Reducing agents dramatically alter the specificity of competitive assays for antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc). A specificity improvement was demonstrated with a new assay which utilizes microparticle membrane capture and chemiluminescence detection as well as a current radioimmunoassay procedure (Corab: Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill.). The effect was most noticeable with ...

cu2o nanoparticles were synthesized by thermal treatment in liquid paraffin without any inert gas protection using nano structures of schiff base copper (ii) complex (1) as precursor. liquid paraffin was used as solvent and reductant. span 80 was applied to control the morphology of cuprous oxide nanoparticles. the nano structure of the complex was characterized by x-ray diffraction measurement...

Addition of beta-lapachone, an o-naphthoquinone endowed with trypanocidal properties to respiring Trypanosoma cruzi epimastigotes induced the release of O2- and H2O2 from the whole cells to the suspending medium. The same beta-lapachone concentration (4 micron) that released H2O2 at maximal rate completely inhibited T. cruzi growth in a liquid medium. The position isomer, alpha-lapachone, did ...

YcnD from the gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis is a member of a family of bacterial proteins that act as NADH- and/or NADPH-dependent oxidoreductases. Here, we report for the first time on the biochemical characterization of the purified protein, demonstrating that YcnD is an FMN-containing enzyme that can be reduced by NADH or NADPH (Km = 6.4 and 4.4 microM, respectively). In the pres...

An organic/inorganic hybrid compound consisting of methylene blue, a cationic surfactant and a reductant intercalated into saponite was found to serve as an oxygen indicator that changes color in the presence of oxygen. A mixture of a blue colored dye, methylene blue, a reductant in the form of ascorbic acid or reducing sugar, and cetyltrimethylammonium ion intercalated into synthetic saponite ...

The mathematical modeling and numerical simulation of semiconductor-electrolyte systems play important roles in the design of high-performance semiconductor-liquid junction solar cells. We propose in this work a macroscopic mathematical model, a system of nonlinear partial differential equations, for the complete description of charges transfer dynamics in such systems. The model consists of a ...

In higher plants there are two forms of ferredoxin NADP(+) oxidoreductase (FNR), a photosynthetic pFNR primarily required for the photoreduction of NADP(+), and a heterotrophic hFNR which generates reduced ferredoxin by utilizing electrons from NADPH produced during carbohydrate oxidation. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of multiple forms of FNR in wheat leaves and the cap...

Ricinoleic acid, a hydroxylated fatty acid (HFA) present in castor ( Ricinus communis) seeds, is an important industrial commodity used in products ranging from inks and paints to polymers and fuels. However, due to the deadly toxin ricin and allergens also present in castor, it would be advantageous to produce ricinoleic acid in a different agricultural crop. Unfortunately, repeated efforts at...

The reaction of purified bovine mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) and hydrogen peroxide was studied using the ESR spin-trapping technique. A protein-centered radical adduct was trapped by 5, 5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline N-oxide and was assigned to a thiyl radical adduct based on its hyperfine coupling constants of aN = 14.7 G and abetaH = 15.7 G. The ESR spectra obtained using the nitroso spin...

Genome-scale metabolic models have proven useful for answering fundamental questions about metabolic capabilities of a variety of microorganisms, as well as informing their metabolic engineering. However, only a few models are available for oxygenic photosynthetic microorganisms, particularly in cyanobacteria in which photosynthetic and respiratory electron transport chains (ETC) share componen...