Search results for "Concentration."

Response of yeast cells to high glucose involves molecular and physiological differences when compared to other osmostress conditions.

2015

Yeast cells can be affected by several causes of osmotic stress, such as high salt, sorbitol or glucose concentrations. The last condition is particularly interesting during natural processes where this microorganism participates. Response to osmostress requires the HOG (High Osmolarity Glycerol) pathway and several transcription factors, including Hot1, which plays a key role in high glucose concentrations. In this work, we describe how the yeast response to osmotic stress shows differences in accordance with the stress agent responsible for it. Compared with other conditions, under high glucose stress, delocalization of MAPK (Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase) Hog1 is slower, induction of …

Ion-exchange fibers and drugs: an equilibrium study

2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate the mechanisms of drug binding into and drug release from cation-exchange fibers in vitro under equilibrium conditions. Ion-exchange groups of the fibers were weakly drug binding carboxylic acid groups (-COOH), strongly drug binding sulphonic acid groups (-SO(3)H), or combinations thereof. Parameters determining the drug absorption and drug release properties of the fibers were: (i) the lipophilicity of the drug (tacrine and propranolol are lipophilic compounds, nadolol is a relatively hydrophilic molecule), (ii) the ion-exchange capacity of the fibers, which was increased by activating the cation-exchange groups with NaOH, (iii) the ionic streng…

Physiological HEPES Buffer Proposed as a Calibrator for pH Measurement in Human Blood

1999

Abstract N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-piperazine-N'-2-ethanesulfonic acid, known as HEPES buffer, with p K in the physiological range was studied for use as an alternative to conventional phosphate buffer for the calibration of pH in modern clinical analyzers. In different series of aqueous equimolar HEPES buffer, pH was measured at 37 °C with a capillary glass electrode standardized previously using phosphate, and variations due to changes in total HEPES buffer concentration (0.025 to 0.320 mol/l), and NaCl (0 to 0.250 mol/l) were monitored. For 0.05 equimolar HEPES buffer without NaCl, the pH of 7.362 ± 0.003 (n = 15) obtained coincided well with the reference pH (7.364) from the National Institute…

Comparison of adsorption equilibrium models and error functions for the study of sulfate removal by calcium hydroxyapatite microfibrillated cellulose…

2017

In the present study, the adsorption of sulfates of sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) by calcium hydroxyapatite-modified microfibrillated cellulose was studied in the aqueous solution. The adsorbent was characterized using elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared, scanning electron microscope and elemental analysis in order to gain the information on its structure and physico-chemical properties. The adsorption studies were conducted in batch mode. The effects of solution pH, contact time, the initial concentration of sulfate and the effect of competing anions were studied on the performance of synthesized adsorbent for sulfate removal. Adsorption kinetics indica…

Mechanisms of endothelial cell swelling from lactacidosis studied in vitro

2000

One of the early sequelae of ischemia is an increase of circulating lactic acid that occurs in response to anaerobic metabolism. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether lactic acidosis can induce endothelial swelling in vitro under closely controlled extracellular conditions. Cell volume of suspended cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells was measured by use of an advanced Coulter technique employing the “pulse area analysis” signal-processing technique (CASY1). The isosmotic reduction of pH from 7.4 to 6.8 had no effect on cell volume. Lowering of pH to 6.6, 6.4, or 6.0, however, led to significant, pH-dependent increases of cell volume. Swelling was more pronounced …

Flow cytometric kinetic assay of the activity of Na+/H+ antiporter in mammalian cells.

2004

Background The Na+/H+ exchanger (NHE) of mammalian cells is an integral membrane protein that extrudes H+ ion in exchange for extracellular Na+ and plays a crucial role in the regulation of intracellular pH (pHi). Thus, when pHi is lowered, NHE extrudes protons at a rate depending of pHi that can be expressed as pH units/s. Methods To abolish the activity of other cellular pH-restoring systems, cells were incubated in bicarbonate-free Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium buffered with HEPES. Flow cytometry was used to determine pHi with 2′,7′-bis-(2-carboxyethyl)-5-(and-6)-carboxyfluorescein acetoxymethyl ester or 5-(and-6)-carboxy SNARF-1 acetoxymethyl ester acetate, and the appropriate fluo…

Testing assumptions and procedures to empirically predict bare plot soil loss in a Mediterranean environment

2014

Empirical prediction of soil erosion has both scientific and practical importance. This investigation tested USLE and USLE-based procedures to predict bare plot soil loss at the Sparacia area, in Sicily. Event soil loss per unit area, Ae, did not vary appreciably with plot length, λ, because the decrease in runoff with λ was offset by an increase in sediment concentration. Slope steepness, s, had a positive effective on Ae, and this result was associated with a runoff coefficient that did not vary appreciably with s and a sediment concentration generally increasing with s. Plot steepness did not have a statistically detectable effect on the calculations of the soil erodibility factor of bot…

Banking in Spain

2016

This chapter aims to explore recent developments in the Spanish banking industry and the measures adopted in recent years to correct the imbalances that built up during the expansion, in order to give an up-to-date picture of the sector in the international context. To this end, the chapter is divided into four sections. The section following the Introduction examines the importance of the banking sector in the Spanish economy using various indicators of banking penetration. The next section, “Characteristics of the Spanish Banking Sector: Recent Trends”, looks at key features of the banking sector and its evolution in terms of a range of measures, including margins, profitability, efficien…

Network-Based Computational Techniques to Determine the Risk Drivers of Bank Failures During a Systemic Banking Crisis

2018

This paper employs a computational model of solvency and liquidity contagion assessing the vulnerability of banks to systemic risk. We find that the main risk drivers relate to the financial connections a bank has and the market concentration, apart from the size of the bank triggering the contagion, while balance sheets play only a minor role. We also find that market concentration might facilitate banks to withstand liquidity shocks better while exposing them to larger solvency chocks. Our results are validated through an out-of-sample forecasting that shows that both type I and type II prediction errors are reduced if we include network characteristics in our prediction model.

1992

2H spin relaxation times, T1 and T2 and solid echo line shapes were investigated in 2-propanol (2-POH) solutions of poly(butyl methacrylate) (PBMA) in a wide concentration and temperature range, covering the solution, gel and glass states. From the results in deuterated 2-POH-d6 we found that the polymer influence upon solvent mobility is largely suppressed in the gel and glass states in contrast to normal polymer solutions where below the glass transition an increasing amount of solvent slows down with decreasing temperature. From 2H NMR of deuterated butyl side groups in the PBMA-d9/2-POH system we found that the side group motion is anisotropic and largely independent of solvent concentr…