Microgradient-heaters as tools for high-throughput experimentation.

A microgradient-heater (MGH) was developed, and its feasibility as a tool for high-throughput materials science experimentation was tested. The MGH is derived from microhot plate (MHP) systems and allows combinatorial thermal processing on the micronano scale. The temperature gradient is adjustable by the substrate material. For an Au-coated MGH membrane a temperature drop from 605 to 100 °C was measured over a distance of 965 µm, resulting in an average temperature change of 0.52 K/µm. As a proof of principle, we demonstrate the feasibility of MGHs on the example of a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. The achieved results show discontinuous changes in surface morphology within a continuous TiO2 film. Furthermore the MGH can be used to get insights into the energetic relations of film growth processes, giving it the potential for microcalorimetry measurements.

CCD camera image analysis for mapping solute concentrations in saturated porous media.

This paper presents an optical approach, based on the use of a low-cost charge-coupled device (CCD) camera, for the quantitative determination of solute concentrations in saturated porous media. The method is applied to evaluate tracer experiments carried out in a laboratory model tank. The CCD photos deliver RGB values which are transferred into concentrations for the evaluation of vertical concentration profiles over the whole tank area. A specially developed evaluation procedure, including internal referencing for noise reduction, considers the colour of the adjacencies of the evaluated spots and scattering effects. The CCD data evaluation technique is accompanied by conventional sampling and absorption measurements and by numerical flow and transport simulations. This non-invasive technique allows a direct mapping of the concentration distribution without any disturbance of the solute plume. Therefore, it turns out to be an important tool for a detailed investigation of fundamental processes (e.g. transverse dispersion) determining the solute (e.g. contaminant) transport in porous media.

Molecularly imprinted polymer films for reflectometric interference spectroscopic sensors.

Reflectometric interference spectroscopic measurements were performed on molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) films with the herbicide atrazine as the template molecule. A conventional imprinting protocol was used relying on non-covalent interactions between the functional monomers and the template. The MIPs were deposited on glass transducers by two different methods: spin-coating followed by in situ polymerization of thin films of monomers containing a sacrificial polymeric porogen, and autoassembly of MIP nanoparticles with the aid of an associative linear polymer. Reproducible results were obtained upon measurements of atrazine solutions in toluene with both films. Atrazine concentrations as low as 1.7 ppm could be detected with the autoassembled particle film. No or very little analyte adsorption was observed onto non-imprinted control films made by spin-coating and by particle assembly, respectively. We believe that these MIP layers in combination with the general reflectrometric transduction scheme could be a versatile sensing tool for the detection of environmentally important and other analytes.

Transcriptional regulation of the bovine oxytocin receptor gene.

The oxytocin receptor (OTR) is expressed in the cow uterus at high levels at estrus and at term of pregnancy. This expression appears to be controlled mostly at the transcriptional level and correlates with increasing estrogen concentration and progesterone withdrawal. Approximately 3200 base pairs of the upstream region of the bovine OTR gene were cloned and analyzed using a combination of bioinformatic, electrophoretic mobility shift (EMSA), and transfection analyses. Using nuclear proteins from high- and low-expressing tissues, EMSA indicated no significant quantitative or qualitative changes in specific DNA-protein binding, suggesting that transcription is probably controlled by signalling systems targeting constitutive factors. Using various cell types, including primary and immortalized ruminant endometrial epithelial cells, as hosts for transfection of promoter-reporter constructs showed that endogenous activity resided only in the longest, i.e., 3.2-kb, construct but not in those shorter than 1.0 kb. While estrogen appears to be important in vivo, no effect of estradiol was found on any construct directly; only when the longest 3.2-kb construct was used in combination with some cotransfected steroid receptor cofactors, e.g., SRC1e, was an estradiol-dependent effect observed. A putative interferon-responsive element (IRE) was found at approximately -2,400 from the transcription start site. This element was shown to bind mouse IRF1 and IRF2 as well as similar proteins from bovine endometrial and myometrial nuclear extracts. This element also responded to these factors when cotransfected into various cell types. The bovine equivalents to IRF1 and IRF2 were molecularly cloned from endometrial tissue and shown to be expressed in a temporal fashion, supporting the role of interferon-tau in maternal recognition of pregnancy. Of many factors tested or analyzed, these components of the IFN system are the only ones found to significantly influence the transcription of the bovine OTR gene.