Combined Protein and Alkaloid Research of Chelidonium majus Latex Reveals CmMLP1 Accompanied by Alkaloids with Cytotoxic Potential to Human Cervical Carcinoma Cells

Chelidonium majus L. is a latex-bearing plant used in traditional folk medicine to treat human papillomavirus (HPV)-caused warts, papillae, and condylomas. Its latex and extracts are rich in many low-molecular compounds and proteins, but there is little or no information on their potential interaction. We describe the isolation and identification of a novel major latex protein (CmMLP1) composed of 147 amino acids and present a model of its structure containing a conserved hydrophobic cavity with high affinity to berberine, 8-hydroxycheleritrine, and dihydroberberine. CmMLP1 and the accompanying three alkaloids were present in the eluted chromatographic fractions of latex. They decreased in vitro viability of human cervical cancer cells (HPV-negative and HPV-positive). We combined, for the first time, research on macromolecular and low-molecular-weight compounds of latex-bearing plants in contrast to other studies that investigated proteins and alkaloids separately. The observed interaction between latex protein and alkaloids may influence our knowledge on plant defense. The proposed toolbox may help in further understanding of plant disease resistance and in pharmacological research.     

Development of a motion simulator for testing a mobile surveillance robot

A 6-axis motion simulator has been developed, in order to regenerate UGV (unmanned ground vehicle) motion and to test the stabilization system of the mobile surveillance robot that is mounted on the UGV. For developing the 6-axis motion simulator, a simulation-based design procedure was introduced. The 3D geometric model of the motion simulator was created by using 3D CAD modeler ProE. The multibody dynamics model of the motion simulator has also been created by using the general purpose dynamic analysis program ADAMS to validate the design of the motion simulator. Dynamics and control co-simulation model for the motion simulator has been also established for control performance analyses. Actual hardware of the motion simulator has been fabricated based on the proposed simulation based design. Hardware test of the motion simulator has been tried to validate the design. This paper was presented at the 4th Asian Conference on Multibody Dynamics(ACMD2008), Jeju, Korea, August 20–23, 2008. Oskar Wallrapp was awarded a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany in 1989. Dr. Wallrapp is currently a Professor in the Department of Precision and Micro Engineering, Muenchen University of Applied Science, Munich, Germany. His research interests are mechanism analysis and design, robotics, and bio-mechanics. Sung-Soo Kim received a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 1988. Dr. Kim is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechatronics Engineering at Chungnam National University in Daejeon, Korea. His research interests are real-time multibody formulation and its application to the automotive systems and military robot systems.     

Overview of Steel Bridges Containing High Strength Steel

The use of high strength steel has the potential to reduce the amount of steel used in bridges and thereby, facilitate a more sustainable construction. A survey of existing bridges built using high strength steel is presented in this paper with emphasis on the Swedish bridge stock. The survey aimed at identifying the steel grades that were used and where in the cross-section they have been used. A case study on the influence of fatigue shows that today’s regulations make it more difficult to use high strength steel in comparison to previous regulations.

     

Application of Reconfigurable CORDIC Architectures

Reconfiguration enables the adaption of Coordinate Rotation DIgital Computer (CORDIC) units to the specific needs of sets of applications, hence creating application specific CORDIC-style implementations. Reconfiguration can be implemented at a high level, taking the entire CORDIC unit as a basic cell (CORDIC-cells) implemented in VLSI, or at a low level such as Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). We suggest a design methodology and analyze area/time results for coarse (VLSI) and fine-grain (FPGA) reconfigurable CORDIC units. For FPGAs we implement CORDIC units in Verilog HDL and our object-oriented design environment, PAM-Blox. For CORDIC-cells, multiple reconfigurable CORDIC modules are synthesized with state-of-the-art CAD tools. At the algorithm level we present a case study combining multiple CORDICs based on a geometrical interpretation of a normalized ladder algorithm for adaptive filtering to reduce latency and area of a fully pipelined CORDIC implementation. Ultimately, the goal is to create automatic tools to map applications directly to reconfigurable high-level arithmetic units such as CORDICs.     

Chronic Oral Selegiline Treatment Mitigates Age-Related Hearing Loss in BALB/c Mice

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL), a sensorineural hearing loss of multifactorial origin, increases its prevalence in aging societies. Besides hearing aids and cochlear implants, there is no FDA approved efficient pharmacotherapy to either cure or prevent ARHL. We hypothesized that selegiline, an antiparkinsonian drug, could be a promising candidate for the treatment due to its complex neuroprotective, antioxidant, antiapoptotic, and dopaminergic neurotransmission enhancing effects. We monitored by repeated Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) measurements the effect of chronic per os selegiline administration on the hearing function in BALB/c and DBA/2J mice, which strains exhibit moderate and rapid progressive high frequency hearing loss, respectively. The treatments were started at 1 month of age and lasted until almost a year and 5 months of age, respectively. In BALB/c mice, 4 mg/kg selegiline significantly mitigated the progression of ARHL at higher frequencies. Used in a wide dose range (0.15–45 mg/kg), selegiline had no effect in DBA/2J mice. Our results suggest that selegiline can partially preserve the hearing in certain forms of ARHL by alleviating its development. It might also be otoprotective in other mammals or humans.     

Grain coarsening in hot deformed austenitic Cr-Ni steel

Simulation of forging of Nb-stabilised Cr-Ni steel using a hot deformation simulator. Modelling of various courses of temperature in between and after deformation steps. Assessment of the effects of various soaking conditions on grain growth. Evaluation of recrystallisation and grain growth characteristics by quantitative metallography.     

Calculation of the temperature distribution in dieless drawing

Dieless drawing is an example of flexible metal forming processes. The investigation of the main process parameters and their interdependence is the prerequisite for the deliberate choice of input parameters to get the desired quality of the workpiece. Drawing force, drawing velocity, and temperature are the main control parameters. But only the temperature can be influenced locally whereas the force and the velocity can be adjusted only globally. Because of this special importance of the temperature analytical and numerical models for the temperature distribution along the deformation zone have been developed.     

Improving properties of a low-carbon microalloyed steel by means of accelerated cooling of dynamically recrystallized austenite

Ferrite formation from the ultra-fine dynamically recrystallized austenite (d_γ < 5 μm) was investigated on a microalloyed steel with 0.11%C. Hot rolling conditions were simulated by the hot deformation simulator Wumsi. Due to accelerated cooling a corresponding fine homogeneous ferrite grain of d_α < 2 μm was achieved with a pearlite free acicular microstructure after a cooling rate of more than 20 K/s. Excellent mechanical properties (2.0% proof stress of over 700 MPa and impact transition temperature of -180°C) were obtained, superior to those after thermomechanical processing of the same steel without dynamic recrystallization of the low-temperature austenite.