Characterization of silver-palladium submicronic powders

Various properties of submicronic silver-palladium powders (70/30 and 75/25 Ag/Pd % wt/wt), recently obtained by a new process of precipitation in aqueous solution, are described. These powders are intended to be used in the multilayer ceramic capacitor industry. The morphology of the particles has been analysed through various measurements, such as SEM images, tap density, BET surface area, and the size distribution by a sedimentation technique. The powders were found to be made of spherical shaped particles of mean diameter close to 0.3 m with a narrow size distribution. The individual grains were agglomerated only to a small extent. After being conditioned as a paste by blending with an organic binder, screen-printed and fired, the particles sintered into a conductive layer of low resistivity (15–30 Wcm for 2 m thickness) with only a few remaining voids, as observed by SEM. Thermal measurements indicated no melting of a pure silver phase at 960 °C, thus indicating that alloying was achieved before this temperature.     

Chiari's pelvic osteotomy in adults. 35 cases (author's transl)

Between 1968 and 1978 the authors have performed 35 Chiari's pelvic osteotomies in adults ; 25 cases reviewed after a more than one year follow-up. The operation is a relatively major one, and complications are not uncommon. Carried out in adults for sequelae of hip dislocation in childhood, with or without arthrosis, it relieves pain remarkably well and improves walking distances but has little effect on hip mobility. Pelvic osteotomy may also give satisfactory results in some advanced forms of arthrosis, provided hip mobility remains sufficient (70 degrees flexion or more).     

Fuel Switching in the Electricity Sector under the EU ETS: Review and Prospective

The European Union has implemented the European Union emission trading scheme (EU ETS) as an instrument to facilitate greenhouse gas (GHG) emission abatement stipulated in the Kyoto protocol. Empirical data show that in the early stages of the EU ETS, the value of a ton of CO2 has already led to emission abatement through switching from coal to gas in the European electric power sector. In the second part of this paper, an electricity generation simulation model is used to perform simulations on the switching behavior in both the first and the second trading periods of the EU ETS. In 2005, the reduction in GHG emissions in the electric power sector due to EU ETS is estimated close to 88?Mton. For the second trading period, a European Union allowance (EUA) price dependent GHG reduction curve has been determined. The obtained switching potential turns out to be significant, up to 300?Mton/year, at sufficiently high EUA prices.     

Alternative splicing events in the coding region of the cytochrome P450 aromatase gene in male rat germ cells

The metabolic and muscle blood flow response in recovery from exercise is dependent on the type and the duration of the exercise. Immediately after both intense static and dynamical exercise blood flow to the exercised muscles increases suggesting that blood flow is mechanically hindered by muscle contraction. After the initial rise (seconds) muscle blood flow decreases at a moderate rate and the time to reach resting flow levels varies from seconds to more than 30 min. It is unclear as to what causes the elevated blood flow during recovery. A mismatch between the time course of changes in blood flow and oxygen uptake suggests that the blood flow is not directly regulated by the need of oxygen in the exercised muscles. The hyperaemic response may be linked to locally released factors, such as ions and metabolites. However, the signal by which the blood flow is elevated remains unknown. After exercise both pulmonary and muscle oxygen uptake decrease rapidly, but can remain above resting levels for several hours. Resynthesis of substrates such as CP, ATP and glycogen cannot account for the entire excessive post-exercise oxygen uptake (EPOC) in the exercised muscles and the cause of the elevated muscle oxygen uptake in recovery from exercise remains to be assessed.     

Application of a self-consistent mean field theory to predict protein side-chains conformation and estimate their conformational entropy

Understanding the relations between the conformation of the side-chains and the backbone geometry is crucial for structure prediction as well as for homology modelling. To attempt to unravel these rules, we have developed a method which allows us to predict the position of the side-chains from the co-ordinates of the main-chain atoms. This method is based on a rotamer library and refines iteratively a conformational matrix of the side-chains of a protein, CM, such that its current element at each cycle CM (ij) gives the probability that side-chain i of the protein adopts the conformation of its possible rotamer j. Each residue feels the average of all possible environments, weighted by their respective probabilities. The method converges in only a few cycles, thereby deserving the name of self consistent mean field method. Using the rotamer with the highest probability in the optimized conformational matrix to define the conformation of the side-chain leads to the result that on average 72% of chi 1, 75% of chi 2 and 62% of chi 1 + 2 are correctly predicted for a set of 30 proteins. Tests with six pairs of homologous proteins have shown that the method is quite successful even when the protein backbone deviates from the correct conformation. The second application of the optimized conformational matrix was to provide estimates of the conformational entropy of the side-chains in the folded state of the protein. The relevance of this entropy is discussed.     

Higher activity of an aldehyde oxidase in the auxin-overproducing superroot1 mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana

Aldehyde oxidase (AO; EC 1.2.3.1) activity was measured in seedlings of wild type or an auxin-overproducing mutant, superroot1 (sur1), of Arabidopsis thaliana. Activity staining for AO after native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis separation of seedling extracts revealed that there were three major bands with AO activity (AO1-3) in wild-type and mutant seedlings. One of them (AO1) had a higher substrate preference for indole-3-aldehyde. This AO activity was significantly higher in sur1 mutant seedlings than in the wild type. The difference in activity was most apparent 7 d after germination, the same time required for the appearance of the remarkable sur1 phenotype, which includes epinastic cotyledons, elongated hypocotyls, and enhanced root development. Higher activity was observed in the root and hypocotyl region of the mutant seedlings. We also assayed the indole-3-acetaldehyde oxidase activity in extracts by high-performance liquid chromatography detection of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). The activity was about 5 times higher in the extract of the sur1 seedlings, indicating that AO1 also has a substrate preference for abscisic aldehyde. Treatment of the wild-type seedlings with picloram or IAA caused no significant increase in AO1 activity. This result suggested that the higher activity of AO1 in sur1 mutant seedlings was not induced by IAA accumulation and, thus, strongly supports the possible role of AO1 in IAA biosynthesis in Arabidopsis seedlings.     

Weighted Control of Traction Drives With Parallel-Connected AC Machines

AC machines supplied in parallel by a common voltage source inverter are sometimes used in industrial drives and railway traction applications. This reduction of power and control electronics leads to a reduction of cost, weight, and dimensions that is very useful for on-board systems. But this common supply imposes common voltages to all machines and the possibilities of independent behavior are reduced. In this paper, a graphical modeling is suggested to model such parallel drives for a railway application. A weighted control is then systematically deduced from this modeling and different possibilities of control are highlighted. Experimental results are provided to compare two of the deduced controls     

Antimicrobial peptides of the brevinin-2 family isolated from gastric tissue of the frog, Rana esculenta

Four structurally related peptides with potent growth-inhibitory activity towards Escherichia coli were isolated from an extract of the stomach of the European green frog Rana esculenta, and were identified as members of the brevinin-2 family. Two peptides, termed brevinin-2Eg (GIMDTLKNLA10 KTAGKGALQS20 LLNHASCK LS30GQC) and brevinin-2Eh (GIMDTLKNLA10 KTAGKGALQS20 LLNHASCKL S30 KQC) have not been described previously. One peptide is identical to brevinin-2Ec, previously isolated from R. esculenta skin secretions, and one peptide is identical to brevinin-2Ef whose structure has been deduced from a cloned cDNA prepared from a R. esculenta skin cDNA library. The data demonstrate that certain peptides of the brevinin-2 family, like the magainins in the toad, Xenopus laevis, may play an important role in protecting the gastrointestinal tract of Ranid frogs against microbial invasion.     

Localization, identification, and action of galanin in the frog adrenal gland

The distribution of galanin-like immunoreactivity was studied in the adrenal gland of the frog Rana ridibunda using the indirect immunofluorescence technique. A dense network of varicose fibers immunoreactive to galanin was found in the adrenal tissue. A combination of HPLC analysis and RIA detection was used to characterize galanin-like immunoreactivity in frog adrenal gland extracts. The elution profile revealed the existence of a single form of galanin exhibiting the same retention time as synthetic frog galanin. The possible involvement of galanin in the regulation of corticosteroid secretion was investigated in vitro using a perifusion system for frog adrenal slices. For concentrations ranging from 10(-9) to 3 x 10(-6) M, synthetic frog galanin induced a dose-dependent inhibition of corticosterone and aldosterone release. Repeated pulses of galanin (10(-6) M), given at 90-min intervals, resulted in a reproducible inhibition of corticosteroid secretion without any apparent tachyphylaxis. During prolonged administration of galanin (10(-6) M), the steroidogenic effect of ACTH (10(-9) M) was significantly reduced. In contrast, galanin did not attenuate the stimulation of corticosteroid secretion induced by the angiotensin II analog [Sar1,Val5]angiotensin II. These results show the occurrence of galanin in fibers innervating the frog adrenal gland. The data also demonstrate that synthetic galanin inhibits spontaneous and ACTH-induced corticosteroid release. Taken together, these findings suggest that galanin, released by nerve fibers in the adrenal tissue, can act locally as a modulator of steroid secretion.