Pressure and temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of bulk Al23 Te77 glass

Electrical resistivity of bulk amorphous Al23T77 samples has been studied as a function of pressure (up to 80 kbar) and temperature (down to 77 K). At atmospheric pressure the temperature dependence of resistivity obeys the relation = π0 exp(δE/RT) with two activation energies. In the temperature range 300 K T > 234 K the activation energy is 0.58 eV and for 234 >T 185 K the value is δE = 0.30 ev. The activation energy has been measured as a function of pressure. The electrical resistivity decreases exponentially with the increase of pressure and at 70 kbar pressure the electrical behaviour of the sample shows a metallic nature with a positive temperature coefficient. The high pressure phase of the sample is found to be a crystalline hexagonal phase.

Preparation of cast aluminium alloy-mica particle composites

The optimum conditions for producing cast aluminium alloy-mica particle composites, by stirring mica particles (40 to 120 mgrm) in molten aluminium alloys (above their liquidus temperatures), followed by casting in permanent moulds, are described. Addition of magnesium either as pieces along with mica particles on the surface of the melts or as a previously added alloying element was found to be necessary to disperse appreciable quantities (1.5 to 2 wt.%) of mica particles in the melts and retain them as uniform dispersions in castings under the conditions of present investigation. These castings can be remelted and degassed with nitrogen at least once with the retention of about 80% mica particles in the castings. Electron probe micro-analysis of these cast composites showed that magnesium added to the surface of the melt along with mica has a tendency to segregate around the mica particles, apparently improving the dispersability for mica particles in liquid aluminium alloys. The mechanical properties of the aluminium alloy-mica particle composite decrease with an increase in mica content, however, even at 2.2% the composite has a tensile strength of 14.22 kg mm–2 with 1.1% elongation, a compression strength of 42.61 kg mm–2, and an impact strength of 0.30 kgm cm–2. The properties are adequate for certain bearing applications, and the aluminium-mica composite bearings were found to run under boundary lubrication, semi-dry and dry friction conditions whereas the matrix alloy (without mica) bearings seized or showed stick slip under the same conditions.

Specific polyadenylation and purification of total messenger RNA from Escherichia coli

Obtaining pure mRNA preparations from prokaryotes has been difficult, if not impossible, for want of a poly(A) tail on these messages, We have used poly(A) polymerase from yeast to effect specific polyadenylation of Escherichia coli polysomal mRNA in the presence of magnesium and manganese, The polyadenylated total mRNA, which could be subsequently purified by binding to and elution from oligo(dT) beads, had a size range of 0.4-4.0 kb. We have used hybridization to a specific plasmid-encoded gene to further confirm that the polyadenylated species represented mRNA, Withdrawal of Mg2+ from the polyadenylation reaction rRNA despite the presence of Mn2+, indicating the vital role of Mg2+ in maintaining the native structure of polysomes, Complete dissociation of polysomes into ribosomal subunits resulted in quantitative polyadenylation of both 16S and 23S rRNA species, Chromosomal lacZ gene-derived messages were quantitatively recovered in the oligo(dT)-bound fraction, as demonstrated by RT-PCR analysis, Potential advantages that accrue from the availability of pure total mRNA from prokaryotes is discussed.

DNA-condensing and chromatin-condensing properties of rat testes hla and hit compared to those of rat-liver hlbdec - hlt is a poor condenser of chromatin

Histones H1a and H1t are two major linker histone variants present at the pachytene interval of mammalian spermatogenesis. The DNA- and chromatin-condensing properties of these two variants isolated from rat testes were studied and compared with those from rat liver. For this purpose, the histone H1 subtypes were purified from the respective tissues using bath acid and salt extraction procedures, Circular dichroism studies revealed that acid exposure during isolation affects the alpha-helical structure of both the globular domain (in the presence of 1 M NaCl) and the C-terminal lambda-tail (in the presence of 60% trifluoroethanol). The condensation of rat oligonucleosomal DNA, as measured by circular dichroism spectroscopy, by the salt-extracted histone H1 was at least 10 times more efficient than condensation by the acid-extracted histone H1. A site size of 16-20 base pairs was calculated for the salt-extracted histone H1. Among the different histone H1 subtypes, somatic histone H1bdec had the highest DNA-condensing property, followed by histone H1a and histone H1t. All the salt-extracted histones condensed rat oligonucleosomal DNA more efficiently than linear pBR-322 DNA, Histones H1bdec and H1a condensed histone H1-depleted chromatin, prepared from rat liver nuclei, with relatively equal efficiency. On the other hand, there was no condensation of histone H1-depleted chromatin with the testes specific histone H1t. A comparison of the amino acid sequences of histone H1d (rat) and histone H1t (rat) revealed several interesting differences in the occurrence of DNA-binding motifs at the C-terminus. A striking observation is the presence of a direct repeat of an octapeptide motif K(A)T(S)PKKA(S)K(T)K(A) in histone H1d that is absent in histone H1t.

Co(II) and Cr(III) complexes of formate-formamide mixed ligands: synthesis, structures, single crystal-to-single crystal transformation and magnetic behaviour

Solvothermal treatment of an equimolar mixture of Co(NO3)(2)center dot 6H(2)O, HCONH2 and NaN3 in MeOH at 100 degrees C yielded a three-dimensional NaCl type network Co(HCOO)(2)(HCONH2)(2) center dot HCONH2 (1a) containing formamides in the pores of the structure. Solvated pink 1a undergoes single crystal-to-single crystal (SCSC) transformation at 215 degrees C to form the desolvated dark brown product Co(HCOO)(2)-( HCONH2)(2) (1b) with the retention of the original framework. Reversible single crystal-to-single crystal transformation of 1b (brown) to 1a (pink) in the presence of excess formamide was also established at room temperature. The coordination environment around Co(II) in both 1a and 1b is octahedral with a CoN2O4 coordination composition. A similar reaction replacing Co(II) by Cr(III) produced a heterometallic 3D extended network Na[Cr(HCOO)(4)(HCONH2)(2)]center dot 2H(2)O (2a) at 100 degrees C. An increase in reaction temperature to 150 degrees C produced a simple mononuclear complex Cr(HCOO)(3)(HCONH2)(3) center dot 3H(2)O (2b). Variable temperature magnetic studies revealed the presence of a canting phenomena in both 1a and 1b, and hysteresis loop in the field dependent magnetisation plot at 2 K whereas complex 2a is simply paramagnetic in nature.

lac Repressor Is an Antivirulence Factor of Salmonella enterica: Its Role in the Evolution of Virulence in Salmonella

The genus Salmonella includes many pathogens of great medical and veterinary importance. Bacteria belonging to this genus are very closely related to those belonging to the genus Escherichia. lacZYA operon and lacI are present in Escherichia coli, but not in Salmonella enterica. It has been proposed that Salmonella has lost lacZYA operon and lacI during evolution. In this study, we have investigated the physiological and evolutionary significance of the absence of lacI in Salmonella enterica. Using murine model of typhoid fever, we show that the expression of Lacl causes a remarkable reduction in the virulence of Salmonella enterica. Lacl also suppresses the ability of Salmonella enterica to proliferate inside murine macrophages. Microarray analysis revealed that Lacl interferes with the expression of virulence genes of Salmonella pathogenicity island 2. This effect was confirmed by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Interestingly, we found that SBG0326 of Salmonella bongori is homologous to lacI of Escherichia coli. Salmonella bongori is the only other species of the genus Salmonella and it lacks the virulence genes of Salmonella pathogenicity island 2. Overall, our results demonstrate that Lacl is an antivirulence factor of Salmonella enterica and suggest that absence of lacI has facilitated the acquisition of virulence genes of Salmonella pathogenicity island 2 in Salmonella enterica making it a successful systemic pathogen.

A complete characterization of pre-Mueller and Mueller matrices in polarization optics

The Mueller-Stokes formalism that governs conventional polarization optics is formulated for plane waves, and thus the only qualification one could require of a 4 x 4 real matrix M in order that it qualify to be the Mueller matrix of some physical system would be that M map Omega((pol)), the positive solid light cone of Stokes vectors, into itself. In view of growing current interest in the characterization of partially coherent partially polarized electromagnetic beams, there is a need to extend this formalism to such beams wherein the polarization and spatial dependence are generically inseparably intertwined. This inseparability brings in additional constraints that a pre-Mueller matrix M mapping Omega((pol)) into itself needs to meet in order to be an acceptable physical Mueller matrix. These additional constraints are motivated and fully characterized. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America

Mechanism of failure in a free-standing Pt-aluminide bond coat during tensile testing at room temperature

The room temperature (RT) tensile behaviour of a free-standing high activity Pt-aluminide bond coat has been evaluated by microtensile testing technique. The coating had a typical three-layer microstructure. The stress-strain plot for the free-standing coating was linear, indicating the coating to be brittle at RT. Different fracture features were observed across the coating layers, namely quasi-cleavage in the outer layer and inner interdiffusion zone, and cleavage in the intermediate layer. By employing interrupted tensile test and observing the cross-sectional microstructure of the tested specimens, it was determined that failure of the microtensile samples occurred by the initiation of a single crack in the intermediate layer of the coating and its subsequent inside-out propagation. Such a mechanism of failure has been explained in terms of the fracture features observed across the sample thickness. This mechanism of failure is consistent with fracture toughness values of the individual coating layers. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Crystallite size effects in stacking faulted nickel hydroxide and its electrochemical behaviour

P-Nickel hydroxide comprises a long range periodic arrangement of atoms with a stacking sequence of AC AC AC-having an ideal composition Ni(OH)(2). Variation in the preparative conditions can lead to the changes in the stacking sequence (AC AC BA CB AC AC or AC AC AB AC AC) This type of variation in stacking sequence can result in the formation of stacking fault in nickel hydroxide. The stability of the stacking fault depends on the free energy content of the sample. Stacking faults in nickel hydroxide is essential for better electrochemical activity. Also there are reports correlating particle size to the better electrochemical activity. Here we present the effect of crystallite size on the stacking faulted nickel hydroxide samples. The electrochemical performance of stacking faulted nickel hydroxide with small crystallite size exchanges 0.8e/Ni, while the samples with larger crystallite size exchange 0.4e/Ni. Hence a right combination of crystallite size and stacking fault content has to be controlled for good electrochemical activity of nickel hydroxide. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transonic Properties of Accretion Disk Around Compact Objects

An accretion flow is necessarily transonic around a black hole. However, around a neutron star it may or may not be transonic, depending on the inner disk boundary conditions influenced by the neutron star. I will discuss various transonic behavior of the disk fluid in general relativistic (or pseudo general relativistic) framework. I will address that there are four types of sonic/critical point. possible to form in an accretion disk. It will be shown that how the fluid properties including location of sonic point's vary with angular momentum of the compact object which controls the overall disk dynamics and outflows.

Structural transformations in Mn2NiGa due to residual stress

Powder x-ray diffraction study of Mn2NiGa ferromagnetic shape memory alloy shows the existence of a 7M monoclinic modulated structure at room temperature (RT). The structure of Mn2NiGa is found to be highly dependent on residual stress. For higher stress, the structure is tetragonal at RT, and for intermediate stress it is 7M monoclinic. However, only when the stress is considerably relaxed, the structure is cubic, as is expected at RT since the martensitic transition temperature is 230 K.

Reactive Pulsed Laser Deposition of titanium nitride thin film: Optimization of process parameters using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

Reactive Pulsed Laser Deposition is a single step process wherein the ablated elemental metal reacts with a low pressure ambient gas to form a compound. We report here a Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry based analytical methodology to conduct minimum number of experiments to arrive at optimal process parameters to obtain high quality TiN thin film. Quality of these films was confirmed by electron microscopic analysis. This methodology can be extended for optimization of other process parameters and materials. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1-[5-Acetyl-4-(4-bromophenyl)-2,6-dimethyl-1,4-dihydropyridin-3-yl]eth anone monohydrate

The 1,4-dihydropyridine ring in the title hydrate, C17H18BrNO2 center dot H2O, has a flattened-boat conformation, and the benzene ring is occupies a position orthogonal to this [dihedral angle: 82.19 (16)degrees]. In the crystal packing, supramolecular arrays mediated by N-H center dot center dot center dot O-water and O-water-H center dot center dot center dot O-carbonyl hydrogen bonding are formed in the bc plane. A highly disordered solvent molecule is present within a molecular cavity defined by the organic and water molecules. Its contribution to the electron density was removed from the observed data in the final cycles of refinement and the formula, molecular weight and density are given without taking into account the contribution of the solvent molecule.

Heat-shock protein 70-2 (HSP70-2) expression in bladder urothelial carcinoma is associated with tumour progression and promotes migration and invasion

Purpose: Testis specific heat-shock protein 70-2 (HSP70-2), a member of HSP70 chaperone family, is essential for the growth of spermatocytes and cancer cells. We investigated the association of HSP70-2 expression with clinical behaviour and progression of urothelial carcinoma of bladder. Experimental design: We assessed the HSP70-2 expression by RT-PCR and HSP70-2 protein expression by immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry and Western blotting in urothelial carcinoma patient specimens and HTB-1, UMUC-3, HTB-9, HTB-2 and normal human urothelial cell lines. Further, to investigate the role of HSP70-2 in bladder tumour development, HSP70-2 was silenced in the high-grade invasive HTB-1 and UMUC-3 cells. The malignant properties of urothelial carcinoma cells were examined using colony formation, migration assay, invasion assay in vitro and tumour growth in vivo. Results: Our RT-PCR analysis and immunohistochemistry analysis revealed that HSP70-2 was expressed in both moderate to well-differentiated and high-grade invasive urothelial carcinoma cell lines studied and not in normal human urothelial cells. In consistence with these results, HSP70-2 expression was also observed in superficially invasive (70%) and muscle-invasive (90%) patient's tumours. Furthermore, HSP70-2 knockdown significantly suppressed cellular motility and invasion ability. An in vivo xenograft study showed that inhibition of HSP70-2 significantly suppressed tumour growth. Conclusions: In conclusion, our data suggest that the HSP70-2 expression is associated with early spread and progression of urothelial carcinoma of bladder cancer and that HSP70-2 can be the potential therapeutic target for bladder urothelial carcinoma. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identification of genes associated with tumorigenesis of meibomian cell carcinoma by microarray analysis

Meibomian cell carcinoma (MCC) is a malignant tumor of the meibomian glands located in the eyelids. No information exists on the cytogenctic and genetic aspects of MCC. There is no report on the gene expression profile of MCC. Thus there is a need, for both scientific and clinical reasons, to identify genes and pathways that are involved in the development and progression of MCC. We analyzed the gene expression profile of MCC by the microarray technique. Forty-four genes were upregulated and 149 genes were downregulated in MCC. Differential expression data were confirmed for 5 genes by semiquantitative RT-PCR in MCC tumors: GTF2H4, RBM12, UBE2D3, DDX17, and LZTS1. We found dysregulation of two major pathways in MCC: MAPK and JAK/STAT. Clusters of genes on chromosomes 1, 12, and 19 were dysregUlated in MCC. The data presented here will facilitate the identification of specific markers and therapeutic targets for the treatment of MCC patients. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.