Two- and three-dimensional comparative study of heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of nanofluids flow through a ventilated cubic cavity (part I: Newtonian nanofluids)

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Through this paper, three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer of Al2O3 nanofluid within ventilated enclosures was taken into consideration....     

Effect of carbon nanotubes on the thermal conductivity enhancement of synthesized hydroxyapatite filled with water for dental applications: experimental characterization and numerical study

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The hydroxyapatite is one of the biocompatible and insulating bioceramics, while the carbon nanotube has a high thermal conductivity potential. This...     

Hydroxyl radical is the active species in photochemical DNA strand scission by bis(peroxo)vanadium(V) phenanthroline

Bis(peroxo)vanadium(V) complexes are widely investigated as anticancer agents. They exert their antitumor and cyctotoxic effects through inhibition of tyrosine phosphatases and DNA cleavage, respectively. The latter process remains poorly understood. The mechanism of DNA cleavage by NH(4)[(phen)V(O)(eta(2)-O(2))(2)] (phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) was investigated. Kinetic studies on DNA cleavage revealed that the complex is a single-strand nicking agent with no specificity. EPR experiments using 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidone (TMP) and 5,5'-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) as spin-traps for singlet oxygen and hydroxyl radical, respectively, implicated hydroxyl radical production upon photodecomposition of bis(peroxo)vanadium(V). This was corroborated by benzoate inhibition of DNA strand scission and stoichiometric oxidation of 2-propanol to acetone upon irradiation of bis(peroxo)vanadium(V) phenanthroline. High-resolution polyacrylamide gel analysis of the vanadium cleavage reaction and [Fe(II)EDTA](2)(-)/H(2)O(2) resulted in comigration of "ladder" pattern bands, which superimposed when both reactions were run on the same lane. These findings identify hydroxyl radical produced from the photooxidation of the peroxo ligand on vanadium as the active species in DNA cleavage.     

Excited-state distortions determined from structured luminescence of nitridorhenium(V) complexes

The nitridorhenium(V) complexes ReNCl(2)(PCy3)(2) (1), ReNBr(2)(PCy3)(2) (2), ReNCl(2)(PPh3)(2) (3), and ReNBr(2)(PPh3)(2) (4) produce structured emission spectra upon excitation at low temperature. The origin, E(00), occurs at 15 775, 16 375, 15 875, and 16 300 cm(-1), respectively. The vibronic peaks are regularly spaced with an average energy separation corresponding to the Re triple bond N stretching frequency. The nitridorhenium stretching frequency ranges from 1095 to 1101 cm(-1), as determined by Raman and IR spectroscopy. The excited-state distortions are calculated by fitting the emission spectra. The excited state arises primarily from a d(xy) (ReN nonbonding) to d(yz) (ReN pi antibonding) transition. The rhenium-nitrogen bond length in the excited state is 0.08 A longer than in the ground electronic state, which is consistent with the difference in bond lengths of ReN bonds of bond order 3 and bond order 2.5 as determined from molecular structures.     

Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of Mentha pulegium L. essential oil

The dependence of Mentha pulegium L. (pennyroyal) essential oil composition, obtained by supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂), with the following parameters: pressure, temperature, extraction time (dynamic), and modifier (methanol) was studied. The results were also compared with those obtained by conventional hydrodistillation method in laboratory conditions. Regarding the percentages of menthone (30.3%) and pulegone (52.0%), the optimum SFE results were obtained at the following experimental conditions: pressure=100 atm, T=35 °C, dynamic time=10 min, and V_modifier=0 μl. The results of hydrodistillation showed that the major components of M. pulegium L. were pulegone (37.8%), menthone (20.3%), and piperitenone (6.8%). The evaluation of the composition of each extract was performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.     

Boolean logic functions of a synthetic peptide network

Living cells can process rapidly and simultaneously multiple extracellular input signals through the complex networks of evolutionary selected biomolecular interactions and chemical transformations. Recent approaches to molecular computation have increasingly sought to mimic or exploit various aspects of biology. A number of studies have adapted nucleic acids and proteins to the design of molecular logic gates and computational systems, while other works have affected computation in living cells via biochemical pathway engineering. Here we report that de novo designed synthetic peptide networks can also mimic some of the basic logic functions of the more complex biological networks. We show that segments of a small network whose graph structure is composed of five nodes and 15 directed edges can express OR, NOR, and NOTIF logic.     

A heterocyclic peptide nanotube

An open-ended hollow tubular structure is designed based on hydrogen-bond-directed self-assembly of a chimeric cyclic peptide subunit comprised of alternating alpha- and epsilon-amino acids. The design features a novel 1,4-disubstituted-1,2,3-triazole epsilon-amino acid and its utility as a peptide backbone substitute. The N-Fmoc-protected epsilon-amino acid was synthesized in high yield and optical purity in three steps from readily available starting materials and was employed in solid-phase peptide synthesis to afford the desired cyclic peptide structure. The cyclic peptide self-assembly has been studied in solution by (1)H NMR and mass spectrometry and the resulting tubular ensemble characterized in the solid state by X-ray crystallography.     

Clustering files of chemical structures using the fuzzy k-means clustering method

This paper evaluates the use of the fuzzy k-means clustering method for the clustering of files of 2D chemical structures. Simulated property prediction experiments with the Starlist file of logP values demonstrate that use of the fuzzy k-means method can, in some cases, yield results that are superior to those obtained with the conventional k-means method and with Ward's clustering method. Clustering of several small sets of agrochemical compounds demonstrate the ability of the fuzzy k-means method to highlight multicluster membership and to identify outlier compounds, although the former can be difficult to interpret in some cases.