Biotransformation of isoflavones by Aspergillus niger as biocatalyst

Biotransformation of the isoflavones, 6,7,4′‐trimethoxyisoflavone ( 1 ) and 5,7,4′‐trimethoxyisoflavone ( 2 ) by Aspergillus niger was investigated. Compound 1 was transformed to 4′‐hydroxy‐6,7‐dimethoxyisoflavone ( 3 ) and 2 to 4′‐hydroxy‐5,7‐dimethoxyisoflavone ( 4 ). This suggested that 1 and 2 were demethylated at the C‐4′ position with regioselectivity by Aspergillus niger. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Boron-doped hydrogenated amorphous carbon films grown by surface-wave mode microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition

We report the effects of boron (B) doping on optical and structural properties of the hydrogenated amorphous carbon thin films grown by surface-wave mode microwave plasma (SW-MWP) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on n-type silicon and quartz substrates at room temperature. Argon and acetylene were used as a carrier and carbon source gases respectively. Analytical methods such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Nanopics 2100/NPX200 surface profiler, JASCO V-570 UV/VIS/NIR spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy were employed to investigate the properties of the films. Low atomic concentration of B (0.08 at.%) was found in the doped film. The optical band gap of the undoped film was 2.6 eV and it decreased to 1.9 eV for the B-doped film. Structural property shows the crystalline structure of the film and it has changed after incorporating B as a dopant. The structural modifications of the films leading to being more graphite in nature were confirmed by the Raman and FT-IR characterization.     

Field test results of multi-channel digital tv transmission at 15 and 30 Mb/s through an intelsat satellite using a PSK/FDMA system

This paper describes field test results of multi-channel digital TV transmission using a PSK/FDMA system and the related subjective test results of received TV pictures. The picture quality of the multi-channel 15 or 30 Mb/s transmission for both NTSC and PAL systems through the INTELSAT POR satellite are subjectively evaluated for various bit-error rates. In addition, subjective evaluations were made at various values of earth-station e.i.r.p. to compare the picture quality of digital transmissions with that of current half-transponder FM transmission.     

Dynamic driving/braking force distribution in electric vehicles with independently driven four wheels

A novel algorithm for the dynamic driving/braking force distribution is proposed for electric vehicles (EV) with four in‐wheel motors. In such EVs, the vehicle lateral motion can be controlled by a yaw moment, generated by the torque difference between wheels. This method is known as DYC (Direct Yaw moment Control) in ordinary engine vehicle engineering; however, the torque difference can be generated more directly with in‐wheel motors. One problem of DYC is its instability on slippery roads, such as wet or snowy asphalt. To achieve high stability, the loads of wheels are preferably equal. The load on each wheel can be evaluated as the square root of the sum of squares of driving/braking force and side force. Therefore, the driving/braking forces, or motor torques, should be distributed depending on the side forces of the wheels, to minimize the load imbalance between wheels. The proposed algorithm can solve this optimization problem approximately with little calculation cost, and thus this method can be applied for real‐time calculation within a control period. Approximate solutions obtained with the proposed method are evaluated by comparison with numerical solutions that require much calculation time. The difference between these solutions is shown to be negligible, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed method. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 138(1): 79–89, 2002     

Cost reduction of polycrystalline diamond compact bits through improved durability

This work reports the results of laboratory drilling tests conducted in order to measure improvements due to design and cutter modifications on PDC bits intended for use in geothermal well drilling. These tests, using 142.88 mm-dia. PDC full face bits, concentrated on improvements in bit life and cost performance. The tests were performed using granite drilling samples and a laboratory drilling machine at atmospheric conditions. The results from changes in bit and cutter shape are reported in the work.     

Pulse Combustors - Performance and Control

~nonEmphasising time characterishcs and contIDI, onlyfew workll'v is av'ailable among the numerous reports onPulse combustors. Rare work deals with tWin Pulsecombustorsls] or combined pulse combustor-"dinesystemsl']. Kenffield15] obtained with a combinedconvenhonal Pulse combustor-tulbine system acombushon Pressals gain of 3-7% and a totalPerformance Of the combustor-"dine system for Pulsecombushon 40% higher than that of steady'combushonwhat aught also be due tO the brine characteristics.…     

Liquid phase synthesis of ZnO microrods highly oriented on the hexagonal ZnO sheets

We have successfully synthesized zinc oxide microrods perpendicularly oriented on hexagonal ZnO sheets by a simple heat treatment approach using LDH (layered double hydroxide) precursor in an aqueous solution. The synthesized ZnO microrods have an average diameter of 500 nm and length of 2–3 μm, and form highly-oriented array. In this work, the effect of heating temperature and time on morphology and orientation of ZnO microrods was studied experimentally and the formation mechanism was discussed in detail. Transformation from hexagonal precursor to ZnO microrods can be attributed to dissolution and re-precipitation of the precursor, which should be caused by its thermal unstability under heating temperature.     

Steric hindrance by 2 amino acid residues determines the substrate specificity of isomaltase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The structures of the E277A isomaltase mutant from Saccharomyces cerevisiae in complex with isomaltose or maltose were determined at resolutions of 1.80 and 1.40 Å, respectively. The root mean square deviations between the corresponding main-chain atoms of free isomaltase and the E277Α-isomaltose complex structures and those of free isomaltase and the E277A-maltose complex structures were found to be 0.131 Å and 0.083 Å, respectively. Thus, the amino acid substitution and ligand binding do not affect the overall structure of isomaltase. In the E277A-isomaltose structure, the bound isomaltose was readily identified by electron densities in the active site pocket; however, the reducing end of maltose was not observed in the E277A-maltose structure. The superposition of maltose onto the E277A-maltose structure revealed that the reducing end of maltose cannot bind to the subsite + 1 due to the steric hindrance from Val216 and Gln279. The amino acid sequence comparisons with α-glucosidases showed that a bulky hydrophobic amino acid residue is conserved at the position of Val216 in α-1,6-glucosidic linkage hydrolyzing enzymes. Similarly, a bulky amino acid residue is conserved at the position of Gln279 in α-1,6-glucosidic linkage-only hydrolyzing α-glucosidases. Ala, Gly, or Asn residues were located at the position of α-1,4-glucosidic linkage hydrolyzing α-glucosidases. Two isomaltase mutant enzymes – V216T and Q279A – hydrolyzed maltose. Thus, the amino acid residues at these positions may be largely responsible for determining the substrate specificity of α-glucosidases.     

Empirical analysis of gross vehicle weight and free flow speed and consideration on its relation with differential speed limit

Most highly motorized countries in the world have implemented different speed limits for light weight and heavy weight vehicles. The heavy vehicle speed limit is usually chosen to be lower than that of passenger cars due to the difficulty for the drivers to safely maneuver the heavy vehicle at high speed and greater impact during a crash.However, in many cases, the speed limit for heavy vehicle is set by only considering the vehicle size or category, mostly due to simplicity in enforcement. In this study, traffic and vehicular data for all vehicle types were collected using a weigh-in-motion system installed at Federal Route 54 in Malaysia. The first finding from the data showed that the weight variation for each vehicle category is considerable. Therefore, the effect of gross vehicle weight (GVW) and category of heavy vehicle on free flow speed and their interaction were analyzed using statistical techniques.Empirical analysis results showed that statistically for each type of heavy vehicle, there was a significant relationship between free flow speed of a heavy vehicle and GVW. Specifically, the results suggest that the mean and variance of free flow speed decrease with an increase GVW by the amount unrelated to size and shape for all GVW range. Then, based on the 85th percentile principle, the study proposed a new concept for setting the speed limit for heavy vehicle by incorporating GVW where a different speed limit is imposed to the heavy vehicle, not only based on vehicle classification, but also according to its GVW.     

Magnetization dynamics and related phenomena in semiconductors with ferromagnetism

We review ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and related phenomena in the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As and single crystalline Fe/GaAs (001) hybrid structures. In both systems, spin-orbit interaction is the key ingredient for various intriguing phenomena.