Formation of toxic aldehydes in cod liver oil after ultraviolet irradiation

Formaldehyde, acrolein, malonaldehyde (MA), acetaldehyde and propanal produced from cod liver oil upon ultraviolet irradiation (λ_max=300 nm) were derivatized into nitrogenor sulfur-containing compounds and then analyzed by capillary gas chromatography with a nitrogen-phosphorus detector or a flame photometric detector. Acrolein and MA were formed at levels of 10.9±3.06 and 190.2±38.4 nmol/mg of fish oil, respectively. Maximum levels of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and propanal formed were 7.0±0.90, 49.1±4.5 and 35.8±4.0 nmol/mg of oil, respectively. Formation of propanal in large quantities corresponded to the high content of ɛ-3 fatty acids in cod liver oil.     

0.5-μm 3.3-V BiCMOS standard cells with 32-kilobyte cache andten-port register file

BiCMOS standard cell macros, including a 0.5-W 3-ns register file, a 0.6-W 5-ns 32-kbyte cache, a 0.2-W 3-ns table look-aside buffer (TLB), and a 0.1-W 3-ns adder, are designed with a 0.5-μm BiCMOS technology. A supply voltage of 3.3 V is used to achieve low power consumption. Several BiCMOS/CMOS circuits, such as a self-aligned threshold inverter (SATI) sense amplifier and an ECL HIT logic are used to realize high-speed operation at the low supply voltage. The performance of the BiCMOS macros is verified using a fabricated test chip     

Hydrogen absorption by Pd-coated ZrNi prepared by using Barrel-Sputtering System

To improve the durability of hydrogen storage materials against surface poisoning by impurity gases, effectiveness of Pd-coating layer prepared by using a Barrel-Sputtering System was examined for ZrNi powder. The effectiveness of Pd-coating was evaluated by activation temperature, at which Pd/ZrNi poisoned by air could be activated to absorb hydrogen. Characterization of Pd-coated ZrNi (denoted as Pd/ZrNi) by scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis and X-ray diffraction showed that a uniform Pd-coating layer was formed with the barrel-sputtering system. It was found that the poisoned Pd/ZrNi sample could be activated even at 423 K to absorb hydrogen at room temperature. This exhibits remarkable contrast to bare ZrNi, which could be only activated appreciably above 1073 K. It is concluded that the Pd-coating by barrel sputtering is quite effective to avoid the effect of surface poisoning of powdery hydrogen storage materials. However, the activation at excessively high temperature resulted in the loss of high activity to absorb hydrogen. It was concluded that this phenomenon was associated with reactions between Pd and ZrNi to form PdZr and other byproducts.     

Westernized food habits and concentrations of serum lipids in the Japanese

It has recently been reported that there exists a new 'RING-finger' protein family among the zinc-finger (Zf) proteins. Previously, we had isolated the mouse Mel-18 cDNA (mMel-18) encoding the nuclear RING-finger protein that exhibits an ability to bind to a nonspecific DNA column. Here, we have isolated and characterized the human Mel-18 cDNA (hMel-18) using the mMel-18 cDNA as a probe. The deduced hMel-18 protein contains 344 amino acids (38 kDa) with a RING-finger motif, a helix-loop-helix (HLH)-like structure and a Pro/Ser-rich region. The hMel-18 gene is conserved among vertebrates. Its mRNA is highly expressed in placenta, lung and kidney, but the level is low in liver, pancreas and skeletal muscle. Using in situ hybridization, we mapped hMel-18 to band q22 of chromosome 12. It is possible that the Mel-18/bmi-1 gene family represents a mammalian homologue of the Drosophila polycomb gene group.     

Low-threshold, highly reliable 630 nm-band AlGaIP visible laserdiodes with AlInP buried waveguide

Low-threshold, highly reliable 630 nm-band AlGaInP visible laser diodes have been developed by employing a low-loss optical waveguide buried in the AlInP layer. A low-threshold current of 19 mA at 25°C is obtained with a cavity length of 310 μm. This current is the lowest value for 630 nm-band AlGaInP visible laser diodes, to our knowledge. Our AlInP-buried laser diodes with a cavity length of 500 μm operated over 7000 h without significant degradation at 60°C and 5 mW     

A 286 mm2 256 Mb DRAM with ×32 both-ends DQ

This paper describes a 256 Mb DRAM chip architecture which provides up to ×32 wide organization. In order to minimize the die size, three new techniques: an exchangeable hierarchical data line structure, an irregular sense amp layout, and a split address bus with local redrive scheme in the both-ends DQ were introduced. A chip has been developed based on the architecture with 0.25 μm CMOS technology. The chip measures 13.25 mm×21.55 mm, which is the smallest 256 Mb DRAM ever reported. A row address strobe (RAS) access time of 26 ns was obtained under 2.8 V power supply and 85°C. In addition, a 100 MHz×32 page mode operation, namely 400 M byte/s data rate, in the standard extended data output (EDO) cycle has been successfully demonstrated     

A new type of arc plasma reactor with 12-phase alternating current discharge for synthesis of carbon nanotubes

A new type of arc plasma reactor with 12-phase alternating current (AC) discharge for synthesis of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is proposed. A couple of six discharge electrodes by which have mutually electrical connection between them to enlarge the high-temperature regions in the reactor are arranged to three-dimensional locations. A new method of CNTs fabrication by this reactor, which accomplishes to enlarge the suitable growth region in high purity and at high yield, was developed.     

Generation of adaptive gait patterns for quadruped robot with CPG network including motor dynamic model

This paper describes the generation of adaptive gait patterns using new Central Pattern Generators (CPGs) including motor dynamic models for a quadruped robot under various environments. The CPGs act as the flexible oscillators of the joints and adjust joint angles to required values. The CPGs are interconnected with each other and sets of their coupling parameters are adjusted by a genetic algorithm so that the quadruped robot can realize stable and adequate gait patterns. Generation of gait patterns results in the formation of the CPG networks suitable for the formation of not only a straight walking pattern but also of rotating gait patterns. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed CPG networks are effective for the automatic adjustment of the adaptive gait patterns for the tested quadruped robot under various environments. Furthermore, the target tracking control based on image processing is achieved by combining the general gait patterns. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 155(1): 35–43, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20225     

Analysis of T-cell receptor beta of the T-cell clones reactive to the human PDC-E2 163-176 peptide in the context of HLA-DR53 in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis

T-cell-mediated autoimmune mechanisms are considered to be involved in the pathogenesis of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). In the previous study, we identified the immunodominant T-cell epitope on the E2 component of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC-E2) in patients with PBC who have HLA-DRB4*0101. In this report, we revealed that the frequency of the T cells reactive to the human PDC-E2 163-176 peptide is significantly increased in the peripheral blood of patients with PBC as compared with healthy subjects. We also confirmed that these T cells were all restricted with HLA-DRB4*01 (DR53) by using HLA-DR-transfected L cells. These results together with the evidence that the immunodominant B-cell epitope overlaps with the human T-cell epitope of the PDC-E2 antigen indicate that the T cells reactive to this epitope are closely associated with the pathogenesis of PBC at least in patients who have HLA-DR53. Therefore, we analyzed the T-cell receptor (TCR) Vbeta sequence of the five different T-cell clones and the three T-cell clones derived from three patients with PBC and healthy subjects, respectively, which are reactive to the human PDC-E2 163-176 peptide in the context of HLA-DR53. The Vbeta- and the Jbeta-gene usages were diverse among the T-cell clones (Vbeta11-Jbeta1.4, Vbeta8-Jbeta1.2, Vbeta12-Jbeta2.1, Vbeta10-Jbeta1.5, and Vbeta20-Jbeta2.1) in patients with PBC. By contrast, in the third complementarity determining region (CDR3), G was frequently found and GXG or GXS motif was identified in all T-cell clones. Moreover, RGXG motif was found in three clones generated from two patients. In healthy subjects, the Vbeta- and the Jbeta-gene usages were also diverse, and GXG and RGXG motif were found. These results indicate that the T cells may recognize the ligand (the human PDC-E2 163-176 peptide/HLA-DR53 complex) using the limited motif in the CDR3 region and that the design of CDR3-specific immunotherapy would be possible using these motifs.