Evaluation of Polycation-Stabilized Lactate Oxidase in a Silica Sol–Gel as a Biosensor Platform

 Whereas glucose oxidase and related proteins are encapsulated readily in silica sol–gels, α-hydroxy enzymes such as lactate oxidase (LOx), are reported to be damaged by electrostatic interaction with these matrices. Based on a previous report, poly(ethyleneimine), PEI, was evaluated as a protecting compound under conditions suited to analytical measurements. With LOx and PEI co-encapsulated in a silica sol–gel, the enzyme retained 62% of its initial activity after 20 days. In the absence of PEI, activity was lost during the processing. Batch analytical measurements with enzyme-doped sol–gel yielded a linear response over the range 0.5–2.0 mM lactate and a detection limit of 0.03 mM lactate. Both simple incorporation of LOx in a silica sol–gel and an alternative protection method, blocking the ion-exchange sites on silica with La(III), failed. These negative results supported the hypothesis that the efficacy of PEI was related to its formation of a protective sheath around the enzyme. Author for correspondence. E-mail: coxja@muohio.edu Received July 29, 2002; accepted December 15, 2002 Published online May 19, 2003     

Fabrication and transport properties of multiwall carbon nanotube crossroads

A multiwall carbon nanotube crossroads has been fabricated by a manipulation technique using a glass microcapillary, and the low temperature transport properties investigated. The two-terminal conductance of an individual tube shows Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid behavior G∝T^α at high temperature and dI/dV ∝V ^α at low temperature. However, no evidence of such a power-law behavior is obtained in the four-terminal conductance at the junction, where the conductance shows an almost metallic behavior ‘corrected’ by weak localization. Weak localization would essentially appear in electron states at the junctions of MWNTs.     

Conditions for confinement and freeze-out

Matter implies the existence of a large-scale connected cluster of a uniform nature. The appearance of such clusters as a function of hadron density is specified by percolation theory. We can therefore formulate the freeze-out of interacting hadronic matter in terms of the percolation of hadronic clusters. The resulting freeze-out condition as a function of temperature and baryo-chemical potential interpolates between resonance gas behavior at low baryon density and repulsive nucleonic matter at low temperature, and it agrees well with the data.Received: 10 September 2003, Published online: 7 November 2003     

Rhythmic pattern formations in gels and Matalon—Packter law: A fresh perspective

The periodic precipitation pattern formation in gelatinous media is interpreted as a moving boundary problem. The time law, spacing law and width law are revisited on the basis of the new scenario. The explicit dependence of the geometric structure on the initial concentrations of the reactants is derived. Matalon—Packter law, which relates the spacing coefficient with the initial concentrations is reformulated removing many ambiguities and impractical parameters. Experimental results are discussed to establish the significance of moving boundary concept in the diffusion controlled pattern forming systems     

Approximation of the basic characteristics of the auditory analyzer

Empirical approximating formulas describing the most important psychophysiological properties of the human auditory analyzer are derived.     

Essential domains and two conjectures in dimension theory

This note investigates two long-standing conjectures on the Krull dimension of integer-valued polynomial rings and of polynomial rings in the context of (locally) essential domains.

     

Zero Tension Kardar-Parisi-Zhang Equation in (d + 1)–Dimensions

The joint probability distribution function (PDF) of the height and its gradients is derived for a zero tension d + 1-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation. It is proved that the height's PDF of zero tension KPZ equation shows lack of positivity after a finite time t _c . The properties of zero tension KPZ equation and its differences with the case that it possess an infinitesimal surface tension is discussed. Also potential relation between the time scale t _c and the singularity time scale t _c.v→0 of the KPZ equation with an infinitesimal surface tension is investigated.     

Multiple Shocks in Bricklayers' Model

In bricklayers' model, which is a generalization of the misanthrope processes, we show that a nontrivial class of product distributions is closed under the time-evolution of the process. This class also includes measures fitting to shock data of the limiting PDE. In particular, we show that shocks of this type with discontinuity of size one perform ordinary nearest neighbor random walks only interacting, in an attractive way, via their jump rates. Our results are related to those of Belitsky and Schütz⁽⁴⁾ on the simple exclusion process, although we do not use quantum formalism as they do. The structures we find are described from a fixed position. Similar ones were found in Balázs,⁽²⁾ valak as seen from the random position of the second class particle.