Mechanisms of tubulin modification by phosphatidylcholine hydroperoxides

The interaction of lipid peroxides with cellular proteins has been postulated to contribute to cellular aging. A potential target for such effects is tubulin, the building block of microtubules. We examined the concentration-dependent effects of phosphatidylcholine hydroperoxides on the ability of tubulin to polymerize into microtubules. The results demonstrated that even very low concentrations of peroxides were sufficient to interfere with the tubulin and, therefore, the microtubule function. Decreased tubulin activity (as measured by tubulin GTPase activity) showed correlation with the modification of methionine and cysteine in tubulin and a change in the tubulin conformational state as indicated by fluorescence and ultraviolet spectroscopic measurements. As no effect on electric conductivity was observed, indicating that modulation of ionic binding was not involved, the interaction mechanism may be a hydrophobic one.     

Field-induced silver injection into lithium disilicate glass

The objective of this work was to study field-induced silver injection into Li₂O · 2SiO₂ glass by the techniques of secondary ion mass spectrometry and thermally stimulated polarization/depolarization current (TSPC/TSDC), with an emphasis on the comparison experiments between gold and silver electrodes. For both anode materials, accumulation of lithium was found near the cathode. The blocking nature of the gold anode was demonstrated by the closeness of the observed and estimated width of the alkali-depleted region near the anode. For silver-anode samples, field-induced silver injection as well as lithium conduction occured and increased the TSPC slope from that of the gold-anode samples.     

A Spatial-Domain Technique for the Design of 3-D Separable-Denominator State-Space Digital Filters

In this paper,a technique for designing 3-D separable-denominator state-spacedigital filters is developed. The design process is divided intotwo phases. First, the coefficient matrices related to stabilityare constructed for the filter to be stable by using alternatingvariable method. Next, the other matrices are obtained by solvinglinear equations. These phases are repeated until there is nosignificant change in the squared error function.     

Complex impedance and admittance of a silver-conducting glass

From the analysis of complex impedance and admittance data of (Agl)₇₅(Ag₄P₂O₇)₂₅ glass, an Ag⁺-ion conductor, it was revealed that the sample can be approximated by a seriesRC ₁ circuit at high temperature, with the capacitorC ₁ arising from the charge-carrier depleted region near the anode which develops as conduction proceeds, and by a parallelRC ₂ circuit at low temperature, with the capacitorC ₂ arising from the saturated value for ionic polarization of, say, the silver-iodine pairs as well as from the relaxation effect of the Ag⁺ ions for conduction. TheC ₁ andC ₂ values were found to be almost temperature-independent at peak frequencies of the distorted semicircles in respective complex planes, with the ratioC ₁/C ₂ as large as 10⁴.     

The black layer underneath the anode of dc-biased silver metaphosphate glass

The black layer was generated underneath the anode when a gold-electroded silver metaphosphate glass, a silver-ion conductor, was dc biased with 500 V/cm or 250 V/cm at 140°C . It was concluded that this layer corresponded to the silver-depleted region formed by conduction of the silver ions towards the cathode. The blackening was ascribed to be due to the shortened Ag-O distance, caused by structural rearrangement within the region into the P₂O₅-like structure on biasing.     

Effects of light guides and optical filters for a high density lead glass counter

Effects of various light guides on energy resolution, position dependence of the output pulse and the hadron suppression factor were studied for a high density lead glass counter with particles of energies between 1 GeV and 16 GeV. The best hadron suppression factor was obtained for a configuration with a plastic light guide and a short wave cutoff filter at little expense to energy resolution. The energy resolution is worse at high energy and is dependent on the hit position of an incident particle for a BK7 light guide.     

Titanium-aluminum oxynitride (TAON) as high-k gate dielectric for sub-32 nm CMOS technology

High-k insulators for the next generation (sub-32 nm CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) technology), such as titanium-aluminum oxynitride (TAON) and titanium-aluminum oxide (TAO), have been obtained by Ti/Al e-beam evaporation, with additional electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma oxynitridation and oxidation on Si substrates, respectively. Physical thickness values between 5.7 and 6.3 nm were determined by ellipsometry. These films were used as gate insulators in MOS capacitors fabricated with Al electrodes, and they were used to obtain capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. A relative dielectric constant of 3.9 was adopted to extract the equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) of films from C-V curves under strong accumulation condition, resulting in values between 1.5 and 1.1 nm, and effective charge densities of about 10¹¹ cm⁻². Because of these results, nMOSFETs with Al gate electrode and TAON gate dielectric were fabricated and characterized by current-voltage (I-V) curves. From these nMOSFETs electrical characteristics, a sub-threshold slope of 80 mV/dec and an EOT of 0.87 nm were obtained. These results indicate that the obtained TAON film is a suitable gate insulator for the next generation (MOS) devices.     

Poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] formation in Escherichia coli from glucose through an enoyl-CoA hydratase-mediated pathway

In this study, a new metabolic pathway for the synthesis of poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] [P(3HB)] was constructed in a recombinant Escherichia coli strain that utilized forward and reverse reactions catalyzed by two substrate-specific enoyl-CoA hydratases, R-hydratase (PhaJ) and S-hydratase (FadB), to epimerize (S)-3HB-CoA to (R)-3HB-CoA via a crotonyl-CoA intermediate. The R-hydratase gene (phaJ(Ac)) from Aeromonas caviae was coexpressed with the PHA synthase gene (phaC(Re)) and 3-ketothiolase gene (phaA(Re)) from Ralstonia eutropha in fadR mutant E. coli strains (CAG18497 and LS5218), which had constitutive levels of the beta-oxidation multienzyme FadB(Ec). When grown on glucose as the sole carbon source, the cells accumulated P(3HB) up to an amount 6.5 wt% of the dry cell weight, whereas the control cells without phaJ(Ac) or fadR mutation accumulated significantly smaller amounts of P(3HB). These results suggest that PhaJ(Ac) and FadB(Ec) played an important role in supplying monomers for P(3HB) synthesis in the pathway. Furthermore, by using this pathway, a P(3HB)-concentration-dependent fluorescent staining screening technique was developed to rapidly identify cells that possess active R-hydratase.     

Incentive‐rewarding mechanism to stimulate activities in social networking services

We have developed an incentive‐rewarding mechanism that stimulates activities in social networking services (SNSs), including content uploading and link establishment. We particularly focus on changing the reward assignment ratio based on the different risks users perceive when uploading content with different privacy settings: public‐open and friend‐limited. Learning‐based simulation allowed us to observe that SNS activity, which we measured as the amount of browsed content within a certain period, can be controlled by a rewarding assignment ratio. We then analyzed how the amount of uploaded content and the increase of established links affect SNS activity. Results suggested that the optimal reward assignment ratio to maximize SNS activity changes depending on the total amount of available reward resources. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of dispersed particles in strengthening and fracture mechanisms in a Mo-ZrC alloy processed by mechanical alloying

The tensile properties of a ZrC particle-dispersed Mo, which was processed by spark plasma sintering with mechanically alloyed powder, were investigated at room temperature and at elevated temperatures of 1170 to 1970 K. The Mo-ZrC alloy showed much higher strength at room temperature than a fully recrystallized pure Mo. The high strength of Mo-ZrC is mainly attributed to a very small grain size (about 3 μm). The main role of the ZrC particle is not to increase strength due to the particle-dislocation interaction, but to limit grain growth during sintering and to attain the very small grain size. The elongation at room temperature of Mo-ZrC was much lower than that of pure Mo. This is probably related to the higher interstitial contents. However, Mo-ZrC showed a large elongation of 180 pct at 1970 K and 6.7×10⁻⁴ s⁻¹. It was suggested that the ZrC particles stabilized the fine-grained microstructure yet provided no cavitation sites at 1970 K; as a result, the large elongation was attained.