Functional gel-microbead manipulated by optical tweezers for local environment measurement in microchip

A novel on-chip environment measurement with functional gel-microtool was developed. Environment measurement gel-microtool was fabricated by connecting the gel-microbeads impregnated with indicators in a microchip. In this artcle, Bromothymol blue (BTB) and Bromocresol green (BCG) were employed as pH indicators. BTB and BCG have the different indicator range. Rhodamine B is temperature sensitive fluorescent dye and is used for temperature measurement. Gel-microbead is made by salting-out of hydrophilic photo-crosslinkable resin and is manipulated by optical tweezers. Moreover, gel-microbead is polymerized by UV illumination and connected to other gel-microbead under an electrolyte solution. The connection of gel-microbeads is performed by contact of gel-microbeads under UV illumination. Environment measurement gel-microtool with an arbitrary shape is fabricated by connection of the gel-microtool impregnated with arbitrary indicator. Multiple environments measurement gel-microtool included with several indicators is realized by assembly of the gel-microbeads impregnated with different indicators. Environment measurement is performed by detecting the color and the fluorescence intensity of each gel-microbead. We succeeded in the on-chip fabrication of the environment measurement gel-microtools such as circular pH measurement gel-microtool and wide range pH measurement gel-microtool in a microchip.     

端铣中工具进给速度的最佳化

This paper deals with the tool feed rate optimization for smoothening of cutting force in end milling of workpiece with corner and straight parts. There is a difference between the cutting force in a corner part cutting and that in a straight part cutting. The cause of this is due to the difference in the instantaneous depths of cut in both cuttings. The scheme of this study is to prevent the generation of excessive cutting force in the corner part machining by comparison with the straight part machining. By dividing the NC (Numerical Control) cutting path of the corner part and changing the tool feed rate in each division, the cutting force in the corner part has been controlled. Furthermore, the possibility of realization of a shortening in machining time has been examined.     

Functional replacement of yeast flavocytochrome b2 with bacterial l-lactate dehydrogenase

Using yeast genetic complementation, we show here that Rhodobacter sphaeroidesl-lactate dehydrogenase can functionally replace flavocytochrome b₂ in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, only when a matrix-targeting signal of flavocytochrome b₂ is fused with the bacterial enzyme. The recombinant l-lactate dehydrogenase may add alternative route of mitochondrial electron transport other than flavocytochrome b₂.     

Improving surface functional properties of tofu whey-derived peptides by chemical modification with fatty acids

Effect of acylation with saturated fatty acids on surface functional properties of tofu whey-derived peptides was investigated. Tofu whey (TW) and soy proteins (7S, 11S, and acid-precipitated soy protein [APP]) were hydrolyzed by Protease M 'Amano' G, and resulting peptide mixtures were acylated with esterified fatty acids of different chain length (6C to 18C) to form a covalent linkage between the carboxyl group of fatty acid and the free amino groups of peptide. Acylation significantly (P < 0.05) increased emulsifying properties of 7S, 11S, and APP peptides independent of fatty acid chain length. Acylation decreased water binding capacity although oil binding capacity of acylated tofu whey ultra filtered fraction (UFTW < 3 kDa), 7S- and 11S-peptides were improved compared to native peptides. 7S peptides acylated with long chain fatty acids had shown significant higher surface hydrophobicity as in contrast with acylated UFTW < 3 kDa and APP peptides. Fluorescence spectra studies revealed structural conformation of acylated soy peptides as compared to native peptides. This study shows that chemical modification with fatty acids can further affect functional properties of soy proteins.     

Quasi-radial basis functions applied to boundary element solutions for the Grad–Shafranov equation

The Grad–Shafranov equation for axisymmetric fusion plasma has been transformed into a boundary integral equation by expanding the inhomogeneous current density term into a set of ‘quasi’-radial basis functions (RBFs). These quasi-RBFs are derived in such a way that a particular solution for the Grad–Shafranov equation will be a simple Gaussian function. Two or three stages of eigenvalue iterations are required together with a nonlinear optimization to update the scaling factor of each quasi-RBF. It has been found that excellent accuracy of the boundary element solution can be realized with a small number of quasi-RBFs when adopting RBF-dependent scaling factors.     

Ipratropium bromide protects against bronchoconstriction during bronchoscopy

The in vitro activity of fleroxacin was compared to that of ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and three broad-spectrum beta-lactams against 159 clinical isolates using the E-Test. Fleroxacin, ciprofloxacin, and ofloxacin were all active against Enterobacteriaceae with 93, 98 and 94% susceptibility, respectively. For other gram-negative strains, 81% were susceptible to fleroxacin and ofloxacin and 98% to ciprofloxacin. With regard to gram-positive strains, 72% were susceptible to fleroxacin, 83% to ciprofloxacin and 78% to ofloxacin. The broad antibacterial activity suggests that fleroxacin may be an alternative in the treatment of various infections, particularly in light of its favorable pharmacokinetics.