Synthesis of Silica Vesicles with Controlled Entrance Size for High Loading,Sustained Release,and Cellular Delivery of Therapeutical Proteins

A rationally designed two‐step synthesis of silica vesicles is developed with the formation of vesicular structure in the first step and fine control over the entrance size by tuning the temperature in the second step. The silica vesicles have a uniform size of ≈50 nm with excellent cellular uptake performance. When the entrance size is equal to the wall thickness, silica vesicles after hydrophobic modification show the highest loading amount (563 mg/g) towards Ribonuclease A with a sustained release behavior. Consequently, the silica vesicles are excellent nano‐carriers for cellular delivery applications of therapeutical biomolecules.     

RE policy in India: The need for local sensitivity

While at a local level renewable energy success stories abound in India, at the national level, the RE gains seem almost unnoticeable. That is because most of these success stories are due to adoption of renewable energy products - mainly solar systems - by individual households. When it comes to exploiting renewable potential for setting up distributed generation projects that can cater to masses, the country has not scored well. Refocus correspondent, Sunil Puri, India provides his perspective on the current RE situation in India.     

Simultaneous optimisation of multiple performance characteristics in micro-EDM drilling of titanium alloy

Micro-electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM) has become a widely accepted non-traditional material removal process for machining conductive and difficult-to-cut materials effectively and economically. Being a difficult-to-cut material, titanium alloy suffers poor machinability for most cutting processes, especially the drilling of micro-holes using traditional machining methods. Although EDM is suitable for machining titanium alloys, selection of machining parameters for higher machining rate and accuracy is a challenging task in machining micro-holes. In this study, an attempt has been made for simultaneous optimization of the process performances like, metal removal rate, tool wear rate and overcut based on Taguchi methodology. Thus, the optimal micro-EDM process parameter settings have been found out for a set of desired performances. The process parameters considered in the study were pulse-on time, frequency, voltage and current while tungsten carbide electrode was used as a tool. Verification experiments have been carried out and the results have been provided to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.     

Lack of a docking mechanism for neurotransmitter release in the aganglionic segment of bowel in patients with Hirschsprung''s disease

To evaluate the patterns of drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Taiwan, a total of 1,091 isolates collected from patients from January 1996 through December 1996 were tested for drug susceptibility using the absolute concentration method at the Taiwan Provincial Chronic Disease Control Bureau. The overall drug rate of resistance to at least one drug was 35.5%. Among the 249 isolates from patients who had never been treated for tuberculosis, 16.1% were resistant to one or more drugs; 1.6% were resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin. Of 200 patients with prior antituberculosis treatment, 67.0% had isolates resistant to one or more drugs and 46.0% had isolates resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin. We conclude that drug-resistant M. tuberculosis is an important issue in tuberculosis treatment in Taiwan, especially when dealing with patients with a prior history of antituberculosis treatment. More aggressive interventions, such as directly observed therapy, short-course, are needed to improve the cure rate of pulmonary tuberculosis and to decrease resistance rates.     

RE in India: What does 2004 have in store?

How will the year 2004 progress for renewable energy (RE) in India? Will the long overdue national renewable policy become a reality during the year? Will this year's Budget provide some special sops for renewable development? Will the budgetary allocation increase incrementally? Will we see more states come up with favourable policies towards RE? Or will the sector see another year of mediocre progress? Sunil Puri, Refocus correspondent India, tried to gauge the mood of the industry and its expectations at the onset of the year.     

Altered mRNA expression of the neuronal nitric oxide synthase gene in Hirschsprung''s disease

Deoxyribonuclease I (DNase I) is an actin monomer-sequestering actin binding protein (ABP) that inhibits the rate and extent of actin polymerisation in vitro by forming a high affinity, stoichiometric 1:1 complex. Using capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), we have studied the interaction between G-actin and DNase I to evaluate the capability of CZE to determine the dissociation constant (K(d) value) for this interaction. We used (i) an uncoated fused-silica capillary and ultraviolet (UV) detection at 214 nm; (ii) a hydrophilic-coated capillary with UV detection at 214 nm; and (iii) a hydrophilic-coated capillary with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection. Using procedure (ii), a K(d) value of approximately 0.03 microM was obtained by simulation of binding data. We conclude that CZE combined with a LIF detector has the capacity to extend the determination of K(d) values from the micromolar range to the nanomolar range. Subsequent determination of K(d) values for other actin-binding proteins should provide information on interactions between the binding sites on actin for these proteins and their spatial relationship.     

Ethylene glycol retention method for estimating specific surface area of adsorbent carbons

Ethylene glycol retention method, standardised by Dyal and Hendricks for clays and soils, has been used for determining specific surface areas of a large variety of adsorbent carbons differing widely in the extent as well as chemical nature of their surfaces. The proposed method yields values comparable with those obtained by the gaseous adsorption methods, irrespective of the oxygen contents of the carbons. A small amount of oxygen, probably within 0.2%, is essential to bring about proper wetting of the carbon by glycol.