TY - JOUR A1 - Stadler, Andreas M. A1 - Garvey, G. J. A1 - Bocahut, A. A1 - Sacquin-Mora, S. A1 - Digel, Ilya A1 - Schneider, G. J. A1 - Natali, F. A1 - Artmann, Gerhard A1 - Zaccai, G. T1 - Thermal fluctuations of haemoglobin from different species : adaptation to temperature via conformational dynamics JF - Journal of the Royal Society Interface N2 - Thermodynamic stability, configurational motions and internal forces of haemoglobin (Hb) of three endotherms (platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus; domestic chicken, Gallus gallus domesticus and human, Homo sapiens) and an ectotherm (salt water crocodile, Crocodylus porosus) were investigated using circular dichroism, incoherent elastic neutron scattering and coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations. The experimental results from Hb solutions revealed a direct correlation between protein resilience, melting temperature and average body temperature of the different species on the 0.1 ns time scale. Molecular forces appeared to be adapted to permit conformational fluctuations with a root mean square displacement close to 1.2 Å at the corresponding average body temperature of the endotherms. Strong forces within crocodile Hb maintain the amplitudes of motion within a narrow limit over the entire temperature range in which the animal lives. In fully hydrated powder samples of human and chicken, Hb mean square displacements and effective force constants on the 1 ns time scale showed no differences over the whole temperature range from 10 to 300 K, in contrast to the solution case. A complementary result of the study, therefore, is that one hydration layer is not sufficient to activate all conformational fluctuations of Hb in the pico- to nanosecond time scale which might be relevant for biological function. Coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations permitted to explore residue-specific effects. They indicated that temperature sensing of human and chicken Hb occurs mainly at residues lining internal cavities in the β-subunits. Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2012.0364 SN - 1742-5689 VL - 9 IS - 76 SP - 2845 EP - 2855 PB - The Royal Society CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nomdedeu, Mar Monsonis A1 - Willen, Christine A1 - Schieffer, Andre A1 - Arndt, Hartmut T1 - Temperature-dependent ranges of coexistence in a model of a two-prey-one-predator microbial food web JF - Marine Biology N2 - The objective of our study was to analyze the effects of temperature on the population dynamics of a three-species food web consisting of two prey bacteria (Pedobacter sp. and Acinetobacter johnsonii) and a protozoan predator (Tetrahymena pyriformis) as model organisms. We assessed the effects of temperature on the growth rates of all three species with the objective of developing a model with four differential equations based on the experimental data. The following hypotheses were tested at a theoretical level: Firstly, temperature changes can affect the dynamic behavior of a system by temperature-dependent parameters and interactions and secondly, food web response to temperature cannot be derived from the single species temperature response. The main outcome of the study is that temperature changes affect the parameter range where coexistence is possible within all three species. This has significant consequences on our ideas regarding the evaluation of effects of global warming. Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-012-1966-x SN - 1432-1793 VL - 159 IS - 11 SP - 2423 EP - 2430 PB - Springer CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kurulgan Demirci, Eylem A1 - Demirci, Taylan A1 - Linder, Peter A1 - Trzewik, Jürgen A1 - Gierkowski, Jessica Ricarda A1 - Gossmann, Matthias A1 - Kayser, Peter A1 - Porst, Dariusz A1 - Digel, Ilya A1 - Artmann, Gerhard A1 - Temiz Artmann, Aysegül T1 - rhAPC reduces the endothelial cell permeability via a decrease of contractile tensions induced by endothelial cells JF - Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering N2 - All cells generate contractile tension. This strain is crucial for mechanically controlling the cell shape, function and survival. In this study, the CellDrum technology quantifying cell's (the cellular) mechanical tension on a pico-scale was used to investigate the effect of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on human aortic endothelial cell (HAoEC) tension. The LPS effect during gram-negative sepsis on endothelial cells is cell contraction causing endothelium permeability increase. The aim was to finding out whether recombinant activated protein C (rhAPC) would reverse the endothelial cell response in an in-vitro sepsis model. In this study, the established in-vitro sepsis model was confirmed by interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels at the proteomic and genomic levels by ELISA, real time-PCR and reactive oxygen species (ROS) activation by florescence staining. The thrombin cellular contraction effect on endothelial cells was used as a positive control when the CellDrum technology was applied. Additionally, the Ras homolog gene family, member A (RhoA) mRNA expression level was checked by real time-PCR to support contractile tension results. According to contractile tension results, the mechanical predominance of actin stress fibers was a reason of the increased endothelial contractile tension leading to enhanced endothelium contractility and thus permeability enhancement. The originality of this data supports firstly the basic measurement principles of the CellDrum technology and secondly that rhAPC has a beneficial effect on sepsis influenced cellular tension. The technology presented here is promising for future high-throughput cellular tension analysis that will help identify pathological contractile tension responses of cells and prove further cell in-vitro models. KW - Cell permeability KW - Cellular force KW - Endothelial cells KW - Recombinant activated protein C KW - Lipopolysaccharide KW - Contractile tension KW - CellDrum Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiosc.2012.03.019 SN - 1347-4421 VL - 113 IS - 2 SP - 212 EP - 219 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kirchner, Patrick A1 - Oberländer, Jan A1 - Friedrich, Peter A1 - Berger, Jörg A1 - Rysstad, Gunnar A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef A1 - Keusgen, Michael T1 - Realisation of a calorimetric gas sensor on polyimide foil for applications in aseptic food industry JF - Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical N2 - A calorimetric gas sensor is presented for the monitoring of vapour-phase H2O2 at elevated temperature during sterilisation processes in aseptic food industry. The sensor was built up on a flexible polyimide foil (thickness: 25 μm) that has been chosen due to its thermal stability and low thermal conductivity. The sensor set-up consists of two temperature-sensitive platinum thin-film resistances passivated by a layer of SU-8 photo resist and catalytically activated by manganese(IV) oxide. Instead of an active heating structure, the calorimetric sensor utilises the elevated temperature of the evaporated H2O2 aerosol. In an experimental test rig, the sensor has shown a sensitivity of 4.78 °C/(%, v/v) in a H2O2 concentration range of 0%, v/v to 8%, v/v. Furthermore, the sensor possesses the same, unchanged sensor signal even at varied medium temperatures between 210 °C and 270 °C of the gas stream. At flow rates of the gas stream from 8 m3/h to 12 m3/h, the sensor has shown only a slightly reduced sensitivity at a low flow rate of 8 m3/h. The sensor characterisation demonstrates the suitability of the calorimetric gas sensor for monitoring the efficiency of industrial sterilisation processes. KW - Sterilisation process KW - Hydrogen peroxide KW - Polyimide KW - Calorimetric gas sensor Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2011.01.032 SN - 0925-4005 N1 - Part of special issue "Eurosensors XXIV, 2010" VL - 170 SP - 60 EP - 66 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gutheil, Inge A1 - Berg, Tommy A1 - Grotendorst, Johannes T1 - Performance Analysis of Parallel Eigensolvers of two Libraries on BlueGene/P JF - Journal of Mathematics and Systems Science N2 - Many applications in computational science and engineering require the computation of eigenvalues and vectors of dense symmetric or Hermitian matrices. For example, in DFT (density functional theory) calculations on modern supercomputers 10% to 30% of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of huge dense matrices have to be calculated. Therefore, performance and parallel scaling of the used eigensolvers is of upmost interest. In this article different routines of the linear algebra packages ScaLAPACK and Elemental for parallel solution of the symmetric eigenvalue problem are compared concerning their performance on the BlueGene/P supercomputer. Parameters for performance optimization are adjusted for the different data distribution methods used in the two libraries. It is found that for all test cases the new library Elemental which uses a two-dimensional element by element distribution of the matrices to the processors shows better performance than the old ScaLAPACK library which uses a block-cyclic distribution. KW - performance analysis KW - Elemental KW - ScaLAPACK KW - eigensolvers KW - Numerical linear algebra Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.17265/2159-5291/2012.04.003 SN - 2159-5291 VL - 2 IS - 4 SP - 231 EP - 236 PB - David Publishing CY - Libertyville ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iken, Heiko A1 - Kirsanov, D. A1 - Legin, A. A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Novel Thin-Film Polymeric Materials for the Detection of Heavy Metals JF - Procedia Engineering N2 - A variety of transition metals, e.g., copper, zinc, cadmium, lead, etc. are widely used in industry as components for wires, coatings, alloys, batteries, paints and so on. The inevitable presence of transition metals in industrial processes implies the ambition of developing a proper analytical technique for their adequate monitoring. Most of these elements, especially lead and cadmium, are acutely toxic for biological organisms. Quantitative determination of these metals at low activity levels in different environmental and industrial samples is therefore a vital task. A promising approach to achieve an at-side or on-line monitoring on a miniaturized and cost efficient way is the combination of a common potentiometric sensor array with heavy metal-sensitive thin-film materials, like chalcogenide glasses and polymeric materials, respectively. Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2012.09.148 SN - 1877-7058 N1 - Part of special issue "26th European Conference on Solid-State Transducers, EUROSENSOR 2012" IS - 47 SP - 322 EP - 325 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Staat, Manfred A1 - Trenz, Eva A1 - Lohmann, Philipp A1 - Frotscher, Ralf A1 - Klinge, Uwe A1 - Tabaza, Ruth A1 - Kirschner-Hermanns, Ruth T1 - New measurements to compare soft tissue anchoring systems in pelvic floor surgery JF - Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials N2 - Suburethral slings as well as different meshes are widely used treating stress urinary incontinence and prolaps in women. With the development of MiniSlings and special meshes using less alloplastic material anchorage systems become more important to keep devices in place and to put some tension especially on the MiniSlings. To date, there are many different systems of MiniSlings of different companies on the market which differ in the structure of the used meshes and anchors. A new objective measurement method to compare different properties of MiniSling systems (mesh and anchor) is presented in this article. Ballistic gelatine acts as soft tissue surrogate. Significant differences in parameters like pull-out strength of anchors or shrinkage of meshes under loading conditions have been determined. The form and size of the anchors as well as the structural stability of the meshes are decisive for a proper integration. The tested anchorings sytems showed markedly different mechanical function at their respective load bearing capacity. As the stable fixation of the device in tissue is a prerequisite for a permanet reinforcement, the proposed test system permits further optimisation of anchor and mesh devices to improve the success of the surgical treatment Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jbm.b.32654 SN - 1552-4981 VL - 100B IS - 4 SP - 924 EP - 933 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken, NJ ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bohrn, U. A1 - Stütz, E. A1 - Fuchs, K. A1 - Fleischer, M. A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef A1 - Wagner, P. T1 - Monitoring of irritant gas using a whole-cell-based sensor system JF - Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical N2 - Cell-based sensors for the detection of gases have long been underrepresented, due to the cellular requirement of being cultured in a liquid environment. In this work we established a cell-based gas biosensor for the detection of toxic substances in air, by adapting a commercial sensor chip (Bionas®), previously used for the measurement of pollutants in liquids. Cells of the respiratory tract (A549, RPMI 2650, V79), which survive at a gas phase in a natural context, are used as biological receptors. The physiological cell parameters acidification, respiration and morphology are continuously monitored in parallel. Ammonia was used as a highly water-soluble model gas to test the feasibility of the sensor system. Infrared measurements confirmed the sufficiency of the medium draining method. This sensor system provides a basis for many sensor applications such as environmental monitoring, building technology and public security. Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2012.05.088 SN - 0925-4005 VL - 175 SP - 208 EP - 217 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Miyamoto, Ko-ichiro A1 - Kaneko, Kazumi A1 - Matsuo, Akira A1 - Wagner, Torsten A1 - Kanoh, Shiníchiro A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef A1 - Yoshinobu, Tatsuo T1 - Miniaturized chemical imaging sensor system using an OLED display panel JF - Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical N2 - The chemical imaging sensor is a semiconductor-based chemical sensor that can visualize the two-dimensional distribution of specific ions or molecules in the solution. In this study, we developed a miniaturized chemical imaging sensor system with an OLED display panel as a light source that scans the sensor plate. In the proposed configuration, the display panel is placed directly below the sensor plate and illuminates the back surface. The measured area defined by illumination can be arbitrarily customized to fit the size and the shape of the sample to be measured. The waveform of the generated photocurrent, the current–voltage characteristics and the pH sensitivity were investigated and pH imaging with this miniaturized system was demonstrated. KW - LAPS KW - Light-addressable potentiometric sensor KW - Chemical imaging sensor KW - Organic light-emitting diode display Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2011.02.029 SN - 0925-4005 N1 - Part of special issue "Eurosensors XXIV, 2010" VL - 170 SP - 82 EP - 87 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bäcker, Matthias A1 - Raue, Markus A1 - Schusser, Sebastian A1 - Jeitner, C. A1 - Breuer, L. A1 - Wagner, P. A1 - Poghossian, Arshak A1 - Förster, Arnold A1 - Mang, Thomas A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Microfluidic chip with integrated microvalves based on temperature- and pH-responsive hydrogel thin films JF - Physica Status Solidi (a) N2 - Two types of microvalves based on temperature-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and pH-responsive poly(sodium acrylate) (PSA) hydrogel films have been developed and tested. The PNIPAAm and PSA hydrogel films were prepared by means of in situ photopolymerization directly inside the fluidic channel of a microfluidic chip fabricated by combining Si and SU-8 technologies. The swelling/shrinking properties and height changes of the PNIPAAm and PSA films inside the fluidic channel were studied at temperatures of deionized water from 14 to 36 °C and different pH values (pH 3–12) of Titrisol buffer, respectively. Additionally, in separate experiments, the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the PNIPAAm hydrogel was investigated by means of a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) method. Mass-flow measurements have shown the feasibility of the prepared hydrogel films to work as an on-chip integrated temperature- or pH-responsive microvalve capable to switch the flow channel on/off. Y1 - 2012 U6 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201100763 SN - 1862-6319 VL - 209 IS - 5 SP - 839 EP - 845 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -