Study of thin film large area photovoltaic solar energy converter final report

Process for fabricating thin film cadmium sulfide backwall solar cells on polyimide plastic foil substrate

Study of thin film large area photovoltaic solar energy converter Second quarterly report, 1 Jan. - 31 Mar. 1963

Thin film large area photovoltaic solar energy converter - cadmium sulfide films producted by vacuum evaparation techniqu

Neurohormonal modulation of the Limulus heart: amine actions on neuromuscular transmission and cardiac muscle

The responses of Limulus cardiac neuromuscular junctions and cardiac muscle cells to four endogenous amines were determined in order to identify the cellular targets underlying amine modulation of heartbeat amplitude. The amines increased the amplitude of the Limulus heartbeat, with dopamine (DA) being more potent than octopamine, epinephrine or norepinephrine. The effect of DA on heartbeat amplitude was not blocked by phentolamine. DA enhanced the contractility of deganglionated heart muscle, with time course and dose-dependence similar to its effect on the intact heart. The amines also enhanced neuromuscular transmission, with time course and dose-dependence similar to their effects upon the intact heart. The amplitude of unitary excitatory junction potentials (EJPs) and frequency of miniature excitatory junction potentials (mEJPs) were increased by DA, while mEJP amplitude was unchanged. Thus DA, and probably the other amines, had a presynaptic effect. Combined actions upon cardiac muscle and cardiac neuromuscular transmission account for the ability of these amines to increase the amplitude of the Limulus heartbeat

Proctolin and an Endogenous Proctolin-Like Peptide Enhance the Contractility of the Limulus Heart

Synthetic proctolin increases the force but not the rate of heart contractions of Limulus in a time- and dose-dependent manner. The threshold of this effect is 3 × 10−10M and the ED50 is approximately 10−8M. At concentrations up to 10−7 M, proctolin has no effect on the rhythmic electrical activity of the isolated cardiac ganglion, and it does not change the simple and compound postsynaptic potentials recorded at the cardiac neuromuscular junction. Proctolin acts directly on the cardiac muscle fibres. Electrically stimulated myocardia show a proctolin-induced increase in contraction amplitude with the same concentration dependence as the intact heart. A compound with an apparent molecular weight of 700–800 occurs in the Limulus nervous system, particularly in the cardiac ganglion. This compound resembles proctolin in being heat-stable, resistant to trypsin and chymotrypsin cleavage, and losing activity in a time-dependent manner in response to treatment with leucine aminopeptidase or pronase. This peptide induces spontaneous contractions and a contracture of the cockroach hindgut in a manner similar to proctolin. Moreover, the Limulus inotropic peptide, like proctolin, increases the force of contraction of the Limulus heart without affecting beat frequency. It is concluded that an endogenous, proctolin-like peptide is an inotropic modulator of the Limulus heart, acting directly on the muscle fibres and not affecting cardiac ganglion activity

Towards using NMR to screen for spoiled tomatoes stored in 1,000 L, aseptically sealed, metal-lined totes.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is used to track factory relevant tomato paste spoilage. It was found that spoilage in tomato paste test samples leads to longer spin lattice relaxation times T1 using a conventional low magnetic field NMR system. The increase in T1 value for contaminated samples over a five day room temperature exposure period prompted the work to be extended to the study of industry standard, 1,000 L, non-ferrous, metal-lined totes. NMR signals and T1 values were recovered from a large format container with a single-sided NMR sensor. The results of this work suggest that a handheld NMR device can be used to study tomato paste spoilage in factory process environments