ASE Noise Characterization of an All-Fiber Sagnac Interferometer via LAN for Remote Sensing

The spectral noise characteristic and relative intensity noise of an all-fibre Sagnac interferometer consisting of pump source, a WDM, a piece of Er-doped fibre, a fibre Bragg grating (FBG), an optical circulator and a 50/50 coupler, were studied over a 75C-degree range. At the probing end, a high-birefringence piece of fibre and a Peltier were employed for temperature variation. Spectral and temperature response of the noise reduction due to temperature variation was performed remotely using an Arduino micro-controller and a DS18B20 digital sensor and fed into a local area network. Optical and thermal characterization of the system has also been undertaken

Novel electronic and magnetic properties of ultrathin chromium oxide films grown on Pt(111)

The growth of epitaxial metal–oxide films on lattice-mismatched metal substrates often results in the formation of unique overlayer structures. In particular, epitaxial chromium oxide films grown on Pt(111) exhibit a p(2×2) symmetry through the first two monolayers of growth which is followed by a (√3×√3)R30° phase that is attributed to the growth of a Cr2O3(0001) overlayer. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy measurements have been performed on the CrOx/Pt(111) system. The electronic structures of CrO2, Cr2O3, and Cr3O4 were calculated using the linear muffin-tin orbital method in the atomic sphere approximation. Comparison of the photoemission valence band spectra with the calculated density of states indicates that the CrOx initially grows in a cubic spinel Cr3O4 structure. Beyond ∼0.2 monolayers, the metallic behavior of the CrOx overlayer begins a transformation to an insulating state. The measured valence emission for the p(2×2) phase beyond ∼0.2 monolayers is more consistent with either a γ-Cr2O3(111) overlayer or possibly a reconstructed Cr2O3(0001) overlayer. © 1998 American Vacuum Society

H2S adsorption on chromium, chromia, and gold/chromia surfaces: Photoemission studies

The reaction of H2S with chromium, chromia, and Au/chromia films grown on a Pt(111) crystal has been investigated using synchrotron-based high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy. At 300 K, H2S completely decomposes on polycrystalline chromium producing a chemisorbed layer of S that attenuates the Cr 3d valence features. No evidence was found for the formation of CrSx species. The dissociation of H2S on Cr3O4 and Cr2O3 films at room temperature produces a decrease of 0.3–0.8 eV in the work function of the surface and significant binding-energy shifts (0.2–0.6 eV) in the Cr 3p core levels and Cr 3d features in the valence region. The rate of dissociation of H2S increases following the sequence: Cr2O33O4. For chromium, the density of states near the Fermi level is large, and these states offer a better match in energy for electron acceptor or donor interactions with the frontier orbitals of H2S than the valence and conduction bands of the chromium oxides. This leads to a large dissociation probability for H2S on the metal, and a low dissociation probability for the molecule on the oxides. In the case of Cr3O4 and Cr2O3, there is a correlation between the size of the band gap in the oxide and its reactivity toward H2S. The uptake of sulfur by the oxides significantly increases when they are “promoted” with gold. The Au/Cr2O3 surfaces exhibit a unique electronic structure in the valence region and a larger ability to dissociate H2S than polycrystalline Au or pure Cr2O3. The results of ab initio SCF calculations for the adsorption of H2S on AuCr4O6 and AuCr10O15 clusters show a shift of electrons from the gold toward the oxide unit that enhances the strength of the Au(6s)↔H2S(5a1,2b1) bonding interactions and facilitates the decomposition of the molecule. © 1997 American Institute of Physics

A specific case in the classification of woods by FTIR and chemometric: discrimination of Fagales from Malpighiales

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic data was used to classify wood samples from nine species within the Fagales and Malpighiales using a range of multivariate statistical methods. Taxonomic classification of the family Fagaceae and Betulaceae from Angiosperm Phylogenetic System Classification (APG II System) was successfully performed using supervised pattern recognition techniques. A methodology for wood sample discrimination was developed using both sapwood and heartwood samples. Ten and eight biomarkers emerged from the dataset to discriminate order and family, respectively. In the species studied FTIR in combination with multivariate analysis highlighted significant chemical differences in hemicelluloses, cellulose and guaiacyl (lignin) and shows promise as a suitable approach for wood sample classification

Mathematical modelling of polyamine metabolism in bloodstream-form trypanosoma brucei: An application to drug target identification

© 2013 Gu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.We present the first computational kinetic model of polyamine metabolism in bloodstream-form Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of human African trypanosomiasis. We systematically extracted the polyamine pathway from the complete metabolic network while still maintaining the predictive capability of the pathway. The kinetic model is constructed on the basis of information gleaned from the experimental biology literature and defined as a set of ordinary differential equations. We applied Michaelis-Menten kinetics featuring regulatory factors to describe enzymatic activities that are well defined. Uncharacterised enzyme kinetics were approximated and justified with available physiological properties of the system. Optimisation-based dynamic simulations were performed to train the model with experimental data and inconsistent predictions prompted an iterative procedure of model refinement. Good agreement between simulation results and measured data reported in various experimental conditions shows that the model has good applicability in spite of there being gaps in the required data. With this kinetic model, the relative importance of the individual pathway enzymes was assessed. We observed that, at low-to-moderate levels of inhibition, enzymes catalysing reactions of de novo AdoMet (MAT) and ornithine production (OrnPt) have more efficient inhibitory effect on total trypanothione content in comparison to other enzymes in the pathway. In our model, prozyme and TSHSyn (the production catalyst of total trypanothione) were also found to exhibit potent control on total trypanothione content but only when they were strongly inhibited. Different chemotherapeutic strategies against T. brucei were investigated using this model and interruption of polyamine synthesis via joint inhibition of MAT or OrnPt together with other polyamine enzymes was identified as an optimal therapeutic strategy.The work was carried out under a PhD programme partly funded by Prof. Ray Welland, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgo

Genomic Expansion of Magnetotactic Bacteria Reveals an Early Common Origin of Magnetotaxis with Lineage-specific Evolution

The origin and evolution of magnetoreception, which in diverse prokaryotes and protozoa is known as magnetotaxis and enables these microorganisms to detect Earth’s magnetic field for orientation and navigation, is not well understood in evolutionary biology. The only known prokaryotes capable of sensing the geomagnetic field are magnetotactic bacteria (MTB), motile microorganisms that biomineralize intracellular, membrane-bounded magnetic single-domain crystals of either magnetite (Fe3O4) or greigite (Fe3S4) called magnetosomes. Magnetosomes are responsible for magnetotaxis in MTB. Here we report the first large-scale metagenomic survey of MTB from both northern and southern hemispheres combined with 28 genomes from uncultivated MTB. These genomes expand greatly the coverage of MTB in the Proteobacteria, Nitrospirae, and Omnitrophica phyla, and provide the first genomic evidence of MTB belonging to the Zetaproteobacteria and “Candidatus Lambdaproteobacteria” classes. The gene content and organization of magnetosome gene clusters, which are physically grouped genes that encode proteins for magnetosome biosynthesis and organization, are more conserved within phylogenetically similar groups than between different taxonomic lineages. Moreover, the phylogenies of core magnetosome proteins form monophyletic clades. Together, these results suggest a common ancient origin of iron-based (Fe3O4 and Fe3S4) magnetotaxis in the domain Bacteria that underwent lineage-specific evolution, shedding new light on the origin and evolution of biomineralization and magnetotaxis, and expanding significantly the phylogenomic representation of MTB

Effect of Beauveria bassiana-Seed Treatment on Zea mays L. Response against Spodoptera frugiperda

Spodoptera frugiperda is a widely distributed insect pest that causes major economic losses in various crops, particularly maize. On the other hand, Beauveria bassiana is an entomopathogenic fungus that establishes symbiotic associations with many plants and contributes to tolerance against biotic and abiotic stresses. In the present work, in laboratory experiments, the effects of the B. bassiana strain GHA, in addition to a native strain (PTG4), delivered via seed treatment in maize seedlings, were evaluated on S. frugiperda growth, development, and mortality. We inoculated maize seeds with 1 × 106B. bassiana blastospores; then these seeds were germinated and grown to seedlings under growth chamber conditions. Third-instar S. frugiperda larvae were allowed to feed on B. bassiana-treated and -untreated (negative control) seedlings until reaching the sixth instar and transferred to an artificial diet until reaching adult stage. Results showed that larvae feeding on B. bassiana strain PTG4-treated plants prolonged their larval stage. Furthermore, feeding on plants treated with B. bassiana strains yielded fewer S. frugiperda male moths compared with feeding with the untreated control plants. Under field conditions, 1 × 106 (first trial) and 1 × 108 (second trial) of B. bassiana (GHA strain) blastospores were used for corn seed inoculation. In the first field trial, there were a higher number of larvae in the negative control plants compared to those in the plants treated with B. bassiana. No larvae were found in negative control and B. bassiana-treated plants in the second field trial. In conclusion, seed treatment with B. bassiana in maize reduced S. frugiperda infestation of maize plants in field trials. S. frugiperda development was also affected in laboratory trials

Testing the theory of immune selection in cancers that break the rules of transplantation

Modification of cancer cells likely to reduce their immunogenicity, including loss or down-regulation of MHC molecules, is now well documented and has become the main support for the concept of immune surveillance. The evidence that these modifications, in fact, result from selection by the immune system is less clear, since the possibility that they may result from reorganized metabolism associated with proliferation or from cell de-differentiation remains. Here, we (a) survey old and new transplantation experiments that test the possibility of selection and (b) survey how transmissible tumours of dogs and Tasmanian devils provide naturally evolved tests of immune surveillance

Longitudinal residual strain and stress-strain relationship in rat small intestine

BACKGROUND: To obtain a more detailed description of the stress-free state of the intestinal wall, longitudinal residual strain measurements are needed. Furthermore, data on longitudinal stress-strain relations in visceral organs are scarce. The present study aims to investigate the longitudinal residual strain and the longitudinal stress-strain relationship in the rat small intestine. METHODS: The longitudinal zero-stress state was obtained by cutting tissue strips parallel to the longitudinal axis of the intestine. The longitudinal residual stress was characterized by a bending angle (unit: degrees per unit length and positive when bending outwards). Residual strain was computed from the change in dimensions between the zero-stress state and the no-load state. Longitudinal stresses and strains were computed from stretch experiments in the distal ileum at luminal pressures ranging from 0–4 cmH(2)O. RESULTS: Large morphometric variations were found between the duodenum and ileum with the largest wall thickness and wall area in the duodenum and the largest inner circumference and luminal area in the distal ileum (p < 0.001). The bending angle did not differ between the duodenum and ileum (p > 0.5). The longitudinal residual strain was tensile at the serosal surface and compressive at the mucosal surface. Hence, the neutral axis was approximately in the mid-wall. The longitudinal residual strain and the bending angle was not uniform around the intestinal circumference and had the highest values on the mesenteric sides (p < 0.001). The stress-strain curves fitted well to the mono-exponential function with determination coefficients above 0.96. The α constant increased with the pressure, indicating the intestinal wall became stiffer in longitudinal direction when pressurized. CONCLUSION: Large longitudinal residual strains reside in the small intestine and showed circumferential variation. This indicates that the tissue is not uniform and cannot be treated as a homogenous material. The longitudinal stiffness of the intestinal wall increased with luminal pressure. Longitudinal residual strains must be taken into account in studies of gastrointestinal biomechanical properties