/en%). We investigated selective and non-selective savannah, savannah/aquatic and aquatic hunter–gatherer/scavenger foraging strategies. We found (range of medians in en%) intakes of moderate-to-high protein (25–29), moderate-to-high fat (30–39) and moderate carbohydrates (39–40). The fatty acid composition was SFA (11·4–12·0), MUFA (5·6–18·5) and PUFA (8·6–15·2). The latter was high in α-linolenic acid (ALA) (3·7–4·7 en%), low in LA (2·3–3·6 en%), and high in long-chain PUFA (LCP; 4·75–25·8 g/d), LCP n-3 (2·26–17·0 g/d), LCP n-6 (2·54–8·84 g/d), ALA/LA ratio (1·12–1·64 g/g) and LCP n-3/LCP n-6 ratio (0·84–1·92 g/g). Consistent with the wide range of employed variables, nutrient intakes showed wide ranges. We conclude that compared with Western diets, Paleolithic diets contained consistently higher protein and LCP, and lower LA. These are likely to contribute to the known beneficial effects of Paleolithic-like diets, e.g. through increased satiety/satiation. Disparities between Paleolithic, contemporary and recommended intakes might be important factors underlying the aetiology of common Western diseases. Data on Paleolithic diets and lifestyle, rather than the investigation of single nutrients, might be useful for the rational design of clinical trials.

A comparative analysis of the technical efficiency in the production of national cocoa among the main producing cantons of the province of Guayas was carried out. For this, the study was based on an analysis with inductive reasoning and empirical-analytical paradigm, through the elaboration of surveys to 361 UPA's in the cantons of: Milagro, San Jacinto de Yaguachi, El Empalme, Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno, Naranjal and Simón Bolívar; these data served as the basis for the elaboration of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. The results show that on average, the Simón Bolívar canton is the canton with the highest technical efficiency, with 50% of the total UPAs surveyed in the range of 70% and 99% effectiveness. Finally, regarding the observed averages of allocative efficiency, it can be concluded that Jujan has the highest average with 75%. Keywords: Technical and Allocative Efficiency, National Cocoa, Enveloped Data Analysis, Non Parametric Method. References [1]M. Naranjo., «Un Puerto en busca de una Nación, Guayaquil y la idea fundacional del Ecuador como país,» de Seminario Internacional Poder, Política y Repertorios de la Movilización Social en el Ecuador Bicentenario, Quito, 2009. [2]S. C. Mogro, V. Andrade-Díaz y D. P.-. Villacís, «Posicionamiento y eficiencia del banano, cacao y flores del Ecuador en el mercado mundial,» Revista Ciencia UNEMI, vol. 9, nº 19, pp. 48-53, 2016. [3]M. Vassallo, Diferenciación y agregado de valor en la cadena ecuatoriana del cacao, Quito: Editorial IAEN, 2015. [4]M. Pigache y S. Bainville, Cacao tipo ‘Nacional’ vs. Cacao CCN51: ¿Quién ganará el partido?, Quito: Ird Editions, 2007. [5]M. Chiriboga, Jornaleros, grandes propietarios y exportación cacaotera, Quito: Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, 2013. [6]A. Acosta., Breve Historia Económica del Ecuador, Quito: Editora Nacional, 2006. [7]M. Espinoza y Y. Arteaga., «Diagnóstico de los Procesos de Asociatividad y la Producción de Cacao en Milagro y sus sectores aledaños,» Revista Ciencia UNEMI, vol. 8, nº 14, pp. 105-112, 2015. [8]E. Romero, M. Fernández, J. Macías y K. Zúñiga, «Producción y comercialización del cacao y su incidencia en el desarrollo socioeconómico del cantón Milagro,» Revista Ciencia UNEMI, vol. 9, nº 17, pp. 56-64, 2016. [9]e. I. I. d. C. A. Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería, La Agroindustria en el Ecuador. Un diagnóstico integral, Quito: IICA, 2006. [10]R. Rodríguez, M. Brugiafreddo y E. Raña., «Eficiencia técnica en la agricultura familiar: Análisis envolvente de datos (DEA) versus aproximación de fronteras estocásticas (SFA),» Nova Scientia, vol. 9, nº 18, pp. 342-370, 2017. [11]A. Resti., «Evaluating the cost-efficiency of the Italian banking system: what can be learned from the joint application of parametric and non-parametric techniques,» Journal of Banking & Finance, vol. 21, nº 2, pp. 221-250, 1997. [12]T. Coelli y S. Perelman, «A Comparison Of Parametric And Non-Parametric Distance Functions: With Application To European Railways,» European Journal Of Operational Research, vol. 117, nº 2, pp. 326-339, 1999. [13]B. Iráizoz, M. Rapún y I. Zabaleta., «Assessing the technicalb efficiency of horticultural production in Navarra, Spain,» Agricultural Systems, vol. 78, nº 3, pp. 387-403, 2003. [14]K. Sharma, S. Ping y H. Zaleski., «Productive efficiency of the swine industry in Hawaii,» Research Series, vol. 77, pp. 1-24, 1996. [15]D. Tingley, S. Pascoe y L. Coglan, «Factors affecting technical efficiency in fisheries: Stochastic Production Frontier versus Data Envelopment Analysis approaches,» Fisheries Research, vol. 73, nº 3, pp. 363-376, 2005. [16]H. Johansson, «Technical, allocative and economic efficiency in Swedish dairy farms: the Data Envelopment Analysis versus the Stochastic Frontier Approach,» de Poster background paper prepared for presentation at the XIth International Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE), Copenhagen, 2005. [17]F. Madau, «Technical and scale efficiency in the Italian Citrus Farming: A comparison between Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Models,» Munich Personal RePEc Archive (MPRA), vol. 41403, nº 18, pp. 1-25, 2012. [18]E. A. S. d. Pedro, Nivel de competitividad y eficiencia de la producción ganadera, Córdoba: Tesis doctoral. Departamento de Producción Animal, 2013. [19]F. Bacon, Novum Organum, Londres, 1620. [20]Seminario Metodología de la Investigación, Bogota: Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2015.

Long-term energy stress (ES) during the cold season is a serious problem for the breeding of yaks. In this paper, the response of fat metabolism in yaks to long-term ES during the cold season was studied. Gas chromatography (GC) analysis showed that the percentage of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) in the subcutaneous fat of the yaks in the ES group was 42.7%, which was less than the 56.6% in the CO group (p < 0.01) and the percentage of polyunsaturated unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the subcutaneous fat of the yaks in the ES group was 38.3%, which was more than the 26.0% in the CO group (p < 0.01). The serum analysis showed that fatty acid oxidation in yaks was increased under long-term ES. In the subcutaneous fat of yaks under long-term ES, the gene expression levels of glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 4 (GPAT4), hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), patatin-like phospholipase domain-containing protein 2 (PNPLA2), acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (ACAD), acyl-coenzyme A thioesterase 8 (ACOT8), facilitated glucose transporter (GLUT4), 3-oxoacyl-[acyl-carrier-protein] synthase (OXSM), oestradiol 17-beta-dehydrogenase 8 (HSD17B8) and malonate-Co-A ligase ACSF3 (ACSF3) were downregulated (q < 0.05), whereas the gene expression levels of aquaporin-7 (AQP7), long-chain-fatty-acid-CoA ligase (ACSL), elongation of very long chain fatty acids protein (ELOVL) and fatty acid desaturase 1 (FADS1) were upregulated (q < 0.05), indicating the inhibition of fat catabolism, fat anabolism, fatty acid oxidation, glucose (GLU) intake and SFA synthesis and the promotion of glycerinum (GLY) transportation and PUFA synthesis. Additional findings showed that the gene expression levels of leptin (LEP), adenosine 5′-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) were upregulated (q < 0.05), whereas the gene expression levels of malonyl-CoA decarboxylase (MCD), sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBF1), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and serine/threonine-protein kinase (AKT) were downregulated (q < 0.05), indicating that fat metabolism in the subcutaneous fat of yaks under ES was mainly regulated by AMPK signaling and mTOR and PI3K-AKT signaling were also involved. Energy consumption was inhibited in the subcutaneous fat itself. This study can provide a theoretical basis for the healthy breeding and genetic breeding of yaks.

There are indisputable research supporting scientific argument that propagation of (tsunami) wave from intermediate depth towards shallower coastal area needs dispersive wave model. For tsunami wave simulation, efficiency of the numerical scheme is an important issue. In this paper, the two-layer non-hydrostatic model as developed previously in Pudjaprasetya et al. [2017] “A non-hydrostatic two-layer staggered scheme for transient waves due to anti-symmetric seabed thrust,” J. Earthquake Tsunami 11, 1–17, to study tsunami generation and propagation, is adopted. Restricting to 1+1 dimension, here, we focus on the performance of the scheme in simulating wave propagation in coastal areas, in particular predicting the run-up height. First, we conducted a simulation of harmonic wave over a sloping beach to conform the analytical shoreline motion by Carrier and Greenspan [1958] “Water waves of finite amplitude on a sloping beach,” J. Fluid Mech. 4, 97–109. The ability of the scheme in accommodating dispersion and non-linearity were shown via simulation of a solitary wave that propagates over a flat bottom. This solitary wave simulation provides an evaluation of the convergence aspect of the model. Further, several benchmark tests were conducted; a solitary wave over a sloping beach to mimic the experimental data by Synolakis [1986] “The run-up of solitary waves,” J. Fluid Mech. 185, 523–545, as well as solitary wave over a composite beach. Good agreement with laboratory data was obtained in terms of wave signal, whereas for relatively low amplitude, the solitary run-up height conforms the analytical formula. Moreover, the scheme is tested for simulating the Beji–Battjes experiment Beji, S. and Battjes, J. A. [1993] “Experimental investigation of wave propagation over a bar,” Coast. Eng. 19, 151–162. As well as wave focusing experiment by Kurnia et al. [2015] “Simulations for design and reconstruction of breaking waves in a wavetank,” Proc. ASME 2015 34th Int. Conf. Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Newfoundland, Canada, 31 May–5 June 2015, pp. 2–7.

A three-dimensional (3D) contact finite element formulation has been developed for biological soft tissue-to-tissue contact analysis. The linear biphasic theory of Mow, Holmes, and Lai (1984, J. Biomech., 17(5), pp. 377–394) based on continuum mixture theory, is adopted to describe the hydrated soft tissue as a continuum of solid and fluid phases. Four contact continuity conditions derived for biphasic mixtures by Hou et al. (1989, ASME J. Biomech. Eng., 111(1), pp. 78–87) are introduced on the assumed contact surface, and a weighted residual method has been used to derive a mixed velocity-pressure finite element contact formulation. The Lagrange multiplier method is used to enforce two of the four contact continuity conditions, while the other two conditions are introduced directly into the weighted residual statement. Alternate formulations are possible, which differ in the choice of continuity conditions that are enforced with Lagrange multipliers. Primary attention is focused on a formulation that enforces the normal solid traction and relative fluid flow continuity conditions on the contact surface using Lagrange multipliers. An alternate approach, in which the multipliers enforce normal solid traction and pressure continuity conditions, is also discussed. The contact nonlinearity is treated with an iterative algorithm, where the assumed area is either extended or reduced based on the validity of the solution relative to contact conditions. The resulting first-order system of equations is solved in time using the generalized finite difference scheme. The formulation is validated by a series of increasingly complex canonical problems, including the confined and unconfined compression, the Hertz contact problem, and two biphasic indentation tests. As a clinical demonstration of the capability of the contact analysis, the gleno-humeral joint contact of human shoulders is analyzed using an idealized 3D geometry. In the joint, both glenoid and humeral head cartilage experience maximum tensile and compressive stresses are at the cartilage-bone interface, away from the center of the contact area.

Для входного участка Калининградского залива применена концепция природно-технических систем (ПТС), основанная на анализе литературных источников и картографических материалов. Рассмотрен этап развития и этап функционирования природно-технической системы входного участка Калининградского залива, очерчены ее границы в пространстве и времени, выделены техногенная и природная составляющие ПТС, представлены регуляторные функции природной среды отдельными техническими объектами, по морфологическим признакам выделена область влияния ПТС на окружающую природную среду. Библиографические ссылки 1. Айбулатов Н.А. Деятельность России в прибрежной зоне моря и проблемы экологии. М.: Наука, 2005. 363 с.2. Бабаков А.Н. Чубаренко Б.В. Структура результирующего вдольберегового транспорта наносов в восточной части Гданьского залива // Водные ресурсы. 2019. Т. 46, №4. С. 370–384.3. Басс О.В. 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In the present scenario of a global initiative toward securing global net-zero by mid-century and keeping 1.5 degrees within reach, polymer-electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are considered to play an important role in the energy transition, particularly for the decarbonization of transit buses, trucks, rail transport, ships and ferries, and the residential heating sector. However, PEFCs are not economically competitive with the internal combustion engine powertrains [1]. Moreover, their durability standards in widely varying conditions have yet to be established and water management remains a critical issue for performance degradation and durability [1-3]. Thus, the mission of my research team is to conduct original research to make PEFCs economically viable and optimize their performance and durability [4,5]. In this talk, I will highlight our research on PEFC’s gas diffusion layer (GDL), as its interfaces with the flow channel and microporous layer play a significant role in water management. This research was aimed at selectively modifying GDL surfaces with a hydrophobic pattern to improve water transport and water removal from flow channels; thus, improving the durability and performance of PEFCs. Sigracet® GDLs were used as a base substrate and two different monomers, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) added with fumed silica (Si) and fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) were used to print a selective pattern on the GDL surfaces [6]. Both the additive manufacturing and spray coating techniques were utilized for creating the hydrophobic pattern on the GDL surfaces. The results of this study demonstrated a novel but simple approach to tune GDL surfaces with selective wetting properties and superhydrophobic interfaces that would enhance water transport. I will discuss some of these results and highlight how these results will benefit the water management of next-generation high-power PEFCs. This work was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P03098X/1) and the STFC Batteries Network (ST/R006873/1) and was supported by SGL Carbon SE (www.sglcarbon.com). References [1] A.Z. Weber et al., "A critical review of modeling transport phenomena in polymer electrolyte fuel cells," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 161, pp. F1254-F1299, 2014. [2] A.D. Santamaria et al., "Liquid-water interactions with gas-diffusion layers surfaces," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 161, pp. F1184-F1193, 2014. [3] P.K. Das and A.Z. Weber, "Water management in PEMFC with ultra-thin catalyst-layers," ASME 11th Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology Conference, Paper No. FuelCell2013-18010, pp. V001T01A002, 2013. [4] L. Xing et al., "Membrane electrode assemblies for PEM fuel cells: A review of functional graded design and optimization," Energy, vol. 177, pp. 445-464, 2019. [5] L. Xing et al., "Inhomogeneous distribution of platinum and ionomer in the porous cathode to maximize the performance of a PEM fuel cell," AIChE J., vol. 63, pp. 4895-4910, 2017. [6] D. Thumbarathy et al., "Fabrication and characterization of tuneable flow-channel/gas-diffusion-layer interface for polymer electrolyte fuel cells," J. Electrochem. Energy Convers. Storage, vol. 17, pp. 011010, 2020.

Целью настоящей работы является исследование физического базиса межфазной адгезии в системе полимер – углеродные нанотрубки. Эта цель реализуется на примере нанокомпозитов полипропилен/углеродные нанотрубки (нановолокна) в рамках фрактального анализа.В силу своей высокой степени анизотропии и низкой поперечной жесткости углеродные нанотрубки (нановолокна) формируют в полимерной матрице нанокомпозита кольцеобразные формирования, структурно аналогичные макромолекулярным клубкам разветвленных полимеров. Это обстоятельство позволяет моделировать структуру нанокомпозитов полимер/углеродные нанотрубки (нановолокна) как полимерный раствор, используя для этой цели методы фрактальной физической химии. При таком подходе предполагается, что роль макромолекулярных клубков играют кольцеобразные формирования углеродных нанотрубок, а роль растворителя – полимерная матрица.Предложенная модель позволяет выполнить структурный анализ уровня межфазных взаимодействий полимерная матрица-нанонаполнитель или уровня межфазной адгезии. Обнаружено, что большая часть контактов между углеродными нанотрубками и полимерной матрицей, которые определяют указанный уровень, формируются внутри кольцеобразных формирований. В рамках фрактального анализа показано, что снижение радиуса кольцеобразных формирований или их компактизация приводит к росту фрактальной размерности, что затрудняет доступ матричного полимера в их внутренние части. Следствием этого эффекта является уменьшение числа контактов полимер-нанонаполнитель и значительное снижение уровня межфазной адгезии. Альтернативно этотэффект может быть описан как следствие компактизации кольцеобразных формирований, выраженной ростом их плотности. Показана прямая взаимосвязь показателя межфазной адгезии (безразмерного параметра ba) как с числом контактов полимер-углеродные нанотрубки, так и с объемом кольцеобразных формирований, доступным для проникновения полимера в их внутренние области. Количественный анализ продемонстрировал, что доля контактов, формирующихся на поверхности кольцеобразных формирований углеродных нанотрубок (нановолокон) составляеттолько ~ 7–10 %. Предложенная модель позволяет получить взаимосвязь между структурой нанонаполнителя в полимерной матрице и уровнем межфазной адгезии для нанокомпозитов этого класса. С практической точки зрения результаты позволяют определить структуру углеродных нанотрубок (нановолокон), необходимую для достижения наибольшего уровня межфазной адгезии. ЛИТЕРАТУРА 1. Mikitaev A. K., Kozlov G. V., Zaikov G. E. Polymer Nanocomposites: Variety of structural forms and applications. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2008. 319 p.2. Kozlov G. V., Dolbin I. V. 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It is difficult to introduce highly versatile automation using robots to handling deformable objects such as thread, cloth, wire, long beams, and thin plates in plant production processes, compared to the handling of rigid objects. Office equipment handles deformable objects such as paper and plastic. Problems unique to these objects is caused by speeding up such equipment and demand for upgrading its accuracy. In agriculture and medical care, automatic, intelligent handling of deformable objects such as fruit and animals has long been desired and practical systems sought. Deformable objects whose handling should be versatiley and accurately automated are classified into two groups based on handling: (A) Flexible, mostly thin, fine objects capable of elastic deformation (B) Soft objects easily crushed, such as soft fruits or animals The problem in handling the first group is controlling object deformation of an infinite degree of freedom with a finite number of manipulated variables. In contrast, a significant problem in handling the second group is often how to handle them without exerting excessive stress and how to handle them safely and reliably. The handling of these two groups differ greatly in mechanics and control theory, and this special issue focuses on the first group — flexible objects — mechanical collection and transport studies, control, and software. Recent studies on their handling are classified into four groups for convenience based on handled objects and types of handling task: (a) Control of deformation, internal force, and vibration or path planning of flexible objects (mainly thin plates and beams) using single or multiple manipulators. (b) Task understanding in insertion of elastic into rigid parts and vice versa, and the study of human skills to help robots accomplish these task. (c) Approaches on improved accuracy, intelligent control, and vibration damping in handling and transfer of sheets and strings with low flexural rigidity, represented by paper or wire. (d) Strategies for grasping and unfolding sheets such as cloth whose flexural rigidity is almost nil. For (a), studies are active on deformation control by two robot hands attempting to grasp cloth. 1-3) In the automobile industry, so-called flexible fixtureless assembly systems are advancing in which two robots process or assemble parts in mid-air without a fixed table to reduce lead time and cost. These systems are mostly developed assuming handled parts are rigid. Nguyen et al. work assuming parts such as sheet metal whose deformation must be taken into consideration.1) Nakagaki et al. propose form estimation that considers even plastic deformation in wire handling by robots, in connection with the development of robots for electric wire installation.4) Many studies cover flexible wire as elastic beams,3-9) but comparatively few focus on bending deformation of thin plates. This special edition includes a paper by Kosuge et al. on thin-plate deformation control. Vibration control of grasped objects becomes important as speed increases. Matsuno kindly contributed his paper on optimum path planning in elastic plate handling. In controlling the deformation of elastic bodies, the mechanics of objects handled is often unknown. This special issue features a paper by Kojima et al. on an approach to this problem by adaptive feed-forward control. For (b), we consider three cases: (1) A cylindrical rigid body inserted into a hole on an elastic plate. (2) An elastic bar inserted into a hole on a rigid body. (3) A tubular elastic body put on a cylindrical rigid body. This special issue carries papers on these problems by Brata et al., Matsuno et al., and Hirai. For (2), a paper by Nakagaki et al.10) covers electric wire installation. For (3), the paper by Shima et al.11) covers insertion of a rigid axis into an elastic hose. Robot skill acquisition is an important issue in robotics in general, and the above papers should prove highly interesting and information because they treat studies by comparing robot and human skills in accomplishing work and acquiring concrete skills knowledge. For (c), attempts are made to theoretically analyze sheet handling mechanisms and control developed based on trial and error, and to structure design theory based on such analysis. These attempts are related to the increased accuracy and speed and enhanced intelligence of sheet-handling office automation equipment such as printers, facsimile machines, copiers, and automated teller machines. Yoshida et al. conducted a series of studies on the effects of guides forming paper feed paths and of inertia force of paper by approximating sheets with a chain of discrete masses and springs.12-14) This special edition also features a study on sheet sticking and jamming. Okuna et al. handles a system of similar nature, mechanical studying the form of paper guides.15) Introducing mechanisms to control the positioning of sheets is effective in raising sheet transfer accuracy. Feedback control that regulates feed roller skew angle as a manipulated variable is proposed.16) Increased reliability in separating single sheets from stacked effectively reduces the malfunction rate in sheet-handling equipment. Ways of optimizing the form of sheet-separation rollers17) and estimating frictional force between separation gates and sheets 18) are also proposed. This special issue contains a proposal by Nakazawa et al. of a mechanism that uses reactive sheet buckling force, made in connection with development of a newspaper page turner for the disabled as technology for separating single sheets. Dry frictional force is most widely used for transporting sheets, but is not stable and may even act as an obstacle to improving accuracy. Niino et al. propose a sheet transfer mechanism that uses electrostatic force.19) For improving the accuracy of flexible wire transmission, this special issue carries a study on transporting flexible thin wire through tension control at multiple points, from a study by Morimitsu et al. on optical fiber installation. The thickness of wire used in equipment is becoming increasingly slim and flexible, along with the equipment it is used in. Tension control in the production process is an important factor in the manufacture of such thin wire. Production efficiency constantly calls for increased transfer speed. It has thus become important to estimate air resistance and inertia and to measure and control the tension of running wire. Studies20,21) by Batra, Fraser, et al. which deal the motion of string in the spinning process provide good examples for learning analytical techniques for air drag and inertia. In string vibration where inertia dominates, attempts are made to control vibration by boundary shaking22,23) and feed-forward/back control.24) For (d), highly versatile robots for handling cloth are being developed, and the software technology for automatic cloth selection and unfolding by robot hands is a popular topic.25-27) Ono et al. comment on the nature of problems in developing intelligent systems for handling cloth and similar objects whose bending rigidity is low and which readily fold and overlap—a paper that will prove a good reference in basic approaches in this field. Mechanical analyses are indispensable to studies on (a) through (c). In contrast, information technology such as characteristic variable measurement, image processing, and discrimination, rather than mechanical analyses, play an important roles in studies on (d). This special issue features a study by Hamashima, Uraya et al. on cloth unfolding as an example of such studies. Studies up to now largely assumed that properties of grasped objects did not change environmental influences such as temperature and humidity. Such influence is often, however, a major factor in handling fiber thread and cloth. This special issue has a paper contributed by Taylor, who studies handling method to prevent influence by such environmental factors. The objective of this special issue will have been achieved if it aids those studying the handling of flexible objects by providing approaches and methodologies of researchers whose target objects differ and if it aids those planning to take up study in this field by providing a general view of this field. References: 1) Nguyen, W. and Mills, J., ""Multi-Robot Control For Plexible Fixtureless Assembly of Flexible Sheet Metal Auto Body Parts,"" Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2340-2345, (1996). 2) Sun, D. and Shi, X. and Liu, Y., ""Modeling and Cooperation of Two-Arm Robotic System Manipulating a Deformable Object,"" Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2346-2351, (1996). 3) Kosuge, K., Sakaki, M., Kanitani, K., Yoshida, H. and Fukuda, T., ""Manipulation of a Flexible Object by Dual Manipulators,"" IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 318-323, (1995). 4) Nakagaki, H., Kitagaki, K., Ogasawara, T. and Tukune H., ""Handling of a Flexible Wire -Detecting a Deformed Shape of the Wire by Vision and a Force Sensor,"" Annual Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (ROBOMEC'96), 207-210, (1996). 5) Wakamatsu, H., Hirai, S. and Iwata, K., ""Static Analysis of Deformable Object Grasping Based on Bounded Force Closure,"" Trans. of JSML, 84-618 (C), 508-515, (1998). 6) Katoh, R. and Fujmoto, T., ""Study on Deformation of Elastic Object By Manipulator -Path Planning of End -Effector-,"" J. of the Robotics Society of Japan, 13-1, 157-160, (1995). 7) Yukawa, T., Uohiyama, M. and Inooka, M., ""Stability of Control System in Handling a Flexible Object by Rigid Arm Robots,"" JSME Annual Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (ROBOMEC'95), 169-172, (1995). 8) Yukawa, T., Uohiyama, M. and Cbinata, G., ""Handling of a Vibrating Flexible Structure by a Robot,"" Trans. JSME, 61-583, 938-943, (1995). 9) Sun, D. and Liu, Y., ""Modeling and Impedance Control of a Two-Manipulator System Handling a Flexible Beam,"" Trans. of the ASME, 119, 736-742, (1997). 10) Nakagaki, H., Kitagaki, K. and Tukune, H., ""Contact Motion in Inserting a Flexible Wire into a Hole,"" Annual Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (ROBOMEC'95), 175-178, (1995). 11) Shimaji, S., Brata, A. and Hattori, H., ""Robot Skill in Assembling a Cylinder into an Elastic Hose,"" Annual Conference on Robotics and Mechatronics (ROBOMEC'95), 752-755, (1995). 12) Yoshida, K. and Kawauchi, M., ""The Analysis of Deformation and Behavior of Flexible Materials (1st Reprt, Study of Spring-Mass Beam Model of the Sheet,"" Trans. of JSME, 58-552, 1474-1480, (1992). 13) Yoshida, K., ""Analysis of Deformation and Behavior of Flexible Materials (2nd Report, Static Analysis for Deformation of the Sheet in the Space Formed by Guide Plates),"" Trans. JSME, 60-570, 501-507, (1994). 14) Yoshida, K., ""Dynamic Analysis of Sheet Defofmation Using Spring-Mass-Beam Model,"" Trans. JSME, 63-615, 3926-3932 (1997). 15) Okuna, K., Nishigaito, T. and Shina, Y., ""Analysis of Paper Deformation Considering Guide Friction (Improvement of Paper Path for Paper-Feeding Mechanism),"" Trans. JSME, 60-575, 2279-2284, (1994). 16) Fujimura, H. and Ono, K., ""Analysis of Paper Motion Driven by Skew-Roll Paper Feeding System,"" Trans. JSME, 62-596, 1354-1360, (1996). 17) Shima, Y., Hattori, S., Kobayashi, Y. and Ukai, M., ""Optimum of Gate-Roller Shape in Paper Isolating Methods,"" Conference of Information, Intelligence and Precision Equipment (IIP'96), 61-62, (1996). 18) Suzuki, Y, Hattori, S., Shima, Y. and Ukai, M., ""Contact Analysis of Paper in Gate-Roller Handling Method"", Conference on Information, Intelligence and Precision Equipment (IIP'95), 19-20, (1995). 19) Niino, T., Egawa, S. and Higuchi, T., ""An Electrostatic Paper Feeder,"" J. of the Japan Society for Precision Engineering, 60-12,1761-1765, (1994). 20) Batra, S., Ghosh, T. and Zeidman, M., ""An Integrated Approach to Dynamic Analysis of the Ring Spinning Process , PartII: With Air Drag,"" Textile Research Journal, 59, 416-424, (1989). 21) Fraser, W., Ghosh, T. and Batra, S., ""On Unwinding Yarn from a Cylindrical Package,"" Proceedings of Royal Society of London, A, 436, 479-438, (1992). 22) Jacob, S., ""Control of Vibrating String Using Impedance Matching,"" Proceedings of the American Control Conference (San Francisco),468-472, (1993). 23) Lee, S. and Mote, C., ""Vibration Control of an Axially Moving String by Boundary Control,"" Trans. of the ASME, J. of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, 118, 66-74, (1996). 24) Ying, S. and Tan, C., ""Active Vibration Control of the Axially Moving String Using Space Feedforward and Feedback Controllers,"" Trans. ASME, J. of Vibration and Acoustics, 118, 306-312, (1996). 25) Ono, E., Ichijo, H. and Aisaka, N., ""Flexible Robotic Hand for Handling Fabric Pieces in Garment Manufacture,"" International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, 4-5,18-23, (1992). 26) Paraschidis, K., Fahantidis, N, Petridis, V., Doulgeri, Z., Petrou, L. and Hasapis, G, ""A Robotic System for Handling Textile and Non Rigid Flat Materials,"" Computers in Industry, 26, 303-313, (1995). 27) Fahantidis, N., Paraschidis, K, Petridis, V., Doulgeri, Z., Petrou, L. and Hasapis, G., ""Robot Handling of Flat Textile Materials,"" IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 4-1, 34-41, (1997).

Introduction: Veteran Affairs (VA) patients may have higher risk factors and worse outcomes after peripheral revascularization compared to patients treated in non-VA facilities. Hypothesis: Compared to non-VA patients, VA patients have higher rates of risk factors and poorer outcomes after superficial femoral artery (SFA) endovascular revascularization. Methods: We assessed long-term outcomes in all patients having SFA endovascular revascularization between 2003-2010 in 2 regional referral institutions in Boston, one a VA hospital (VA Boston) and the other a non-VA hospital (Brigham and Women’s Hospital). Atherosclerosis risk factors, lesion characteristics, and outcomes of death, repeat revascularization, and limb amputation were assessed by review of the chart and national death indices. The hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval (HR, 95%CI) of death and adverse limb events for VA versus non-VA patients were assessed by Cox proportional hazard models. Results: Of the 203 subjects, 88 were VA patients and 115 were non-VA patients and 254 limbs were revascularized. VA and non-VA patients had a similar mean age (68 vs 68 years, p=0.74), and aspirin and statin use were over 90% in both groups. VA patients had a higher prevalence of diabetes (59% vs 41%, p=0.011) and current smoking (36% vs 18%, p=0.006). The prevalence of limbs with critical limb ischemia was similar (VA: 20% vs Non-VA: 17%, p=0.51), but limbs in VA patients were more likely to have TASC C or D lesions (57% vs 43%, p=0.028), and lesions > 200mm in length (44% vs 31%, p=0.044). Over an average 5.1 years follow-up, 96 patients died and 82 limbs required repeat revascularization. Compared to non-VA patients, VA patients had similar risks of death (HR=0.91, 95%CI=0.55, 1.49) and repeat revascularization (HR=1.1, 95%CI=0.67, 1.75). 17 limbs required subsequent surgical revascularization and 16 limbs had minor or major amputation with similar rates in both groups. Multivariable models showed similar results. Conclusion: In this comparison, VA patients having SFA endovascular revascularization had a higher prevalence of some atherosclerosis risk factors and more complex lesion characteristics, but similar long-term outcomes over an average 5 years.

Aims: In an attempt to improve the yields of Citrullus lanatus’s wlêwlê oilseed cultivar, generally low due to the lack of good germination seeds, the effect of fruit age at harvest and fermentation methods were studied. The present study is a contribution to the improvement the African oleaginous Cucurbits seed production system by optimizing the date of harvest combined to seed fermentation methods through enhancement of seed germination and seedling vigor. Study Design: Seedling vigor was evaluated on farm trial using five completely randomized blocks represented by seedbeds constituting each, one replication. Place and Duration of Study: The trials were carried out from July to December 2020, at the experimental farm of the Nangui Abrogoua University in the district of Abidjan, southern of Côte d'Ivoire between 5°17' and 5°31' North latitude and between 3°45' and 4°31' West longitude. Methodology: Fruits from grown plants were harvested at five different times 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 days after anthesis (DAA)] and seeds fermented following four methods fermentation at ambient air (SFA); fermentation in a plastic bag exposed at ambient air (SFB); fermentation in plastic bag buried in 30 cm depth (SFD) and control or non-fermented (NF)]. Seeds from these 20 treatments (5 harvest time × 4 fermentation methods) were sown for viability tests in laboratory and seedling vigor in the field. Results: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that delaying harvest time (from 20 to 40 DAA) significantly (P < .001) improved fruit weight (from 512.20 to 760.50 g) and its seed content (from 71.75 to 230.70 seeds/fruit), seed size (length: 10.69 to 11.42 mm and width: 5.31 to 5.90 mm) and weight (5.16 to 6.37 g) as well as their viability (from 67.75 to 89.50 %). Moreover, in spite of facilitating seed extraction, all three fermentation methods (SFA, SFB and SFD) significantly improved seed viability and seedling vigor compared to control (NF) seeds. The highest agronomic performance (seed viability and produced seedling vigor), was obtained with fermentation under closed and deep confinement (SFD), followed by the closed confinement (SFB) and then by the open environment (SFA). Positive interaction (harvest time × fermentation method) revealed that the best performance was achieved with later harvested seeds (40 DAA) and closed fermented seeds (SFD) which could provide a better seed quality. Conclusion: Agronomic performances (viability and vigor) are influenced by both harvest date and fermentation method. Late harvesting of the fruit (40 DAA) and fermentation in a very confined deep soil condition (SFD) ensures the production of high germination quality seeds.

Abstract Aim There are inconsistent data on the sex-related differences in clinical outcomes after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). We aimed to investigate sex-related differences in clinical outcomes after PTA. Methods A total of 939 consecutive patients undergoing PTA were enrolled in two large volume centers. Patients were stratified by gender. Baseline characteristics, procedural and long-term clinical outcomes were compared between women and men. Results Women represented 37.4% of the study population. Women, compared to men, had more often hypertension (92% vs 86%, p=0.001) and diabetes (54% vs 46%, p=0.02). However, men presented more often with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (14.8% vs 6.8%, p=0.0003), coronary artery disease (45.4% vs 32.7%, p=0.0001), smoking (60.4% vs 45%, p=0.007) and previous PTA (25% vs 17%, p=0.005). There were no differences in 120-month all-cause mortality between groups (women vs. men: 29% vs. 21%, p=0.6). Men were at higher risk of re-PTA at 5-year follow-up (40% vs. 49%; p=0.03). Moreover, male sex was an independent predictor of re-PTA (age-adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% CI): 1.276 (1.015–1.614), p=0.03). In multivariable Cox regression analysis, a superficial femoral artery chronic total occlusion (SFA-CTO) (hazard ratio [HR]) (95% confidence interval [CI]): 1.68 (1.12–2.5), body mass index (BMI) (hazard ratio (HR)) (95% CI): 0.93 (0.87–0.99), baseline creatinine level hazard ratio (HR)) (95% CI): 0.95 (0.88–0.99) were identified as independent factors of re-PTA in women. Figure 1. Months to re-PTA for grouping variable male. Conclusion Male sex was identified as an independent predictor of re-PTA. SFA-CTO, BMI and baseline creatinine level were associated with re-PTA in women.

Abstract Background Fatty acids composition in poultry muscle is directly related to its tenderness, flavour, and juiciness, whereas its genetic mechanisms have not been elucidated. In this study, the genetic structure and key regulatory genes of the breast muscle fatty acid composition of local Chinese chicken, Gushi-Anka F2 resource population by integrating genome-wide association study (GWAS) and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) strategies. GWAS was performed based on 323,306 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) obtained by genotyping by sequencing (GBS) method and 721 chickens from the Gushi-Anka F2 resource population with highly variable fatty acid composition traits in the breast muscle. And then, according to the transcriptome data of the candidate genes that were obtained and phenotypic data of fatty acid composition traits in breast muscle of Gushi chickens at 14, 22, and 30 weeks of age, we conducted a WGCNA. Results A total of 128 suggestive significantly associated SNPs for 11 fatty acid composition traits were identified and mapped on chromosomes (Chr) 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17, 21, and 27. Of these, the two most significant SNPs were Chr13:5,100,140 (P = 4.56423e-10) and Chr13:5,100,173 (P = 4.56423e-10), which explained 5.6% of the phenotypic variation in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). In addition, six fatty acid composition traits, including C20:1, C22:6, saturated fatty acid (SFA), unsaturated fatty acids (UFA), PUFA, and average chain length (ACL), were located in the same QTL intervals on Chr13. We obtained 505 genes by scanning the linkage disequilibrium (LD) regions of all significant SNPs and performed a WGCNA based on the transcriptome data of the above 505 genes. Combining two strategies, 9 hub genes (ENO1, ADH1, ASAH1, ADH1C, PIK3CD, WISP1, AKT1, PANK3, and C1QTNF2) were finally identified, which could be the potential candidate genes regulating fatty acid composition traits in chicken breast muscle. Conclusion The results of this study deepen our understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying the regulation of fatty acid composition traits, which is helpful in the design of breeding strategies for the subsequent improvement of fatty acid composition in poultry muscle.

Rotation and curvature (RC) effects on turbulence are expected to impact losses and flow structure in turbomachines. This paper examines two recent eddy-viscosity-model corrections devised to account for these effects: the Spalart and Shur (1997, “On the Sensitization of Turbulence Models to Rotation and Curvature,” Aerosp. Sci. Technol., 1(5), pp. 297–302) correction to the model of Spalart and Allmaras (1994, “A One-Equation Turbulence Model for Aerodynamic Flows,” Rech. Aerosp., 1, pp. 5–21) and the correction of Cazalbou et al. (2005, “Two-Equation Modeling of Turbulent Rotating Flows,” Phys. Fluids., 17, p. 055110) to the (k,ϵ) model. The method of verification and validation is applied to assess the impact of these corrections on the computation of a centrifugal-compressor test case. First, a review of RC effects on turbulence as they apply to centrifugal compressors is made. The two corrected models are then presented. Second, the Radiver open test case (Ziegler K. U., Gallus, H. E., and Niehuis R., 2003, “A Study on Impeller Diffuser Interaction Part 1: Influence on the Performance,” ASME J. Turbomach, 125, pp. 173–182) is used as a basis for the assessment of the two corrections. After a physical-consistency analysis, the Richardson extrapolation is applied to quantify the numerical errors involved in all the calculations. Finally, experimental data are used to perform validation for both global and local predictions. The consistency analysis shows that both corrections lead to significant changes in the turbulent field, in perfect agreement with the underlying theoretical considerations. The uncertainty analysis shows that the predictions of the global performances are more sensitive to grid refinement than they are to RC turbulence modeling. However, the opposite conclusion is drawn with regard to the prediction of some local flow properties: Improvements are obtained with the RC corrections, the best results being observed for the RC-corrected (k,ϵ) model.

Every act of art is able to reveal, balance and revive the relations between a territory and its inhabitants (François Davin, Southern Forest Sculpture Walk Catalogue)Introducing the Understory Art in Nature TrailIn February 2015, a colossal wildfire destroyed 98,300 hectares of farm and bushland surrounding the town of Northcliffe, located 365 km south of Perth, Western Australia (WA). As the largest fire in the recorded history of the southwest region (Southern Forest Arts, After the Burn 8), the disaster attracted national attention however the extraordinary contribution of local knowledge in saving a town considered by authorities to be “undefendable” (Kennedy) is yet to be widely appreciated. In accounting for a creative scene that survived the conflagration, this case study sees culture mobilised as a socioeconomic resource for conservation and the healing of community spirit.Northcliffe (population 850) sits on a coastal plain that hosts majestic old-growth forest and lush bushland. In 2006, Southern Forest Arts (SFA) dedicated a Southern Forest Sculpture Walk for creative professionals to develop artworks along a 1.2 km walk trail through pristine native forest. It was re-branded “Understory—Art in Nature” in 2009; then “Understory Art in Nature Trail” in 2015, the understory vegetation layer beneath the canopy being symbolic of Northcliffe’s deeply layered caché of memories, including “the awe, love, fear, and even the hatred that these trees have provoked among the settlers” (Davin in SFA Catalogue). In the words of the SFA Trailguide, “Every place (no matter how small) has ‘understories’—secrets, songs, dreams—that help us connect with the spirit of place.”In the view of forest arts ecologist Kumi Kato, “It is a sense of place that underlies the commitment to a place’s conservation by its community, broadly embracing those who identify with the place for various reasons, both geographical and conceptual” (149). In bioregional terms such communities form a terrain of consciousness (Berg and Dasmann 218), extending responsibility for conservation across cultures, time and space (Kato 150). A sustainable thematic of place must also include livelihood as the third party between culture and nature that establishes the relationship between them (Giblett 240). With these concepts in mind I gauge creative impact on forest as place, and, in turn, (altered) forest’s impact on people. My abstraction of physical place is inclusive of humankind moving in dialogic engagement with forest. A mapping of Understory’s creative activities sheds light on how artists express physical environments in situated creative practices, clusters, and networks. These, it is argued, constitute unique types of community operating within (and beyond) a foundational scene of inspiration and mystification that is metaphorically “rising from the ashes.” In transcending disconnectedness between humankind and landscape, Understory may be understood to both culturalise nature (as an aesthetic system), and naturalise culture (as an ecologically modelled system), to build on a trope introduced by Feld (199). Arguably when the bush is cultured in this way it attracts consumers who may otherwise disconnect from nature.The trail (henceforth Understory) broaches the histories of human relations with Northcliffe’s natural systems of place. Sub-groups of the Noongar nation have inhabited the southwest for an estimated 50,000 years and their association with the Northcliffe region extends back at least 6,000 years (SFA Catalogue; see also Crawford and Crawford). An indigenous sense of the spirit of forest is manifest in Understory sculpture, literature, and—for the purpose of this article—the compilation CD Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests (henceforth Canopy, Figure 1).As a cultural and environmental construction of place, Canopy sustains the land with acts of seeing, listening to, and interpreting nature; of remembering indigenous people in the forest; and of recalling the hardships of the early settlers. I acknowledge SFA coordinator and Understory custodian Fiona Sinclair for authorising this investigation; Peter Hill for conservation conversations; Robyn Johnston for her Canopy CD sleeve notes; Della Rae Morrison for permissions; and David Pye for discussions. Figure 1. Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests (CD, 2006). Cover image by Raku Pitt, 2002. Courtesy Southern Forest Arts, Northcliffe, WA.Forest Ecology, Emotion, and ActionEstablished in 1924, Northcliffe’s ill-founded Group Settlement Scheme resulted in frontier hardship and heartbreak, and deforestation of the southwest region for little economic return. An historic forest controversy (1992-2001) attracted media to Northcliffe when protesters attempting to disrupt logging chained themselves to tree trunks and suspended themselves from branches. The signing of the Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement in 1999 was followed, in 2001, by deregulation of the dairy industry and a sharp decline in area population.Moved by the gravity of this situation, Fiona Sinclair won her pitch to the Manjimup Council for a sound alternative industry for Northcliffe with projections of jobs: a forest where artists could work collectively and sustainably to reveal the beauty of natural dimensions. A 12-acre pocket of allocated Crown Land adjacent to the town was leased as an A-Class Reserve vested for Education and Recreation, for which SFA secured unified community ownership and grants. Conservation protocols stipulated that no biomass could be removed from the forest and that predominantly raw, natural materials were to be used (F. Sinclair and P. Hill, personal interview, 26 Sep. 2014). With forest as prescribed image (wider than the bounded chunk of earth), Sinclair invited the artists to consider the themes of spirituality, creativity, history, dichotomy, and sensory as a basis for work that was to be “fresh, intimate, and grounded in place.” Her brief encouraged artists to work with humanity and imagination to counteract residual community divisiveness and resentment. Sinclair describes this form of implicit environmentalism as an “around the back” approach that avoids lapsing into political commentary or judgement: “The trail is a love letter from those of us who live here to our visitors, to connect with grace” (F. Sinclair, telephone interview, 6 Apr. 2014). Renewing community connections to local place is essential if our lives and societies are to become more sustainable (Pedelty 128). To define Northcliffe’s new community phase, artists respected differing associations between people and forest. A structure on a karri tree by Indigenous artist Norma MacDonald presents an Aboriginal man standing tall and proud on a rock to become one with the tree and the forest: as it was for thousands of years before European settlement (MacDonald in SFA Catalogue). As Feld observes, “It is the stabilizing persistence of place as a container of experiences that contributes so powerfully to its intrinsic memorability” (201).Adhering to the philosophy that nature should not be used or abused for the sake of art, the works resonate with the biorhythms of the forest, e.g. functional seats and shelters and a cascading retainer that directs rainwater back to the resident fauna. Some sculptures function as receivers for picking up wavelengths of ancient forest. Forest Folk lurk around the understory, while mysterious stone art represents a life-shaping force of planet history. To represent the reality of bushfire, Natalie Williamson’s sculpture wraps itself around a burnt-out stump. The work plays with scale as small native sundew flowers are enlarged and a subtle beauty, easily overlooked, becomes apparent (Figure 2). The sculptor hopes that “spiders will spin their webs about it, incorporating it into the landscape” (SFA Catalogue).Figure 2. Sundew. Sculpture by Natalie Williamson, 2006. Understory Art in Nature Trail, Northcliffe, WA. Image by the author, 2014.Memory is naturally place-oriented or at least place-supported (Feld 201). Topaesthesia (sense of place) denotes movement that connects our biography with our route. This is resonant for the experience of regional character, including the tactile, olfactory, gustatory, visual, and auditory qualities of a place (Ryan 307). By walking, we are in a dialogue with the environment; both literally and figuratively, we re-situate ourselves into our story (Schine 100). For example, during a summer exploration of the trail (5 Jan. 2014), I intuited a personal attachment based on my grandfather’s small bush home being razed by fire, and his struggle to support seven children.Understory’s survival depends on vigilant controlled (cool) burns around its perimeter (Figure 3), organised by volunteer Peter Hill. These burns also hone the forest. On 27 Sept. 2014, the charred vegetation spoke a spring language of opportunity for nature to reassert itself as seedpods burst and continue the cycle; while an autumn walk (17 Mar. 2016) yielded a fresh view of forest colour, patterning, light, shade, and sound.Figure 3. Understory Art in Nature Trail. Map Created by Fiona Sinclair for Southern Forest Sculpture Walk Catalogue (2006). Courtesy Southern Forest Arts, Northcliffe, WA.Understory and the Melody of CanopyForest resilience is celebrated in five MP3 audio tours produced for visitors to dialogue with the trail in sensory contexts of music, poetry, sculptures and stories that name or interpret the setting. The trail starts in heathland and includes three creek crossings. A zone of acacias gives way to stands of the southwest signature trees karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor), jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata), and marri (Corymbia calophylla). Following a sheoak grove, a riverine environment re-enters heathland. Birds, insects, mammals, and reptiles reside around and between the sculptures, rendering the earth-embedded art a fusion of human and natural orders (concept after Relph 141). On Audio Tour 3, Songs for the Southern Forests, the musician-composers reflect on their regionally focused items, each having been birthed according to a personal musical concept (the manner in which an individual artist holds the totality of a composition in cultural context). Arguably the music in question, its composers, performers, audiences, and settings, all have a role to play in defining the processes and effects of forest arts ecology. Local musician Ann Rice billeted a cluster of musicians (mostly from Perth) at her Windy Harbour shack. The energy of the production experience was palpable as all participated in on-site forest workshops, and supported each other’s items as a musical collective (A. Rice, telephone interview, 2 Oct. 2014). Collaborating under producer Lee Buddle’s direction, they orchestrated rich timbres (tone colours) to evoke different musical atmospheres (Table 1). Composer/Performer Title of TrackInstrumentation1. Ann RiceMy Placevocals/guitars/accordion 2. David PyeCicadan Rhythmsangklung/violin/cello/woodblocks/temple blocks/clarinet/tapes 3. Mel RobinsonSheltervocal/cello/double bass 4. DjivaNgank Boodjakvocals/acoustic, electric and slide guitars/drums/percussion 5. Cathie TraversLamentaccordion/vocals/guitar/piano/violin/drums/programming 6. Brendon Humphries and Kevin SmithWhen the Wind First Blewvocals/guitars/dobro/drums/piano/percussion 7. Libby HammerThe Gladevocal/guitar/soprano sax/cello/double bass/drums 8. Pete and Dave JeavonsSanctuaryguitars/percussion/talking drum/cowbell/soprano sax 9. Tomás FordWhite Hazevocal/programming/guitar 10. David HyamsAwakening /Shaking the Tree /When the Light Comes guitar/mandolin/dobro/bodhran/rainstick/cello/accordion/flute 11. Bernard CarneyThe Destiny Waltzvocal/guitar/accordion/drums/recording of The Destiny Waltz 12. Joel BarkerSomething for Everyonevocal/guitars/percussion Table 1. Music Composed for Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests.Source: CD sleeve and http://www.understory.com.au/art.php. Composing out of their own strengths, the musicians transformed the geographic region into a living myth. As Pedelty has observed of similar musicians, “their sounds resonate because they so profoundly reflect our living sense of place” (83-84). The remainder of this essay evidences the capacity of indigenous song, art music, electronica, folk, and jazz-blues to celebrate, historicise, or re-imagine place. Firstly, two items represent the phenomenological approach of site-specific sensitivity to acoustic, biological, and cultural presence/loss, including the materiality of forest as a living process.“Singing Up the Land”In Aboriginal Australia “there is no place that has not been imaginatively grasped through song, dance and design, no place where traditional owners cannot see the imprint of sacred creation” (Rose 18). Canopy’s part-Noongar language song thus repositions the ancient Murrum-Noongar people within their life-sustaining natural habitat and spiritual landscape.Noongar Yorga woman Della Rae Morrison of the Bibbulmun and Wilman nations co-founded The Western Australian Nuclear Free Alliance to campaign against the uranium mining industry threatening Ngank Boodjak (her country, “Mother Earth”) (D.R. Morrison, e-mail, 15 July 2014). In 2004, Morrison formed the duo Djiva (meaning seed power or life force) with Jessie Lloyd, a Murri woman of the Guugu Yimidhirr Nation from North Queensland. After discerning the fundamental qualities of the Understory site, Djiva created the song Ngank Boodjak: “This was inspired by walking the trail […] feeling the energy of the land and the beautiful trees and hearing the birds. When I find a spot that I love, I try to feel out the lay-lines, which feel like vortexes of energy coming out of the ground; it’s pretty amazing” (Morrison in SFA Canopy sleeve) Stanza 1 points to the possibilities of being more fully “in country”:Ssh!Ni dabarkarn kooliny, ngank boodja kookoorninyListen, walk slowly, beautiful Mother EarthThe inclusion of indigenous language powerfully implements an indigenous interpretation of forest: “My elders believe that when we leave this life from our physical bodies that our spirit is earthbound and is living in the rocks or the trees and if you listen carefully you might hear their voices and maybe you will get some answers to your questions” (Morrison in SFA Catalogue).Cicadan Rhythms, by composer David Pye, echoes forest as a lively “more-than-human” world. Pye took his cue from the ambient pulsing of male cicadas communicating in plenum (full assembly) by means of airborne sound. The species were sounding together in tempo with individual rhythm patterns that interlocked to create one fantastic rhythm (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Composer David Pye). The cicada chorus (the loudest known lovesong in the insect world) is the unique summer soundmark (term coined by Truax Handbook, Website) of the southern forests. Pye chased various cicadas through Understory until he was able to notate the rhythms of some individuals in a patch of low-lying scrub.To simulate cicada clicking, the composer set pointillist patterns for Indonesian anklung (joint bamboo tubes suspended within a frame to produce notes when the frame is shaken or tapped). Using instruments made of wood to enhance the rich forest imagery, Pye created all parts using sampled instrumental sounds placed against layers of pre-recorded ambient sounds (D. Pye, telephone interview, 3 Sept. 2014). He takes the listener through a “geographical linear representation” of the trail: “I walked around it with a stopwatch and noted how long it took to get through each section of the forest, and that became the musical timing of the various parts of the work” (Pye in SFA Canopy sleeve). That Understory is a place where reciprocity between nature and culture thrives is, likewise, evident in the remaining tracks.Musicalising Forest History and EnvironmentThree tracks distinguish Canopy as an integrative site for memory. Bernard Carney’s waltz honours the Group Settlers who battled insurmountable terrain without any idea of their destiny, men who, having migrated with a promise of owning their own dairy farms, had to clear trees bare-handedly and build furniture from kerosene tins and gelignite cases. Carney illuminates the culture of Saturday night dancing in the schoolroom to popular tunes like The Destiny Waltz (performed on the Titanic in 1912). His original song fades to strains of the Victor Military Band (1914), to “pay tribute to the era where the inspiration of the song came from” (Carney in SFA Canopy sleeve). Likewise Cathie Travers’s Lament is an evocation of remote settler history that creates a “feeling of being in another location, other timezone, almost like an endless loop” (Travers in SFA Canopy sleeve).An instrumental medley by David Hyams opens with Awakening: the morning sun streaming through tall trees, and the nostalgic sound of an accordion waltz. Shaking the Tree, an Irish jig, recalls humankind’s struggle with forest and the forces of nature. A final title, When the Light Comes, defers to the saying by conservationist John Muir that “The wrongs done to trees, wrongs of every sort, are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when the light comes the heart of the people is always right” (quoted by Hyams in SFA Canopy sleeve). Local musician Joel Barker wrote Something for Everyone to personify the old-growth karri as a king with a crown, with “wisdom in his bones.”Kevin Smith’s father was born in Northcliffe in 1924. He and Brendon Humphries fantasise the untouchability of a maiden (pre-human) moment in a forest in their song, When the Wind First Blew. In Libby Hammer’s The Glade (a lover’s lament), instrumental timbres project their own affective languages. The jazz singer intended the accompanying double bass to speak resonantly of old-growth forest; the cello to express suppleness and renewal; a soprano saxophone to impersonate a bird; and the drums to imitate the insect community’s polyrhythmic undercurrent (after Hammer in SFA Canopy sleeve).A hybrid aural environment of synthetic and natural forest sounds contrasts collision with harmony in Sanctuary. The Jeavons Brothers sampled rustling wind on nearby Mt Chudalup to absorb into the track’s opening, and crafted a snare groove for the quirky eco-jazz/trip-hop by banging logs together, and banging rocks against logs. This imaginative use of percussive found objects enhanced their portrayal of forest as “a living, breathing entity.”In dealing with recent history in My Place, Ann Rice cameos a happy childhood growing up on a southwest farm, “damming creeks, climbing trees, breaking bones and skinning knees.” The rich string harmonies of Mel Robinson’s Shelter sculpt the shifting environment of a brewing storm, while White Haze by Tomás Ford describes a smoky controlled burn as “a kind of metaphor for the beautiful mystical healing nature of Northcliffe”: Someone’s burning off the scrubSomeone’s making sure it’s safeSomeone’s whiting out the fearSomeone’s letting me breathe clearAs Sinclair illuminates in a post-fire interview with Sharon Kennedy (Website):When your map, your personal map of life involves a place, and then you think that that place might be gone…” Fiona doesn't finish the sentence. “We all had to face the fact that our little place might disappear." Ultimately, only one house was lost. Pasture and fences, sheds and forest are gone. Yet, says Fiona, “We still have our town. As part of SFA’s ongoing commission, forest rhythm workshops explore different sound properties of potential materials for installing sound sculptures mimicking the surrounding flora and fauna. In 2015, SFA mounted After the Burn (a touring photographic exhibition) and Out of the Ashes (paintings and woodwork featuring ash, charcoal, and resin) (SFA, After the Burn 116). The forthcoming community project Rising From the Ashes will commemorate the fire and allow residents to connect and create as they heal and move forward—ten years on from the foundation of Understory.ConclusionThe Understory Art in Nature Trail stimulates curiosity. It clearly illustrates links between place-based social, economic and material conditions and creative practices and products within a forest that has both given shelter and “done people in.” The trail is an experimental field, a transformative locus in which dedicated physical space frees artists to culturalise forest through varied aesthetic modalities. Conversely, forest possesses agency for naturalising art as a symbol of place. Djiva’s song Ngank Boodjak “sings up the land” to revitalise the timelessness of prior occupation, while David Pye’s Cicadan Rhythms foregrounds the seasonal cycle of entomological music.In drawing out the richness and significance of place, the ecologically inspired album Canopy suggests that the community identity of a forested place may be informed by cultural, economic, geographical, and historical factors as well as endemic flora and fauna. Finally, the musical representation of place is not contingent upon blatant forms of environmentalism. The portrayals of Northcliffe respectfully associate Western Australian people and forests, yet as a place, the town has become an enduring icon for the plight of the Universal Old-growth Forest in all its natural glory, diverse human uses, and (real or perceived) abuses.ReferencesAustralian Broadcasting Commission. “Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests.” Into the Music. Prod. Robyn Johnston. Radio National, 5 May 2007. 12 Aug. 2014 <http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/intothemusic/canopy-songs-for-the-southern-forests/3396338>.———. “Composer David Pye.” Interview with Andrew Ford. The Music Show, Radio National, 12 Sep. 2009. 30 Jan. 2015 <http://canadapodcasts.ca/podcasts/MusicShowThe/1225021>.Berg, Peter, and Raymond Dasmann. “Reinhabiting California.” Reinhabiting a Separate Country: A Bioregional Anthology of Northern California. Ed. Peter Berg. San Francisco: Planet Drum, 1978. 217-20.Crawford, Patricia, and Ian Crawford. Contested Country: A History of the Northcliffe Area, Western Australia. Perth: UWA P, 2003.Feld, Steven. 2001. “Lift-Up-Over Sounding.” The Book of Music and Nature: An Anthology of Sounds, Words, Thoughts. Ed. David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2001. 193-206.Giblett, Rod. People and Places of Nature and Culture. Bristol: Intellect, 2011.Kato, Kumi. “Addressing Global Responsibility for Conservation through Cross-Cultural Collaboration: Kodama Forest, a Forest of Tree Spirits.” The Environmentalist 28.2 (2008): 148-54. 15 Apr. 2014 <http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10669-007-9051-6#page-1>.Kennedy, Sharon. “Local Knowledge Builds Vital Support Networks in Emergencies.” ABC South West WA, 10 Mar. 2015. 26 Mar. 2015 <http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2015/03/09/4193981.htm?site=southwestwa>.Morrison, Della Rae. E-mail. 15 July 2014.Pedelty, Mark. Ecomusicology: Rock, Folk, and the Environment. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2012.Pye, David. Telephone interview. 3 Sep. 2014.Relph, Edward. Place and Placelessness. London: Pion, 1976.Rice, Ann. Telephone interview. 2 Oct. 2014.Rose, Deborah Bird. Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness. Australian Heritage Commission, 1996.Ryan, John C. Green Sense: The Aesthetics of Plants, Place and Language. Oxford: Trueheart Academic, 2012.Schine, Jennifer. “Movement, Memory and the Senses in Soundscape Studies.” Canadian Acoustics: Journal of the Canadian Acoustical Association 38.3 (2010): 100-01. 12 Apr. 2016 <http://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/2264>.Sinclair, Fiona. Telephone interview. 6 Apr. 2014.Sinclair, Fiona, and Peter Hill. Personal Interview. 26 Sep. 2014.Southern Forest Arts. Canopy: Songs for the Southern Forests. CD coordinated by Fiona Sinclair. Recorded and produced by Lee Buddle. Sleeve notes by Robyn Johnston. West Perth: Sound Mine Studios, 2006.———. Southern Forest Sculpture Walk Catalogue. Northcliffe, WA, 2006. Unpaginated booklet.———. Understory—Art in Nature. 2009. 12 Apr. 2016 <http://www.understory.com.au/>.———. Trailguide. Understory. Presented by Southern Forest Arts, n.d.———. After the Burn: Stories, Poems and Photos Shared by the Local Community in Response to the 2015 Northcliffe and Windy Harbour Bushfire. 2nd ed. Ed. Fiona Sinclair. Northcliffe, WA., 2016.Truax, Barry, ed. Handbook for Acoustic Ecology. 2nd ed. Cambridge Street Publishing, 1999. 10 Apr. 2016 <http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/handbook/Soundmark.html>.

Annular seals serve an important role in the dynamics of turbomachinery by reducing leakage of a process fluid while also contributing potentially destabilizing forces to the rotor system. Hole-pattern seals have been the focus of many investigations, but recent experimental studies have shown that there are still many phenomena that require exploration. One such phenomenon is the influence of hole depth on the static and dynamic characteristics of the seal. In this paper, a hybrid computational fluid dynamics (CFD)/bulk-flow method is employed to investigate the nonmonotonic relationship between hole depth and leakage shown in experimental measurements of a hole-pattern seal by Childs et al. (2014, “The Impact of Hole Depth on the Rotordynamic and Leakage Characteristics of Hole-Pattern-Stator Gas Annular Seals,” ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 136(4), p. 042501). Three hole depths (1.905 mm, 3.302 mm, and 6.604 mm) and three running speeds (10,200 rpm, 15,350 rpm, and 20,200 rpm) are considered. For the steady-state flow, the 3D Reynolds-Averaged-Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are solved with the k-ϵ turbulence model for a circumferentially periodic sector of the full seal geometry. The steady-state results are input into the first-order equations of a bulk-flow model to predict rotordynamic coefficients. Results of the hybrid method are compared to experimental data. CFD predicted leakage showed good agreement (within 5%) for the 3.302 mm and 6.604 mm hole depth configurations. For the 1.905 mm hole depth seal, agreement was within 17%. An additional set of calculations performed with the shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model produced worse agreement. Examination of streamlines along the seal show that the hole depth controls the shape of the vortex that forms in the hole, driving the resistance experienced by the jet flow in the clearance region. For the rotordynamic coefficients, good agreement is shown between predictions and experiment for most excitation frequencies.

A two-phase annular seal stand (2PASS) has been developed at the Turbomachinery Laboratory of Texas A&M University to measure the leakage and rotordynamic coefficients of division wall or balance-piston annular seals in centrifugal compressors. 2PASS was modified from an existing pure-air annular seal test rig. A special mixer has been designed to inject the oil into the compressed air, aiming to make a homogenous air-rich mixture. Test results are presented for a smooth seal with an inner diameter D of 89.306 mm, a radial clearance Cr of 0.188 mm, and a length-to-diameter ratio (L/D) of 0.65. The test fluid is a mixture of air and silicone oil (PSF-5cSt). Tests are conducted with inlet liquid volume fraction (LVF) = 0%, 2%, 5%, and 8%, shaft speed ω = 10, 15, and 20 krpm, and pressure ratio (PR) = 0.43, 0.5, and 0.57. The test seal is concentric with the shaft (centered), and the inlet pressure is 62.1 bar. Complex dynamic-stiffness coefficients are measured for the seal. The real parts are generally too dependent on excitation frequency Ω to be modeled by constant stiffness and virtual-mass coefficients. The direct real dynamic-stiffness coefficients are denoted as KΩ; the cross-coupled real dynamic-stiffness coefficients are denoted as kΩ. The imaginary parts of the dynamic-stiffness coefficients are modeled by frequency-independent direct C and cross-coupled c damping coefficients. Test results show that the leakage and rotordynamic coefficients are remarkable impacted by changes in inlet LVF. Leakage mass flow rate m˙ drops slightly as inlet LVF increases from zero to 2% and then increases with further increasing inlet LVF to 8%. As inlet LVF increases from zero to 8%, KΩ generally decreases except it increases as inlet LVF increases from zero to 2% when PR = 0.43. kΩ increases virtually with increasing inlet LVF from zero to 2%. As inlet LVF further increases to 8%, kΩ decreases or remains unchanged. C increases as inlet LVF increases; however, its rate of increase drops significantly at inlet LVF = 2%. Effective damping Ceff combines the stabilizing impact of C and the destabilizing impact of kΩ. Ceff is negative (destabilizing) for lower Ω values and becomes more destabilizing as inlet LVF increases from zero to 2%. It then becomes less destabilizing as inlet LVF is further increased to 8%. Measured m˙ and rotordynamic coefficients are compared with predictions from XLHseal_mix, a program developed by San Andrés (2011, “Rotordynamic Force Coefficients of Bubbly Mixture Annular Pressure Seals,” ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 134(2), p. 022503) based on a bulk-flow model, using the Moody wall-friction model while assuming constant temperature and a homogenous mixture. Predicted m˙ values are close to measurements when inlet LVF = 0% and 2% and are smaller than test results by about 17% when inlet LVF = 5% and 8%. As with measurements, predicted m˙ drops slightly as inlet LVF increases from zero to 2% and then increases with increasing inlet LVF further to 8%. However, in the inlet LVF range of 2–8%, the predicted effects of inlet LVF on m˙ are weaker than measurements. XLHseal_mix poorly predicts KΩ in most test cases. For all test cases, predicted KΩ decreases as inlet LVF increases from zero to 8%. The increase of KΩ induced by increasing inlet LVF from zero to 2% at PR = 0.43 is not predicted. C is reasonably predicted, and predicted C values are consistently smaller than measured results by 14–34%. Both predicted and measured C increase as inlet LVF increases. kΩ and Ceff are predicted adequately at pure-air conditions, but not at most mainly air conditions. The significant increase of kΩ induced by changing inlet LVF from zero to 2% is predicted. As inlet LVF increases from 2% to 8%, predicted kΩ continues increasing versus that measured kΩ typically decreases. As with measurements, increasing inlet LVF from zero to 2% decreases the predicted negative values of Ceff, making the test seal more destabilizing. However, as inlet LVF increases further to 8%, the predicted negative values of Ceff drop versus measured values increase. For high inlet LVF values (5% and 8%), the predicted negative values of Ceff are smaller than measurements. So, the seal is more stabilizing than predicted for high inlet LVF cases.

"If people don't trust their information, it's not much better than a Marxist-Leninist society." -- Orville Schell Dean, Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley "Most people aren't very discerning. Maybe they need good financial information, but I don't think people know what good information is when you get into culture, society, and politics." -- Steven Brill,Chairman and Editor-in-chief, Brill's Content Once upon a time, not very long ago, advertisements were easy to recognise. They had simple personalities with goals not much more complicated than selling you a bar of soap or a box of cereal. And they possessed the reassuring familiarity of old friends or relatives you've known all your life. They were Pilgrims who smiled at you from Quaker Oats boxes or little tablets named "Speedy" who joyfully danced into a glass of water with the sole purpose of giving up their short life to help lessen your indigestion from overindulgence. Yes, sometimes they could be a little obnoxious but, hey, it was a predictable annoyance. And once, not very long ago, advertisements also knew their place in the landscape of popular culture, their boundaries were the ad space of magazines or the commercial time of television programs. When the ads got too annoying, you could toss the magazine aside or change the TV channel. The ease and quickness of their dispatch had the abruptness of slamming your front door in the face of an old door-to-door salesman. This all began to change around the 1950s when advertisements acquired a more complex and subtle personality and began straying outside of their familiar media neighborhoods. The social observer Vance Packard wrote a best-selling book in the late 50s called The Hidden Persuaders which identified this change in advertising's personality as coming from hanging around Professor Freud's psychoanalysis and learning his hidden, subliminal methods of trickery. Ice cubes in a glass for a liquor ad were no longer seen as simple props to help sell a brand of whiskey but were now subliminal suggestions of female anatomy. The curved fronts of automobiles were more than aesthetic streamlined design features but rather suggestive of a particular feature of the male anatomy. Forgotten by the new subliminal types of ads was the simple salesmanship preached by founders of the ad industry like David Ogilvy and John Caples. The word "sales" became a dirty word and was replaced with modern psychological buzzwords like subliminal persuasion. The Evolution of Subliminal Techniques The book Hidden Persuaders made quite a stir at the time, bringing about congressional hearings and even the introduction of legislation. Prominent motivation researchers Louis Cheskin and Ernest Dichter utilised the new ad methods and were publicly admonished as traitors to their profession. The life of the new subliminal advertising seemed short indeed. Even Vance Packard predicted its coming demise. "Eventually, say by A.D. 2000," he wrote in the preface to the paperback edition of his book, "all this depth manipulation of the psychological variety will seem amusingly old- fashioned". Yet, 40 years later, any half-awake observer of popular culture knows that things haven't exactly worked out the way Packard predicted. In fact what seems old-fashioned today is the belief that ads are those simpletons they once were before the 50s and that products are sold for features and benefits rather than for images. Even Vance Packard expresses an amazement at the evolution of advertising since the 50s, noting that today ads for watches have nothing to do with watches or that ads for shoes scarcely mention shoes. Packard remarks "it used to be the brand identified the product. In today's advertising the brand is the product". Modern advertising, he notes, has an almost total obsession with images and feelings and an almost total lack of any concrete claims about the product and why anyone should buy it. Packard admits puzzlement. "Commercials seem totally unrelated to selling any product at all". Jeff DeJoseph of the J. Walter Thompson firm underlines Packard's comments. "We are just trying to convey a sensory impression of the brand, and we're out of there". Subliminal advertising techniques have today infiltrated the heart of corporate America. As Ruth Shalit notes in her article "The Return of the Hidden Persuaders" from the 27 September 1999 issue of Salon magazine, "far from being consigned to the maverick fringe, the new psycho- persuaders of corporate America have colonized the marketing departments of mainstream conglomerates. At companies like Kraft, Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble and Daimler-Chrysler, the most sought-after consultants hail not from McKinsey & Company, but from brand consultancies with names like Archetype Discoveries, PsychoLogics and Semiotic Solutions". Shalit notes a growing number of CEOs have become convinced they cannot sell their brands until they first explore the "Jungian substrata of four- wheel drive; unlock the discourse codes of female power sweating; or deconstruct the sexual politics of bologna". The result, as Shalit observes, is a "charmingly retro school of brand psychoanalysis, which holds that all advertising is simply a variation on the themes of the Oedipus complex, the death instinct, or toilet training, and that the goal of effective communications should be to compensate the consumer for the fact that he was insufficiently nursed as an infant, has taken corporate America by storm". The Growing Ubiquity of Advertising Yet pervasive as the subliminal techniques of advertising have become, the emerging power of modern advertising ultimately centres around "where" it is rather than "what" it is or "how" it works. The power of modern advertising is within this growing ubiquity or "everywhereness" of advertising rather than the technology and methodology of advertising. The ultimate power of advertising will be arrived at when ads cannot be distinguished from their background environment. When this happens, the environment will become a great continuous ad. In the process, ads have wandered away from their well-known hangouts in magazines and TV shows. Like alien-infected pod-people of early science fiction movies, they have stumbled out of these familiar media playgrounds and suddenly sprouted up everywhere. The ubiquity of advertising is not being driven by corporations searching for new ways to sell products but by media searching for new ways to make money. Traditionally, media made money by selling subscriptions and advertising space. But these two key income sources are quickly drying up in the new world of online media. Journalist Mike France wisely takes notice of this change in an important article "Journalism's Online Credibility Gap" from the 11 October 1999 issue of Business Week. France notes that subscription fees have not worked because "Web surfers are used to getting content for free, and they have been reluctant to shell out any money for it". Advertising sales and their Internet incarnation in banner ads have also been a failure so far, France observes, because companies don't like paying a flat fee for online advertising since it's difficult to track the effectiveness of their marketing dollars. Instead, they only want to pay for actual sales leads, which can be easily monitored on the Web as readers' click from site to site. Faced with the above situation, media companies have gone on the prowl for new ways to make money. This search underpins the emerging ubiquity of advertising: the fact that it is increasingly appearing everywhere. In the process, traditional boundaries between advertising and other societal institutions are being overrun by these media forces on the prowl for new "territory" to exploit. That time when advertisements knew their place in the landscape of popular culture and confined themselves to just magazines or TV commercials is a fading memory. And today, as each of us is bombarded by thousands of ads each day, it is impossible to "slam" the door and keep them out of our house as we could once slam the door in the face of the old door-to-door salesmen. Of course you can find them on the matchbook cover of your favorite bar, on t-shirts sold at some roadside tourist trap or on those logo baseball caps you always pick up at trade shows. But now they have got a little more personal and stare at you over urinals in the men's room. They have even wedged themselves onto the narrow little bars at the check-out counter conveyer belts of supermarkets or onto the handles of gasoline pumps at filling stations. The list goes on and on. (No, this article is not an ad.) Advertising and Entertainment In advertising's march to ubiquity, two major boundaries have been crossed. They are crucial boundaries which greatly enhance advertising's search for the invisibility of ubiquity. Yet they are also largely invisible themselves. These are the boundaries separating advertising from entertainment and those separating advertising from journalism. The incursion of advertising into entertainment is a result of the increasing merger of business and entertainment, a phenomenon pointed out in best-selling business books like Michael Wolf's Entertainment Economy and Joseph Pine's The Experience Economy. Wolf, a consultant for Viacom, Newscorp, and other media heavy-weights, argues business is becoming synonymous with entertainment: "we have come to expect that we will be entertained all the time. Products and brands that deliver on this expectation are succeeding. Products that do not will disappear". And, in The Experience Economy, Pine notes the increasing need for businesses to provide entertaining experiences. "Those businesses that relegate themselves to the diminishing world of goods and services will be rendered irrelevant. To avoid this fate, you must learn to stage a rich, compelling experience". Yet entertainment, whether provided by businesses or the traditional entertainment industry, is increasingly weighted down with the "baggage" of advertising. In a large sense, entertainment is a form of new media that carries ads. Increasingly, this seems to be the overriding purpose of entertainment. Once, not long ago, when ads were simple and confined, entertainment was also simple and its purpose was to entertain rather than to sell. There was money enough in packed movie houses or full theme parks to make a healthy profit. But all this has changed with advertising's ubiquity. Like media corporations searching for new revenue streams, the entertainment industry has responded to flat growth by finding new ways to squeeze money out of entertainment content. Films now feature products in paid for scenes and most forms of entertainment use product tie-ins to other areas such as retail stores or fast-food restaurants. Also popular with the entertainment industry is what might be termed the "versioning" of entertainment products into various sub-species where entertainment content is transformed into other media so it can be sold more than once. A film may not make a profit on just the theatrical release but there is a good chance it doesn't matter because it stands to make a profit in video rentals. Advertising and Journalism The merger of advertising and entertainment goes a long way towards a world of ubiquitous advertising. Yet the merger of advertising and journalism is the real "promised land" in the evolution of ubiquitous advertising. This fundamental shift in the way news media make money provides the final frontier to be conquered by advertising, a final "promised land" for advertising. As Mike France observes in Business Week, this merger "could potentially change the way they cover the news. The more the press gets in the business of hawking products, the harder it will be to criticize those goods -- and the companies making them". Of course, there is that persistent myth, perpetuated by news organisations that they attempt to preserve editorial independence by keeping the institutions they cover and their advertisers at arm's length. But this is proving more and more difficult, particularly for online media. Observers like France have pointed out a number of reasons for this. One is the growth of ads in news media that look more like editorial content than ads. While long-standing ethical rules bar magazines and newspapers from printing advertisements that look like editorial copy, these rules become fuzzy for many online publications. Another reason making it difficult to separate advertising from journalism is the growing merger and consolidation of media corporations. Fewer and fewer corporations control more and more entertainment, news and ultimately advertising. It becomes difficult for a journalist to criticise a product when it has a connection to the large media conglomerate the journalist works for. Traditionally, it has been rare for media corporations to make direct investments in the corporations they cover. However, as Mike France notes, CNBC crossed this line when it acquired a stake in Archipelago in September 1999. CNBC, which runs a business-news Website, acquired a 12.4% stake in Archipelago Holdings, an electronic communications network for trading stock. Long-term plans are likely to include allowing visitors to cnbc.com to link directly to Archipelago. That means CNBC could be in the awkward position of both providing coverage of online trading and profiting from it. France adds that other business news outlets, such as Dow Jones (DJ), Reuters, and Bloomberg, already have indirect ties to their own electronic stock-trading networks. And, in news organisations, a popular method of cutting down on the expense of paying journalists for content is the growing practice of accepting advertiser written content or "sponsored edit" stories. The confusion to readers violates the spirit of a long-standing American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) rule prohibiting advertisements with "an editorial appearance". But as France notes, this practice is thriving online. This change happens in ever so subtle ways. "A bit of puffery inserted here," notes France, "a negative adjective deleted there -- it doesn't take a lot to turn a review or story about, say, smart phones, into something approaching highbrow ad copy". He offers an example in forbes.com whose Microsoft ads could easily be mistaken for staff-written articles. Media critic James Fallows points out that consumers have been swift to discipline sites that are caught acting unethically and using "sponsored edits". He notes that when it was revealed that amazon.com was taking fees of up to $10,000 for books that it labelled as "destined for greatness", its customers were outraged, and the company quickly agreed to disclose future promotional payments. Unfortunately, though, the lesson episodes like these teach online companies like Amazon centres around more effective ways to be less "revealing" rather than abstention from the practice of "sponsored edits". France reminds us that journalism is built on trust. In the age of the Internet, though, trust is quickly becoming an elusive quality. He writes "as magazines, newspapers, radio stations, and television networks rush to colonize the Internet, the Great Wall between content and commerce is beginning to erode". In the end, he ponders whether there is an irrevocable conflict between e-commerce and ethical journalism. When you can't trust journalists to be ethical, just who can you trust? Transaction Fees & Affiliate Programs - Advertising's Final Promised Land? The engine driving the growing ubiquity of advertising, though, is not the increasing merger of advertising with other industries (like entertainment and journalism) but rather a new business model of online commerce and Internet technology called transaction fees. This emerging and potentially dominant Internet e-commerce technology provides for the ability to track transactions electronically on Websites and to garner transaction fees. Through these fees, many media Websites take a percentage of payment through online product sales. In effect, a media site becomes one pervasive direct mail ad for every product mentioned on its site. This of course puts them in a much closer economic partnership with advertisers than is the case with traditional fixed-rate ads where there is little connection between product sales and the advertising media carrying them. Transaction fees are the new online version of direct marketing, the emerging Internet technology for their application is one of the great economic driving forces of the entire Internet commerce apparatus. The promise of transaction fees is that a number of people, besides product manufacturers and advertisers, might gain a percentage of profit from selling products via hypertext links. Once upon a time, the manufacturer of a product was the one that gained (or lost) from marketing it. Now, however, there is the possibility that journalists, news organisations and entertainment companies might also gain from marketing via transaction fees. The spread of transaction fees outside media into the general population provides an even greater boost to the growing ubiquity of advertising. This is done through the handmaiden of media transaction fees: "affiliate programs" for the general populace. Through the growing magic of Internet technology, it becomes possible for all of us to earn money through affiliate program links to products and transaction fee percentages in the sale of these products. Given this scenario, it is not surprising that advertisers are most likely to increasingly pressure media Websites to support themselves with e-commerce transaction fees. Charles Li, Senior Analyst for New Media at Forrester Research, estimates that by the year 2003, media sites will receive $25 billion in revenue from transaction fees, compared with $17 billion from ads and $5 billion from subscriptions. The possibility is great that all media will become like great direct response advertisements taking a transaction fee percentage for anything sold on their sites. And there is the more dangerous possibility that all of us will become the new "promised land" for a ubiquitous advertising. All of us will have some cut in selling somebody else's product. When this happens and there is a direct economic incentive for all of us to say nice things about products, what is the need and importance of subliminal techniques and methods creating advertising based on images which try to trick us into buying things? A Society Without Critics? It is for these reasons that criticism and straight news are becoming an increasingly endangered species. Everyone has to eat but what happens when one can no longer make meal money by criticising current culture? Cultural critics become a dying breed. There is no money in criticism because it is based around disconnection rather than connection to products. No links to products or Websites are involved here. Critics are becoming lonely icebergs floating in the middle of a cyber-sea of transaction fees, watching everyone else (except themselves) make money on transaction fees. The subliminal focus of the current consultancies is little more than a repackaging of an old theme discovered long ago by Vance Packard. But the growing "everywhereness" and "everyoneness" of modern advertising through transaction fees may mark the beginning of a revolutionary new era. Everyone might become their own "brand", a point well made in Tim Peters's article "A Brand Called You". Media critic James Fallows is somewhat optimistic that there still may remain "niche" markets for truthful information and honest cultural criticism. He suggests that surely people looking for mortgages, voting for a politician, or trying to decide what movie to see will continue to need unbiased information to help them make decisions. But one must ask what happens when a number of people have some "affiliate" relationship with suggesting particular movies, politicians or mortgages? Orville Schell, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, has summarised this growing ubiquity of advertising in a rather simple and elegant manner saying "at a certain point, people won't be able to differentiate between what's trustworthy and what isn't". Over the long run, this loss of credibility could have a corrosive effect on society in general -- especially given the media's importance as a political, cultural, and economic watchdog. Schell warns, "if people don't trust their information, it's not much better than a Marxist-Leninist society". Yet, will we be able to realise this simple fact when we all become types of Marxists and Leninists? Still, there is the great challenge to America to learn how to utilise transaction fees in a democratic manner. In effect, a combination of the technological promise of the new economy with that old promise, and perhaps even myth, of a democratic America. America stands on the verge of a great threshold and challenge in the growing ubiquity of advertising. In a way, as with most great opportunities or threats, this challenge centres on a peculiar paradox. On the one hand, there is the promise of the emerging Internet business model and its centre around the technology of transaction fees. At the same time, there is the threat posed by transaction fees to America's democratic society in the early years of the new millennium. Yes, once upon a time, not very long ago, advertisements were easy to recognise and also knew their place in the landscape of popular culture. Their greatest, yet silent, evolution (especially in the age of the Internet) has really been in their spread into all areas of culture rather than in methods of trickery and deceit. Now, it is more difficult to slam that front door in the face of that old door-to-door salesman. Or toss that magazine and its ad aside, or switch off commercials on television. We have become that door-to-door salesman, that magazine ad, that television commercial. The current cultural landscape takes on some of the characteristics of the theme of that old science fiction movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. A current advertising campaign from RJ Reynolds has a humorous take on the current zeitgeist fad of alien abduction with copy reading "if aliens are smart enough to travel through space then why do they keep abducting the dumbest people on earth?" One might add that when Americans allow advertising to travel through all our space, perhaps we all become the dumbest people on earth, abducted by a new alien culture so far away from a simplistic nostalgia of yesterday. (Please press below for your links to a world of fantastic products which can make a new you.) References Brill, Steven. Quoted by Mike France in "Journalism's Online Credibility Gap." Business Week 11 Oct. 1999. France, Mike. "Journalism's Online Credibility Gap." Business Week 11 Oct. 1999. <http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_41/b3650163.htm>. Packard, Vance. The Hidden Persuaders. Out of Print, 1957. Pine, Joseph, and James Gilmore. The Experience Economy. Harvard Business School P, 1999. Shalit, Ruth. "The Return of the Hidden Persuaders." Salon Magazine 27 Sep. 1999. <http://www.salon.com/media/col/shal/1999/09/27/persuaders/index.php>. Schell, Orville. Quoted by Mike France in "Journalism's Online Credibility Gap." Business Week 11 Oct. 1999. Wolf, Michael. Entertainment Economy. Times Books, 1999. Citation reference for this article MLA style: John Fraim. "Friendly Persuasion: The Growing Ubiquity of Advertising, or What Happens When Everyone Becomes an Ad?." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3.1 (2000). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0003/ads.php>. Chicago style: John Fraim, "Friendly Persuasion: The Growing Ubiquity of Advertising, or What Happens When Everyone Becomes an Ad?," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3, no. 1 (2000), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0003/ads.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: John Fraim. (2000) Friendly Persuasion: The Growing Ubiquity of Advertising, or What Happens When Everyone Becomes an Ad?. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3(1). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0003/ads.php> ([your date of access]).