Estimation of the parameters of the Smoluchowski equation describing the occurrence of pores in a bilayer lipid membrane under soft poration.

The conductive lipid pores occurring in planar bilayer membranes are known to manifest themselves experimentally as current fluctuations. Reliable recording of such fluctuations during phase transitions, as well as in membranes with various additives (for example, SDS), allows one to determine the characteristics of hypothetical hydrophilic pores, namely, their number, sizes, lifetimes, and duration of time intervals between pores. Because, in contrast with electroporation, the emergence of pores in a membrane does not require high voltages, this process is called soft poration.

Increase in the current variance in bilayer lipid membranes near phase transition as a result of the occurrence of hydrophobic defects.

Most researchers associate the increase in the permeability of lipid bilayers of artificial and biological membranes observed in various experiments with the formation of hypothetical hydrophobic and hydrophilic pores. Although the existence of hydrophobic defects, as the first stage of the formation of a hydrophilic pore, was hypothesized decades ago from electroporation experiments, the difficulty of describing this stage is determined by the lack of experimental data confirming the existence or at least associated with hydrophobic pores. We explored the increase in the current variance through the lipid membrane, observed when approaching the phase transition from the side of high temperatures, and have associated it with capacitive currents arising in response to the formation of hydrophobic pores.

Whole high-quality light environment for humans and plants.

Plants sharing a single light environment on a spaceship with a human being and bearing a decorative function should look as natural and attractive as possible. And consequently they can be illuminated only with white light with a high color rendering index. Can lighting optimized for a human eye be effective and appropriate for plants? Spectrum-based effects have been compared under artificial lighting of plants by high-pressure sodium lamps and general-purpose white LEDs.

Erlang flow of hydrophilic pore formation and closure events in a lipid bilayer during phase transition resulting from diffusion in the radius space.

The Smoluchowski equation with an energy profile of a special type and an assumed hydrophobic ("half") pore source term is used to describe the process of hydrophilic pore formation in a lipid bilayer at the gel-liquid phase transition. The source term reflects the occurrence of molecule packing defects in a lipid bilayer at phase transition. The time sequences of the pore formation and closure events are treated as non-stationary, second-order Erlang flows whose characteristics depend on the equation solution.

Physical and computer-based modeling in internal temperature reconstruction by the method of passive acoustic thermometry.

The purpose of this work was to investigate experimentally the capacity of passive acoustic thermometry (PAT) for the reconstruction of 1D, time-variable distributions of the internal temperature. Because in the PAT a noise signal is measured, a considerable integration time (about one minute) is required to attain an acceptable error level (0.5-1K).

Thermal acoustic radiation from multilamellar vesicles in lipid phase transition.

A new acoustical method for the investigation of lipid phase transition is introduced based on the measurement of the thermal acoustic radiation (TAR) inherent in lipids. The TAR of multilamellar vesicles from dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) was measured in the megahertz range and the variations in the radiation intensity during the lipid phase transition were recorded. Two types of variations are possible: if the temperature of the vesicles decreases (in the process of transition from the liquid crystalline state to the gel state) then the TAR intensity increases, and if the temperature increases (in the reverse transition) then the TAR intensity decreases.

[On measurements of higher harmonics of transmembrane current].

Measurements of higher harmonics of transmembrane current in bilayer lipid membranes from diphytanoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPhPC) in n-decane and n-tetradecane, caused by alternating voltage applied to the membrane, have been conducted. A universal relation between the amplitudes of harmonics was suggested and experimentally checked. This allowed one to calculate the coefficients of expansion of membrane capacity in series with even powers of membrane voltage and to compare the inhomogeneity of membranes from diphytanoyl phosphatidylcholine in n-decane and n-tetradecane with respect to thickness.

Effect of defibrillation pulses of different shapes on biomembranes: experimental study.

We studied the effects of high-voltage single, double unipolar, and double bipolar electric pulses of exponential or sine shape on erythrocyte membranes. Either single or double (mono- or bipolar) pulses were used. All pulses electroporated the membranes, and the electroporation threshold did not depend on the pulse shape.