High resolution protein separations using affinity ultrafiltration with small charged ligands

Although the feasibility of affinity ultrafiltration was demonstrated more than 20 years ago, commercial applications have not developed due to the high cost and practical limitations of the large macroligands needed for highly selective separations. The objective of this study was to examine the use of small charged affinity ligands for protein purification by exploiting electrostatic interactions between the charged complex and an electrically-charged membrane. Experiments were performed using bovine serum albumin and ovalbumin with Cibacron Blue as the affinity ligand. Negatively charged versions of a composite regenerated cellulose membrane were generated by covalent attachment of a sulfonic acid functionality. Binding experiments were used to identify appropriate conditions for protein separations. The selectivity for the separation of BSA and ovalbumin was a function of the solution conditions, Cibacron Blue concentration, and membrane charge, with the addition of Cibacron Blue causing a 30-fold increase in selectivity. A diafiltration process was performed at the optimal conditions, giving a BSA product with a purification factor of more than 90-fold and a yield greater than 90%. These results clearly demonstrate the potential of using a small charged affinity ligand for high resolution protein separations.     

Effect of electrostatic, hydrodynamic, and Brownian forces on particle trajectories and sieving in normal flow filtration

Particle deposition and fouling are critical factors governing the performance of microfiltration and ultrafiltration systems. Particle trajectories were evaluated by numerical integration of the Langevin equation, accounting for the combined effects of electrostatic repulsion, enhanced hydrodynamic drag, and Brownian diffusion. In the absence of Brownian forces, particles are unable to enter the membrane pores unless the drag associated with the filtration velocity can overcome the electrostatic repulsion. Brownian forces significantly alter this behavior, allowing some particles to enter the pore even at low filtration velocities. The average particle transmission, evaluated from the probability of having a particle enter the pore, increases with increasing filtration velocity due to the greater hydrodynamic drag force on the particle. These results provide important insights into particle behavior in membrane systems.     

On the Rayleigh-Plateau instability

In this paper,we study the surface instability of a cylindrical pore in the absence of stress. This instability is called the Rayleigh-Plateau instabilty. We consider the model developed by Spencer et ...     

Synthesis,Antibacterial, and Antioxidant Evaluation of Novel Series of Condensed Thiazoloquinazoline with Pyrido,Pyrano, and Benzol Moieties as Five- and Six-Membered Heterocycle Derivatives

A novel synthesis of thiazolo[2,3-b]quinazolines 4(a–e), pyrido[2′,3′:4,5]thiazolo[2,3-b]quinazolines {5(a–e), 6(a–e), and 7(a–e)}, pyrano[2′,3′:4,5]thiazolo[2,3-b]quinazolines 8(a–e), and benzo[4,5]thiazolo[2,3-b]quinazoloine9(a–e) derivatives starting from 2-(Bis-methylsulfanyl-methylene)-5,5-dimethyl-cyclohexane-1,3-dione 2 as efficient α,α dioxoketen dithioacetal is reported and the synthetic approaches of these types of compounds will provide an innovative molecular framework to the designing of new active heterocyclic compounds. In our study, we also present optimization of the synthetic method along with a biological evaluation of these newly synthesized compounds as antioxidants and antibacterial agents against the bacterial strains, like S. aureus, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa. Among all the evaluated compounds, it was found that some showed significant antioxidant activity at 10 μg/mL while the others exhibited better antibacterial activity at 100 μg/mL. The results of this study showed that compound 6(c) possessed remarkable antibacterial activity, whereas compound 9(c) exhibited the highest efficacy as an antioxidant. The structures of the new synthetic compounds were elucidated by elemental analysis, IR, ¹H-NMR, and ¹³C-NMR.     

Novel microscopic mechanism of intermixing during growth on soft metallic substrates

Generic computer simulations using empiric interatomic potentials suggest a new, collective mechanism that could be responsible for mixing at heteroepitaxial interfaces. Even if single adsorbate atoms diffuse by hopping on the substrate surface and do not mix at the terraces, two-dimensional islands formed by nucleation may become unstable above a certain critical size and explode upwards forming clusters of several atomic layers. This process is accompanied by strong distortions of the underlying atomic layers, and on soft materials it can result in surface etching and incorporation of substrate atoms into the islands.     

Examination of Template Structural Effects on CEC Chiral Separation Performance of Molecule Imprinted Polymers Made by a Generalized Preparation Protocol

Some acidic chiral templates were used to prepare open tubular (OT) molecule imprinted polymer (MIP) capillary columns to explore the effects of molecular structures of templates on chiral recognition capabilities and to verify the feasibility of the general MIP preparation protocol introduced in the previous study. The templates are phenyl carboxylic acids and their derivatives. Optimization was carried out for chiral separation of template enantiomers for each MIP column through varying pH and composition of eluent. It was found that the preparation protocol can be successfully applied for the appropriate templates with functional groups fulfilling the three-points interaction rule. The chiral separation performances were quite satisfactory for MIPs of such templates although they are yet inferior to the separation performances of the MIP columns fabricated with the templates of profen drugs (2-arylpropionic acids with a large substituent on the phenyl ring). Subtle variations of the template molecular structures have been found to be critical to enhance chiral recognition ability of the resultant MIP column.     

An Identification Problem for First-Order Degenerate Differential Equations

We study a first-order identification problem in a Banach space. We discuss the nondegenerate and mainly the degenerate case. As a first step, suitable hypotheses on the involved closed linear operators are made in order to obtain unique solvability after reduction to a nondegenerate case; the general case is then handled with the help of new results on convolutions. Some applications to partial differential equations motivate this abstract approach.Communicated by I. GalliganiWork partially supported by MIUR (Ministero dell’ Istruzione, dell’ Università e dalla Ricerca), Project PRIN 2004011204 “Analisi Matematica nei Problemi Inversi,” and by the University of Bologna Funds for Selected Research Topics.