Peroxynitrite decomposition catalyst prevents apoptotic cell death in a human astrocytoma cell line incubated with supernatants of HIV-infected macrophages

Background  

Oxidative stress has shown to contribute in the mechanisms underlying apoptotic cell death occuring in AIDS-dementia complex. Here we investigated the role of peroxynitrite in apoptosis occurring in astroglial cells incubated with supernatants of HIV-infected human primary macrophages (M/M).     

Three-dimensional image fusion by use of multiwavelength digital holography

We present three-dimensional (3D) image fusion by use of digital holography. We demonstrate experimentally that, through the image fusion technique with multiresolution wavelet decomposition, it is possible to increase the details and contrast of 3D reconstructed images obtained by multiwavelength digital holography. Although there is substantial activity in the fields of image fusion and holography, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of 3D image fusion by use of digital holography.     

Electronic nose screening of limonene release from multicomponent essential oils encapsulated in pectin gels

Multicomponent essential oils Tagetes Minuta and Poleo as well as pure limonene were encapsulated in Tween doped-high methoxylated pectin gels. Optical microscopy reveals that the obtained gels containing limonene consisted in a highly heterogeneous oil-in-water emulsion stabilised by the gelled medium. The influence of limonene encapsulation in pectin gelation kinetics and the gel structural properties were followed by dynamic rheological measurements. An electronic nose device developed in our laboratory was used to follow the flavour release of the three systems in order to discriminate the samples according to the main components released to the headspace. PCA and Neural Network Analysis allowed us to discriminate Tagetes Minuta from Poleo due to the difference in their limonene content. It is remarkable that the fingerprints of encapsulated complex mixtures differ from those obtained for the non-encapsulated oils, showing a preferential release of some components. In the case of limonene, the effect of the encapsulated concentration on the detected odour was also studied.     

Elliptic Equations with Degenerate Coercivity： Gradient Regularity

In this paper, we prove higher integrability results for the gradient of the solutions of some elliptic equations with degenerate coercivity whose prototype is where for example, a(x,u)=(1+|u|)^−θ with θ ∈ (0,1). We study the same problem for minima of functionals closely related to the previous equation.     

Femtosecond laser-induced damage of gold films

Single- and multi-shot ablation thresholds of gold films in the thickness range of 31-1400 nm were determined employing a Ti:sapphire laser delivering pulses of 28 fs duration, 793 nm center wavelength at 1 kHz repetition rate. The gold layers were deposited on BK7 glass by an electron beam evaporation process and characterized by atomic force microscopy and ellipsometry. A linear dependence of the ablation threshold fluence F_th on the layer thickness d was found for d ≤ 180 nm. If a film thickness of about 180 nm was reached, the damage threshold remained constant at its bulk value. For different numbers of pulses per spot (N-on-1), bulk damage thresholds of ∼0.7 J cm⁻² (1-on-1), 0.5 J cm⁻² (10-on-1), 0.4 J cm⁻² (100-on-1), 0.25 J cm⁻² (1000-on-1), and 0.2 J cm⁻² (10000-on-1) were obtained experimentally indicating an incubation behavior. A characteristic layer thickness of L_c ≈ 180 nm can be defined which is a measure for the heat penetration depth within the electron gas before electron-phonon relaxation occurs. L_c is by more than an order of magnitude larger than the optical absorption length of α⁻¹ ≈ 12 nm at 793 nm wavelength.     

The Use of an 8X Beam Condenser with the Beckman IR-11 and IR-12

A new 8X beam condenser has been designed by the Beckman Instruments, Inc., for use with the supersize IR-11 and IR-12. This letter will report on results obtained with this accessory.     

Economy of proficiency testing: reference versus consensus values

Many proficiency tests are operated with a consensus value derived from the participants’ results. Apart from technical issues, one of the reasons often mentioned is that proficiency tests operated with consensus values would be cheaper than those using reference values obtained from a priori characterisation measurements. The economy of a proficiency test must of course be balanced by the need of the participants, and the quality of the comparison in general. The proficiency tests selected in this study had both a reference value and a consensus value, one of which was used for assessing the performance of the participating laboratories. In this work, both a technical and an economical assessment of how the comparisons were operated is made. From the evaluation, it follows that usually the use of consensus values does not necessarily reduce the costs of a proficiency test. However, frequently it may be observed that the quality of the assessment of the laboratories is better with a reference value. Received: 11 October 2000 Accepted: 3 January 2001