2,485 research outputs found
Translational and rotational motions of albumin sensed by a non-covalent associated porphyrin under physiological and acidic conditions: a fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and time resolved anisotropy study.
The interaction between a free-base, anionic water-soluble porphyrin, TSPP, and the drug carrier protein, bovine serum albumin (BSA) has been studied by time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy (TRFA) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) at two different pH-values. Both rotational correlation times and translational diffusion times of the fluorescent species indicate that TSPP binding to albumin induces very little conformational changes in the protein under physiological conditions. By contrast, at low pH, a bi-exponential decay is obtained where a short rotational correlation time (¿ int¿=¿1.2 ns) is obtained, which is likely associated to wobbling movement of the porphyrin in the protein binding site. These physical changes are corroborated by circular dichroism (CD) data which show a 37% loss in the protein helicity upon acidification of the medium. In the presence of excess porphyrin formation of porphyrin J-aggregates is induced, which can be detected by time-resolved fluorescence with short characteristic times. This is also reflected in FCS data by an increase in molecular brightness together with a decrease in the number of fluorescent molecules passing through the detection volume of the sampl
The effect of pre-treatment parameters on the quality of glass-ceramic wasteforms for plutonium immobilisation, consolidated by hot isostatic pressing
Glass-ceramics with high glass fractions (70 wt%) were fabricated in stainless steel canisters by hot
isostatic pressing (HIP), at laboratory scale. High (600 C) and low (300 C) temperature pre-treatments
were investigated to reduce the canister evacuation time and to understand the effect on the phase
assemblage and microstructure of the hot isostatically pressed product. Characterisation of the HIPed
materials was performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), coupled with energy dispersive Xray
analysis (EDX) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). This analysis showed the microstructure and
phase assemblage was independent of the variation in pre-treatment parameters. It was demonstrated
that a high temperature pre-treatment of batch reagents, prior to the HIP cycle, is beneficial when using
oxide precursors, in order to remove volatiles and achieve high quality dense materials. Sample
throughput can be increased significantly by utilising a high temperature ex-situ calcination prior to the
HIP cycle. Investigation of glass-ceramic wasteform processing utilising a glass frit precursor, produced a
phase assemblage and microstructure comparable to that obtained using oxide precursors. The use of a
glass frit precursor should allow optimised throughput of waste packages in a production facility,
avoiding the need for a calcination pre-treatment required to remove volatiles from oxide precursors
Curvature induced toroidal bound states
Curvature induced bound state (E < 0) eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for a
particle constrained to move on the surface of a torus are calculated. A limit
on the number of bound states a torus with minor radius a and major radius R
can support is obtained. A condition for mapping constrained particle wave
functions on the torus into free particle wave functions is established.Comment: 6 pages, no figures, Late
Astrophysics from data analysis of spherical gravitational wave detectors
The direct detection of gravitational waves will provide valuable
astrophysical information about many celestial objects. Also, it will be an
important test to general relativity and other theories of gravitation. The
gravitational wave detector SCHENBERG has recently undergone its first test
run. It is expected to have its first scientific run soon. In this work the
data analysis system of this spherical, resonant mass detector is tested
through the simulation of the detection of gravitational waves generated during
the inspiralling phase of a binary system. It is shown from the simulated data
that it is not necessary to have all six transducers operational in order to
determine the source's direction and the wave's amplitudes.Comment: 8 pages and 3 figure
DNA vaccines against dengue virus based on the ns1 gene: The influence of different signal sequences on the protein expression and its correlation to the immune response elicited in mice
AbstractWe analyzed four DNA vaccines based on DENV-2 NS1: pcENS1, encoding the C-terminal from E protein plus the NS1 region; pcENS1ANC, similar to pcENS1 plus the N-terminal sequence from NS2a (ANC); pcTPANS1, coding the t-PA signal sequence fused to NS1; and pcTPANS1ANC, similar to pcTPANS1 plus the ANC sequence. The NS1 was detected in lysates and culture supernatants from pcTPANS1-, pcENS1- and pcENS1ANC-transfected cells and not in cells with pcTPANS1ANC. Only the pcENS1ANC leads the expression of NS1 in plasma membrane, confirming the importance of ANC sequence for targeting NS1 to cell surface. High levels of antibodies recognizing conformational epitopes of NS1 were induced in mice immunized with pcTPANS1 and pcENS1, while only few pcENS1ANC-inoculated animals presented detectable anti-NS1 IgG. Protection against DENV-2 was verified in pcTPANS1- and pcENS1-immunized mice, although the plasmid pcTPANS1 induced slight higher protective immunity. These plasmids seem to activate distinct patterns of the immune system
May Salivary Chromogranin A Act as a Physiological Index of Stress in Transported Donkeys? A Pilot Study
Road transport is known to be a stressful animal husbandry procedure as it induces the activation of two main physiological stress-related pathways: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis and the sympathetic-adrenal medulla axis. This preliminary study aimed to investigate whether salivary chromogranin A (CgA) concentration, known as a biomarker of the sympathetic activity system during psychological stress, may represent a novel physiological index of transportation-induced stress in donkeys. Nineteen Romagnolo donkeys, raised in groups on paddocks, were subject to two transportations, following the farm's routine procedures, for a mean duration of 64 min each on two consecutive days. Salivary samples were gently collected 15 min before and 15 min after each transportation. Salivary CgA was measured by a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test. Results showed that CgA salivary levels significantly decreased after both transportations. The physiological mechanisms underlying this result may be related to catestatin activity, a bioactive product of the proteolytic cleavage of CgA, that acts as an inhibitor of catecholamine release. This hypothesis requires further investigation, particularly considering the limited number of subjects involved in this preliminary study. The identification of a reliable and non-invasive stress-marker would represent a useful tool for improving farm animals' welfare in transport conditions
Exact Diagonalization of Two Quantum Models for the Damped Harmonic Oscillator
The damped harmonic oscillator is a workhorse for the study of dissipation in
quantum mechanics. However, despite its simplicity, this system has given rise
to some approximations whose validity and relation to more refined descriptions
deserve a thorough investigation. In this work, we apply a method that allows
us to diagonalize exactly the dissipative Hamiltonians that are frequently
adopted in the literature. Using this method we derive the conditions of
validity of the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) and show how this approximate
description relates to more general ones. We also show that the existence of
dissipative coherent states is intimately related to the RWA. Finally, through
the evaluation of the dynamics of the damped oscillator, we notice an important
property of the dissipative model that has not been properly accounted for in
previous works; namely, the necessity of new constraints to the application of
the factorizable initial conditions.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, ReVTe
Anomalous behavior of the Debye temperature in Fe-rich Fe-Cr alloys
Debye temperature, , of Fe-rich FeCr disordered
alloys with was determined from the temperature dependence of
the central shift of M\"ossbauer spectra recorded in the temperature range of
60 -- 300 K. Its compositional dependence shows a maximum at with
a relative increase of % compared to a pure iron. The composition at
which the effect occurs correlates well with that at which several other
quantities, e. g. the Curie temperature and the spin-wave stiffness
coefficient, , show their maxima, but the enhancement of is
significantly greater and comparable with the enhancement of the hyperfine
field (spin-density of itinerant -like electrons) in the studied system. The
results suggest that the electron-phonon interaction is important in this alloy
system
Low-frequency connectivity is associated with mild traumatic brain injury
AbstractMild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) occurs from a closed-head impact. Often referred to as concussion, about 20% of cases complain of secondary psychological sequelae, such as disorders of attention and memory. Known as post-concussive symptoms (PCS), these problems can severely disrupt the patient's quality of life. Changes in local spectral power, particularly low-frequency amplitude increases and/or peak alpha slowing have been reported in mTBI, but large-scale connectivity metrics based on inter-regional amplitude correlations relevant for integration and segregation in functional brain networks, and their association with disorders in cognition and behaviour, remain relatively unexplored. Here, we used non-invasive neuroimaging with magnetoencephalography to examine functional connectivity in a resting-state protocol in a group with mTBI (n = 20), and a control group (n = 21). We observed a trend for atypical slow-wave power changes in subcortical, temporal and parietal regions in mTBI, as well as significant long-range increases in amplitude envelope correlations among deep-source, temporal, and frontal regions in the delta, theta, and alpha bands. Subsequently, we conducted an exploratory analysis of patterns of connectivity most associated with variability in secondary symptoms of mTBI, including inattention, anxiety, and depression. Differential patterns of altered resting state neurophysiological network connectivity were found across frequency bands. This indicated that multiple network and frequency specific alterations in large scale brain connectivity may contribute to overlapping cognitive sequelae in mTBI. In conclusion, we show that local spectral power content can be supplemented with measures of correlations in amplitude to define general networks that are atypical in mTBI, and suggest that certain cognitive difficulties are mediated by disturbances in a variety of alterations in network interactions which are differentially expressed across canonical neurophysiological frequency ranges
Portugal tem uma longa história económica para contar
Cities, Migration and Global Interdependenc
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