Automation for High-throughput Identification and Picking of GFP Expressing Colonies

Green fluorescent protein (GFP) has many applications as a marker in living cells, and has become widely used as a reporter gene in microbial, plant and animal cells. Screening microbial colonies for GFP expression enables various types of assays (e.g. for secretory mutations). However, this is laborious, non-quantitative and potentially hazardous to the operator (due to UV illumination) when performed manually. In order to address this the GloPix robot was developed. The imaging system discriminates between colonies based on the level of fluorescence activity and the picking function automatically transfers cells to microplate wells. Measuring fluorescent activity allows quantitation of fluorescent tag concentration/expression.     

Statistical Learning for Humanoid Robots

The complexity of the kinematic and dynamic structure of humanoid robots make conventional analytical approaches to control increasingly unsuitable for such systems. Learning techniques offer a possible way to aid controller design if insufficient analytical knowledge is available, and learning approaches seem mandatory when humanoid systems are supposed to become completely autonomous. While recent research in neural networks and statistical learning has focused mostly on learning from finite data sets without stringent constraints on computational efficiency, learning for humanoid robots requires a different setting, characterized by the need for real-time learning performance from an essentially infinite stream of incrementally arriving data. This paper demonstrates how even high-dimensional learning problems of this kind can successfully be dealt with by techniques from nonparametric regression and locally weighted learning. As an example, we describe the application of one of the most advanced of such algorithms, Locally Weighted Projection Regression (LWPR), to the on-line learning of three problems in humanoid motor control: the learning of inverse dynamics models for model-based control, the learning of inverse kinematics of redundant manipulators, and the learning of oculomotor reflexes. All these examples demonstrate fast, i.e., within seconds or minutes, learning convergence with highly accurate final peformance. We conclude that real-time learning for complex motor system like humanoid robots is possible with appropriately tailored algorithms, such that increasingly autonomous robots with massive learning abilities should be achievable in the near future.     

Characterization of the Hansenula polymorpha CPY gene encoding carboxypeptidase Y

We have isolated the Hansenula polymorpha CPY gene encoding carboxypeptidase Y (Hp-CPY). The deduced amino acid sequence revealed that Hp-CPY consists of 541 amino acids and has a calculated Mr of 60,793. The protein is highly similar to Saccharomyces cerevisiae CPY (61.8% identity). At the N-terminus of Hp-CPY signals for the entry into the secretory pathway and subsequent sorting to the vacuole were identified. Immunocytochemically, using monospecific antibodies raised against Hp-CPY, the protein was localized to the vacuole. On Western blots, a diffuse protein band was observed in extracts of H. polymorpha cells, suggesting that the protein is glycosylated. This was confirmed by endoglycosidase H treatment, which resulted in a strong reduction of the apparent Mr of the protein. We have investigated the effect of CPY deletion on the degradation of peroxisomes, an autophagous process that occurs when the organelles become redundant for growth. In deltacpy cells peroxisomal proteins were degraded in the vacuole as efficiently as in wild-type H. polymorpha cells, indicating that CPY is not a major proteinase in this pathway.     

高折射率镜头推动浸没式光刻跨越32纳米

在今年的SPIE Microlithography年会上,与会的专家们一如既往地针对如何延伸光学光刻技术使用寿命的问题进行了大量的研讨。而与往年会议不同的是,尽管有人心存疑虑,但今年的会议仍然对双重曝光技术打开了友善之门。关于这项技术,普遍的问题是如何妥善地解决图形套     

TiB2-coated cathodes for aluminum smelting cells

Pipes consisting of coatings 700 μm thick of chemically vapor-deposited TiB₂ on carbon were produced and tested for corrosion and/or erosion resistance in a laboratory aluminum smelting cell for 100 h. The projected lifetime of the coating was approximately 30 days, a factor of 50 shorter than that projected by assuming uniform saturation dissolution of TiB₂ in molten aluminum. The corrosion and/or erosion as measured from scanning electron micrographs pointed to grain boundary attack with subsequent crystalline pull-out as the mechanism for the shorter than expected lifetimes.     

Haloperidol does not affect motivational processes in an operant runway model of food-seeking behavior.

The present experiment examined the effects of dopamine receptor antagonism on subjects' motivation to seek food. Rats were trained to discriminate between 2 olfactory cues predicting either the presence (S+) or absence (S–) of food reinforcement in the goal box of a straight-arm runway. Rats learned to traverse the alley quickly when presented with the S+ and much more slowly when presented with the S–. Haloperidol pretreatment was unable to alter this pattern of behavior (i.e., rats still ran quickly when presented with the scent that predicted food availability). Thus, it seems that the same dopamine antagonist treatments that have been shown to disrupt food reinforcement do not prevent the food-seeking behavior produced by presentation of food-predictive cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)