Binding behavior of CRP and anti-CRP antibody analyzed with SPR and AFM measurement

Atomic force microscope (AFM) was exploited to take picture of the molecular topology of C-reactive protein (CRP) in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution. An explicit molecular image of CRP demonstrated a pentagonal structure composed of five subunits. Dimensions of the doughnut-shaped CRP molecule measured by AFM were about 25nm in outside diameter and 10nm in central pore diameter, and the height of CRP molecule was about 4nm which was comparable to the value determined by X-ray crystallography. Bis(N-succinimido)-11,11'-dithiobis (undecyl succinate) (DSNHS) was synthesized for use as a linker for immobilizing anti-CRP antibody (anti-CRP) onto the gold surface of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor chip. DSNHS formed self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on the gold surface. By use of an AFM tip, a pattern of ditch was engraved within the SAM of DSNHS, and anti-CRP was immobilized on the engraved SAM through replacement of N-hydroxysuccinimide group on the outside surface of DSNHS by the amine group of anti-CRP. Formation of CRP/anti-CRP complex on the gold surface of SPR sensor chip was clearly demonstrated by measuring SPR angle shift. A consecutive series of SAM, SAM/anti-CRP, and SAM/anti-CRP/CRP complexes was generated on a SPR sensor chip, and the changes in depth of the ditch were monitored by taking AFM images of the complexes. Comparative analysis of the depth differences indicates that binding of CRP to anti-CRP occurs in a planar mode.     

Effects of propane pyrolysis on basic flame structures of non-premixed jet flame

Recently, high temperature combustion techniques have been extensively adopted to improve thermal efficiency of combustion devices. When the temperature is sufficiently high, fuel pyrolysis may occur and then the flame structure can be affected. Thus, the understanding flame structure at high temperature coupled with fuel pyrolysis is essential to design burners operated in high temperature environments. In this study, propane was heated up to 1100 K using an electric heater, and the characteristics of fuel pyrolysis and its effects on non-premixed jet flames were experimentally investigated at room temperature. Normalized volume flow rates and components were measured regarding the fuel pyrolysis. The normalized volume flow rates of the propane were increased significantly through the pyrolysis process, and they agreed with numerical results based on an ordinary chemical mechanism. Variations of flame height and soot region were compared for the pyrolysis temperature. Conclusively, in spite of the significant growth in the volume flow rate by the propane pyrolysis, flame height was not significantly affected. On the contrary, the soot region was slightly extended by the fuel pyrolysis. This study will help to extend understanding on jet flame characteristics especially at high temperature conditions.     

Detection of C-reactive protein on a functional poly(thiophene) self-assembled monolayer using surface plasmon resonance

The preparation of a new poly(thiophene) with pendant N-hydroxysuccinimide ester groups and its application to immobilization of biomolecules are reported. A thiophene derivative of N-hydroxysuccinimide ester was polymerized with FeCl(3) in chloroform and the resulting poly(thiophene) was characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). This polymer reacts with amine-bearing molecules to yield new poly(thiophene) derivatives and the specific interactions at the side groups could be detected. Thus, a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) using the polymer was formed on a gold-coated quartz cell and anti-C-reactive protein (anti-CRP) was immobilized. The binding behavior of CRP on the surface was monitored by use of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor system.     

Fast scanning of a pulsed terahertz signal using an oscillating optical delay line

We describe a fast measurement of a pulsed terahertz signal generated by a femtosecond laser and a photoconductive antenna using an oscillating optical delay line. The method to measure the amplitude of the retroreflector in the oscillating optical delay line is proposed and the displacement of the retroreflector is exactly calculated to acquire the optical delay time in the fast scan mode. With the different oscillation frequency and amplitude of the retroreflector, the pulsed terahertz signals are measured and analyzed. The comparison of the temporal waveform and frequency spectrum between the fast scan mode and the slow scan mode shows a good agreement with the decrease in the scanning time from 60 to 1 s at a signal to noise ratio of 430.     

Electrostatic force microscopy study on the domain switching properties of the Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 thin films with different crystallographic orientations for the probe-based data storage

The domain switching properties of the ferroelectric Pb(Zr(0.2)Ti(0.8))O(3) (PZT) thin films with two types of crystallographic orientations were investigated by electrostatic force microscopy (EFM). The crystallographic orientations of the PZT thin films were random on the (111)Pt/MgO(100) and c-axis preferred on the (100)Pt/MgO(100), respectively. When dc bias was applied to the films for writing in micro-scale area, electrostatic force images showed that the domain switching was hard in the PZT thin films with random orientation, while the pattern could clearly be written in the PZT films with c-axis orientation. The differences in the domain switching properties of each PZT thin film were investigated in the crystallographic orientations point of view, and the domain switching dynamics were also measured by investigating the nano-sized dot switching behavior with respect to the width of the applied voltage pulse.     

自适应聚类的全耦合稀疏学习算法

在图像处理领域,基于稀疏表示理论的图像超分辨力算法、高低分辨力字典与稀疏编码之间的映射关系是其中的2个关键环节。由于丰富多样的图像类型,单一字典并不能很好地表示图像。而在稀疏编码之间的映射关系上,严格相等的约束关系也限制了图像重建的效果。针对上述两个方面,采用包容性更强的多个字典与约束条件更为宽松的全耦合稀疏关系进行图像的超分辨力重建。在图像非局部自相似性的基础上,进行多次自适应聚类;挑选出最优的聚类,通过全耦合稀疏学习的图像超分辨力算法,得到多个字典;最后,对输入的低分辨力图像进行分类重建,得到高分辨力图片。实验结果表明,在图像Leaves,Barbara,Room上,本文的聚类算法比原全耦合稀疏学习算法在峰值信噪比(PSNR)上分别提升了0.51 dB,0.21 dB,0.15 dB。     

Designing Multicolor Micropatterns of Inverse Opals with Photonic Bandgap and Surface Plasmon Resonance

Structural coloration provides unique features over chemical coloration, such as nonfading, color tunability, and high color brightness, rendering it useful in various optical applications. To develop the structural colors, two different mechanisms of coloration–photonic bandgap (PBG) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR)–have been separately utilized. In this work, a new method is suggested to create structurally colored micropatterns by regioselectively employing SPR in a single film of inverse opal with PBG. The inverse opals are prepared by thermal embedding of opal into a negative photoresist and its subsequent removal. The inverse opals have a hexagonal array of open pores on the surface which serves as a template to make SPR‐active nanostructures through a directional deposition of gold, a perforated gold film and an array of curved gold disks are formed. With a shadow mask lithographically prepared, the gold is regioselectively deposited on the surface of the inverse opal, which results in two distinct regions of gold‐free inverse opal with PBG and gold nanostructure with SPR. As PBG and SPR develop their own structural colors respectively, the resultant micropatterns exhibit pronounced dual colors. More importantly, the micropatterns show the distinguished optical response for evaporation of volatile liquids that occupy the pores.     

Physicochemical properties and oxidative stabilities of mealworm (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Tenebrio molitor</Emphasis>) oils under different roasting conditions

Physicochemical properties and oxidative stabilities of mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) oils under different roasting conditions were investigated. Oils were extracted using n-hexane from mealworms roasted at 200°C for 0, 5, 10, and 15 min and physicochemical properties and oxidative stabilities of oils were analyzed. Roasting increased the color intensity and the oleic acid and δ-tocopherol contents, but decreased linoleic acid, and α- and γ-tocopherol contents. An improvement in oxidative stability was observed in roasted mealworm oils, demonstrated by induction time and peroxide values. Mealworm oil contained abundant essential fatty acids and exhibited a superior oxidative stability.     

Carbonaceous Materials-12: a Novel Highly Sensitive Graphene Oxide-Based Carbon Electrode: Preparation,Characterization, and Heavy Metal Analysis in Food Samples

Graphene oxide (GO) was covalently attached to glassy carbon (GC) electrode (GC–O–GO) for fabricating nanosensors to determine trace Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ using differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (DPASV). Surface characterization of the nanofilm-covered electrode was performed via electrochemical cyclic voltammetry (CV), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. Surface pKa of the GO covalent attached GC (GC–O–GO) was calculated via CV. Under optimal conditions, a linear response was found for Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ in the range from 1?×?10^?8 to 1?×?10^?12 M. The limit of detections (LODs) of Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ were 0.25 pM and 0.28 pM, respectively. The method shows good reproducibility, and stability was successfully applied to measure Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ levels in rice, soya, milk, and tap water samples, with good agreement with those obtained by the standard inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) method. The method was evaluated by application with the simultaneous determination of the ions in food samples (n?=?6) using the standard addition method. The recoveries of the Pb²⁺ and Cd²⁺ were up to 98 %.     

Online Blind Channel Normalization Using BPF‐Based Modulation Frequency Filtering

We propose a new bandpass filter (BPF)‐based online channel normalization method to dynamically suppress channel distortion when the speech and channel noise components are unknown. In this method, an adaptive modulation frequency filter is used to perform channel normalization, whereas conventional modulation filtering methods apply the same filter form to each utterance. In this paper, we only normalize the two mel frequency cepstral coefficients (C0 and C1) with large dynamic ranges; the computational complexity is thus decreased, and channel normalization accuracy is improved. Additionally, to update the filter weights dynamically, we normalize the learning rates using the dimensional power of each frame. Our speech recognition experiments using the proposed BPF‐based blind channel normalization method show that this approach effectively removes channel distortion and results in only a minor decline in accuracy when online channel normalization processing is used instead of batch processing.