The treatment of the bagasse samples with 0.1% NaOH solutions resulted in an average of 10% of dry mass solubilization, with significant

variation among the samples. The mass balances for these treatments showed that the cellulose fraction remained almost unchanged, whereas the hemicellulose decreased in most of the samples. The lignin fraction decreased only in the plants that contained the highest initial lignin contents. Alkali-treated samples provided enhanced cellulose conversion levels, varying from 23% to 48% after 72 h of enzymatic digestion. After pretreatment, the samples were better distinguished according to their digestibility by enzymes. In general, the experimental CHIR-99021 molecular weight hybrids with originally low lignin contents presented the highest digestibility. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.”
“The aim of this work was to investigate the correlation between scanning laser polarimetry with variable corneal compensation (GDx VCC) parameters and blue-on-yellow perimetry (B/YP) indices in ocular hypertension (OHT). One eye each of 52 patients with OHT (with a normal visual field, a normal optic

nerve, and an untreated IOP > 21 mmHg) was chosen. All patients were examined with the Octopus 101 automated perimetry dG2 program using the dynamic/normal strategy (white-on-white perimetry, W/WP), with the dG2 program using the dynamic strategy/BY selleck chemicals llc method (blue-on-yellow perimetry, B/YP), and with GDx VCC. Seven of the 52 OHT patients had both B/YP visual field loss and retinal nerve

fiber layer (RNFL) defects with the GDx VCC measurements, and four patients demonstrated regions of B/YP visual field defects with corresponding RNFL defects on GDx VCC GANT61 examination. A mild significant correlation was found between B/YP mean sensitivity (MS) and the superior average (R (2) =0.138, p = 0.049). No significant correlation was found between the W/WP indices and GDx VCC parameters. B/YP MS correlated with the superior average of GDx VCC in OHT patients. The findings brought up the possibility of using both techniques for clinical examination to yield converging data.”
“Minimum variance (MV) based beamforming techniques have been successfully applied to medical ultrasound imaging. These adaptive methods offer higher lateral resolution, lower sidelobes, and better definition of edges compared to delay and sum beamforming (DAS). In standard medical ultrasound, the bone surface is often visualized poorly, and the boundaries region appears unclear. This may happen due to fundamental limitations of the DAS beamformer, and different artifacts due to, e. g., specular reflection, and shadowing. The latter can degrade the robustness of the MV beamformers as the statistics across the imaging aperture is violated because of the obstruction of the imaging beams.