Effects of vasopressin on human memory functions

Arginine vasopressin and a number of its synthetic analogs augment memory functions in experimental animals. One of these analogs, 1-desamino-8-D-arginine vasopressin (DDAVP), influences human learning and memory. Cognitively unimpaired, as well as cognitively impaired adults, treated with DDAVP for a period of several days, learn information more effectively, as measured by the completeness, organization, and consistency (reliability) of recall. DDAVP also appears to reverse partially the retrograde amnesia that follows electroconvulsive treatment.     

Interaction of Cis- and Trans-RuCl (2)(DMSO)(4) With Human Serum Albumin

The interaction between cis- and trans- RuCl(2)(DMSO)(4) and human serum albumin have been investigated through UV-Vis, circular dichroism, fluorescence spectroscopy and inductively couplet plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP(AES)) method Albumin can specifically bind 1 mole of cis-isomer and 2 moles of the trans-isomer RuCl(2)(DMSO)(4) complex. The interaction of RuCl(2)(DMSO)(4) with HSA causes: a conformational change with the loss of helical stability of protein; the strong quenching of the Trp 214 fluorescence indicating that the conformational change of the hydrophobic binding pocked in subdomain IIA takes place; a local perturbation of the warfarin binding site and induce some conformational changes at neighbour domains, a changing of the binding abilities towards heme.     

Development of an innovative mercury intrusion technique to examine defects plugging after CVD treatment of NF composite membranes

A novel method has been developed to reveal the possible existence of pore structure defects on the thin and ultra-thin separating layers of composite inorganic membranes. In this work the method is applied to sol–gel and CVD treated microporous membranes and involves a modified mercury porosimetry technique in which the only surface exposed for mercury intrusion is the one of the nanofiltration (NF) layer. The validity of the test method was verified by comparison with the outcome of gas phase permeability experiments. Defects of size above 5 nm are accurately and reliably detected. The size range from 3.6 nm to 5 nm, although “traceable” with normal mercury intrusion up to 60,000 psig, remains somewhat unexploited with the new technique. This is due to interferences induced by the elasticity properties (compression modulus and strength) of the material applied as a “plug” to membrane support. Continuity imperfections on the NF layer of a commercially available membrane were detected by application of the modified mercury intrusion technique. The area examined was about ∼7% of the total NF layer area exposed by the tube and the size of revealed defects was in the range between 20 nm and 100 nm. Furthermore sections of the defects bearing membrane were modified by chemical vapor deposition of SiO₂ to examine the possibility of mending the existing cracks. Significant reduction of the defects size has been observed with the novel mercury intrusion technique.     

Alginate fibers as photocatalyst immobilizing agents applied in hybrid photocatalytic/ultrafiltration water treatment processes

Ca alginate polymer fibers were developed to effectively disperse and stabilize an efficient photocatalyst such as AEROXIDE^® TiO₂ P25 in their matrix. The biopolymer/TiO₂ fibers were prepared and tested either in the hydrogel non-porous form or in the highly porous aerogel form prepared by sc-CO₂ drying. Batch photocatalytic experiments showed that the porous, Ca alginate/TiO₂ fibers, exhibited high efficiency for the removal of methyl orange (MO) from polluted water. In addition, their high porosity and surface area led to high MO degradation rate which was faster than that observed not only for their non-porous analogs but also of the bulk P25 TiO₂ powder. Specifically, 90% removal for 20 μM MO was achieved within 220 min for the porous sc-CO₂ dried fibers while for their non-porous analogs at 325 min. The corresponding value (at 60 μM MO) for the porous sc-CO₂ dried fibers was 140 min over 240 min for the AEROXIDE^® TiO₂ P25 as documented in the literature. Furthermore the composite alginate/photocatalyst porous fibers were combined with TiO₂ membranes in a continuous flow, hybrid photocatalytic/ultrafiltration water treatment process that led to a three fold enhancement of the MO removal efficiency at 400 ml of 20 μM MO total treated volume and to dilution rather than condensation in the membrane retentate as commonly observed in filtration processes. Furthermore the permeability of the photocatalytic membrane was enhanced in the presence of the fibers by almost 20%. This performance is achieved with 26 cm² and 31 cm² of membrane and stabilized photocatalyst surfaces respectively and in this context there is plenty of room for the up-scaling of both membranes and fibers and the achievement of much higher water yields since the methods applied for the development of the involved materials (CVD and dry-wet phase inversion in a spinning set-up) are easily up-scalable and are not expected to add significant cost to the proposed water treatment process.     

On methods and tools for rigorous system design

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - Full a posteriori verification of the correctness of modern software systems is practically infeasible due to the sheer complexity...     

Correction to: Correct-by-construction model-based design of reactive streaming software for multi-core embedded systems

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - We present a model-based design approach toward correct-by-construction implementations of reactive streaming software for...