Dynamic contact angle and spreading rate measurements for the characterization of the effect of dentin surface treatments

A new methodology capable of providing reliable and reproducible contact angle (theta) data has been employed to study the effect of clinical treatments grinding, acid etching, and deproteinization on medial dentin tissue. It is based on the application of the ADSA-CD algorithm to the determination of low-rate dynamic contact angles, obtained from slowly growing drops, and on contact angle measurement, as well as spreading behavior analysis, during the relaxation of the system (water on treated dentin) after initial drop growth. The theta data obtained were substantially more reproducible than those obtained with classical methods. A net effect of the treatment on theta was found, increasing dentin wettability: theta (polished) >theta (etched) >theta (deproteinized). The spreading rates correlate with the angles and are adequate for the dentin surface characterization. ANOVA and SNK tests show that for advancing contact angles the means corresponding to all treatments are significantly different. In the relaxing phase, mean angle and spreading rates on polished dentin differ significantly from those on etched and deproteinized dentin, but the latter do not differ significantly from each other.     

Studying lateral diffusion in lipid bilayers by combining a magic angle spinning NMR probe with a microimaging gradient system

An alternative technique for studying the lateral diffusion in lipid membranes using pulsed field gradients in combination with magic angle spinning is presented. It is shown that MAS probes inserted in a microimaging device that produce high field gradients can be used to monitor also slow diffusion processes. As an example, measurements of the lateral diffusion of lipids embedded in the bilayer of a cubic phase are presented.     

1H detection in MAS solid-state NMR spectroscopy of biomacromolecules employing pulsed field gradients for residual solvent suppression

In this communication, we demonstrate the feasibility of 1H detection in MAS solid-state NMR for a microcrystalline, uniformly 2H,15N-labeled sample of a SH3 domain of chicken alpha-spectrin, using pulsed field gradients for suppression of water magnetization. Today, B0 gradients are employed routinely in solution-state NMR for coherence order selection and solvent suppression. We suggest to use gradients to purge water magnetization which cannot be suppressed using conventional water suppression schemes. The achievable gain in sensitivity for 1H detection is in the order of 5 compared to the 15N detected version of the experiment (at a MAS rotation frequency of 13.5 kHz). We expect that this labeling concept which achieves high sensitivity due to 1H detection, in combination with the possibility to measure long range 1H-1H distances as we have shown previously, to be a useful tool for the determination of protein structures in the solid state.     

Reactive scattering of sodium clusters with molecular oxygen

The first reactive differential scattering study for atomic clusters is reported. Oxidation of Na _x (x8) with O₂ is investigated in a crossed beam apparatus. Sodium oxide (Na _n O,n4) and sodium dioxide (Na _n O₂,n6) are produced with a total reactive cross section from 50 to 80 Ų, depending on the cluster size. The excess energies for these reactions are estimated by an SCF type ab initio calculation and range from 0.5 to 5 eV. The large cross section may then be understood quantitatively in terms of a harpooning mechanism as a first step in the reaction path. Angular distributions have been determined for the most abundant products, showing strong forward scattering. Two different schemes are discussed for the reaction: while the dioxides Na _n O₂ may be formed by an evaporative cooling process from a highly excited collision complex, formation of Na _n O appears to originate from a direct process. In both cases the experimental data suggest that most of the exothermicity remains in the reaction products.     

LP-Abschätzungen und klassische Lösungen für nichtlineare Wellengleichungen II

This paper deals with the global classical solvability of the Cauchy problem for nonlinear wave equations of higher order of the following form where denotes the Laplacian, a real constant, m a positive integer, and f the nonlinearity. Using results of the first part [6] concerning estimations for the kernel of the associated integral equation a priori estimates for certain L^P-norms of the local regular solution are established for higher space dimensions and for a class of nonlinearities satisfying certain growth and positivity conditions. This leads to completely regular solutions by means of the Sobolev embedding theorems.     

ON THE ACRIDINE AND THIAZINE DYE SENSITIZED PHOTODYNAMIC INACTIVATION OF LYSOZYME—SINGLET OXYGEN SELF-QUENCHING BY THE SENSITIZERS

Abstract— The quantum yield of the photodynamic inactivation of lysozyme increases in the sequence acridine orange, methylene blue, proflavine and acriflavine (1:5:6:12). At least up to protein concentrations of 0.1 m M , singlet oxygen is exclusively responsible for the inactivation of the enzyme. For methylene blue, acriflavine and proflavine the quantum yields decrease considerably with increasing dye concentrations. From measurements in H₂O and D₂O buffer solutions it was concluded that in the case of methylene blue the effect is mainly caused by the quenching of singlet oxygen [rate constant (3–4) × 10⁸ M ⁻¹ s⁻¹]. For the acridine sensitizers both singlet oxygen and dye triplet quenching processes have to be taken into consideration. It has been found that all sensitizers act as competitive inhibitors of the enzymatic reaction of lysozyme. However, the dye-protein interaction near the active center cannot be responsible for the observed dye self-quenching effect.