ABSTRACT
Monodisperse ethanol droplets 2.4 microm and water droplets 4.5 microm in diameter have been produced in ultrasonic atomization using 1.5- and 1.0-MHz microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based silicon nozzles, respectively. The 1.5- and 1.0-MHz nozzles, each consisting of 3 Fourier horns in resonance, measured 1.20 cm x 0.15 cm x .11 cm and 1.79 cm x 0.21 cm x 0.11 cm, respectively, required electrical drive power as low as 0.25 W and could accommodate flow rates as high as 350 microl/min. As the liquid issues from the nozzle tip that vibrates longitudinally at the nozzle resonance frequency, a liquid film is maintained on the end face of the nozzle tip and standing capillary waves are formed on the free surface of the liquid film when the tip vibration amplitude exceeds a critical value due to Faraday instability. Temporal instability of the standing capillary waves, treated in terms of the unstable solutions (namely, time-dependant function with a positive Floquet exponent) to the corresponding Mathieu differential equation, is shown to be the underlying mechanism for atomization and production of such monodisperse droplets. The experimental results of nozzle resonance and atomization frequencies, droplet diameter, and critical vibration amplitude are all in excellent agreement with the predictions of the 3-D finite element simulation and the theory of Faraday instability responsible for atomization.
ABSTRACT
Mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase plays an important role in memory formation and directly phosphorylates serum- and glucocorticoid-inducible kinase1 (SGK1) at Ser78. In this study, we examined the role and mechanism of SGK1 Ser78 activation involved in contextual fear memory formation in rats. Results revealed that SGK1 Ser78 phosphorylation was increased 30 min, 1 h and 3 h after training. Transient transfection of the dominant negative mutant of sgk, sgkS78A, to hippocampal neurons impaired, whereas transfection of the constitutively active sgk, sgkS78D, enhanced fear retention. Microarray analysis identified 14 genes that showed more than threefold alteration in their gene expression in sgkS78A-transfected animals 6 h after training. One of them is Hairy and Enhancer of split 5 (Hes5). The expression level of Hes5 is approximately 4.4-fold higher in sgkS78A-transfected animals. Further analyses revealed that Hes5 level is markedly decreased after training in control animals, but sgkS78A markedly increased Hes5 level after training. RNA interference experiment showed that shHes5 dose-dependently enhanced fear retention, whereas over-expression of Hes5 impaired fear retention. Moreover, shHes5 at a lower concentration completely blocked the memory-impairing effect of sgkS78A. These results together suggest that Hes5 negatively regulates contextual fear memory formation and SGK activation down-regulates Hes5 expression to enhance fear retention.
