Studies on Cobalt(III) Metallosurfactants. Kinetics and Mechanism of Reduction of Cobalt(III) by Iron(II) in Aqueous Acid Medium

The kinetics and mechanism of reduction of the surfactant complex ions, cis-chloro/bromo(dodecylamine)(triethylenetetramine)cobalt(III) by iron(II) in aqueous solution were studied at 303, 308 and 313 K by spectrophotometry under pseudo-first-order conditions using an excess of the reductant. The second-order rate constant increases with cobalt(III) concentration and the presence of aggregation of the complex itself alters the reaction rate. The reductions are acid-independent in the range [H+] = 0.05-0.25mol dm−3. Variation of ionic strength (μ) influences the reaction rate. Activation and thermodynamic parameters have been computed. It is suggested that the reaction of Fe2+(aq) with the cobalt(III) complex proceeds by an inner-sphere mechanism. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) values of these surfactant metal complexes in aqueous solution were obtained from conductance measurements. Specific conductivity data (at 303, 308 and 313 K) served for the evaluation of the temperature-dependent CMC and the standard Gibbs energy of micellization (ΔGm0

Cortical AAV-CNTF gene therapy combined with intraspinal mesenchymal precursor cell transplantation promotes functional and morphological outcomes after spinal cord injury in adult rats

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) promotes survival and enhances long-distance regeneration of injured axons in parts of the adult CNS. Here we tested whether CNTF gene therapy targeting corticospinal neurons (CSN) in motor-related regions of the cerebral cortex promotes plasticity and regrowth of axons projecting into the female adult F344 rat spinal cord after moderate thoracic (T10) contusion injury (SCI). Cortical neurons were transduced with a bicistronic adeno-associated viral vector (AAV1) expressing a secretory form of CNTF coupled to mCHERRY (AAV-CNTFmCherry) or with control AAV only (AAV-GFP) two weeks prior to SCI. In some animals, viable or nonviable F344 rat mesenchymal precursor cells (rMPCs) were injected into the lesion site two weeks after SCI to modulate the inhibitory environment. Treatment with AAV-CNTFmCherry, as well as with AAV-CNTFmCherry combined with rMPCs, yielded functional improvements over AAV-GFP alone, as assessed by open-field and Ladderwalk analyses. Cyst size was significantly reduced in the AAV-CNTFmCherry plus viable rMPC treatment group. Cortical injections of biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) revealed more BDA-stained axons rostral and alongside cysts in the AAV-CNTFmCherry versus AAV-GFP groups. After AAV-CNTFmCherry treatments, many sprouting mCherry-immunopositive axons were seen rostral to the SCI, and axons were also occasionally found caudal to the injury site. These data suggest that CNTF has the potential to enhance corticospinal repair by transducing parent CNS populations

Proportional-Derivative Observer-Based Backstepping Control for an Underwater Manipulator

This paper investigates the performance of a new robust tracking control on the basis of proportional-derivative observer-based backstepping control applied on a three degrees of freedom underwater spatial manipulator. Hydrodynamic forces and moments such as added mass effects, damping effects, and restoring effects can be large and have a significant effect on the dynamic performance of the underwater manipulator. In this paper, a detailed closed-form dynamic model is derived using the recursive Newton-Euler algorithm, which extended to include the most significant hydrodynamic effects. In the dynamic modeling and simulation, the actuator and sensor dynamics of the system are also incorporated. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated using numerical simulations along with comparative study between conventional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controls. The results are confirmed that the actual states of joint trajectories of the underwater manipulator asymptotically follow the desired trajectories defined by the reference model even though the system is subjected to external disturbances and parameter uncertainties. Also, stability of the proposed (model reference control) control scheme is analyzed.</jats:p

Nitrogen ion beam synthesis of InN in InP (100) at elevated temperature

InN phase is grown in crystalline InP(100) substrates by 50 keV N+ implantation at an elevated temperature of 400 deg C followed by annealing at 525 deg C in N2 ambient. Crystallographic structural and Raman scattering studies are performed for the characterization of grown phases. Temperature- and power-dependent photoluminescence studies show direct band-to-band transition peak ~1.06 eV at temperatures <=150K. Implantations at an elevated temperature with a low ion beam current and subsequent low temperature annealing step are found responsible for the growth of high-quality InN phase.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, Journa

Encoding and retrieval in a CA1 microcircuit model of the hippocampus

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic accumulation of knowledge about the morphological, physiological and molecular characteristics, as well as connectivity and synaptic properties of neurons in the mammalian hippocampus. Despite these advances, very little insight has been gained into the computational function of the different neuronal classes; in particular, the role of the various inhibitory interneurons in encoding and retrieval of information remains elusive. Mathematical and computational models of microcircuits play an instrumental role in exploring microcircuit functions and facilitate the dissection of operations performed by diverse inhibitory interneurons. A model of the CA1 microcircuitry is presented using biophysical representations of its major cell types: pyramidal, basket, axo-axonic, bistratified and oriens lacunosummoleculare cells. Computer simulations explore the biophysical mechanisms by which encoding and retrieval of spatio-temporal input patterns are achieved by the CA1 microcircuitry. The model proposes functional roles for the different classes of inhibitory interneurons in the encoding and retrieval cycles

A Validated Reverse Phase HPLC Method for the Determination of Disodium EDTA in Meropenem Drug Substance with UV-Detection using Precolumn Derivatization Technique

This paper deals with development and validation of a high performance liquid chromatographic method for the quantitative determination of disodium EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) in Meropenem active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). EDTA was derivatized with Ferric chloride solution by heating at 70 °C in water bath for about 20 minutes and the chromatographic separation achieved by injecting 100 μL of the derivatized mixture into a Waters HPLC system with photodiode array detector using a Phenomenex Luna C18(2) column (250 × 4.6 mm), 5 μ. The mobile phase consisting of 5% methanol and 95% of 0.7 g/L solution of Tetra butyl ammonium bromide and 4.6 g/L solution of sodium acetate trihydrate in water (pH adjusted to 4.0 with the help of acetic acid glacial) and a flow rate of 1 milliliter/minute. EDTA eluted at approximately 6 minutes. The method was suitably validated with respect to specificity, linearity of response, precision, accuracy, ruggedness, stability in analytical solution, limit of quantitation and detection and robustness for its intended use

Promotion of Hendra virus replication by microRNA 146a

Hendra virus is a highly pathogenic zoonotic paramyxovirus in the genus Henipavirus. Thirty-nine outbreaks of Hendra virus have been reported since its initial identification in Queensland, Australia, resulting in seven human infections and four fatalities. Little is known about cellular host factors impacting Hendra virus replication. In this work, we demonstrate that Hendra virus makes use of a microRNA (miRNA) designated miR-146a, an NF-&kappa;B-responsive miRNA upregulated by several innate immune ligands, to favor its replication. miR-146a is elevated in the blood of ferrets and horses infected with Hendra virus and is upregulated by Hendra virus in human cells in vitro. Blocking miR-146a reduces Hendra virus replication in vitro, suggesting a role for this miRNA in Hendra virus replication. In silico analysis of miR-146a targets identified ring finger protein (RNF)11, a member of the A20 ubiquitin editing complex that negatively regulates NF-&kappa;B activity, as a novel component of Hendra virus replication. RNA interference-mediated silencing of RNF11 promotes Hendra virus replication in vitro, suggesting that increased NF-&kappa;B activity aids Hendra virus replication. Furthermore, overexpression of the I&kappa;B superrepressor inhibits Hendra virus replication. These studies are the first to demonstrate a host miRNA response to Hendra virus infection and suggest an important role for host miRNAs in Hendra virus disease

Neuron splitting in compute-bound parallel network simulations enables runtime scaling with twice as many processors

Neuron tree topology equations can be split into two subtrees and solved on different processors with no change in accuracy, stability, or computational effort; communication costs involve only sending and receiving two double precision values by each subtree at each time step. Splitting cells is useful in attaining load balance in neural network simulations, especially when there is a wide range of cell sizes and the number of cells is about the same as the number of processors. For compute-bound simulations load balance results in almost ideal runtime scaling. Application of the cell splitting method to two published network models exhibits good runtime scaling on twice as many processors as could be effectively used with whole-cell balancing