Simultaneous and ultrarapid determination of reactive oxygen species and reduced glutathione in apoptotic leukemia cells by microchip electrophoresis

A microchip electrophoresis method coupled with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection was established for simultaneous determination of two kinds of intracellular signaling molecules (reactive oxygen species, ROS, and reduced glutathione, GSH) related to apoptosis and oxidative stress. As the probe dihydrorhodamine-123 (DHR123) can be converted intracellularly by ROS to the fluorescent rhodamine-123 (Rh123), and the probe naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde (NDA) can react quickly with GSH to produce a fluorescent adduct, rapid determination of Rh-123 and GSH was achieved on a glass microchip within 27 s using a 20 mm borate buffer (pH 9.2). The established method was tested to measure the intracellular ROS and GSH levels in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)-derived NB4 cells. An elevation of intracellular ROS and depletion of GSH were observed in apoptotic N134 cells induced by arsenic trioxide (AS(2)O(3)) at low concentration (1-2 mu m). Buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), in combination with AS(2)O(3) enhanced the decrease of reduced GSH to a great extent. The combined treatment of AS(2)O(3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) led to an inverse relationship between the concentrations of ROS and GSH obtained, showing the proposed method can readily evaluate the generation of ROS, which occurs simultaneously with the consumption of the inherent antioxidant.

Identification of ginsenosides in roots of Panax ginseng by HPLC-APCI/MS

A new HPLC-APCI/MS method for the identification of ginsenosides has been developed. The analyses were performed on a reversed-phase C-18 column using a binary eluent (acetonitrile and water) under gradient conditions. Although APCI is a high-temperature evaporative process, HPLC-APCI/MS could effectively identify thermo-labile ginsenosides. The [M-H](-) ions and the thermal degradation ions of ginsenosides could be clearly observed under negative and positive ion conditions, respectively, and these were used to identify the molecular masses, the aglycone structures and the sugar groups of ginsenosides. APCI/MS can provide more explicit information than ESI/MS for identifying and distinguishing ginsenosides. Using the HPLC-APCI/MS method, 35 ginsenosides were identified in Panax ginseng. Copyright (C) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cultivares de trigo Embrapa - i) resultados das unidades de observação, safra 2004, no RS, SC e PR.

2006

Programa Nacional de Melhoramento do Gir Leiteiro: sumário brasileiro de touros: resultado do teste de progênie 7a prova de pré-seleção de touros - maio 2016.

2016

Representations and evolutionary operators for the scheduling of pump operations in water distribution networks.

Reducing the energy consumption of water distribution networks has never had more significance. The greatest energy savings can be obtained by carefully scheduling the operations of pumps. Schedules can be defined either implicitly, in terms of other elements of the network such as tank levels, or explicitly by specifying the time during which each pump is on/off. The traditional representation of explicit schedules is a string of binary values with each bit representing pump on/off status during a particular time interval. In this paper, we formally define and analyze two new explicit representations based on time-controlled triggers, where the maximum number of pump switches is established beforehand and the schedule may contain less switches than the maximum. In these representations, a pump schedule is divided into a series of integers with each integer representing the number of hours for which a pump is active/inactive. This reduces the number of potential schedules compared to the binary representation, and allows the algorithm to operate on the feasible region of the search space. We propose evolutionary operators for these two new representations. The new representations and their corresponding operations are compared with the two most-used representations in pump scheduling, namely, binary representation and level-controlled triggers. A detailed statistical analysis of the results indicates which parameters have the greatest effect on the performance of evolutionary algorithms. The empirical results show that an evolutionary algorithm using the proposed representations improves over the results obtained by a recent state-of-the-art Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for pump scheduling using level-controlled triggers.

A hyper-heuristic ensemble method for static job-shop scheduling.

We describe a new hyper-heuristic method NELLI-GP for solving job-shop scheduling problems (JSSP) that evolves an ensemble of heuristics. The ensemble adopts a divide-and-conquer approach in which each heuristic solves a unique subset of the instance set considered. NELLI-GP extends an existing ensemble method called NELLI by introducing a novel heuristic generator that evolves heuristics composed of linear sequences of dispatching rules: each rule is represented using a tree structure and is itself evolved. Following a training period, the ensemble is shown to outperform both existing dispatching rules and a standard genetic programming algorithm on a large set of new test instances. In addition, it obtains superior results on a set of 210 benchmark problems from the literature when compared to two state-of-the-art hyperheuristic approaches. Further analysis of the relationship between heuristics in the evolved ensemble and the instances each solves provides new insights into features that might describe similar instances.

Rodent models for resolving extremes of exercise and health

The extremes of exercise capacity and health are considered a complex interplay between genes and the environment. In general, the study of animal models has proven critical for deep mechanistic exploration that provides guidance for focused and hypothesis driven discovery in humans. Hypotheses underlying molecular mechanisms of disease, and gene/tissue function can be tested in rodents in order to generate sufficient evidence to resolve and progress our understanding of human biology. Here we provide examples of three alternative uses of rodent models that have been applied successfully to advance knowledge that bridges our understanding of the connection between exercise capacity and health status. Firstly we review the strong association between exercise capacity and all-cause morbidity and mortality in humans through artificial selection on low and high exercise performance in the rat and the consequent generation of the "energy transfer hypothesis". Secondly we review specific transgenic and knock-out mouse models that replicate the human disease condition and performance. This includes human glycogen storage diseases (McArdle and Pompe) and α-actinin-3 deficiency. Together these rodent models provide an overview of the advancements of molecular knowledge required for clinical translation. Continued study of these models in conjunction with human association studies will be critical to resolving the complex gene-environment interplay linking exercise capacity, health, and disease.

How do we evaluate Artificial Immune Systems?

RAE2008

Model Selection Methodology in Supervised Learning with Evolutionary Computation

Rowland, J.J. (2003) Model Selection Methodology in Supervised Learning with Evolutionary Computation. BioSystems 72, 1-2, pp 187-196, Nov

Library co-operation and ICT in the UK: an overview

Tedd, L.A. (2003). Library co-operation and ICT in the UK: an overview. Information Services and Use, 23(4), 199-210

Understanding student information behavior in relation to electronic information services: lessons from longitudinal monitoring and evaluation Part 1

Rowley, J.& Urquhart, C. (2007). Understanding student information behavior in relation to electronic information services: lessons from longitudinal monitoring and evaluation Part 1. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 58(8), 1162-1174. Sponsorship: JISC

Spectator Sport War: The West and Contemporary Conflict

McInnes, Colin, Spectator Sport War: The West and Contemporary Conflict (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002) pp.vii+187 RAE2008

Faith in the Landscape : Overseas Pilgrimages in 'The Book of Margery Kempe'

Watt, D. (2006). Faith in the Landscape: Overseas Pilgrimages in 'The Book of Margery Kempe'. In C. Lees and G. Overing (Eds.), A Place to Believe In: Locating Medieval Landscapes (pp.170-187). University Park (PA): Pennsylvania State University Press. RAE2008

A fully integrated multi-channel detector for electron spectroscopy

Langstaff, David; Bushell, A.; Chase, T.; Evans, D.A., (2005) 'A fully integrated multi-channel detector for electron spectroscopy', Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms 238 pp.219-223 RAE2008 Synchrotron Radiation in Materials Science ? Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Synchrotron Radiation in Materials Science 4th Conference on Synchrotron Radiation in Materials Science