Electron transfer by domain movement in cytochrome bc1

The cytochrome bc1 is one of the three major respiratory enzyme complexes residing in the inner mitochondrial membrane. Cytochrome bc1 transfers electrons from ubiquinol to cytochrome c and uses the energy thus released to form an electrochemical gradient across the inner membrane. Our X-ray crystal structures of the complex from chicken, cow and rabbit in both the presence and absence of inhibitors of quinone oxidation, reveal two different locations for the extrinsic domain of one component of the enzyme, an iron-sulphur protein. One location is close enough to the supposed quinol oxidation site to allow reduction of the Fe-S protein by ubiquinol. The other site is close enough to cytochrome c1 to allow oxidation of the Fe-S protein by the cytochrome. As neither location will allow both reactions to proceed at a suitable rate, the reaction mechanism must involve movement of the extrinsic domain of the Fe-S component in order to shuttle electrons from ubiquinol to cytochrome c1. Such a mechanism has not previously been observed in redox protein complexes.     

The effect of prior austenite grain size on the transformation behaviour of C-Mn-Ni weld metal

The influence of prior austenite grain size on the transformation behaviour and microstructural development of C-Mn-Ni weld metals was investigated. It was found that increasing the grain size depressed the start temperature of grain-boundary ferrite and slightly increased the acicular ferrite start temperature. The microstructural products also changed from a boundary-dominated effect in the small grain sizes, to an intragranular-dominated effect in the large grain sizes, and at the same time, the morphology of the acicular ferrite was seen to change to a larger aspect ratio.     

Superconductivity in Lithium- and Sodium-Doped Mercury-Based Cuprates

The effect of Na- and Li-doping in Hg-based cuprates has been studied. It has been found that superconductivity can be achieved in samples containing small amount of Na or Li. While little change is found in the crystalline structure, the formed superconducting phase have the onset T_c typically above 140 K and zero-resistance T_c up to 136K. More interestingly, the processing temperature for the doped Hg-1223 can be reduced significantly to near 700 °C which is promising for thin films growth on many technologically compatible substrates.     

Attenuation predictions at extremely low frequencies formeasurement-while-drilling electromagnetic telemetry system

Extremely low frequencies (ELFs) are employed to transmit data from underground to the ground surface in the measurement-while-drilling electromagnetic (MWD-EM) telemetry system. Based on electromagnetic field theory, the present work is aimed at predicting the receivability of the signals at the surface. A unified analytic method that is suitable for vertical, directional, or horizontal wells is presented. Attenuation properties are examined for various parameters, including the Earth's conductivity, operating frequency and the length of the drill string. The frequency dependence of the receivability in reference to a noise level is illustrated for different depths of well and different cases. It is also demonstrated that the electric field distributions at the surface have the same features for the three types of well, and that the measurements should be carried out near the well heads for any type of well. A scale model experiment is made to test the authors' theoretical results. The measured data and the computed results are comparable     

MODELING AND OPTIMIZATION FOR DESIGN UNDER PRODUCTION PLANNING CRITERIA IN MULTIPRODUCT DEHYDRATION PLANTS

The design problem of a multiproduct dehydration plant involving continuous conveyor-belt dryers utilised for the dehvdration of agricultural products over a fmite tim horizon, is presented. The peculiarities of the problem under demand-varying market patterns and time-variable market prices of raw materials are underlined. Limitations imposed by storage capacity, custormer orders, and constraints dictated by the process itself, are also taken into consideration. The overall problem is cast into a MINLP formulation involving the total annual cost of the plant as its objective function. This was infered by deducing the mathematical model of conveyor-belt dryers. Repeated evaluation of the total annual cost for various structures and operating points, allowed the determination of overall performance characteristic operational and structural curves. approximated by suitable mathematical expressions. A test case is presented in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Successful pregnancy outcome in a patient with acute renal failure superimposed on chronic renal failure treated with repeated hemodialysis

A case is presented of successful pregnancy in a patient with acute renal failure superimposed on chronic controlled renal failure. The cause which led to development of acute renal failure were severe water-electrolyte equilibrium disturbances due to diarrhoea. Appropriately conducted conservative treatment in the period of oliguria, and early institution of treatment with repeated haemodialysis (taking into account the minimal fluctuations of body fluids, and adequate heparinization) were decisive for successful outcome of pregnancy in this patient.     

Clinical utility of cardiac troponin I and cardiac troponin T measurements

The measurement of CK-MB remains the test of choice for confirmation or exclusion of AMI and probably will remain the test of choice for routine diagnosis in the near future. Nowadays determination of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) as a method relatively expensive and time-consuming should be restricted to clinical settings that really require their high specificity.     

Determination of complements in serum and middle ear effusion of the patients with secretory otitis media

Complements in serum and middle ear effusion were determined in 20 patients with secretory otitis media, and compared with those in the normal controls. The C5 and C1-INH in serum of the patients were significantly higher. On the contrary, C9 and B factor (Bf) were significantly lower, and the circulatory immunocomplex was also higher. In patients with secretory otitis media, the middle ear effusion levels of C3, C4 and C5 were significantly lower, and Bf and immunocomplex were significantly higher than those in serum. The results suggest that the ability of complements in clearing immunocomplex is low. Therefore, the immunocomplex may deposit in the mucosa of the middle ear. Thus the permeability of capillary will be increased, and the middle ear effusion occurs.