Senescence Marker Protein 30 (SMP30): A Novel Pan-Species Diagnostic Marker for the Histopathological Diagnosis of Breast Cancer in Humans and Animals

Senescence marker protein 30 (SMP30) is a cell survival factor playing an important role in vitamin C synthesis and antiapoptosis. Moreover, its cytoprotective role suggests a possibility to be related to cancer cell survival. Mammary carcinoma is a common cancer in both humans and animals. Because of its histopathological diversity, especially in the early stage, histopathological diagnosis may be complicated; therefore, a diagnostic marker is helpful for confirmation. The present study analyzed the expression pattern of SMP30 in mammary carcinoma in humans, dogs, and cats. Immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and western blot analysis were used to investigate SMP30 expression patterns. The expression was specifically observed in neoplastic glandular epithelial cells. The expression increased with the malignancy of glandular epithelial cells with a highly proliferative status. However, SMP30 expression was low in normal mammary gland tissues or well-differentiated adenoma tissues. The patterns were consistently reproduced in canine primary mammary carcinoma cells and MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 human carcinoma cell lines. This study provides useful information to understand SMP30 expression in various stages of mammary carcinoma and to suggest its utility as a pan-species diagnostic marker, thereby helping to establish strategies for diagnosing mammary carcinoma in several species.     

Spray Coating of 2- and 3-D Solid Substrates Using a Sulfated Polysaccharide for Marine Antifouling Applications

Marine antifouling coating using functional polymers has emerged as an important tool to combat marine fouling. Owing to their natural abundance, polysaccharides represent a more sustainable option than synthetic polymers and carrageenan, a sulfated polysaccharide, is identified as a promising candidate for further research based on its excellent marine antifouling properties. However, existing research has only explored the application of carrageenan-based coatings for 2D objects, using techniques such as spin-coating. Here, a spray-coating method is proposed to apply carrageenan-based coatings to the surfaces of 2- and 3-D objects. The coated surfaces exhibit high stability under various chemical/physical stresses and high resistance to protein adsorption and marine diatom adhesion.     

Unsteady extinction mechanism of nonpremixed flame interacting with a vortex

The extinction mechanism of a CH₄/N₂-air counterflow nonpremixed flame interacting with a single vortex was numerically studied. An augmented reduced mechanism was used to treat the CH₄ oxidation reactions. The contribution of each term in the energy and the OH species equations were evaluated to investigate the unsteady extinction mechanism of nonpremixed flame. The flame temperature began to decrease due to the convection heat loss when the flame interacted with a vortex. The investigation of the radical behavior during the flame-vortex interaction process also provided useful information on the unsteady extinction mechanism. The OH radical concentration could be used as a good tracer of the state of the unsteady extinction of nonpremixed flame. The reduction mechanism of OH concentration was confirmed by analyzing the contribution of each term in the OH species equation. At initial stage of flame-vortex interaction, the OH production and consumption rates increased gradually, while the OH concentration was kept nearly constant. Near the extinction limit, the OH production rate decreased rapidly due to the low flame temperature, and the balance between the OH production and OH consumption by diffusion could not be maintained. The unsteady nonpremixed flame interacting with a vortex under the conditions of regime (V) shown in the spectral combustion diagram [Thévenin, D., Renard, P.H., Fiechtner, G.J., Gord, J.R., Rolon, J.C., 2000. Regimes of non-premixed flame-vortex interactions. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 28, 2101-2108.] was finally extinguished due to low reactivity, which was induced by the low flame temperature.     

Sol-Gel Alumina Coating for Improved Cyclic Oxidation Resistance of Silicon Nitride

A 25 nm thick α-alumina layer was deposited on a turbine-grade silicon nitride by sol-gel dip coating and subsequent heat treatment in air at 1200°C. This layer had a nanometer grain structure. Silicon nitride protected by this thin layer showed a significant improvement in oxidation resistance over its uncoated counterpart after 200 cyclic exposures in air at 1250°C. The oxide layer grown on the coated silicon nitride also exhibited superior surface morphology, compared with the uncoated silicon nitride.     

Characterization and physical properties of polymethylphenylsilsesquioxane (PMPSQ) and hydroxyl‐functionalized polystyrene (PS–OH) hybrids

Polymethylphenylsilsesquioxane (PMPSQ–OH) and trimethylsilyl end‐blocked PMPSQ (PMPSQ–EC) were prepared. The thermal decomposition behavior of these polymers was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and FT‐Raman spectroscopy. Hydroxyl‐functionalized polystyrene (PS–OH) was also prepared by anionic living polymerization. Thin hybrid films of PMPSQ/PS–OH with various blend ratios were obtained by spin‐coating on freshly cleaned glass. The surface morphology of the hybrid films was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). In 80/20 PMPSQ/PS–OH hybrid film, the PS–OH component produced a very uniformly dispersed phase. This hybrid film contained small domains of PS–OH whose size ranged from 60 to 80 nm. As the content of PS–OH was increased, the domain morphology coarsened and phase inversion took place around 50 wt %. In the phase‐inversed system, the PMPSQ‐rich phase was uniformly distributed in the PS–OH‐rich continuous phase. In addition, temperature‐dependent dielectric properties of PMPSQ/PS–OH hybrids were investigated. Relaxation of the hybrids was observed with an increasing content of the PS–OH component due to the amorphous glass transition behavior of PS–OH. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 2801–2812, 2003     

Analysis of the correlation between acoustic noise and vibration generated by a multi-layer ceramic capacitor

Acoustic noise generated by a multi-layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) makes users uncomfortable, so the problem must be analyzed to reduce the noise. There is a correlation between the acoustic noise and the vibration of MLCCs and the circuit board. Therefore, the acoustic noise problem must be investigated from a vibration perspective. In this study, the acoustic noise-generating mechanism was investigated, and the relationship between the characteristics of the noise and the dynamic characteristics of the circuit board with MLCC was analyzed. And a correlation criterion was proposed to predict the acoustic noise using the vibration response of the circuit board.     

An experimental investigation of mixing of carbon nanotube/polymer composite in a batch-type screw mixer

We develop a miniaturized batch-type screw mixer (BSM) for uniform mixing of polymer resin and nanoparticles, based on the stretching of material elements. This stretching is induced by the combination of recirculating cross-sectional flows in deep channels of the screw and high shear stress developed at flight regions. The BSM is used to produce a polymer nano-composite composed of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and polydimethylsiloxane resin. The mixing performance of the BSM is characterized quantitatively by estimating two different types of mixing efficiencies (i.e., dispersive mixing and distributive mixing) via transmitted light microscope images. The developed BSM highly improves the mixing performance rather than that of a conventional ultrasonic mixing device.