The Effect of General Anaesthesia on Circadian Rhythms in Behaviour and Clock Gene Expression of Drosophila melanogaster

General anaesthesia (GA) is implicated as a cause of postoperative sleep disruption and fatigue with part of the disturbance being attributed to a shift of the circadian clock. In this study, Drosophila melanogaster was used as a model to determine how Isoflurane affects the circadian clock at the behavioural and molecular levels. We measured the response of the clock at both of these levels caused by different durations and different concentrations of Isoflurane at circadian time 4 (CT4). Once characterized, we held the duration and concentration constants (at 2% in air for 6 h) and calculated the phase responses over the entire circadian cycle in both activity and period expression. Phase advances in behaviour were observed during the subjective day, whereas phase delays were associated with subjective night time GA interventions. The corresponding pattern of gene expression preceded the behavioural pattern by approximately four hours. We discuss the implications of this effect for clinical and research practice.

Graphical Approach to Compare Concentration Constants of Hill and Michaelis-Menten Equations

The aim of present study was to describe the graphical technique how to go from Hill concentration constant to Michaelis constant. To compare enzymatic processes, the kinetics of which is subjected to different regularities, it is possible to use constants that characterize catalytic activity (Vmax) and concentration constants that are the substrate concentration at which the rate of the enzymatic process is equal to a half of maximum permissible rate. Concentration constants are S0.5 for Hill equation and Km for Michaelis-Menton equation. The graphical approach was proposed in order to go from concentration constant of Hill equation to Michaelis concentration of the process that could be characterized by the same catalytic activity (the same values of minimum and maximum rates) similar to that observed in the process described by Hill equation.

Structural Fragments Izopolivolframat–Anions and Gibbs Energy of Formation

The method of mathematical modeling (program CLINP 2.1, Newton's method) on the basis of the pH-potentiometric titration data allowed to calculate concentration constants of isopolytungstate anions (IPTA) formation at different ionic forces (I = 0,01 ‑ 0,5 M). Thermodynamic constants of IPTA formation were obtained as a result of processing by Pitzer method using the concentration constans. The standard Gibbs energy of isopolytungstate anions formation were calculated. The last ones allowed to estimate the thermodynamic probability of the reactions, that can be used in the synthesis of salts containing these anions. The structure of known isopolytungstates can be built from the combination of such fragments: WO, W2O, W3O, W4O and W5O. The calculation of standard Gibbs energy of these fragments formation allowed to characterize the structure of hexatungstate-anion W6O20(OH)26-, which does not contain three terminal oxygen atoms. Such approach of using Gibbs energy of building blocks was recommended for prediction of equilibrium constants values in the mathematical modeling.

Environmentally Friendly Complexones. The Thermodynamic Characteristics of the Formation of Al3+ Ion Complexes with Ethylenediaminedisuccinic Acid in Aqueous Solutions

Complex formation between Al3+ and ethylenediamine - N,N`-disuccinic acid (H4L) was studied at 25°C against the background of 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 N solutions of KNO3 by potentiometry and mathematical modeling. The extrapolation of concentration constants to zero ionic strength was used to calculate the thermodynamic constants of the formation of the AlL–, AlHL complexes using an equation with one individual parameter (logβ0 = 16.27 ± 0.07, 9.19 ± 0.2 respectively).

Effects of salt concentration and counterion on stability of alkali ion-18-crown-6 complexes in aqueous and methanolic solution: A conflicting evidence from potentiometric and sodium-23 NMR studies

Contrary to expectation, the title effects observed concurrently by potentiometry with ion-selective electrode and by sodium-23 NMR spectroscopy are completely different. The potentiometric stability constants for the sodium ion-18-crown-6 complex (KISE) exhibit a very pronounced variation with the counterion, KISENaSCN > KISENaCl > KISENaOH, as well as with the sodium salt concentration, the KISENaSCN/KISENaOH ratio being about 1.5, 2.0, 5.0 and 20 in the 0.01, 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 mol l-1 aqueous and about 2.0, 12, 600 and 2 500 in the 0.01, 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 mol l-1 methanolic solution, respectively. Whereas, the corresponding spectroscopic stability constants, KNMR, are virtually insensitive to the changes of counterion as well as to the salt concentration the overall spread of the KNMR values being less than 3. Resolution for the conflicting evidence is provided in terms of the activity coefficients γML+, γM+, γL differentiating between the concentration (Kconc) and thermodynamic (Kth) stability constants in the relation Kconc = (γM+ γL : γML+) Kth. At variance with the current opinion it is shown that only KISE are clean concentration constants subjected to the γML+/γM+ γL variation, while KNMR are hybrids between the concentration and thermodynamic constant leaning assumedly to the latter (Kth). Concerning the powerful effect of counterion and salt concentration of KISE, it is attributed to a large variation of γML+. No satisfactory explanation can be, however, offered in customary terms of the Debye-Hückel theory.