Sorption and vapor transmission properties of uncompressed and compressed microcellular starch foam

Microcellular starch foams (MCFs) are made by a solvent-exchange process and consist of a porous matrix with pores generally ranging from approximately 2 microm to submicrometer size. MCF may potentially be useful as a slow-release agent for volatile compounds because of its ability to sorb chemicals from the atmosphere and to absorb liquids into its porous structure, and because it can be compressed to form a starch plastic. MCF made of high-amylose corn and wheat starches was prepared with or without 2% (w/w) silicone oil (SO) or palmitic acid (PA). The MCF was loaded with 1% of various volatile compounds with vapor pressures ranging from 0.02 to 28 mm. The MCF depressed the vapor pressure from 0.37 to 37% compared to a control containing no MCF. Incorporating SO or PA in the matrix of the MCF had little effect on sorption of volatiles. Compressing MCF at 1.4, 6.9, and 69 MPa made a starch plastic with varying porosity. The vapor transmission rate of various volatile compounds through MCF was positively correlated to the vapor pressure of the test compound but was inversely proportional to the compression force used to form the starch plastic. The results indicate that uncompressed and compressed MCFs could be effective slow-release agents for a variety of volatile compounds, especially if used together.     

Western pine beetle: field response to its sex pheromone and a synergistic host terpene, myrcene

In the field, both sexes of the western pine beetle, Dendroctonus brevicomis, are attracted by the female-produced bicyclic ketal exo-brevicomin; this response is enhanced by myrcene (a constituent of the beetle's host, ponderosapine), which is not an attractant by itself. This synergism may be part of the phenomenon of the mass attack on its host. Temnochila virescens chlorodia, one of the principal insectan predators of this beetle, is attracted by exo-brevicomin alone.     

Crystal structure analysis of deamino-oxytocin: conformational flexibility and receptor binding

Two crystal structures of deamino-oxytocin have been determined at better than 1.1A resolution from isomorphous replacement and anomalous scattering x-ray measurements. In each of two crystal forms there are two closely related conformers with disulfide bridges of different chirality, which may be important in receptor recognition and activation.     

Intragranular diffusion: an important mechanism influencing solute transport in clastic aquifers?

Quantification of intragranular porosity in sand-size material from an aquifer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, by scanning electron microscopy, mercury injection, and epifluorescence techniques shows that there are more reaction sites and that porosity is greater than indicated by standard short-term laboratory tests and measurement techniques. Results from laboratory and field tracer tests show solute nonequilibrium for a reacting ion consistent with a model of diffusion into, and exchange within, grain interiors. These data indicate that a diffusion expression needs to be included in transport codes, particularly for simulation of the transport of radioactive and toxic wastes.     

Electrical sources in human somatosensory cortex: identification by combined magnetic and potential recordings

Magnetic fields and electrical potentials produced by neuronal activity have different properties that can be used for the identification of electrical sources in the human brain. Fields and potentials occurring 20 to 30 milliseconds after median nerve stimulation in human subjects were compared in order to investigate the sources of evoked potential components that have been attributed by different investigators to the thalamus or thalamocortical afferents, to separate radial sources in somatosensory cortex and motor cortex, or to a tangential source in somatosensory cortex. The magnetic and potential wave forms were highly similar in morphology, and their spatial distributions were centered over sensorimotor cortex, were dipolar in shape, and differed in orientation by approximately 90 degrees; distances between the minimum and maximum of the magnetic distributions were about 60 percent of those of the potential distributions. These results cannot be accounted for by thalamic sources or radial cortical sources alone, but are consistent with a tangential source in somatosensory cortex, with an additional smaller contribution from radial sources.