Purification and Characterization of β-Glucosidase from Aspergillus niger

Aspergillus niger, an isolate of soil contaminated with effluents from cotton ginning mill was grown in Czapek-Dox medium containing sawdust, Triton-X 100 and urea for production of an extracellular β-glucosidase. β-Glucosidase enzyme was purified (86-fold) from culture filtrate of A. niger by employing ammonium sulphate precipitation and gel filtration on sephadex G-75. The molecular mass of the purified enzyme was estimated to be 95 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The enzyme had an optimal activity on p-nitrophenyl β-D-glucopyranoside at 50°C and pH 5.0. The K_m and V_max of the enzyme on p-nitrophenyl β-D-glucopyranoside at 50°C and pH 5 were 8.0 mM and 166 µmol/min/mg of protein, respectively. The enzyme could hydrolyze cellobiose and lactose but not sucrose. Heavy metals like Hg²⁺, Al³⁺, and Ag⁺ inhibited the activity, whereas Zn²⁺ and detergents such as Triton-X 100 and Tween-80 increased the activity at 0.01%. The enzyme activity increased in the presence of methanol and ethanol.     

Panic disorder in cardiac outpatients

OBJECTIVE: Continuing the long history of interest in the relation of anxiety disorders to cardiovascular function and symptoms, this study investigated the level of anxiety and prevalence of panic disorder in cardiac patients and the possible associations between specific abnormal ECG results and a diagnosis of panic disorder. METHOD: Consecutive patients referred for ambulatory ECG recordings were assessed with the seven anxiety items of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Then, 50 patients with scores higher than 8 (the anxious group) were interviewed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia--Lifetime Version Modified for the Study of Anxiety Disorders (SADS-LA). RESULTS: Of the 50 anxious patients (26 male and 24 female) interviewed with the SADS-LA, 62% (N = 31) met the DSM-III-R criteria for panic disorder. Patients with panic disorder had a higher mean maximal heart rate and a shorter P-R interval than patients without panic disorder. Unlike the patients without panic disorder, the patients with panic disorder showed no correlation between maximal heart rate and minimal P-R interval. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of panic disorder was high in the patients referred for ECG. Moreover, the prevalence of panic disorder was similar in the patients with and without ECG abnormalities, indicating that in anxious patients the presence of panic disorder does not rule out organic cardiac disease. On the other hand, the higher maximal heart rate and shorter P-R interval of the panic patients may be attributable to hypersensitivity of beta-adrenergic receptors in panic disorder.     

Pulsed Eddy Current Technology: Characterizing Material Loss with Gap and Lift-off Variations

Abstract

Ownership costs of operational aircraft have increased steadily over the years. One of the major cost drivers is structural deterioration due to corrosion. Beyond the economics, finding and characterizing corrosion is essential for the continued airworthiness of aircraft fleets. To this end, the pulsed eddy current technique holds the potential of becoming the primary means of detecting corrosion in multilayered structures. Its wide-band frequency spectrum allows the determination of a large number of parameters, such as defect size and location. Pulsed eddy current is still considered an experimental nondestructive technique because of realistic inspection problems (e.g., probe tilting, protrusion of rivets, and thickness variations in adhesive and paint) have not been addressed in the past. Recent advances change this situation and allow pulsed eddy current to be a credible field technique.     

Aromatic products of 340 °C supercritical-toluene extraction of two Turkish lignites: an n.m.r. study

Fractions of Elbistan and Seyitomer (Turkish) lignites, extracted with supercritical toluene at 340 °C and 8 MPa, have been separated by solvent extraction and silica-gel chromatography. Analyses by n.m.r. and i.r. spectroscopies and other methods have been combined in structural-analysis schemes to yield information about the average molecule in aromatic extracts. Carbon aromaticities, f_a, derived from 22.63 MHz ¹H-decoupled pulse Fourier-transform (PFT) ¹³C-n.m.r. are more widely spread for Elbistan (0.34–0.56) than for Seyitomer (0.40–0.43), and are lower than for supercritical-gas (SCG) products from bituminous coals. ¹³C-n.m.r. also reveals the presence of aromatic ether-O in polar fractions. Narrow aromatic signals in 100 MHz ¹H-n.m.r. spectra suggest the presence of single-aromatic-ring average structures. In the hexane-soluble aromatics, 27% (Elbistan) and 29% (Seyitomer) of the available sites are substituted by alkyI groups, some of which are at least eight carbon atoms long; the hexane-soluble polar and asphaltene/asphaltol fractions contain fewer such groups.     

Investigation of nickel(II) biosorption on Enteromorpha prolifera: optimization using response surface analysis

In this study, the biosorption of nickel(II) ions on Enteromorpha prolifera, a green algae, was investigated in a batch system. The single and combined effects of operating parameters such as initial pH, temperature, initial metal ion concentration and biosorbent concentration on the biosorption of nickel(II) ions on E. prolifera were analyzed using response surface methodology (RSM). The optimum biosorption conditions were determined as initial pH 4.3, temperature 27 degrees C, biosorbent concentration 1.2 g/L and initial nickel(II) ion concentration 100 mg/L. At optimum biosorption conditions, the biosorption capacity of E. prolifera for nickel(II) ions was found to be 36.8 mg/g after 120 min biosorption. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were applied to the equilibrium data and defined very well both isotherm models. The monolayer coverage capacity of E. prolifera for nickel(II) ions was found as 65.7 mg/g. In order to examine the rate limiting step of nickel(II) biosorption, such as the mass transfer and chemical reaction kinetics, the intraparticle diffusion model, external diffusion model and the pseudo second order kinetic model were tested with the experimental data. It was found that for both contributes to the actual biosorption process. The pseudo second order kinetic model described the nickel(II) biosorption process with a good fitting.     

西藏南部地区人工爆炸地震探测的地壳结构

众所周如,西藏地区是研究地球深部结构和构造的窗口,是研究大陆板块学说的重要场所,也是寻找热源和其它矿产资源的有利地区.因此,世界各国地学科学家都希望在本地区进行科学研究工作,或与我国科学工作者协作共同探索这一重要地区.中国和法国的地质、地球物理科学家经商讨共同组成“中法喜马拉雅山地质研究队”,对西藏中部广大地区进行地质、地球物理的科学研究工作.深部地震探测是地球物理研究中的重要内容.中法双方共同决定,在中国西藏南部的日喀则地区至北边的那曲地区作地震探测工作.为了探测地壳上地幔的结构,1981年在西藏的南部佩枯错至普莫雍错500公里的喜马拉雅山北麓——雅鲁藏布江地区进行了人工爆炸地震探测工作.本文是中法地质研究队合作的深部地震探测资料的解释结果.     

The porphyromonas gingivalis prtP/kgp homologue exists as two open reading frames in strain 381

Plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels increase in patients with heart failure with the progression of clinical symptoms and with the deterioration of hemodynamics; consequently, assay methods for these peptides may be useful in the follow-up of cardiac patients. Non-competitive immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) methods for ANP or BNP do not generally require preliminary extraction and/or purification of the plasma sample, and so may be more suitable than competitive immunoradiometric assay (RIA) methods for the routine assay of plasma peptide concentrations. We evaluated the analytical characteristics and clinical usefulness of two IRMAs for plasma ANP and BNP, to verify whether these methods may be considered suitable for the follow-up of patients with heart failure. Both methods are based on the solid-phase sandwich IRMA system, which uses two monoclonal antibodies prepared against two sterically remote epitopes of peptide molecule; the first antibody was coated on the beads solid-phase and the second was radiolabeled with 125I. Blood samples were collected from a brachial vein in ice-chilled disposable polypropylene tubes containing aprotinin and EDTA after the patient had rested for at least 20 min in the recumbent position. Plasma samples were immediately separated by centrifugation and stored at -20 C until assay. The IRMA methods showed a better sensitivity and a wider working range sensitivity (about 2 ng/l) than those of RIA methods. Moreover, the normal range found with these methods (ANP = 16.1 +/- 8.6 ng/l, 5.2 +/- 2.8 pmol/l, BNP = 8.6 +/- 8.2 ng/l, 2.5 +/- 2.4 pmol/l) was similar to that generally reported using the most accurate methods, such as the other IRMAs or RIAs, using a preliminary extraction and purification of plasma samples with chromatographic procedures. Our results obtained in patients with different degrees of heart failure indicate that plasma ANP and BNP increase with the progression of clinical symptoms (NYHA class) (ANOVA p < 0.0001). Indeed, circulating levels of ANP (R = -0.701, no. = 86) and BNP (R = -0.745, no. = 55) were significantly (p < 0.0001) and negatively correlated with the left ventricular ejection fraction values. Furthermore, a close curvilinear regression (R = 0.960, no. = 215) was found between ANP and BNP values, because plasma BNP progressively increases more than plasma ANP in patients with different stages of heart failure. In conclusion, IRMA methods are preferable for the measurement of plasma ANP and BNP for experimental studies and routine assay because they are more practicable, sensitive and accurate than RIA procedures. Finally, BNP assay appears to be better than ANP for discriminating between normal subjects and patients with different degrees of heart failure.     

Effects of freezing temperature and duration of frozen storage on lipid and protein oxidation in chicken meat

This study examined the effects of freezing temperature and duration of frozen storage on lipid and protein oxidation in chicken leg and breast meat. The meat was frozen at three different temperatures (−7, −12 and −18 °C) and then stored at −18 °C for up to 6 months. A significant effect of frozen storage duration on lipid oxidation was detected in leg and breast meat, whereas freezing temperature had no significant effect. In leg meat, freezing at −7 °C had a significant impact on protein oxidation, measured as the increase in carbonyl groups and the decrease in total sulphydryl groups, after 3 months of frozen storage. Lipid and protein oxidation appeared to occur simultaneously in chicken meat during frozen storage and was more intense in leg meat than in breast meat.