Purification and renaturation of recombinant human lymphotoxin (tumour necrosis factor beta) expressed in Escherichia coli as inclusion bodies

High level expression of recombinant human tumour necrosis factor β (rh TNF-β) in Escherichia coli results in the formation of two portions of protein, namely soluble active protein and insoluble protein which is inactive and aggregates in the form of inclusion bodies (IBs). In this study, a procedure for purification and renaturation of rh TNF-β from inclusion bodies has been designed and verified experimentally with a product purity of more than 90% and a recovery of about 30%. The procedure includes washing of IBs with specific wash buffer (Triton X-100/EDTA/lysozyme/PMSF), their solubilization with 8 mol dm^?3 alkaline urea, purification with ion-exchange columns, refolding with renaturation buffer and finally concentration and desalination with an ultrafiltration membrane. The characteristics of the renatured protein were identical with those of purified protein from the soluble fraction as demonstrated by (1) SDS-PAGE, (2) cytotoxic activity on mouse L929 cells, (3) N-terminal amino acid sequence, and (4) gel filtration chromatography.     

Synthesis and characterisation of N-toluyl methacrylatoethyl carbamates,homopolymers and copolymers with methyl methacrylate

The paper describes the synthesis of N-2/4-toluyl methacrylatoethyl carbamates using 2/4-toluyl isocyanate and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate. Homopolymerisation and copolymerisation of these novel monomers with methyl methacrylate was carried out using benzoyl peroxide as an initiator and tetrahydrofuran as solvent. Photopolymerisation of N-4-toluyl methacrylatoethyl carbamate could be carried out without the use of photosensitiser. Structural characterisation of copolymers was done using ¹H-NMR. Thermal stability of copolymers was evaluated in a nitrogen atmosphere by dynamic thermogravimetry.     

Effect of storage temperature on phenolics stability in hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida var. major) fruits and a hawthorn drink

The stability of five major phenolics, namely (−)-epicatechin (EC), procyanidin B₂ (PC-B₂), chlorogenic acid (ChA), hyperoside (HP) and isoquercitrin (IQ), in hawthorn fruits and a canned hawthorn drink were evaluated during 6 months of storage in the dark at three different temperatures (4, 23 and 40 °C). HPLC with a diode-array detector was used to determine the contents of the individual compounds. The results showed that the studied phenolics in the hawthorn fruits and the drink were both stable at 4 °C and relatively unstable at 23 and 40 °C with varied extents of degradation. At room temperature (23 °C), marked degradations of EC and PC-B₂ were observed in both the fruits and the drink with around 50% and 30% decrease after a 6-month storage, respectively. A more significant decrease of the phenolics was observed at 40 °C, especially for EC and PC-B₂, which were almost completely degraded after a 6-month storage. HP, IQ and ChA were relatively stable at 23 °C, but unstable at 40 °C. Therefore, low-temperature storage is recommended for maintaining the quality and efficacy of hawthorn fruits and its preparations.     

Transformations in machining. Part 1. enhancement of wavelet transformation neural network (WT-NN) combination with a preprocessor

Properly selected transformation methods obtain the most significant characteristics of metal cutting data efficiently and simplify the classification. Wavelet Transformation (WT) and Neural Networks (NN) combination was used to classify the experimental cutting force data of milling operations previously. Preprocessing (PreP) of the approximation coefficients of the WT is proposed just before the classification by using the Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART2) type NNs. Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to estimate the weights of each coefficient of the PreP. The WT-PreP-NN (ART2) combination worked at lower vigilances by creating only a few meaningful categories without any errors. The WT-NN (ART2) combination could obtain the same error rate only if very high vigilances are used and many categories are allowed.     

Superconductivity at differentTc in CdBa2Ca2Cu3Oy

A Cd analogue of the Tl and Hgn =3 series with nominal composition CdBa₂Ca₂Cu₃O_y has been synthesized. The samples were superconducting according to magnetic susceptibility measurements. The critical temperature was 103 or 107 K depending on the preparation conditions. The EDX analysis revealed the presence of Cd-1111, Cd-1121, and Cd-2333 as minor phases. The observed diamagnetic effects were attributed to the differentT _c of these phases.     

Structural modelling of coprecipitated VTiO catalysts

A statistical study of the particle shape and size of pure V₂O₅ and TiO₂, and samples of coprecipitated V₂O₅---TiO₂ catalysts with different V/Ti ratios, has been performed. They were also characterized by XRD, EDAX, SEM and XPS. The results showed that pure vanadium pentoxide is compose by large square or needle-shaped particles, while pure titanium dioxide has small and rounded ones. VTiO samples presented an area and shape, depending on the V/Ti ratio.

These results and the spectroscopical characterization conducted to a particle model of the catalysts. Those VOTi samples with high V/Ti ratio would have large V₂O₅ crystals acting as support of a V/TiO₂ solid solution. In contrast, those samples with a low V/Ti ratio, would have the solid solution supporting vanadium pentoxide crystals.     

Al2O3—TiB2陶瓷刀具材料的高温氧化及其对刀具耐磨性能的影响

研究了Ａｌ２Ｏ３－ＴｉＢ２陶瓷刀具材料在１０００℃下的氧化行为，用ＸＲＤ、ＳＥＭ分析了氧化后的相组成及显微结构。结果表明：Ａｌ２Ｏ３－ＴｉＢ２陶瓷材料在１０００℃空气中氧化增重符合抛物线规律；随ＴｉＢ２含量的增加，该材料的抗氧化能力下降。     

2－重自补图论（Ⅲ）──计数理论

文中解决了２－重自补图的计数问题，获得了具有ｐ个顶点的２－重自补图的数目是其中Ｚ（Ａ）表示置换群Ａ的圈指标，Ｓ￣（２）＿ｐ表示ｐ次对称群的对群．