Development of a direct radioimmunoassay for serum progesterone

A direct radioimmunoassay for the measurement of progesterone in human serum is described. Progesterone 11-hemisuccinate was conjugated to tyrosine methyl ester (TME) by the mix anhydride method and then iodinated using chloramine-T. The radiochemical purity of different batches of¹²⁵I-progesterone was greater than 95% and showed 70–75% binding with excess antibody. Progesterone 11-hemisuccinate was coupled with BSA and injected to rabits. Antisera collected after three booster injections and having aK value of 1·10⁹1/M was selected for the assay. Significant reduction in binding with antibody was seen when hormone free serum was used in the assay system. Various blocking agents were tried to reduce the serum effects and none of them were found satisfactory. From a series of optimization experiments, an assay was developed without the use of blocking agents. This assay used a much higher concentration of antibody along with lower amount of serum sample (50 l). The optimized assay has a sensitivity of 0.5 nj/ml and a working range of 0.5 to 100 ng/ml. Serum samples were analyzed analysis showed good correlation between the results obtained from the present system and the DPC kit. (Y=0.93X+0.5,r=0.93, forn=25).     

Design,synthesis and characterization of peptidyl boronate analogues as effective antimicrobial agents

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Antibiotic-resistant penicillin binding protein (PBPs) production is one of the reasons why bacteria develop resistance to β-lactam antibiotics, and this...     

On the predictive ability of narrative disclosures in annual reports

We investigate whether narrative disclosures in 10-K and 10K-405 filings contain value-relevant information for predicting market performance. We apply text classification techniques from computer science to machine code text disclosures in a sample of 4280 filings by 1236 firms over five years. Our methodology develops a model using documents and actual performance for a training sample. This model, when applied to documents from a test set, leads to performance prediction. We find that a portfolio based on model predictions earns significantly positive size-adjusted returns, indicating that narrative disclosures contain value-relevant information. Supplementary analyses show that the text classification model captures information not contained in document-level features of clarity, tone and risk sentiment considered in prior research. However, we find that the narrative score is not providing information incremental to traditional predictors such as size, market-to-book and momentum, but rather affects investors’ use of price momentum as a factor that predicts excess returns.     

Compression curves of the cesium halides using murnaghan logarithmic equation

The pressure derivatives of the adiabatic bulk moduli of the cesium halides are evaluated from the pressure derivatives of their elastic constants C₁₁ and C₁₂. Murnaghan's logarithmic equation is then used to determine the compression curves of these solids. The agreement between the calculated and experimental compression-ratio values for these halides of cesium is good.     

Lattice dynamics,third order elastic constants and thermal expansion of rhenium

A systematic investigation of the lattice dynamics, second and third order elastic constants and thermal expansion has been carried out in rhenium using Keating's approach. The ten third-order elastic constants of rhenium are calculated using four anharmonic parameters. The present model reproduces the measured pressure derivatives of the second order elastic constants well. The low and high temperature limits γ̄L and γ̄H of the lattice thermal expansion are calculated. The agreement between the calculated γ̄H and that obtained by Gschneidner from the thermal expansion and specific heat data of rhenium is satisfactory.     

Thermal expansion of zirconium—II

The generalised Gruneisen parameters γ′ = ?? log ω/??′ and γ″ = ?? log ω/??″ have been calculated for various normal mode frequencies using the force model for Zirconium obtained on Keating's approach. There is a general agreement between the normalised frequency distribution curve of Zirconium obtained on the present model and that of Bezdek et al. The temperature dependence of the effective Gruneisen functions $\text{γ}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{\perp }}\text{(T)}$ and $\text{γ}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{|}}\text{(T)}$ has been calculated using the procedure of Blackman. The high temperature limits of $\text{γ}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{\perp }}\text{(T)}$, $\text{γ}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{|}}\text{(T)}$ and $\text{γ}\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{v}}$ are in good agreement with those obtained by Goldak et al. from an analysis of the thermal expansion data of Zirconium.     

Characteristics of alpha projectile fragments emission in interaction of nuclei with emulsion

The properties of the relativistic alpha fragments produced in interactions of ⁸⁴Kr at around 1 A GeV in nuclear emulsion are investigated. The experimental results are compared with the similar results obtained from various projectiles with emulsion interactions at different energies. The total, partial nuclear cross-sections and production rates of alpha fragmentation channels in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions and their dependence on the mass number and initial energy of the incident projectile nucleus are investigated. The yields of multiple alpha fragments emitted from the interactions of projectile nuclei with the nuclei of light, medium and heavy target groups of emulsion-detector are discussed and they indicate that the projectile-breakup mechanism seems to be free from the target mass number. It is found that the multiplicity distributions of alpha fragments are well described by the Koba-Nielsen-Olesen (KNO) scaling presentation. The mean multiplicities of the freshly produced or newly created charged secondary particles, normally known as shower and secondary particles associated with target in the events where the emission of alpha fragments were accompanied by heavy projectile fragments having Z ≥ 3 seem to be constant as the alpha fragments multiplicity increases, and exhibit a behavior independent of the alpha fragments multiplicity.     

Synergistic inhibition effect of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole and Tween-80 on the corrosion of brass in NaCl solution

The corrosion inhibition of brass in 0.2 M NaCl in the presence of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) and polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate (Tween-80) has been investigated using potentiodynamic polarization, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma analysis. Analysis of the results revealed that the addition of MBT and Tween-80 inhibits the corrosion of brass in 0.2 M NaCl. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements showed that MBT acts as a mixed-type inhibitor and Tween-80 as an anodic inhibitor. Corrosion inhibition occurs through adsorption of the inhibitor on brass surface without modifying the corrosion mechanism. The adsorption of MBT and Tween-80 both follow Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Potentiodynamic polarization results suggested that the mixture of MBT and Tween-80 acts as a mixed-type inhibitor. Inhibition efficiency of 79.0 and 62.5% were obtained in the presence of optimum concentration of MBT and Tween-80, respectively. The addition of the mixture of MBT and Tween-80 enhanced the inhibition efficiency to 94.0% and showed a synergism of inhibition. XPS analysis indicated that MBT adsorbed on brass surface along with Tween-80 in the presence of the mixture of MBT and Tween-80. The results of solution analysis using ICP showed that the mixture of MBT and Tween-80 effectively controlled the dezincification of brass.     

Dispersion relations and lattice thermal expansion of dysprosium

The lattice dynamics, second and third order elastic constants and the lattice thermal expansion of dysprosium have been calculated using Keating's approach. The ten third order elastic constants are calculated using four anharmonic parameters. The present model reproduces the measured pressure derivatives of the second order elastic constants of dysprosium well. The low and high temperature limits γ?_I and γ?_H of the lattice thermal expansion are evaluated and the agreement between the calculated γ?_H and that obtained from the thermal expansion and specific heat data is satisfactory.