Brilliant cresyl blue as a new red region fluorescent probe for determination of nucleic acids

A fluorescence quenching method was developed for determination of microamounts of nucleic acids by using brilliant cresyl blue (BCB) as a new red region fluorescent probe. In aqueous hexylmethylene tetramine solution, BCB showed maximum excitation and emission wavelengths at 626 and 670 nm, respectively, and the fluorescence of BCB could be greatly quenched by DNA (or RNA). Under optimal conditions, the calibration graphs are linear over the range of 0.02–0.80 μg/ml for SM DNA and 0.25–1.5 μg/ml for yeast RNA. The corresponding detection limits are 7 ng/ml for SM DNA and 25 ng/ml for yeast RNA, respectively. SM DNA can be determinated in the presence of 40% (w/w) RNA, and the relative standard deviation of six measurements is 2.5% for 500 ng/ml SM DNA. The result of the determination of golden staphylococcus DNA by this method was satisfactory.     

Semi-empirical insertion probability for hard-spheres and hard-sphere chains

In spite of its simplicity and a well-defined theoretical basis, the Flory–Guggenheim approach is conventionally regarded as inapplicable to off-lattice system since the insertion probability of the approach does not account for the excluded region, existing in the off-lattice system. In this work, we propose the insertion probability accounting for the excluded region of off-lattice fluids and derive a new version of equation of state (EOS) for hard-sphere chains basing on the Flory–Guggenheim approach. To investigate the behavior of the excluded regions, a Monte Carlo sampling was performed for hard disks and the various excluded regions were found to have different density dependence. On the basis of the simulation result, we formulated the insertion probability for hard-sphere and that of hard-sphere chain which accounts for the effect of chain-connectivity on the monomer insertion. The proposed insertion probability was found to correctly predict the simulation data for monomer and correctly correlate the simulation data for chain fluids. The resulting EOS was found to meet closed-packed limit and predict the simulation data of compressibility factor for monomer and chains with a reasonable degree of accuracy. When compared with other off-lattice based EOS, it shows a comparable or better result. For second virial coefficient of chain molecules, the model was found to reasonably predict the simulation data.     

Methods for the synthesis of mono- and polynuclear NH-tetrazoles. (Review)

Data on methods for the synthesis of monocyclic and polynuclear NH-unsubstituted tetrazoles are reviewed.Dedicated to Prof. H. Elguero on the occasion of his 65th birthday.St. Petersburg State Technological Institute (Technical University), St. Petersburg 198013, Russia; Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 7, pp. 867–884, July, 2000.     

Secondary succession and its effects on soil moisture and nutrition in abandoned old-fields of hilly region of Loess Plateau, China

Floristic composition, community structure and soil moisture and nutrient contents in abandoned fields of different ages were analyzed to clarify the regenerative aspects of succession as a tool for vegetation restoration. The results indicated that secondary succession in this region can be interpreted as an auto-succession: there are main changes in species-relative abundance and species turnover. Annual or biennial species (e.g. Artemisia scoparia), acted as pioneers and strongly dominated the early stages. Then, they underwent a progressive decline, while forbs (e.g. Artemisia sacrorum) and grasses (e.g. Xanthium sibiricum) had their peak abundance at intermediate stages. Dwarf shrubs (e.g. Lespedeza dahurica) and short rhizome grass (e.g. Bothriochloa ischaemum) appeared at mid-succession stage and gradually increased in abundance during succession, becoming dominant at late stages. The first axis of detrended correspondence canonical analysis arranged the sites according to their fallow time, indicating a successional sere. The second axis, associated with diverging pathways of regeneration, correlated with topographic factors and soil moisture and nutrition. Structural divergence between plots increased as succession went on, attained the highest at the mid-succession stage, decreased at the late stage.

Soil moisture and available phosphorus content decreased steadily with field age after their abandonment, whereas pools of organic matter, total and available nitrogen, potassium and total phosphorus increased with field age. The pace and direction of recovery of native vegetation and natural soil properties in these abandoned fields resembled classic old-field succession, which is a form of secondary succession that often serves as a template for guiding restoration efforts. Interface between the abandoned field soil and plant system was crucial to the above process. Our current study supported the generally accepted hypothesis in the succession literature.     

The ring opening of cyclopropylidene to allene: global features of the reaction surface

Summary The global features of the groundstate ring opening of cyclopropylidene to allene are studied by means ofab-initio FORS MCSCF calculations based on a minimal AO basis set. The energy surface is completely mapped out in terms of three reaction coordinates, namely the CCC ring-opening angle and two angles describing the rotations of the CH₂ groups. For each choice of these three variables, the twelve remaining internal coordinates are optimized by energy minimization. In the initial phase of the reaction, as the CCC angle opens, the CH₂ groups rotate in a disrotatory manner, maintainingC _s symmetry. This uphill reaction path leads to a transition region which occurs early, for a CCC angle of about 84°. In this transition region the reaction path branches into two pathways which are each others' mirror images. The system exhibits thus abifurcating transition region. Passed this region, the two pathways are overall conrotatory in character. However, these downhill reaction paths to the products are poorly defined because, from a CCC opening angle of about 90° on,the CH ₂ groups can rotate freely and isoenergetically in a synchronized, cogwheel-like manner and this disrotatory motion can mix unpredictably with the conrotatory downhill motion. There is no preference for any one of the two reaction pathways yielding the two stereoisomers of allene and the reaction is thereforenonstereospecific with respect to the numbered hydrogen atoms. The global surface is documented by means of contour maps representing slices corresponding to constant CCC angles. The bifurcating transition region is mapped in detail.Operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Iowa State University under Contract No. 7405-ENG-82. This work was supported by the office of Basic Energy Sciences     

Delay-dependent stability of symmetric schemes in Boundary Value Methods for DDEs

We consider the symmetric schemes in Boundary Value Methods (BVMs) applied to delay differential equations y^′(t)=ay(t)+by(t-τ) with real coefficients a and b. If the numerical solution tends to zero whenever the exact solution does, the symmetric scheme with (k₁+m,k₂)-boundary conditions is called τ_k1,k2(0)-stable. Three families of symmetric schemes, namely the Extended Trapezoidal Rules of first (ETRs) and second (ETR₂s) kind, and the Top Order Methods (TOMs), are considered in this paper.By using the boundary locus technology, the delay-dependent stability region of the symmetric schemes are analyzed and their boundaries are found. Then by using a necessary and sufficient condition, the considered symmetric schemes are proved to be τ_ν,ν-1(0)-stable.     

Convergence Properties of a Self-adaptive Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm Under Local Error Bound Condition

We propose a new self-adaptive Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for the system of nonlinear equations F(x) = 0. The Levenberg-Marquardt parameter is chosen as the product of ‖F_k‖^δ with δ being a positive constant, and some function of the ratio between the actual reduction and predicted reduction of the merit function. Under the local error bound condition which is weaker than the nonsingularity, we show that the Levenberg-Marquardt method converges superlinearly to the solution for δ∈ (0, 1), while quadratically for δ∈ [1, 2]. Numerical results show that the new algorithm performs very well for the nonlinear equations with high rank deficiency. This work is supported by Chinese NSFC grants 10401023 and 10501013, Research Grants for Young Teachers of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and E-Institute of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, N. E03004.     

Objective Function Features Providing Barriers to Rapid Global Optimization

The purposes of this discussion paper are twofold. First, features of an objective function landscape which provide barriers to rapid finding of the global optimum are described. Second, stochastic algorithms are discussed and their performance examined, both theoretically and computationally, as the features change. The paper lays a foundation for the later findings paper.