Oligoethylene glycols and perfluoro-n-alkanes are suitable guests for the synthetic cylindrical host molecule 1(2); an investigation of these host-guest systems is reported.

We report the successful functionalization of optically accessible nanostructures, suitable for single-molecule experiments at physiological substrate concentrations, with polyethylene glycol. Characterization of the coating in terms of roughness, protein repellence, and specific immobilization of DNA is described. We present an application of this technique in the detection of polymerase activ...

Semi-opaque to opaque films containing small amounts of various aluminium particles to decrease emissivity were easily prepared and coated onto low-density polyethylene (LDPE) sheets. The thermal-radiative properties (reflectivity, transmissivity and absorptivity) of the films were measured and related to the aluminum particles' content, size and nature. Time-to-ignition of samples was assessed...

It has been established that approximately 80% of a 5-methyl-2'-deoxycytidine glycol-dioxoosmium(vi)-bipyridine ternary complex, which is known to be produced as one of various consequences of oxidative damage of DNA and is formed in a key step of a recently developed DNA methylation detection method, has the 5R,6S configuration.

A crystal structure of lysozyme in complex with p-sulfonato-calix[4]arene (sclx4) reveals a linear assembly of protein tetramers glued together by protein-calixarene interactions. One interaction involves encapsulation of the highly exposed C-terminal Arg128. The other involves an intricate protein-bound complex of sclx4, Mg(2+) and a fragment of polyethylene glycol.

Apostolos Mantides MD, Head, Department of Gastroenterology, Athens Naval and Veterans Hospital, Tel & fax: ++3

Amyloid fiber formation is a specific form of protein aggregation, often resulting from the misfolding of native proteins. Aimed at modeling the crowded environment of the cell, recent experiments showed a reduction in fibrillation halftimes for amyloid-forming peptides in the presence of cosolutes that are preferentially excluded from proteins and peptides. The effect of excluded cosolutes has...