The effects of cholesterol inclusion on the vesicular membranes of cationic lipids

Small unilamellar vesicles formed from four cationic lipids in the absence and the presence of varying amounts of cholesterol were studied using fluorescence polarization and H-1-NMR techniques. The fluorescence polarization data clearly indicate that the packing order in the cationic lipid bilayers are affected by inclusion of cholesterol. importantly, this effect exists also with a cationic lipid that is devoid of any formal linkage region where the interaction of the lipid with cholesterol through hydrogen bonding is not feasible. The interactions of cholesterol with different types of cationic lipids in excess water have also been examined in multilamellar dispersions using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In all the cases, the methylene proton linewidths in the NMR spectra respond to the addition of cholesterol to vesicles. Hydrophobic association of the lipid and cholesterol imposes restriction on the chain (CH2)(n) motions, leaving the terminal CH3 groups relatively mobile. On the basis of energy-minimized structural models, a rationale of the cholesterol-cationic lipid assembly has also been presented.

Hidden trails: Visualizing arthropod silk

Arthropods are known to use silk for a number of different purposes including web construction, shelter building, leaf tying, construction of pupal cocoons, and as a safety line when dislodged from a substrate (Alexander, 1961; Fitzgerald, 1983; Common, 1990). Across the arthropods, silk displays a diversity of material properties and chemical constituents and is produced from glands with different evolutionary origins (Craig, 1997). Among insects, larval Lepidoptera are prolific producers of silk. Because many lepidopteran larvae are pests, an ability to interfere with silk production or, at the very least, an understanding of how silk is used, could provide new options for pest control. After testing many known fluorescent dyes, we found that Fluorescent Brightener 28 (also known as Calcofluor White M2R) (Sigma-Aldrich Pty Ltd, Sydney, NSW, Australia), an optical brightener used in the textile industry, binds to arthropod silk in a simple staining reaction, causing it to fluoresce under ultraviolet (UV) light. Such brighteners have also been used in insect gut content analysis (Schlein & Muller, 1995; Hugo et al., 2003). Here we describe the method of visualizing arthropod silk on plant surfaces, using as a model the thin, barely visible, single strands of silk produced by Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) neonates.

Domains in complex surfaces with non-compact automorphism groups

Let X be an arbitrary complex surface and D a domain in X that has a non-compact group of holomorphic automorphisms. A characterization of those domains D that admit a smooth, weakly pseudoconvex, finite type boundary orbit accumulation point is obtained.

Second order cone programming approaches for handling missing and uncertain data

We propose a novel second order cone programming formulation for designing robust classifiers which can handle uncertainty in observations. Similar formulations are also derived for designing regression functions which are robust to uncertainties in the regression setting. The proposed formulations are independent of the underlying distribution, requiring only the existence of second order moments. These formulations are then specialized to the case of missing values in observations for both classification and regression problems. Experiments show that the proposed formulations outperform imputation.

A study of the influence of mischmetal additions to Al-7Si-0.3Mg (LM 25/356) alloy

This article deals with the effect of 0.25-1.5 wt pct mischmetal (MM) addition on the mechanical properties, microstructure, electrical conductivity, and fracture behavior of cast Al-7Si-0.3Mg (LM 25/356) alloy. Modification of eutectic silicon by MM is compared with strontium modification in terms of microstructure, mechanical properties, and fading behavior. Loss of magnesium encountered on holding the molten alloy and its resultant effect on mechanical properties of alloys modified with MM and Sr are compared with those in the unmodified alloy.

ADC Static Nonlinearity Estimation Using Linearity Property of Sinewave

Prohibitive test time, nonuniformity of excitation, and signal nonlinearity are major concerns associated with employing dc, sine, and triangular/ramp signals, respectively, while determining static nonlinearity of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with high resolution (i.e., ten or more bits). Attempts to overcome these issues have been examined with some degree of success. This paper describes a novel method of estimating the ``true'' static nonlinearity of an ADC using a low-frequency sine signal (for example, less than 10 Hz) by employing the histogram-based approach. It is based on the well-known fact that the variation of a sine signal is ``reasonably linear'' when the angle is small, for example, in the range of +/- 5 degrees to +/- 7 degrees. In the proposed method, the ADC under test has to be ``fed'' with this ``linear'' portion of the sinewave. The presence of any harmonics and offset in input excitation makes this linear part of the sine signal marginally different compared with that of an ideal ramp signal of equal amplitude. However, since it is a sinusoid, this difference can be accurately determined and later compensated from the measured ADC output. Thus, the corrected ADC output will correspond to the true ADC static nonlinearity. The implementation of the proposed method is discussed along with experimental results for two 8-b ADCs and one 10-b ADC which are then compared with the static characteristics estimated by the conventional DC method.

Modulation of vesicular properties by variation of shapes of bolaform counter ions in hybrid-ion paired surfactants

Four new vesicle-forming bolaphile/amphiphile ion pairs are synthesized; the bolaphile shapes in such hybrid systems strongly control their vesicular properties.

Non-destructive evaluation of porosity and its effect on mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite materials

Structural adhesive bonding is widely used to execute assemblies in automobile and aerospace structures. The quality and reliability of these bonded joints must be ensured during service. In this context non destructive evaluation of these bonded structures play an important role. Evaluation of adhesively bonded composite single lap shear joints has been attempted through experimental approach. Series of tests, non-destructive as well as destructive were performed on different sets of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite lap joint specimens with varied bond quality. Details of the experimental investigations carried out and the outcome are presented in this paper.

Random vibration testing with controlled samples

This paper proposes a novel experimental test procedure to estimate the reliability of structural dynamical systems under excitations specified via random process models. The samples of random excitations to be used in the test are modified by the addition of an artificial control force. An unbiased estimator for the reliability is derived based on measured ensemble of responses under these modified inputs based on the tenets of Girsanov transformation. The control force is selected so as to reduce the sampling variance of the estimator. The study observes that an acceptable choice for the control force can be made solely based on experimental techniques and the estimator for the reliability can be deduced without taking recourse to mathematical model for the structure under study. This permits the proposed procedure to be applied in the experimental study of time-variant reliability of complex structural systems that are difficult to model mathematically. Illustrative example consists of a multi-axes shake table study on bending-torsion coupled, geometrically non-linear, five-storey frame under uni/bi-axial, non-stationary, random base excitation. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evaluación de biodigestores plásticos utilizando dos tipos de sustratos

El presente trabajo se desarrolló dentro del contexto del proyecto de investigación UNA-IFS, financiado por la lntemational foundation for Science. Este perseguía como objetivo general: Evaluar la producción de un sistema de descontaminación de aguas residuales de producción de cerdos utilizando biodigestores tubulares plásticos como una alternativa para los productores. Asimismo se persiguió los siguientes objetivos específicos: l. Determinar la producción de biogás con biodigestores plásticos utilizando como sustrato estiércol procedente de cerdos de engorde alimentados con dos tipos de dietas (Concentrado y Desperdicios do cocina). 2. Determinar la producción de efluente (abono orgánico) utilizando como sustrato estiércol procedente de cerdos de engorde alimentados con dos tipos de dietas (Concentrado y Desperdicios de cocina). 3. Determinar la eficiencia del sistema de reciclaje (biodigestores tubulares plásticos) a través del % de remoción de agentes contaminante5 en las aguas residuales, utilizando como sustrato estiércol procedente do cerdos de engorde alimentados con dos tipos de dietas (Concentrado y Desperdicios de cocina). 4. Estimar el aporte de nutrientes de los fertilizantes orgánicos. . Analizar el beneficio económico del producto de los biodigestores (abono orgánico y biogás) en relación a los productos comerciales. El experimento se llevó a cabo en la granja Santa Rosa de la Universidad Nacional Agraria, ubicada en Sabana Grande. Para ello se utilizaron 2 grupos de cerdos (de 8 animales) cuya producción de estiércol fue procesada a través de dos biodigestores tubulares plásticos (conectado uno a cada corral) de 9m3. Los tratamientos evaluados fueron: T1= Sustrato proveniente de animales alimentados con concentrado y T2= Sustrato proveniente de animales alimentados con Desperdicios -de cocina. Las variables analizadas fueron las siguientes: Producción de estiércol Adición de agua a los biodigestores, producción de gas, producción de efluente, aporte de nutrientes del efluente, eficiencia del sistema de reciclaje, beneficio de los tratamientos. Para ello se utilizó un DCA en arreglo bifactorial donde se consideró el factor A: Semanas y el Factor B: Tipo de sustrato. Los biodigestores tubulares plásticos son una alternativa viable y eficiente para descontaminar los residuales de cerdos (estiércol). El comportamiento de la adición de agua fue similar estadísticamente en ambos tratamientos. La producción de estiércol se comportó mejor estadísticamente en el T1. El biodigestor plástico que presentó mayor producción de biogás fue el del T1 Ambos tratamientos presentaron una producción similar de efluente. El tratamiento 1 presentó mayores aportes de P, K y Mg, y el T 2 de N y Ca, además de ser un producto que no contamina el ambiente al producirlo y al aplicarlo. En cuanto a la eficiencia del sistema de reciclaje los valores de pH, Temperatura y DB05 reportados fueron similares en ambos tratamientos El tratamiento que mayor porcentaje de reducción de coliformes fecales presenta fue el T1 con un 15 %. En base al análisis económico, el tratamiento que presentó mayores utilidades fue el tratamiento l. Asimismo, al utilizarse los productos obtenidos, el productor tiene mayor ahorro al año con el tratamiento 2 (1 8.775 US) que con el T 1 (133.225 US).

La tutela de los bienes culturales de la Iglesia : problemática y desafíos

En el ámbito canónico, la noción de bien cultural es de reciente aparición. Durante los años sesenta del siglo pasado se trabajó mucho en la legislación sobre el patrimonio artístico de Italia. Esto dio origen a que la noción de bien cultural fuera ampliamente recibida en el ámbito administrativo y legal en general. El Código de Derecho Canónico utiliza distintas expresiones para referirse al mismo tema. En general usa: bona temporalia cuando se refiere a los actos sobre los bienes eclesiásticos en sentido técnico. Pero la expresión bona culturalia es referida en el canon 1283, 2° para referirse al patrimonio cultural sujeto a la administración. Se trata de bienes culturales de interés religioso...