Regional mapping panels for chromosomes 3, 4, 5, 11, 15, 17, 18, and X

The erm family of 23S rRNA adenine-N6-methyltransferases confers resistance to all macrolide-lincosamide-streptograminB (MLS) antibiotics, but not all MLS antibiotics induce synthesis of Erm methyltransferase with equal efficiency in a given organism. The induction efficiency of a test panel of MLS antibiotics was studied by using two translational attenuator-lac reporter gene fusion constructs, one based on ermSV from Streptomyces viridochromogenes NRRL 2860 and the other based on ermC from Staphylococcus aureus RN2442. Four types of responses which were correlated with the macrolide ring size were seen, as follows: group 1, both ermSV and ermC were induced by the 14-membered-ring macrolides erythromycin, lankamycin, and matromycin, as well as by the lincosamide celesticetin; group 2, neither ermSV nor ermC was induced by the 12-membered-ring macrolide methymycin or by the lincosamide lincomycin or the streptogramin type B antibiotic ostreogrycin B; group 3, ermSV was selectively induced over ermC by the 16-membered-ring macrolides carbomycin, chalcomycin, cirramycin, kitasamycin, maridomycin, and tylosin; and group 4, ermC was selectively induced over ermSV by the 14-membered-ring macrolide megalomicin. These data suggest that the leader peptide determines the specificity of induction by different classes of MLS antibiotics and that for a given attenuator, a major factor which determines whether a given macrolide induces resistance is its size.     

Experimental and analytical studies of the thermal stratification phenomenon in the outlet plenum of fast breeder reactors

Water and sodium experiments were conducted with scaled models to study the in-vessel thermal stratification. The models simulate the outlet plenum in a loop-type LMFBR with an inner barrel and a closed-type UIS (upper instrumentation structure). An examination of the threshold for thermal stratification, the rising rate of the stratification interface, and the flow regime above the interface has been conducted and is reported in the present paper. In parallel, the phenomenon in the experiments has been evaluated with the multi-dimensional analysis.     

Structurally Diverse Polyamines: Solid‐Phase Synthesis and Interaction with DNA

A versatile solid‐phase approach based on peptide chemistry was used to construct four classes of structurally diverse polyamines with modified backbones: linear, partially constrained, branched, and cyclic. Their effects on DNA duplex stability and structure were examined. The polyamines showed distinct activities, thus highlighting the importance of polyamine backbone structure. Interestingly, the rank order of polyamine ability for DNA compaction was different to that for their effects on circular dichroism and melting temperature, thus indicating that these polyamines have distinct effects on secondary and higher‐order structures of DNA.     

Laparoscopic vesicopsoas hitch for infiltrative ureteral endometriosis

Type-specific serologic assays for herpes simplex virus (HSV) types 1 and 2 based on glycoprotein G-1 (gG-1) (HSV-1) and gG-2 (HSV-2) discriminate between antibodies against HSV-1 and HSV-2. We previously developed a Western blot assay using gG-1 and gG-2 expressed in baculovirus, performed extensive validation studies, and determined that it was both sensitive and specific for type-specific detection of HSV antibody. Here we report that, among a cohort of Thai military recruits, the serostatus of some individuals changed from positive to negative over time (6.6% among those ever positive for HSV-1, and 14.9% among those ever positive for HSV-2). We tested a subset of these specimens in three other gG-based assays: an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, an immunoblot strip assay, and a Western blot assay. Positive-to-negative shifts occurred in every assay; the frequency of the shifts ranged from 6. 1% to 21.2% of the specimen sets tested. There was only limited agreement among the assays concerning which individuals lost reactivity. This inaccuracy, exhibited by all of the assay protocols, was not predicted by validation studies employing specimens from cross-sectional studies and was most pronounced in HSV-2 testing. This argues for the inclusion of serial blood specimens in serologic assay validation procedures.     

Improvement of polymer/fullerene solar cells by controlling geometry of the ITO substrate surface

We have found that the short-circuit current, J_sc, of polymer/fullerene [RR-P3HT/C₆₀] solar cells has a clear dependence on the surface roughness of the ITO/glass substrate. We prepared an ITO surface with an average roughness, R_a, of 0.7–11 nm by chemical etching. At first J_sc increases with the increase in ITO surface roughness and then gradually decreases. The maximum performance was obtained at R_a≈4 nm. J_sc is also high with a very flat surface of R_a=0.7 nm. This feature can be attributed to the trade-off between the increase in absorption light path length and film-quality deterioration.     

MECHANISM OF DENDRITE FORMATION FROM A STREAM OF SUBMICRON AEROSOL IN THE PRESENCE OF EXTERNAL ELECTRIC FIELD

In the present work we extend the model of dendrite formation to the case of submicron unipolar charged particles, where the main transport mechanism in convective Brownian diffusion and electrical effects due to the presence of charges on the particles and electric field around cylindrical collector.

We present solutions for the case of slip flow around the fiber and free molecular flow around particles.