A comparative study of the nonhistone chromosomal proteins (pp23) from rat and bull kidneys

BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal myoelectric activity during postoperative ileus has been well characterized. However, the common clinical scenario of ileus occurring during and after episodes of sepsis is not well understood. The aim of our study was to determine the effects of a single, sublethal dose of endotoxin on canine gastrointestinal myoelectric activity. METHODS: Eight dogs underwent placement of serosal electrodes on the stomach and small intestine and insertion of a jejunal cannula. After the animals recovered, electrical activity and jejunal mucosal blood flow were determined during fasting and with feeding. Following completion of these baseline studies dogs were given a single, sublethal dose of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (200 g/kg) intravenously, and the studies were repeated daily for 3 consecutive days. RESULTS: Endotoxin resulted in an absence of the interdigestive migrating myoelectric complex for 2 days, a decrease in duodenal and jejunal action potentials during fasting and with feeding, but no decreases in jejunal mucosal blood flow. The gastrointestinal myoelectrical patterns returned to those found in health on postendotoxin day 3. CONCLUSIONS: A single, sublethal dose of endotoxin results in a temporary disruption of gastrointestinal myoelectric activity similar to that seen during postoperative ileus. The etiology of this "adynamic" ileus is unknown but does not appear to be secondary to intestinal ischemia.     

Ion binding and permeation at the GABA transporter GAT1

This study addresses the binding of ions and the permeation of substrates during function of the GABA transporter GAT1. GAT1 was expressed in Xenopus oocytes and studied electrophysiologically as well as with [3H]GABA flux; GAT1 was also expressed in mammalian cells and studied with [3H]GABA and [3H]tiagabine binding. Voltage jumps, Na+ and Cl- concentration jumps, and exposure to high-affinity blockers (NO-05-711 and SKF-100330A) all produce capacitive charge movements. Occlusive interactions among these three types of perturbations show that they all measure the same population of charges. The concentration dependences of the charge movements reveal (1) that two Na+ ions interact with the transporter even in the absence of GABA, and (2) that Cl- facilitates the binding of Na+. Comparison between the charge movements and the transport-associated current shows that this initial Na(+)-transporter interaction limits the overall transport rate when [GABA] is saturating. However, two classes of manipulation--treatment with high-affinity uptake blockers and the W68L mutation-"lock" Na+ onto the transporter by slowing or preventing the subsequent events that release the substrates to the intracellular medium. The Na+ substitutes Li+ and Cs+ do not support charge movements, but they can permeate the transporter in an uncoupled manner. Our results (1) support the hypothesis that efficient removal of synaptic transmitter by the GABA transporter GAT1 depends on the previous binding of Na+ and Cl-, and (2) indicate the important role of the conserved putative transmembrane domain 1 in interactions with the permeant substrates.     

The genetic typing of strains in the genus Francisella using universal probes

The determination of the genetic relationship of bacteria of the genus Francisella and their differentiation is one of the topical tasks of the epidemiology and infectology of F. tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia, belonging to this genus. To solve this task, investigation was carried out with a view to the determine the possibility of the genomic typing of Francisella. Genomic typing was based on the use of the hybridization of fragments of Francisella chromosomal DNA, split by restrictases EcoRI and Pstl, with DNA probes. As probes, "minisatellite" sequences of bacteriophage M13 DNA or Helicobacter pylori rDNA were used. The possibility of interspecific genomic typing of F. tularensis, F. novicida and F. philomiragia by the above-mentioned methods was established. The intraspecific typing of F. tularensis by the phenotypical sign of virulence was possible with the use of the hybridization of chromosomal DNA with bacteriophage M13 probe. The use of rDNA probe proved to be effective for the determination of subspecies of the causative agent of tularemia. The possibility of using the combination of these two methods for more complete characterization of the genomic polymorphism of Francisella, the determination of their genetic relationship and their differentiation is discussed.     

Publicly verifiable watermarking scheme for intellectual property protection using quantum Chaos and bit plane complexity slicing

Intellectual Property such as music, painting, videos and other similar works being broadcasted on web need to be protected against copyright infringement to ensure the rights of their legitimate owners. Moreover, their users must also be sure of the originality of these artefacts. Both these problems can be solved through proper authentication on behalf of the creator. For this purpose, various publicly verifiable watermarking schemes have been available in literature. Recent proposal, in this domain, is based on chaos theory and Secured Hashing Algorithms SHA-2. Due to tremendous growth in the availability of Intellectual Property on the web and associated breaches it becomes a mandatory requirement to update these authenticating schemes. This paper proposes the usage of some more secure, reliable and efficient components in watermarking schemes than being used at present. Proposed changes include the deployment of encryption scheme based on Quantum Logistic maps instead of current Chaos encryption based on peter de-jong map, in order to optimise randomness, correlation and time complexity. For better security and efficiency in hardware implementation SHA-3 is a better choice than SHA-2. Data embedding can be done in regions where imperceptibility is quite high. The proposed changes can result in the creation of more reliable and efficient system. To test the hypothesis, proposed mechanism has been implemented in MATLAB-16a and various performance metrics such as correlation coefficient, PSNR, UIQI, SSIM have been measured. The results show that proposed scheme outperforms its counterpart in terms of all the performance metrics.     

一种无线传感器网络可靠拓扑的生成算法

在无线传感器网络（ WSNs）的应用中,网络中的节点需要将采集到的数据信息传送到汇聚节点,其信息传输的可靠性是十分重要的。然而,由于无线通信信道容易受到干扰和噪音的影响,极限情况时甚至可能造成数据传输失败,这对无线传感器网络的正常工作提出了极大挑战。针对上述问题,提出一种可靠拓扑的生成算法,通过该算法设计了一组可靠的路由拓扑,并通过仿真验证了其可靠性。     

A multi-level steganography mechanism using quantum chaos encryption

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Recent advances in processing capabilities of hardware devices and 5 g spectrum availability has not only made the life of users heaven but has also...     

Isolation and chemical composition of surface-active material from human lung lavage

Surface-active material (SF) was isolated from human lung lavage fluid collected at autopsy employing differential and sucrose density gradient centrifugation. The isolated material showed well-defined electron microscopic structure, consisting of clearly preserved, closely packed vesicles with limiting membranes and inclusion bodies. It showed a very high degree of alkaline phosphatase specific activity and was devoid of other subcellular contaminants. The isolated material also showed a high phospholipid/protein ratio and increasing surface activity when monitored at different stages of purification. It contained 68.5% phosphatidylcholine, 11.5% phosphatidylglycerol and relatively smaller amounts of phosphatidylethanolamine and other individual phospholipid (PL) classes. In addition, cholesterol, unesterified fatty acids, triacylglycerols and other neutral lipids were found. Saturated fatty acids, particularly palmitic acid (16∶0), predominated in the major PL fractions. However, various fatty acids of which oleic acid (18∶1) constituted a large proportion also are present. Chemical analysis of the material showed that besides lipids and proteins, nucleic acids, sialic acid, hexose, amino sugars, nitrogen and phosphorus were present. The delipidated material showed the presence of three to four proteins as characterized by sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and gel permeation chromatography on Sephadex G-200 resolved two well-separated peaks. The first fraction contained serum-associated 68 kDa protein, while the second fraction had two apoproteins with molecular weights of 34 kDa and 10 kDa. These two proteins were associated with the SF and they, as well as the whole surface-active material, strongly reacted with the antibody directed against the whole SF in a double-diffusion immunoprecipitation assay. The first Sephadex fraction containing a 68 kDa protein did not produce any precipitation line when reacted against antisera.