Two-photon-absorbed near-infrared photopolymerization forthree-dimensional microfabrication

We present three-dimensional (3-D) microstructures fabricated from photopolymerizable resin with a resolution of 0.62 μm. The method used to fabricate such small structures has been developed using a femto-second-pulsed near-infrared (IR) laser. Structures such as microcoils and microtubes are presented which demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. In this method, a two-photon absorption process is successfully utilized to confine the solidification of photopolymerizable resin to the focused spot of the laser, which is possible due to the quadratic dependence of the two-photon absorption rate on light intensity. The experimental system, experimental conditions, and related issues for this novel method of photopolymerization are also discussed     

金华猪与梅山猪皮的特征研究

本文研究了金华猪皮和梅山猪皮制革的适宜工艺及成革特点     

Underlying Assumptions of the Power-Normal Distribution

In the power transformation (Box & Cox, 1964), parameters are usually estimated under the assumption that the transformed distribution is a normal distribution even though the transformed distribution is a truncated normal distribution. In the present paper, we evaluate the asymptotic influence of the truncation on estimation of the parameters of the power-normal distribution (Goto, Uesaka, & Inoue, 1979), which specifies original observations before the application of power transformation. Then we demonstrate that when the degree of the truncation of the transformed distribution is large, the parameter estimates based on the ordinary estimation method which ignore the truncation might have large bias through the simulation study and the case study.

     

Development of the automated gold-linked electrochemical immunoassay system for blood monitoring

This paper reports the development of fully automated miniaturized immunoassay system. The system consist of postage stamp sized microchip and compact (post card sized foot print) microchip driver. To realize easy sample loading into the microchip, surface modification of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was developed, and life time of the modified surface up to 9 days is confirmed. The microchip just consumes a droplet of blood (2 μl) and the loading and metering of the sample is realized by capillary action, therefore the microchip is compatible with blood collection method by using lancet needle. Fully automated immunoassay protocol in the system is demonstrated within 15 min using whole blood sample. Finally, fully automated detection of antigen (insulin) was successfully demonstrated in the developed system.     

Synthesis and photocatalytic activity of sea urchin-shaped rutile TiO2 nanocrystals

Sea urchin-shaped rutile nanostructures (SUR NSs) with abundant {110} surfaces are synthesized at 60 °C under atmospheric pressure. The SUR NSs were ~ 420 nm in diameter and contain a number of needle-like rutile single crystals grown parallel to the (110) face from a single nucleus in a radial fashion. The photocatalytic activity of the SUR NSs is significantly higher than that of commercial rutile nanoparticles with the same specific surface area. This demonstrates that {110} facets are effective in enhancing photoactivity.     

Energy‐Saving Technologies for Inverter Air Conditioners

Almost all residential air conditioners in Japan are inverter air conditioners in which a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is driven by a PWM inverter. The inverter technology can reduce the energy consumption to less than half that of air conditioners driven by a constant‐speed induction motor (IM). This paper reviews the trends and the latest energy‐efficient technologies for the motor and the power converter that achieve considerable energy saving. Copyright © 2008 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A role of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fatty acid activation protein 4 in palmitoyl-CoA pool for growth in the presence of ethanol

It is well known that sake yeast has a high tolerance for ethanol, as compared to baker's yeast. To investigate the relationship between the ethanol tolerance of sake yeast and the palmitoyl-CoA pool for protein modification, the growth of yeast cells with depletion of the palmitoyl-CoA pool was monitored in the presence of ethanol. The overexpression of SNC1 was used to achieve the depletion of the palmitoyl-CoA pool, because the loss of Snc palmitoylation does not affect the general growth characteristics of yeast and does not interfere with the secretory processes (Couve, A. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 92, 5987-5991 (1995)). Although the sake yeast UT-1 exhibited much better growth in the presence of ethanol than laboratory strains, the overexpression of Snc1 was accompanied by sparse growth with increasing ethanol concentration. Exogenous palmitic acid rescued the poor growth caused by Snc1 overexpression, and the overexpression of Snc1(ser95) (which could not palmitoylated) had no effect on the growth characteristics of strain UT-1, suggesting that the poor growth with Snc1 overexpression was due to an overall increase in proteins in the unpalmitoylated form. To ascertain that fatty acid activation has a distinct role in the growth of yeast in the presence of ethanol, FAA genes encoding long chain acyl-CoA synthetases were overexpressed in combination with snc1 overexpression. Interestingly, the growth defect caused by snc1 overexpression was rescued by the overexpression of FAA4, but not of FAA1, which plays a predominant role in laboratory strains. On the contrary, disruption of faa1 led to faster growth in the presence of ethanol. These results suggest that Faa1p and Faa4p play reciprocal roles in regulating protein modification during growth in the presence of ethanol, since Faa1p and Faa4p both function to incorporate palmitic acid into phospholipids and neutral lipids. Moreover, Northern hybridization analysis revealed that faa1 mRNA was expressed strongly in a laboratory strain, and weakly in the sake yeast strain K-7 which exhibited good growth in the presence of ethanol. The combination of the disruption of faa1 and exogenously supplied palmitic acid was highly effective for growth in the presence of ethanol even under the normal snc1 expression level, implying that activation of exogenous palmitic acid by Faa4p is of particular importance in growth in ethanol.     

Energy-filtered electron diffraction and high-resolution electron microscopy on short-range ordered structure in GaAs(0.5)Sb(0.5)

Characteristic intensity distribution of diffuse scattering in III-V alloy semiconductor GaAs(0.5)Sb(0.5) epitaxially grown was observed by the energy-filtered electron diffraction method with [110] incidence. The diffuse scattering situates at the one-third positions between the fundamental reflections extending parallel to the q002 direction in the reciprocal space. A high-resolution electron microscope image shows weak contrast modulation corresponding to the diffuse scattering. The image processed with the Fourier transform by selecting the diffuse scattering and a fundamental reflection shows small regions consisting of bright dots being elongated along the (111) planes and aligning on the (002) planes, which are considered to result from the ordering of As and Sb during the growth process. The effect of including the fundamental reflection for imaging the ordered regions in the image processing method is also discussed. Finally, based on the results obtained by energy-filtered electron diffraction and high-resolution electron microscopy, a simple structure model for the short-range ordered structure in GaAs(0.5)Sb0.5 is proposed.     

Preferential inhibition of lipid synthesis by the bacteriocin pyocin S2

The effects of pyocin S2, a bacteriocin produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain M47, on several processes in susceptible bacterium have been examined. Lipid synthesis, measured in terms of [32P]phosphate, [14C]acetate or [2-3H]glycerol incorporation into lipid fractions, was halted almost completely soon after pyocin S2 addition. When cell suspensions were treated with various amounts of pyocin S2, the extent of inhibition of lipid synthesis was proportional to the ratio of killed bacteria. Protein synthesis was not essential for the inhibition. Degradation of lipid due to pyocin S2 was not detected. Pyocin S2 also affected protein and nucleic acid syntheses, but these inhibitions appeared with a delay of about 10 min after the cessation of lipid synthesis. The effect of trypsin [EC 3.4.21.4] on the viability of cells which had adsorbed pyocin S2 was also investigated: the cells went through a period when the destruction of pyocin S2 by trypsin restored the colony-forming ability of the cells (stage I). Then transition to a second state in which the cells lost viability irrespective of trypsin treatment (stage II) took place. The transition from stage I to stage II depended on the energy metabolism of the cells and followed first-order kinetics with a rate proportional to the number of killing units of adsorbed pyocin S2. The residual capacity for lipid synthesis in cells which had adsorbed pyocin S2 after trypsin treatment at various times indicated that lipid synthesis was inhibited only in the cells at stage II of pyocin S2 action.