Lipids of guinea-pig alveolar macrophages

Zusammenfassung Lipidanalyse von Meerschweinchen-Makrophagen.

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Authors are grateful to Dr.O. Isler of F. Hoffmann La Roche Co. Ltd., Basle, for generous gifts of synthetic ubiquinone samples.     

Spray Pypolysed Thin Film Transparent Ferromagnetic Sdmiconductors for Spintronics

1 Results Inducing order in spin degree of freedomof charge carriers in conventional semiconductors and gettingroomtemperature ferromagnetism(RTFM) is an ongoing challenge in realizing spintronic devices .     

Therapeutic neuroprotective agents for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal chronic neurodegenerative disease whose hallmark is proteinaceous, ubiquitinated, cytoplasmic inclusions in motor neurons and surrounding cells. Multiple mechanisms proposed as responsible for ALS pathogenesis include dysfunction of protein degradation, glutamate excitotoxicity, mitochondrial dysfunction, apoptosis, oxidative stress, and inflammation. It is therefore essential to gain a better understanding of the underlying disease etiology and search for neuroprotective agents that might delay disease onset, slow progression, prolong survival, and ultimately reduce the burden of disease. Because riluzole, the only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment, prolongs the ALS patient’s life by only 3 months, new therapeutic agents are urgently needed. In this review, we focus on studies of various small pharmacological compounds targeting the proposed pathogenic mechanisms of ALS and discuss their impact on disease progression.     

Thermodynamic control of asymmetric amplification in amino acid catalysis

Ever since Pasteur noticed that tartrate crystals exist in two non-superimposable forms that are mirror images of one another--as are left and right hands--the phenomenon of chirality has intrigued scientists. On the molecular level, chirality often has a profound impact on recognition and interaction events and is thus important to biochemistry and pharmacology. In chemical synthesis, much effort has been directed towards developing asymmetric synthesis strategies that yield product molecules with a significant excess of either the left-handed or right-handed enantiomer. This is usually achieved by making use of chiral auxiliaries or catalysts that influence the course of a reaction, with the enantiomeric excess (ee) of the product linearly related to the ee of the auxiliary or catalyst used. In recent years, however, an increasing number of asymmetric reactions have been documented where this relationship is nonlinear, an effect that can lead to asymmetric amplification. Theoretical models have long suggested that autocatalytic processes can result in kinetically controlled asymmetric amplification, a prediction that has now been verified experimentally and rationalized mechanistically for an autocatalytic alkylation reaction. Here we show an alternative mechanism that gives rise to asymmetric amplification based on the equilibrium solid-liquid phase behaviour of amino acids in solution. This amplification mechanism is robust and can operate in aqueous systems, making it an appealing proposition for explaining one of the most tantalizing examples of asymmetric amplification-the development of high enantiomeric excess in biomolecules from a presumably racemic prebiotic world.     

Control of vehicle platoons for highway safety and efficient utility: Consensus with communications and vehicle dynamics

Platoon formation of highway vehicles is a critical foundation for autonomous or semiautonomous vehicle control for enhanced safety,improved highway utility,increased fuel economy,and reduced emission toward intelligent transportation systems.Platoon control encounters great challenges from vehicle control,communications,team coordination,and uncertainties.This paper introduces a new method for coordinated control of platoons by using integrated network consensus decisions and vehicle control.To achieve suitable coordination of the team vehicles based on terrain and environmental conditions,the emerging technology of network consensus control is modified to a weighted and constrained consensus-seeking framework.Algorithms are introduced and their convergence properties are established.The methodology employs neighborhood information through on-board sensors and V2 V or V2 I communications,but achieves global coordination of the entire platoon.The ability of the methods in terms of robustness,disturbance rejection,noise attenuation,and cyber-physical interaction is analyzed and demonstrated with simulated case studies.