Search results for "Multidisciplinary"

Growing range of correlated motion in a polymer melt on cooling towards the glass transition

1999

Many liquids cooled to low temperatures form glasses (amorphous solids) instead of crystals. As the glass transition is approached, molecules become localized and relaxation times increase by many orders of magnitude1. Many features of this ‘slowing down’ are reasonably well described2 by the mode-coupling theory of supercooled liquids3. The ideal form of this theory predicts a dynamical critical temperature T c at which the molecules become permanently trapped in the ‘cage’ formed by their neighbours, and vitrification occurs. Although there is no sharp transition, because molecules do eventually escape their cage, its signature can still be observed in real and simulated liquids. Unlike c…

2017

Abstract In this study, an adsorption-oriented process for the removal of fungicides from polycontaminated aqueous solutions was applied. To remove triazole fungicides from aqueous mixtures of propiconazole (PROPI), tebuconazole (TEBU), epoxiconazole (EPOXI), bromuconazole (BROMU) and difenoconazole (DIFENO), several materials used as adsorbents were compared using batch experiments, namely two conventional activated carbons (ACs) and five nonconventional cross-linked cyclodextrin (CD)-based materials (α-CDP, β-CDP, γ-CDP, αβγ-CDP mixture, and hydroxypropyl-β-CDP). This article presents the abatements obtained. As expected, ACs exhibited the highest levels of triazole fungicide removal: the…

Tyramine action on motoneuron excitability and adaptable tyramine/octopamine ratios adjust Drosophila locomotion to nutritional state

2019

Adrenergic signaling profoundly modulates animal behavior. For example, the invertebrate counterpart of norepinephrine, octopamine, and its biological precursor and functional antagonist, tyramine, adjust motor behavior to different nutritional states. In Drosophila larvae, food deprivation increases locomotor speed via octopamine-mediated structural plasticity of neuromuscular synapses, whereas tyramine reduces locomotor speed, but the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms remain unknown. We show that tyramine is released into the CNS to reduce motoneuron intrinsic excitability and responses to excitatory cholinergic input, both by tyraminehonoka receptor activation and by downstrea…

Cooperative formation of inorganic-organic interfaces in the synthesis of silicate mesostructures.

1993

A model is presented to explain the formation and morphologies of surfactant-silicate mesostructures. Three processes are identified: multidentate binding of silicate oligomers to the cationic surfactant, preferential silicate polymerization in the interface region, and charge density matching between the surfactant and the silicate. The model explains present experimental data, including the transformation between lamellar and hexagonal mesophases, and provides a guide for predicting conditions that favor the formation of lamellar, hexagonal, or cubic mesostructures. Model Q(230) proposed by Mariani and his co-workers satisfactorily fits the x-ray data collected on the cubic mesostructure …

2015

AbstractTriggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells (TREM)-1 plays an important role in innate immune responses and is upregulated under infectious as well as non-infectious conditions. In addition, a soluble TREM-1 variant (sTREM-1) is detectable in sera or bronchoalveolar-lavage fluids from patients. Currently, various studies are difficult to compare, since the methods of detection by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) vary among different research groups. In this study, we compared three different s-TREM-1 specific ELISAs and identified individual assay characteristics finding notable differences in sTREM-1 concentrations in part depending on the employed buffers. Investigati…

Comparison of the Biosynthesis of Cellulose in vitro and in vivo in Cotton Bolls

1966

THE work of Hassid et al.1–3 on the cell-free synthesis of cellulose with an enzyme system isolated from mung bean seedlings and young cotton bolls has shown that the enzyme is apparently unable to distinguish guanosine diphosphate-D-glucose from guanosine diphosphate-D-mannose. Moreover, there was a notable decrease in the amount of the synthesized cellulose using enzymes from cotton bolls older than 15 days.

Comment on “Local impermeant anions establish the neuronal chloride concentration”

2014

Glykys et al . (Reports, 7 February 2014, p. 670) proposed that cytoplasmic impermeant anions and polyanionic extracellular matrix glycoproteins establish the local neuronal intracellular chloride concentration, [Cl – ] i , and thereby the polarity of γ-aminobutyric acid type A (GABA A ) receptor signaling. The experimental procedures and results in this study are insufficient to support these conclusions. Contradictory results previously published by these authors and other laboratories are not referred to.

2013

Selective alkylation of RNA nucleotides is an important field of RNA biochemistry, e.g. in applications of fluorescent labeling or in structural probing experiments, yet detailed structure-function studies of labeling agents are rare. Here, bromomethylcoumarins as reactive compounds for fluorescent labeling of RNA are developed as an attractive scaffold on which electronic properties can be modulated by varying the substituents. Six different 4-bromomethyl-coumarins of various substitution patterns were tested for nucleotide specificity of RNA alkylation using tRNA from Escherichia coli as substrate. Using semi-quantitative LC-MS/MS analysis, reactions at mildly acidic and slightly alkaline…

Electrophoretic pattern of the polypeptide component in the tight DNA-protein complexes in rat and chicken tissues and its partial characterisation i…

2010

Electrophoretic pattern of the polypeptide component in the tight DNA-protein complexes in rat and chicken tissues and its partial characterisation in rat liverTightly bound to DNA proteins (TBP) are a protein group that remain attached to DNA with covalent or non-covalent bonds after its deproteinisation. The distribution of TBP in genes reflects the type of cell differentiation. It has been hypothesised that TBP binding is involved in regulation of gene expression. Early studies reported uniformity of the TBPs from different sources. Later it was shown that TBPs obtained from DNA, isolated in mild conditions from evolutionary distant species, are different. Application of chloroform DNA e…

Reduction of benzo(a)pyrene mutagenicity by dihydrodiol dehydrogenase

1979

THE enigma of how inert chemicals can exert potent mutagenic, carcinogenic, allergenic and cytotoxic effects has been much debated. It has been learned that such compounds are metabolically converted to chemically reactive species1. In the case of aromatic or olefinic compounds, monooxygenases located in the membranes of the cell can transform these compounds into epoxides2–5 which by virtue of electrophilic reactivity can bind chemically to cellular macromolecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins, thereby disturbing biochemical control mechanisms and leading to the above mentioned toxic effects. The same membranes in which such epoxides are produced possess an enzyme, epoxide hydratase, which…