Transportation container for pre-processing cytogenetic assays in radiation accidents

We report a shipping container that enables a disruptive logistics for cytogenetic biodosimetry for radiation countermeasures through pre-processing cell culture during transportation. The container showed precise temperature control (< 0.01 °C) with uniform sample temperature (< 0.1 °C) to meet the biodosimetry assay requirements. Using an existing insulated shipping box and long shelf life alkaline batteries makes it ideal for national stockpile. Dose curve of cytogenetic biodosimetry assay using the shipping container showed clear dose response and high linear correlation with the control dose curve using a laboratory incubator (Pearson’s correlation coefficient: 0.992). The container’s ability of pre-processing biological samples during transportation could have a significant impact on radiation countermeasure, as well as potential impacts in other applications such as biobanking, novel molecular or cell-based assays or therapies.

Monitoring System for Laboratory Mice Transportation: A Novel Concept for the Measurement of Physiological and Environmental Parameters

Laboratory mice are used in biomedical research as “models” for studying human disease. These mice may be subject to significant levels of stress during transportation that can cause alterations that could negatively affect the results of the performed investigation. Here, we present the design and realization of a prototypical transportation container for laboratory mice, which may contribute to improved laboratory animal welfare. This prototype incorporates electric potential integrated circuit (EPIC) sensors, which have been shown to allow the recording of physiological parameters (heart rate and breathing rate) and other sensors for recording environmental parameters during mouse transportation. This allows for the estimation of the stress levels suffered by mice. First experimental results for capturing physiological and environmental parameters are shown and discussed.

Improvement of Exchanging Method of Neutron Startup Source of High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor

In the HTTR, 252Cf is loaded in the reactor core as a neutron startup source and changed at the frequency. In this exchange work, there were two technical issues; slightly higher radiation exposure of workers by neutron leakage and reliability of neutron source transportation container in handling. To reduce the radiation dose by the neutron leakage, detailed numerical evaluations using PHITS code were carried out, the effective shielding method for fuel handling machine was proposed. Easily removable poly-ethylene blocks and particles were used as the neutron shieling, and installed in the cooling paths of the fuel handling machine. As a result, the collective effective dose by neutron was reduced from about 700man-μSv to about 300man-μSv. As to the neutron source transportation container, the handling performance was improved and the handling work was safely accomplished by downsizing.

Ethylene induces soil microbes to delay fruit ripening

The consumer demand for fresh fruits and vegetables increases every year, and farmers need a low cost novel method to reduce post-harvest loss and preserve the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables. This study identifies a method to induce soil bacteria to biosynthesize a nitrile compound that potentially enters the plants tissue and negatively affects climacteric ripening and delays the ripening process at 20-30˚C. This study used soil rich with soil microbes, to delay the ripening of climacteric fruit. The soil was treated with nitrogen, a heavy metal, and ethylene gas. Ethylene induced the soil to delay the ripening of organic bananas and peaches. A prototype transportation container maintained fruit fresh for up to 72 h at 20-30˚C. The fruit retained color, firmness, texture, no bruising and minimal spotting. The soil also prevented fungal infection in all samples. GC-MS analysis suggests ethylene induced the soil microbes to release an acetonitrile compound into the gaseous environment. The nitrile is released in low concentrations, but mature plants (fruits) contain very low levels of indole-3-acetonitrile (IAN) or indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). The nitrile may obstruct or modify the mature plants (fruit) late stages development process, thus delay the climacteric ripening process and retarding the physiological and phenotypic effects of fruit ripening. We believe this study may have strong applications for post-harvest biotechnology.

Study of Container Transport Planning Model and Algorithm

The Container transport has rapidly developed into a modern means of transportation because of their significant advantages. With the development, it also exacerbated the flaws of transport in the original. One of the most important problems was that the invalid transport had not still reduced due to the congenital imbalances of transportation. Container transport exacerbated the invalid transport for the empty containers. To solve the problem, people made many efforts, but they did not make much progress. There had two theoretical flaws by analyzing the previous management methods in container transport. The first one was the default empty containers inevitability. The second one was that they did not overall consider how to solve the problem of empty containers allocation. In order to solve the unreasonable transportation’s problem, and overcome the traditional models’ two shortcomings, the article re-built the container transport planning model—gravity model. It gave the general algorithm and has analyzed the final result of model.