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Displacement Experiments (displacement + experiment)
Selected AbstractsAssessing the Semelparity Hypothesis: Egg-guarding and Fecundity in the Malaysian Treehopper Pyrgauchenia tristaniopsisETHOLOGY, Issue 10 2002Ulrich E. Stegmann According to the semelparity hypothesis, iteroparous insects should provide either no maternal care or less care than related semelparous species. We present field data on reproductive output and maternal care in the Southeast Asian treehopper Pyrgauchenia tristaniopsis (Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo) relevant to a preliminary assessment of the hypothesis. In a mark-recapture experiment, more females than expected under semelparity were found to have oviposited a second clutch (37%). Female longevity was a of 75 d. Both these estimates were highly conservative. Oviposition was successive resulting in a of 46 eggs per clutch. Females provided care for eggs only, occasionally scraping their legs along the sides of the clutch apparently attempting to deter Brachygrammatella sp. egg parasitoids (Trichogrammatidae). Females straddled their clutch for a of 27 d, i.e. until 8 d after the beginning of first instar hatching. First instars hatched successively over a period of 11 d. When a female deserted her clutch, it contained about 37% yet unhatched eggs. Egg-guarding effectively reduced egg mortality: the earlier a female was experimentally removed from her clutch the higher the egg mortality. Displacement experiments demonstrated that egg-guarding is a behaviour actively maintained despite disturbances and specifically directed towards the egg clutch but not to the feeding site. We interpret our findings as being in accordance with the weaker claim of the semelparity hypothesis, i.e. the iteroparous P. tristaniopsis provided less maternal care than semelparous membracid species. Continued female feeding is discussed as a mechanism to display some level of care despite iteroparity. [source] Characterization of interaction between doxycycline and human serum albumin by capillary electrophoresis-frontal analysisELECTROPHORESIS, Issue 11 2009Hanwen Sun Abstract The binding of doxycycline to HSA under simulated physiological conditions (pH 7.4, 67,mM phosphate, I=0.17, drug concentration 100,,M, HSA concentration up to 475,,M, 36.5°C) was studied by CE-frontal analysis. The number of primary binding sites, binding constant and physiological protein-binding percentage were 1.9, 1.51×103,M,1 and 59.80%, respectively. In addition, the thermodynamic parameters including enthalpy change (,H), entropy change (,S) and free energy change (,G) of the reaction were obtained in order to characterize the acting forces between doxycycline and HSA. Furthermore, to better understand the nature of doxycycline,HSA binding and to get information about potential interaction with other drugs, displacement experiments were performed. The results showed that doxycycline binds at site II of HSA. [source] Highly Efficient Visible-Light-Induced Photocleavage of DNA by a Ruthenium-Substituted Fluorinated PorphyrinEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY, Issue 11 2009Michelle Cunningham Abstract A new porphyrin, meso -5-(pentafluorophenyl)-10,15,20-tris(4-pyridyl)porphyrin, has been synthesized. Coordination of two [Ru(bipy)2Cl]+ moieties (where bipy = 2,2,-bipyridine) to the pyridyl nitrogen atoms in the 10,15-positions gives the target complex. Electronic transitions associated with the ruthenium,porphyrin include an intense Soret band and four less intense Q-bands in the visible region of the spectrum. An intense ,,,* transition in the UV region associated with the bipyridyl groups and a metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) band appearing as a shoulder to the Soret band are also observed. Electrochemical properties associated with the complex include a redox couple in the cathodic region with E1/2 = ,0.84 V vs. Ag/AgCl attributed to the porphyrin and a redox couple in the anodic region at E1/2 = 0.79 V vs. Ag/AgCl due to the RuIII/II couple. DNA titrations and ethidium bromide displacement experiments indicate the ruthenium porphyrin interacts with DNA potentially through a partial intercalation mechanism. Irradiation of aqueous solutions of the ruthenated complex and supercoiled DNA at a 100:1 base pair/complex ratio with visible light above 400 nm indicates that the complex causes double-strand breaks of the DNA.(© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009) [source] Pedotransfer functions for solute transport parameters of Portuguese soilsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2001M. C. Gonc, alves Summary The purpose of this study is to quantify solute transport parameters of fine-textured soils in an irrigation district in southern Portugal and to investigate their prediction from basic soil properties and unsaturated hydraulic parameters. Solute displacement experiments were carried out on 24 undisturbed soil samples by applying a 0.05 m KCl pulse during steady flow. The chloride breakthrough curves (BTCs) were asymmetric, with early breakthrough and considerable tailing characteristic of non-equilibrium transport. The retardation factor (R), dispersion coefficient (D), partitioning coefficient (,), and mass transfer coefficient (,) were estimated by optimizing the solution of the non-equilibrium convection,dispersion equation (CDE) to the breakthrough data. The solution could adequately describe the observed data as proved by a median of 0.972 for the coefficient of determination (r2) and a median for the mean squared error (MSE) of 5.1 × 10,6. The median value for R of 0.587 suggests that Cl, was excluded from a substantial part of the liquid phase. The value for , was typically less than 0.5, but the non-equilibrium effects were mitigated by a large mass transfer coefficient (, > 1). Pedotransfer functions (PTFs) were developed with regression and neural network analyses to predict R, D, , and , from basic soil properties and unsaturated hydraulic parameters. Fairly accurate predictions could be obtained for logD (r2 , 0.9) and , (r2 , 0.8). Prediction for R and log, were relatively poor (r2 , 0.5). The artificial neural networks were all somewhat more accurate than the regression equations. The networks are also more suitable for predicting transport parameters because they require only three input variables, whereas the regression equations contain many predictor variables. [source] Tissue Distribution, Autoradiography, and Metabolism of 4-(2,-Methoxyphenyl)-1-[2, -[N -2,-Pyridinyl)- p -[18F]Fluorobenzamido]ethyl]piperazine (p -[18F]MPPF), a New Serotonin 5-HT1A Antagonist for Positron Emission TomographyJOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, Issue 2 2000An In Vivo Study in Rats The in vivo behavior of 4-(2,-methoxyphenyl)-1-[2,-[N -(2,-pyridinyl)- p -[18F]fluorobenzamido]ethyl]-piperazine (p -[18F]MPPF), a new serotonin 5-HT1A antagonist, was studied in awake, freely moving rats. Biodistribution studies showed that the carbon-fluorine bond was stable in vivo, that this compound was able to cross the blood-brain barrier, and that a general diffusion equilibrium could account for the availability of the tracer. The great quantity of highly polar metabolites found in plasma did not contribute to the small amounts of metabolites found in hippocampus, frontal cortex, and cerebellum. Exvivo p -[18F]MPPF and in vitro 8-hydroxy-2-(di- n -[3H]propylamino)tetralin autoradiography were compared both qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative evaluation proved that the same brain regions were labeled and that the p -[18F]MPPF labeling is (a) in total agreement with the known distribution of 5-HT1A receptors in rats and (b) characterized by very low nonspecific binding. Quantitative comparison demonstrated that the in vivo labeling pattern obtained with p -[18F]MPPF cannot be explained by differences in regional blood flow, capillary density, or permeability. The 5-HT1A specificity of p -[18F]MPPF and binding reversibility were confirmed in vivo with displacement experiments. Thus, this compound can be used to evaluate parameters characterizing 5-HT1A binding sites in the brain. [source] Molecular interactions of isoxazolcurcumin with human serum albumin: Spectroscopic and molecular modeling studiesBIOPOLYMERS, Issue 2 2009Bijaya Ketan Sahoo Abstract Curcumin is a nontoxic natural product with diverse pharmacological potencies. We report the interaction of a potent synthetic derivative of curcumin, isoxazolcurcumin (IOC) with human serum albumin (HSA) using various biophysical methods. The observed fluorescence quenching of HSA by IOC is due to a complex formation by a static quenching process with a quenching constant of the order of 105M,1. The binding affinity and the number of binding sites were obtained from a Scatchard analysis. Thermodynamics reveals that the interaction is entropy driven with predominantly hydrophobic forces. From the observed Förster-type fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), the donor (Trp 214 in HSA) to acceptor (IOC) distance is calculated to be 3.2 nm. The conformational changes of HSA due to the interaction were investigated qualitatively from synchronous fluorescence spectra along with a quantitative estimation of the secondary structure from Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopies. Molecular docking studies were performed to obtain information on the possible residues involved in the interaction process, and changes in accessible surface area of the interacting residues were calculated. The preferred binding site of IOC was analyzed by ligand displacement experiments with 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) and warfarin-bound HSA. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 91: 108,119, 2009. This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The "Published Online" date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com [source] | |||||||||||||