In vivo Kinetic Biodistribution of Nano‐Sized Outer Membrane Vesicles Derived from Bacteria

Evaluation of kinetic distribution and behaviors of nanoparticles in vivo provides crucial clues into their roles in living organisms. Extracellular vesicles are evolutionary conserved nanoparticles, known to play important biological functions in intercellular, inter‐species, and inter‐kingdom communication. In this study, the first kinetic analysis of the biodistribution of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs)—bacterial extracellular vesicles—with immune‐modulatory functions is performed. OMVs, injected intraperitoneally, spread to the whole mouse body and accumulate in the liver, lung, spleen, and kidney within 3 h of administration. As an early systemic inflammation response, increased levels of TNF‐α and IL‐6 are observed in serum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. In addition, the number of leukocytes and platelets in the blood is decreased. OMVs and cytokine concentrations, as well as body temperature are gradually decreased 6 h after OMV injection, in concomitance with the formation of eye exudates, and of an increase in ICAM‐1 levels in the lung. Following OMV elimination, most of the inflammatory signs are reverted, 12 h post‐injection. However, leukocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid are increased as a late reaction. Taken together, these results suggest that OMVs are effective mediators of long distance communication in vivo.     

Properties and applications of β‐glycosidase from Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron that specifically hydrolyses isoflavone glycosides

To modify the glycan part of glycosides, the gene encoding β‐glycosidase was cloned from Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron VPI‐5482. The cloned gene, bt_1780, was expressed in Escherichia coli MC1061 and the expressed enzyme was purified using Ni‐NTA affinity chromatography. The purified enzyme, BTBG, showed optimal activity at 50 °C and pH 5.5. Interestingly, this enzyme did not have any hydrolysing activity on ordinary β‐linkage–containing substrates such as xylobiose, lactose and cello‐oligosaccharide, but specifically hydrolysed isoflavone glycosides such as daidzin, genistin and glycitin. Compared to a commercial beta glucosidase, BTBG selectively hydrolysed isoflavone glycosides in soybean extract mixture solution. These results suggest that BTBG may be a specialized enzyme for the hydrolysis of glycosides and that the substrate specificity of BTBG is applicable for the bioconversion of isoflavone glycosides in the food industry.     

A Distribution‐freeCUSUMChart for Monitoring Variability of AutocorrelatedProcesses

We present a distribution‐free tabular cumulative sum chart for monitoring the variability of an autocorrelated process. A quantity known as the asymptotic variance parameter is employed as a measure of the variability, and a distribution‐free tabular cumulative sum chart is applied to variance estimates calculated from batches of nonoverlapping samples. The proposed chart is applicable to a stationary process with a general marginal distribution and a general autocorrelation structure. It also determines control limits analytically without trial‐and‐error simulations. The performance of the proposed chart is tested on stationary processes with both normal and nonnormal marginals with various autocorrelation structures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optically preamplified receiver performance due to VSB filtering for 40-Gb/s optical signals modulated with various formats

Optically preamplified receiver performance according to the vestigial sideband (VSB) filtering has been numerically investigated for 40-Gb/s optical signals modulated with nonreturn-to-zero, duobinary nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ), return-to-zero (RZ), carrier-suppressed RZ, and duobinary carrier-suppressed RZ formats. The VSB filtering enables the spectral widths of NRZ, duobinary NRZ, and RZ signals to be reduced without severe power penalties at the receiver. On the other hand, carrier-suppressed RZ and duobinary carrier-suppressed RZ signals have no large advantages over VSB filtering because of the characteristics of their signals. Our results suggest that RZ signals are the most suitable modulation format for VSB filtering, without considering the filter loss, because of the tolerance of the intersymbol interference and a large spectral width. However, duobinary NRZ signals are the most suitable modulation format for VSB filtering, considering the filter loss, because of their narrow spectral width.     

Spectral shape tunable band-rejection filter using a long-period fiber grating with divided coil heaters

We have developed a new type of tunable band rejection filter, which provides high spectral-shaping flexibility in a wide tuning range. The filter consists of a long-period fiber grating (LPFG) with divided coil heaters. Each of the divided coil heaters is controlled individually to adjust a temperature distribution along the LPFG and to modify the spectral shape of the LPFG filter. The tunable band rejection filter is demonstrated to function properly when applied as an erbium-doped fiber amplifier gain-flattening filter.     

An Analysis of Citation Counts of ETRI‐Invented US Patents

From its foundation until 2004, ETRI has registered over 1,000 US patents. This letter analyzes the characteristics of these patents and addresses the explanatory factors affecting their citation counts. For explanatory variables, research team related variables, invention specific variables, and geographical domain related variables are suggested. Zero‐altered count data models are used to test the impact of independent variables. A key finding is that technological cumulativeness, the scale of invention, outputs in the electronic field, and the degree of dependence on the US technology domain positively affect the citation counts of ETRI‐invented US patents. The magnitude of international presence appears to negatively affect the citation counts of ETRI‐invented US patents.     

Transmission performance of 10-Gb/s 1550-nm transmitters using semiconductor optical amplifiers as booster amplifiers

We have demonstrated the transmission performance of 10-Gb/s transmitters based on LiNbO/sub 3/ modulator using semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) as booster amplifiers. Utilizing the negative chirp converted in SOAs and self-phase modulation induced by high optical power, we can successfully transmit 10-Gb/s optical signals over 80 km through the standard single-mode fiber with the transmitter using SOAs as booster amplifiers. SOAs can be used for booster amplifiers with a careful adjustment of the operating conditions. In order to further understand an SOA's characteristics as a booster amplifier, we model SOAs and other subsystems to verify the experimental results. Based on the good agreement between the experimental and simulation results, we can find the appropriate parameters of input signals for SOAs, such as extinction ratio, rising/falling time, and chirp parameter to maximize output dynamic range and available maximum output power (P/sub o,max/).     

Theoretical analysis of cladding-mode waveguide dispersion and its effects on the spectra of long-period fiber grating

A new method to control the free spectral range (FSR) of a long-period fiber grating (LPFG) is proposed and theoretically analyzed. As the refractive index decreases radially outward in the silica cladding by graded doping of fluorine, waveguide dispersion in the cladding modes was modified to result in the effective indexes change and subsequently the phase-matching conditions for coupling with the core mode in a LPFG. Enlargement of the FSR in a LPFG was theoretically confirmed.     

Development of geometrically exact new shell elements based on general curvilinear co‐ordinates

In the present study first‐order shear deformable shell finite elements based on general curvilinear co‐ordinates are proposed. For the development of the present shell elements, a partial mixed variational functional with independently assumed strains is provided in order to avoid the severe locking troubles known as transverse shear and membrane lockings. Bubble functions are included in the shape function of displacement to improve the performance of the developed element. The proposed assumed strain four‐ and nine‐node elements based on the general tensor shell theory provide an efficient linkage framework for shell surface modelling and finite element analysis. In the several benchmark problems, the present shell elements with exact geometric representations demonstrate their performance compared to previously reported results. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.