Blinking

The lubricating properties of tears are an important feature in normal blinking. Kalachandra and Shah measured the coefficient of friction of ophthalmic solutions (artificial tears) on polymer surfaces and found no correlation with viscosity, surface tension or contact angle [58]. The coefficient of friction appears to depend on the structure of the polymer surfaces and decreases with increasing load and sliding speed. 

Dickson R M, Cubitt A B, Tsien R Y and Moerner W E 1997 On/off blinking and switching behaviour of single molecules of green fluorescent protein Nature 388 355-8... 

When results are compared for polymerization experiments carried out at different frequencies of blinking, it is found that the rate depends on that frequency. To see how this comes about, we must examine the variation of radical concentration under non-stationary-state conditions. This consideration dictates the choice of photoinitiated polymerization, since in the latter it is almost possible to turn on or off—with the blink of a light—the source of free radicals. The qualifying almost in the previous sentence is actually the focus of our attention, since a short but finite amount of time is required for the radical concentration to reach [M-] and a short but finite amount of time is required for it to drop back to zero after the light goes out. 

As the frequency of blinking increases, the range between [M-]min will narrow, approaching a plateau value below [M ] ... 

For intermittent illumination with very slow blinking (Rp)slow° ... 

For this general case the limits become the following 3. Slow blinking ... 

Acrolein vapor is highly irritating to the eyes, causing pain or discomfort in the eye, profuse lacrimation, involuntary blinking, and marked reddening of the conjunctiva. Splashes of Hquid acrolein will produce a severe injury to the eyeHds and conjunctiva and chemical bums of the cornea. 

A. Kaumann andj. R. Blinks, Haunyn-Schmiedeberg. Arch. Pharmacol 311, 305 (1980). 

This argument is based upon the typical situation in which E is well out on the tail of the curve. Suppose it is not suppose E is near the maximum of the curve at 7i, or is even to the left of it. Then a large number of the molecules have the requisite energy, even at the lower temperature, Tt. Since collisions occur so rapidly (remember, one every 10 s second or so), the reaction is over in a blink of the eye. This reaction would be called instantaneous." The circumstances shown in Figure 8-4 are typical" only of a slow reaction. 

Blinks used a different method to dislodge the particles of active material from the strips cut off from the jellyfish (Blinks et al., 1978). The strips are shaken in cold seawater, and the particles dislodged are harvested by filtration on a Buchner funnel with the aid of Celite. The filter cake is first washed with 50 mM EDTA, pH 8.0, containing (NH4)2S(>4 at 75% saturation, to remove seawater. Then, the particles are cytolyzed and aequorin is extracted in situ by washing the filter cake with cold 50 mM EDTA, pH 8.0. The filtrate is clear and slightly greenish. The active matter in the filtrate is precipitated by saturation... 

Heterogeneity. Natural aequorin is not a homogeneous protein it is a mixture of many isoforms having isoelectric points ranging from 4.2 to 4.9 (Blinks and Harrer, 1975). The isoform composition may vary to some extent by the purification method employed, due to uneven loss of isoforms during purification. Consequently, the properties of each preparation of aequorin may also vary. By anion-exchange... 

Blinks, J. R. (1989). Use of calcium-regulated photoproteins as intracellular Ca2+ indicators. Method. Enzymol. 172 164-203. 

Blinks, J. R., and Harrer, G. C. (1975). Multiple forms of the calcium-sensitive bioluminescent protein aequorin. Fed. Proc. 34 474. 

N concentrations. Years ago, this fact was useful since numerical solutions to ODEs required substantial computer time. They can now be solved in literally the blink of an eye, and there is little incentive to reduce dimensionality in sets of ODEs. However, the theory used to reduce dimensionality also gives global stoichiometric equations that can be useful. We will therefore present it briefly. 

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