Application of enzyme-field effect transistor sensor arrays as detectors in a flow-injection analysis system for simultaneous monitoring of medium components. Part II. Monitoring of cultivation processes

Glucose, maltose, sucrose, lactose, ethanol and urea concentrations were monitored simultaneously during the cultivation of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae by means of enzyme field effect transistors (EnFETs) applying glucose dehydrogenase (GDH), maltase (MAL)/GDH, invertase (INV)/GDH, β-galactosidase (β-GAL)/galactosedehydrogenase (GALDH), alcoholdehydrogenase (ADH)/aldehydedehydrogenase (ALDH), and urease. These enzymes were (co)immobilized on the pH sensitive gates of an eight-FET array. The FET array was integrated in a commercial FIA system.     

Low-order modeling and dynamic characterization of rapid thermal processing

A low-order model of rapid thermal processing (RTP) of semiconductor wafers is derived. The first-principles nonlinear model describes the static and dynamic thermal behavior of a wafer with approximate spatial temperature uniformity undergoing rapid heating and cooling in a multilamp RTP chamber. The model is verified experimentally for a range of operating temperatures from 400° C to 900° C and pressures of 1 Torr and 1 atmosphere in an inert N₂ environment. Theoretical predictions suggest model validity over a still wider range of operating conditions. One advantage of the low-order model over previous high-order and statistical models is that the proposed model contains a small number of fundamental parameters and functions that, if necessary, are easily identifiable. Furthermore, because of reduced computational complexity, the low-order model can be used in real-time predictive applications including signal processing and process control design. In studying and verifying the model, the dynamic behavior of a semiconductor wafer undergoing rapid temperature changes is characterized. Close comparison between theory and experiment in terms of the wafer eigenvalue and dc gain is demonstrated; the strong nonlinear effects of temperature are shown. Convective heat transfer losses are also examined and are shown to increase with radial position on the wafer.     

Lifetime measurement of the ((11/2)−) isomer in 125Cs

A new rotational band has been observed in ¹⁶⁷Lu by ¹⁵²Sm (¹⁹F,4n)reaction at the HI-13 tandem accelerator of CIAE in Beijing. The high spin transition energies of the new band are almost identical to the triaxial superdeformed bands recently discovered in ¹⁶³Lu and ¹⁶⁵Lu. This new band is predicted as a triaxial superdeformed band by total routhian surface calculations. Received: 6 October 1997     

Nuclear pears: Recent developments and future prospects

We report studies of examples of reflection-asymmetric nuclei which are difficult to access using compound nucleus reactions. The octupole radium isotopes withN>132 and radon isotopes are not accessible by reactions employing stable targets and beams; we have shown that multinucleon transfer reactions can populate these nuclei with sufficient yield for their structure to be determined. We report high-spin studies in^{218, 220, 222}Rn and^{222, 224, 226, 228, 230}Ra: these show that the Ra isotopes withA<228 have the characteristics of octupole deformed nuclei whereas the Rn isotopes behave like octupole vibrators. Measurements of theB(E1)/B(E2) ratios indicate that the electric dipole moment in these nuclei is constant with spin. The most octupole deformed nuclei are predicted to be uranium isotopes withN≈132; measurements of the very fissile nucleus²²⁶U suggest that it is octupole deformed and has a large intrinsic electric dipole moment. Finally, we speculate that the best examples of pear shapes are the hyperdeformed minima predicted to lie low in uranium isotopes withN≈140; their signature of high-multiplicity low-energyE1 photon cascades should be detectable using present-day high-efficiency germanium arrays.     

Time‐integrated energy domain measurements with synchrotron radiation

A new time integrated method for the study of resonant nuclear scattering of synchrotron radiation in the forward direction or in Bragg directions is introduced. This method gives in principle similar information as the well known time differential method. A brief comparison of both methods is presented. The idea is to excite coherently the nuclei incorporated in two absorbers, one moving with respect to the other. The fields radiated by the nuclei from both absorbers interfere and each time the nuclear energy in one absorber matches, by Doppler modulation, the nuclear energy of the other, an extremum in the time integrated intensity is observed. The results of the first experiments at the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Laboratory will be presented. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Anisotropy of optical phonons in semiconductor superlattices: Raman scattering experiments

Experiments on Raman scattering in the “forward” geometry, permitting observation of anisotropy of the optical phonons, are performed on specially prepared short-period GaAs/AlAs superlattice structures with the substrates removed and the surfaces covered with an antireflective layer. The experimental data agree well with the computational results obtained for the angular dispersion of optical phonons in superlattices on the basis of a modified continuum model. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 68, No. 1, 50–55 (10 July 1998)     

Microdetermination of hyaluronic acid in human urine by high performance liquid chromatography.

A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) system is described for determination of the unsaturated disaccharide (delta Di-HA) derived from hyaluronic acid (HA) in human urine by digestion with hyaluronidase SD. The effects of eluents on the separation of delta Di-HA and delta Di-0S, which is derived from the reaction of chondroitin with the enzyme, have been studied. The established chromatographic conditions were as follows--column: a stainless steel tube (4 mm i.d. x 250 mm) packed with TSKgel NH2-60; eluent: a mixture of acetonitrile and 0.1 M Tris-HCl buffer containing 0.1 M boric acid and 10 mM sodium sulphate, pH 7.0 (64:36, v/v). The strong fluorescence of unsaturated disaccharide after the reaction with 2-cyanoacetamide in alkaline medium was used for post-column detection. The calibration curve for delta Di-HA was linear in the range 5 pmol-5nmol with a practical detection limit of 2 pmol. The assay coefficients of variation (n = 5) at 200 pmol for delta Di-HA and delta Di-0S were 1.7 and 1.5%, respectively. This HPLC system has been applied to the determination of HA in human urine.     

Isolation of acetic acid-tolerant Baker’s yeast variants in a turbidostat

A commercial baker’s yeast was subjected to selection in a continuous turbidostat cultivation with increasing concentration of acetic acid. The final acetic acid content in fresh medium was 0.6% or 0.8% v/v. Two of seven selected variants were stable over 15 sequential shake flask cultivations without selection pressure. After laboratory scale production of baker’s yeast, one of the variants also showed increased acetic acid tolerance in sour dough. The overall raising power (mL CO₂/h) in sour dough was improved 36%.     

Production of slow muonic hydrogen isotopes in vacuum

Muonic hydrogen isotopes (μ⁻ p, μ⁻ d, and μ⁻t) are simple quantum mechanical systems ideally suited for studies of numerous fundamental phenomena in electroweak and strong interactions as well as in applied areas such as muon chemistry or muon catalyzed fusion. Emission of muonic hydrogen isotopes into vacuum helps to overcome the limitations which are normally imposed on conventional investigations with gaseous and liquid targets. A proof of principle experiment for this new technique was performed at TRIUMF last year. Negative muons with 30 MeV/c momentum were stopped in a thin film of solid hydrogen and produced very low energy μ⁻d in vacuum. The distribution center of the normal velocity components of emitted μ⁻d atoms was measured to be ∼1 cm/μs. The yield of μ⁻d in vacuum is an increasing function of H₂ film thickness δ up to a value of δ≥1 mm.