BACKGROUND Microemulsions (MEs), which consist of oil, water, surfactants, and cosurfactants, have recently generated considerable interest as antimicrobial agents. OBJECTIVES To determine the antifungal and antiviral activities of three ME formulations (MEa, MEb, and MEc) that differ in their hydrophilicity. METHODS The ME formulas were produced by mixing different fractions of Tween 80, S...

Memristor (memory resistor) is a passive electrical circuit element whose instantaneous resistance depends not only on the voltage, but the history of the current applied to it. The first memristor was fabricated in 2008 by the HP labs in a semiconductor titanium-dioxide thin film. Apart from its potential for high-density memory storage, the electrical properties of a memristor share similarit...

Potassium leakage is one of the first events that appear after photosensitization of red blood cells. This event may subsequently lead to colloid osmotic hemolysis. The aim of our study was to determine which photodynamically induced damage is responsible for increased membrane cation permeability. This was done by studying the effect of dimethylmethylene blue (DMMB)-mediated photodynamic treat...

Sheets of mucosal epithelial cells were released from guinea pig small intestine after incubation with ethylenediaminetetraacetate. Cells in sheets retained their columnar shape for 24 hr at room temperature, and exclusion of nigrosine suggested they had intact plasma membranes. When sheets were disaggregated individual cells had normal morphology for at least 4 hr. During isolation 16% of the ...

Potassium ions and amino acids were found to leak from the cytoplasm to the outer medium when the blue-green alga, Anacystis nidulans, was exposed to the chilling temperatures. The leakage was marked below the critical temperature regions, the midpoint values for which were around 5 and 14 C in cells grown at 28 and 38 C, respectively. These temperature regions coincided with those critical for...

The effects of the free bile acids (FBAs) cholic acid (CA), deoxycholic acid (DCA), and chenodeoxycholic acid on the bioenergetics and growth of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria were investigated. It was found that these FBAs reduced the internal pH levels of these bacteria with rapid and stepwise kinetics and, at certain concentrations, dissipated DeltapH. The bile acid concentrations that diss...

BACKGROUND The escalating dominance of resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains as infectious pathogen had urged the researchers to look for alternative and complementary drugs. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to address the biological targets and probable mechanisms of action underlying the potent antibacterial effect of the isolated compounds from Euphorbia hirta (L.) against P. ae...

Samanea leaflets usually open in white light and fold together when darkened, but also open and dose with a circadian rhythm during prolonged darkness. Leaflet movement results from differential changes in the turgor and shape of motor cells on opposite sides of the pulvinus; extensor cells expand during opening and shrink during closure, while flexor cells shrink during opening and expand duri...