Physico-chemical changes taking place in gamma irradiated bovine globulins studied by thermal analysis

Structural transformations induced in gamma and alpha globulins under influence of gamma irradiation using doses of 2.5 and 24 kGy were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TG, DTG). Thermal decomposition of the globulins irradiated in water suspensions occurs at higher temperatures, in comparison to the reference non-irradiated samples. This was related to formation of covalent linkages in the irradiated proteins, apart to chemical changes induced in amino-acids. Essential modification of thermal decomposition was detected already after irradiation with a dose of 2.5 kGy performed for water suspensions. Irradiation of solid native proteins induces decrease in decomposition temperature and gives evidence of proteins degradation.     

Coordination and Dehydrogenation of Amine–Boranes at Metal Centers

There have been a number of approaches developed for the catalyzed dehydrogenation of amine–boranes as potential dihydrogen sources for hydrogen storage applications in recent years. Key advances in this area have been recently made thanks to catalytic and stoichiometric studies. In this Minireview, the fate of amine–boranes upon coordination to a metal center is discussed with a particular emphasis on B? H activation pathways. We focus on the few cases in which coordination of the resulting dehydrogenated product could be achieved, which includes the coordination of aminoborane, the simplest unit resulting from dihydrogen release of ammonia–borane.     

Post‐Plasma Grafting of AEMA as a Versatile Tool to Biofunctionalise Polyesters for Tissue Engineering

In the last decade, substantial research in the field of post‐plasma grafting surface modification has focussed on the introduction of carboxylic acids on surfaces by grafting acrylic acid (AAc). In the present work, we report on an alternative approach for biomaterial surface functionalisation. Thin poly‐ε‐caprolactone (PCL) films were subjected to a dielectric barrier discharge Ar‐plasma followed by the grafting of 2‐aminoethyl methacrylate (AEMA) under UV‐irradiation. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed the presence of nitrogen. The ninhydrin assay demonstrated, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the presence of free amines on the surface. Confocal fluorescence microscopy (CFM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to visualise the grafted surfaces, indicating the presence of pAEMA. Static contact angle (SCA) measurements indicated a permanent increase in hydrophilicity. Furthermore, the AEMA grafted surfaces were applied for comparing the physisorption and covalent immobilisation of gelatin. CFM demonstrated that only the covalent immobilisation lead to a complete coverage of the surface. Those gelatin‐coated surfaces obtained were further coated using fibronectin. Osteosarcoma cells demonstrated better cell‐adhesion and cell‐viability on the modified surfaces, compared to the pure PCL films.

     

Two-step melting in two dimensions: first-order liquid-hexatic transition

Melting in two spatial dimensions, as realized in thin films or at interfaces, represents one of the most fascinating phase transitions in nature, but it remains poorly understood. Even for the fundamental hard-disk model, the melting mechanism has not been agreed upon after 50 years of studies. A recent Monte?Carlo algorithm allows us to thermalize systems large enough to access the thermodynamic regime. We show that melting in hard disks proceeds in two steps with a liquid phase, a hexatic phase, and a solid. The hexatic-solid transition is continuous while, surprisingly, the liquid-hexatic transition is of first order. This melting scenario solves one of the fundamental statistical-physics models, which is at the root of a large body of theoretical, computational, and experimental research.     

Entropy-stable and entropy-dissipative approximations of a fourth-order quantum diffusion equation

Structure-preserving numerical schemes for a nonlinear parabolic fourth-order equation, modeling the electron transport in quantum semiconductors, with periodic boundary conditions are analyzed. First, a two-step backward differentiation formula (BDF) semi-discretization in time is investigated. The scheme preserves the nonnegativity of the solution, is entropy stable and dissipates a modified entropy functional. The existence of a weak semi-discrete solution and, in a particular case, its temporal second-order convergence to the continuous solution is proved. The proofs employ an algebraic relation which implies the G-stability of the two-step BDF. Second, an implicit Euler and $q$ -step BDF discrete variational derivative method are considered. This scheme, which exploits the variational structure of the equation, dissipates the discrete Fisher information (or energy). Numerical experiments show that the discrete (relative) entropies and Fisher information decay even exponentially fast to zero.     

Synthesis of thermosensitive guar‐based hydrogels with tunable physico‐chemical properties by click chemistry

Thermosensitive guar‐based hydrogels are obtained in water solutions by copper‐catalyzed 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition between alkyne‐functionalized guars and α,ω‐diazido‐poly[(ethylene glycol)‐co‐(propylene glycol)]. Characterization by TGA, HR‐MAS ¹H NMR, and rheology have shown that hydrogels with tunable physico‐chemical properties, such as crosslinking density, viscoelasticity, swelling ratio, and so forth, could be obtained by varying the guar molar mass, the degree of alkyne functionality, the guar/crosslinker weight ratio, and the reaction temperature. Based on swelling measurements, it has been shown that the thermal sensitiveness of guar‐based hydrogels is fast, reversible, and intimately related to the weight fraction of the thermosensitive crosslinker in the network. Finally, the monitoring of doxorubicin hydrochloride release has demonstrated the potential of these hydrogels as temperature‐dependent drug release devices. The robust, efficient, and orthogonal approach described herein represents a general approach towards the development of well‐controlled guar‐based hydrogels using α,ω‐diazido crosslinkers. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 2733–2742, 2010