Monitoring of the Proton Electrochemical Gradient in Reconstituted Vesicles: Quantitative Measurements of Both Transmembrane Potential and Intravesicular pH by Ratiometric Fluorescent Probes

Proteoliposomes carrying reconstituted yeast plasma membrane H⁺-ATPase in their lipid membrane or plasma membrane vesicles are model systems convenient for studying basic electrochemical processes involved in formation of the proton electrochemical gradient (Δμ_H ⁺) across the microbial or plant cell membrane. Δψ- and pH-sensitive fluorescent probes were used to monitor the gradients formed between inner and outer volume of the reconstituted vesicles. The Δψ-sensitive fluorescent ratiometric probe oxonol VI is suitable for quantitative measurements of inside-positive Δψ generated by the reconstituted H⁺-ATPase. Its Δψ response can be calibrated by the K⁺/valinomycin method and ratiometric mode of fluorescence measurements reduces undesirable artefacts. In situ pH-sensitive fluorescent probe pyranine was used for quantitative measurements of pH inside the proteoliposomes. Calibration of pH-sensitive fluorescence response of pyranine entrapped inside proteoliposomes was performed with several ionophores combined in order to deplete the gradients passively formed across the membrane. Presented model system offers a suitable tool for simultaneous monitoring of both components of the proton electrochemical gradient, Δψ and ΔpH. This approach should help in further understanding how their formation is interconnected on biomembranes and even how transport of other ions is combined to it.     

A macroscopic model for an intermediate state between type‐I and type‐II superconductivity

A vectorial nonlocal and nonlinear parabolic problem on a bounded domain for an intermediate state between type‐I and type‐II superconductivity is proposed. The domain is for instance a multiband superconductor that combines the characteristics of both types. The nonlocal term is represented by a (space) convolution with a singular kernel arising in Eringen's model. The nonlinearity is coming from the power law relation by Rhyner. The well‐posedness of the problem is discussed under low regularity assumptions and the error estimate for a semi‐implicit time‐discrete scheme based on backward Euler approximation is established. In the proofs, the monotonicity methods and the Minty–Browder argument are used. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1551–1567, 2015     

5-Bromo- and 3,5-dibromo-2-hydroxy-N-phenylbenzamides — inhibitors of photosynthesis

5-Bromo-(Br-PBA) and 3,5-dibromo-2-hydroxy-N-phenylbenzamides (Br₂-PBA) inhibited photosynthetic electron transport (PET) and their inhibitory efficiency depended on the compound lipophilicity as well as on the electronic properties of the R substituent in the N-phenyl moiety. Br-PBA showed higher PET inhibiting activity than Br₂-PBA with the same R substituent. The most effective inhibitors in the tested series were the derivatives with R = 3-F (Br-PBA; IC₅₀ = 4.3 μmol dm^?3) and R = 3-Cl (Br₂-PBA; IC₅₀ = 8.6 μmol dm^?3). Bilinear dependence of the PET inhibiting activity on the lipophilicity of the compounds as well as on the Hammett constant, σ, of the R substituent was observed for both investigated series. Using EPR spectroscopy it was found that the site of action of the tested compounds in the photosynthetic apparatus is situated on the donor side of PS 2, in D^· or in the Z^·/D^· intermediates. Interaction of the studied compounds with chlorophyll a and aromatic amino acids present in the pigment-protein complexes mainly in photosystem 2 was documented by fluorescence spectroscopy.     

Abietane Diterpenes of the Genus Plectranthus sensu lato

Plectranthus (Lamiaceae), which—according to the latest systematic revision—includes three separate genera (Coleus, Plectranthus sensu stricto, and Equilabium), is a genus widely used in traditional medicine—mainly in the treatment of various ailments of the digestive tract, respiratory tract, and skin. Many species of Plectranthus s.l. have been shown to produce phenolic compounds and terpenes. Diterpenes, especially those of the abietane class, are the most studied group of secondary metabolites found in Plectranthus s.l., which is characterized by a significant structural diversity arising from the oxygenation and further rearrangement of the basic tricyclic abietane skeleton to a complete aromatization of the ring system. This review summarizes the known information on abietane diterpenes, showing their structures, sources, and biosynthesis. A classification of these compounds into nine groups, according to the arrangement of their ring C, is used. Royleanones, spirocoleons, and hydroquinones are the largest classes of abietane diterpenes, covering more than 70% of all the compounds reviewed.     

Fast electrophoretic separation of sulfur- and selenium-containig amino acid enantiomers with vancomycin as a chiral selector in coated capillaries

Baseline separation of the enantiomers of the negatively charged 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate (AQC) derivatives of cystine, methionine, ethionine, and their seleno analogs can be achieved in 3–5 min with capillary electrophoresis in polyacrylamide coated capillaries and submillimolar concentrations of vancomycin as the chiral selector. In addition to the vancomycin concentration, the separation is affected by the type, concentration and pH of the buffer. Good buffers are more suitable than phosphate buffer. At pH values above the isoelectric point of vancomycin the mobility difference between the enantiomers becomes smaller. This effect is larger than would be expected from the reversal of the vancomycin migration alone.     

The sound velocity in ideal liquid mixtures from thermal volume fluctuations.

The selection of the correct mixing rule for sound velocity in ideal liquid mixtures determines the interpretation of the sound velocity in real mixtures. This is especially important for the determination of apparent properties of solutes, such as their apparent compressibility. There are different approaches reported in the literature, and this article presents a new derivation of the mixing rule based on statistical mechanics. It is shown that the correlation of volume fluctuations between adjacent components has a crucial influence on the ideal mixing rule.     

Laser system using a spherical pumping reflector

A solid state laser has been developed which employs a spherical pumping cavity. The rod of the active medium (ruby, neodymium, etc.) and the flash tube are symmetrically placed with respect to a plane passing through the centre of the sphere. With Nd³⁺-doped glass an efficiency of 3% is obtained.     

Fabrication of diamond nanorods for gas sensing applications

Diamond nanorods were fabricated for a sensing device by utilizing reactive ion etching in CF₄/O₂ radio frequency plasma. The length of the nanorods has been controlled by the ion etching time. The obtained morphologies were investigated by scanning electron microscopy. The gas sensing properties of the H-terminated diamond-based sensor structures are indicating that we have achieved high sensitivity to detect phosgene gas. Also, our sensor exhibited good selectivity between humid air and phosgene gas if the measurement is conducted at elevated temperatures, such as 140 °C. Furthermore, such sensor response rating could reach as high value as 4344 for the phosgene gas, which was evaluated for the sample consisting of the longest nanorods (up to 200 nm).     

Error estimates for the finite element solution of elliptic problems with nonlinear newton boundary conditions

The paper is concerned with the study of an elliptic boundary value problem with a nonlinear Newton boundary condition. The existence and uniqueness of the solution of the continuous pioblem is a consequence of the monotone operator theory. The main attention is paid to the investigation of the finite element approximation using numeriral integration for the evaluation of boundary integrals. The error estimates for the solution of the discrete finite element problem are derived     

Gaining insight into student satisfaction using comprehensible data mining techniques

As a consequence of the heightened competition on the education market, the management of educational institutions often attempts to collect information on what drives student satisfaction by e.g. organizing large scale surveys amongst the student population. Until now, this source of potentially very valuable information remains largely untapped. In this study, we address this issue by investigating the applicability of different data mining techniques to identify the main drivers of student satisfaction in two business education institutions. In the end, the resulting models are to be used by the management to support the strategic decision making process. Hence, the aspect of model comprehensibility is considered to be at least equally important as model performance. It is found that data mining techniques are able to select a surprisingly small number of constructs that require attention in order to manage student satisfaction.