High rate operation of micro-strip gas chambers on diamond-coated glass

Very high rate operation of micro­strip gas chambers can be achieved using slightly conducting substrates. We describe preliminary measurements realized with detectors manufactured on boro-silicate glass coated, before the photo-lithographic processing, with a diamond layer having a surface resistivity of around 1014 /o. Stable medium-term operation, and a rate capability largely exceeding the one obtained with identical plates manufactured on uncoated glass are demonstrated. If these results are confirmed by long-term measurements the diamond coating technology appears very attractive since it allows, with a moderate cost overhead, to use thin, commercially available glass with the required surface quality for the large-scale production of gas micro-strip detectors

The Application of Biotechnologies to Groundnut, Arachis hypogaea L., with Special Reference to Developing Countries

Groundnut is the twelfth most important crop in the world, occupying some 19 million hectares in the warm temperate and tropical zones bounded by the 400 line of latitude. it is usually grown under rainfed conditions, but there are some areas in which it is grown under irrigation. World production in 1987 was 20 million tonnes in shell, most of which (12.8 million tonnes) was produced in Asia; of this amount, China produced 6.1 million tonnes while India produced 4.5 million tonnes. Africa produced 4.7 million tonnes. Worldwide, average yields by country range from 0.43 tonnesha to 4.60 tonnestha (FAO. 1987). Rainfed crops are often grown under low-input conditions, and even in those developing countries where fertilizers and pesticides are available on the market, many small farmers do not have sufficient resources to make use of them. There is thus a strong incentive todevelop varieties with pest and disease resistance, tolerance to poor soils, and the ability to yield under lowmoisture regimes

General method for prediction of thermal conductivity for well-characterized hydrocarbon mixtures and fuels up to extreme conditions using entropy scaling

A general and efficient technique is developed to predict the thermal conductivity of well-characterized hydrocarbon mixtures, rocket propellant (RP) fuels, and jet fuels up to high temperatures and high pressures (HTHP). The technique is based upon entropy scaling using the group contribution method coupled with the Perturbed-Chain Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (PC-SAFT) equation of state. The mixture number averaged molecular weight and hydrogen to carbon ratio are used to define a single pseudo-component to represent the compounds in a well-characterized hydrocarbon mixture or fuel. With these two input parameters, thermal conductivity predictions are less accurate when the mixture contains significant amounts of iso-alkanes, but the predictions improve when a single thermal conductivity data point at a reference condition is used to fit one model parameter. For eleven binary mixtures and three ternary mixtures at conditions from 288 to 360 K and up to 4,500 bar, thermal conductivities are predicted with mean absolute percent deviations (MAPDs) of 16.0 and 3.0% using the two-parameter and three-parameter models, respectively. Thermal conductivities are predicted for three RP fuels and three jet fuels at conditions from 293 to 598 K and up to 700 bar with MAPDs of 14.3 and 2.0% using the two-parameter and three-parameter models, respectively

Nanomaterial-based Sensors for the Study of DNA Interaction with Drugs

The interaction of drugs with DNA has been searched thoroughly giving rise to an endless number of findings of undoubted importance, such as a prompt alert to harmful substances, ability to explain most of the biological mechanisms, or provision of important clues in targeted development of novel chemotherapeutics. The existence of some drugs that induce oxidative damage is an increasing point of concern as they can cause cellular death, aging, and are closely related to the development of many diseases. Because of a direct correlation between the response, strength/ nature of the interaction and the pharmaceutical action of DNA-targeted drugs, the electrochemical analysis is based on the signals of DNA before and after the interaction with the DNA-targeted drug. Nowadays, nanoscale materials are used extensively for offering fascinating characteristics that can be used in designing new strategies for drug-DNA interaction detection. This work presents a review of nanomaterials (NMs) for the study of drug-nucleic acid interaction. We summarize types of drug-DNA interactions, electroanalytical techniques for evidencing these interactions and quantification of drug and/or DNA monitoring

Dynamics in a supercooled molecular liquid: Theory and Simulations

We report extensive simulations of liquid supercooled states for a simple three-sites molecular model, introduced by Lewis and Wahnstr"om [L. J. Lewis and G. Wahnstr"om, Phys. Rev. E 50, 3865 (1994)] to mimic the behavior of ortho-terphenyl. The large system size and the long simulation length allow to calculate very precisely --- in a large q-vector range --- self and collective correlation functions, providing a clean and simple reference model for theoretical descriptions of molecular liquids in supercooled states. The time and wavevector dependence of the site-site correlation functions are compared with detailed predictions based on ideal mode-coupling theory, neglecting the molecular constraints. Except for the wavevector region where the dynamics is controlled by the center of mass (around 9 nm-1), the theoretical predictions compare very well with the simulation data.

Spectrophotometric determination of chromium as the chromium-peroxo-4-(2-pyridylazo)resorcinol complex

Der ternäre Chrom-Peroxo-PAR-Komplex weist einen scheinbaren molaren Extinktionskoeffizienten von 6280 l · mol −1 · cm −1 auf, wenn er aus 0,1 M schwefelsaurer Lösung mit Ethylacetat extrahiert wird. Das Beersche Gesetz wird bis zu 6,0 μg Cr/ml befolgt. Die Bedingungen für eine optimale Farbbildung, die Zusammensetzung des Komplexes, die Wirkung verschiedener Begleitionen und die Anwendung auf Stähle werden beschrieben. The ternary complex chromium-peroxo-PAR exhibits an apparent molar absorptivity of 6280 l mol −1 cm −1 when extracted into ethyl acetate from 0.1 M sulfuric acid solution. Beer's law is followed for solutions containing up to 6.0 μg Cr ml −1 . Conditions for optimum color formation, complex composition, effects of diverse ions, and application to the determination of chromium in steels are described.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46457/1/216_2004_Article_BF00480608.pd

An AP-MS- and BioID-compatible MAC-tag enables comprehensive mapping of protein interactions and subcellular localizations

Protein-protein interactions govern almost all cellular functions. These complex networks of stable and transient associations can be mapped by affinity purification mass spectrometry (AP-MS) and complementary proximity-based labeling methods such as BioID. To exploit the advantages of both strategies, we here design and optimize an integrated approach combining AP-MS and BioID in a single construct, which we term MAC-tag. We systematically apply the MAC-tag approach to 18 subcellular and 3 sub-organelle localization markers, generating a molecular context database, which can be used to define a protein's molecular location. In addition, we show that combining the AP-MS and BioID results makes it possible to obtain interaction distances within a protein complex. Taken together, our integrated strategy enables the comprehensive mapping of the physical and functional interactions of proteins, defining their molecular context and improving our understanding of the cellular interactome.Peer reviewe