Capillary electrophoresis study of human serum albumin binding to basic drugs

The applicability of capillary electrophoresis/frontal analysis (CE/FA) for determining the binding constants of the drugs propranolol (PRO) and verapamil (VER) to human serum albumin (HSA) was investigated. After direct hydrodynamic injection of a drug-HAS mixture solution into a coated capillary (32 cm x 50 mu m i.d.), the basic drug was eluted as a zonal peak with a plateau region under condition of phosphate buffer (pH 7.4; ionic strength 0.17) at 12 kV positive running voltage. The unbound drug concentrations measured from the plateau peak heights had good correlation coefficients, r > 0.999. Employing the Scatchard plot, the Klotz plot and nonlinear regression, the drug protein binding parameters, the binding constant and the number of binding sites on one protein molecule, were obtained. The binding constant obtained was compared to a reported equilibrium dialysis result and they are basically in good agreement.

汉语发展性阅读障碍的神经心理学研究The Neuropsychological Basic of Chinese Developmental Dyslexia by ERP Study

本论文实验结果发现汉语阅读障碍在视听觉功能上有非语言特异性的感知觉加工缺陷：他们在完成视觉任务时成绩稍差，反应时延长，ERP波形成分的峰潜伏期也延长，波幅降低，尤其是左侧枕叶视皮层对右侧视野投射信号的加工效能差，这是首次报道他们枕叶视皮质的左右差异；他们完成听觉分辨任务时，对听觉分辨的效能比正常儿童低；尤其是在听觉相关电位中的表现，峰潜伏期延长，波幅降低。他们在视听觉双通道信号整合的加工上仍表现出ERP波形成分的峰潜伏期延长，波幅较低的现象；综合这三方面的结果，可以推论阅读障碍者可能对一般的信息进行感知觉加工的效能弱。 他们在同音字判断任务中表现出有语音意识缺陷：完成同音字判断任务的正确率与正常儿童有显著的差异；对假字的加工和形似同音字的加工产生的ERP波形均与正常儿童有显著差异，这种差异尤其在左脑更明显。 结合Franck的理论，推论汉语阅读障碍形成原因：汉语阅读障碍行为表现多种多样，这些变异性可能有一些共同的神经心理基础；由于出生前神经的异常发育，遗传的异常或环境的影响而导致的大脑左右两半球功能的差异，尤其左半球引起其对语言加工的缺陷，可能伴随出现视听觉等基本的感知觉功能障碍。

从字形到语义：跨语言Stroop效应的ERP研究

According to the influential dual-route model of reading (Coltheart, Rastle et al. 2001), there are two routes to access the meaning of visual words: one directly by orthography (orthography-semantic) and the other indirectly via the phonology (phonology-semantic). Because of the dramatic difference between written Chinese and alphabetical languages, it is still on debate whether Chinese readers have the same semantic activation processes as readers of alphabetical languages. In this study, the semantic activation processes in alphabetical German and logographic Chinese were compared. Since the N450 for incongruent color words in the Stroop tasks was induced by the semantic conflict between the meaning of the incongruent color words and color naming, this component could be taken as an index for semantic activation of incongruent color words in Stroop tasks. Two cross-script Stroop experiments were adopted to investigate the semantic activation processes in Chinese and German. The first experiment focused on the the role of phonology, while the second one focused on the realative importance of orthography. Cultural differences in cognitive processing between individuals in western and eastern countries have been found (Nisbett & Miyamoto, 2005). In order to exclude potential differences in basic cognitive processes like visual discrimination capabilities during reading, a visual Oddball experiment with non-lexical materials was conducted with all participants. However, as indicated by the P300 elicited by deviant stimuli in both groups, no group difference was observed. In the first Stroop experiments, color words (e.g., “green”), color-word associates (e.g., “grass”), and homophones of color words were used. These words were embedded into color patches with either congruent color (e.g. word “green” in green color patch) or incongruent colors (e.g. word “green” in either red or yellow or blue color patch). The key point is to observe whether homophones in both languages could induce similar behavioral and ERP Stroop effects to that induced by color words. It was also interesting to observe to which extent the N450 was related to the semantic conflicts. Nineteen Chinese adult readers and twenty German adult readers were asked to respond to the back color of these words in the Stroop experiment in their native languages by pressing the corresponding keys. In the behavioral data, incongruent conditions (incongruent color words, incongruent color-word associates, incongruent homophones) had significantly longer reaction times as compared to corresponding congruent conditions. All incongruent conditions in the Geman group elicited an N450 in the 400 to 500 ms time window. In the Chinese group, the N450 in the same time window was also observed for the incongruent color words and incongruent color-word associates. These results indicated that the N450 was very sensitive to semantic conflict-even words with semantic association to colors (e.g. “grass”) could elicite similar N450. However, the N450 was absent for incongruent homophones of color words in the Chinese group. Instead, in a later time window (600-800 ms), incongruent homophones elicited a positivity over left posterior regions as compared to congruent homophones. Similar positivity was also observed for color words in the 700 to 1000 ms time window in the Chinese group and 600 to 1000 ms time window for incongruent color words and homophones in the Geman group. These results indicate that phonology plays an important role in Geman semantic activation processes, but not in Chinese. In the second Stroop experiment, color words and pseudowords which had similiar visual shape to color words in both languages were used as materials. Another group of eighteen Chinese and twenty Germans were involved in the Stroop experiment in their native languages.The ERPs were recorded during their performance. In the behavioral data, strong and comparable Stroop effects (as counted by substract the reaction times in the congruent conditions from reaction times in the incongruent conditions) were observed. In the ERP data, both incongruent color words and incongruent pseudowords elicited an N450 over the whole brain scalp in both groups. These results indicated that orthography played an equally important role in semantic activation processes in both languages. The results of the two Stroop experiments support the view that the semantic activation process in Chiense readers differs significantly from that in German readers. The former rely mainly on the direct route (orthography-semantic), while the latter use both direct route and incirect route (phonology-semantic). These findings also indicate that the characteritics of different languages shape the semantic activation processes.

Direct spectroscopic evidence for vanadium species in V-MCM-41 molecular sieve characterized by UV resonance Raman spectroscopy

Vanadium species in tetrahedral and octahedral coordination in V-MCM-41 molecular sieve are characterized by UV resonance Raman bands at 1070 and 930 cm(-1) respectively.