Varietal purity and proportions of grains with brown spots, fissured grains, chalky grains andwhole grains in a rice sample are important grain quality attributes influencing consumers'preference and price but little information exist on how these grain quality attributes are affectedby biophysical factors and pre-harvest practices. Several authors have studied in isolation theeffect of biophys...

The 1958 symposium of the Biochemical Society consists of seven papers given by British biochemists on areas of glutathione (GSH) chemistry and biochemistry. The topics presented may be listed briefly: chemistry of GSH, techniques for determining GSH, oxidation-reduction systems associated with GSH in plant tissues, GSH in animal tissues, and neural tissues, and in lens, and finally the effect ...

Live biological cells are three-dimensional microscopic objects that constantly adjust their sizes, shapes and other biophysical features. Wide-field digital interferometry (WFDI) is a holographic technique that is able to record the complex wavefront of the light which has interacted with in-vitro cells in a single camera exposure, where no exogenous contrast agents are required. However, simp...

OBJECTIVES A variety of biological, biochemical, and biophysical markers implicated in the pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia during the last two decades have instigated the growing interest in this study to include both βhCG and lipid profile studies in the early second trimester as early predictors of pregnancy-induced hypertension. Early identification of at-risk women may help in taking timel...

It has been over 20 years since the pioneering work of Arthur Ashkin, and in the intervening years, the field of optical tweezers has grown tremendously. Optical tweezers are now being used in the investigation of an increasing number of biochemical and biophysical processes, from the basic mechanical properties of biological polymers to the multitude of molecular machines that drive the intern...

Diffusion at solid-liquid interfaces is crucial in many technological and biophysical processes. Although its behavior seems to be deceivingly simple, recent studies showing passive superdiffusive transport suggest that diffusion on surfaces may hide rich complexities. In particular, bulk-mediated diffusion occurs when molecules are transiently released from the surface to perform three-dimensi...

The persistence of extreme poverty is increasingly attributed to dynamic interactions between biophysical processes and economics, though there remains a dearth of integrated theoretical frameworks that can inform policy. Here, we present a stochastic model of disease-driven poverty traps. Whereas deterministic models can result in poverty traps that can only be broken by substantial external c...

We discuss new examples of the constructive role of environmental fluctuations in biophysical processes, namely quantitative enhancement and qualitative sharpening of the outgoing signal in the intercellular signal transduction, e.g., in the synaptic links. An experimental check in a chemical flow reactor is suggested.

Marine larval dispersal is a complex biophysical process that depends on the effects of species biology and oceanography, leading to logistical difficulties in estimating connectivity among populations of marine animals with biphasic life cycles. To address this challenge, the application of multiple methodological approaches has been advocated, in order to increase confidence in estimates of p...

Supported lipid bilayers have proven effective as model membranes for investigating biophysical processes and in development of sensor and array technologies. The ability to modify lipid bilayers after their formation and in situ could greatly advance membrane technologies, but is difficult via current state-of-the-art technologies. Here we demonstrate a novel method that allows the controlled ...