pH-Sensitive Oscillatory Motion of a Urease Motor on the Urea Aqueous Phase

A self-propelled object coupled with an enzyme reaction between urease and urea was investigated at the air/aqueous interface. A plastic object that was fixed to a urease-immobilized filter paper was used as a self-propelled object, termed a urease motor, placed on an aqueous urea solution. The driving force of the urease motor is the difference in the surface tension around the object. Oscillatory motion or no motion was triggered depending on the initial pH of the urea solution. Both the frequency and maximum speed of the oscillatory motion varied depending on the initial pH of the water phase. The mechanisms underlying the oscillatory motion and no motion were discussed in relation to the bell-shaped enzyme activity of urease in the enzyme reaction and the surface tension around the urease motor.     

Interfacial adsorption state of protonated lipophilic porphyrins in a liquid-liquid system by using reflection spectrometry.

Analysis by reflection spectrometry was performed to clarify the interfacial adsorption of protonated lipophilic tetraphenylporphyrin derivatives in a dodecane-aqueous sulfuric acid system, and to confirm the utility of partial reflection spectroscopy. Interfacial adsorption was not observed for porphyrins substituted at the 2,6 positions of meso-phenyl groups, suggesting that the substituents prevent porphyrins from forming aggregates by steric hindrance. Polymorphous J-aggregates of acid dications were produced by tetra-p-tolylporphyrin with a saturated interfacial molecular density of 1.0 x 10(-10) mol cm(-2), which could yield 48 degrees as a mean tilting angle of the pyrrole ring plane from the interface normal. Partial-reflection spectrometry can provide sensitive detection and molecular orientation analysis of interfacial adsorbates.     

On the Lp–Lq maximal regularity for Stokes equations with Robin boundary condition in a bounded domain

We obtain the L_p–L_q maximal regularity of the Stokes equations with Robin boundary condition in a bounded domain in ?ⁿ (n?2). The Robin condition consists of two conditions: v ? u=0 and αu+β(T(u, p)v – 〈T(u, p)v, v〉v)=h on the boundary of the domain with α, β?0 and α+β=1, where u and p denote a velocity vector and a pressure, T(u, p) the stress tensor for the Stokes flow and v the unit outer normal to the boundary of the domain. It presents the slip condition when β=1 and non‐slip one when α=1, respectively. The slip condition is appropriate for problems that involve free boundaries. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Validation of a method for predicting the precision, limit of detection and range of quantitation in competitive ELISA.

The mathematical model for predicting the precision, limit of detection (LOD) and range of quantitation (ROQ) in a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) proposed by Hayashi et al. (Anal. Chem., 2004, 76, 1295) was validated. The model describes the relative standard deviation (RSD) of concentration estimates by the RSDs of pipetting volumes of analyte, enzyme-conjugated antigen, antibody and substrate solutions, and the standard deviation (SD) of inherent absorbances between the wells in an ELISA plate. For 6 kinds of direct competitive ELISA kits, the LOD and ROQ predicted by the model agreed well with those obtained by experiments with real samples. It was also confirmed that the model is applicable to the prediction of uncertainty that depends on the pipetting error of the viscous antiserum solution. The model was demonstrated to be useful for estimating the LOD and ROQ of competitive ELISA.     

Probing for electrical inclusions with complex spherical waves

Let a physical body Ω in ?² or ?³ be given. Assume that the electric conductivity distribution inside Ω consists of conductive inclusions in a known smooth background. Further, assume that a subset Γ ? ?Ω is available for boundary measurements. It is proved using hyperbolic geometry that certain information about the location of the inclusions can be exactly recovered from static electric measurements on Γ. More precisely: given a ball B with center outside the convex hull of Ω and satisfying (B? ∩ ?Ω) ? Γ, boundary measurements on Γ with explicitly given Dirichlet data are enough to determine whether B intersects the inclusion. An approximate detection algorithm is introduced based on the theory. Numerical experiments in dimension two with simulated noisy data suggest that the algorithm finds the inclusion‐free domain near Γ and is robust against measurement noise. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Security Applications of Optical Face Recognition System: Access Control in E-Learning

The educational system has gradually shifted from a face-to-face to an e-learning system, which has become prevalent in advanced countries with the advance of information technology, and connection of global networks. Accordingly, a growing demand is emerging for more reliable individual certification with technical precision in order to measure and record learning achievements and credentials of participants. The present system has a limit in terms of registration capacity, therefore, its accuracy has often been questioned. Against this background, an individual certification system is proposed particularly for access control in e-learning. Under our proposed system, a compact optical correlator for facial recognition is employed. This correlator was previously tested for of biometrics authentication accuracy and proved highly reliable, having recorded remarkably low error rates (below 1%). The recorded error rate is sufficiently robust that the system itself can be regarded as a valid and practical viable attestation system.     

Preparation of a cyclodextrin dimer linked with a bis(picolinyl)cystine moiety and its intra- and intermolecular inclusion behavior

A novel cyclodextrin (CD) dimer linked with a bis(picolinyl)cystine (Cys) moiety was prepared by the coupling of Boc-protected Cys with amino-modified CDs, followed by deprotection of the Boc groups and bispicolinylation. The dimer showed less affinity to an organic guest molecule compared to that of a native CD monomer. It was attributed to an intramolecular inclusion of the pyridine moiety into CD cavity. The dimer caused significant increase of its organic guest affinity by an addition of a copper ion. The included pyridine group may come out of a CD cavity to bind the copper ion and the two CDs included cooperatively and intermolecularly a guest molecule with high affinity.     

Significance of anti-HBc IgM in acute hepatitis and hepatitis B associated chronic liver disease

To determine the diagnostic value of anti-HBc IgM in acute viral hepatitis or chronic liver disease B, Anti-HBc IgM was measured by a RIA and an ELISA in 32 patients with acute hepatitis (4 with type A, 15 with type B and 13 with type non A non B), 18 patients with chronic hepatitis and 19 patients with liver cirrhosis. In acute hepatitis B, anti-HBc IgM (both RIA and ELISA) was positive in 14(93%) of 15 patients and its cut-off index value was very high. However, anti-HBc IgM was always negative in one patient with typical course of type B. In 1 of 4 patients with acute hepatitis A and 2 of 13 with non A non B, anti-HBc IgM (RIA and/or ELISA) was positive. These 3 patients were positive for anti-HBs at the onset of disease, so we could not made the diagnosis of acute hepatitis B. Anti-HBc IgM was positive in 21(51%) of 37 patients with HBsAg-positive chronic liver disease by RIA and in 11 (30%) by ELISA, and its cut-off index value was relatively low. These results suggest that when adequate cut-off index value is established, anti-HBc analysis is useful for differentiating recent and current infections from remote infections.