Determination of γ-glutamyl-valyl-glycine in raw scallop and processed scallop products using high pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

The determination of the kokumi peptide, γ-glutamyl-valyl-glycine (γ-Glu-Val-Gly) in raw scallop and processed scallop products was carried out using high pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). The detection of γ-Glu-Val-Gly was achieved using a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) method. The optimised condition enabled the precise determination of γ-Glu-Val-Gly. Raw scallop contained 0.08 μg/g γ-Glu-Val-Gly, and the γ-Glu-Val-Gly levels in processed scallop products, such as dried-scallop and scallop extract, were measured to be 0.64 and 0.77 μg/g, respectively. This is the first report to confirm the existence of γ-Glu-Val-Gly in foodstuff.     

Impact of nanotube density and alignment on the elastic modulus near the top and base surfaces of aligned multi-walled carbon nanotube films

The mechanical compliance of vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) films renders them promising as interface materials that can accommodate thermal expansion mismatch. Here we study the relationship between the detailed morphology and elastic modulus of multi-walled VACNT films with thicknesses ranging from 98 to 1300 μm. A systematic analysis of scanning electron micrographs reveals variations in nanotube alignment and density among samples and within different regions of a given film. Nanoindentation of both top and bottom film surfaces using an atomic force microscope with spherical indenters with radii between 15 and 25 μm provides evidence of the modulus differences. The top surface is shown to have a higher modulus than the base, with out-of-plane modulus values of 1.0–2.8 MPa (top) and 0.2–1.4 MPa (base). The indentation data and microstructural information obtained from electron microscopy are interpreted together using an open cell foam model to account for differences in nanotube alignment and density, which are generally lower at the base and yield predictions that are consistent with the modulus data trends. This work shows that microstructure analysis complements property measurements to improve our understanding of nanostructured materials.     

Kinetics of CO2 reforming of methane by catalytically activated metallic foam absorber for solar receiver-reactors

Ni–Cr–Al metallic foam absorber with high porosity was catalytically activated using a Ru/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst, and was subsequently tested with respect to CO₂ reforming of methane in a small-scale volumetric receiver-reactor by using a sun-simulator. A chemical storage efficiency of 37% was obtained for a mean light flux of 325 kW m⁻². Furthermore, the activity and the stability of the metallic foam absorber were compared with those of a SiC foam absorber activated with the same Ru/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst for 50 h of light irradiation, and it was found that the metallic foam absorber has superior catalytic stability in comparison to the SiC form absorber. In addition, unlike ceramic foams such as SiC, metallic foams feature superior plasticity, which prevents the emergence of cracks caused by mechanical or thermal shock.     

A 65 nm Single-Chip Application and Dual-Mode Baseband Processor With Partial Clock Activation and IP-MMU

Supporting both WCDMA with HSDPA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE, the 9.3 times 9.3 mm² SoC fabricated in triple-Vth 65 nm CMOS, has three CPU cores and 20 separate power domains. Unused power domains can be powered down to reduce the leakage power. Partial clock activation scheme especially focused on music playback scene dynamically stops a PLL and clock trees when not necessary and reduces power consumption from 33.6 mW to 19.6 mW. IP-MMU translates virtual address to physical address for 18 hardware-IPs and virtual address space can be allocated when necessary and can be freed after its operation, reducing external memory by 43 MB. Video performance of D1 (720 times 520) size with 30 frames per second for MPEG/AVC decoding and encoding can be achieved under mixed virtual and physical address usage.     

An active low-pass filter using two capacitive double-layer uniformly distributed RC lines

In this paper we propose an active circuit consisting of two capacitive double-layer uniformly distributed RC lines and an operational amplifier, and present conditions under which the circuit works as the low-pass filter. Furthermore, we present a method for designing the low-pass filter and give a design example where simulation results are included.