Effect of 5-aminolevulinic acid on kinetics of protoporphyrin IX production in CHO cells.

5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is utilized in a photodynamic therapy as a compound capable of augmenting intracellular pool of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), which exhibits properties of a photosensitizer. The studies were aimed at monitoring accumulation of endogenous protoporphyrin IX in CHO cells under effect of various concentrations of ALA in culture medium and following removal of the compound from the culture medium. Cell content of PpIX was determined following incubation of the cells for 72 h in a culture medium containing different concentration of ALA. Moreover, the cells were preincubated for 2 h in ALA at various concentrations and separated from the compound by medium change and their PpIX content was monitored following incubation. PpIX content was defined by a fluorescent technique under the confocal microscope. In the course of continuous incubation of cells with ALA, biphasic alterations were noted in cellular PpIX concentration. Removal of ALA from the incubation medium resulted at first in a decrease in PpIX content in cells, which was followed by an evidently augmented accumulation of the compound in the cells. The results suggested that in the case of CHO cells, exogenous ALA was not an exclusive source of PpIX synthesis and that alterations in enzyme activities were responsible for production of PpIX

Distribution of the DAZ gene transcripts in human testis.

Involvement of variety of genes, especially located on Y chromosome, is critical for the regulation of spermatogenesis. In particular, fertility candidate genes such as deleted in azoospermia (DAZ) are believed to have important function in sperm production, since DAZ is frequently deleted in azoospermic and severy oligozoospermic men. The role of the DAZ gene is supported by its exclusive expression in the testis and by its deletion in about 10% of azoospermic and severely oligozoospermic patients. The distribution of DAZ transcripts in seminiferous epithelium of human testis is reported in the present study. The use of Adobe Photoshop and Scion Image softwares allowed for semi-quantitative analysis of in situ RT-PCR (ISRT-PCR) results. The intensity of ISRT-PCR product's fluorescence was different within individual seminiferous tubules. It was clearly shown by using the pseudocolour scale and transforming the intensity of the fluorescence into levels of greyscale images. The more intense fluorescence characterised single spermatogonia and those organized in small groups inside separate tubules. The most intense accumulation of DAZ mRNA was observed in spermatogonia

Community Assessment of the Predictability of Cancer Protein and Phosphoprotein Levels from Genomics and Transcriptomics.

Cancer is driven by genomic alterations, but the processes causing this disease are largely performed by proteins. However, proteins are harder and more expensive to measure than genes and transcripts. To catalyze developments of methods to infer protein levels from other omics measurements, we leveraged crowdsourcing via the NCI-CPTAC DREAM proteogenomic challenge. We asked for methods to predict protein and phosphorylation levels from genomic and transcriptomic data in cancer patients. The best performance was achieved by an ensemble of models, including as predictors transcript level of the corresponding genes, interaction between genes, conservation across tumor types, and phosphosite proximity for phosphorylation prediction. Proteins from metabolic pathways and complexes were the best and worst predicted, respectively. The performance of even the best-performing model was modest, suggesting that many proteins are strongly regulated through translational control and degradation. Our results set a reference for the limitations of computational inference in proteogenomics. A record of this paper's transparent peer review process is included in the Supplemental Information

Selected issues related to heat storage tank modelling and optimisation aimed at forecasting its operation

The paper presents results of research focused on modelling heat storage tank operation used for forecasting purposes. It presents selected issues related to mathematical modelling of heat storage tanks and related equipment and discusses solution process of the optimisation task. Presented detailed results were obtained during real-life industrial implementation of the optimisation process at the Siekierki combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Warsaw owned by Vattenfall Heat Poland S.A. (currently by Polish Oil & Gas Company - PGNiG SA) carried out by the Academic Research Centre of Power Industry and Environment Protection, Warsaw University of Technology in collaboration with Transition Technologies S.A. company

Acetone adsorption onto clay minerals

Celem niniejszej pracy było porownanie adsorpcji par acetonu na węglu aktywnym i naturalnych adsorbentach opartych na bentonicie. Naturalny bentonit poddano chemicznej modyfikacji poprzez dealuminację kwasem HCl, wymianę jonową solami: chlorkiem cezu (CsCl) i bromkiem tetrametyloamoniowym (TMA-Br) oraz interkalację. Otrzymane adsorbenty zastosowano do adsorpcji par acetonu. Badania przeprowadzono w warunkach kolumnowych w specjalnie do tego celu zbudowanej instalacji laboratoryjnej, składającej się z butli zawierającej mieszaninę par acetonu w azocie o danym stężeniu, kolumny wypełnionej badanym adsorbentem, przepływomierza oraz analizatora stężeń. Pomiar stężenia acetonu na wylocie z kolumny wykonano (on-line) techniką chromatografii gazowej. Badania przeprowadzono w temperaturze otoczenia pod ciśnieniem atmosferycznym dla wejściowego stężenia acetonu równego 200 ppm. Na materiale modyfikowanym TMA-Br wyznaczono izotermę adsorpcji, którą wykorzystano do modelowania równowagi adsorpcji. Zastosowano równania empiryczne dwu-, troj- i czteroparametrowe.The aim of the present work was to compare adsorption of acetone vapors on activated carbon and natural adsorbents based on bentonite. Natural bentonite was chemically modified by acidic dealumination using HCl, by cationic exchange with cesium chloride (CsCl) and tetramethylammonium bromide (TMA-Br) salts and by intercalation. There were determined basic physical and chemical properties of the adsorbents and the investigation for acetone adsorption capacity was carried out. For comparative purposes, also active carbon (AC) was tested. The research was realized in a self-made system consisting of a bottle with acetone-nitrogen mixture with given concentration, fixed-bed column with tested adsorbent, flowmeter and concentration analyzer. Concentrations on column inlet and outlet were monitored on-line using gas chromatography technique. The tests were implemented on 0.5 g samples of active carbon, natural bentonite (B) and four modified bentonites: one treated with hydrochloric acid (B-HCl), two modified with Cs+ and TMA+ cations (B-Cs, B-TMA) and one intercalated. Samples were previously dried at 150°C for one hour. The tests were performed for atmospheric pressure, ambient temperature and inlet acetone concentration of 200 ppm. The amounts adsorbed by examined materials were calculated with integral method on the basis of obtained breakthrough curve. Non-modified bentonite (B) had much lower acetone adsorption capacity than modified ones. The determined acetone adsorption capacity followed the order: B-int > B-TMA > B-Cs > B-HCl > B. Using specific method of chemical modification, the acetone adsorption capacity level compared to AC was reached. Surface area (ABET) of AC was 10-times greater than ABET of B-TMA, but in comparison with B-TMA the adsorption capacity of AC was only doubled. Therefore, ABET should not be the only factor determining acetone adsorption onto modified bentonite, but also chemical character of the adsorbent surface ought to be taken into consideration. The isotherm for B-TMA was examined in the temperature of 30°C for vapor pressure range of 0 to 0.5 P/P0. In order to perform modeling of adsorption equilibrium, there were used obtained equilibrium concentrations of acetone in solid and gaseous state. Two-, three- and four-parametric empirical equilibrium models were applied. The non-linear curve fitting was carried out using the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. The relationship between two variables (experimental and theoretically predicted) was assessed by the Fisher test, the mean error and the approximation of standard deviation. The best criteria value of statistical tests proved that the best approximation of experimental data was obtained for the Redlich-Peterson model. Moreover, this model reflected the best approximation of experimentally obtained maximum adsorption capacity value (qm,exp). The value of parameter n (n ≠ 1) implied heterogeneity of the B-TMA adsorbent surface and/or multilayer adsorption