The influence of hypomagnesemia on erythrocyte antioxidant enzyme defence system in mice

The effect of magnesium deficiency on antioxidant defence system was studied in RBC of mice suffering from hypomagnesemia. The animals were kept for 8, 15 and 22 days on magnesium-deficient diet with consequent reduction of magnesium level in plasma by 38% at the first 8 days and by 64% after 22 days of experiment. The activities of the most important antioxidant enzymes, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase, glutahione S-transferase were assayed in hemolysates. The level of reduced glutathione in erythrocytes was measured as well. Apart from catalase, the activities of antioxidant enzymes were decreasing. The activity of superoxide dismutase decreased gradually during the experiment and on the 15th and 22nd day of experiment was significantly (P<0,05) lowered by 30 and 32% respectively. The catalase activity was increased on each point of the experiment with the peak value up to 149% on 15th day, and by 32% on 22nd day. Glutathione peroxidase activity was insignificantly reduced. The reduction of Glutatione reductase and Glutathione S-transferase activities by 24 and 21%, respectively, were observed after 8 days of the experiment with a further downward tendency. The reduced glutathione was significantly depleted after 8 days by 33% and was kept on that level in the course of the study. These findings support previous reports on the hypomagnesemia – induced alteration in endogenous enzyme antioxidant defences and glutathione redox cycle of mice.     

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.     

From wavelets to adaptive approximations: time-frequency parametrization of EEG

This paper presents a summary of time-frequency analysis of the electrical activity of the brain (EEG). It covers in details two major steps: introduction of wavelets and adaptive approximations. Presented studies include time-frequency solutions to several standard research and clinical problems, encountered in analysis of evoked potentials, sleep EEG, epileptic activities, ERD/ERS and pharmaco-EEG. Based upon these results we conclude that the matching pursuit algorithm provides a unified parametrization of EEG, applicable in a variety of experimental and clinical setups. This conclusion is followed by a brief discussion of the current state of the mathematical and algorithmical aspects of adaptive time-frequency approximations of signals.     

Injury of mitochondrial respiration and membrane potential during iron/ascorbate-induced peroxidation

First functional events during peroxidation in mitochondria consisted in a progressive inhibition of the phosphorylating and uncoupled respiration with succinate and glutamate/malate as substrates, whereas the resting state respiration during the same period was virtually not influenced. The membrane potential registered at a time with the respiration rates was capable of being built up for a relatively long time interval with only minor decreases, and broke down rather promptly when the active respiration was highly diminished. Inhibition of respiration proceeded mainly during the initiation phase of peroxidation. Lag phases of varied length, of malondialdehyde formation which were predominantly attributed to the iron/protein ratios correlated closely with different time intervals needed to attain maximal inhibition of respiration and decrease in glutathione. Hence, the lessening of respiration, drop of membrane potential and loss of the antioxidant, glutathione, represent early stages in the causal chain of events which precede the onset of intensive lipid peroxidation.     

Children and marital satisfaction in a non-Western sample: having more children increases marital satisfaction among the Igbo people of Nigeria

Previous research has demonstrated that having more children decreases marital satisfaction among parents. However, the universality of these findings is limited since the vast majority of the studies have been conducted in Western countries. In the present study, 374 people from the Igbo ethnic group (Nigeria) were assessed for levels of marital satisfaction and the number of children. In contrast to almost all previous findings, we found a positive relationship between the number of children and marital satisfaction among parents. Number of children was the strongest predictor of marital satisfaction even when compared to other variables like wealth and education. Our results suggest that the negative relationship between the number of children and marital satisfaction is not culturally universal and probably only characterizes developed, individualistic Western countries. We discuss our findings from a sociocultural and evolutionary perspective.     

Combined effect of X‐ray radiation and static magnetic fields on reactive oxygen species in rat lymphocytes in vitro

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of static magnetic fields (SMF) on reactive oxygen species induced by X‐ray radiation. The experiments were performed on lymphocytes from male albino Wistar rats. After exposure to 3 Gy X‐ray radiation (with a dose rate of 560 mGy/min) the measurement of intracellular reactive oxygen species in lymphocytes, using a fluorescent probe, was done before exposure to the SMF, and after 15 min, 1 and 2 h of exposure to the SMF or a corresponding incubation time. For SMF exposure, 0 mT (50 µT magnetic field induction opposite to the geomagnetic field) and 5 mT fields were chosen. The trend of SMF effects for 0 mT was always opposite that of 5 mT. The first one decreased the rate of fluorescence change, while the latter one increased it. Bioelectromagnetics 34:333–336, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Statistical Analysis of Sleep Spindle Occurrences

Spindles - a hallmark of stage II sleep - are a transient oscillatory phenomenon in the EEG believed to reflect thalamocortical activity contributing to unresponsiveness during sleep. Currently spindles are often classified into two classes: fast spindles, with a frequency of around 14 Hz, occurring in the centro-parietal region; and slow spindles, with a frequency of around 12 Hz, prevalent in the frontal region. Here we aim to establish whether the spindle generation process also exhibits spatial heterogeneity. Electroencephalographic recordings from 20 subjects were automatically scanned to detect spindles and the time occurrences of spindles were used for statistical analysis. Gamma distribution parameters were fit to each inter-spindle interval distribution, and a modified Wald-Wolfowitz lag-1 correlation test was applied. Results indicate that not all spindles are generated by the same statistical process, but this dissociation is not spindle-type specific. Although this dissociation is not topographically specific, a single generator for all spindle types appears unlikely.     

A computer analysis of electrophoresis and ultracentrifugation patterns.

A program DIANA is designed to fit the scanning curves of electrophoresis and ultracentrifugation patterns with 10-15 overlapping peaks by a sum of Gaussian-like distribitions. The parameters of the distributions are adjusted by minimizing x, using a problem oriented minimizing procedure. The number of molecular components as well as starting values of the positions and the widths of the peaks must be choosen as input for each type of pattern. Programs are written in FORTRAN IV.     

Moniliformin,deoxynivalenol, 3Acetyldeoxynivalenol and zearalenone — Mycotoxins associated with corn cob fusariosis in Poland

An isolated rat liver was perfused with deoxynivalenol (DON) at a dose of 3 mg in a recirculating perfusion system. To identify glucuronide conjugates equal amounts of bile samples, perfusate and liver homogenates were incubated with and without (control) a β-glucuronidase preparation and analyzed by thin layer chromatography and capillary gas liquid chromatography — chemical ionization mass spectrometry. A total of 40.4% of the administered dose of DON was found to be conjugated with glucuronic acid (perfusate 20.4%, bile 19.2%, liver 0.8%), while only 1.3% of the parent DON (perfusate 1.1%, bile 0.2%) was detected. The cleavage of DON-glucuronide was demonstrated by incubating DON-glucuronide containing bile samples with intestine contents under anaerobic conditions.