Attenuation of vaccines An attenuated vaccine contains an infecti

Attenuation of vaccines An attenuated vaccine contains an infectious, but less virulent, pathogen that induces a mild form of disease. Attenuated vaccines typically stimulate strong, durable antibody- and cell-mediated immune responses. An attenuated vaccine has the disadvantage of potentially being associated with a small risk of vaccine-related disease, especially

in individuals with underlying impairment of immune function. Furthermore, for some attenuated vaccines, there are safety concerns about the potential for reversion from the attenuated form back to a virulent one. Almost in parallel to attenuated pathogens, researchers started working on inactivated pathogens. These were initially developed for veterinary applications, based on the observation OSI-744 chemical structure that inactivated pathogens maintained the ability to induce protection. The first inactivated BTK inhibitor molecular weight vaccines developed for human use were against

typhoid, cholera and plague. How inactivated vaccines were discovered Formaldehyde was used in Gaston Ramon’s laboratory to clean and sterilise test tubes and glass flasks. One of the flasks used for toxin preparation was not thoroughly rinsed and the remaining formaldehyde was sufficient to inactivate bacterial toxins (1924). This observation appears to have originated the use of formaldehyde inactivation in vaccines. Typhoid fever, a disease spread easily under primitive sanitary conditions and by chronic carriers (Figure 1.7), was highly feared at the beginning of the 19th century due to its high case-fatality rate of up to 20%. To protect troops against typhoid fever, the military initiated the development of a whole cell, inactivated bacterial vaccine. Typhoid vaccination was first tested in 1896 in 2835 volunteers of the Indian army (Levine, 2008). Consequently, the army decided to vaccinate soldiers sent to the Boer War. The vaccine caused some adverse events but a committee reviewed the available data and concluded

that the benefits from prevention of the disease outweighed the risks from vaccination; this may be Cediranib (AZD2171) the first example of an assessment of the risks and benefits of vaccination. There are, however, some disadvantages associated with inactivated whole pathogen vaccines. Multiple doses are generally needed to provide sufficient stimulation of the immune system and booster doses may be needed to induce or maintain persistent immune responses. While live, attenuated and inactivated pathogen vaccines were effective, in the early days of vaccine manufacturing there were many issues including contamination, potency and quality of pathogen production, and lack of standardised harvesting processes.

In three cases results would have led to a less severe classifica

In three cases results would have led to a less severe classification than with DSD (the alkanolamine (MEA, 5%) and two dilutions of an inorganic acid (phosphoric acid 10% and 25%)); in two of click here these cases (phosphoric

acid 10% and 25%) the in vivo information was in line with the HET-CAM result. As described in Section 3.2 and Fig. 1, a tiered testing and assessment scheme was used. Regarding the WoE outcomes, six scenarios were possible in this study. In Table 1 the results of the WoE assessments and resulting classifications are listed in the last two columns. Scenarios 1–4 are related to skin irritation/corrosion: scenario 1: “corrosive” based on results of the HSM corrosion test (4×: alkaline cleaners 1–3; acid cleaner 2) Scenarios 1, 5, and 6 are related to eye effects: scenario 1: “corrosive” based on results of the HSM corrosion test (4×: alkaline cleaners 1–3; acid cleaner 2) For the scenarios of skin vs. eye irritation/corrosion the following buy Entinostat observations were made: scenario 2 for skin effects was in both cases combined with scenario 5 for eye effects (acid cleaner 4; MPT product 11); scenario 3 for skin effects was either combined with scenario 5 (five times, acid cleaners 1 and

3; MPT products 3–5) or scenario 6 for eye effects (four times, MPT products 6, 8, 9, and 12); scenario 4 for skin effects happened to be always combined with scenario

6. For the two products for which scenario 2 was followed (acid cleaner 4 and MPT product 11) the clearly predominant substance with a irritating/corrosive potential was citric acid for Adenylyl cyclase which in vivo studies were available that demonstrated no irritating properties to the skin (see Table 2). In-house data with similar products supported this assumption. Due to very low amounts of other acids and/or surfactants from which a slight impact on the irritating properties could not be fully excluded, these products were classified as skin irritating. With regard to eye effects, a classification as severely irritating/serious eye damage was chosen as a worst case assumption since the combined data for eye irritation were not clear without ambiguity. In this study we have investigated the corrosive and irritating properties of 20 products with extreme pH values by making use of different in vitro methods in a tiered testing and assessment strategy. Nine individual compounds (dilutions) were tested in parallel. The tiered approach that was used has proven to be a pragmatic tool to produce data suitable to support classifications according to chemicals law. As soon as a solid classification is derived for a series of products, the properties of similar products can be “bridged” based on expert judgment. The use of such bridging principles is outlined under GHS and CLP.

This becomes important when the enzyme concentration is large, as

This becomes important when the enzyme concentration is large, as is usually the case in studies of fast reactions. The rate of reaction as defined here is an intensive quantity. This means that its value does not change with the total U0126 amount of material considered, so a concentration of 1 mM glucose in a solution is the same whether we are concerned with 1 ml or with 1 µl, whereas the amount of glucose, an extensive quantity is not. IUPAC recommendations older than those of 1981 defined the rate of reaction as an extensive quantity with dimensions of amount of substance divided by time, but this definition is obsolete

in chemistry and has hardly ever been used in biochemistry. Most biochemists, indeed, would be surprised to learn that it had ever been suggested. An elementary reaction was defined as one with no reaction intermediates in the chemical mechanism; such a reaction is said to occur in a single step. Few if any complete

enzyme catalysed reactions are selleck compound of this type, but are instead composite, consisting of two or more elementary steps, which are, however, themselves elementary reactions. This section noted that the term molecularity should only be applied to elementary reactions, and then defines bimolecular and unimolecular in the ways universally used in biochemistry, so no discussion is required here. The document stated that “the term order of reaction can be applied to any elementary reaction considered in one direction only, and to certain composite reactions”. This is certainly the meaning that applies in chemical kinetics, but it is too restrictive for enzyme-catalysed reactions, for which the idea is well established that saturation of an enzyme implies a gradual decrease (through fractional values) of the order of reaction from 1 at zero substrate concentration to 0 at saturation. I see no objection to saying that a reaction has an

order i with respect to a concentration a in conditions where the derivative dlnvdlna=iis applicable, with no implication medroxyprogesterone that i is a constant independent of a. In a later paragraph the 1981 recommendations admit this possibility, and suggest the term apparent order. For an elementary reaction occurring in one direction the order of reaction is equal to the molecularity, but it describes the kinetics not the mechanism. When two or more reactants are considered there is an overall order for the whole set of reactant, and separate orders with respect to the different reactants. The 1981 recommendations define the orders with respect to the individual reactants as partial orders, but this term is virtually unknown in the biochemical literature.

95, coverage no less than 0 9, and reference gene had annotation

95, coverage no less than 0.9, and reference gene had annotation of putative or hypothetical. To define genes with signal peptide, we use SignalP version 4.1 ( Petersen et al., 2011) to identify genes with signal peptide with default parameters. TMHMM 2.0 ( Krogh et al., 2001) was used to identify BYL719 concentration genes with transmembrane helices. The draft genome of B. agri 5-2 revealed a genome size of 5,513,716 bp and a G + C content of 54.15% (146 contigs with N50 of 97,214 bp). These contigs contain 5260 coding sequences (CDSs), 91 tRNAs and 6 incomplete rRNA operons (2 small subunit rRNA and 4 large subunit rRNAs). A total of 5067 protein-coding

genes were assigned as putative function or hypothetical proteins. 3624 genes were categorized into COGs functional groups (including putative or hypothetical genes). The properties and the statistics of the genome are summarized in Table 1. Consistent with its metabolic versatility and environmental selleck inhibitor adaptability, B. agri strain 5-2 possesses extensive transport capabilities. 517 genes encode transport related proteins for amino acid, inorganic ions, carbohydrates, nucleotide and lipid found in the genome. Two putative alkane 1-monooxygenase, one putative alkanesulfonate monooxygenase, one putative alkanesulfonate transporter, one putative sulfate permease and five putative sulfate transporters were identified in the draft genome

( Table 2). Alkane 1-monooxygenase was found as one of the key enzymes responsible for the aerobic transformation of midchain-length n-alkanes (C5 to C16) and in some cases even longer

alkanes ( van Beilen and Funhoff, 2007). It is hypothesized that sulfate transporters and alkanesulfonate transporter may be responsible for organosulfur compound degradation ( Erwin et al., 2005 and Van Hamme et al., 2013). Moreover, a genome alignment of the only two sequenced B. agri genomes (B. agri 5-2 and B. agri BAB-2500 ( Joshi et al., 2013)) PIK3C2G showed that some functional regions are highly homologous between two assemblies. The alignment also reveals some discrepancies between them, some short stretches of the 5-2 genome absent from the contigs in BAB-2500 ( Fig. 1). For example, none of the alkane monooxygenases were identified in the genome of BAB-2500 by further genomic analysis. In summary, the genomic data of strain 5-2 may provide insights into the mechanism of microorganisms adapt to the petroleum reservoir after chemical flooding. This whole genome sequence project is deposited in DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank under the accession JATL00000000. The following are the supplementary data related to this article. Fig. S1.   Phylogenetic tree highlighting the position of Brevibacillus agri strain 5-2 relative to other type strains within the genus Brevibacillus. Numbers at the branching nodes are percentages of bootstrap values based on 1000 replications.

Chitosan color was found through Minolta system (CR-300, Minolta

Chitosan color was found through Minolta system (CR-300, Minolta Corporation, USA). Color was measured from three-dimensional color diagram (L-a-b), and numerical values (a-b) were converted in Hue angle according Eq. (4) (Srinivasa et al., 2004): equation(4) Hab=tan−1(a/b)Hab=tan−1(a/b)where, Hab is Hue angle (°), “a” is chromaticity from green to red and “b” is chromaticity from blue to yellow. Powder grain-size analysis was carried out in standardized mesh screen. The average diameter was calculated by definition of Sauter (Eq. (5)): equation(5) D¯Sauter=1∑ΔXiDmiwhere,

DSauter is the average diameter of Sauter (m), ΔXi is the weight fraction of particles size Dmi (%) and Dmi is the arithmetic average diameter BIBW2992 nmr between two screens (m). Thermogravimetric (TG and DTG) curves were obtained in a thermobalance (TA Instruments, DSC 2010, USA), with a heating rate 10 °C min−1 under modified selleck products atmosphere through N2 (50 mL min−1), the amount of

samples used was in the range of 1–5 mg in platinum pan in the temperature range of 20–800 °C (Yoshida, Bastos, & Franco, 2010). Chitosan powder was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, SEM (Jeol, JSM- 6060, Japan) (Yen & Mau, 2007). Chitosan characteristic bands and deacetylation degree were verified through FT-IR analysis. Chitosan powder was macerated and submitted to the spectroscopic determination in the region of the infra-red ray (Prestige 21, 210045, Japan), using the technique of diffuse reflectance in potassium bromide (Yen & Mau, 2007). Deacetylation degree was determined according to Eq.(6) (Cervera et al., 2004): equation(6) %DD=87.8−[3(AC=O/A−OH)]where, %DD is chitosan deacetylation Tyrosine-protein kinase BLK degree (%), AC=O is absorbance of C O group and A−OH is absorbance of –OH group. The responses considered in the drying experiments were compared statistically using Tukey test by the software Statistica 6.0 (Statsoft, USA), with difference significance level of 95% (p ≤ 0.05). Chitosan paste obtained

showed moisture content 94 ± 0.1 g 100 g−1 (wet basis), ashes 0.04 ± 0.01 g 100 g−1, N-chitosan 5 ± 1.0 g 100 g−1, molecular weight 140 ± 2 kDa and %DD 85 ± 1%. For drying experiments the chitosan paste was diluted until 4 g 100 g−1 solids. Through pressure drop velocity curves, the air drying velocity used in the experiments to guarantee spouted stability was determined. The pressure drop velocity curves obtained were similar to the generic pressure drop velocity curve showed by Mathur and Epstein (1974). In slot-rectangular geometry minimum spouting, the velocities found were 0.88 m s−1, 0.87 m s−1 and 0.85 m s−1 for temperatures of 90, 100 and 110 °C, respectively. In conical-cylindrical geometry minimum spouting, the velocities were 0.62 m s−1, 0.61 m s−1, 0.60 m s−1, for temperatures of 90, 100 and 110 °C, respectively. Chitosan paste was fed into the bed.

The alongshore current speeds were the greatest (up to 45 cm s−1)

The alongshore current speeds were the greatest (up to 45 cm s−1) in autumn on days 280–290 and 300–360. The currents fluctuated between north and south without any longterm preference (Figure 2a, 3b). Despite the lack of tides, Vemurafenib research buy meteorologically induced high sea level events occurred rather periodically, every 10–30 days. As a rule, in late autumn and during ice-free winters such events are both more frequent

and violent (Figure 3). The Gulf of Riga was covered by sea-ice for the first 110 days of 2011, i.e. until April 20. Usually, all the hydrodynamic assessment periods (Figure 2b) included at least one or two rough sea events. In such cases, the sampled wrack strip was formed during the last event. If the wave height prior to the last one was significantly higher, the older wrack strip was located higher up the shore and its material was not analysed.

If the wave height in each next event was higher than the preceding one, the material from the different casts was mixed together while being transported to a higher level. In general, the relationships between the hydrodynamic conditions and the structure of beach wrack obtained using a 10-, 20- or 30-day averaging period did not differ substantially (Table 2). The maximum wave height taken 10 days before the biological sampling was the best hydrodynamic correlate, which positively explained layer thickness, F. vesiculosus biomass ( Figure 4a, b), total BYL719 ic50 biomass (correlation coefficient, r, between 0.73 and 0.80 at Kõiguste, and 0.47–0.54 at Sõmeri; Table 2) and F. lumbricalis biomass. High wave events tended to increase the amount of beach wrack. The hydrodynamic conditions did not have any noteworthy influence on the distance of wrack from the waterline and the species number. While the different averaging periods (10, Urocanase 20, 30 days)

of hydrodynamic variables had similar impacts at Sõmeri and Kõiguste, a large scatter of correlations appeared at Orajõe. The specificity of that location involves an exposed straight coastline, which does not trap the material in the same way as in the shallow and more or less enclosed bays (like Kõiguste). In the case of alongshore currents, the high correlation coefficient indicates favourable conditions for beach wrack formation, regardless of its sign. Alongshore currents negatively influenced F. vesiculosus biomass, species number, layer thickness and the total biomass at Sõmeri. The negative relationship here means that the bay collects more biomass and more species when winds are northerly and the corresponding currents southward. Northward currents tend to flow past the bay. Somewhat differently, the northward currents strongly and positively influenced wrack thickness, coverage and biomass at Kõiguste.

0%; placebo, 22 0%; P = 002; relative risk, 2 3; 95% CI, 1 3–4 2

0%; placebo, 22.0%; P = .002; relative risk, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.3–4.2). Prespecified exploratory subgroup analysis results by concomitant corticosteroid or immunosuppressive use for clinical remission at weeks 6 and 10 and CDAI-100 response at week 6 for the TNF antagonist–failure and overall populations are shown in Supplementary Figures 2 and 3. Among patients

in the TNF antagonist–failure and overall populations with increased baseline CRP levels, median changes in CRP concentration were improved modestly from baseline to weeks 6 and 10; these improvements were more pronounced at week 10 than at week 6 (Supplementary Figure 4). Nominal P values for between-group differences in median change in fecal calprotectin check details levels from baseline to week 6

were not less than .05 among the TNF antagonist–failure population (vedolizumab, -22.1 μg/g stool; placebo, -5.0 μg/g stool; P = .883) or the overall population (vedolizumab, -26.2 μg/g stool; placebo, -7.8 μg/g stool; P = .744). Sixty percent of placebo-treated patients and 56% of vedolizumab-treated patients experienced 1 or more AEs during the study (Table 2). Selleckchem Veliparib Serious infection and drug-related SAEs were experienced by 1% or less of patients in both groups, and 2% of patients in both groups had SAEs leading to study discontinuation. No deaths were reported in the study. The most common AEs in both groups were similar and included infections (vedolizumab, 19%; placebo, 17%). Gastrointestinal infections occurred in 5 (2%) vedolizumab-treated patients and in 3 (1%) placebo-treated patients. In vedolizumab-treated patients, the most common AEs Etofibrate were nausea, vomiting, headache, upper respiratory tract infection, arthralgia, nasopharyngitis, and abdominal pain (Table 2). Incidences of nausea, upper respiratory tract infection, arthralgia, abdominal pain, aphthous stomatitis, vomiting, fatigue, urinary tract infection, and anemia were higher with vedolizumab, whereas incidences of CD exacerbation, pyrexia, and headache were higher with placebo. Two vedolizumab-treated patients had SAEs of infection, including

1 anal abscess and 1 urinary tract infection, which were treated successfully during the study; neither led to study discontinuation. No placebo-treated patients had SAEs of infection. Infusion-related AEs occurred in 4 (2%) vedolizumab-treated patients and in 2 (<1%) placebo-treated patients. In the 1 patient who reported new neurologic symptoms during the study and was evaluated by an independent adjudication committee, PML formally was excluded. This vedolizumab-treated patient was later withdrawn from the study because of an ependymoma and had the only reported neoplasm in the study. The mean ± SD week 6 trough vedolizumab serum concentration was 26.5 ± 15.8 μg/mL (n = 195), which was similar to that observed in GEMINI 2.24 The week 10 vedolizumab serum concentration was 28.4 ± 17.9 μg/mL (n = 190).

In many cases, bio-logging is an attractive method for collection

In many cases, bio-logging is an attractive method for collection of biological and physical data [2]. Bio-logging is now playing an important role in the conservation of many highly mobile marine species and the habitats they rely on. This includes, amongst other things, providing data on the interactions of marine species with fisheries [11] and [12], identification of foraging regions and relationships with static and dynamic ocean features at various scales [13], [14] and [15], and providing data critical for calculating more precise abundance estimates [16] and [17].

The utility of bio-logging for marine resource management is now widely accepted by marine ecologists and oceanographers [2]. UNCLOS obligates states to conserve wide-ranging and Ruxolitinib price valuable species.3 The use of bio-logging has particular salience for the management and conservation of threatened migratory species [18]. The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), for example, has classified species that are in peril of extinction,4 and identifies those subject to special protective measures.5 The ability to effectively manage such species; however, is hampered by the requirement to undergo lengthy, expensive and sometimes unsuccessful administrative and logistical

processes to obtain permission to conduct MSR in coastal state EEZs. Long-range migratory species may not only enter several countries EEZs individually and as a species, but do so in an unpredictable manner. The new modality of bio-logging improves our understanding GSKJ4 of the life histories of migratory species and contributes

to international management and conservation of them. A rapid survey of geospatial data in the OBIS SEAMAP6 archive demonstrates the large number of EEZs that are crossed, entered, and transited by specific marine highly migratory species (Table 1). For example leatherback turtles, one of the most widely ranging marine turtle species, have been recorded in 67 coastal state EEZs. Humpback whales, a mammalian species that makes extensive yearly migrations from feeding to breeding grounds have been recorded in 57 coastal state EEZs. Atlantic Bluefin tuna are found Benzatropine in at least 17 different EEZs. Perhaps most importantly, the movements of these widely ranging marine species are defined by the unpredictable nature of individual behaviors and dynamic migration routes. These complexities are illustrated below using examples of telemetry data from across the major taxa studied through bio-logging techniques in marine systems. The distribution and migration routes of many marine species are dynamic and unpredictable, varying among individuals and species and from season to season. For example, data from two loggerhead sea turtles tagged at the same location at Reunion Island (Fig.

6 ms) is the total magnetization transfer time in the HMQC [36]

6 ms) is the total magnetization transfer time in the HMQC [36]. Generally, PRE effects are measured with paramagnetic centers showing predominant Solomon relaxation, such as nitroxide radicals and Mn2+. The distance between the electron spin and the nucleus is estimated using a modified version of the Solomon–Bloembergen equation [37] ( Fig. 3). Excellent

reviews of paramagnetic NMR can be found in [38] and [39]. In RNP complexes paramagnetic tags can be attached at specific positions on one of the protein components: quantification of the PRE effects on the GDC-0941 nmr methyl and amide groups of the other proteins and on the base resonances of the RNA yields intermolecular distance restraints. The most common strategy for paramagnetic tagging of proteins uses single cysteine residues, which can be easily reacted with a thiol-containing compound. In this way specific positions along the protein chain can be coupled with synthetic metal chelating agents (for example based on ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, EDTA) or chemical radicals [40]. The most commonly used radical for coupling to the cysteine thiol group is the (3-(2-iodoacetamido)-2,2,5,5,tetramethyl-1-pyrrolidinyloxy radical). Single cysteines can be engineered

in each protein of the complex one-by-one selleck at different positions, so as to obtain a complete network of intermolecular Protein tyrosine phosphatase distances (Fig. 3). The drawback of this technique is that the protein to be paramagnetically tagged must not contain any accessible native cysteine, which might limit

the applicability of the method or require more sophisticated tagging strategies. For RNA molecules site-selective spin-labelling strategies can be performed either during chemical synthesis or post-synthetic [41]. Post-synthetic labelling allows introduction of radicals at the phosphodiester backbone, via coupling with a thiophosphate, at the C2, C4 and C5 positions of uridines, at the C5 position of cytidines and at the C2 position of adenosines [42]. The nucleotide to be coupled with the spin-label must uniquely carry a chemical modification that is capable of reacting with the spin label. As for proteins, care must be taken that the spin-label does not perturb the structure of the RNA while, at the same time, the linker should be as rigid as possible to avoid averaging of the structural information through excessive spin-label dynamics. For long RNAs, which cannot be obtained by chemical synthesis, the single-site modification must be engineered in a shorter fragment, which is then combined with other fragments by enzymatic ligation to lead the complete RNA. This procedure can be cumbersome and yields only small amounts of RNA.

The SEOP cell was then opened, and the gas pressures in the SEOP

The SEOP cell was then opened, and the gas pressures in the SEOP cell and the detection cell were allowed to equalize. Rubidium vapor was separated RAD001 cell line from the hp gas by an air-cooled filter, containing loosely packed glass wool located inside the transfer line between the pumping cell and the detection cell. The magnetic field necessary for optical pumping was provided either by the fringe field of the superconducting magnet (0.05 T for 9.4 T, 0.004 T for 11.7 T, and 0.04 T for 14.1 T) or by a Helmholtz coil pair (2.0 × 10−3 T). Three gas mixtures used in this work were composed of naturally

abundant, research grade gases provided by Airgas (Radnor, PA), with purities of 99.995% for Xe, 99.9997% for N2, and 99.9999% for He. The gas mixtures used in this study were 5% Xe, 5% N2, and 90% He (mixture I); 20% Xe, 5% N2, and 75% He (mixture II); and AZD9291 mouse 93% Xe and 7% N2 (mixture III). High resolution 131Xe spectra were

obtained at 11.7 T and 14.1 T, using a Varian INOVA 500 MHz spectrometer and a Chemagnetics Infinity 600 MHz spectrometer, respectively. Commercial 10 mm broadband probes tuned to 131Xe frequency at either field strength (41.23 MHz and 49.47 MHz at 11.7 T and 14.1 T, respectively) were used. The length of a π/2 pulse was 24.5 μs at 11.7 T and 35 μs at 14.1 T. The gas samples were shimmed using an external D2O standard for the field lock channel. The D2O was located between the walls of the outer tube (10.0 mm outer diameter, 9.1 mm inner diameter; Wilmad-LabGlass, Vineland, NJ) and a hp gas containing inner detection tube (custom-built medium wall NMR 8 mm outer diameter, 6 mm inner C-X-C chemokine receptor type 7 (CXCR-7) diameter, for 11.7 T; 5 mm outer diameter, 4.2 mm inner diameter for 14.1 T; Wilmad-LabGlass,

Vineland, NJ). Polarization build-up and relaxation data were collected at 9.4 T using a Chemagnetics CMX II 400 MHz spectrometer and a custom built probe tuned to the 131Xe frequency at 32.81 MHz. The length of π/2 pulse was 35 μs. A 15 mm outer diameter, 12.6 mm inner diameter Pyrex glass sample tube was used as sample holder. No resistive magnetic field shimming was provided because resolved quadrupolar lineshapes were not required for these experiments. T1 measurements were performed using a series of 16 equally spaced, medium flip angle (12.3°) radiofrequency (RF) pulses to probe the hp 131Xe polarization decay as a function of time. To collect polarization build-up curves, SEOP cell conditions such as temperature, pressure, and illumination were initially maintained in the absence of magnetic field for 5–10 min to ensure that no non-equilibrium polarization was present. The magnetic field was then turned on for a period of time, tp, after which the hp 131Xe was delivered via pressure-equalization into the previously evacuated detection cell, and signal was acquired using a π/2 pulse. The signal enhancements for hp 131Xe were referenced to the thermal signal obtained from a sample containing only 810 kPa of natural abundance 131Xe.