Glucosylation of flavonols by Escherichia coli expressing glucosyltransferase from rice (Oryza sativa)

A glucosyltransferase cDNA, RF5, was cloned from Oryza sativa using an RT-PCR strategy and expressed in Escherichia coli. Several flavonoids were tested for their ability to serve as substrates for RF5. RF5 effectively glucosylated kaempferol and quercetin to produce their 3-O-glucosides. Thus, RF5 could be defined as a flavonol 3-O-glucosyltransferase. E. coli cells expressing RF5 effectively converted 100 microM of kaempferol and quercetin into their corresponding glucosides.     

Improved L-threonine production of Escherichia coli mutant by optimization of culture conditions

L-threonine production was investigated in a minimal salt medium using L-threonine-overproducing Escherichia coli MT201, derived from E. coli K-12. It was observed that dry cell weight reached 12.5 g/l with 15.9 g/lL-threonine. To increase dry cell weight and L-threonine production, the fermentation process was optimized. When biotin was added as growth factor, L-threonine production reached 52.0 g/l from 15.9 g/l without biotin. Dry cell weight and L-threonine production were further increased by continuous feeding of the feed media with an optimized L-methionine concentration (5.0 g/l). However, high-cell-density culture caused oxygen-limited condition, which resulted in the accumulation of organic acids. To overcome this problem, oxygen-enriched air was supplied to the fermentor with the minimal salt medium. Under these optimal conditions, we achieved an L-threonine production of 80.2 g/l in the minimal salt medium.     

Capacitive-loaded interstitial antennas for perfect matching and desirable SAR distributions

New interstitial antennas are proposed. They basically consist of coaxial cable and two types of capacitive loads. One is tipped at the end of antennas, which helps almost perfect matching possible. The others are located in the middle and needed for better specific absorption rate (SAR) distribution. To distinguish them, one at the end is called the end-capacitive load (ECL) and the others in the middle the middle-capacitive loads (MCLs). Depending on the number of the MCLs, ZMIA (zero MCL interstitial antenna), OMIA (one MCL interstitial antenna) and two MCL interstitial antenna (TMIA) are named and a matching technique based on transmission line theory is suggested. To verify the technique, the three antennas immersed in muscle phantom are designed, fabricated, measured and compared. The measured reflection coefficients of ZMIA, OMIA, and TMIA are -28.4, -21.9, and -22.8 dB, respectively, one of which, -28.4 dB may be considered as the best among those reported. The compared results show that the measured ones are in good agreement with the calculated (predicted) ones. The three antennas are also measured for the SAR distributions. The measured results indicate that the TMIA has the best performance as expected and the region more than 43 degrees C is a rugby ball (major axis 6 cm and minor axis 2.9 cm) with only one TMIA, which confirms that they may be used for the treatment for big-sized and deep-seated tumor or cancer.     

Properties of cholesterol-reduced butter made with beta-cyclodextrin and added evening primrose oil and phytosterols

The present study was carried out to examine changes in the chemical and sensory properties of butter in which the cholesterol was reduced and to which evening primrose oil (EPO) and phytosterols were added. Crosslinked β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) made from adipic acid was used, and approximately 90% of the cholesterol was removed. The color measurement values “L” and “a” were significantly different between the control (butter with no β-CD treatment and no added EPO and phytosterols) and treatment A (butter treated with 10% crosslinked β-CD); however, the color values for “L” and “a” were similar. The color value “b” in treatment B (butter treated with 10% crosslinked β-CD and 5% phytosterols and 3% EPO added) was significantly higher than in the other treatments. The thiobarbituric acid value of treatment B was significantly higher than that of the control and treatment A. Scores for hardness, elasticity, and cohesiveness were significantly lower in the control than in treatment A. Differences in sensory characteristics did not result from the β-CD treatment but from the addition of EPO and phytosterols. In microscopic examinations, no noticeable differences were found among the treatments, and a smooth texture and a fine, uniform crystalline structure were observed. Results indicated that about 90% of the cholesterol was reduced by crosslinked β-CD and that the β-CD treatment itself did not adversely influence the chemical and sensory properties of the butter. However, the addition of EPO and phytosterols to the butter appeared to impair its sensory properties, especially in terms of rancidity and overall acceptability.     

Comparison of experimental and finite element analytical results for the strength and the deformation of pipes with local wall thinning subjected to bending moment

Fracture behaviors of pipes with local wall thinning are very important for the integrity of power plant piping system. In this study, monotonic bending tests without internal pressure are conducted on 48.6 mm diameter Schedule 80 (thickness, 5.1 mm) STS370 full-scale carbon steel pipe specimens. Fracture strengths of locally wall-thinned pipes were calculated by elasto-plastic analysis using finite element method. The elasto-plastic analysis was performed by FE code ANSYS. We simulated various types of local wall thinning that can be occurred at pipe surface due to coolant flow. Locally wall thinned shapes were machined to be different in size along the circumferential or axial direction of straight pipes. We investigated fracture strengths and failure modes of locally wall thinned pipes by four point bending test. And, the allowable limit of pipes with local wall thinning was investigated. In addition, we compared the simulated results by finite element analysis with experimental data. The failure mode, fracture strength and fracture behavior obtained from FE analyses showed well agreement with experimental results. From the test results, we identified three types of failure modes into ovalization, local buckling and crack initiation. These failure modes could be classified according to thinned depth, thinned length and thinned angle of a pipe. For locally wall-thinned specimens, maximum moments (M_max) were estimated by using the net-section stress criterion. Pipes with local wall thinning can be estimated using σ_u instead of σ_f because of 1.19σ_f  σ_u. Also, the axial strain affects failure modes occurred on local wall thinning. the allowable limit of local wall thinning for carbon steel pipe used can be given as follows; in the case of M_max ≥ M_y, if 10 ≤ l < 25 mm, d/t can be allowed to about 55%, and if 25 ≤ l < 100 mm, d/t can be allowed to about 50%. Also, if 100 ≤ l ≤ 120 mm, d/t can be allowed to about 29%.     

Electron-beam fabrication of high-density amorphous bubble film devices

A low-temperature, all-vacuum process combined with electron-beam lithography suitable for single-level masking devices using 2-μm diameter amorphous bubble films has been developed. A test vehicle which uses 0.75-μm wide chevrons and 1-μm wide T.I bars in an 8,000- bit chip configuration, resulting in an areal density of 1×10⁷bits/in², was used. Important process features are found to be: (1) laminated NiFe films to obtain low Hcand high magneto-resistive effect when deposited at low substrate temperature, (2) maintenance of low surface temperature during metallization to preserve the integrity of exposed and developed electron-beam resist pattern, and (3) proper resist profile for ease of the lift-off process. Excellent bubble device operating characteristics have been obtained as a result of uniformity in materials and structure resulting from careful control of fabrication parameters.     

Effects of inlet radius and bell mouth radius on flow rate and sound quality of centrifugal blower

The effect of inlet radius and bell mouth radius on flow rate of centrifugal blower were numerically simulated using a commercial CFD program, FLUENT. In this research, a total of eight numerical models were prepared by combining different values of bell mouth radii and inlet radii (the cross section of bell mouth was chosen as a circular arc in this research). The frozen rotor method combined with a realizable k-epsilon turbulence model and non-equilibrium wall function was used to simulate the three-dimensional flow inside the centrifugal blowers. The inlet radius was then revealed to have significant impact on flow rate with the maximum difference between analyzed models was about 4.5% while the bell mouth radius had about 3% impact on flow rate. Parallel experiments were carried out to confirm the results of CFD analysis. The CFD results were thereafter validated owning to the good agreement between CFD results and the parallel experiment results. In addition to performance analysis, noise experiments were carried out to analyze the dependence of sound quality on inlet radius and bell mouth radius with different flow rate. The noise experiment results showed that the loudness and sharpness value of different models were quite similar, which mean the inlet radius and the bell mouth radius didn’t have a clear impact on sound quality of centrifugal blower.     

Characterization of Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage BasuTN3 isolated from Thua Nao,a thai fermented soybean food product

Food Science and Biotechnology - The infection of bacteriophage is of great concern in food industry as this can result in complete fermentation failure. In this study, a virulent bacteriophage,...