An investigation of base exchange equilibria

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Kansas, Chemistry, 1949

A study of hair zinc levels and intraocular pressure

Zinc is present in the metalloenzyme carbonic anhydrase which is found in the ciliary body and is involved in the production of aqueous humor. It is known that a reduction in carbonic anhydrase, via carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, lowers intraocular pressure. This paper investigates the possibility that chronic subnormal zinc nutriture may also decrease carbonic anhydrase activity and thus lower intraocular pressure. Ten subjects each having intraocular pressures \u3c 10mm Hg, as measured by Goldmann tonometry, were selected from a normal clinical population. Ten control subjects, having intraocular pressures from 12-l?mm, were matched to the experimental group for sex and age. Hair zinc and other mineral levels were assessed for all subjects at the Parmae Laboratory in Dallas, Texas. Results indicate that there is no significant difference (at the .01 level) in hair zinc and other mineral levels for the experimental and control groups

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in photochemically aged air from the Eastern and Western Mediterranean

Meeting Poster abstract given at EGU general assembly 2015.In summer 2014 a comprehensively instrumented measurement campaign (CYPHEX) was conducted in northwest Cyprus in order to investigate atmospheric oxidation chemistry in the Mediterranean region. The site was periodically influenced by the northerly Etesian winds advecting air from Eastern Europe (Turkey and Greece) and from westerly winds bringing more photochemically processed emissions from Western Europe (Spain and France). In this study the data from a Proton Transfer Reaction Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS) are analyzed. Generally, oxidized volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) such as methanol and acetone were measured in high mixing ratios (max. 9.5 ppb, min. 1.3 ppb, average 3.2 ppb for methanol, max. 7.9 ppb, min. 1.3 ppb, average 2.4 ppb for acetone ) while precursors like propane showed low values (max. 500 ppt). This demonstrates that the air measured was oxidized to a high degree over the Mediterranean Sea. Low values of acetonitrile throughout the campaign indicated no significant influence of biomass burning on the data. Temporal variations in VOC mixing ratios and precursor/product ratios over the campaign can be explained by using the HYSPLIT backward trajectory model which delineated air masses originating from Eastern and Western Europe. Diel variations of reactive VOCs such as isoprene and terpenes were also observed at the site. A sharp increase in isoprene and monoterpenes at circa 9:00 local time indicated that the 600 m hilltop site was influenced by ascending boundary layer air at this time. In this study, particular emphasis is placed on acetic (ethanoic) acid measured by PTR- TOF-MS and calibrated by a permeation source. Acetic acid is an atmospheric oxidation product of multiple volatile organic compounds, emitted directly from vegetation, and found in abundance in the Mediterranean region (max. 2.7 ppb, min. 0.2 ppb, average 0.8 ppb). Acetic acid contributes to the acidity of precipitation in remote areas, can be incorporated into aerosols by adsorption on the surface and thereby alter the activity due to their high polarity. Correlations of acetic acid with peracetic acid, humidity and ozone have been investigated in order to better understand the sources influencing acetic acid at the site and to assess its potential as a marker for Criegee radical chemistry.Max Planck Societ

Vector Interactions and Molecular Adaptations of Lyme Disease and Relapsing Fever Spirochetes Associated with Transmission by Ticks

Pathogenic spirochetes in the genus Borrelia are transmitted primarily by two families of ticks. The Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, is transmitted by the slow-feeding ixodid tick Ixodes scapularis, whereas the relapsing fever spirochete, B. hermsii, is transmitted by Ornithodoros hermsi, a fast-feeding argasid tick. Lyme disease spirochetes are generally restricted to the midgut in unfed I. scapularis. When nymphal ticks feed, the bacteria pass through the hemocoel to the salivary glands and are transmitted to a new host in the saliva after 2 days. Relapsing fever spirochetes infect the midgut in unfed O. hermsi but persist in other sites including the salivary glands. Thus, relapsing fever spirochetes are efficiently transmitted in saliva by these fast-feeding ticks within minutes of their attachment to a mammalian host. We describe how B. burgdorferi and B. hermsii change their outer surface during their alternating infections in ticks and mammals, which in turn suggests biological functions for a few surface-exposed lipoproteins

Characterisation of silent and active genes for a variable large protein of Borrelia recurrentis

BACKGROUND: We report the characterisation of the variable large protein (vlp) gene expressed by clinical isolate A1 of Borrelia recurrentis; the agent of the life-threatening disease louse-borne relapsing fever. METHODS: The major vlp protein of this isolate was characterised and a DNA probe created. Use of this together with standard molecular methods was used to determine the location of the vlp1(B. recurrentis A1) gene in both this and other isolates. RESULTS: This isolate was found to carry silent and expressed copies of the vlp1(B. recurrentis A1) gene on plasmids of 54 kbp and 24 kbp respectively, whereas a different isolate, A17, had only the silent vlp1(B. recurrentis A17) on a 54 kbp plasmid. Silent and expressed vlp1 have identical mature protein coding regions but have different 5' regions, both containing different potential lipoprotein leader sequences. Only one form of vlp1 is transcribed in the A1 isolate of B. recurrentis, yet both 5' upstream sequences of this vlp1 gene possess features of bacterial promoters. CONCLUSION: Taken together these results suggest that antigenic variation in B. recurrentis may result from recombination of variable large and small protein genes at the junction between lipoprotein leader sequence and mature protein coding region. However, this hypothetical model needs to be validated by further identification of expressed and silent variant protein genes in other B. recurrentis isolates

The GALLEX Project

AbstractThe GALLEX collaboration aims at the detection of solar neutrinos in a radiochemical experiment employing 30 tons of Gallium in form of concentrated aqueous Gallium-chloride solution. The detector is primarily sensitive to the otherwise inaccessible pp-neutrinos. Details of the experiment have been repeatedly described before [1-7]. Here we report the present status of implementation in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy). So far, 12.2 tons of Gallium are at hand. The present status of development allows to start the first full scale run at the time when 30 tons of Gallium become available. This date is expected to be January, 1990

Antigenic Variation in Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Involves a Highly Structured Switching Pattern

Many pathogenic bacteria, fungi, and protozoa achieve chronic infection through an immune evasion strategy known as antigenic variation. In the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, this involves transcriptional switching among members of the var gene family, causing parasites with different antigenic and phenotypic characteristics to appear at different times within a population. Here we use a genome-wide approach to explore this process in vitro within a set of cloned parasite populations. Our analyses reveal a non-random, highly structured switch pathway where an initially dominant transcript switches via a set of switch-intermediates either to a new dominant transcript, or back to the original. We show that this specific pathway can arise through an evolutionary conflict in which the pathogen has to optimise between safeguarding its limited antigenic repertoire and remaining capable of establishing infections in non-naïve individuals. Our results thus demonstrate a crucial role for structured switching during the early phases of infections and provide a unifying theory of antigenic variation in P. falciparum malaria as a balanced process of parasite-intrinsic switching and immune-mediated selection

The Coxiella burnetii Dot/Icm System Delivers a Unique Repertoire of Type IV Effectors into Host Cells and Is Required for Intracellular Replication

Coxiella burnetii, the causative agent of human Q fever, is an intracellular pathogen that replicates in an acidified vacuole derived from the host lysosomal network. This pathogen encodes a Dot/Icm type IV secretion system that delivers bacterial proteins called effectors to the host cytosol. To identify new effector proteins, the functionally analogous Legionella pneumophila Dot/Icm system was used in a genetic screen to identify fragments of C. burnetii genomic DNA that when fused to an adenylate cyclase reporter were capable of directing Dot/Icm-dependent translocation of the fusion protein into mammalian host cells. This screen identified Dot/Icm effectors that were proteins unique to C. burnetii, having no overall sequence homology with L. pneumophila Dot/Icm effectors. A comparison of C. burnetii genome sequences from different isolates revealed diversity in the size and distribution of the genes encoding many of these effectors. Studies examining the localization and function of effectors in eukaryotic cells provided evidence that several of these proteins have an affinity for specific host organelles and can disrupt cellular functions. The identification of a transposon insertion mutation that disrupts the dot/icm locus was used to validate that this apparatus was essential for translocation of effectors. Importantly, this C. burnetii Dot/Icm-deficient mutant was found to be defective for intracellular replication. Thus, these data indicate that C. burnetii encodes a unique subset of bacterial effector proteins translocated into host cells by the Dot/Icm apparatus, and that the cumulative activities exerted by these effectors enables C. burnetii to successfully establish a niche inside mammalian cells that supports intracellular replication