Synthesis of DnaK and GroEL in Escherichia coli cells exposed to different magnetic field signals

The effects of extremely low frequency magnetic field (ELF-MF)(1 mT, 50 Hz) on the heat shock protein (HSP) synthesis in Escherichia coli were investigated. Two magnetic field signals were studied: sinusoidal (SMF) and pulsed square wave (PMF). It was found that bacteria exposed to SMF showed a significantly higher level of DnaK and GroEL proteins as compared to sham-exposed bacteria as revealed by Western blot, whereas a lower level was observed after PMF exposure. Similar results were obtained when bacterial cells were exposed to heat shock (HS) after ELF-MF exposure: again SMF and PMF resulted in an increase and in a reduction of HSP amount in comparison with sham control, respectively. In conclusion, the MF influences the synthesis of HSPs in E. coli in a way that critically depends on the signal characteristics.     

Probing the interplay between amyloidogenic proteins and membranes using lipid monolayers and bilayers

Many degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's involve proteins that have a tendency to misfold and aggregate eventually forming amyloid fibers. This review describes the use of monolayers, bilayers, supported membranes, and vesicles as model systems that have helped elucidate the mechanisms and consequences of the interactions between amyloidogenic proteins and membranes. These are twofold: membranes favor the formation of amyloid structures and these induce damage in those membranes. We describe studies that show how interfaces, especially charged ones, favor amyloidogenic protein aggregation by several means. First, surfaces increase the effective protein concentration reducing a three-dimensional system to a two-dimensional one. Second, charged surfaces allow electrostatic interactions with the protein. Anionic lipids as well as rafts, rich in cholesterol and gangliosides, prove to play an especially important role. Finally, these amphipathic systems also offer a hydrophobic environment favoring conformational changes, oligomerization, and eventual formation of mature fibers. In addition, we examine several models for membrane permeabilization: protein pores, leakage induced by extraction of lipids, chaotic pores, and membrane tension, presenting illustrative examples of experimental evidence in support of these models. The picture that emerges from recent work is one where more than one mechanism is in play. Which mechanism prevails depends on the protein, its aggregation state, and the lipid environment in which the interactions occur.     

Simultaneous analysis of diazepam and its metabolites in rat plasma and brain tissue by HPLC-UV and SPE

Diazepam is frequently used as an adjuvant during antidepressant therapy. Recently, some studies have suggested that the treatment with benzodiazepines could have different efficacy in depressed patients as opposed to non-depressed ones. To clarify the matter, a study is currently underway, regarding the drug metabolism in rats. In order to obtain a more complete and significant set of data, the main diazepam metabolites have also been considered, namely: nordiazepam, temazepam and oxazepam. A feasible and reliable HPLC method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of these compounds in plasma and brain tissue of rats. The method has been applied to “normal” rats and to genetic rat models of depression in order to estimate drug metabolism in different breeds. Analyte separation was achieved on a C8 reversed phase column using an acidic phosphate buffer/acetonitrile mixture as the mobile phase. The detection wavelength was 238 nm. An original sample pre-treatment, based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) was developed in order to eliminate endogenous interference, using only 250 μL of matrix (brain homogenate or plasma) for a complete analysis. The method has been validated with good results in terms of precision, extraction yield, sensitivity, selectivity and accuracy on both matrices and has been successfully applied to samples from some rats subjected to the preliminary study. The obtained data will hopefully contribute to the clarification of possible differences between depressed and non-depressed subjects with respect to benzodiazepine biotransformation.     

Noise measurements in bilayer lipid membranes during electroporation

A study of voltage fluctuations in bilayer lipid membranes during electroporation and under current-clamp conditions is presented. Qualitative considerations based on the electroporation theory are used in order to explain the phenomenon on long time scale. Indeed, the current-clamp condition induces a feedback mechanism on the pore formation and therefore on the macroscopic conductance. Voltage fluctuations can thus be recorded. These fluctuations are nonstationary long-living and have a flicker power spectrum over nearly four decades of frequency between about 10^-2 and 10²Hz. The study of the fluctuations in the time domain has been performed by introducing an electrical model of the system formed by the membrane and the circuit under current-clamp configuration. The analysis of the time series gives a characteristic time of 100ms for the circuitry response to the fragments of electroporation signals with characteristic times faster than 100ms. During electroporation, the response to an external periodic stimulus in the frequency range 10^-1-10Hz shows that the system behaves linearly, even if voltage fluctuations are present. Received 1 June 1999 and Received in final form 1 October 1999     

First results of the CAKE experiment

We present the preliminary results of the cosmic abundances below the knee energies (CAKE) experiment for the study of the primary cosmic-ray composition and for the search of exotic particles in the primary cosmic radiation. CAKE uses CR39^® and Lexan nuclear track detectors, which were calibrated with beams of 158 AGeV Pb ions and 1 AGeV Fe ions at the CERN and BNL accelerators, respectively. Results based on the analysis of a first data sample are shown.     

New hybrid zirconium aminophosphonates containing piperidine and bipiperidine groups

The reaction of N-(phosphonomethyl)piperidine and N,N'-bis(phosphonomethyl)bipiperidine with zirconium(IV) in hydrofluoric acid media led to the preparation of two new zirconium fluoride phosphonate derivatives with 1D and 2D structure, respectively. Their structures were solved ab initio from laboratory powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data. The monophosphonate derivative, with formula ZrF(2)(HF)(O(3)PCH(2)NC(5)H(10)), has a 1D structure (triclinic, space group P ?1, a = 6.6484(3) ?, b = 7.1396(3) ?, c = 12.2320(6) ?, α = 77.932(4)°, β = 87.031(6)°, γ = 78.953(5)°, V = 557.22(4) ?(3), and Z = 2) made of inorganic chains constituted from the connection of zirconium octahedra and phosphorus tetrahedra with the piperidine groups bonded on their external part. The diphosphonate derivative, with formula Zr(2)F(4)(HF)(2)(O(3)PCH(2))NC(10)H(18)N(CH(2)PO(3)), has a 2D structure (triclinic, space group P ?1, a = 6.6243(3) ?, b = 7.2472(4) ?, c = 12.2550(7) ?, α = 102.879(4)°, β = 100.29(1)°, γ = 101.287(7)°, V = 547.03(4) ?(3), and Z = 1) composed of the packing of covalent layers whose structure may be ideally obtained by the joining of adjacent chains of the 1D compound. In these hybrid layers, inorganic regions made of the connectivity of zirconium octahedra and phosphorus tetrahedra alternate with organic regions represented by the bipiperidine moieties. A section dedicated to vibrational spectroscopy analysis is also included, mainly devoted to clarify some issues not easily deducible on the basis of PXRD data and to describe the fluorine environment inside zirconium phosphonate structures.     

Competitive Boolean function evaluation: Beyond monotonicity, and the symmetric case

We study the extremal competitive ratio of Boolean function evaluation. We provide the first non-trivial lower and upper bounds for classes of Boolean functions which are not included in the class of monotone Boolean functions. For the particular case of symmetric functions our bounds are matching and we exactly characterize the best possible competitiveness achievable by a deterministic algorithm. Our upper bound is obtained by a simple polynomial time algorithm.     

Exact solution of the 1D Hubbard model with NN and NNN interactions in the narrow-band limit

In this paper, we propose a family of weighted extended Koch networks based on a class of extended Koch networks. They originate from a r-complete graph, and each node in each r-complete graph of current generation produces mr-complete graphs whose weighted edges are scaled by factor h in subsequent evolutionary step. We study the structural properties of these networks and random walks on them. In more detail, we calculate exactly the average weighted shortest path length (AWSP), average receiving time (ART) and average sending time (AST). Besides, the technique of resistor network is employed to uncover the relationship between ART and AST on networks with unit weight. In the infinite network order limit, the average weighted shortest path lengths stay bounded with growing network order (0 < h < 1). The closed form expression of ART shows that it exhibits a sub-linear dependence (0 < h < 1) or linear dependence (h = 1) on network order. On the contrary, the AST behaves super-linearly with the network order. Collectively, all the obtained results show that the efficiency of message transportation on weighted extended Koch networks has close relation to the network parameters h, m and r. All these findings could shed light on the structure and random walks of general weighted networks.     

On maximum additive Hermitian rank-metric codes

Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics - Inspired by the work of Zhou (Des Codes Cryptogr 88:841–850, 2020) based on the paper of Schmidt (J Algebraic Combin 42(2):635–670, 2015), we...