Atomic force microscopy observations of the topography of regenerated silk fibroin aggregations

How fibroin molecules fold themselves and further self-assemble into aggregations with specific structures when the solution concentration increases is the key to understanding the natural silk-forming process of the silkworm. A regenerated Bombyx mori silk fibroin solution was prepared, and serially diluted solutions were coated on aminated coverslips. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) observations of the topography of fibroin molecules revealed a transformation from rodlike aggregations 100-200 nm long to small globules 50 mn in diameter with decreasing concentrations. When the incubation duration increased, the aggregations of fibroin molecules showed a self-assembling process, which was measured with AFM. In particular, after the molecules were incubated for more than 20 min, rodlike micelles formed and were distributed evenly on the surface of the aminated slides. Flow chamber technology was used to study the effect of the shear loading on the topography of the fibroin molecular aggregations. After a shear loading was applied, larger rodlike particles formed at a higher incubation concentration in comparison with those at a lower concentration and were obviously oriented along the direction of fluid flow.

Competitive adsorption between bovine serum albumin and collagen observed by atomic force microscope

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to study the competitive adsorption between bovine serum albumin (BSA) and type I collagen on hydrophilic and hydrophobic silicon wafers. BSA showed a grain shape and the type I collagen displayed fibril-like molecules with relatively homogeneous height and width, characterized with clear twisting (helical formation). These AFM images illustrated that quite a lot of type I collagen appeared in the adsorption layer on hydrophilic surface in a competitive adsorption state, but the adsorption of BSA was more preponderant than that of type I collagen on hydrophobic silicon wafer surface. The experiments showed that the influence of BSA on type I collagen adsorption on hydrophilic surface was less than that on hydrophobic surface.

Effect of a laser pre-quenched steel substrate surface on the crack driving force in a coating-steel substrate system

A mechanical model of a coating/laser pre-quenched steel substrate specimen with a crack oriented perpendicular to the interface between the coating and the hardened layer is developed to quantify the effects of the residual stress and hardness gradient on the crack driving force in terms of the J-integral. It is assumed that the crack tip is in the middle of the hardened layer of the pre-quenched steel substrate. Using a composite double cantilever beam model, analytical solutions can be derived, and these can be used to quantify the effects of the residual stress and the hardness gradient resulting from the pre-quenched steel substrate surface on the crack driving force. A numerical example is presented to investigate how the residual compressive stress, the coefficient linking microhardness and yield strength and the Young's modulus ratio of the hardened layer to the coating influence the crack driving force for a given crack length. (C) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nonlinear dynamics of atomic force microscopy with intermittent contact

When the atomic force microscopy (AFM) in tapping mode is in intermittent contact with a soft substrate, the contact time can be a significant portion of a cycle, resulting in invalidity of the impact oscillator model, where the contact time is assumed to be infinitely small. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the AFM intermittent contact with soft substrate can induce the motion of higher modes in the AFM dynamic response. Traditional ways of modeling AFM (one degree of freedom (DOF) system or single mode analysis) are shown to have serious mistakes when applied to this kind of problem. A more reasonable displacement criterion on contact is proposed, where the contact time is a function of the mechanical properties of AFM and substrate, driving frequencies/amplitude, initial conditions, etc. Multi-modal analysis is presented and mode coupling is also shown. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A consistent model of isolated force-free magnetic arches

The magnetic flux tube concentrating strong magnetic field is the basic configuration of magneticfield in the solar atmosphere. In the present paper, the equilibrium of isolated magnetic flux tube inthe solar atmosphere is discussed. In the viewpoint of mathematics, the boundary condition is nonlinearand the position of boundary needs to be determined by the physical condition although the equation ofmagnetic potential is linear for the linear force-free field. Analytical solutions to the arches of bothuniform circular cross-section and non-uniform cross section have been obtained. The results show thatthe nonlinear problem may have or not have any solution according to different azimuthal components of the magnetic field; the number of solutions to the nonlinear problem is four at most, and two in some cases. In the present paper, the analytical solutions to the approximations of both fat and slender arches are given in detail, and the general features of magnetic arch structure are shown.

The influence of fluctuation fields on the force-free field .2. The local expansion

In Paper I (Hu, 1982), we discussed the the influence of fluctuation fields on the force-free field for the case of conventional turbulence and demonstrated the general relationships. In the present paper, by using the approach of local expansion, the equation of average force-free field is obtained as (1+b)×B 0=(#x002B;a)B 0#x002B;a (1)×B 0#x002B;K. The average coefficientsa,a (1),b, andK show the influence of the fluctuation fields in small scale on the configurations of magnetic field in large scale. As the average magnetic field is no longer parallel to the average electric current, the average configurations of force-free fields are more general and complex than the usual ones. From the view point of physics, the energy and momentum of the turbulent structures should have influence on the equilibrium of the average fields. Several examples are discussed, and they show the basic features of the fluctuation fields and the influence of fluctuation fields on the average configurations of magnetic fields. The astrophysical environments are often in the turbulent state, the results of the present paper may be applied to the turbulent plasma where the magnetic field is strong.

Skill premium effects on fertility and female labor force supply

Published as an article in: Journal of Population Economics, 2004, vol. 17, issue 1, pages 1-16.

Baseline aquatic faunal survey of Avon Park Air Force Range, Florida: fishes, mollusks, and crayfishes

This report presents results of the first systematic study of the diversity and distribution of fishes and mussels in Avon Park Air Force Range (APR). We also provide information on crayfishes and aquatic snails taken during our fish and mussel sampling activities. Our surveys documented the presence of 46 species of fishes (43 native and 3 nonindigenous), 9 species of mussels (including 8 native and 1 nonindigenous species), 5 species of aquatic snails, and two crayfish species. (347 page document)