Proteolytic and angiotensin‐converting enzyme‐inhibitory activities of selected probiotic bacteria

This study was carried out to examine the proteolytic and angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE‐I) activities of probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as influenced by the type of media, fermentation time, strain type and media supplementation with a proteolytic enzyme (Flavourzyme^®). Lactobacillus casei (Lc210), Bifidobacterium animalis ssp12 (Bb12), Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus (Lb11842) and Lactobacillus acidophilus (La2410) were grown in 12% of reconstituted skim milk (RSM) or 4% of whey protein concentrates (WPC‐35) with or without combination (0.14%) of Flavourzyme^® for 12 h at 37 °C. All the strains were able to grow in both media depending on type of strains used and fermentation time. All the strains showed higher proteolytic activity and produced more antihypersensitive peptides when grown in RSM medium at 12 h, when compared to WPC. Combination with Flavourzyme^® also increased LAB growth and proteolytic and ACE‐I activities. Of the four strains used, Bb12 and La2410 outperformed Lc210 and Lb11842. The highest ACE‐I activity and proteolytic activity were found in B. animalis ssp12 combined with Flavourzyme^®. Flavourzyme^® led to an increase in the production of bioactive peptides with ACE‐I activity during 12 h at 37 °C.     

Multifunctional imaging of endogenous contrast by simultaneous nonlinear and optical coherence microscopy of thick tissues

A variety of high resolution optical microscopy techniques have been developed in recent years for basic and clinical studies of biological systems. We demonstrate a trimodal microscope combining optical coherence microscopy (OCM) with two forms of nonlinear microscopy, namely two-photon excited fluorescence (2PF) and second harmonic generation (SHG), for imaging turbid media. OCM combines the advantages of confocal detection and coherence gating for structural imaging in highly scattering tissues. Nonlinear microscopy enables the detection of biochemical species, such as elastin, NAD(P)H, and collagen. While 2PF arises from nonlinear excitation of fluorescent species, SHG is a form of nonlinear scattering observed in materials that lack a center of inversion symmetry, such as type I collagen. Characterization of the microscope showed nearly diffraction-limited spatial resolution in all modalities. Images were obtained in fish scales and excised human skin samples. The primary endogenous sources of contrast in the dermis were due to elastin autofluorescence and collagen SHG. Multimodal microscopy allows the simultaneous visualization of structural and functional information of biological systems.     

Exploration of photosensitive polyimide as the modification layer in thin film microcircuit

Positive type photosensitive polyimide is used as the modification layer in the thin film transistors production process.The photosensitive polyimide is not only used as the second insulating layer,it can also be used instead of a mask because of the photosensitivity.A suitable curing condition can help photosensitive polyimide form the high performance polyimide with orderly texture inside,and the performance of imidization depends on the precise control of temperature,time,and heat control during the curing process.Therefore,experiments of different stepped up heating tests are made,and the ability of protecting silicon dioxide is analyzed.     

Flow through variably saturated soils

The equation of flow through variably saturated porous media is discretized via the Galerkin finite element formulation. The discretization is coupled with an approach for mesh generation and optimization of the node numbering scheme. Sensitivity analysis showed that the solution behavior is controlled by dimensionless quantities equivalent to Peclet and Courant numbers. For the form of equation investigated, no universal limiting values of Pe and Cr can be established because the values of these parameters depend on both the constitutive relations used and on initial conditions. For more efficient solution of the problem, a deformation scheme of the computational mesh is proposed, which accounts for the limiting Peclet and Courant numbers and for the shape of the deformed elements. Comparisons with other solutions showed that the numerical scheme performs very well.     

Self-Perceptions of Competence in Children With ADHD and Comparison Children.

The self-perceptions of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n=487) were compared with those of children in a local normative comparison group (n=287), relative to teacher- and parent-rated perceptions of their competence. Children were participants in the ongoing follow-up portion of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD. Children with ADHD were much more likely than comparison children to overestimate their competence relative to adult report, regardless of who was used as the criterion rater (teacher, mother, or father). Examination by comorbidity subgroups revealed that children with ADHD inflated their self-perceptions the most in domains of greatest deficit. Gender effects also are reported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)