Antioxidant activity of cyanidins isolated from Ogapy (Acanthopanax divaricatus var. albeofructus) fruits in U937 macrophages

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are continuously produced in aerobic organisms. Overproduction of ROS is known to play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of many cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis and hypertension. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) play critical roles on the removal of excess ROS. In the present study, we investigated the antioxidant activity of cyanidins from ogapy (Acanthopanax divaricatus var. albeofructus, ADA) fruits against oxidative stress in hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂)-pretreated U937 macrophages, and explored the plausibility of the therapeutic effect of cyanidins on atherosclerosis. As a result, H₂O₂ generation and lipid peroxidation induced by H₂O₂-pretreatment was decreased by the treatment of cyanidins in U937 macrophages. In addition, increased activity of SOD and CAT was shown in H₂O₂-pretreated cells when treated with cyanidins. Overall, the results obtained in this study showed that cyanidin 3-galactoside and cyanidin 3-lathyroside from ADA fruits could protect macrophages against the damaging effects of H₂O₂ treatment.     

High heat flux test with HIP bonded Be/Cu/SS mock-ups for the ITER first wall

In order to verify the integrity of the first wall (FW) of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), especially for preparing its qualification program by ITER-O, Be/Cu/SS mock-ups, which were the same size as the qualification mock-ups, were fabricated and tested at the TSEFEY, an e-beam facility, in Efremov, Russia. These mock-ups were joined with a 316 L austenitic stainless steel (SS316L) block for a structural material, CuCrZr for a heat sink material and SS316L tubes for a coolant and then, joined with three Be tiles for an armor material. A hot isostatic pressing (HIP) was used as manufacturing methods at a 1050 °C, 100 MPa for 2 h for a Cu/SS joining and at a 580 °C, 100 MPa for 2 h for a Be/(Cu/SS) joining. Two mock-ups were fabricated by using 1 μmCr/10 μmCu of an interlayer between the Be tile and Cu block. The high heat flux (HHF) tests were performed at 1.5 and 2.0 MW/m² heat fluxes for each mock-up. The given conditions and the expected fatigue lifetime were evaluated from a preliminary analysis with ANSYS. Both mock-ups survived for up to 1000 and 268 cycles at 1.5 and 2.0 MW/m² heat fluxes, respectively. They are higher than the expected numbers of cycles to a failure.     

Effect of CO2 laser irradiation on the refractive-index change in optical fibers

The effect of CO2 laser irradiation on the refractive-index change in optical fibers is investigated by measuring the interference fringe shift formed by a long-period fiber grating pair. The refractive-index decrease on CO2 laser irradiation was due to relaxation of the residual stress, which was formed in optical fibers during the drawing process, and the refractive-index decrease was found to increase linearly with the drawing force. The effect of the CO2 laser output power on residual-stress relaxation, and fiber elongation was also studied.     

Measurement method for profiling the residual stress of an optical fiber: detailed analysis of off-focusing and beam-deflection effects

The effects of off-focusing and beam deflection on polarimetric stress measurements of optical fibers are investigated. A simple method for reducing the distortion of the phase retardation caused by unwanted beam deflections in residual stress measurement is introduced. The method is examined numerically by ray-tracing techniques and experimentally by use of hollow silica fibers into which various index-matching liquids have been inserted. An autofocusing technique is introduced. The error in stress measurement reproducibility was determined to be less than 4%. We tested the absolute error in measured stress by applying incremental external tension and determined that it is less than 0.464 MPa.     

Electrically tunable dual-wavelength switching in a mutually injection-locked erbium-doped fiber ring laser and distributed-feedback laser diode

Wavelength switching in a mutually injection-locked erbium-doped fiber ring laser and distributed-feedback laser diode (DFBLD) is experimentally demonstrated. By adjusting the power and the polarization state of injected light, three stable oscillation regimes were observed: Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot (FP) mode oscillation, main distributed-feedback (DFB) mode oscillation, and dual-wavelength oscillation. Wavelength switching of 0.8 nm from one of the FP oscillation modes to the main DFB mode of the DFBLD is accomplished when the bias current to the DFBLD is varied from 9 to 14 mA. We also show that these wavelengths can be tuned as much as 2.48 nm when the temperature of the DFBLD is changed by 20/spl deg/C.     

The phase behavior and the Flory-Huggins interaction parameter of blends containing amorphous poly(resorcinol phthalate-block-carbonate), poly(bisphenol-A carbonate) and poly(ethylene terephthalate)

The phase behavior of the blends of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(Resorcinol Phthalate-block-Carbonate) (RPC) and the blends of PET and poly(Bisphenol-A Carbonate) (PC) was investigated by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Blends of high molecular weight PET and RPC copolymer with 20 mol% resorcinol phthalate (RPC20) showed two glass transition temperatures in DMA and DSC but the cold crystallization rate of PET phase was substantially lowered as compared to neat PET, indicating partial miscibility at all compositions. The RPC20 with M_w = 31,500 g/mol formed miscible blends with PET when PET has weight-average molecular weight <9500 g/mol. The Flory-Huggins interaction parameter between PET and RPC20 was calculated to be 0.029 ± 0.003 by using the Flory-Huggins equation at critical composition and molecular weight. PC with M_w = 30,000 g/mol formed miscible blends with PET only when PET had molecular weight <2800 g/mol, indicating PC/PET blends were much less miscible than RPC20/PET blends. Group contribution methods agreed well with the experimental results obtained both in the present study and a previous study [1], predicting that the addition of a resorcinol phthalate block to a PC backbone should increase the miscibility of PC and PET.     

Suppression of nonlinear frequency sweep in an optical frequency-domain reflectometer by use of Hilbert transformation

A compensation technique for reducing the effect of nonlinear optical frequency swept in an optical frequency-domain reflectometer (OFDR) is proposed. The instantaneous sweep optical frequency of an OFDR laser source is directly obtained by analysis of the interference signal from an auxiliary interferometer with a Hilbert transformation. Beating OFDR data from a main interferometer are regenerated with respect to the measured instantaneous optical frequency. We show that this technique dramatically improves the spatial resolution of a conventional OFDR and can be applied to an optical frequency-domain medical imaging system to eliminate the problem of a nonlinear frequency sweep effect.     

Precision and accuracy of the analog mean-delay method for high-speed fluorescence lifetime measurement

The analog mean-delay (AMD) method is a new alternative method to measure the lifetime of a fluorescence molecule. Because of its powerful advantages of accurate lifetime determination, good photon economy, and a high photon detection rate, the AMD method is considered to be very suitable for high-speed confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). For the practical usage of the AMD method in FLIM (AMD-FLIM), detailed study on various experimental conditions and parameters that affect the precision and the accuracy of the AMD method is required. In this paper, we present the relation between the precision and accuracy of the lifetime versus iteration number in the AMD method, the best cutoff frequency of a low-pass filter used in the AMD-FLIM system for a given fluorophore, and the optimum position and width of the integration window by using Monte Carlo simulations and a series of AMD-FLIM experiments.     

Short-term load forecasting for the holidays using fuzzy linear regression method

Average load forecasting errors for the holidays are much higher than those for weekdays. So far, many studies on the short-term load forecasting have been made to improve the prediction accuracy using various methods such as deterministic, stochastic, artificial neural net (ANN) and neural network-fuzzy methods. In order to reduce the load forecasting error of the 24 hourly loads for the holidays, the concept of fuzzy regression analysis is employed in the short-term load forecasting problem. According to the historical load data, the same type of holiday showed a similar trend of load profile as in previous years. The fuzzy linear regression model is made from the load data of the previous three years and the coefficients of the model are found by solving the mixed linear programming problem. The proposed algorithm shows good accuracy, and the average maximum percentage error is 3.57% in the load forecasting of the holidays for the years of 1996-1997.     

Effective supercontinuum generation by using highly nonlinear dispersion-shifted fiber incorporated with Si nanocrystals

The dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) incorporated with Si nanocrystals (Si-NCs) having highly nonlinear optical property was fabricated to investigate the effective supercontinuum generation characteristics by using the MCVD process and the drawing process. Optical nonlinearity was enhanced by incorporating Si nanocrystals in the core of the fiber and the refractive index profile of a dispersion-shifted fiber was employed to match its zero-dispersion wavelength to that of the commercially available pumping source for generating effective supercontinuum. The non-resonant nonlinear refractive index, n2, of the Si-NCs doped DSF measured by the cw-SPM method was measured to be 7.03 x 10(-20) [m2/W] and the coefficient of non-resonant nonlinearity, gamma, was 7.14 [W(-1) km(-1)]. To examine supercontinuum generation of the Si-NCs doped DSF, the femtosecond fiber laser with the pulse width of 150 fs (at 1560 nm) was launched into the fiber core. The output spectrum of the Si-NCs doped DSF was found to broaden from 1300 nm to wavelength well beyond 1700 nm, which can be attributed to the enhanced optical nonlinearity by Si-NCs embedded in the fiber core. The short wavelength of the supercontinuum spectrum in the Si-NCs doped DSF showed shift from 1352 nm to 1220 nm for the fiber length of 2.5 m and 200 m, respectively.