Focal adhesion interactions with topographical structures: a novel method for immuno-SEM labelling of focal adhesions in S-phase cells

Current understanding of the mechanisms involved in osseointegration following implantation of a biomaterial has led to adhesion quantification being implemented as an assay of cytocompatibility. Such measurement can be hindered by intra-sample variation owing to morphological changes associated with the cell cycle. Here we report on a new scanning electron microscopical method for the simultaneous immunogold labelling of cellular focal adhesions and S-phase nuclei identified by BrdU incorporation. Prior to labelling, cellular membranes are removed by tritonization and antigens of non-interest blocked by serum incubation. Adhesion plaque–associated vinculin and S-phase nuclei were both separately labelled with a 1.4 nm gold colloid and visualized by subsequent colloid enhancement via silver deposition. This study is specifically concerned with the effects microgroove topographies have on adhesion formation in S-phase osteoblasts. By combining backscattered electron (BSE) imaging with secondary electron (SE) imaging it was possible to visualize S-phase nuclei and the immunogold-labelled adhesion sites in one energy 'plane' and the underlying nanotopography in another. Osteoblast adhesion to these nanotopographies was ascertained by quantification of adhesion complex formation.     

A methodology for investigating effects of cell size on operational flexibility in flexible manufacturing systems

There are two aspects to cell formation in flexible manufacturing systems, cell sizing or deciding on the optimum number of machines to be allocated to each cell, and then allocation of specific machines to each cell. Although the latter problem has been investigated extensively there is a paucity of published work on the former. This paper discusses the effects of cell sizing on operational flexibility.Operational flexibility is that aspect of flexibility that enables manufacturing systems to respond with speed and efficiency to changes in the manufacturing environment while maintaining an effective level of control.     

高灵敏度荧光显微镜及其在细胞光敏效应研究中的应用

研制了一种可探测极微弱细胞荧光图象的高灵敏度荧光显微镜，在仪器中使用了一个高质量的亮度增益为５０，０００的象增强器对细胞的荧光图象进行光能量放大，因而这种荧光显微镜可探测到普通荧光显微镜不能观察的微弱荧光图象。由于仪器中光源的输出强度很小，避免了长时间观察对活细胞的光损伤，并可观察到荧光效率低的荧光物质的分布图象。探测系统中用计算机采集图象数据，同时对数据进行必要处理，以提高图象的质量。这种高灵敏度的荧光显微镜可用于分析细胞中荧光物质的分布，以及细胞动态生理过程的研究。使用此仪器已直接观察到光敏竹红菌甲素在Ｈｅｌａ细胞（人体宫颈癌细胞）中的分布，细胞受光照射后的光损伤现象及加入三种细胞保护剂后获得不同程度保护的细胞状态。     

上海市吴淞工业区大气PM2.5水溶成分的元素分析及细胞毒性研究

通过ICP-MS测定了上海市吴淞地区大气PM2.5水溶成分金属元素含量,通过四唑盐(MTT)测定细胞存活率,通过超氧化歧化酶(SOD)和丙二醛(MDA)两个指标测定细胞氧化损伤,琼脂糖凝胶电泳测定细胞内DNA损伤,流式细胞仪(Flow cytometry)检测细胞凋亡和周期等实验研究了大气PM2.5水溶成分的细胞毒性.实验结果表明:PM2.5可溶成分中Zn元素含量最高,PM2.5在一定浓度范围内能导致细胞死亡,引起细胞的氧化损伤,影响DNA的复制,阻碍细胞增殖,但没有诱导细胞凋亡.PM2.5中可溶金属离子对细胞毒性表现为联合作用.     

Mapping of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae CDC3, CDC25, and CDC42 genes to chromosome XII by chromosome blotting and tetrad analysis

CDC3, CDC25 and CDC42 were localized to chromosome XII by hybridizing the cloned genes to Southern blots of chromosomes separated by orthogonal-field-alternation gel electrophoresis. Meiotic tetrad analyses further localized these genes to the region distal to the RDN1 locus on the right arm of the chromosome. The STE11 gene, which had previously been mapped to chromosome XII (Chaleff and Tatchell, 1985), was found to be tightly linked to ILV5. The data suggest a map order of CEN12-RDN1-CDC42-(CDC25-CDC3)-(ILV5- STE11)-URA4. Certain oddities of the data set raise the possibility that there may be constraints on the patterns of recombination in this region of chromosome XII.     

A method for quantifying cell size from differential interference contrast images: validation and application to osmotically stressed chondrocytes

An automatic image analysis method was developed to determine the shape and size of spheroidal cells from a time series of differential interference contrast (DIC) images. The program incorporates an edge detection algorithm and dynamic programming for edge linking. To assess the accuracy and working range of the method, results from DIC images of different focal planes and resolutions were compared to confocal images in which the cell membrane was fluorescently labelled. The results indicate that a 1‐µm focal drift from the in‐focus plane can lead to an overestimation of cell volume up to 14.1%, mostly due to shadowing effects of DIC microscopy. DIC images allow for accurate measurements when the focal plane lies in a zone slightly above the centre of a spherical cell. In this range the method performs with 1.9% overall volume error without taking into account the error introduced by the representation of the cell as a sphere. As a test case, the method was applied to quantify volume changes due to acute changes of osmotic stress.     

Ray-cast volume rendering accelerated by incremental trilinear interpolation and cell templates

Two related ideas for improving the speed of ray-cast volume rendering are studied in this paper. The first is an incremental algorithm for trilinear interpolation, a method commonly used in ray-cast volume rendering to calculate sample values. The incremental algorithm can expedite trilinear interpolation when many samples along a ray are located in one cell. The second is an efficient hybrid volume rendering restricted to parallel projection. In the preprocessing stage, acell template is created to store the information used by the incremental trilinear interpolation. When a cell is parallel projected, the information is retrieved from the template to compute the cell contribution. Because the algorithm with only one template may cause aliasing, an antialiasing technique exploiting multiple cell templates is proposed. With our method, ray-cast volume rendering can be accelerated considerably.     

A cell-based robust optimal coordinated control on urban arterial road

Process of optimizing coordinated control is divided into two stages.At the first stage,the study improves a robust optimal control model of single-point intersection to optimize cycle and split.At the second stage,the study combines all links with intersections of arterial road as a complete system,and applies cell transmission model to simulate traffic flow on urban signalized arterial road.We propose a coordinated control model based on the platform to optimize offset between adjacent intersections.Genetic algorithm is executed by MATLAB to solve the model.The performance evaluations show that the model not only effectively reduces average delay and stopping rate of vehicles on arterial road and largely enhances traffic capacity of arterial road,but also lowers the sensitivity of signal control for flow fluctuations.     

模拟多孔介质中质量输运现象有限颗粒法的应用

有限颗粒法是一种新的颗粒跟踪法,特别适合模拟污染物的运移过程。用有限颗粒法对多孔介质中纵向弥散度进行识别。纵向弥散度是表征含水层中介质弥散特征的重要参数．也是一个很难确定的参数。给出具体算例,并做进一步的讨论。     

Group technology based adaptive cell formation using predator-prey genetic algorithm

In recent years, there has been a considerable growth of application of group technology in cellular manufacturing. This has led to investigation of the primary cell formation problem (CFP), both in classical and soft-computing domain. Compared to more well-known and analytical techniques like mathematical programming which have been used rigorously to solve CFPs, heuristic approaches have yet gained the same level of acceptance. In the last decade we have seen some fruitful attempts to use evolutionary techniques like genetic algorithm (GA) and Ant Colony Optimization to find solutions of the CFP. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the applicability of a fine grain variant of the predator-prey GA (PPGA) in CFPs. The algorithm has been adapted to emphasize local selection strategy and to maintain a reasonable balance between prey and predator population, while avoiding premature convergence. The results show that the algorithm is competitive in identifying machine-part clusters from the initial CFP matrix with significantly less number of iterations. The algorithm scaled efficiently for large size problems with competitive performance. Optimal cluster identification is then followed by removal of the bottleneck elements to give a final solution with minimum inter-cluster transition cost. The results give considerable impetus to study similar NP-complete combinatorial problems using fine-grain GAs in future.