Genetic polymorphisms and the risk of progressive renal failure in elderly Hungarian patients

The relationship between renal disease progression and genetic polymorphism of enzymes influencing endothelial function remains incompletely understood. We genotyped three cohorts of elderly Hungarian patients: 245 patients with end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) on chronic hemodialysis (HD), 88 patients with mild chronic kidney disease (CKD), and 200 healthy controls. The underlying diagnoses of renal diseases were primary glomerulonephritis, interstitial nephritis, hypertension, diabetic nephropathy, and hereditary diseases. We examined genetic polymorphisms of eight candidate genes associated with endothelial function: endothelial constitutive nitric oxide synthase (ecNOS) T‐786C, endothelin‐1 G5727T, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T, paraoxonase‐1 Q192R and M55L, angiotensinogen M235T, angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) I/D and angiotensin II type 1 receptor A1166C gene. Six gene polymorphisms were detected by real‐time polymerase chain reaction with melting‐point analysis, and two via allele‐specific amplification and gel electrophoresis. Control group patients were in Hardy‐Weinberg equilibrium for all tested genotypes. In ESRD patients attributed to hypertension, the endothelin gene G5727T GG genotype occurred significantly less but GT genotype more frequently (P < 0.01 for both). In ESRD patients attributed to primary glomerulonephritis, more ACE DD and less ID genotypes were found (P < 0.02 for both) than in the controls. The underlying diagnosis may modify the association of genetic polymorphism and dialysis‐dependent ESRD.     

The effect of daily temperature on truss flowering rate of tomato

The rate of appearance of tomato inflorescence is important parameter of yield prediction models. Number of macroscopically observable inflorescences related to unit time was used to characterize the rate of development in case of indeterminate tomato. Truss flowering rate showed similar pattern to truss appearance rate, and it was closely connected with temperature. The present experiments attempted to calculate functions that can estimate truss flowering rate up to the 10th truss. These functions are the basis of characterizing the whole flowering process in relation to temperature during the generative period of indeterminate tomato. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Maps on density operators preserving quantum f-divergences

For an arbitrary strictly convex function $f$ defined on the non-negative real line we determine the structure of all transformations on the set of density operators which preserve the quantum $f$ -divergence.     

Preparation of ZnO nanoparticles by thermal decomposition of zinc alginate

A new method to produce zinc oxide nanocrystals is presented. The method is based on the thermal decomposition of zinc alginate gels. The gels were produced in the form of beads by ionic gelation between a zinc solution and sodium alginate. The wet beads were heated at 800 and 450 °C for 24 h and the products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and micro-Raman spectroscopy. XRD analysis showed that all obtained samples are of wurtzite structure. TEM analysis combined with electron diffraction also showed the presence of single crystals indexed as ZnO hexagonal phase. Crystal size was determined by measuring individual crystals from SEM pictures. It was found that heating temperature and the kind of zinc agent influence the crystal size. Raman scattering revealed the existence of defects in the structure of nanoparticles whose cringing was discussed in the context of recent studies in this field.     

Novel Approach for the Isolation and Immobilization of a Recombinant Transaminase: Applying an Advanced Nanocomposite System

The increasing application of recombinant enzymes demands not only effective and sustainable fermentation, but also highly efficient downstream processing and further stabilization of the enzymes by immobilization. In this study, a novel approach for the isolation and immobilization of His-tagged transaminase from Chromobacterium violaceum (CvTA) has been developed. A recombinant of CvTA was simultaneously isolated and immobilized by binding on silica nanoparticles (SNPs) with metal affinity linkers and additionally within poly(lactic acid) (PLA) nanofibers. The linker length and the nature of the metal ion significantly affected the enzyme binding efficiency and biocatalytic activity of CvTA-SNPs. The formation of PLA nanofibers by electrospinning enabled rapid embedding of CvTA-SNPs biocatalysts and ensured enhanced stability and activity. The developed advanced immobilization method reduces the time required for enzyme isolation, purification and immobilization by more than fourfold compared to a classical stepwise technique.