Photoresponsive Hydrogel Microstructure Fabricated by Two‐Photon Initiated Polymerization

A photoresponsive polymeric hydrogel cantilever that deflects under illumination has been fabricated by using two‐photon three‐dimensional lithography. The hydrogel was prepared from a comonomer solution containing acryloylacetone, acrylamide, and N,N′‐methylene bisacrylamide. The photoresponse of the cantilever was activated by photoexcitation of acetylacetone groups at 244 nm. Deflection of the cantilever by ∼ 45° was effected upon UV irradiation for 20 min.     

Performance optimization of BiCMOS circuits under reduced supply voltage

As the supply voltage is reduced, the speed superiority of BiCMOS over CMOS may be diminished, but BiCMOS still has the advantage of inducing relatively smaller characteristic degradation in nMOS transistors by suppressing the drain voltage in the gate. Introducing a new quantitative methodology to evaluate hot electron-induced degradation of nMOS transistor characteristics, this report finds that both BiNMOS gates and CBiMOS gates will have a considerable superiority over CMOS gates in the voltage range from 2.5 V to 3.3 V, even with the same nMOS transistor characteristics. BiNMOS is 30% faster than CMOS owing to amplification of the pMOS drain current by an npn transistor. CBiCMOS is 40% faster and has a sevenfold longer life than CMOS. The speed improvement comes from amplification of both pMOS and nMOS drain currents by npn and pnp transistors, respectively, and the lifetime improvement is due to the effect of the voltage drop through the pnp transistors on the drain terminal of the nMOS transistors. The analytical methodology was also utilized to choose an optimum drain structure, although CMOS necessitates the LDD (lightly doped drain), SD (single drain) structure. Thus, the speed of the gates can be further improved, and the speed of CBiCMOS is expected to be 45% faster than that of CMOS gates. Even in the case of SD structure, the lifetime of CBiCMOS was estimated to be two orders of magnitude longer than that of CMOS with LDD structure. © 1998 Scripta Technica. Electr Eng Jpn, 121(4): 56–64, 1997     

A Novel α-Glucosidase of the Glycoside Hydrolase Family 31 from Aspergillus sojae

We characterized an α-glucosidase belonging to the glycoside hydrolase family 31 from Aspergillus sojae. The α-glucosidase gene was cloned using the whole genome sequence of A. sojae, and the recombinant enzyme was expressed in Aspergillus nidulans. The enzyme was purified using affinity chromatography. The enzyme showed an optimum pH of 5.5 and was stable between pH 6.0 and 10.0. The optimum temperature was approximately 55 °C. The enzyme was stable up to 50 °C, but lost its activity at 70 °C. The enzyme acted on a broad range of maltooligosaccharides and isomaltooligosaccharides, soluble starch, and dextran, and released glucose from these substrates. When maltose was used as substrate, the enzyme catalyzed transglucosylation to produce oligosaccharides consisting of α-1,6-glucosidic linkages as the major products. The transglucosylation pattern with maltopentaose was also analyzed, indicating that the enzyme mainly produced oligosaccharides with molecular weights higher than that of maltopentaose and containing continuous α-1,6-glucosidic linkages. These results demonstrate that the enzyme is a novel α-glucosidase that acts on both maltooligosaccharides and isomaltooligosaccharides, and efficiently produces oligosaccharides containing continuous α-1,6-glucosidic linkages.     

Microstructure-related properties at 193 nm of MgF2 and GdF3 films deposited by a resistive-heating boat

MgF2 and GdF3 materials, used for a single-layer coating at 193 nm, are deposited by a resistive-heating boat at specific substrate temperatures. Optical characteristics (transmittance, refractive index, extinction coefficient, and optical loss) and microstructures (morphology and crystalline structure) are investigated and discussed. Furthermore, MgF2 is used as a low-index material, and GdF3 is used as a high-index material for multilayer coatings. Reflectance, stress, and the laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) are studied. It is shown that MgF2 and GdF3 thin films, deposited on the substrate at a temperature of 300 degrees C, obtain good quality thin films with high transmittance and little optical loss at 193 nm. For multilayer coatings, the stress mainly comes from MgF2, and the absorption comes from GdF3. Among those coatings, the sixteen-layer design, sub/(1.4L 0.6H)8/air, shows the largest LIDT.     

Diversity of 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl dioxygenase genes in a strong PCB degrader, Rhodococcus sp. strain RHA1

Two 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl (23DHBP) dioxygenase genes, bphC1 and etbC involved in the degradation of polychlorinated biphenyl(s) (PCBs) have been isolated and characterized from a strong PCB degrader, Rhodococcus sp. RHA1. In this study, four new 23DHBP dioxygenase genes, designated as bphC2, bphC3, bphC4, and bphC5 were isolated from RHA1, and their nucleotide sequences were determined. Based on amino acid sequence similarities, all of the newly isolated bphC genes could be categorized into type I along with BphC1 and EtbC [Eltis, L.D. and Bolin, J.T., J. Bacteriol., 178, 5930-5937 (1996)]. Six bphC genes, including bphC1, etbC, and four new genes, were expressed in Escherichia coli to determine their substrate specificity. The activities of BphC2, BphC3, BphC4, and BphC5 were found to be specific to 23DHBP, while BphC1 and EtbC exhibited activities towards compounds other than 23DHBP, including catechol (CAT) and 3-methylcatechol (3MC). RNA slot blot hybridization analysis indicated that only bphC5 was transcribed among the newly isolated bphC in RHA1 cells grown on biphenyl and ethylbenzene. The nucleotide sequence of the flanking region of each bphC revealed a homolog of the 2-hydroxy-6-oxo-6-phenylhexa-2,4-dienoate (HOPD) hydrolase gene, bphD, just upstream of bphC5. The bphC5 and putative bphD genes may constitute an operon and play a role in the degradation of biphenyl and PCBs together with bphC1 and etbC. In contrast, the bphC2, bphC3, and bphC4 genes may not be involved in biphenyl and PCB degradation.     

Multiple Hits,Including Oxidative Stress,as Pathogenesis and Treatment Target in Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)

Multiple parallel hits, including genetic differences, insulin resistance and intestinal microbiota, account for the progression of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Multiple hits induce adipokine secretion, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and oxidative stress at the cellular level that subsequently induce hepatic steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis, among which oxidative stress is considered a key contributor to progression from simple fatty liver to NASH. Although several clinical trials have shown that anti-oxidative therapy can effectively control hepatitis activities in the short term, the long-term effect remains obscure. Several trials of long-term anti-oxidant protocols aimed at treating cerebrovascular diseases or cancer development have failed to produce a benefit. This might be explained by the non-selective anti-oxidative properties of these drugs. Molecular hydrogen is an effective antioxidant that reduces only cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) and several diseases associated with oxidative stress are sensitive to hydrogen. The progress of NASH to hepatocellular carcinoma can be controlled using hydrogen-rich water. Thus, targeting mitochondrial oxidative stress might be a good candidate for NASH treatment. Long term clinical intervention is needed to control this complex lifestyle-related disease.     

Effects of oil heated with gluten on weight-loss dieting. I

Fresh oil was heated for 20 h at 180 degrees C with amino acids or gluten. A powdered diet (AIN93G; no fat) was mixed with 7 wt% of fresh oil (control), or supernatants of the heated oils described above, and fed to male Wistar rats for 12 weeks. No gross symptoms attributable to the heated oils were observed, but the gluten group showed a slow body weight increase; a significant difference was found in the weight after age 21 weeks in spite of diet consumption comparable to that of the control group. The serum of the heated oil groups showed a tendency toward lower values on various hematological measures, especially triacylglycerol and free fatty acid and toward higher values on aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferese (ALT), than those of the control group. All the rats except one in the gluten group had the same level of AST as those of the control rats, while the amino acid group included four rats with AST over 100 IU/L, the highest value in the control group. The number of dark red patches found on the surface of the liver and histological evaluation also showed frequent damage to the livers of the amino acid group. The difference in toxicity between the two heated oils seems to be related to the molecular sizes of amino acids and gluten. Gluten or melanoidin produced during heating probably decreased or counteracted the cytotoxicity of thermally oxidized oil. It is expected that oil heated with gluten can be used as a safe and effective oil for humans on weight-reduction diets.     

堤防地基地震液化的数值模拟

基于Biot动力耦合理论,采用一个经过广泛验证的砂土循环弹塑性本构模型,建立了平面应变条件下土堤地基的地震液化数值模拟方法。以某河流堤防的实际工程为例,应用该方法对土堤地基的地震液化进行了数值模拟,并对地震作用下的超孔隙水压力、加速度、位移等动力反应进行了计算分析,得到了一些对于抗震分析有用的结果。     

Hydrothermal fractional pretreatment of sea algae and its enhanced enzymatic hydrolysis

BACKGROUND: Sea algae cellulose has been little utilized because the cellulose content in sea algae is low. For the effective utilization of sea algae cellulose, cellulose must be converted without drying into valuable material with a high rate and yield. From this viewpoint, effects of hydrothermal pretreatments of sea algae to enhance the glucose production by enzymatic hydrolysis of sea algae cellulose were investigated. RESULTS: Using hydrothermal pretreatment performed at 423 K for Monostroma nitidum Wittrock (green alga) and at 473 K for Solieria pacifica (red alga) for 30 min, yields of extracted water‐soluble components containing monosaccharides were 0.51 g g^?1 for the green alga and 0.62 g g^?1 for the red alga. The apparent rate of glucose production from hydrothermally pretreated green alga by enzymatic hydrolysis was > 10 times faster than that of the non‐pretreated sample. Yields of glucose from cellulose by enzymatic hydrolysis were 79.9% for the green alga and 87.8% for the red alga. CONCLUSION: Cellulose of sea algae was successfully fractionated by hydrothermal pretreatments, which resulted in high susceptibility of sea algae cellulose to enzyme attack. This process leads to the effective utilization of sea algae cellulose. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry