Ex­perimental study and practice on the detection of vegetative planktons in the bone marrow of the drowned dead body

Experiment on the animals proved that in the case of the death by drowning planktons always immigrate into the bone marrow and some kinds of them can be detected in the bone marrow even after a long period of time, suggesting that the detection of these planktons in the bone marrow of the dead person will give the important clue for the determination of the cause of death by drowning. Actually applying this method in a decayed corpse, we could successfully show the cause of death is due to drowning in which the cause of death was long argued in the court.</p

Optical coupling for multi-layer printed wiring board by selfwritten waveguide

For the future of optical interconnect, high optical coupling efficiency is required for high density multilayer optical printed wiring board (OPWB). Hence, we propose optical pin as optical coupling devices between surface devices and the multi-layer channel of OPWB using self-written waveguide (SWW) with mask-transfer method. SWW-pin is passively aligned and mask-transfer provides precise positioning between surface device and channel waveguide. This makes these technology is a promising technology for coupling device. A comparison of coupling efficiency of three cases methods is performed-using ray-tracing simulation. The calculation for optical coupling efficiency with vertical pin of -0.05 dB is achieved. The proposed of an easy and sufficient fabrication concept using MTSW method with the application of prism are expected. The vertical pin technologies are anticipated to be useful in the future of high optical coupling devices of the multi-layer and multi-channel waveguides and /or a multi-core optical fiber

A v-shape optical pin interface for board level optical interconnect

This paper introduces a new interface of an optical pin for Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), the V-shape cut type which is an innovation from the 90-degree cut type of optical pin. The effectiveness is determined by optical characteristics through OptiCAD and by experiment. The simulation used a model of ray tracing analysis which is a one to two (split) connection function model. For the experiment, a Polymer Optical Fibre (POF) V-shape optical pin has been fabricated. It was found that the V-shaped optical pin has a multi-branched function and is applicable to optical interconnection

Optical sensing by exposed core fiber using self-written waveguide

Recently, the importance of the optical fiber is increasing particularly in sensing application. Thus, this paper proposes optical sensing by exposed core fiber technology using Self-Written Waveguide (SWW) method. SWW method is fabrication of an optical channel waveguide using a UV-curable resin. As a UV light irradiated, A SWW with length of 800 micrometers is aligned between two fibers from the end of the multi-mode optical fiber. A several testing materials with different refractive index are being tested on the SWW. The output optical power is decreasing as the refractive indexes of testing materials are increasing. From these results, this makes the SWW technology is a reliable exposed core technology for sensing application

New technology to expose core from fiber for optical sensing application

For the future optical sensing application, a simple, fast and cost-effective method to achieve exposed core is required for a good mass production and commercialization. Hence, this paper proposes sensing application with exposed core technology using Self-Written Waveguide (SWW) method. The SWW method uses a UV-curable resin and enables fabrication of an optical channel waveguide. SWW is known as an attractive and useful technique in optical interconnection. This SWW is passively aligned between two fibers from the end of the optical fiber under irradiation UV light. This makes the technology is a reliable exposed core technology for sensing application. A SWW with length of 800 micrometers is fabricated from the end face of the multi-mode optical fiber under irradiation with UV light. Experiment is done under several testing materials with different refractive index. The output optical power is decreasing as the refractive indexes of testing materials are increasing. Simulation is also done using ray-tracing method. From these results, it seems possible to apply this SWW using UV-curable resin in sensing application

Crystal structure of Grimontia hollisae collagenase provides insights into its novel substrate specificity toward collagen

Collagenase from the gram-negative bacterium Grimontia hollisae strain 1706B (Ghcol) degrades collagen more efficiently even than clostridial collagenase, the most widely used industrial collagenase. However, the structural determinants facilitating this efficiency are unclear. Here, we report the crystal structures of ligand-free and Gly-Pro-hydroxyproline (Hyp)-complexed Ghcol at 2.2 and 2.4 Å resolution, respectively. These structures revealed that the activator and peptidase domains in Ghcol form a saddle-shaped structure with one zinc ion and four calcium ions. In addition, the activator domain comprises two homologous subdomains, whereas zinc-bound water was observed in the ligand-free Ghcol. In the ligand-complexed Ghcol, we found two Gly-Pro-Hyp molecules, each bind at the active site and at two surfaces on the duplicate subdomains of the activator domain facing the active site, and the nucleophilic water is replaced by the carboxyl oxygen of Hyp at the P1 position. Furthermore, all Gly-Pro-Hyp molecules bound to Ghcol have almost the same conformation as Pro-Pro-Gly motif in model collagen (Pro-Pro-Gly)₁₀, suggesting these three sites contribute to the unwinding of the collagen triple helix. A comparison of activities revealed that Ghcol exhibits broader substrate specificity than clostridial collagenase at the P2 and P2′ positions, which may be attributed to the larger space available for substrate binding at the S2 and S2′ sites in Ghcol. Analysis of variants of three active-site Tyr residues revealed that mutation of Tyr564 affected catalysis, whereas mutation of Tyr476 or Tyr555 affected substrate recognition. These results provide insights into the substrate specificity and mechanism of G. hollisae collagenase

Induction of apoptotic lesions in liver and lymphoid tissues and modulation of cytokine mRNA expression by acute exposure to deoxynivalenol in piglets

Six 1-month-old piglets were intravenously injected with deoxynivalenol (DON) at the concentration of 1 mg/kg body weight, with three pigs each necropsied at 6 and 24 h post-injection (PI) for investigation of hepatotoxicity and immunotoxicity with special attention to apoptotic changes and cytokine mRNA expression. Histopathological examination of the DON-injected pigs revealed systemic apoptosis of lymphocytes in lymphoid tissues and hepatocytes. Apoptosis of lymphocytes and hepatocytes was confirmed by the TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end-labeling (TUNEL) method and immunohistochemical staining against single-stranded DNA and cleaved caspase-3. The number of TUNEL-positive cells in the thymus and Peyer's patches of the ileum was increased at 24 h PI compared to 6 h PI, but the peak was at 6 h PI in the liver. The mRNA expression of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-18, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in the spleen, thymus and mesenteric lymph nodes were determined by semi-quantitative RT-PCR, and elevated expression of IL-1β mRNA at 6 h PI and a decrease of IL-18 mRNA at 24 h PI were observed in the spleen. IL-1β and IL-6 mRNA expressions increased significantly at 6 h PI in the thymus, but TNF-α decreased at 6 h PI in the mesenteric lymph nodes. These results show the apoptosis of hepatocytes suggesting the hepatotoxic potential of DON, in addition to an immunotoxic effect on the modulation of proinflammatory cytokine genes in lymphoid organs with extensive apoptosis of lymphocytes induced by acute exposure to DON in pigs

Integrated optics europium aluminum polymer optical waveguide with graded index circular core

A Europium Aluminum Benzyl Methacrylate (Eu-Al/BzMA) integrated optical waveguide with 50 μm graded-index multimode circular core is fabricated by applying the Mosquito method for the potential application of optical interconnect. The parabolic index profile of the waveguide core is measured to confirm the profile exhibited by the waveguide. A preliminary experiment of the signal transmission is performed at 26 Gb/s to evaluate its capability in high dense and speed optical interconnections. According to the results, the waveguide successfully demonstrated free bit-error-rate through 5 cm waveguide transmission

Etched fiber Bragg grating sensor for nitrate sensing application

We demonstrate a reliable method to detect the concentration of Nitrate in water using an etched Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor. The sensor was etched using 48% Hydrofluoric (HF) acid solution to function as a chemical sensor and interact with Nitrates. The Bragg wavelength (λb) shifted due to the changes of Nitrate concentration. The sensitivity achieved by this sensor is 2.4 × 10-3 nm/ppm. The overall shift of the Bragg wavelength is 0.12 nm from 0 - 50 ppm