Bacterial contamination of surgical gloves during clean orthopedic surgery.

This study examines the presence of bacterial contamination on surgical gloves and suggests appropriate measures for an aseptic surgical environment. To prevent glove contamination during surgery, surgeons and assistants should change gloves periodically, and scrub nurses should be careful when opening packages and handing over implants.

Aqueous lubrication and wear properties of nonionic bottle-brush polymers.

The usage of aqueous lubricants in eco-friendly bio-medical friction systems has attracted significant attention. Several bottle-brush polymers with generally ionic functional groups have been developed based on the structure of biological lubricant lubricin. However, hydrophilic nonionic brush polymers have attracted less attention, especially in terms of wear properties.

MicroRNA-22 negatively regulates LPS-induced inflammatory responses by targeting HDAC6 in macrophages.

Dysregulation of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) can lead to the pathologic states and result in the development of various diseases including cancers and inflammatory diseases. The objective of this study was to elucidate the regulatory role of microRNA-22 (miR-22) in HDAC6-mediated expression of proinflammatory cytokines in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated macrophages. LPS stimulation induced HDAC6 expression, but suppressed miR-22 expression in macrophages, suggesting possible correlation between HDAC6 and miR-22.

Patterning ITO by Template-Assisted Colloidal-Lithography for Enhancing Power Conversion Efficiency in Organic Photovoltaic.

Highly structured interfaces are very desirable in organic photovoltaic solar cells (OPVs), in order to enhance power conversion efficiency (PCE) by decreasing of the transport path for excited charge carriers in the absorber and increasing the optical path length for photon absorption. Many complicated, high-cost lithographic methods have been attempted to modify the surface of the absorber or substrate. However, solution-based colloidal-lithography processes are scalable and cost-effective, but generally result in non-uniform structured surfaces.

Flow Manipulation in Thread-Based Microfluidics by Tuning the Wettability of Wool.

Recent progress in thread-based microfluidic devices has provided portable and inexpensive field-based technologies enabling medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and food safety analysis. However, capillary-driven liquid flow in a single thread, a crucial aspect of thread-based microfluidics, is difficult to control. Among potential materials, hydrophobic wool thread is an appropriate candidate for liquid flow control in thread-based microfluidics because its wettability can be readily tuned by the introduction of a natural color pigment, thereby manipulating flow.

Frictional behavior of micro-patterned silicon surface.

A micro-patterned silicon surface, consisting of depressions with walls having a tilt angle of 30°, was created by photolithography followed by etching. The friction forces in single asperity contact acting between such a surface and an AFM tip was measured in air. This allowed elucidation of the validity of some common friction rules for this particular situation where a small tip traces a surface having roughness features that are significantly larger than the tip itself.

Structuring poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) towards enhancing hole collection efficiency.

Unlabelled: To date, organic photovoltaic devices (OPVs) have obtained relatively low power conversion efficiency, mostly because of the low charge carrier mobility of the polymers to be used. This limits the optimal film thickness for efficient absorption of the solar spectrum. The capability of efficient charge carrier collections is a main factor for utilizing thick OPVs, consequently enhancing the power conversion efficiency.

Expression of each cistron in the gal operon can be regulated by transcription termination and generation of a galk-specific mRNA, mK2.

The gal operon of Escherichia coli has 4 cistrons, galE, galT, galK, and galM. In our previous report (H. J.

The CnuK9E H-NS complex antagonizes DNA binding of DicA and leads to temperature-dependent filamentous growth in E. coli.

Cnu (an OriC-binding nucleoid protein) associates with H-NS. A variant of Cnu was identified as a key factor for filamentous growth of a wild-type Escherichia coli strain at 37°C. This variant (CnuK9E) bears a substitution of a lysine to glutamic acid, causing a charge reversal in the first helix.

A mutational study of Cnu reveals attractive forces between Cnu and H-NS.

Cnu is a small 71-amino acid protein that complexes with H-NS and binds to a specific sequence in the replication origin of the E. coli chromosome. To understand the mechanism of interaction between Cnu and H-NS, we used bacterial genetics to select and analyze Cnu variants that cannot complex with H-NS.

Associated symptoms of kawasaki disease.

Background And Objectives: In addition to diagnostic criteria, a broad range of nonspecific clinical features can be found in patients with Kawasaki disease. This lack of specificity may cause confusion with other febrile illnesses and delay the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease. The purpose of this study is to describe common associated symptoms and their clinical significances in children affected with Kawasaki disease.

Amontonian friction induced by flexible surface features on microstructured silicon.

Friction between nonadhering sliding surfaces are normally described by Amontons' law, which states that there exists a linear relationship between the friction force and the normal applied load and that the friction force is independent of the macroscopic contact area between the surfaces and the sliding velocity. In this study we have measured friction as a function of applied load between a spherical silica particle and a microstructured silicon surface consisting of arrays of vertical microneedles, and we have challenged Amontons' law by changing the size of the silica particle and the sliding velocity. First, when looking at the friction as a function of time for a given applied load, the friction force was observed to oscillate with a period related to the spacing between the microneedles when using a small silica particle, whereas the friction force exhibited a more random variation when a larger silica particle was used.

Highly ordered hexagonal arrays of hybridized micelles from bimodal self-assemblies of diblock copolymer micelles.

We demonstrate the formation of highly ordered hexagonal arrays of hybridized polystyrene-poly(4-vinyl pyridine), PS-PVP, micelles with controllable size by solvent annealing techniques. Because the formation of hybridized micelles was prohibited in the mixture solutions of two different-sized PS-PVP micelles, single-layered films with bimodal self-assemblies of small and large micelles were fabricated from the mixture solutions by adjusting their mixing ratios. When the single-layered films were solvent annealed by saturated vapor of tetrahydrofuran (THF), on the other hand, small and large PS-PVP micelles in the bimodal self-assemblies merged together to form hybridized micelles.

In vivo transcription dynamics of the galactose operon: a study on the promoter transition from P1 to P2 at onset of stationary phase.

Quantitative analyses of the 5' end of gal transcripts indicate that transcription from the galactose operon P1 promoter is higher during cell division. When cells are no longer dividing, however, transcription is initiated more often from the P2 promoter. Escherichia coli cells divide six times before the onset of the stationary phase when grown in LB containing 0.

Quantification of the galactose-operon mRNAs 5 bases different in their 5'-ends.

Three assay methods for quantification of the two galactoseoperon mRNAs that only differ by 5 bases in their 5'-end are presented. The 5' ends of each mRNA were extended by ligating the 3'-end of the abundant 5S rRNA. This ligation extends the 5' ends of the two gal mRNAs long enough to be distinguished by the specific PCR primers in the following quantification reactions.

Design of highly oleophobic cellulose surfaces from structured silicon templates.

Structured silicon surfaces, possessing hierarchical porous characteristics consisting of micrometer-sized cavities superimposed upon a network of nanometer-sized pillars or wires, have been fabricated by a plasma-etching process. These surfaces have superoleophobic properties, after being coated with fluorinated organic trichlorosilanes, on intrinsically oleophilic surfaces. By comparison with flat silicon surfaces, which are oleophilic, it has been demonstrated that a combination of low surface energy and the structured features of the plasma-etched surface is essential to prevent oil from penetrating the surface cavities and thus induce the observed macroscopic superoleophobic phenomena with very low contact-angle hysteresis and low roll-off angles.

Establishment of an mRNA gradient depends on the promoter: an investigation of polarity in gene expression.

We found six mRNA species specific to the galactose operon of Escherichia coli. Analyses of both ends of the mRNAs indicated that while the 5' ends are fixed at the promoter region, the 3' ends vary along the operon. The resulting gal mRNA map suggests generation of an mRNA concentration gradient that is higher in the promoter-proximal region and lower toward the distal region.

Gold/boron core-shell nanocables synthesized from gold-boron eutectic droplets.

Metal/semiconductor core-shell coaxial nanocables are promising building blocks for nanoelectronic devices while in situ growth of these nanocables remains challenging due to the distinctly different synthesis temperature ranges required for metals and semiconductors. To overcome this difficulty, we have developed a vapor-liquid-solid and oxide-assisted bimodal competition growth strategy for in situ metal/semiconductor core-shell nanocable growth. Using this process, gold/boron core-shell nanocables were obtained.

Self-assembled boron nanowire Y-junctions.

In this work, we demonstrate that boron nanowire Y-junctions can be synthesized in a self-assembled manner by fusing two individual boron nanowires grown inclined toward each other. We show that the presence of a second liquid, in addition to the liquid Au catalyst, is critical to the inclination of the boron nanowire. The structure of the BNYJ arrays that we report here may allow construction of three- or multiple-terminal nanowire devices directly on Si-based readout circuits through controlled nanowire growth.

Structural and dynamic basis of a supercoiling-responsive DNA element.

In both eukaryotes and prokaryotes, negative supercoiling of chromosomal DNA acts locally to regulate a variety of cellular processes, such as transcription, replication, recombination and response to environmental stresses. While studying the interaction between the Hin recombinase and mutated versions of its cognate DNA-binding site, we identified a mutated DNA site that binds Hin only when the DNA is supercoiled. To understand the mechanism of this supercoiling-responsive DNA site, we used NMR spectroscopy and fluorescence resonance energy transfer to determine the solution structures and dynamics of three related DNA oligonucleotides.

Cnu, a novel oriC-binding protein of Escherichia coli.

We have found, using a newly developed genetic method, a protein (named Cnu, for oriC-binding nucleoid-associated) that binds to a specific 26-base-pair sequence (named cnb) in the origin of replication of Escherichia coli, oriC. Cnu is composed of 71 amino acids (8.4 kDa) and shows extensive amino acid identity to a group of proteins belonging to the Hha/YmoA family.