Simple fabrication of hollow poly-lactic acid microspheres using uniform microbubbles as templates

A simple method was developed that uses microbubbles as templates to fabricate hollow microspheres covered with a biodegradable polymer. By stably keeping microbubbles with the diameter of about 2 µm inside a solvent droplet dissolving a biodegradable polymer and then slowly drying the solvent, hollow microspheres that had an average inner diameter of about 2 µm and a shell thickness of about 500 nm were obtained. This simple method was successfully used to easily fabricate uniform hollow microspheres covered with poly-lactic acid (PLA) by using uniform 2-µm-diameter bubbles as templates.     

Establishment of Intestinal Organoid from Rousettus leschenaultii and the Susceptibility to Bat-Associated Viruses,SARS-CoV-2 and Pteropine Orthoreovirus

Various pathogens, such as Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and SARS-CoV-2, are threatening human health worldwide. The natural hosts of these pathogens are thought to be bats. The rousette bat, a megabat, is thought to be a natural reservoir of filoviruses, including Ebola and Marburg viruses. Additionally, the rousette bat showed a transient infection in the experimental inoculation of SARS-CoV-2. In the current study, we established and characterized intestinal organoids from Leschenault’s rousette, Rousettus leschenaultii. The established organoids successfully recapitulated the characteristics of intestinal epithelial structure and morphology, and the appropriate supplements necessary for long-term stable culture were identified. The organoid showed susceptibility to Pteropine orthoreovirus (PRV) but not to SARS-CoV-2 in experimental inoculation. This is the first report of the establishment of an expandable organoid culture system of the rousette bat intestinal organoid and its sensitivity to bat-associated viruses, PRV and SARS-CoV-2. This organoid is a useful tool for the elucidation of tolerance mechanisms of the emerging rousette bat-associated viruses such as Ebola and Marburg virus.     

O-Glycan-Dependent Interaction between MUC1 Glycopeptide and MY.1E12 Antibody by NMR,Molecular Dynamics and Docking Simulations

Anti-mucin1 (MUC1) antibodies have been widely used for breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. This is based on the fact that MUC1 undergoes aberrant glycosylation upon cancer progression, and anti-MUC1 antibodies differentiate changes in glycan structure. MY.1E12 is a promising anti-MUC1 antibody with a distinct specificity toward MUC1 modified with an immature O-glycan (NeuAcα(2-3)Galβ(1-3)GalNAc) on a specific Thr. However, the structural basis for the interaction between MY.1E12 and MUC1 remains unclear. The aim of this study is to elucidate the mode of interaction between MY.1E12 and MUC1 O-glycopeptide by NMR, molecular dynamics (MD) and docking simulations. NMR titration using MUC1 O-glycopeptides suggests that the epitope is located within the O-linked glycan and near the O-glycosylation site. MD simulations of MUC1 glycopeptide showed that the O-glycosylation significantly limits the flexibility of the peptide backbone and side chain of the O-glycosylated Thr. Docking simulations using modeled MY.1E12 Fv and MUC1 O-glycopeptide, suggest that V_H mainly contributes to the recognition of the MUC1 peptide portion while V_L mainly binds to the O-glycan part. The V_H/V_L-shared recognition mode of this antibody may be used as a template for the rational design and development of anti-glycopeptide antibodies.     

Optimization of Electric Power Leveling Systems by Taper‐Off‐Reflectance Particle Swarm Optimization

It has become desirable to develop energy control technologies for environmental issues such as global warming and exhaustion of fossil fuel. Power fluctuations in large power consumer facilities may cause instability of electric power systems and increase the cost of the electric power facilities and electricity charges. Developing electric power leveling systems (EPLS) to compensate power fluctuations is necessary for future electric power systems. EPLS with an SMES has been proposed as one countermeasure for use in electric power quality improvement. SMES is superior to other energy storage devices in response and storage efficiency. The authors have proposed EPLS based on fuzzy control with SMES. For this practical implementation, optimizing the control gain and SMES capacity is an important issue. This paper proposes a new method for optimization of the EPLS. The proposed algorithm is a novel particle swarm optimization based on taper‐off reflectance (TRPSO). The proposed TRPSO optimizes the design variables of the EPLS efficiently and effectively. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 186(3): 10–18, 2014; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.22472     

Development of an air servo displacement sensor

This paper introduces a new type of displacement sensor called an “air servo displacement sensor.” The sensor’s piston automatically follows a measured object using a pneumatic servomechanism with a nozzle-flapper that acts as a detecting device. Because the piston is supported by an aerostatic bearing, it experiences almost no friction. An optical linear scale mounted on the piston is used to measure the displacement of the measured object because the gap between the nozzle and the measured object is maintained at a constant level. As a result, this new sensor can successfully perform non-contact displacement measurements over a much longer measuring range, when compared to the traditional air micrometer. The optimal parameters for the sensor structure were obtained using simulations and experiments. Performance accuracy tests with a micrometer showed a repeatability error below ±0.5 μm and a linearity error below ±2 μm, with a measuring range beyond 10 mm. It has been verified that that the sensor exhibits a sufficient level of accuracy for the operational requirements.     

Analog circuit for motion detection using a CCD camera based on a biological vision system and its application to mobile robots

We have proposed an analog motion detection circuit based on a biological vision system. A charge coupled device (CCD) camera was used as the input in order to obtain an input image. By using the CCD camera, it is possible to detect the movement of an object as a high-resolution image. Because the unit motion detection circuit is constructed with eight metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors and one capacitor, the structure of the unit circuit is simple. The test circuit was constructed on a circuit board using discrete MOS transistors. The results from the test circuit showed that it can detect the direction of motion. The test circuit was connected to a microcomputer in a mobile robot. It was clear from the results that the motion detection circuit can control a mobile robot.     

Expressing reactive emotion based on multimodal emotion recognition for natural conversation in human–robot interaction*

Human–human interaction consists of various nonverbal behaviors that are often emotion-related. To establish rapport, it is essential that the listener respond to reactive emotion in a way that makes sense given the speaker's emotional state. However, human–robot interactions generally fail in this regard because most spoken dialogue systems play only a question-answer role. Aiming for natural conversation, we examine an emotion processing module that consists of a user emotion recognition function and a reactive emotion expression function for a spoken dialogue system to improve human–robot interaction. For the emotion recognition function, we propose a method that combines valence from prosody and sentiment from text by decision-level fusion, which considerably improves the performance. Moreover, this method reduces fatal recognition errors, thereby improving the user experience. For the reactive emotion expression function, the system's emotion is divided into emotion category and emotion level, which are predicted using the parameters estimated by the recognition function on the basis of distributions inferred from human–human dialogue data. As a result, the emotion processing module can recognize the user's emotion from his/her speech, and expresses a reactive emotion that matches. Evaluation with ten participants demonstrated that the system enhanced by this module is effective to conduct natural conversation.     

Heat-enhanced production of chitosanase from Streptomyces griseus in the presence of liposome

The effects of heat stress and liposome treatment on the growth of Streptomyces griseus cells and chitosanase production were investigated on the basis of using the designed strategy of a stress-mediated bioprocess. The effective conditions for increasing the interaction between chitosanase and the 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-3-phosphocholine (POPC) liposome under heat stress condition were determined on the basis of the results of circular dichroism (CD) and dielectric dispersion analysis (DDA). Under these effective conditions, S. griseus cells were cultivated for the effective production of chitosanase. The results obtained from both CD spectra and DDA showed that heat stress enhances the interaction of the POPC liposomes and chitosanase. The strongest interaction between them could be obtained in the specific temperature range of 40-45 degrees C. The enhancement of the target chitosanase production was conducted under heat stress at 41 degrees C in the presence and absence of the POPC liposomes. The growth rates of S. griseus cells in the cases of heat (41 degrees C) and heat (41 degrees C)/POPC treatments were respectively 1.2 and 1.4 times higher than that obtained under the control condition. In the heat (41 degrees C) and heat (41 degrees C)/POPC treatments, chitosanase activity increased to 1.8 and 2 times, respectively, higher than that obtained under the control condition. Heat stress and the addition of the POPC liposomes could therefore be utilized to induce the potential functions of bacterial cells for the enhancement of the final target production.