Separation of precultured pollen from Nicotiana tabacum by aqueous polymer two-phase partition

Pollen isolated from cold treated and precultivated anthers of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. var. Wisconsin 38) were separated into different fractions with counter-current distribution using an aqueous Dextran-polyethylene glycol two-phase system. It was possible to distinguish among eight pollen classes differing in developmental stage and in partitioning. A part of each fraction was cultivated for analysis of embryo formation. This was highest in a fraction with an intermediate to high partition in the phase system. Enriched in this fraction were also pollen that were fairly well stained with acetocarmine, contained several nuclei and had a relatively low mitochondrial activity. The enrichment of embryogenic pollen offers several advantages especially to physiological studies on embryogenesis.     

Relationships Between Animal Health Monitoring and the Risk Assessment Process

Risk assessment is part of the risk analysis process as it is used in veterinary medicine to estimate risks related to international trade and food safety. Data from monitoring and surveillance systems (MO&SS) are used throughout the risk assessment process for hazard identification, release assessment, exposure assessment and consequence assessment. As the quality of risk assessments depends to a large extent on the availability and quality of input data, there is a close relationship between MO&SS and risk assessment. In order to improve the quality of risk assessments, MO&SS should be designed according to minimum quality standards. Second, recent scientific developments on state-of-the-art design and analysis of surveys need to be translated into field applications and legislation. Finally, knowledge about the risk assessment process among MO&SS planners and managers should be promoted in order to assure high-quality data.     

Scale down of recombinant protein production: a comparative study of scaling performance

A large bioreactor is heterogeneous with respect to concentration gradients of substrates fed to the reactor such as oxygen and growth limiting carbon source. Gradient formation will highly depend on the fluid dynamics and mass transfer capacity of the reactor, especially in the area in which the substrate is added. In this study, some production-scale (12 m³ bioreactor) conditions of a recombinant Escherichia coli process were imitated on a laboratory scale. From the large-scale cultivations, it was shown that locally high concentration of the limiting substrate fed to the process, in this case glucose, existed at the level of the feedpoint. The large-scale process was scaled down from: (i) mixing time experiments performed in the large-scale bioreactor in order to identify and describe the oscillating environment and (ii) identification of two distinct glucose concentration zones in the reactor. An important parameter obtained from mixing time experiments was the residence time in the feed zone of about 10 seconds. The size of the feed zone was estimated to 10%. Based on these observations the scale-down reactor with two compartments was designed. It was composed of one stirred tank reactor and an aerated plug flow reactor, in which the effect of oscillating glucose concentration on biomass yield and acetate formation was studied. Results from these experiments indicated that the lower biomass yield and higher acetate formation obtained on a large scale compared to homogeneous small-scale cultivations were not directly caused by the cell response to the glucose oscillation. This was concluded since no acetate was accumulated during scale-down experiments. An explanation for the differences in results between the two reactor scales may be a secondary effect of high glucose concentration resulting in an increased glucose metabolism causing an oxygen consumption rate locally exceeding the transfer rate. The results from pulse response experiments and glucose concentration measurements, at different locations in the reactor, showed a great consistency for the two feeding/pulse positions used in the large-scale bioreactor. Furthermore, measured periodicity from mixing data agrees well with expected circulation times for each impeller volume. Conclusions are drawn concerning the design of the scale-down reactor.     

Rural indebtedness in North‐Eastern Nepal part I: The ethnography and its implications*

This paper discusses ideas about ‘the nation’ and ‘the people’ expressed by residents of a low‐income district in the city of Salvador, capital of the state of Bahia, Brazil. The analysis relates positive and negative evaluations of national identity to a dialectic of hegemony and resistance. It focuses on gender and race in the local making or negating of nationalism, concluding that constitutive discourses and practices must be understood in relation to social inequality and the class structure.     

Photoaffinity spin-labeling of the Ca2+ ATPase in sarcoplasmic reticulum : Evidence for oligomeric structure

A spin labeled fatty acid (16-doxylstearic acid) was linked to a photochemical reacting group (azido derivative). When the molecule is introduced, at a low concentration, into rabbit sarcoplasmic reticulum membranes, the spectrum before illumination is identical to the spectrum obtained with the corresponding spin labeled fatty acid. After illumination, a large immobilized components is seen. It corresponds to about 70% of the ESR signal of the effectively bound label, at room temperature. The fraction of immobilized component varies with temperature, from 100% at 0°C to 50% at 35°C. Addition of a small amount of detergent (dodecyl octaethylene glycol monoether), under non solubilizing conditions, decreases the fraction of signal due to a strongly immobilized probe. A possible interpretation is that the immobilized signal reflects protein bound spin labels trapped in Ca²⁺ ATPase oligomers, which are partially dissociated by detergent addition or temperature increase.