Use of Lachancea thermotolerans for Biological vs. Chemical Acidification at Pilot-Scale in White Wines from Warm Areas

Climate change is affecting vineyards, resulting in grapes with a low acidity a high pH and sugar at harvest time. The most common procedure so far to improve the acidity and reduce the final pH of wines is to use tartaric acid, but wine can also be acidified microbiologically using Lachancea thermotolerans yeasts, a natural bio-tool that acidifies gradually during the first stage/days of fermentation. Two strains of L. thermotolerans were compared with one Saccharomyces cerevisiae at a pilot-scale under similar fermentation conditions and in duplicate. A sequential inoculation was performed on the third day for the non-Saccharomyces, producing only about 1 g/L of lactic acid, which was suitable for comparison with the Saccharomyces, to which 1.5 g/L of tartaric acid had been added to lower the final pH. The three fermentations ended with a total acidity without significant differences. A significant and normal feature of the L. thermotolerans yeasts is their higher propane-1,2,3-triol production, which was observed in the Laktia yeast, and the acetic acid was <0.3 g/L. The amount of volatile metabolites was generally higher for non-Saccharomyces and the increase was seen in carbonyl compounds, organic acids, lactones, fumaric compounds, and phenols. Finally, the sensory analysis showed that there were hardly any significant differences, even though the non-Saccharomyces had a higher quantity of volatile metabolites, which could lead to a good acceptance of the product, since biological acidification was used, generating a more natural product.

Rethinking the use of disruptive pop-up encounters for transformation: A missional reading of Acts 8:26–40

Socio-economic, political and religious pop-ups are a normal feature in the global context. While some are disruptive and annoying, others can be very useful. This article, through a missional reading of Acts 8:26–40, seeks to draw missiological lessons from disruptive pop-up encounter(s) in this text. A missional reading of Acts 8:26–40 discovered that the Holy Spirit is not only the author of Christian mission, but also the pop-up Spirit of God, who prompted pop-up encounters between two strangers whose pop-up experience became an encounter that transformed their search for meaning, understanding, transformative ecclesiologies and the praxes thereof. Therefore, disruptive pop-up encounters, creatively embraced and used, are able to generate encountering conversations that are liberating and transforming.

HYPOXIA AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH: Hypoxia and labour

Intermittent myometrial hypoxia is a normal feature of labour, as the powerful contractions compress blood vessels. In this review, we focus on the relation between hypoxia, myometrial metabolism, and contractility. We dissect how hypoxia can feedback and limit an ongoing contraction and help prevent foetal distress. The mechanisms involve acidification from lactate, decreased excitability, and a fall of intracellular calcium concentration. As this cycle of contraction and relaxation repeats in labour, the hypoxia also engenders mechanisms that increase force; hypoxia-induced force increase, HIFI. We also discuss the role of the myometrial blood vessels in dysfunctional labour, which is associated with lactic acidosis. In synthesising these studies, we have attempted to unify findings by considering the importance of experimental protocols and finding direct mechanistic evidence from human myometrium or in vivo studies. We have made suggestions for future studies to fill the holes in our understanding and speed up the translation of our knowledge to improve births for mothers and babies everywhere.

A BOUNDARY-ENHANCED SUPERVOXEL METHOD FOR EXTRACTION OF ROAD EDGES IN MLS POINT CLOUDS

Road extraction plays a significant role in production of high definition maps (HD maps). This paper presents a novel boundary-enhanced supervoxel segmentation method for extracting road edge contours from MLS point clouds. The proposed method first leverages normal feature judgment to obtain 3D point clouds global geometric information, then clusters points according to an existing method with global geometric information to enhance the boundaries. Finally, it utilizes the neighbor spatial distance metric to extract the contours and drop out existing outliers. The proposed method is tested on two datasets acquired by a RIEGL VMX-450 MLS system that contain the major point cloud scenes with different types of road boundaries. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method provides a promising solution for extracting contours efficiently and completely. Results show that the precision values are 1.5 times higher and approximately equal than the other two existing methods when the recall value is 0 for both tested two road datasets.

The Temporal Distribution and Duration of Mississippian Polities in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee

To aid our understanding of prehispanic social change in a subcontinental context, this article presents data and analysis relating to the occupational histories of 351 Mississippian platform mound sites in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Based on the premise that sites with platform mounds served as the administrative and ritual centers for Mississippian polities, our study demonstrates that polities in the study area rose and fell with some regularity, and in many cases, new polities succeeded old ones in the same locations. Our work expands on a previous analysis of 47 northern Georgia area sites. Through a theoretical framework tailored for macroregional processes and a rule-based approach in collecting and standardizing data from previous work, this study serves as an example for incorporating different processes and regions to provide a more coherent and complete picture of the Mississippian macroregion. Our results show that polity cycling was typical in our study area, and we argue that the rise and fall of polities is best described within a theoretical framework emphasizing collapse and resilience. By treating collapse as a normal feature of Mississippian polities, we can better understand the interconnectedness of Mississippian polities across regions.

A multicentre, observational evaluation of the product characteristics of two absorbent foam dressings

Wound healing is an intrinsic and dynamic process. Wound exudate is a normal feature of wound healing; however, when there is insufficient or excessive production, or the composition of the exudate is harmful, wound healing may be compromised with resulting psychosocial and financial implications. Therefore, the management of exudate is essential for improved patient outcomes and in the prevention of future complications. The purpose of these studies, carried out in Germany and Poland, was to observe and to evaluate the clinical performance of Cutimed® Siltec® and Cutimed Siltec B on patients' wounds. Three visits (initial visit, dressing change visit and final visit) were scheduled and documented. In all, 129 patients took part in these studies and 150 wounds were treated. The results were pooled. Positive attributes of using these dressings included a decrease in exudate, intact wound margins and a decrease in pain during dressing changes. Clinicians and patients were satisfied with the product and rated the following parameters as ‘good’ to ‘very good’: wearing comfort, ease of application and removal, absorption and retention capacity, adaptability to the affected body part, absorption and retention capacity under compression. The results from this study suggest that Cutimed Siltec and Cutimed Siltec B absorbent dressings are beneficial in wound management due to the positive attributes, and clinicians and patients showed satisfaction with these dressings.

Conclusion

This chapter theorizes the death penalty as an outcropping of our political failings and our desire to fix failing institutions rather than eliminate them. It argues that the death penalty has failed by any reasonable measure, but also that this failure is a normal feature of institutions. It lays out the different kinds of failures the death penalty has undergone: to punish fairly, to punish painlessly, to bring resolution to victims of crime, to have any effect at all on crime rates. Today’s death penalty even fails to execute, as there have been no executions since 2006.

Encultured Biases: The Role of Products in Pathways to Inequality

Recent sociological work shows that culture is an important causal variable in labor market outcomes. Does the same hold for product markets? To answer this question, we study a product market in which selection decisions occur absent face-to-face interaction between intermediaries and short-term contract workers. We find evidence of “product-based” cultural matching operating as a pathway to inequality. Relying on quantitative and qualitative observational data and semi-structured interviews with intermediaries in trade fiction publishing, we show intermediaries culturally match themselves to manuscripts as a normal feature of doing “good work.” We propose three organizational conditions under which “encultured biases” come to the fore in product selection, and a fourth resulting in inequalities along demographic lines and other markers of perceived cultural proximity and distance. We close with a discussion of other settings in which product-based cultural matching is likely to occur, call for the investigation of cultural matching beyond previously theorized conditions, and argue for the inclusion of cultural products in the broader movement toward reconsidering culture as a causal factor.

Vaginal discharge

Vaginal discharge may be a normal feature (physiological discharge). However, as a symptom, the term is used to denote vaginal discharge which is excessive in quantity or abnormal in appearance, consistency, or odour.