The Mobility of Chondroitin Sulfate in Articular and Artificial Cartilage Characterized by (13)C Magic-Angle Spinning NMR Spectroscopy

We have studied the molecular dynamics of one of the major macromolecules in articular cartilage, chondroitin sulfate. Applying (13)C high-resolution magic-angle spinning NMR techniques, the NMR signals of all rigid macromolecules in cartilage can be suppressed, allowing the exclusive detection of the highly mobile chondroitin sulfate. The technique is also used to detect the chondroitin sulfate in artificial tissue-engineered cartilage. The tissue-engineered material that is based on matrix producing chondrocytes cultured in a collagen gel should provide properties as close as possible to those of the natural cartilage. Nuclear relaxation times of the chondroitin sulfate were determined for both tissues. Although T(1) relaxation times are rather similar, the T(2) relaxation in tissue-engineered cartilage is significantly shorter. This suggests that the motions of chondroitin sulfate in data:rat and artificial cartilage different. The nuclear relaxation times of chondroitin sulfate in natural and tissue-engineered cartilage were modeled using a broad distribution function for the motional correlation times. Although the description of the microscopic molecular dynamics of the chondroitin sulfate in natural and artificial cartilage required the identical broad distribution functions for the correlation times of motion, significant differences in the correlation times of motion that are extracted from the model indicate that the artificial tissue does not fully meet the standards of the natural ideal. This could also be confirmed by macroscopic biomechanical elasticity measurements. Nevertheless, these results suggest that NMR is a useful tool for the investigation of the quality of artificially engineered tissue. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 93: 520-532, 2010.

The network of intertextual relations in Naipaul's half a life and magic seeds

Esta dissertação mapeia a rede de relações intertextuais em Half a Life (2001) e sua continuação Magic Seeds (2004), os romances mais recentes do Prêmio Nobel de Literatura de 2001, V. S. Naipaul, como contribuição para o estudo da obra do autor. A noção de intertextualidade permeia os estudos literários, e o termo tem sido largamente empregado desde que foi cunhado por Julia Kristeva nos anos sessenta. Desde então as mais variadas, e muitas vezes divergentes, teorias sobre intertextualidade compartilham a idéia de que um texto só adquire significado pleno na interação com outros textos. A abordagem metodológica proposta é baseada na teoria da transtextualidade de Gérard Genette. Esta escolha implica o estudo de intertextos, paratextos, metatextos, arquitextos e hipertextos que constituem a interface entre os dois romances e outros escritos. O nome do protagonista "William Somerset Chandran" constitui o fio que guia o estudo das várias relações transtextuais nos dois romances. A partir do prenome do protagonista – William – este estudo situa os romances no contexto da tradição do Bildungsroman, e argumenta que estes estabelecem uma paródia arquitextual do gênero na medida em que subvertem seu cerne, ou seja, a formação do caráter do protagonista. O nome do meio do protagonista – Somerset – remete à ficcionalização do escritor Somerset Maugham na narrativa, ao mesmo tempo em que esta desmistifica a ótica ocidental sobre o hinduísmo popularizada por Maugham em The Razor's Edge. O sobrenome do protagonista – Chandran – leva ao estudo do conjunto de referências à origem indiana de Naipaul e o papel desta na produção do autor. Este nome se reporta ao romance de Narayan The Bachelor of Arts, cujo protagonista também é nomeado Chandran. Narayan é um escritor de destaque na literatura anglo-indiana e referência recorrente na obra de Naipaul. Os temas de migração e choque cultural apresentados nos dois romances têm sido presença constante na obra de Naipaul. Esta pesquisa mapeia a relação de continuidade entre os dois romances em questão e o conjunto da obra de Naipaul, salientando o papel da ambientação geográfica da narrativa, marcada pela jornada do protagonista através de três continentes. A teoria da transtextualidade é uma ferramenta operacional para a pesquisa, a qual examina a densidade das referências geográficas, históricas e literárias em Half a Life e Magic Seeds, visando aportar elementos para o estudo da produção literária de Naipaul, na medida em que estes romances recentes condensam e revisitam a visão de mundo deste autor.

Module for the analysis of growth in international commerce (MAGIC Plus): user guide (updated)

Includes bibliography

Sistema para analizar el crecimiento del comercio internacional: Module to Analyse the Growth of International Commerce (MAGIC): manual de uso

Incluye Bibliografía

Módulo para analizar el crecimiento del comercio internacional: Module to Analyse the Growth of International Commerce (MAGIC): manual de uso

Incluye Bibliografía

Module for the Analysis of Growth of International Commerce (MAGIC PLUS)

On 12 September 2006, on the occasion of the launching of the report Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy, 2005-2006, the Executive Secretary of ECLAC, José Luis Machinea, presented a new version of the software program Module for the Analysis of Growth of International Commerce (MAGIC).  The first version of MAGIC was created by ECLAC Subregional Headquarters in Mexico , to conduct ex post analysis of the competitiveness of countries' exports to the United States market. The new application architecture was made possible thanks to financial support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Division of Production, Productivity and Management of ECLAC headquarters in Santiago , Chile .  This issue of the FAL Bulletin reviews the progress of MAGIC in the ten years it has been functioning, and the evolution which has made it one of ECLAC's most popular, versatile, and technologically advanced applications.  

Evaluation report of the training workshop on the use of the module to analyse growth of international commerce (Magic Plus) and the competitive analysis of nations (TRADECAN 2009) software

The aim of the workshop was to provide a functional overview of the software package, to enable participants to use the software in order to inform more evidence-based trade strategies, and build capacity for researchers and trade negotiators to provide more rigorous, analytical policy research to inform future trade negotiations. Participants came from the ministries of trade of the following CDCC member countries: Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. Representatives of the following regional institutions were represented: the Caribbean Community/Caribbean Regional Negotiating Mechanism (CARICOM/CRNM); the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS); the University of Guyana, University of Suriname and the University of the West Indies (UWI). It was hoped the workshop would be a stepping stone towards more advanced trade analysis training. The list of participants appears as Annex I.

Processing of high resolution magic angle spinning spectra of breast cancer cells by the filter diagonalization method

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H-1 NMR) spectroscopy for detection of biochemical changes in biological samples is a successful technique. However, the achieved NMR resolution is not sufficiently high when the analysis is performed with intact cells. To improve spectral resolution, high resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) is used and the broad signals are separated by a T-2 filter based on the CPMG pulse sequence. Additionally, HR-MAS experiments with a T-2 filter are preceded by a water suppression procedure. The goal of this work is to demonstrate that the experimental procedures of water suppression and T-2 or diffusing filters are unnecessary steps when the filter diagonalization method (FDM) is used to process the time domain HR-MAS signals. Manipulation of the FDM results, represented as a tabular list of peak positions, widths, amplitudes and phases, allows the removal of water signals without the disturbing overlapping or nearby signals. Additionally, the FDM can also be used for phase correction and noise suppression, and to discriminate between sharp and broad lines. Results demonstrate the applicability of the FDM post-acquisition processing to obtain high quality HR-MAS spectra of heterogeneous biological materials.

Probing the decay characteristics of the Pygmy Dipole Resonance in the semi-magic nucleus 140 Ce with gamma-gamma coincidence measurements

Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde ein neuartiger Experimentaufbau -- das γ3 Experiment -- zur Messung von photoneninduzierten Kern-Dipolanregungen in stabilen Isotopen konzipiert und an der High Intensity γ-Ray Source (HIγS) an der Duke University installiert.rnDie hohe Energieauflösung und die hohe Nachweiseffizienz des Detektoraufbaus, welcher aus einer Kombination von LaBr Szintillatoren und hochreinen Germanium-Detektoren besteht, erlaubt erstmals die effiziente Messung von γ-γ-Koinzidenzen in Verbindung mit der Methode der Kernresonanzfluoreszenz.rnDiese Methode eröffnet den Zugang zum Zerfallsverhalten der angeregten Dipolzustände als zusätzlicher Observablen, die ein detaillierteres Verständnis der zugrunde liegenden Struktur dieser Anregungen ermöglicht.rnDer Detektoraufbau wurde bereits erfolgreich im Rahmen von zwei Experimentkampagnen in 2012 und 2013 für die Untersuchung von 13 verschiedenen Isotopen verwendet. Im Fokus dieser Arbeit stand die Analyse der Pygmy-Dipolresonanz (PDR) im Kern 140Ce im Energiebereich von 5,2 MeV bis 8,3 MeV basierend auf den mit dem γ3 Experimentaufbau gemessenen Daten. Insbesondere das Zerfallsverhalten der Zustände, die an der PDR beteiligt sind, wurde untersucht. Der Experimentaufbau, die Details der Analyse sowie die Resultate werden in der vorliegenden Arbeit präsentiert. Desweiteren erlaubt ein Vergleich der Ergebnisse mit theoretischen Rechnungen im quasi-particle phonon model (QPM) eine Interpretation des beobachteten Zerfallsverhaltens.