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Notes: We have grown epitaxial La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 (LSMO) and La2/3Ba1/3MnO3 (LBMO) thin films as well as La2/3Ba1/3MnO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures by pulsed-laser deposition. The microstructure of the films was analyzed by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. A significant effect of strain due to lattice mismatch was found. Whereas the thick LBMO films show perfect epitaxy and grow coherently strained over the full film thickness, the LSMO films were found to be composed of two layers separated by an intrinsic interface region containing a high density of defects. The approximately 60 nm thick bottom layer grows coherently on the SrTiO3 (STO) substrate and is highly strained, whereas the top layer is almost strain free. The LBMO/STO heterostructures are coherently strained and show a very low density of defects and sharp interfaces. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: We have investigated La1.85Sr0.15CuO4−δ grain boundary Josephson junctions (GBJs) fabricated on [001] tilt SrTiO3 bicrystals with misorientation angles of 24° and 36.8°. The resistive transition and the current–voltage characteristics of the GBJs are found to be close to those predicted by the resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model. Their product of the critical current density, Jc, and the normal resistance times area ρn, scales proportional to about (Jc)q with q=0.5–0.6 similar to what is found for YBa2Cu3O7−δ GBJs. By analyzing Fiske resonances the Swihart velocity of the GBJs and the ab-plane London penetration depth of La1.85Sr0.15CuO4−δ are obtained to c¯=2.5×106 m/s and λL=200 nm at 4.2 K, respectively. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: The banding pattern of Alu I-digested prepro-gonadotropin releasing hormone gene is species-specific in Atlantic salmon and brown trout and can be applied for identification of their hybrids.

Notes: We have fabricated Josephson field-effect transistors based on YBa2Cu3O7−δ bicrystal grain-boundary junctions (GBJs) and epitaxial SrTiO3 films as gate insulators. The SrTiO3 gate insulator shows high products of the breakdown field Ebd and the dielectric constant εr up to Ebdεr=1.3×1010 V/m allowing measurements over a wide range of applied gate electric-field Eg. The critical current Ic of the GBJs is found to depend highly nonlinear on Eg. Remarkably, the measured Ic(Eg) are very similar to the εr(Eg) curves. This strongly suggests that the observed electric-field effect is not due to a field-induced change in carrier concentration but is related to the dielectric properties of the SrTiO3 gate insulator. © 1999 American Institute of Physics.

Notes: Associated with non-steady magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow in the liquid metallic core of the Earth, with typical relative speeds of a fraction of a millimetre per second, are fluctuations in dynamic pressure of about 103 N m−2. Acting on the non-spherical core-mantle boundary (CMB), these pressure fluctuations give rise to a fluctuating net topographic torque Lt(t) (i=1, 2, 3)—where t denotes time—on the overlying solid mantle. Geophysicists now accept the proposal by one of us (RH) that Li-(t) makes a significant and possibly dominant contribution to the total torque Li*(t) on the mantle produced directly or indirectly by core motions. Other contributions are the ‘gravitational’ torque associated with fluctuating density gradients in the core, the ‘electromagnetic’ torque associated with Lorentz forces in the weakly electrically conducting lower mantle, and the ‘viscous’ torque associated with shearing motions in the boundary layer just below the CMB. the axial component L3*(t) of Li* (t) contributes to the observed fluctuations in the length of the day [LOD, an inverse measure of the angular speed of rotation of the solid Earth (mantle, crust and cryosphere)], and the equatorial components (Li* (t)) L* (t) contribute to the observed polar motion, as determined from measurements of changes in the Earth's rotation axis relative to its figure axis.In earlier phases of a continuing programme of research based on a method for determining Li(t) from geophysical data (proposed independently about ten years ago by Hide and Le Mouël), it was shown that longitude-dependent irregular CMB topography no higher than about 0.5 km could give rise to values of L3(t) sufficient to account for the observed magnitude of LOD fluctuations on decadal time-scales. Here, we report an investigation of the equatorial components (L1(t), L2(t)) = L(t) of Li(t) taking into account just one topographic feature of the CMB—albeit possibly the most pronounced—namely the axisymmetric equatorial bulge, with an equatorial radius exceeding the polar radius by 9.5 ± 0.1 km (the mean radius of the core being 3485 2 km, 0.547 times that of the whole Earth). A measure of the local horizontal gradient of the fluctuating pressure field near the CMB can be obtained from the local Eulerian flow velocity in the ‘free stream’ below the CMB by supposing that nearly everywhere in the outer reaches of the core—the ‘polosphere’ (Hide 1995)—geostrophic balance obtains between the pressure gradient and Coriolis forces. the polospheric velocity fields used were those determined by Jackson (1989) from geomagnetic secular variations (GSV) data on the basis of the geostrophic approximation combined with the assumption that, on the time-scales of the GSV, the core behaves like a perfect electrical conductor and the mantle as a perfect insulator.In general agreement with independent calculations by Hulot, Le Huy & Le Mouël (1996) and Greff-Lefftz & Legros (1995), we found that in magnitude L (t) for epochs from 1840 to 1990 typically exceeds L3(t) by a factor of about 10, roughly equal to the ratio of the height of the equatorial bulge to that strongly implied for irregular topography by determinations of L3(t) (see Hide et al. 1993). But L (t) still apparently falls short in magnitude by a factor of up to about 5 in its ability t o account for the amplitude of the observed time-series of polar motion on decadal time-scales (DPM), and it is poorly correlated with that time-series. So we conclude that unless uncertainties in the determination of the DPM time-series from observations-which we also discuss-have been seriously underestimated, the action of normal pressure forces associated with core motions on the equatorial bulge of the core-mantle boundary makes a significant but not dominant contribution to the excitation of decadal polar motion. Other geophysical processes such as the movement of groundwater and changes in sea-level must also be involved.

Notes: Pertussis toxin (PT) is the major virulence factor of Bordetella pertussis. The cloning and nucleotide sequencing of the PT genes from B. pertussis, Bordetella parapertussis and Bordetella bronchiseptica has elucidated the evolution of the Bordetella species and allowed considerable advances towards the understanding of their gene expression and the development of safer vaccines against pertussis.

Notes: The nucleotide sequence of the pertussis toxin operon of Bordetella pertussis, Bordetella parapertussis and Bordetella bronchiseptica, has shown that the last two species contain many common mutations and are likely to derive from a common ancestor (Arico and Rappuoli, 1987). To elucidate further the evolutionary relationships between the Bordetella species, we have cloned and sequenced the promoter region and the gene coding for the S1 subunit of pertussis toxin from additional B. pertussis strains, such as the type strain BP 18323 and two recent clinical isolates, namely strain BP 13456 from Sweden and strain BP SA1 from Italy. While the strains BP SA1 and BP 13456 are shown to differ from the published B. pertussis sequences by only one base pair, the type strain BP 18323 contains a total of 11 base-pair substitutions. Remarkably, 9 of the 11 substitutions found in BP 18323 are also common to B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica, strongly suggesting that this strain derives from the same ancestor as B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica.Computer analysis of the sequence data allows the construction of an evolutionary ‘tree’ showing that the B. pertussis strains are very homogeneous and significantly distant from B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica. Therefore the proposed conversion from B. parapertussis to B. pertussis appears highly improbable.

Notes: Bacteria can respond to a variety of environmental stimuli by means of systems generally composed of two proteins. The first protein (sensor or transmitter) is usually a transmembrane protein with cytoplasmic and extracytoplasmic domains. The extracytoplasmic domain (sensor) senses the environment and transfers the signal through the transmembrane domain to the cytoplasmic domain (transmitter), which has kinase activity. The second protein is located in the cytoplasm and contains an amino-terminal domain (receiver), which can be phosphorylated by the transmitter, and a carboxy-terminal region (regulator), which regulates gene expression by binding to DNA. The transmitter and receiver modules (the kinase and its target) are conserved in all signal-transducing systems and are the‘core structure’of this two-component system. The sensors and the regulators vary according to the stimuli they respond to and the DNA structure they interact with. On the basis of their sequence homology, the proteins belonging to such two-component systems can be classified into different families, which are summarized in this review.

Notes: A novel method, heteroduplex analysis, was applied for detecting variation in an amplified growth hormone (GH) gene segment of common bream Abramis brama. Two-allele polymorphism was detected within a 262 bp restriction fragment. The frequency of the variant haplotype in the Main River was 0–50 and in the Danube River 0–32, but the difference was Statistically not significant.

Notes: RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA), RAMPO (random amplified microsatellite polymorphism), SCAR (sequence-characterized amplified regions), microsatellite markers and heteroduplex analysis were applied to differentiate bream (Abramis brama L.) populations from the rivers Main and Danube. Three molecular genetic markers were established; the frequencies of these markers and already established markers were estimated in three bream populations from the Danube River and two bream populations from the Main River. The results showed variation among populations from different river systems as well as variation among samples from the same river basin.