The Study of Americium, Yttrium and Lead Complexation by Humic Acids of Different Origin

Complexation equilibrium of metals by three humic acids of different origin with ultrafiltration method was investigated at pH 4 a 5 and ionic strength I = 0.1M NaClO₄. Commercial (Aldrich) and two original humic acids (peat and soil, obtained by six step isolation process from the material from Trnava county, close to the NPP Jaslovské Bohunice) were used in this study. For the evaluation of the results, the model of metal ion charge neutralization upon humic acid functional group proposed by the Kim and Czerwinski was used. Complexation constants were calculated using the terms of this model (operational concentration, loading capacity). The values of log = 5.39±0.16 for yttrium, 6.15±0.16 for americium and 5.20±0.08 for lead were found. Correlation of free metal concentration and ratio of molar fraction of complexing functional groups confirms the validity of charge neutralisation model for metal and polyelectrolyte complexation study.     

Products of Quasi-Involutions in Unitary Groups

Given a regular ^–-hermitian form on an n-dimensional vector space V over a commutative field K of characteristic 2 ( ). Call an element of the unitary group a quasi-involution if is a product of commuting quasi-symmetries (a quasi-symmetry is a unitary transformation with a regular (n–1)-dimensional fixed space). In the special case of an orthogonal group every quasi-involution is an involution. Result: every unitary element is a product of five quasi-involutions. If K is algebraically closed then three quasi-involutions suffice.     

Modification of polyurethane surface with an antithrombin-heparin complex for blood contact: influence of molecular weight of polyethylene oxide used as a linker/spacer

Polyurethane (PU) was modified using isocyanate chemistry to graft polyethylene oxide (PEO) of various molecular weights (range 300-4600). An antithrombin-heparin (ATH) covalent complex was subsequently attached to the free PEO chain ends, which had been functionalized with N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) groups. Surfaces were characterized by water contact angle and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to confirm the modifications. Adsorption of fibrinogen from buffer was found to decrease by ~80% for the PEO-modified surfaces compared to the unmodified PU. The surfaces with ATH attached to the distal chain end of the grafted PEO were equally protein resistant, and when the data were normalized to the ATH surface density, PEO in the lower MW range showed greater protein resistance. Western blots of proteins eluted from the surfaces after plasma contact confirmed these trends. The uptake of ATH on the PEO-modified surfaces was greatest for the PEO of lower MW (300 and 600), and antithrombin binding from plasma (an indicator of heparin anticoagulant activity) was highest for these same surfaces. The PEO-ATH- and PEO-modified surfaces also showed low platelet adhesion from flowing whole blood. It is concluded that for the PEO-ATH surfaces, PEO in the low MW range, specifically MW 600, may be optimal for achieving an appropriate balance between resistance to nonspecific protein adsorption and the ability to take up ATH and bind antithrombin in subsequent blood contact.     

Polyurethane-based microfluidic devices for blood contacting applications

Protein adsorption on PDMS surfaces poses a significant challenge in microfluidic devices that come into contact with biofluids such as blood. Polyurethane (PU) is often used for the construction of medical devices, but despite having several attractive properties for biointerfacing, it has not been widely used in microfluidic devices. In this work we developed two new fabrication processes for making thin, transparent and flexible PU-based microfluidic devices. Methods for the fabrication and bonding of microchannels, the integration of fluidic interconnections and surface modification with hydrophilic polyethylene oxide (PEO) to reduce protein adsorption are detailed. Using these processes, microchannels were produced having high transparency (96% that of glass in visible light), high bond strength (326.4 kPa) and low protein adsorption (80% reduction in fibrinogen adsorption vs. unmodified PDMS), which is critical for prevention of fouling. Our findings indicate that PEO modified PU could serve as an effective alternative to PDMS in blood contacting microfluidic applications.     

Downstream targets of methyl CpG binding protein 2 and their abnormal expression in the frontal cortex of the human Rett syndrome brain

Background  

The Rett Syndrome (RTT) brain displays regional histopathology and volumetric reduction, with frontal cortex showing such abnormalities, whereas the occipital cortex is relatively less affected.     

Surface modifications of Nitinol for biomedical applications

Cathodic electrophoretic deposition (EPD) has been utilized for the fabrication of composite films for the surface modification of NiTi shape memory alloys (Nitinol). In the proposed method, chitosan (CH) was used as a matrix for the incorporation of other functional materials, such as heparin, hydroxyapatite and bioglass. Chitosan-heparin films were deposited from solutions of non-stoichiometric chitosan-heparin complexes. It was found that the addition of anionic heparin to the solutions of cationic chitosan resulted in a significant increase in the cathodic deposition rate. The thickness of the films prepared by this method varied in the range of 0.1-3 microm. The ability of the chitosan-heparin films to bind antithrombin, as measured by binding of (125)I-radiolabeled antithrombin, was much greater than that of pure chitosan films. Composite chitosan-hydroxyapatite films, with thickness of 1-30 microm, were obtained as monolayers or laminates, containing chitosan-hydroxyapatite layers, separated by layers of pure chitosan. The hydroxyapatite nanoparticles showed preferred orientation in the chitosan matrix with the c-axis parallel to the substrate surface. The films showed corrosion protection of the Nitinol substrates in Ringer's physiological solutions. The feasibility of the fabrication of composite films containing hydroxyapatite and bioglass in the chitosan matrix has been demonstrated. The method offers the advantages of room temperature processing. The deposition mechanisms and possible applications of the films are discussed.