Poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) and PEI-based systems have been widely studied for use as nucleic acid delivery vehicles. However, many of these vehicles display high cytotoxicity, rendering them unfit for therapeutic use. By exploring the mechanisms that cause cytotoxicity, and through understanding structure-function relationships between polymers and intracellular interactions, nucleic acid delivery ...

Vitrification had a significantly negative impact on the mitochondrial function of bovine oocytes. However, 40 μg/mL cyclosporine pretreatment before vitrification contributed greatly to maintaining mitochondrial membrane potential and adenosine triphosphate content, decreasing reactive oxygen species level, and thereby increasing the developmental ability of vitrified oocytes.

Two different MFC configurations designed for handling solid wastes as a feedstock were evaluated in batch mode: a single compartment combined membrane-electrodes (SCME) design; and a twin-compartment brush-type anode electrodes (TBE) design (reversed T-shape MFC with two-air cathode) without a proton exchange membrane (PEM). Cattle manure was tested as a ...

In order to examine the mediatory role of proton motive force (∆p) or proton ATPase in H(2) production by Rhodobacter sphaeroides, ∆p was determined under anaerobic conditions in the dark, and the ATPase activity has been studied in R. sphaeroides strain A-10, isolated from Arzni mineral springs in Armenia. Membrane ...

PEPT1 function in mouse intestine has not been assessed by means of electrophysiology and methods to assess its role in intracellular pH and fluid homeostasis. Therefore, the effects of the dipeptide glycilsarcosin (Gly-Sar) on jejunal fluid absorption and villous enterocyte intracellular pH (pH(i)) in vivo, as well as on enterocyte[(14)C]Gly-Sar ...

Adenovirus (Ad) membrane penetration during cell entry is poorly understood. Here we show that antibodies which neutralize the membrane lytic activity of the Ad capsid protein VI interfere with Ad endosomal membrane penetration. In vitro studies using a peptide corresponding to an N-terminal amphipathic alpha-helix of protein VI (VI-Phi), as ...

Due to the dense organization of organelles, cytoskeletal elements, and protein complexes that make up the intracellular environment, it is likely that membrane-permeant solutes may be excluded from a fraction of the interstitial space of the cytoplasm via steric restrictions, electrostatic interactions, and other long-range intermolecular forces. This study investigates ...

Numerous studies have illustrated the need for antioxidant enzymes in acquired photosynthetic thermotolerance, but information on their possible role in promoting innate thermotolerance is lacking. We investigated the hypothesis that genotypic differences in source leaf photosynthetic thermostability would be dependent upon prestress capacity for antioxidant protection of the photosynthetic apparatus ...

We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of the quantum Ising model following an abrupt quench of the transverse field. We focus on the on-site autocorrelation function of the order parameter, and extract the phase-coherence time tau(Q)(phi) from its asymptotic behavior. We show that the initial state determines tau(Q)(phi) only through an ...

We have examined the photochemistries of two N(III) species, nitrous acid (HONO) and nitrous acidium ion (H2ONO+), in solution and ice. Although the light absorption spectra for these two species are very similar, their photochemical efficiencies are quite different: the *OH (and NO) quantum yield for HONO is approximately 8 ...

A new type of a highly fluorescent sulforhodamine dye, 221SR, was designed and synthesized using 7-azabicylco[2.2.1]heptyl moieties as the electron donating auxochrome groups. Using the prototypical dye tetramethylsulforhodamine, TMSR, as a benchmark, we show this new dye has higher fluorescent quantum yields, Phi, (Phi = 0.95 vs Phi = 0.65 ...

NHE-1 is a ubiquitous, mitogen-activatable, mammalian Na+/H+ exchanger that maintains cytosolic pH and regulates cell volume. We have previously shown that the kinetics of NHE-1 positive cooperative activation by intracellular acidifications fit best with a Monod-Wyman-Changeux mechanism, in which a dimeric NHE-1 oscillates between a low- and a high-affinity conformation ...

Normal pH sensitivity of the SLC4A2/AE2 anion exchanger requires transmembrane domain (TMD) amino acid (aa) residues not conserved in the homologous but relatively pH-insensitive SLC4A1/AE1 polypeptide. We tested the hypothesis that the nonconserved aa cluster 1075DKPK1078 within the first putative re-entrant loop (RL1) of AE2 TMD contributes to pH sensor ...

Perfluorinated (aliphatic) acids (PFAs) and congeners have many applications in various industrial fields and household for decades. Years later they have been detected in wildlife and this has spurred interest in environmental occurrence as well as influencing living organisms. PFAs were established as peroxisome proliferators and hepatocarcinogens. Amphipatic structure suggests ...

This study aimed at examining and comparing the relevance of various methods in order to discriminate different cellular states of Lactobacillus bulgaricus CFL1 and to improve knowledge on the dynamics of the cellular physiological state during growth and acidification. By using four fluorescent probes combined with multiparametric flow cytometry, membrane ...

We measure the number Omega(phi) of mechanically stable states of volume fraction phi of a granular assembly under gravity. The granular entropy S(phi)=logOmega(phi) vanishes both at high density, at phi approximately equal to phi_rcp, and a low density, at phi approximately equal to phi_rvlp, where phi_rvlp is a new lower ...

The reaction kinetics between alkaline lignite fly ashes and CO2 (pCO2 = 0.01--0.03 MPa)were studied in a laboratory CO2 flow-through reactor at 25--75 degrees C. The reaction is characterized by three phases that can be separated according to the predominating buffering systems and the rates of CO2 uptake. Phase I ...

A cofacially stacked perylenediimide (PDI) dimer with a xanthene linker was studied under a variety of conditions (solvent, temperature) and serves as a model for the molecular interactions occurring in solid films. Intrinsically, the PDI units have a fluorescence quantum yield (Phi F) close to unity, but Phi F is ...

In order to investigate the relationship between the lipid composition in thylakoid membrane and thermostability of photosynthetic apparatus, tobacco transformed with sweet pepper sense glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) gene were used to analyze the lipid composition in thylakoid membrane, the net photosynthetic rate and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters under high temperature stress. ...

In a traditional quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), an AT-cut (cut angle phi=35.25 degrees in yxl orientation) quartz wafer is employed because it has low frequency-temperature coefficients (dF/dT) at room temperature region. But when a QCM is in contact with a liquid phase, its frequency is also related to the properties ...

To improve their CO2 absorption capacity, alkali-based sorbents prepared by impregnation and wet mixing method of potassium carbonate on supports such as activated carbon and MgO (KACI30, KACP30, KMgI30, and KMgP30), were investigated in a fixed bed reactor (C02 absorption at 50-100 degrees C and regeneration at 150-400 degrees C). ...

In this study we design new fabrication techniques and demonstrate the potential of using dense CO2 for facilitating crucial steps in the fabrication of polymeric lab-on-a-chip microdevices by embedding biomolecules at temperatures well below the polymer's glass transition temperature (T(g)). These new techniques are environmentally friendly and done without the ...

The performance of flavylium-based photochromic systems is increased by their incorporation into Pluronic F-127 matrixes, which switch from polymeric solutions to micelles to gels with changes in temperature depending on copolymer concentration. Two flavylium compounds, 7,4'-dihydroxyflavylium and 7-(N,N-diethylamino)-4-hydroxyflavylium, both exhibiting a small thermal cis-trans isomerization barrier in water were investigated. ...

We investigate the interactions between sulfobetaine-based polyzwitterions and polyelectrolytes, either positive or negative ones, i.e., poly(DADMAC)s and poly(AA)s. Three different sulfobetaine motifs denoted SPE, SPP, and SHPP have been considered, presenting slight chemical changes either in the function carrying the zwitterionic group or in the zwitterionic motif itself. All three ...

We study the nonequilibrium steady state realized in a general stochastic system attached to multiple heat baths. Starting from the detailed fluctuation theorem, we derive concise and suggestive expressions for the corresponding stationary distribution which are correct up to the second order in thermodynamic forces. The probability of a microstate ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Stem and branch respiration, important components of total forest ecosystem respiration, were measured on Norway spruce (Picea abies) trees from May to October in four consecutive years in order (1) to evaluate the influence of temperature on woody tissue CO2 efflux with special focus on variation in ...

Chilling leads to cytoplasmic acidification in chill-sensitive plants. A possible explanation for this observation is that a DeltapH-stat between the cytosol and vacuole (DeltapH(vac)-stat) is perturbed by chilling. To understand the nature of this DeltapH(vac)-stat, the effect of temperature, between 20 and 0 degrees C, on pyrophosphate (PPi)- or ATP-dependent ...

Phagocytosis holds a central position in the development of a successful innate immune response and in the initiation of the corresponding adaptive response. The destruction of invading pathogens and the presentation of their antigens to lymphoid cells require acidification of the phagosomal lumen. The present review discusses the mechanism of ...

Luteolin and apigenin, extracted from Reseda luteola L., were spectrophotometrically and fluorimetrically studied. The spectra were investigated as a function of pH in methanol/water solutions (1/2, v/v) in the 2-12 pH range. The absorption spectra markedly shifted to the red by increasing the pH. Three acid-base dissociation steps were detected ...

Effects of moderate heat on growth and photosynthesis were investigated in two clonal genotypes of Acer rubrum L., originally collected from the thermally contrasting habitats of Florida and Minnesota, USA, and known in the horticultural trade for sensitivity and insensitivity to heat, respectively. Under both common garden and warm greenhouse ...

The biotransformation of L-sodium glutamate (L-MSG) to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) catalyzed by the cells of Lactobacillus brevis with higher glutamate decarboxylase activity was investigated. The results showed that pH, temperature, and FeSO(4) x 7H(2)O concentration had significantly positive effect on GABA yield. The individual and interactive effects of pH, temperature, ...

The retention factor (k) and retention index (I) of homologous series compounds such as alkylbenzenes (BZ), alkylaryl ketones, alkylbenzoates, and alkylparabens in microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography (MEEKC) with suppressed electroosmosis were investigated in a wide range of SDS concentrations ([SDS]), temperatures, and concentrations of organic cosolvents (phi). Using BZ as standards, ...

Pulsed field gradient NMR methods have determined the temperature-dependent diffusion of myoglobin (Mb) in perfused rat myocardium. Mb diffuses with an averaged translational diffusion coefficient (DMb) of 4.24-8.37x10(-7)cm2/s from 22 degrees C to 40 degrees C and shows no orientation preference over a root mean-square displacement of 2.5-3.5 microm. The ...

Global climate change includes concomitant changes in many components of the abiotic flux necessary for plant life. In this paper, we investigate the combined effects of elevated CO2 (720 ppm) and temperature (+2 K) on the phytochemistry of three deciduous tree species. The analysis revealed that elevated CO(2) generally stimulated ...

This experimental study describes the fabrication and analysis of a micro-perfusion system that can be used in many bioengineering experiments to create rapid, large regional intracellular changes within single ventricular myocytes. The myocyte was a kind of osmometer since the cell volume was found to be strongly dependent on the ...

We report here the application of a previously described method to directly determine the CO2 permeability (P(CO2)) of the cell membranes of normal human red blood cells (RBCs) vs. those deficient in aquaporin 1 (AQP1), as well as AQP1-expressing Xenopus laevis oocytes. This method measures the exchange of (18)O between ...

Osmotic swelling of Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes resulted in alkalinization of acidocalcisomes, as revealed by changes in acridine orange fluorescence of intact cells. Concomitant with these changes, intracellular ammonium levels increased while extracellular ammonium levels decreased significantly. Hypo-osmotic stress also resulted in cytosolic acidification. The observed changes in intracellular pH (pH(i)) ...

The thermal and photochemical reactivity of kynurenine (KN), a tryptophan metabolite found in human lenses, has been studied in aqueous solution. The decarboxylation reaction of KN, resulting in the formation of 4-hydroxyquinoline, is reported for the first time. Rate constants for KN deamination and decarboxylation were determined in the temperature ...

We measured diel patterns of stem surface CO2 efflux (Es, micromol m(-2) s(-1)), sap velocity (vs, mm s(-1)) and xylem CO2 concentration ([CO2]) (Xs, %) in 8-year-old loblolly pine trees during the spring to determine how vs and Xs influence Es. All trees showed a strong diel hysteresis between Es ...

We study a model lipid bilayer composed of a mixture of two incompatible lipid types which have a natural tendency to segregate in the absence of membrane fluctuations. The membrane is mechanically characterized by a local bending rigidity kappa(phi) which varies with the average local lipid composition phi. We show, ...

We present our calculations of the cross second virial coefficient (B12) and of a related quantity, phi 12 = B12-TdB12/dT, for the methane-water system in the temperature range T = 200-1000 K. These calculations were performed using one of the ab initio potentials developed in previous work [Akin-Ojo and Szalewicz, ...

The transfer mechanism of an amphoteric rhodamine, sulforhodamine 101 (SR101), across the polarized water/1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) interface was investigated using cyclic voltammetry, differential voltfluorometry and potential-modulated fluorescence (PMF) spectroscopy. The voltammetric response for the ion transfer of SR101 monoanion from water to DCE was observed as the diffusion-controlled transfer process. An ...

Bicarbonate infusion is traditionally used to increase pH during metabolic acidosis, but it has been also suggested to increase the pH during permissive hypercapnia. In this paper we will discuss the physicochemical effect of adding (Na+ HCO3-), first in a closed system (venous blood) and then in an open system ...

BACKGROUND: Pendrin, an anion exchanger known to participate in iodide transport in the apical membrane of follicular cells of the thyroid gland, has recently been shown to exist in the apical membrane of the beta- and gamma-intercalated (beta/gamma-IC) cells of the cortical collecting duct (CCD). We examined mechanisms of iodide ...

We have measured the branching fraction , longitudinal polarization fraction f(L), and CP asymmetry coefficients A and S for B(0) --> rho(+) rho(-) decays with the Belle detector at the KEKB e(+) e(-) collider using 253 Fb(-1) of data. We obtain B = [22.8 +/- 3.8(stat)(+2.3)(-2.6)(syst)] x 10(-6), f(L) = ...

Carbon acquisition was investigated in three marine bloom-forming dinollagellates-Prorocentrum minimum, Heterocapsa triquetra and Ceratium lineatum. In vivo activities of extracellular and intracellular carbonic anhydrase (CA), photosynthetic O2 evolution, CO2 and HCO3- uptake rates were measured by membrane inlet mass spectrometry (MIMS) in cells acclimated to low pH (8.0) and high ...

Although the combustion chemistry of aliphatic hydrocarbons has been extensively documented, the oxidation of cyclic hydrocarbons has been studied to a much lesser extent. To provide a deeper understanding of the combustion chemistry of naphthenes, the oxidation of methylcyclohexane was studied in a series of high-temperature shock tube experiments. Ignition ...

The transcutaneous measurement of oxygen (tcP(O2)) and carbon dioxide (tcP(CO2)) tensions may serve as a surrogate of arterial oxygen (Pa(O2)) and carbon dioxide (Pa(CO2)) tensions, respectively. We investigated the effects of the electrode temperature of a new device, TCM4, on the measurement of tcP(O2) and tcP(CO2). Twenty-five patients scheduled for ...

Dense-phase carbon dioxide (CO2) treatments in a continuous flow through system were applied to apple cider to inactivate Escherichia coli (ATCC 4157). A response surface design with factors of the CO2/product ratio (0, 70, and 140 g/kg), temperature (25, 35, and 45 degrees C), and pressure (6.9, 27.6, and 48.3 ...

Whether by patch-clamp techniques or the use of fluorescent vital dyes, measurements of transepithelial ion flux in mammals are limited by cell accessibility. Furthermore, redundant functions and complex regulatory mechanisms can mask loss-of-function phenotypes through compensatory mechanisms. In this chapter, we present a technique whereby the optically transparent nematode Caenorhabditis ...