The Protease-Resistant Fraction of Smoked, Dried Bonito Lowers Serum Cholesterol in Ovariectomized Rats Fed Cholesterol-Free Diets

The hypocholesterolemic effects of smoke‐dried bonito undigested fractions remaining after microbial proteases treatment (SDBR), SDBR undigested fractions remaining after pepsin treatment (P‐SDBR), SDBR undigested fractions remaining after alcalase treatment (A‐SDBR), and defatted A‐SDBR (A‐SDBR/DF) were studied in 6‐month‐old, ovariectomized rats. Casein was used as the control. Smoke‐dried bonito, Katsuobushi, is a traditional Japanese food. SDBR, P‐SDBR, and A‐SDBR contain mainly 2 components: bonito oil and protease‐undigested proteins. In comparison with casein, SDBR, P‐SDBR, and A‐SDBR decreased plasma cholesterol concentration and increased fecal bile acid excretion and fecal output, whereas A‐SDBR/DF increased fecal bile acid excretion and fecal output, but did not decrease plasma cholesterol concentration. In addition, SDBR, P‐SDBR, and A‐SDBR, when compared with casein, decreased plasma triglyceride (TG) concentration and increased hepatic total lipid concentration, free cholesterol, and TG concentrations and CYP7A1 mRNA levels. Yet, these effects were not observed in rats fed A‐SDBR/DF. These results suggest that the hypocholesterolemic effect of SDBR, P‐SDBR, and A‐SDBR is mediated by an increase in bile acid excretion through a combination of promoted secretion of bile acids by bonito oil and binding of bile acids to resistant proteins. The hypotriglyceridemic effect may be mediated by reduced hepatic TG synthesis and secretion due to the intake of bonito oil.     

Dynamic-logic PLA on low-temperature polysilicon TFT technology

Motivated by improvements in low-temperature polysilicon thin-film transistor (LTPS-TFT) processes, a TFT-based dynamic-logic programmable logic array (PLA) has been designed. Successful operation of the circuit with high repeatability is reported. It is thus demonstrated that the LTPS-TFT technology is mature enough to support aggressive circuit techniques such as dynamic logic     

Determination of nucleotide sequence related to the plasmid replication region in Enterococcus faecalis and its application to a new shuttle vector

The 5.1-kb plasmid pAMalpha1delta2, a derivative of the 9.6-kb plasmid pAMalpha1 which is harbored by Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 14508, has a region necessary for replication in E. faecalis. The nucleotide sequence related to the replication region in pAMalpha1delta2 was determined and found to contain an open reading frame of 720-bp encoding a replication protein. The sequence showed 54.5 and 48.5% homology to those encoding the RepAs of plasmids pLA103 from Lactobacillus acidophilus and pFA3 from Neisseria gonorrhoeae, respectively. A recombinant 5.8-kb plasmid, pEFX6, which can be used as a shuttle vector between Escherichia coli and some strains of E. faecalis, was constructed by combining the tetracycline resistance gene of pAMalpha1delta2 and the replication regions of pAMalpha1delta2 and pUC18 for E. faecalis and E. coli, respectively. This shuttle vector was successfully used to clone and express the gelatinase gene from E. faecalis subsp. zymogenes IFO 3989 in E. faecalis C57, a strain showing no gelatinase activity.     

Numerical evaluation of interfacial area concentration using the immiscible lattice gas

The phase separation in a Couette flow and the mixing of two phases in a cavity flow are simulated numerically using the immiscible lattice gas, which is one of the discrete methods of using particles to simulate two-phase flows. The interface is defined as the lattice sites between two phases, and the interfacial area concentration is evaluated in the steady state. In the Couette flow, the interfacial area concentration increases slightly with an increase in the wall speed. It is shown in the cavity flow that the interfacial area concentration increases largely with an increase in the wall speed. Macroscopic velocity fields in the two flows are in good agreement with analytical or numerical solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations. The interfacial area concentration is found to be correlated with the wall speed for the two flows, and the applicability of particle simulation methods to the numerical evaluation of the interfacial area concentration is indicated.     

The quadratic finite element thermal analysis of silicon irradiated by a pulsed KrF excimer laser

The melting and solidification process of crystalline silicon (c-Si) sample flashed by a pulsed KrF excimer laser is studied numerically. The dynamics of pulsed nanosecond laser melting process is simulated by the solution of the one-dimensional heat conduction equation. The quadratic finite element method (FEM) is applied to solve the equation. This method is based upon a higher order FEM with a smaller error and allowing faster convergence to the exact solution. The surface temperatures obtained by the quadratic FEM are in good agreement with the exact solutions. In addition to this, the temperature-dependent optical and thermal properties of the irradiated c-Si have been taken into account and the calculated results are compared with the experimental data published.     

Flexible network integrated supervisory control for power systems based on distributed objects

This paper introduces the flexibility of SCOPE (System Configuration Of PowEr control system) which is a new architecture to realize flexible and reliable supervisory control for power systems. Energy Management Systems/Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (EMS/SCADA) systems are usually geographically distributed and have hierarchical operational organizations. They are continuously changing in accordance with various requirements and varying environments. Therefore, they should be flexible enough to adapt to those changes quickly. SCOPE classifies programs in conventional electric power systems into three hierarchical layers: application‐dependent part, power system‐dependent part, and computer system‐dependent part. The power system‐dependent part realizes flexibility for changing of power system equipment and operational organization, by introducing an enhanced abstract function of object‐oriented technology. Therefore, SCOPE architecture enables EMS/SCADA systems to be flexible, and also enables development efficiently and economically. Through developing and evaluating a SCOPE prototype system, it has been confirmed that the flexibility of EMS/SCADA systems had been improved. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 136(4): 34–46, 2001     

MoM Analysis of Dipole Antennas in Crosshole Borehole Radar and Field Experiments

In this paper, we propose a method-of-moments (MoM) analysis that includes the borehole effects on crosshole borehole radar, and we verify that the MoM represents the crosshole borehole radar data correctly. We derive the far-field approximation of an electric field radiated by an electric point source. In this derivation, we assume that the point source is in a cylindrically layered medium, while the observed electric field is in another cylindrically layered medium. The equations that are derived are used as a transfer function to connect the two impedance matrices - one for the transmitting antenna and the other one for the receiving one. In these matrices, the influence of the scattered field by the borehole is included completely. We conducted field experiments in granite with a controlled borehole medium in order to investigate the influence of the borehole. In this paper, we estimated the relative amplitude and the group delay of the received signals between the water-filled borehole case and the air-filled borehole case. This paper showed that the estimated amplitude and delay depend on the frequency and that the proposed MoM could predict these frequency dependencies.     

一种基于低温多晶硅TFT技术的柔性8位异步微处理器

介绍基于低温多晶硅TFT技术和采用激光退火表面刻蚀技术的柔性8位异步微处理器,并且给出了异步电路描述语言Verilog 。32,000个晶体管的微处理器在500kHz,5V的条件下消耗电流180mA,功耗是同步微处理器的30%。     

The stretch of C-terminal acidic amino acids of translational release factor eRF1 is a primary binding site for eRF3 of fission yeast

Translation termination in eukaryotes requires a codon-specific (class-I) release factor, eRF1, and a GTP/GDP-dependent (class-II) release factor, eRF3. The model of "molecular mimicry between release factors and tRNA" predicts that eRF1 mimics tRNA to read the stop codon and that eRF3 mimics elongation factor EF-Tu to bring eRF1 to the A site of the ribosome for termination of protein synthesis. In this study, we set up three systems, in vitro affinity binding, a yeast two-hybrid system, and in vitro competition assay, to determine the eRF3-binding site of eRF1 using the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe proteins and creating systematic deletions in eRF1. The in vitro affinity binding experiments demonstrated that the predicted tRNA-mimicry truncation of eRF1 (Sup45) forms a stable complex with eRF3 (Sup35). All three test systems revealed that the most critical binding site is located at the C-terminal region of eRF1, which is conserved among eukaryotic eRF1s and rich in acidic amino acids. To our surprise, however, the C-terminal deletion eRF1 seems to be sufficient for cell viability in spite of the severe defect in eRF3 binding when expressed in a temperature-sensitive sup45 mutant of the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. These results cannot be accounted for by the simple "eRF3-EF-Tu mimicry" model, but may provide new insight into the eRF3 function for translation termination in eukaryotes.