Interfacial hybridization kinetics of oligonucleotides immobilized onto fused silica surfaces

Fused silica optical fibers have been used in an intrinsic mode optical configuration as biosensors for fluorescence based detection of hybridization of nucleic acids. In this work, the kinetics of hybridization of single-stranded oligonucleotides that were covalently immobilized were studied. The probe DNA was dT₂₀, and the target was Fluorescein-labeled non-complementary (dT₂₀) or complementary (dA₂₀) oligonucleotide. Chronofluorimetric monitoring of the adsorption and hybridization processes was used to investigate oligonucleotide films of different density, in different salt concentrations, at temperatures of 25 and 40 °C, with the concentration of the target DNA being 0.005–0.1 μM. Mathematical models based on first- and second-order Langmuir adsorption have been examined to describe both the adsorption and the hybridization processes. Experimental data were processed using the models, and the hybridization kinetics were calculated. Hybridization kinetics on these optical fiber DNA sensors was found to be up to three orders faster than results presented for a number of other experiments using different immobilization chemistries.     

Integrating hybrid systems with existing thermal desalinationplants

In Gulf countries, most power plants are co-generation power desalting plants (CPDP) that generate electric energy and also produce fresh water through the desalination of seawater. This paper provides detailed technical and economical analyses to evaluate a new generation of dual purpose technology that includes the integration of reverse osmosis (RO) processes with existing thermal desalination processes and power generation (triple hybrid system) at Layyah plant, Sharjah, UAE. Hybridization of sweater reverse osmosis (SWRO) and the multi-stage flash (MSF) technology was considered to improve the performance of latter and reduce the cost of the produced water. Moreover, “idle” power in winter (seasonal surplus of unused power) was mainly utilized by RO to further reduce the cost of the hybrid system for six months of the year. Spinning reserve was also used to further reduce the cost of the proposed hybrid system. Integration ofthe three processes of MSF, MED, and RO desalination technologies could be made at different levels through which the resulting of water cost will depend on the selected configuration and the cost of materials of construction, equipment, membrane, energy, etc. Thus, the capital and annual operating costs were calculated for all potential alternatives for various plant capacities. It was found that for all plant capacities, integrated hybrid systems resulted in most cost effective solution. For example, at a capacity of 50 MIGD, the present worth of the cost was calculated to be 588.7, 443.2, and 380 million US$ for MSF, MED, and hybrid RO systems, respectively.     

The impact of parametrization in memetic evolutionary algorithms

Memetic (evolutionary) algorithms integrate local search into the search process of evolutionary algorithms. As computational resources have to be spread adequately among local and evolutionary search, one has to care about when to apply local search and how much computational effort to devote to local search. Often local search is called with a fixed frequency and run for a fixed number of iterations, the local search depth. There is empirical evidence that these parameters have a significant impact on performance, but a theoretical understanding as well as concrete design guidelines are missing.     

Autothermal hybridization and controlled production of hydrogen-rich syngas in a molten salt solar gasifier

High efficiency solar steam gasification of biomass is carried out in a prototype molten salt reactor for solar-only and solar-autothermal hybrid operation. Previous demonstration of the prototype 3-kW solar gasifier for steam gasification of cellulose at stoichiometric conditions demonstrated thermal efficiency of 44% during continuous operation at 1200 K. The present work expands the range of operating conditions to consider two challenges. Hybridization between solar and autothermal modes of operation is accomplished by adding oxygen directly to the reactor. Control of the H₂:CO ratio of the product gas is accomplished through in-situ steam shifting. Hybridization stabilized temperatures for variations in radiative input as large as a 30% reduction in power, corresponding to conditions where both sensible and chemical heat demands for the process were fully met by exothermic heat release with no significant challenges. Peak efficiencies and carbon conversion values observed are 45% and 99.5% respectively. The resulting product gas stream composition was shifted from a hydrogen and carbon monoxide ratio of 1:1 with stoichiometric steam delivery to a ratio of 1.7:1 with steam at nine times the stoichiometric amount, only slightly lower than equilibrium predictions. The results demonstrate very favorable attributes for the molten salt reactor in a continuous fuel production process.     

荧光原位杂交技术预测人大肠癌细胞内在放射敏感性的实验研究

探讨荧光原位杂交技术预测人大肠癌细胞内在放射敏感性的可行性.应用荧光原位杂交技术检测人大肠癌动物模型照射后癌细胞2号染色体易位畸变并分析其与照射后肿瘤生长曲线的相关性.结果表明,放疗使Lovo移植瘤的增长明显延缓,Lovo细胞的放射敏感性高于SW480细胞.X射线照射后肿瘤荧光原位杂交技术检测结果显示:Lovo细胞的2号染色体诱导易位畸变量显著大于SW480细胞(p＜0.05).荧光原位杂交技术能快捷、可靠地预测人大肠癌细胞的放射敏感性,从而为临床大肠癌病人放疗的选择提供重要参考依据.     

A Model for the Hybridization Exothermic Effect in Label-Free Biodetections by a Nanomechanical Cantilever-DNA Chip

The influence of the hybridization exothermic effect on nanomechanical deflections of DNA chips in label-free biodetections is investigated. First, from the related experimental curves, the thermal variation of the biolayer during the linkage of DNA base pairs is estimated by Breslauer’s method and the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Second, the temperature field of the chip is obtained by the lumped parameter model and the classical Fourier’s method. Third, the nanomechanical deflection of the chip is predicted by an alternative model for thermoelastic problems of laminated cantilever beams. The effect of a DNA base sequence on thermal deflection of chips is also investigated. In the case of adiabatic conditions, numerical results show that the theoretical predicted value of 1.5 nm to 2 nm deflection is within the scope of the optical-beam-deflection readout system’s accuracy.     

菌落原位杂交法筛选特定菌种的方法初探

菌落原位杂交法是重组DNA技术中最常用的方法之一,但该方法存在着杂交背景复杂及杂交结果不稳定性等缺点,所以进一步优化杂交体系显得尤为迫切.本研究通过优化杂交体系,最终确定利用溶菌酶处理杂交膜和采用非严紧型洗脱方式洗膜,不仅使得杂交体系的杂交结信号清晰,而且杂交背景较干净.研究结果表明,在探针特异性好的基础上,采用优化的菌落原位杂交体系筛选特定菌种是可行的.     

Hybridizing mixtures of experts with support vector machines: Investigation into nonlinear dynamic systems identification

Mixture of experts (ME) models comprise a family of modular neural network architectures aiming at distilling complex problems into simple subtasks. This is done by deploying a separate gating module for softly dividing the input space into overlapping regions to be each assigned to one or more expert networks. Conversely, support vector machines (SVMs) refer to kernel-based methods, neural-network-alike models that constitute an approximate implementation of the structural risk minimization principle. Such learning machines follow the simple, but powerful idea of nonlinearly mapping input data into high-dimensional feature spaces wherein a linear decision surface discriminating different regions is properly designed. In this work, we formally characterize and empirically evaluate a novel approach, named as Mixture of Support Vector Machine Experts (MSVME), whose main purpose is to combine the complementary properties of both SVM and ME models. In the formal characterization, an algorithm based on a maximum likelihood criterion is considered for the MSVME training, and we demonstrate that it is possible to train each expert based on an SVM perspective. Regarding the empirical evaluation, simulation results involving nonlinear dynamic system identification problems are reported, contrasting the performance shown by the MSVME approach with that exhibited by conventional SVM and ME models.     

斑茅F1品系崖城96-66与CP84-1198杂交后代的鉴别

对斑茅F1品系崖城96-66×CP84-1198杂交后代进行过氧化物酶和酯酶同工酶分析,并与父母本酶带作比较。结果表明,受检的20个株系中,除YCE01-62不具斑茅的特征酶带外,其它19个株系都具有斑茅的酶带,可初步认为是斑茅的第二代杂种。对其中7个株系进行了DNA分子标记分析,结果显示除YCE01-62为杂株外,其它株系均确认为真杂种。在本研究中,同工酶方法的结果与DNA分子标记方法的结果相似。