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Selected AbstractsOccupational exposure to methyl tertiary butyl ether in relation to key health symptom prevalence: the effect of measurement error correctionENVIRONMETRICS, Issue 6 2003Aparna P. Keshaviah Abstract In 1995, White et al. reported that methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), an oxygenate added to gasoline, was significantly associated with key health symptoms, including headaches, eye irritation, and burning of the nose and throat, among 44 people occupationally exposed to the compound and for whom serum MTBE measurements were available (odds ratio (OR),=,8.9, 95% CI,=,[1.2, 75.6]). However, these serum MTBE measurements were available for only 29 per cent of the 150 subjects enrolled. Around the same time, Mannino et al. conducted a similar study among individuals occupationally exposed to low levels of MTBE and did not find a significant association between exposure to MTBE and the presence of one or more key health symptoms among the 264 study participants (OR,=,0.60, 95% CI,=,[0.3, 1.21]). In this article, we evaluate the effect of MTBE on the prevalence of key health symptoms by applying a regression calibration method to White et al.'s and Mannino et al.'s data. Unlike White et al., who classified exposure using actual MTBE levels among a subset of the participants, and Mannino et al., who classified exposure based on job category among all participants, we use all of the available data to obtain an estimate of the effect of MTBE in units of serum concentration, adjusted for measurement error due to using job category instead of measured exposure. After adjusting for age, gender and smoking status, MTBE exposure was found to be significantly associated with a 50 per cent increase in the prevalence of one or more key health symptoms per order of magnitude increase in blood concentration on the log10 scale, using data from the 409 study participants with complete information on the covariates (95% CI,=,[1.00, 2.25]). Simulation results indicated that under conditions similar to those observed in these data, the estimator is unbiased and has a coverage probability close to the nominal value. The methodology illustrated in this article is advantageous because all of the available data were used in the analysis, obtaining a more precise estimate of exposure effect on health outcome, and the estimate is adjusted for measurement error due to using job category instead of measured exposure. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Controlling Electrical Properties of Conjugated Polymers via a Solution-Based p-Type Doping,ADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 17 2008Keng-Hoong Yim Tetrafluoro-tetracyano-quinodimethane (F4TCNQ) is used to p-dope conjugated polymers with a wide range of the HOMO levels via co-blending in a common organic solvent. Doping results in several orders of magnitude increase in the bulk conductivity and hole-current with reduced turn-on voltage. The effectiveness of doping increases as the HOMO level of the polymer becomes smaller. [source] Acceleration of absolute negative mobilityJOURNAL OF SEPARATION SCIENCE, JSS, Issue 10 2007Jan Regtmeier Abstract Recently, the counter intuitive migration phenomenon of absolute negative mobility (ANM) has been demonstrated to occur for colloidal particles in a suitably arranged post array within a microfluidic device [1]. This effect is based on the interplay of Brownian motion, nonlinear dynamics induced through microstructuring, and nonequilibrium driving, and results in a particle movement opposite to an applied static force. Simultaneously, the migration of a different particle species along the direction of the static force is possible [19], thus providing a new tool for particle sorting in microfluidic device format. The so far demonstrated maximum velocities for micrometer-sized spheres are slow, i. e., in the order of 10 nm per second. Here, we investigate numerically, how maximum ANM velocities can be significantly accelerated by a careful adjustment of the post size and shape. Based on this numerical analysis, a post design is developed and tested in a microfluidic device made of PDMS. The experiment reveals an order of magnitude increase in velocity. [source] Modeling the Effect of Oxygen on Photopolymerization KineticsMACROMOLECULAR THEORY AND SIMULATIONS, Issue 2 2006Allison K. O'Brien Abstract Summary: A comprehensive one-dimensional photopolymerization model was utilized to investigate the effect of oxygen on the free-radical photopolymerization kinetics. The spatial profiling aspect of the model provided insight into the heterogeneity of the cure kinetics due to oxygen inhibition, specifically the variance in the concentration profile of monomer and oxygen. Double bond conversion was negligible for the top ten microns of the film due to continuous oxygen diffusion, and increased with increasing depth. Similarly, the oxygen concentration decreased with increasing depth due to the competition between oxygen diffusion time and the polymerization rate. The effect of initiation rate on the extent of oxygen inhibition was investigated for various oxygen concentrations. As the initiation rate increased, the polymerization rate increased, and eventually approached that of a sample in an inert environment. Similarly, as the oxygen concentration was decreased, the polymerization rate increased. The effect of varying the initiation rate on the cure profile in the oxygen-exposed film was also studied. It was found that the unpolymerized tacky layer decreased from 50 µm to 5 µm with a 3 order of magnitude increase in initiation rate. Using the pseudo steady state approximation, the relationship between polymerization rate and initiation rate was derived for films in an oxygen environment. A direct relationship between the polymerization and initiation rate was found for films in air. The polymerization model supported this derivation and found that as the oxygen concentration was decreased, the dependence on initiation rate, or alpha, decreased, reaching the accepted value of 0.5 for alpha in inert environments. Double bond conversion versus film depth and cure time. [source] Fast multidimensional NMR by polarization sharingMAGNETIC RESONANCE IN CHEMISTRY, Issue 1 2007Eriks Kup Abstract The speed of multidimensional NMR spectroscopy can be significantly increased by drastically shortening the customary relaxation delay between scans. The consequent loss of longitudinal magnetization can be retrieved if ,new' polarization is transferred from nearby spins. For correlation spectroscopy involving heteronuclei (X = 13C or 15N), protons not directly bound to X can repeatedly transfer polarization to the directly bound protons through Hartmann,Hahn mixing. An order of magnitude increase in speed has been observed for the 600 MHz two-dimensional HMQC spectra of amikacin and strychnine using this technique, and it also reduces the noisy F1 ridges that degrade many heteronuclear correlation spectra recorded with short recovery times. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Effect of AlGaAs cladding layer on GaInNAs/GaAs MQW p-i-n photodetectorPHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (C) - CURRENT TOPICS IN SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 6 2008Y. F. Chen Abstract The electronic properties of GaInNAs/GaAs multiple-quantum-well (MQW) p-i-n photodetector with AlGaAs cladding layer have been studied. By applying a higher band gap Al0.3Ga0.7As to the photodetector, a substantial reduction in dark current was observed owing to an inherent difficulty for holes to surmount the high potential barrier between MQW and the cladding layer heterojunction under a reverse bias. The dark current obtained was as low as 4.1 pA at -3.5 V for a device with Al0.3Ga0.7As cladding layer as compared to 22 ,A also at -3.5 V for a similar device without the Al0.3Ga0.7As cladding layer. The photo/dark current contrast ratios obtained were 4.2×104 and 11, respectively, for devices with and without an Al0.3Ga0.7As cladding layer at -3.5 V. In addition, peak responsivity of 1 mA/W was measured at around 1150 nm. Two orders of magnitude increase in the rejection ratio were realized between 1150 and 1250 nm at -2.0 V. The GaInNAs/GaAs MQW p-i-n photodetector was demonstrated with the AlGaAs cladding layer potentially providing a higher photo/dark current contrast ratio and higher responsivity rejection ratio. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Protein engineering of Bacillus megaterium CYP102FEBS JOURNAL, Issue 10 2001The oxidation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons Cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes are involved in activating the carcinogenicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in mammals, but they are also utilized by microorganisms for the degradation of these hazardous environmental contaminants. Wild-type CYP102 (P450BM-3) from Bacillus megaterium has low activity for the oxidation of the PAHs phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene. The double hydrophobic substitution R47L/Y51F at the entrance of the substrate access channel increased the PAH oxidation activity by up to 40-fold. Combining these mutations with the active site mutations F87A and A264G lead to order of magnitude increases in activity. Both these mutations increased the NADPH turnover rate, but the A264G mutation increased the coupling efficiency while the F87A mutation had dominant effects in product selectivity. Fast NADPH oxidation rates were observed (2250 min,1 for the R47L/Y51F/F87A mutant with phenanthrene) but the coupling efficiencies were relatively low (< 13%), resulting in a highest substrate oxidation rate of 110 min,1 for fluoranthene oxidation by the R47L/Y51F/A264G mutant. Mutation of M354 and L437 inside the substrate access channel reduced PAH oxidation activity. The PAHs were oxidized to a mixture of phenols and quinones. Notably mutants containing the A264G mutation showed some similarity to mammalian CYP enzymes in that some 9,10-phenanthrenequinone, the K -region oxidation product from phenanthrene, was formed. The results suggest that CYP102 mutants could be useful models for PAH oxidation by mammalian CYP enzymes, and also potentially for the preparation of novel PAH bioremediation systems. [source] | |||||||||||||