Light transducing phycobiliproteins are encapsulated in optically transparent sol-gel matrices. Absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies are used to characterize the effect of the sol-gel encapsulation on the conformation and aggregation states of the three major phycobiliproteins present in phycobilisomes: phycoerythrin, phycocyanin, and allophycocyanin. It is found that the effects of sol-g...

Sol-gel derived silica possess many promising features, including low-temperature preparation procedure, porosity, chemical and physical stability. Applications exploiting porous materials to encapsulate sensor molecules, enzymes and many other compounds, are developing rapidly. In this paper some potential applications, with emphasis on biomedical and environmental ones, are reviewed. The mate...

The soleus (Sol) and medial gastrocnemius (mGas) muscles have different patterns of activity during standing balance and may have distinct functional roles. Using surface electromyography we previously observed larger responses to galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) in the mGas compared with the Sol muscle. However, it is unclear whether this difference is an artifact that reflects limitation...

Operant conditioning of the spinal stretch reflex or its electrical analog, the H-reflex, produces spinal cord plasticity and can thereby affect motoneuron responses to primary afferent input. To explore whether this conditioning can affect the functional outcome after peripheral nerve injury, we assessed the effect of up-conditioning soleus (SOL) H-reflex on SOL and tibialis anterior (TA) func...

Controlled release silica sol gels are room temperature processed, porous, resorbable materials with generally good compatibility. Many molecules including drugs, proteins and growth factors can be released from sol gels and the quantity and duration of the release can vary widely. Processing parameters render these release properties exquisitely versatile. The synthesis of controlled release s...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the probability of spontaneous onset of labour (SOL) among women with uncomplicated pregnancies who have reached 41+0 weeks and to examine the influence of maternal characteristics on this event. METHODS We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study of women with uncomplicated singleton pregnancies in cephalic presentation between 41+0 and 42+0 weeks' gestat...

Silica sol prepared by sol-gel method was introduced into poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA)/poly(butyl acrylate-styrenemethacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane) (PSBM) core-shell emulsions to prepare a series of paper surface sizing agents. The rheological measurement indicated that PSBM emulsions exhibited shear-thinning behavior, and the phenomena became more pronounced with increasing silica sol concent...

Ridge and buried channel waveguides were fabricated on different substrates such as SiO2-on-Si, Si, glass wafers and Printed Circuit Boards by a sol-gel processing together with a photolithography process using photopatternable hybrid sol-gel materials. Thick sol-gel films of up to 100 microns were developed using a modified sol-gel process and ridge waveguides with vertical smooth sidewalls we...

Increased levels of soluble endoglin (Sol-Eng) correlate with poor outcome in human cancer. We have previously shown that shedding of membrane endoglin, and concomitant release of Sol-Eng is a late event in chemical mouse skin carcinogenesis associated with the development of undifferentiated spindle cell carcinomas (SpCCs). In this report, we show that mouse skin SpCCs exhibit a high expressio...