The Function of Sialidase Revealed by Sialidase Activity Imaging Probe

Sialidase cleaves sialic acid residues from glycans such as glycoproteins and glycolipids. In the brain, desorption of the sialic acid by sialidase is essential for synaptic plasticity, learning and memory and synaptic transmission. BTP3-Neu5Ac has been developed for sensitive imaging of sialidase enzyme activity in mammalian tissues. Sialidase activity in the rat hippocampus detected with BTP3-Neu5Ac increases rapidly by neuronal depolarization. It is presumed that an increased sialidase activity in conjunction with neural excitation is involved in the formation of the neural circuit for memory. Since sialidase inhibits the exocytosis of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, the increased sialidase activity by neural excitation might play a role in the negative feedback mechanism against the glutamate release. Mammalian tissues other than the brain have also been stained with BTP3-Neu5Ac. On the basis of information on the sialidase activity imaging in the pancreas, it was found that sialidase inhibitor can be used as an anti-diabetic drug that can avoid hypoglycemia, a serious side effect of insulin secretagogues. In this review, we discuss the role of sialidase in the brain as well as in the pancreas and skin, as revealed by using a sialidase activity imaging probe. We also present the detection of influenza virus with BTP3-Neu5Ac and modification of BTP3-Neu5Ac.     

Anti‐Sway Crane Control Considering Wind Disturbance and Container Mass

A method for estimating the sway angle using an observer has already been proposed. The state observer estimates the sway angle accurately and must use the detected sway angle value. However, the estimated sway angle has an error owing to rope length error, friction force, and wind. Moreover, the container mass cannot be determined, and therefore the observer parameter is not suitable. We already proposed robust antisway control for overcoming rope length error without adding a new sensor. Further, we designed a friction disturbance observer to cancel out the influence of the friction force. In this paper, we first propose a container mass estimation method when a crane system performs rolling up control. The observer parameter can be selected using the estimated mass value. Second, in crane parallel shift control, we propose a robust antisway control even when there is a wind disturbance. We design a wind disturbance observer and propose a wind disturbance estimator to separate the friction observer output from the wind disturbance observer output. We confirm through experiments that the proposed method can reduce vibration.     

Early therapy with interferon for acute hepatitis C acquired through a needlestick

Chinese hamster lung fibroblast V79 cells have been widely used in studies of DNA damage and DNA repair. Since the p53 gene is involved in normal responses to DNA damage, we have analyzed the molecular genetics and functional status of p53 in V79 cells and primary Chinese hamster embryonic fibroblast (CHEF) cells. The coding product of the p53 gene in CHEF cells was 76 and 75% homologous to human and mouse p53 respectively, and was 95% homologous to the Syrian hamster cells. The V79 p53 sequence contained two point mutations located within a presumed DNA binding domain, as compared with the CHEF cells. Additional immunocytochemical and molecular studies confirmed that the p53 protein in V79 cells was mutated and nonfunctional. Our results indicate that caution should be used in interpreting studies of DNA damage, DNA repair and apoptosis in V79 cells.     

Analysis of bone loss with aging and menopause--using digital image processing

To study bone loss relationships to aging and menopause, cross-sectional bone mass measurements by digital image processing (DIP method), and menopause information collected by questionnaire, were analyzed on 291 women who live in Tsukude village. The results are as follows. 1) The mean DIP values (sigma GS/D, MCI) by age-stratified groups decrease with age after menopause. The rate of bone loss in sigma GS/D is almost constant, but in MCI it increases with aging. 2) In 30-year old and 40-year old age groups, the frequency distribution of DIP values is symmetrical and bell-shaped. But after the fifties the distribution is asymmetrical, with the mode of distribution deviated toward low bone mass. The change of mode with aging is larger than that of mean. This fact suggests that change of mean bone mass substantially underestimates actual bone loss from aging. 3) The change of the mean DIP values stratified by years elapsed since menopause is not especially large at start of menopause but becomes almost constant after menopause. DIP values reflect the bone loss from the aging rather than from menopause, and are beneficial to the study of bone loss in elderly women.     

Intelligent tutoring system for electric circuit exercising

An intelligent tutoring system called Circuit Exerciser is described. The system is designed to help university students learn more about electric circuits. It can formulate drill problems, solve them, and infer mistakes in a student's answer. It can also provide helpful comments to the students on how the mistake was made. The system shows the circuit of the presented problem on graphic displays and is student-friendly. The system architecture, pedagogical cycle, and execution of the system are presented     

A 7 ns 1 Mb BiCMOS ECL SRAM with shift redundancy

A 7-Mb BiCMOS ECL (emitter coupled logic) SRAM was fabricated in a 0.8 μm BiCMOS process. An improved buffer with a high-level output of nearly V_CC is adopted to eliminate the DC current in the level converter circuit, and the PMOS transistor has a wide operating margin in the level converter. The configurable bit organization is realized by using a sense-amplifier switch circuit with no access degradation. A wired-OR demultiplexer for the ×1 output, having the same critical path as the ×4 output circuit, allows for the same access time between the two modes. The ×1 or ×4 mode is electrically selected by the external signal. A simplified programming redundancy technology, shift redundancy, is utilized. Address programming is performed by cutting only one fuse in the shift redundancy. The RAM operates at the ECL-10K level with an access time of 7 ns. and the power dissipation at 50 MHz is 600 mW for the × mode     

The heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of finned tube banks in forced convection (effects of fin height on pressure drop characteristics)

In recent years the requirement for the reduction of energy consumption has been increasing to solve the problems of global warming and the shortage of petroleum resources. For example, in the power generation field, as thermal power generation occupied 60% of the power generation demand, considerable improvement of the thermal efficiency is required. This paper describes the pressure drop characteristics of finned tube banks used for heat exchangers in thermal power generation that were clarified by testing serrated finned tube banks with different fin heights for improved heat transfer and conventional spiral finned tube banks with different fin heights, and an equation to predict pressure drop which is necessary for the heat exchanger design is proposed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 35(3): 179–193, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20112     

Heavy arsenic doping of silicon grown by atmospheric pressure selective epitaxial chemical vapor deposition

Selective epitaxial Si with a high arsenic concentration of 2.2×10¹⁹ atoms/cm³ was deposited at a high growth rate of 3.3 nm/min under atmospheric pressure. It was confirmed that this method had excellent selectivity and produced films having good crystalline quality, abrupt dopant profiles at the interfaces, and smooth surfaces. The growth mechanism is discussed in terms of the relationship between the effects of arsenic surface segregation and etching by hydrogen chloride.     

An abnormally shortened fatigue life of steels caused by anelasticity

Some abnormal fatigue life shortenings dependent upon load frequency for several steels are discussed. A possible relation between anelasticity caused by interstitial atoms and the abnormal fatigue life drop is presented. Normally, interstitial atoms are in a position which minimizes the energy around a dislocation, the Snoek ordering sites. We consider the Snoek effect as a typical example of anelasticity, and the possibility on atoms moving from attractive sites to repulsive ones when repeated stresses are applied and discuss a theory to explain the reduction of the fatigue life using Snoek ordered atoms moving out by fatigue stress at the frequency of Snoek effect. Bending fatigue tests were conducted to obtain the relationship between fatigue life and load frequency at two different temperatures (298 K and 333 K) for an iron nitrided steel. A sharp fatigue life drop was observed at a load frequency corresponding to the resonant frequency of the Snoek effect for nitrogen atoms. The frequency was about 3 Hz and 298 K and shifted to a higher frequency — about 6 Hz — at 333 K. Results reveal that the possible explanation to those abnormal phenomena may be anelasticity.Work partially conducted at Laboratorio E and Departamento de Ciencias de Materiales, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Venezuela.     

Ion exchange of intercalation compounds from WOP2O7 and intercalation ofn-alkylamines

Ion exchange of Na _x WOP₂O₇ ·nH₂O (x 1.4) prepared from WOP₂O₇ was attempted, using alkaline and alkaline earth ions. The degree of exchange was observed to be >50% at 90° C except for Mg²⁺. The basal spacing of ion-exchanged materials for the hydrated phase were dependent on the number of water molecules in the interlayer spaces, while those for the dehydrated phase increased with the size of ions in the interlayer spaces. The network of water molecules linked by the hydrogen bond in the interlayer spaces seems to determine the basal spacing. By the ion-exchange reaction,n-alkylammonium ions were intercalated into the interlayer spaces of Na _x WOP₂O₇ ·nH₂O (x 1.4) and Sn _x H _y WOP₂O₇ ·nH₂O (2x +y 0.5). In spite of the difference in the charge density of the host layer, a similar arrangement of alkyl chains in the interlayer spaces resulted, and neutral amines were considered to be intercalated as well as ammonium ions. Direct reaction ofn-alkylamine with WOP₂O₇ produced an intercalation compound without reduction of tungsten. The arrangement of the amines in the interlayer spaces is similar to that supposed to the ion-exchanged derivatives when heated at 140° Cin vacuo.