Effects of protease inhibitors on binding of sperm to the vitelline coat of ascidian eggs: implications for participation of a proteasome (multicatalytic proteinase complex)

The relation between left-ventricular stroke volume (SV) and end-diastolic volume (EDV) was determined based on angiocardiographic measurements in 10 open-chest minipigs under varying filling conditions (blood letting or infusions). The results were compared with a theoretical relation calculated under the assumption of varying EDV but constancy of myocardial properties. In contrast to the linear increase of SV as a function of EDV as found in the animal experiments, the calculated curve reveals a maximum near the normal operating point with a decrease in the range of higher EDV. It can be concluded that the well-known increase of SV with increasing ventricular filling, beyond the normal EDV, is almost completely due to muscle physiological factors (mainly increase in Ca2+ sensitivity of the contractile apparatus), whereas the decrease of SV in the range of low filling pressure is mainly due to the geometrical conditions.     

Thermal properties of ethylene ionomers

The annealing effect of ethylene ionomers annealed at various temperatures and for various periods was studied by differential scanning calorimetry. Two endothermic melting peaks were observed for all the ethylene ionomers annealed. The melting peak at the lower temperature, which was assigned to bundlelike crystal owing to a Hoffman-Weeks relationship, shifted to a higher temperature with the annealing temperature and period, indicative of recrystallization. There is physical cross-linking consisting of ionic aggregates, such as multiplets and clusters in ethylene ionomers. The crystallization kinetics of ethylene ionomers was fundamentally similar, but different from that of low-density polyethylene. Crystallization and recrystallization suggested a mobile ethylene chain in both amorphous regions and ionic aggregates even in the presence of cross-linking.     

The crystallization and formation of cluster of ethylene ionomer during physical aging

The effect of the physical aging of ethylene ionomers was studied for the samples with the acid content of 5.4 mol%, and the degree of neutralization, 0%, 60% Na, 60% Zn, and 90% Zn. The information about the crystal and the cluster part of the physically aged ionomers was obtained by differential scanning calorimetry and by dynamic viscoelastic measurements, respectively. The degree of crystallinity and the dynamic modulus for the ionomers of the degree of neutralization 0%, 60% Na and 60% Zn increased gradually with the aging time; on the other hand, the crystallinity of 90% Zn remained constant and the modulus at 100°C increased to a certain value up to a period of 100 h, but thereafter the crystallinity increased remarkably and the modulus remained. These facts indicate that the crystallization of neutralized ethylene ionomer starts after clustering and the clustering would finish at early stage of the physical aging for intermediately neutralized ethylene ionomer. The physical aging effect of the ethylene ionomers was, thus, found to be important to material design.     

New oxygen donors formed at 700 °C in silicon

Donor formation at 700 °C was studied by infrared absorption, etching, transmission electron microscope, resistivity, and spreading resistance measurements in Czochralski grown silicon. The donor concentration is related to the oxygen-precipitate density, oxygen reduction, and carbon reduction by annealing at 700 °C. The donor distribution corresponds to the distribution of oxygen precipitates observed after annealing. The proposed donor is an oxygen precipitate nucleated at a carbon site. The oxygen-related donor formation not only occurs in the bulk of samples but also in the denuded zone. Donor-related microdefects do not seriously influence the threshold voltage in metal-oxide-silicon field-effects-transistors, but are expected to decrease carrier lifetime at the surface of the denuded zone.     

Difference in environmental degradability between poly(ethylene succinate) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)

A chemosynthetic aliphatic polyester, poly(ethylene succinate) (PESu), was degraded by a poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P(3HB)) depolymerase in vitro. While P(3HB) exhibited good biodegradability in all environments, PESu hardly underwent biodegradation in a marine environment. To understand the difference in environmental degradability between PESu and P(3HB), we investigated the distribution of P(3HB)- and PESu-degrading microbes in various environments. PESu-degrading microbes were never detected in marine environments. PESu-degrading bacteria isolated from various environments in this study belonged to the phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Most PESu-degrading bacterial isolates could not degrade P(3HB), suggesting that PESu was not degraded by P(3HB) depolymerase in actual environments. In addition, all bacterial isolates that were screened for P(3HB) degrading activity from various environments in this study did not degrade PESu, suggesting that PESu does not induce P(3HB) depolymerase in their bacteria and P(3HB)-degrading bacteria are not involved in biodegradation of PESu in actual environments. Taken together, these results could be related with the low biodegradability of PESu in marine environments.     

Maskless Lateral Epitaxial Growth of Gallium Nitride Using Dimethylhydrazine as a Nitrogen Precursor

Lateral epitaxial growth (LEG) is a key technology to improve the lifetime of III-V nitride-based laser diodes (LDs) by reducing the dislocation density in the materials. To increase the area of low dislocation density, the lateral growth rate needs to be increased. In addition, suppression of the vertical growth is strongly desired to avoid unnecessarily thick growth, which would result in cracks in the epitaxial film. This paper reports the maskless LEG of GaN with extremely high lateral-to-vertical growth rate ratio using dimethylhydrazine as a nitrogen precursor. The lateral growth only occurs from the sidewalls of the etched mesa stripes without any dielectric masks. The lateral growth rate toward the direction is extremely high, as high as 10 μm/h, while no vertical growth is observed on the top of unmasked mesa. The cross-sectional transmission electron microscopic image shows that the threading dislocations in the wing region extend only toward the lateral direction. Note that almost smooth coalescence between the wing regions is confirmed by atomic force microscopy. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that this maskless LEG drastically improves the crystallographic twist down to 97 arc-s, which is as comparably low as that of a free-standing GaN substrate. The presented maskless LEG is advantageous for optical device applications.     

Nucleotide sequences and characterization of genes encoding naphthalene upper pathway of pseudomonas aeruginosa PaK1 and Pseudomonas putida OUS82

A 12,808-nucleotide containing DNA fragment cloned from naphthalene-utilizing (Nah+) Pseudomonas aeruginosa PaK1 was analyzed and compared with the genes (pah(OUS)) of a 14,462-nucleotide DNA fragment from Pseudomonas putida OUS82. The DNA sequence analyses demonstrated that the naphthalene upper-pathway genes and their deduced enzymes were very similar between the two bacteria: nucleotide similarities, 83-93%; amino acid similarities, 79-95%. These genes were also similar to those of the nah operon of plasmid NAH7; in particular, the OUS82 genes were similar to the nah genes, whereas the PaK1 genes were almost identical to the dox genes of Pseudomonas sp. C18. A region homologous with the 84-bp repeated sequence that Eaton (J. Bacteriol., 176, 7757-7762, 1994) has found at a site upstream of he nah operon was found only in a region downstream of the pah(PaK) gene cluster in PaK1 and on both sides of the pah(OUS) gene cluster in OUS82. A PaK1 gene, corresponding to an unknown gene (nahQ) in the nah operon, is located between the 1,2-dihydroxynaphthalene dioxygenase gene and the trans-o-hydroxybenzylindenepyruvate (tHBP A) hydratase-aldolase gene (nahE), and was suggested to be involved in the conversion of naphthalene to salicylate. Just downstream of the pah(PaK) gene cluster, a portion of a region was identical to one-third of the transposase gene (tnpA) in a phenol-catabolic plasmid pEST1226.     

Male fertility in rats treated with etretinate for 4 weeks

The toxicity of Etretinate, a retinoid compound, on the male reproductive system was studied in male rats. The drug was administered for four weeks at the dose levels of 0 (control: Vehicle, Peanut oil), 5 and 25 mg/kg/day. The animals were then allowed to mate, and their male reproductive functions and organs were examined in detail. No significant changes due to toxicity were observed in male reproductive functions and organs in the 5 mg/kg/day group after the 4-week treatment. In contrast, males in the 25 mg/kg/day group showed drug-related changes in their reproductive performance (decrease of mating ability and fertility rate), testosterone blood level, sperm head counts, sperm viability and number in the caudal epididymis, organ weight and in the histopathology of their reproductive organs (atrophy of seminiferous tubules, necrosis of spermatocytes and spermatids, vacuolation of nuclei of spermatocytes and spermatids). Even though Etretinate belong to the retinoid group of compounds, the changes seen in the 25 mg/kg/day group were almost the same as those observed in Vitamin A-deficient animals. In conclusion, there is a correlation between changes due to toxicity observed for parameters of male fertility and for histopathological evaluation of the testis of rats that receiving high dose, treatment with Etretinate for 4 weeks.