Preferential heterodimerization of a bispecific diabody based on a humanized anti-EGFR antibody 528

We report the utility of in vitro refolding in the preparation of monomorphous hEx3 bispecific diabodies with epidermal growth factor receptor and CD3 retargeting from insoluble aggregates in Escherichia coli. Appropriate interaction between cognate variable heavy and light chains led to the formation of functional hEx3 heterodimers in a diabody format rather than inactive homodimers. The refolded hEx3 was found to exhibit almost the equivalent activity to the hEx3 and single-chain hEx3 (hEx3-scDb) prepared in a mammalian secretion system. We suggest that the preparation of hEx3 from bacterial insoluble material by means of in vitro refolding would be useful for industrial-scale production of the diabody for its potential use in clinical studies.     

Sensing of Vaporous Organic Compounds by TiO2 Porous Films Covered with Polythiophene Layers

This paper describes the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) through analyses of two output signals from integrated microcantilever sensor arrays coated with organic‐inorganic hybrid sensing layers. The surface of TiO₂ porous films was modified by amphiphilic terthiophene monomers and the adsorbed monomers were polymerized at the surface of TiO₂ nanoparticles. The TiO₂ porous films covered with polythiophene layers worked as highly sensitive sensing interfaces to provide two output signals for weight and resistance changes during exposure to VOC vapor. When the TiO₂ porous films onto the sensor arrays were dyed with various kinds of amphiphilic monomers with different substituents, the resulting films provide exact information on VOC concentration from the mass changes as well as VOC classification from the analyses of response patterns.     

Micropore x-ray optics using anisotropic wet etching of (110) silicon wafers

To develop x-ray mirrors for micropore optics, smooth silicon (111) sidewalls obtained after anisotropic wet etching of a silicon (110) wafer were studied. A sample device with 19 microm wide (111) sidewalls was fabricated using a 220 microm thick silicon (110) wafer and potassium hydroxide solution. For what we believe to be the first time, x-ray reflection on the (111) sidewalls was detected in the angular response measurement. Compared to ray-tracing simulations, the surface roughness of the sidewalls was estimated to be 3-5 nm, which is consistent with the atomic force microscope and the surface profiler measurements.     

Study on tool wear mechanisms in milling laser sintered material

This paper investigates tool wear mechanisms of a ball end mill in cutting laser sintered material. Cutting edge temperature is measured by using a three-color pyrometer with an optical fiber. Bulk carbon steel JIS S55C is selected as the standard steel. Experimental results show that tool life in cutting sintered material is shorter than that in cutting JIS S55C. Observations by SEM show that adhesion of the work material and micro chipping are the main wear mechanisms in cutting sintered material. The corresponding cutting edge temperature shows a continuous increase as wear evolves with cutting time.     

Identification of Physiological and Toxic Conformations in Aβ42 Aggregates

Aggregation of the 42‐residue amyloid β‐protein (Aβ42) plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite numerous structural studies on Aβ aggregates, the relationship between tertiary structure and toxicity remains unclear. Our proline scanning and solid‐state NMR studies suggested that aggregates both of wild‐type Aβ42 and of E22K‐Aβ42 (one of the mutants related to cerebral amyloid angiopathy) contain two conformers: a major one with a turn at positions 25 and 26, and a minor one with a turn at positions 22 and 23. To identify the toxic conformer, the derivative Aβ42‐lactam(22K–23E), in which the side chains at positions 22 and 23 were covalently linked, was synthesized as a minor conformer surrogate, along with Aβ42‐lactam(25K–26E) as a major conformer surrogate. The Aβ42‐lactam(22K–23E) showed stronger aggregation, neurotoxicity, radical generation, and oligomerization than wild‐type Aβ42, whereas in Aβ42‐lactam(25K–26E) were weak. The transition from the physiological conformation with a turn at positions 25 and 26 to the toxic conformation with a turn at positions 22 and 23 might be a key event in the pathogenesis of AD.     

Architectures for ATM network survivability

This article surveys the restoration architectures for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network survivability that have been actively studied in this decade. Network reliability is critical for recent and future networks that will advance the information era. Moreover, it is one of the biggest factors in designing and managing networks. Since the early telecom network era, many restoration systems have been developed for plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH), synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH), synchronous optical network (SONET), leased lines and so on; and they were surveyed in many papers and books. This article focuses on new restoration techniques for ATM networks. First, the requirement studies are introduced. This includes the scant results published on the influence of failure and the state of failure analysis. Next, restoration schemes are categorized and briefly introduced. Examples include centralized control, automatic protection switch (APS), self-healing ring (SHR), self-healing network (SHN) and failure resistant virtual path (FRVP). In order to achieve adequate restoration probability with minimum cost, a network design scheme is necessary; thus, network design issues are introduced. Finally, this article focuses on the issues, future work, and problems that remain to be solved.     

Subjective evaluation of visual fatigue due to misalignment of motion and still images in a stereoscopic display

Abstract— In this paper, the relative influences of misalignment such as cross‐talk, vertical shift, and motion blur on visual fatigue by using a binocular stereoscopic display has been verified. Experiments were conducted for two cases: a still image and a motion image. They were evaluated by using the simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ). By changing the disparity angle, cross‐talk, and vertical shift in the still‐image experiment, it was found that the SSQ score of each parameter increased as the amount of each factor increased. With a two‐sample t‐test between the presence and absence of each factor, a significant difference was found for the case of a more than 36‐arcmin disparity, more than 20% cross‐talk, and more than 10% vertical shift. In the motion‐image experiment, in which motion speed and the misalignment were varied, it was found that movement of the disparity angle caused much more visual fatigue in comparison with the misalignment factors, which were cross‐talk and vertical shift. In contrast, motion images in addition to the cross‐talk and/or vertical shift had a slight but unnoticeable relationship to an increase in visual fatigue. Therefore, it was concluded that vertical shift dominated the evaluation for still images, and the movement itself dominated the evaluation for motion images. The results suggest that it is necessary to evaluate visual fatigue according to the representing case, still or motion images, of a 3‐D stereoscopic display.     

Fabrication and evaluation of aluminum nitride based MEMS piezoelectric vibration sensors for large-amplitude vibration applications

Microsystem Technologies - In this work, we designed a novel structure to produce vibration sensors with a linear voltage output that are suitable for large-amplitude vibration applications....     

A new global tree-cover percentage map using MODIS data

Global tree-cover percentage is an important parameter used to understand the global environment. However, the available global percentage tree-cover products are few. Producing a new global-scale data set facilitates comparison analysis among maps. Our study was undertaken to map tree-cover percentage on a global scale with better accuracy than previous studies. In this study, we estimated the tree-cover percentage on a global scale at a pixel size of 500 m using a modified supervised regression tree algorithm from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data of 2008. Training data were derived from high-resolution images displayed in Google Earth and created by linear mixture simulation. The estimation model was modified to fit the reference data, which were randomly collected from the global area. The estimation result was validated at 1106 random sample points. The root mean square error (RMSE) between estimated and observed tree cover was 13.8%. The produced map was also compared with existing global data sets. The RMSE of our result was better than that of two existing global percentage tree-cover data sets (about 1.8% and 9.2% lower than Vegetation Continuous Fields MOD44B data set and Global Map – Percent Tree Cover data set, respectively). In our result and all other data sets, the accuracy was lower for forests than for other areas. When the produced map was compared with the Vegetation Continuous Fields MOD44B data set, the low agreement between them was concentrated in closed forests of Colombia, India, and Indonesia, and closed to open forests of Central Africa.     

Effect of Uniformity on the Electrical Resistivity of SiC-ZrB2 Ceramic Composites

Effect of uniformity on the resistivity was investigated for SiC-ZrB₂ ceramic composites. Dispersion of ZrB₂ particles was numerically characterized by image analysis. Spatial fluctuation of composition greatly affected the resistivity of composites. The effective medium theory was extended to treat composites with composition spatial fluctuation. The extended theory successfully explained the effect of uniformity on the resistivity of composites in relatively uniform cases. In composites of low uniformity, enhancing the uniformity increased the resistivity by breaking chains of ZrB₂ particles.