Many biomaterials exhibit pronounced swelling and consequently pronounced porous structure when exposed to water. Characterization and tuning of the porosity are important for the fundamental understanding of the behaviour of the biomaterials as well as for many of their applications, both traditional and novel. Here, the porous structure of cellulosic fibres (chemical wood pulp) was analysed i...

Kim, Kwang S. (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Wallace A. Clyde, Jr., and Floyd W. Denny. Physical properties of human mycoplasma species. J. Bacteriol. 92:214-219. 1966.-Studies were made of the comparative morphology and stability of five Mycoplasma species of human origin (M. hominis type 1, M. salivarium, M. fermentans, M. pneumoniae, M. pharyngis). Broth-cultivated organisms we...

UNLABELLED As a potential source of biofuel, the green colonial microalga Botryococcus braunii produces large amounts of hydrocarbons that are accumulated in the extracellular matrix. Generally, pretreatment such as drying or heating of wet algae is needed for sufficient recoveries of hydrocarbons from B. braunii using organic solvents. In this study, the Showa strain of B. braunii was cultured...

Plants have evolved a multitude of mechanisms to actuate organ movement. The osmotic influx and efflux of water in living cells can cause a rapid movement of organs in a predetermined direction. Even dead tissue can be actuated by a swelling or drying of the plant cell walls. The deformation of the organ is controlled at different levels of tissue hierarchy by geometrical constraints at the mic...

Water is an important component of collagen in tendons, but its role for the function of this load-carrying protein structure is poorly understood. Here we use a combination of multi-scale experimentation and computation to show that water is an integral part of the collagen molecule, which changes conformation upon water removal. The consequence is a shortening of the molecule that translates ...

The role of plasma membrane aquaporins (PIPs) in water relations of Arabidopsis was studied by examining plants with reduced expression of PIP1 and PIP2 aquaporins, produced by crossing two different antisense lines. Compared with controls, the double antisense (dAS) plants had reduced amounts of PIP1 and PIP2 aquaporins, and the osmotic hydraulic conductivity of isolated root and leaf protopla...

The paper deals with the relationship betweeen the water content of washed Serratia marcescens and the thermodynamic activity of water, a,, over the range 0 < a, < 1.0. Two overlapping types of measurement are used: osmotic water exchange and water-vapour sorption. The data are given in terms of the equation w = Bm-' where w is water content, m is external osmolality (actual or effective, depen...

Live bacterial vaccines have great promise both as vaccines against enteric pathogens and as heterologous antigen vectors against diverse diseases. Ideally, room temperature stable dry formulations of live bacterial vaccines will allow oral vaccination without cold-chain storage or injections. Attenuated Salmonella can cross the intestinal wall and deliver replicating antigen plus innate immune...