Differentiation of natural and synthetic phenylacetic acids by 2H NMR of the derived benzoic acids

The origin of 11 samples of phenylacetic acid 4, including those microbially produced from L-phenylalanine 1 and obtained by hydrolysis of penicillin G, has been studied by natural abundance deuterium NMR spectroscopy. The analysis performed on 4 failed since the (D/H) values relative to the aromatic ring nuclei and to the methylene moieties of the analysed phenylacetic acid samples resulted as similar. The permanganate oxidation of 4 into benzoic acid 5 allowed a differentiation in the ²H NMR spectrum of the signals of the ortho, meta and para nuclei of the aromatic ring, which instead for phenylacetic acid collapse in a single signal. Considering the deuterium content of the different positions in the aromatic ring, the differentiation between the natural rather than synthetic origin of the skeleton of the examined products was possible. The deuterium content of the aromatic ring for the synthetic materials is near to the statistical distribution, whereas for the products of natural derivation it follows a para>ortho>meta enrichment.     

Stress test in the elderly. Clinical, hemodynamic, metabolic and electrocardiographic variables]

Pentylenetetrazol is a convulsive drug acting on gamma-aminobutyric acid-A (GABA[A]) gated-chloride receptors. In this study we used a subconvulsive dose (30 mg/kg) of pentylenetetrazol to induce a fully kindled state in rats. Glutamate receptors were evaluated using [3H]-[1(2-thienylcyclohexyl)]-piperidin (TCP) and [3H]kainate receptor autoradiography and [3H]muscimol autoradiography was used to study GABA(A) receptors. In fully kindled rats decreased N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor binding was found in parietal cortex, area CA2 of hippocampus and piriform cortex. Decreased kainate receptor binding was observed in all areas of the hippocampus, the medial amygdala and in the piriform cortex in the kindled rats. In contrast, GABA(A) receptor binding increased in the dentate gyrus. It is concluded that modulatory neuronal plasticity events are induced in fully pentylenetetrazol kindled rats, which appears to lead to decreased glutamatergic excitation and increased GABAergic inhibition in brain regions implicated in the development of seizure activity.     

Measurement of residual stress in EFG ribbons using a phase-shifting IR photoelastic method

This paper reports on the measurement of residual stress in EFG silicon ribbons for solar cell applications using the phase-shifting infrared (IR) photoelastic method. The samples analysed were wafers cut from EFG octagons with 100 mm face width and from EFG 125 mm face-width octagon under development. Experimental results show that the distribution of residual stress in both types of samples is similar, within measurement uncertainties. The average residual stress in the samples is about 8 MPa. Maximum stresses of around 30 MPa are associated with twin and grain boundaries. Significant variations of stress along the growth direction, possibly related to buckling, were also measured.     

Carbon nanotube films as a platform to transduce molecular recognition events in metalloporphyrins

Porphyrins have been widely used for many years as functional materials for chemical sensors. Their outstanding chemical features are balanced by some restrictions in terms of transduction techniques. In particular, porphyrin layers are barely conductive, with the consequence that the fabrication of porphyrin based chemiresistors is not possible, except in few rare cases. On the other hand, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have superior electric properties ranging from metallic to semiconductor in character. Although the conductivity of CNTs is very sensitive to adsorbed molecules, it should be considered that the adsorption onto carbon structures is also scarcely selective and cannot be modified unless other molecular recognition systems are coupled with the CNTs. Following this approach, in this paper we investigated the sensing properties of hybrid CNT-porphyrin films to explore the possibility of transducing the adsorption events occurring in a porphyrin layer into resistance changes of the CNT layers. The results obtained indicate that the presence of the porphyrin films increases the sensitivity of the electric resistance of the CNTs to the concentration of volatile compounds. This enhancement is probably due to the catalytic effect of the metalloporphyrin in conveying the charge transfer from the adsorbate molecule to the CNTs substrate. This property of metalloporphyrins may introduce a further differentiation between porphyrin based sensors that could be positively utilized in sensor array configurations.     

Differential patterns of antimicrobial resistance in population subsets of Escherichia coli isolated from waste- and surface waters

The species Escherichia coli comprises different subgroups with distinct phylogeny, physiology and ecology and, thus, presumably, with different roles in antimicrobial resistance dissemination. E. coli strains isolated from raw and treated municipal wastewater and from urban water streams were characterized in terms of phylogenetic groups, antimicrobial resistance patterns and the presence of class 1 and class 2 integrons. Our main objective was to investigate the contribution of the different phylo-groups in antimicrobial resistance dissemination in urban waters. Groups A and B1 were predominant in all types of water, evidencing, respectively, the lowest and the highest resistance prevalence. Municipal wastewater treatment was accompanied by significant increases of ciprofloxacin and streptomycin resistance (p < 0.01). Antimicrobial resistance prevalence differed significantly between the different phylo-groups and within the same group, mainly in group A. Such differences contributed to explain the higher ciprofloxacin and streptomycin resistance rates observed in treated effluent in comparison with the raw wastewater. We conclude that the dynamics of the bacterial populations has a major role on the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance in the environment.     

Overdrive in the ramp histogram test of ADCs

This paper presents a study about the amount of overdrive to use when analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are tested with the ramp histogram method. Overdrive is used to limit the error induced by input-equivalent noise in the estimation of the ADC transition voltages. This study has direct application in the new coarse ramp static test.     

Incorporating Waiting Time in Competitive Location Models

In this paper we propose a metaheuristic to solve a new version of the Maximum Capture Problem. In the original MCP, market capture is obtained by lower traveling distances or lower traveling time, in this new version not only the traveling time but also the waiting time will affect the market share. This problem is hard to solve using standard optimization techniques. Metaheuristics are shown to offer accurate results within acceptable computing times.     

Compliance with hypertension treatment: 10 years of publications in Spain

INTRODUCTION: Ten years of publications (1984-1993) about drug compliance in spanish hypertensive patients are presented. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A bibliography search of Medline (EBSCO CD-ROM ver 104.1, act Jul 1995), Indice Médico Espa?ol (CSIC CD-ROM, act Oct 1993) and other sources has been made. RESULTS: 39 articles have been located and 23 investigational publications have been analysed. All the publications, but one, have evaluated the compliance by an indirect method, mainly patient selfdeclaration. The degree of patient compliance determined by interviews, questionnaires or inquiries is 55.5% (IC 95%: 52.7-58.3). The patient compliance in the publications that use methods based in pill counts is 46.4% (IC 95%: 41.6-51.2). The treatment dropout is present in the 18.5% of the patients (IC 95%: 20.5-16.5). CONCLUSIONS: The drug compliance degree in Spanish patients with hypertension is low.     

Molecular basis of open-angle glaucoma in Italy

Glaucoma is a group of ocular diseases characterized by an optic neuropathy in which degeneration of retinal ganglion cells leads to a characteristic excavation of the optic nerve head. Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) can be subdivided into two groups according to age of onset:- 1. the more common middle- to late-age onset, chronic open-angle glaucoma (COAG) diagnosed after the age of 40 years; 2. the rarer juvenile open-angle glaucoma (JOAG), which is diagnosed between the age of 3 years and early adulthood. Recently, the gene coding for the trabecular meshwork-induced glucocorticoid response protein (TIGR), located in chromosome 1 (1q23-25), was found mutated in patients affected by POAG. In this work we describe the clinical and molecular genetic features of several Italian families affected by autosomal dominant POAG, collected in various regions of Italy.     

Multigrid methods for indefinite Toeplitz matrices

In this paper we modify a multigrid technique introduced for illconditioned symmetric positive definite Toepliltz linear systems [22] in order to deal with the nondefinite case. This kind of linear systems arises in important applications such as image restoration, harmonic retrieval etc. We prove that the cost per iteration isO(nlog² n) ops andO(log² n) parallel steps while the convergence speed seems to be independent of the problem matrix-size. Therefore this technique results to be competitive with respect to the fast direct method devised by Chan and Hansen [16] and is alternative to the PCG-based algorithm introduced in [33, 32, 37].