The simplified two-pipette technique is more efficient than the conventional three-pipette method for blastomere biopsy in human embryos

Kell and Kx are two quantitatively minor proteins from the human erythrocyte membrane which carry blood groups antigens and are thought to be a metalloprotease and a membrane transporter, respectively. In the red cell membrane, these proteins form a complex stabilized by disulfide bond(s). Phosphorylation status of these proteins was studied, in the presence or absence of effectors of several kinases, either on intact cells incubated with [32P]-orthophosphate or on ghosts incubated with [gamma-32P]ATP. Purification of Kell-Kx complex, by immunochromatography on an immobilized human monoclonal antibody of Kell blood group specificity allowed to establish that (i) neither protein is phosphorylated on tyrosine; (ii) the Kell protein is a putative substrate for Casein Kinase II (CKII) and Casein Kinase I (CKI) but not for protein kinase C (PKC), whereas Kx protein is phosphorylated by CKII and PKC but not by CKI; (iii) Protein Kinase A neither phosphorylates the Kell nor the Kx proteins.     

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-1 at mouse neuromuscular synapses

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling system includes the growth factors and their cell surface receptors, along with circulating IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs) that may alter and modulate the action of these neurotrophic hormones. These IGFBPs, along with IGFs and receptors, have been detected in various tissues including the brain. In this study, using polyclonal antibody to human IGFBP-1 or bovine IGFBP-2, we found that mouse muscle extracts contain similar-sized proteins that cross-react with these antibodies on Western immunoblots. After establishing that these antibodies reacted with the homologous murine IGFBPs, we performed immunocytochemistry to demonstrate the localization of IGFBP-1 at the neuromuscular junction, a model nicotinic, cholinergic synapse, as well as within intramuscular nerves. IGFBP-2, a distinct macromolecule, is present on the surface of muscle fibers and is not present within synapses or nerves.     

GaInP/GaAs HBTs for high-speed integrated circuit applications

The use of GaInP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) for integrated circuit applications is demonstrated. The discrete devices fabricated showed excellent DC characteristics with low V_ce offset voltage and very low temperature sensitivity of the current gain. For a non-self-aligned device with a 3-μm×1.4-μm emitter area, f_T was extrapolated to 45 GHz and f_max was extrapolated to 70 GHz. The measured 1/f noise level was 20 dB better than that of AlGaAs HBTs and comparable to that of low-noise silicon bipolar junction transistors, and the noise bump (Lorentzian component) was not observed. The fabricated gain block circuits showed 8.5 dB gain with a 3-dB bandwidth of 12 GHz, and static frequency dividers (divide by 4) were operable up to 8 GHz     

Superparamagnetic particle dynamics and mixing in a rotating capillary tube with a stationary magnetic field

The dynamics of superparamagnetic particles subject to competing magnetic and viscous drag forces have been examined with a uniform, stationary, external magnetic field. In this approach, competing drag and magnetic forces were created in a fluid suspension of superparamagnetic particles that was confined in a capillary tube; competing viscous drag and magnetic forces were established by rotating the tube. A critical Mason number was determined for conditions under which the rotation of the capillary prevents the formation of chains from individual particles. The statistics of chain length was investigated by image analysis while varying parameters such as the rotation speed and the viscosity of the liquid. The measurements showed that the rate of particle chain formation was decreased with increased viscosity and rotation speed; the particle dynamics could be quantified by the same dimensionless Mason number that has been demonstrated for rotating magnetic fields. The potential for enhancement of mixing in a bioassay was assessed using a fast chemical reaction that was diffusion-limited. Reducing the Mason number below the critical value, so that chains were formed in the fluid, gave rise to a modest improvement in the time to completion of the reaction.     

Temperature dependence of high strain-rate impact fracture behaviour in highly filled polymeric composite and plasticized thermoplastic propellants

The effect of temperature and strain-rate on the fracture behaviour during high strain-rate ( 10³ sec^–1) impact of two highly filled polymeric composite propellants (containing segmented polyurethanes based on hydroxy-term inated polybutadiene (HTPB) or glycidyl azide polymer (GAP) filled with ammonium perchlorate (AP) particles) and a plasticized thermoplastic (cast double base (CDB) nitrocellulose-nitroglycerine) propellant have been examined over a wide temperature range encompassing the ittle-ductile transition. In the elastic region of the loaddisplacement curve, the yield stress and fracture toughness is highest for GAP/AP and lowest for HTPB/AP. In the elastic and post-yield ductile regions CDB is more fracture-resistant than GAP/AP and HTPB/AP over the temperature range –20 to 50° C, but below –40° C, where both CDB and GAP/AP are brittle, GAP/AP is more fracture-resistant than CDB (as observed in the elastic region). Although all the propellants are known to develop small cracks in the elastic and post-yield ductile regions of the load-displacement curve, the overall fracture behaviour is largely governed by viscoelastic properties (because the cracks close up in compression). The good mechanical properties of CDB, above the brittle-ductile transition temperature, can be attributed to the presence of a large-transition loss peak. In the composites, the fracture behaviour is also influenced to a lesser extent by the degree of filler-binder interactions. Dynamic mechanical analysis indicates that GAP/AP has a slightly higher degree of filler-binder interactions than HTPB/AP. A temperature-strain rate reduction has been obtained for the yield stress and the composite curve can be expressed by the equation _y =K ₁ +K ₂ log (ea _T ) whereK ₁ andK ₂ are constants anda _T is a shift factor.K ₂ is a material constant which reflects the temperature and strain-rate sensitivity.     

Enhanced extraction of isoflavones from Korean soybean by ultrasonic wave

The amounts of isoflavones extracted from Korean soybean by various ultrasonic waves were compared using 60% aqueous ethanol solution. The effect on extraction yield of variations in solvent composition, temperature, and extraction time was investigated. The experimental results confirmed that ultrasonic waves are a desirable method to extract isoflavones from Korean soybean. The highest yield of aglycone isoflavones was obtained by ultrasonic waves with a frequency of 20 KHz and an extraction time of 10 min, which produced yields of glycoside and aglycone isoflavones three-fold greater than those by dipping method.     

Kinetics of volume expansion during infusion of Ringer’s solution based on two volume model

In this work mathematical models were developed to represent the kinetics of volume changes of fluid spaces associated with infusion of Ringer’s solution. During infusion of Ringer’s solution, the human body is assumed to be characterized by the two-fluid space model which has second volume space in addition to the first volume so that fluid exchanges between these two spaces are possible. Various infusion types were tested to accommodate different medical situations. Volunteers were given Ringer’s solution and the changes in blood hemoglobin were detected. From the comparison with experimental data, the two-fluid space model was found to represent adequately the kinetics of human volume expansion during infusion of Ringer’s solution.     

Time-slide window join over data streams

The join is an important operator in processing data streams. To produce outputs continuously over unbounded data streams, sliding windows are generally used to limit the scope of the join at a certain time. In the existing join algorithms, only a simple type of windows have been considered, which are updated whenever a new data item arrives on any input stream. On the other hand, a more common type of windows have not been addressed yet, whose intervals are updated periodically, i.e., slid by a predefined time interval. In this paper, we consider the time-slide windows in joining multiple data streams. The algorithm for the time-slide window join can vary according to (i) how frequently the join is evaluated and (ii) which structure is used for windowing. Regarding this, possible algorithms are discussed, and experimental results that compare their performances are provided in this paper.     

Influence of Potassium on Preparation and Performance of PTC Resistors

Different amounts of K₂CO₃ were added to (Ba,Sr)TiO₃-based PTCR (positive temperature coefficient of resistance) ceramics to investigate their influence on the microstructural and electrical properties. Experimental results showed that the incorporation of K acted as an A-site acceptor-type dopant. In addition to enhancing discontinuous grain growth, the increase of K₂CO₃ was found to raise the room-temperature resistivity which was dominated by grain-boundary resistance rather than grain resistance. By adjusting to a suitable amount of donor dopant, the inherent contamination of K in raw material can be compensated to achieve a high-quality PTC resistor.     

A randomized algorithm for natural object colorization

Natural objects often contain vivid color distribution with wide variety of colors. Conventional colorization techniques, on the other hand, produce colors that are relatively flat with little color variation. In this paper, we introduce a randomized algorithm which considers not only the value of target color but also the distribution of target color. In essence, our algorithm paints a color distribution to a region which synthesizes color distribution of a natural object. Our approach models the correlation between intensity and color in HSV color space in terms of H – S, H – V and S – V joint histogram. During the colorization process, we randomly swap and reassign color of a pixel to minimize a cost function that measures color consistency to its neighborhood and intensity‐to‐color correlation captured in the joint histogram. We tested our algorithm extensively on many natural objects and our user study confirms that our results are more vivid and natural compared to results from previous techniques.