Effects of starvation for 4-20 days on the amino acid content of Biomphalaria glabrata as determined by cellulose HPTLC-densitometry with confirmation of identity using silica gel and RP-18 W plates with two mobile phases causing inversion of the separation mechanism

The effects of starvation at 4, 7, 10, 14, and 20 days on the amino acid content of Biomphalaria glabrata was determined by high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC)-densitometry. Cultures of control and starved snails were prepared for each duration of time. Samples were extracted using ethanol-water (70:30), and supernatant was collected after multiple centrifugations. Samples and standards were applied as bands using a CAMAG Linomat 4 onto cellulose HPTLC plates and developed in a 2-butanol-pyridine-acetic acid-water (39:34:10:26) mobile phase before spraying with ninhydrin detection reagent and scanning with a CAMAG 3 scanner to quantify ornithine (Orn), glycine (Gly), alanine (Ala), valine (Val), and leucine (Leu). Amino acid identification was confirmed by HPTLC on silica gel plates and RP-18?W plates using two different mobile phases causing inversion of the separation mechanism. Starvation led to an overall decrease in amino acid content in comparison to the control snails, however, the amount of amino acids in the starved snails had no correlation with the duration of starvation.     

Differential scattering and rotational excitation in low-energy positron-hydrogen-molecule collisions

Differential cross sections are calculated for positron-hydrogen-molecule scattering below the positronium formation threshold usingK-matrix elements obtained by the Kohn variational method. The internuclear separation of the hydrogen molecule is fixed at its equilibrium value, 1.4a₀. The trial function used in the Kohn calculation is very flexible. It contains separable and Hylleraas-type basis functions and also basis functions to take into account longrange polarization. The cross sections for rotational excitation are also calculated, using the adiabatic-rotation approximation. Preliminary results are presented in this paper; full details will be published elsewhere.     

A comparison of gas-phase,plasma, sputtering and beam-foil excitations

A comparison of relative populations of ZnI and ZnII levels excited in equilibrium plasma, sputtering, gas-phase single collision, and beam foil sources is presented, and includes data on the first reported excitation studies under single collision conditions for a (transition metal atom)-(transition metal ion) interaction. A search for continuum emission from atomic chromium, like that seen during sputtering of chromium metal, produced a negative result.     

Colored electrically conducting polymers from furan,pyrrole, and thiophene

Furan, pyrrole, and thiophene were polymerized under catalysis by trichloro- and trifluoroacetic acid to produce colored polymers which were characterized by various methods, including electronic and proton magnetic resonance spectra and electrical conductances of deeply colored trichloroacetic acid adducts. The predominant repeat units of these polymers are of the same type as those of deeply colored cyclopentadiene polymers, except that a CH₂ group is replaced by O, NH, or S.     

YOYO as a Dye to Track Penetration of LK15 DNA Complexes in Spheroids: Use and Limits

To elucidate the reasons underlying the poor penetration of non-viral vectors in tissues, relating transport properties to physico-chemical parameters of vectors may be crucial. These properties can be influenced by the presence of multiples labels that are used. Therefore utilizing a vector with minimum of labels preferably not more than one is important to studying penetration in tissues. The cell impermeant bisintercalating dye YOYO-1 was found suitable to both monitor the formation of complexes between DNA and an amphipathic peptide LK15 and, to track their penetration in HCT116 spheroids by confocal microscopy. The results revealed a limited decrease of fluorescence ascribed to the high affinity of YOYO-1 to bind DNA. The residual fluorescence of complexes can be exploited to monitor penetration into spheroids, after correction for YOYO-1 attenuation, and to revealing hyaluronidase-induced reduced binding. Hence high affinity dyes such as YOYO-1 with inefficiently quenched fluorescence may be important to establish a relation between novel medicines characteristics and penetration in tissues.     

Neuropeptide delivery to the brain: a von Willebrand factor signal peptide to direct neuropeptide secretion

Background  

Multiple neuropeptides, sometimes with opposing functions, can be produced from one precursor gene. To study the roles of the different neuropeptides encoded by one large precursor we developed a method to overexpress minigenes and establish local secretion.     

A new theoretical approach to resonant dtµ formation

A key process in the muon-catalysed fusion cycle is a low-energy collision of tµ with a D₂ molecule which leads, at appropriate incident energies, to the formation of a resonant complex containing dtµ. In this paper the result is described of a formal derivation of the partial wave cross section for resonant dtµ formation, which makes use of elements of Feshbach's treatment of resonances. The expression obtained is similar to the Breit-Wigner formula. Full details of the calculation will be published elsewhere.     

Vacuum moulding of a superplastic in two dimensions

A mathematical model is proposed for the process of vacuum superplasticforming. The model exploits the fact that in most industrialapplications the sheet aspect ratio (thickness/sheet width)is small. After an initial consideration of some of the moregeneral properties and the literature of superplastic materials,the elastic/plastic deformation of an internally-inflated thin-walledcylinder is examined. Plates of arbitrary geometry are thenconsidered. A quasisteady model in which the sheet moves througha sequence of steady states is developed. Some simplified closed-formsolutions are examined, but for general cases a system of nonlinearpartial differential equations must be solved numerically. Anefficient and accurate semi-explicit numerical scheme is proposedand a simplified stability analysis is presented; the methodis then used to compute properties of superplastic vacuum mouldedsheets in a number of practically motivated cases.