Immobilization of the Gas Signaling Molecule H2S by Radioisotopes: Detection,Quantification, and In Vivo Imaging

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) has multifunctional roles as a gas signaling molecule in living systems. However, the efficient detection and imaging of H₂S in live animals is very challenging. Herein, we report the first radioisotope‐based immobilization technique for the detection, quantification, and in vivo imaging of endogenous H₂S. Macrocyclic ⁶⁴Cu complexes that instantly reacted with gaseous H₂S to form insoluble ⁶⁴CuS in a highly sensitive and selective manner were prepared. The H₂S concentration in biological samples was measured by a thin‐layer radiochromatography method. When ⁶⁴Cu–cyclen was injected into mice, an elevated H₂S concentration in the inflamed paw was clearly visualized and quantified by Cerenkov luminescence and positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. PET imaging was also able to pinpoint increased H₂S levels in a millimeter‐sized infarcted lesion of the rat heart.     

Probing enantioselectivity on chirally modified Cu(110), Cu(100), and Cu(111) surfaces

Temperature programmed desorption methods have been used to probe the enantioselectivity of achiral Cu(100), Cu(110), and Cu(111) single crystal surfaces modified by chiral organic molecules including amino acids, alcohols, alkoxides, and amino-alcohols. The following combinations of chiral probes and chiral modifiers on Cu surfaces were included in this study: propylene oxide (PO) on L-alanine modified Cu(110), PO on L-alaninol modified Cu(111), PO on 2-butanol modified Cu(111), PO on 2-butoxide modified Cu(100), PO on 2-butoxide modified Cu(111), R-3-methylcyclohexanone (R-3-MCHO) on 2-butoxide modified Cu(100), and R-3-MCHO on 2-butoxide modified Cu(111). In contrast with the fact that these and other chiral probe/modifier systems have exhibited enantioselectivity on Pd(111) and Pt(111) surfaces, none of these probe/modifier/Cu systems exhibit enantioselectivity at either low or high modifier coverages. The nature of the underlying substrate plays a significant role in the mechanism of hydrogen-bonding interactions and could be critical to observing enantioselectivity. While hydrogen-bonding interactions between modifier and probe molecule are believed to induce enantioselectivity on Pd surfaces (Gao, F.; Wang, Y.; Burkholder, L.; Tysoe, W. T. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 15240-15249), such critical interactions may be missing on Cu surfaces where hydrogen-bonding interactions are believed to occur between adjacent modifier molecules, enabling them to form clusters or islands.     

Characterization of Fatty Acids,Polysaccharides, Amino Acids,and Minerals in Marine Macroalga Chaetomorpha crassa and Evaluation of Their Potentials in Skin Cosmetics

Cosmetic industries are highly committed to finding natural sources of functional active constituents preferable to safer materials to meet consumers’ demands. Marine macroalgae have diversified bioactive constituents and possess potential benefits in beauty care products. Hence, the present study was carried out to characterize the biochemical profile of marine macroalga Chaetomorpha crassa by using different techniques for revealing its cosmetic potentials. In results, the FTIR study characterized the presence of different bioactive functional groups that are responsible for many skin-beneficial compounds whereas six and fifteen different important phycocompounds were found in GCMS analysis of ethanolic and methanolic extracts, respectively. In the saccharide profile of C. crassa, a total of eight different carbohydrate derivatives were determined by the HRLCMS Q-TOF technique, which showed wide varieties of cosmetic interest. In ICP AES analysis, Si was found to be highest whereas Cu was found to be lowest among other elements. A total of twenty-one amino acids were measured by the HRLCMS-QTOF technique, which revealed the highest amount of the amino acid, Aspartic acid (1207.45 nmol/mL) and tyrosine (106.77 nmol/mL) was found to be the lowest in amount among other amino acids. Their cosmetic potentials have been studied based on previous research studies. The incorporation of seaweed-based bioactive components in cosmetics has been extensively growing due to its skin health-promoting effects.     

Fingerprint analysis of Shankhpushpi for species discrimination by HPLC coupled with chemometric methods

Abstract

Shankhpushpi, traded in the Indian market is having different controversial botanical sources, that is, Convolvulus pluricaulis Choisy (Convulvulaceae), Clitoria ternatea Linn. (Papilionaceae), and Evolvulus alsinoides Linn. (Convulvulaceae). Simple, accurate and precise RP-HPLC-PDA method was established for quality assessment and discrimination of Shankhpushpi samples using chromatographic profiling method. In distinction to the routine method of quality assessment which uses single or dual marker peaks, all chromatographic data (retention times/variables) were used. Fifteen shankhpushpi samples were purchased from the market including authenticated samples of all three C. pluricaulis, C. ternatea, E. alsinoides. A total of 18 samples were analyzed by HPLC and the dataset was then treated with multivariate analyses like PCA and HCA by using MINITAB software. Thus, the developed method was useful in discriminating the Shankhpushpi samples and for the perseverance of quality control.     

Immobilization of the Gas Signaling Molecule H2S by Radioisotopes: Detection,Quantification, and In Vivo Imaging

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) has multifunctional roles as a gas signaling molecule in living systems. However, the efficient detection and imaging of H₂S in live animals is very challenging. Herein, we report the first radioisotope‐based immobilization technique for the detection, quantification, and in vivo imaging of endogenous H₂S. Macrocyclic ⁶⁴Cu complexes that instantly reacted with gaseous H₂S to form insoluble ⁶⁴CuS in a highly sensitive and selective manner were prepared. The H₂S concentration in biological samples was measured by a thin‐layer radiochromatography method. When ⁶⁴Cu–cyclen was injected into mice, an elevated H₂S concentration in the inflamed paw was clearly visualized and quantified by Cerenkov luminescence and positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. PET imaging was also able to pinpoint increased H₂S levels in a millimeter‐sized infarcted lesion of the rat heart.     

Cloud point analysis: Influence of additives on polysorbate

The solution properties of nonionic surfactants are significantly diverse from those of ionic surfactants. Additives to nonionic surfactant solution do change the cloud point (CP). In this article, we report the CP data of polysorbate 20 (tween-20) and polysorbate 80 (tween-80), nonionic surfactants, in the presence of various additives and also focus on their characteristics. It is observed that the micellization tendency of the polysorbates changes in the presence of different additives. The addition of different variants of salts decreases the CP of polysorbates solutions. Furthermore, the higher the valency of the cation, the lesser is the depression in the CP of the polysorbates. Overall monovalent, di-valent and a mixture of di-valent salts have large affinity to alter the values of CP of polysorbates, because of their effect on the water structure and their hydrophilicity. An effort has been made to understand the influence of various combinations of salts on polysorbates.     

An efficient GPU-based time domain solver for the acoustic wave equation

An efficient algorithm for time-domain solution of the acoustic wave equation for the purpose of room acoustics is presented. It is based on adaptive rectangular decomposition of the scene and uses analytical solutions within the partitions that rely on spatially invariant speed of sound. This technique is suitable for auralizations and sound field visualizations, even on coarse meshes approaching the Nyquist limit. It is demonstrated that by carefully mapping all components of the algorithm to match the parallel processing capabilities of graphics processors (GPUs), significant improvement in performance is gained compared to the corresponding CPU-based solver, while maintaining the numerical accuracy. Substantial performance gain over a high-order finite-difference time-domain method is observed. Using this technique, a 1 s long simulation can be performed on scenes of air volume 7500 m³ till 1650 Hz within 18 min compared to the corresponding CPU-based solver that takes around 5 h and a high-order finite-difference time-domain solver that could take up to three weeks on a desktop computer. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the fastest time-domain solver for modeling the room acoustics of large, complex-shaped 3D scenes that generates accurate results for both auralization and visualization.     

Nonaqueous isopropylation and sec-butylation of phenol over supported 12-tungstosilicic acid

Nonaqueous alkylation of phenol with isopropyl alcohol and sec-butyl alcohol was carried out over 12-tungstosilicic acid supported onto hydrous zirconia and neutral alumina by varying different parameters such as mole ratio of alcohol to phenol, reaction temperature and amount of the catalyst. The reaction was also carried out by varying reaction time. The catalytic performance of the catalysts was correlated with the value of surface area and total acidity. Published in Russian in Kinetika i Kataliz, 2009, Vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 422–427. The article is published in the original.     

Bifurcation analysis of chemical reactors and reacting flows

In this work we review the local bifurcation techniques for analyzing and classifying the steady-state and dynamic behavior of chemical reactor models described by partial differential equations (PDEs). First, we summarize the formulas for determining the derivatives of the branching equation and the coefficients in the amplitude equations for the most common singularities. We also illustrate the procedure for the numerical computation of these coefficients. Next, the application of these local results to various reactor models described by PDEs is discussed. Specifically, we review the recent literature on the bifurcation features of convection-reaction and convection-diffusion-reaction models in one and more spatial dimensions, with emphasis on the features introduced due to coupling between the flow, heat and mass diffusion and chemical reaction. Finally, we illustrate the use of dynamical systems concepts in developing low dimensional (effective or pseudohomogeneous) models of reactors and reacting flows, and discuss some problems of current interest. (c) 1999 American Institute of Physics.