Congresses,conferences, symposia,meetings, and seminars in the field of chemical sciences held in 1995–1996

Information

Congresses, conferences, symposia, meetings, and seminars in the field of chemical sciences held in 1995–1996     

Congresses,Conferences, Symposia,Meetings, and Seminars in the Field of Chemical Sciences held in 1995–1996

Information

Congresses, Conferences, Symposia, Meetings, and Seminars in the Field of Chemical Sciences held in 1995–1996     

Lipid bilayer disruption by polycationic polymers: the roles of size and chemical functional group

Polycationic polymers are used extensively in biology to disrupt cell membranes and thus enhance the transport of materials into the cell. The highly polydisperse nature of many of these materials makes obtaining a mechanistic understanding of the disruption processes difficult. To design an effective mechanistic study, a monodisperse class of polycationic polymers, poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers, has been studied in the context of supported dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) lipid bilayers using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Aqueous solutions of amine-terminated generation 7 (G7) PAMAM dendrimers caused the formation of 15-40-nm-diameter holes in lipid bilayers. This effect was significantly reduced for smaller G5 dendrimers. For G3, no hole formation was observed. In addition to dendrimer size, surface chemistry had a strong influence on dendrimer-lipid bilayer interactions. In particular, acetamide-terminated G5 did not cause hole formation in bilayers. In all instances, the edges of bilayer defects proved to be points of highest dendrimer activity. A proposed mechanism for the removal of lipids by dendrimers involves the formation of dendrimer-filled lipid vesicles. By considering the thermodynamics, interaction free energy, and geometry of these self-assembled vesicles, a model that explains the influence of polymer particle size and surface chemistry on the interactions with lipid membranes was developed. These results are of general significance for understanding the physical and chemical properties of polycationic polymer interactions with membranes that lead to the transport of materials across cell membranes.     

Determination of N-pesticides in natural waters

Summary Using RP-C18 material in cartridges to preconcentrate natural water samples, a number of important GC-detectable nitrogen containing pesticides can be analysed. This should be a first step to a simple monitoring of these water constituents for which a routine survey proved to be obligate in the near future.

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Bestimmung von N-Pesticiden in natürlichen Wasserproben

     

Atomic force microscopy study of early morphological changes during apoptosis

Apoptosis is defined by a distinct set of morphological changes observed during cell death including loss of focal adhesions, the formation of cell membrane buds or blebs, and a decrease in total cell volume. Recent studies suggest that these dramatic morphological changes, particularly apoptotic volume decrease (AVD), are an early prerequisite to apoptosis and precede key biochemical time-points. Here we use atomic force microscopy to observe early stage AVD of KB cells undergoing staurosporine-induced apoptosis. After a 3-h exposure to 1 microM staurosporine, a 32% decrease in total cell height and a 50% loss of total cell volume is observed accompanied by only a 15% change in cell diameter. The observed AVD precedes key biochemical hallmarks of apoptosis such as loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, phosphatidyl serine translocation, nuclear fragmentation, and measurable caspase-3 activity. This suggests that morphological volume changes occur very early in the induction of apoptosis.     

Bridging between short-range and long-range dependence with mixed spatio-temporal Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes

While short-range dependence is widely assumed in the literature for its simplicity, long-range dependence is a feature that has been observed in data from finance, hydrology, geophysics and economics. In this paper, we extend a Lévy-driven spatio-temporal Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process by randomly varying its rate parameter to model both short-range and long-range dependence. This particular set-up allows for non-separable spatio-temporal correlations which are desirable for real applications, as well as flexible spatial covariances which arise from the shapes of influence regions. Theoretical properties such as spatio-temporal stationarity and second-order moments are established. An isotropic g-class is also used to illustrate how the memory of the process is related to the probability distribution of the rate parameter. We develop a simulation algorithm for the compound Poisson case which can be used to approximate other Lévy bases. The generalized method of moments is used for inference and simulation experiments are conducted with a view towards asymptotic properties.     

Ein Farbumchlag-Indikator zur Sichtbarmachung von Strahlungsfeldern und zur Strahljustierung an Großbestrahlungsanlagen

Bei der Darstellung von Indiumoxinat aus Indiumchlorid und 8-Hydroxychinolin kann es bei Anwesenheit geringster Mengen von Schwernetallverunreinigungen (> 2 × 10^?6 g) zu einer kompetitiven Hemmung der Oxinatbildung kommen. Die dadurch erfordcrliche Erhöhung der Oxinmenge führt zu einer abnehmenden Stabilität der damit markierten Thrombozyten bzw. Leukozyten. Es wird eine optimierte Methode zur Reinigung des Indutmchlorids mittels Ionenaustauscherchromatographie beschrieben, die eine Abtrennung aller störenden Fremdionen bei einem minimalen zeitlichen und apparativen Aufwand ermöglicht.