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Aluminum doped Zinc Oxide films were prepared by Sol Gel dip coating method on Sapphire and Mica substrates. Zinc acetate solution of 0.2 and 0.4M in isopropanol stabilized by diethanolamine and doped with a concentrated solution of aluminum nitrate in ethanol were used. The content of aluminum in the sol was 2 at.%. The dipping of substrates were repeated up to 15 to 20 times to have thickness of films of range 0.5-0.8um. XRD analysis of films grown on both Sapphire and Mica revealed that grains of undoped and doped films grew preferentially along the (002) plane but intensity of (002) was found to be more for mica than that of film grown on Sapphire. Average size of Crystallites using SEM measurements were found to be 50nm and 95 nm for the films grown on Sapphire and mica. The electrical resistivity were measured by a four-point probe method and it was revealed that electrical resistivity of the films grown on mica were lower than that on Sapphire but after annealing of the films for 1 hour (in vacuum) at 350degC the films on Sapphire substrate showed decrease in resistivity but no major changes in resistivity were observed on films grown on mica. Moreover optical band gap studies of films on both substrates were carried out.

Several studies have reported the morphological changes induced by unilateral enucleation during early neonatal life on the developing visual system. This study has examined cellular changes in the superior colliculi by removal of a single eye in adult rats. Anaesthetised male hooded rats aged 90 d had their right eyes removed. Groups of nonenucleated control and enucleated rats were killed when aged either 150 or 390 d. The brains were removed and both the right and left superior colliculi dissected out. The volume of the stratum griseum superficiale (SGS) within these colliculi was estimated stereologically by light microscopy, as well as the numerical density and total number of neurons within this cell layer. The volume of the cell layer was reduced by about 40% on the side contralateral to the enucleated eye but not on the ipsilateral side at both survival periods examined. The numerical density of neurons within the SGS was unaffected by the enucleation so that the colliculi contralateral to the enucleated eye showed a substantial loss of neurons within this cell layer. This study demonstrates the importance of the retinal ganglion cell input, even in adult animals, for maintaining the viability of neurons in the SGS layer of the superior colliculus.

A schedule for staining partially hydrated PAS-positive structures using non-aqueous solutions has been devised. Tissues are dewaxed, taken down to 70% alcohol, oxidised for 10 min in a 1% w/v alcoholic solution of periodic acid, treated with an alcoholic solution of phosphotungstic acid-Schiff reagent complex (PTA-Schiff reagent) for 25 min, washed in alcohol, cleared in xylene and mounted in a synthetic medium. The PTA-Schiff reagent complex prepared from de Tomasi Schiff reagent by precipitation with PTA may be stored in the deep freeze for many months and dissolved freshly in alcohol for use. The PTA-Schiff reagent sued as above allows staining of highly water soluble materials such as dextran. From blocking and digestion studies the mode of action seems similar to de Tomasi Schiff reagent. The partial hydration of the tissues prior to reaction was found to be essential for effective staining.

Glare-corrected, scanning Feulgen microdensitometry and 3H-thymidine autoradiography were applied to squash preparations of rat 18-day foetal and maternal liver cells, and to smears of maternal blood. No significant differences were found between the mean Feulgen-DNA contents of autoradiographically unlabelled diploid foetal and maternal hepatocytes. The Feulgen-DNA contents of other unlabelled foetal and maternal hepatocytes were also as predicted by the DNA-constancy hypothesis, i.e. were twice or four times that of diploid cells. Small (less than about 4%) but statistically significant discrepancies in the mean Feulgen-DNA contents of foetal haemopoietic cells and adult leucocytes were attributable to uncorrected residual distribution and chromatic errors in the microdensitometry.

Samples of de Tomasi's Schiff reagent were allowed to age. During this process physical, chemical and staining properties of the reagent were monitored. Certain physical and chemical properties of Schiff's reagent correlated with staining intensities. Thus a fall in the iodine titre and a rise in the pH (indicating loss of sulphur dioxide) accompanied falls of intensity of Feulgen-stained frog red-cell nuclei and of P.A.S.-stained cellulose sheet. Ageing sulphite solutions exibited analogous physical and chemical changes. Thin layer and ion-exchange chromatography of Schiff's reagent demonstrated at least four colourless (but colour generating) derivatives, all of which were cationic. NMR spectroscopy showed that the carbon skeletons of these compounds were simple and symmetrical. The ageing of Schiff's reagent appears to be primarily due to changes in its inorganic components. The aldehyde-reactive compounds probably differ only in the nature of the oxysulphur substituent on their central carbon atom.

The Feulgen-DNA contents of human leukocytes, sperm, and oral squames were investigated by scanning and integrating microdensitometry, both with and without correction for residual distribution error and glare. Maximally stained sperm had absorbances which at lambdamax exceeded the measuring range of the Vickers M86 microdensitometer; this potential source of error could be avoided either by using shorter hydrolysis times or by measuring at an off-peak wavelength. Small but statistically significant apparent differences between leukocyte types were found in uncorrected but not fully corrected measurements, and some apparent differences disappeared when only one of the residual instrumental errors was eliminated. In uncorrected measurements, the apparent Feulgen-DNA content of maximally stained polymorphs measured at lambdamax was significantly lower than that of squames, while in all experimental series uncorrected measurements showed apparent diploid:haploid ratios significantly greater than two. In fully corrected measurements no significant differences were found between leukocytes and squames, and in four independent estimations the lowest diploid:haploid ratio found was 1.99 +/- 0.05, and the highest 2.03 +/- 0.05. Discrepancies found in uncorrected measurements could be correlated with morphology of the nuclei concerned. Glare particularly affected measurements of relatively compact nuclei such as those of sperm, polymorphs and lymphocytes, while residual distribution error was especially marked with nuclei having a high perimeter:area ratio (e.g. sperm and polymorphs). Uncorrected instrumental errors, especially residual distribution error and glare, probably account for at least some of the previously reported apparent differences between the Feulgen-DNA contents of different cell types. On the basis of our experimental evidence, and a consideration of the published work of others, it appears that within the rather narrow limits of random experimental error there seems little or no reason to postulate either genuine differences in the amounts of DNA present in the cells studied, or nonstoichiometry of a correctly performed Feulgen reaction.

The effect of piperine on the bioavailability and pharmacokinetics of propranolol and theophylline has been examined in a crossover study. Six subjects in each group received a single oral dose of propranolol 40 mg or theophylline (150 mg) alone or in combination with piperine 20 mg daily for 7 days. An earlier tmax and a higher Cmax and AUC were observed in the subjects who received piperine and propranolol. It produced a higher Cmax, longer elimination half-life and a higher AUC with theophylline.

A CENTRAL issue in the study of both metazoan differentiation and the control of cellular activity is the validity or otherwise of the hypothesis1,2that nonreplicating nuclei of a given higher organism contain a constant amount of DNA per haploid set of chromosomes. Differential elimination or increase of DNA has been demonstrated in dipteran polytene chromosomes3, and in the oocytes of Acheta and amphibia4, but apart from these possibly special cases the most studied apparent exception to the constancy rule is probably provided by mammalian leukocytes5–11. Most workers in this field have found the apparent DNA content of the relatively large nuclei of monocytes, as assessed by Feulgen cytophotometry, to be between 5% and 20% higher than that of the smaller, more darkly stained nuclei of lymphocytes and polymorphonuclear leukocytes. The consensus of opinion seems to be that the measured differences are probably due to nonstoichiometry of staining rather than to genuine differences in the amounts of DNA present. But work published to date has in general been performed without certain technical refinements which have recently become available, and we have now investigated the possibility that systematic cytophotometric errors may have been responsible for at least some of the reported differences between cell types.

Recently developed stereological methods have been used in experiments to examine the effects of two levels of undernutrition during early postnatal life on the total number of rat dentate gyrus granule cells. This study has shown that previously undernourished rats have significant deficits in the total number of this particular type of neuron.

30-day-old rats undernourished from birth are known to have large deficits in the synapse-to-neuron ratio in certain brain regions. It has not been possible to demonstrate any statistically significant deficits in this ratio in animals undernourished from birth to 30 days but then provided with an ad libitum amount of food till 6 months of age.

A quantitative histological estimation of the optic nerve of pre-weanling rats has revealed that the total fiber number decreases rapidly between 7 and 25 days of age.