Anodic chlorination of aniline in N,N-dimethyl-formamide and N,N-dimethylacetamide

A pertinent electrochemical synthesis of 2,4,6-trichloroaniline (TCA) in anhydrous media was studied. The influence of the solvent, the chlorinating reagent, the electricity passed and the nature of the anode material, were investigated. TCA was produced in electrolytic solutions whose solvents were amides with strong nucleophilicity as N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and N,N-dimethylacetoamide (DMAc), and was obtained selectively by the controlled potential electrolysis of aniline in the solution containing LiCl. The definition of the experimental conditions corresponding to an optimum and selective electrolysis of TCA was described.     

Addressing temporal inconsistency in indirect augmented reality

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Indirect augmented reality (IAR) employs a unique approach to achieve high-quality synthesis of the real world and the virtual world, unlike traditional...     

Shape-memory surface with dynamically tunable nano-geometry activated by body heat

Shape-memory surfaces with on-demand, tunable nanopatterns are developed to observe time dependent changes in cell alignment using temperature-responsive poly(?-caprolactone) (PCL) films. Temporary grooved nanopatterns are easily programmed on the films and triggered to transition quickly to permanent surface patterns by the application of body heat. A time-dependent cytoskeleton remodeling is also observed under biologically relevant conditions.     

Novel temperature-responsive polymer brushes with carbohydrate residues facilitate selective adhesion and collection of hepatocytes

Temperature-responsive glycopolymer brushes were designed to investigate the effects of grafting architectures of the copolymers on the selective adhesion and collection of hypatocytes. Homo, random and block sequences of N-isopropylacrylamide and 2-lactobionamidoethyl methacrylate were grafted on glass substrates via surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization. The galactose/lactose-specific lectin RCA₁₂₀ and HepG2 cells were used to test for specific recognition of the polymer brushes containing galactose residues over the lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs). RCA₁₂₀ showed a specific binding to the brush surfaces at 37 °C. These brush surfaces also facilitated the adhesion of HepG2 cells at 37 °C under nonserum conditions, whereas no adhesion was observed for NIH-3T3 fibroblasts. When the temperature was decreased to 25 °C, almost all the HepG2 cells detached from the block copolymer brush, whereas the random copolymer brush did not release the cells. The difference in releasing kinetics of cells from the surfaces with different grafting architectures can be explained by the correlated effects of significant changes in LCST, mobility, hydrophilicity and mechanical properties of the grafted polymer chains. These findings are important for designing ‘on–off’ cell capture/release substrates for various biomedical applications such as selective cell separation.     

Corporate productivity and the stages of ICT development

A number of studies have considered the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on corporate productivity, including the relationship of ICT to corporate structure and business processes. Comparatively less attention, however, has been directed toward the relationship between corporate productivity and the various stages of ICT application development; to date, the only work in this direction has been the proposal of some conceptual frameworks for the development stages of ICT, and no empirical studies have been conducted. In this paper, using individual data from the 2006 Information and Communication Technology Survey conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, we use estimated production functions to quantify how productivity changes with the stages of ICT development. When we classify ICT applications into four stages of sophistication—nonperforming ICT assets, section-wide system applications, company-wide system applications, and inter-corporate system applications—we find that the impact of ICT on productivity increases with each successive stage of sophistication. For instance, when we use a production function that assesses the impact of the ICT development stage on Total Factor Productivity (TFP), we find that companies that have developed company-wide system applications exhibit added-value productivity some 1.07-fold higher than companies that have only progressed as far as the development of section-wide system applications. We also find that companies that have developed inter-corporate system applications exhibit added-value productivity some 1.11-fold higher than companies with only company-wide system applications.     

Dense 3-D Reconstruction of an Outdoor Scene by Hundreds-Baseline Stereo Using a Hand-Held Video Camera

Three-dimensional (3-D) models of outdoor scenes are widely used for object recognition, navigation, mixed reality, and so on. Because such models are often made manually with high costs, automatic 3-D reconstruction has been widely investigated. In related work, a dense 3-D model is generated by using a stereo method. However, such approaches cannot use several hundreds images together for dense depth estimation because it is difficult to accurately calibrate a large number of cameras. In this paper, we propose a dense 3-D reconstruction method that first estimates extrinsic camera parameters of a hand-held video camera, and then reconstructs a dense 3-D model of a scene. In the first process, extrinsic camera parameters are estimated by tracking a small number of predefined markers of known 3-D positions and natural features automatically. Then, several hundreds dense depth maps obtained by multi-baseline stereo are combined together in a voxel space.So, we can acquire a dense 3-D model of the outdoor scene accurately by using several hundreds input images captured by a hand-held video camera.     

Cloning and expression of NAD+-dependent L-arabinitol 4-dehydrogenase gene (ladA) of Aspergillus oryzae

A gene of Aspergillus oryzae, ladA, which encodes L-arabinitol 4-dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.12), and its cDNA were cloned in Escherichia coli. The gene consisted of a 1209-bp coding region, interrupted by a 59-bp intron, which encoded a 382-amino-acid polypeptide (40,812 Da). The protein showed 67% identity to a well-studied L-arabinitol 4-dehydrogenase (Lad1) of Hypocrea jecorina. The cell-free extract of E. coli, which expressed ladA cDNA, showed L-arabinitol dehydrogenase activity with NAD+. It was also reactive for ribitol and xylitol.