1,052 research outputs found
Computer modeling of antibiotic fermentation with on-line product removal
The fermentation of Streptomyces griseus for the production of cycloheximide is similar to other antibiotic fermentations in that product synthesis is subject to feedback regulation and the desired product is degraded in the fermentation broth. The productivity of this fermentation can thus be dramatically increased by removing the antibiotic from the whole broth as it is produced. One means for effecting this on-line product removal is to contact the whole fermentation broth with neutral polymeric resin immobilized in hydrogel beads. The antibiotic adsorbs to the immobilized resin via hydrophobic interactions. In this work, the adsorption of the antibiotic onto the immobilized resin was characterized. A biochemical model of the fermentation was then used to describe the time profiles of biomass, substrate, and antibiotic in a fermentation system in which whole broth is circulated from the fermentor through a continuously stirred extractor containing the adsorbent beads. Various operating conditions were examined to optimize the productivity of the fermentation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37896/1/260320314_ftp.pd
An integrated microcomputer system using immobilized cellular electrodes for drug screening
Biosensors based on immobilized microbial cells were developed for drug screening in our laboratory. Compared with the conventional methods such as diffusion and dilution tests, biosensors have been demonstrated to be superior in sensitivity and require much shorter screening time. An integrated microcomputer system has been developed for data acquisition, database management, and mode of action estimation, which automates the screening processes and reduces the labor requirements significantly.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27549/1/0000593.pd
The Bipolar II depression questionnaire:A self-report Tool for detecting Bipolar II depression
Bipolar II (BP-II) depression is often misdiagnosed as unipolar (UP) depression, resulting in suboptimal treatment. Tools for differentiating between these two types of depression are lacking. This study aimed to develop a simple, self-report screening instrument to help distinguish BP-II depression from UP depressive disorder. A prototype BP-II depression questionnaire (BPIIDQ-P) was constructed following a literature review, panel discussions and a field trial. Consecutively assessed patients with a diagnosis of depressive disorder or BP with depressive episodes completed the BPIIDQ-P at a psychiatric outpatient clinic in Hong Kong between October and December 2013. Data were analyzed using discriminant analysis and logistic regression. Of the 298 subjects recruited, 65 (21.8%) were males and 233 (78.2%) females. There were 112 (37.6%) subjects with BP depression [BP-I = 42 (14.1%), BP-II = 70 (23.5%)] and 182 (62.4%) with UP depression. Based on family history, age at onset, postpartum depression, episodic course, attacks of anxiety, hypersomnia, social phobia and agoraphobia, the 8-item BPIIDQ-8 was constructed. The BPIIDQ-8 differentiated subjects with BP-II from those with UP depression with a sensitivity/specificity of 0.75/0.63 for the whole sample and 0.77/0.72 for a female subgroup with a history of childbirth. The BPIIDQ-8 can differentiate BP-II from UP depression at the secondary care level with satisfactory to good reliability and validity. It has good potential as a screening tool for BP-II depression in primary care settings. Recall bias, the relatively small sample size, and the high proportion of females in the BP-II sample limit the generalization of the results
Janus monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides.
Structural symmetry-breaking plays a crucial role in determining the electronic band structures of two-dimensional materials. Tremendous efforts have been devoted to breaking the in-plane symmetry of graphene with electric fields on AB-stacked bilayers or stacked van der Waals heterostructures. In contrast, transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers are semiconductors with intrinsic in-plane asymmetry, leading to direct electronic bandgaps, distinctive optical properties and great potential in optoelectronics. Apart from their in-plane inversion asymmetry, an additional degree of freedom allowing spin manipulation can be induced by breaking the out-of-plane mirror symmetry with external electric fields or, as theoretically proposed, with an asymmetric out-of-plane structural configuration. Here, we report a synthetic strategy to grow Janus monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides breaking the out-of-plane structural symmetry. In particular, based on a MoS2 monolayer, we fully replace the top-layer S with Se atoms. We confirm the Janus structure of MoSSe directly by means of scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy-dependent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and prove the existence of vertical dipoles by second harmonic generation and piezoresponse force microscopy measurements
Observation of intensity squeezing in resonance fluorescence from a solid-state device
Intensity squeezing i.e. photon number fluctuations below the shot noise limit is a fundamental aspect of quantum optics and has wide applications in quantum metrology. It was predicted in 1979 that the intensity squeezing could be observed in resonance fluorescence from a two-level quantum system. Yet, its experimental observation in solid states was hindered by inefficiencies in generating, collecting and detecting resonance fluorescence. Here, we report the intensity squeezing in a single-mode fibre-coupled resonance fluorescence single-photon source based on a quantum dot-micropillar system. We detect pulsed single-photon streams with 22.6% system efficiency, which show subshot-noise intensity fluctuation with an intensity squeezing of . We estimate a corrected squeezing of at the first lens. The observed intensity squeezing provides the last piece of the fundamental picture of resonance fluorescence; which can be used as a new standard for optical radiation and in scalable quantum metrology with indistinguishable single photons.PostprintPeer reviewe
Arsenic and Fluoride Exposure in Drinking Water: Childrenās IQ and Growth in Shanyin County, Shanxi Province, China
BACKGROUND: Recently, in a cross-sectional study of 201 children in Araihazar, Bangladesh, exposure to arsenic (As) in drinking water has been shown to lower the scores on tests that measure childrenās intellectual function before and after adjustment for sociodemographic features. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the effects of As and fluoride exposure on childrenās intelligence and growth. METHODS: We report the results of a study of 720 children between 8 and 12 years of age in rural villages in Shanyin county, Shanxi province, China. The children were exposed to As at concentrations of 142 Ā± 106 Ī¼g/L (medium-As group) and 190 Ā± 183 Ī¼g/L (high-As group) in drinking water compared with the control group that was exposed to low concentrations of As (2 Ā± 3 Ī¼g/L) and low concentrations of fluoride (0.5 Ā± 0.2 mg/L). A study group of children exposed to high concentrations of fluoride (8.3 Ā± 1.9 mg/L) but low concentrations of As (3 Ā± 3 Ī¼g/L) was also included because of the common occurrence of elevated concentrations of fluoride in groundwater in our study area. A standardized IQ (intelligence quotient) test was modified for children in rural China and was based on the classic Ravenās test used to determine the effects of these exposures on childrenās intelligence. A standardized measurement procedure for weight, height, chest circumference, and lung capacity was used to determine the effects of these exposures on childrenās growth. RESULTS: The mean IQ scores decreased from 105 Ā± 15 for the control group, to 101 Ā± 16 for the medium-As group (p < 0.05), and to 95 Ā± 17 for the high-As group (p < 0.01). The mean IQ score for the high-fluoride group was 101 Ā± 16 and significantly different from that of the control group (p < 0.05). Children in the control group were taller than those in the high-fluoride group (p < 0.05); weighed more than the those in the high-As group (p < 0.05); and had higher lung capacity than those in the medium-As group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Childrenās intelligence and growth can be affected by high concentrations of As or fluoride. The IQ scores of the children in the high-As group were the lowest among the four groups we investigated. It is more significant that high concentrations of As affect childrenās intelligence. It indicates that arsenic exposure can affect childrenās intelligence and growth
Emergence of scale-free close-knit friendship structure in online social networks
Despite the structural properties of online social networks have attracted
much attention, the properties of the close-knit friendship structures remain
an important question. Here, we mainly focus on how these mesoscale structures
are affected by the local and global structural properties. Analyzing the data
of four large-scale online social networks reveals several common structural
properties. It is found that not only the local structures given by the
indegree, outdegree, and reciprocal degree distributions follow a similar
scaling behavior, the mesoscale structures represented by the distributions of
close-knit friendship structures also exhibit a similar scaling law. The degree
correlation is very weak over a wide range of the degrees. We propose a simple
directed network model that captures the observed properties. The model
incorporates two mechanisms: reciprocation and preferential attachment. Through
rate equation analysis of our model, the local-scale and mesoscale structural
properties are derived. In the local-scale, the same scaling behavior of
indegree and outdegree distributions stems from indegree and outdegree of nodes
both growing as the same function of the introduction time, and the reciprocal
degree distribution also shows the same power-law due to the linear
relationship between the reciprocal degree and in/outdegree of nodes. In the
mesoscale, the distributions of four closed triples representing close-knit
friendship structures are found to exhibit identical power-laws, a behavior
attributed to the negligible degree correlations. Intriguingly, all the
power-law exponents of the distributions in the local-scale and mesoscale
depend only on one global parameter -- the mean in/outdegree, while both the
mean in/outdegree and the reciprocity together determine the ratio of the
reciprocal degree of a node to its in/outdegree.Comment: 48 pages, 34 figure
Degree and connectivity of the Internet's scale-free topology
In this paper we theoretically and empirically study the degree and
connectivity of the Internet's scale-free topology at the autonomous system
(AS) level. The basic features of the scale-free network have influence on the
normalization constant of the degree distribution p(k). We develop a
mathematics model of the Internet's scale-free topology. On this model we
theoretically get the formulas of the average degree, the ratios of the
kmin-degree (minimum degree) nodes and the kmax-degree (maximum degree) nodes,
the fraction of the degrees (or links) in the hands of the richer (top
best-connected) nodes. We find the average degree is larger for smaller
power-law exponent {\lambda} and larger minimum or maximum degree. The ratio of
the kmin-degree nodes is larger for larger {\lambda} and smaller kmin or kmax.
The ratio of the kmax-degree ones is larger for smaller {\lambda} and kmax or
larger kmin. The richer nodes hold most of the total degrees of the AS-level
Internet topology. In addition, we reveal the ratio of the kmin-degree nodes or
the rate of the increase of the average degree has power-law decay with the
increase of the kmin. The ratio of the kmax-degree nodes has power-law decay
with the increase of the kmax, and the fraction of the degrees in the hands of
the richer 27% nodes is about 73% (the '73/27 rule'). At last, we empirically
calculate, based on empirical data extracted from BGP, the average degree and
the ratio and fraction using our method and other methods, and find that our
method is rigorous and effective for the AS-level Internet topology.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figure
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