Lyotropic Liquid Crystals From Lecithin, Water, And Polyethylene Glycol

Lyotropic liquid crystals with lecithin as the amphiphile and with water/polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions as the solvent were prepared with polyethylene glycol/water ratios from 182 to 0. The liquid crystals were lamellar and the interlayer spacing was independent of the solvent content for water/PEG ratios ≤1 but increased strongly with the water/PEG ratio. Higher ratios gave increased interlayer spacing with solvent content similar to the variation for liquid crystals with water as solvent but the absolute values of the spacing were higher. © 1984 Academic Press, Inc. All rights reserved

The Structure Of Lamellar Lyotropic Liquid Crystals From Lecithin And Alkanediols

Lamellar liquid crystals from lecithin and alkane diols were studied to determine the composition range of stability and geometrical dimensions using low-angle X-ray scattering. An estimation of the dislocation pattern was made from the optical pattern in polarized light. The ethylene glycol gave the widest range of stability for the lamellar structure, the range being reduced toward heptane diol, the longest member to give liquid crystals. The interlayer spacing was reduced with increasing chain length of the diol and the dislocation pattern remained identical. © 1981

Influenza A Virus and Influenza B Virus Can Induce Apoptosis via Intrinsic or Extrinsic Pathways and Also via NF- κ

Influenza viruses are able to cause annual epidemics and pandemics due to their mutation rates and reassortment capabilities leading to antigenic shifts and drifts. To identify host response to influenza A and B viruses on A549 and MDCK II cells at low and high MOIs, expressions of MxA and caspases 3, 8, and 9 and BAD, TNFα, and IκBα genes were measured in the cells supernatants. H1N1 and H3N2 prefer to initially enhance the intrinsic pathway, determined by higher caspase 9 activity in MDCK II cells compared to caspase 8 activity and vice versa in A549 cells at different MOIs, while INF B prefers extrinsic pathway in A549 cells according to significant low or undetectable caspase 9 activity and high activity of caspase 8 but also can induce intrinsic pathway in MDCK II cells as determined by significant low or undetectable activity of caspase 8 and high caspase 9 activity at different MOIs; the considerable MxA expression was found in influenza A and B viruses infected A549 and MDCK II cells at low MOIs. In conclusion, influenza A and B viruses induced extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis in parallel, and the induction was associated with viral infection in a dose dependent manner

A New Method For Removing Inorganic Colloidal Material Before Desalination By Reverse Osmosis

Sea-water was pretreated before desalination to remove suspended colloidal materials capable of fouling the reverse osmosis membrane. A simple model for sea-water was used in which silica and iron represented the inorganic colloids, and casein the organic colloids (namely the sea-water proteins). The suspended inorganic colloidal materials were precipitated by the coagulant property of hydrolyzed aluminum ions from an Al/Pt electrochemical cell. Titrimetric and spectrophotometric methods were used to analyze the concentration of the remaining ions after pretreatment. The silica content was reduced from 100ppm to 7ppm in the galvanic cell, and to 3.5ppm when an outside current was used. The corresponding reduction of iron concentration was from 2ppm to 0.05ppm. © 1985, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved