Permeability of R6G across Cx43 hemichannels through a novel combination of patch clamp and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

We have measured the permeability of rhodamine-6G across Cx43 hemichannels reconstituted on a pipette tip. Cx43 hemichannels were overexpressed in Sf9 cells, and affinity-purified. The hemichannels were reconstituted in a lipid bilayer on a pipette tip by the tip-dip method. R6G in the pipette permeated across the channels into the bath. The permeability of R6G was quantified by measuring R6G concentration in the bath after several hours by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with 100 nm silver colloid particles. The ratio of the permeability of dye to salt, as extracted by this combined electrical-SERS technique, is compatible with similar ratios for other dyes across whole gap junction channels. The results for the permeability ratio were further compared to fluorescence measurements. The novel combination of patch and SERS techniques can be extended to quantifying the transport of biologically significant non-fluorescent molecules, such as cAMP and IP3, across 1 nm sized pores, such as the gap junction channel.     

Influence of temperature on the photometric determination of silicon by the molybdenum blue methods

Some systematic studies have been carried out on the influence of temperature on the photometric determination of silicon by the molybdenum blue procedure. It has been shown that temperature exerts a distinct influence on the colour intensities involved in the different procedures and the extent of this influence depends largely on the nature of the acid medium and the reducing agent employed. Ascorbic acid has been successfully employed to overcome the influence of temperature. Our thanks are due to the management of the Tata Iron and Steel Company for permitting the publication of this paper.     

On the normal vibrations of nonrigid molecule B(CH3)3

Treating the symmetry operations as transformations in higher dimensional space, it is shown that Wigner’s method can be straightaway extended to study the vibrations of nonrigid molecules exhibiting free or nearly free internal rotations. The molecule B(CH₃)₃ is illustrated.     

Effect of Pr-Ca substitution on the transport and magnetic behavior of LaMnO3 perovskite

The effect of simultaneous substitution of a fluctuating cation and a divalent cation in LaMnO₃ perovskite modifies the properties of the material to exhibit large valence colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) effect. A good example of these properties is (La_1−2x Pr _x Ca _x )MnO₃ (LPCMO) type CMR material. In this communication it is reported that, with the increase in x (for x=0.1, 0.15, 0.2), the T _c varies between 100 and 120 K with improvisation in metal-insulator transition. Interestingly, resistance increases with x from few hundred ohms to few kilo ohms with corresponding decrease in the unit cell volume. The results of the studies using X-ray diffraction (XRD), electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance and ac susceptibility measurements on LPCMO samples for understanding the structural, transport and magnetic properties are discussed in detail.     

Exterior point algorithms for nearest points and convex quadratic programs

We consider the problem of finding the nearest point (by Euclidean distance) in a simplicial cone to a given point, and develop an exterior penalty algorithm for it. Each iteration in the algorithm consists of a single Newton step following a reduction in the value of the penalty parameter. Proofs of convergence of the algorithm are given. Various other versions of exterior penalty algorithms for nearest point problems in nonsimplicial polyhedral cones and for convex quadratic programs, all based on a single descent step following a reduction in the value of the penalty parameter per iteration, are discussed. The performance of these algorithms in large scale computational experiments is very encouraging. It shows that the number of iterations grows very slowly, if at all, with the dimension of the problem.Partially supported by NSF Grant No. ECS-8521183, and by the two universities.