Effects of aging on the adhesive properties of poly(lactic acid) by atmospheric air plasma treatment

The aim of this study was to analyze the durability of a plasma treatment on the surface of poly(lactic acid) (PLA). We used atmospheric‐plasma treatment with air to improve the wettability of PLA by evaluating the aging effect under controlled conditions of relative humidity (RH) and temperature (25% RH and 25°C). We studied the durability of the atmospheric‐plasma treatment by measuring the contact angle, calculating the surface energy, and observing changes in the resistance of the PLA–PLA adhesive bonds. These techniques allowed us to evaluate the hydrophobic recovery phenomenon that the PLA surface suffered as a consequence of the aging process. The results provide the maximum storage time of PLA treated with atmospheric plasma at which the sample retained its good adhesion properties; this time was lower than 3 days under normal atmospheric conditions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43040.     

Fully differential DDA-based fifth and seventh order Bessel low pass filters and buffers for DCR radio systems

In this letter the design, fabrication and measurements of fully differential filters and buffers in a 180 nm CMOS process for direct conversion receivers (DCRs) applications are reported. The fully differential fifth and seventh order Bessel low pass filters and buffers are completely based on a differential difference amplifier with common mode feedback capability. In particular, the filters have been designed with a tunable 100 kHz–1 MHz 6 dB bandwidth, in two steps, in order to allow the DCR radio to operate with a 100 Kbit/s–1 Mbit/s data rate. The circuits operate at a 3.3 V supply voltage. The whole chip power consumption, implementing four buffers, two-fifth and two-seventh order low pass filters, is only 6 mW, being particularly suitable for portable apparatus.     

Status of the Cryogen-Free Cryogenic System for the CUORE Experiment

The CUORE detector will be made of 988 TeO₂ crystals and will need a base temperature lower than 10 mK in order to meet the performance specifications. To cool the CUORE detector a large cryogen-free cryostat with five pulse tubes and one specially designed high-power dilution refrigerator has been designed. The detector assembly has a total mass of about 1.5 ton and uses a vibration decoupling suspension system. Because of the stringent requirements regarding radioactivity, about 12 tons of lead shielding need to be cooled to 4?K and below, and only a limited number of construction materials are acceptable. The eight retractable radioactive sources for detector calibration and about 2600 signal wires add further complexity to the system. The many stringent and contrasting requirements together with the overall large size made the design of the CUORE cryogenic system a real mechanical and cryogenic engineering challenge. The cryogenic system is expected to be fully operational in the Gran Sasso Laboratory in July 2013. We report here about the current status of the cryogenic system construction, which has started about one year.     

β-Cell Pathophysiology: A Review of Advanced Optical Microscopy Applications

β-cells convert glucose (input) resulting in the controlled release of insulin (output), which in turn has the role to maintain glucose homeostasis. β-cell function is regulated by a complex interplay between the metabolic processing of the input, its transformation into second-messenger signals, and final mobilization of insulin-containing granules towards secretion of the output. Failure at any level in this process marks β-cell dysfunction in diabetes, thus making β-cells obvious potential targets for therapeutic purposes. Addressing quantitatively β-cell (dys)function at the molecular level in living samples requires probing simultaneously the spatial and temporal dimensions at the proper resolution. To this aim, an increasing amount of research efforts are exploiting the potentiality of biophysical techniques. In particular, using excitation light in the visible/infrared range, a number of optical-microscopy-based approaches have been tailored to the study of β-cell-(dys)function at the molecular level, either in label-free mode (i.e., exploiting intrinsic autofluorescence of cells) or by the use of organic/genetically-encoded fluorescent probes. Here, relevant examples from the literature are reviewed and discussed. Based on this, new potential lines of development in the field are drawn.     

Perceptual feedback in multigrid motion estimation using animproved DCT quantization

In this paper, a multigrid motion compensation video coder based on the current human visual system (HVS) contrast discrimination models is proposed. A novel procedure for the encoding of the prediction errors has been used. This procedure restricts the maximum perceptual distortion in each transform coefficient. This subjective redundancy removal procedure includes the amplitude nonlinearities and some temporal features of human perception. A perceptually weighted control of the adaptive motion estimation algorithm has also been derived from this model. Perceptual feedback in motion estimation ensures a perceptual balance between the motion estimation effort and the redundancy removal process. The results show that this feedback induces a scale-dependent refinement strategy that gives rise to more robust and meaningful motion estimation, which may facilitate higher level sequence interpretation. Perceptually meaningful distortion measures and the reconstructed frames show the subjective improvements of the proposed scheme versus an H.263 scheme with unweighted motion estimation and MPEG-like quantization.     

Chemiluminescent determination of xanthine oxidase activity in milk.

A chemiluminescent method for determining xanthine oxidase (XOD) activity was developed and applied to the assay of milk enzyme activity using a photomultiplier luminometer. Various kinds of milk and cream samples were analysed for XOD content. In pasteurized milk, XOD activity depended on the fat content and in UHT milk it disappeared owing to the heat treatment. Milk sample preparation was very simple, requiring only homogenization at 40 degrees C followed by a 1:10 dilution with UHT ('XOD-free') milk. The assay was carried out at 25 degrees C. The response obtained from XOD standard solutions in milk was linear from 0.1 to 500 enzyme units (U) l-1, but for the actual milk samples values ranged only from 1 to 135 U l-1. The detection limit at 2 SD was 0.1 U l-1 in milk, while in buffer it was 100 times lower. The intra-assay and interassay CV for XOD activity in milk were 6-12%.     

Cloning and characterization of argR, a gene that participates in regulation of arginine biosynthesis and catabolism in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1

Gel retardation experiments indicated the presence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa cell extracts of an arginine-inducible DNA-binding protein that interacts with the control regions for the car and argF operons, encoding carbamoylphosphate synthetase and anabolic ornithine carbamoyltransferase, respectively. Both enzymes are required for arginine biosynthesis. The use of a combination of transposon mutagenesis and arginine hydroxamate selection led to the isolation of a regulatory mutant that was impaired in the formation of the DNA-binding protein and in which the expression of an argF::lacZ fusion was not controlled by arginine. Experiments with various subclones led to the conclusion that the insertion affected the expression of an arginine regulatory gene, argR, that encodes a polypeptide with significant homology to the AraC/XylS family of regulatory proteins. Determination of the nucleotide sequence of the flanking regions showed that argR is the sixth and terminal gene of an operon for transport of arginine. The argR gene was inactivated by gene replacement, using a gentamicin cassette. Inactivation of argR abolished arginine control of the biosynthetic enzymes encoded by the car and argF operons. Furthermore, argR inactivation abolished the induction of several enzymes of the arginine succinyltransferase pathway, which is considered the major route for arginine catabolism under aerobic conditions. Consistent with this finding and unlike the parent strain, the argR::Gm derivative was unable to utilize arginine or ornithine as the sole carbon source. The combined data indicate a major role for ArgR in the control of arginine biosynthesis and aerobic catabolism.