溶剂化的热力学集团展开理论

把二元溶液的过剩内能（excess energy）分成溶剂-溶剂、溶剂-溶质及溶质-溶质相互作用部分。利用集团展开方法给出了二元溶液在正则系综的配分函数的表达式,利用该表达式得到了溶质的偏摩尔内能(partial molar energy)和偏摩尔熵(partial molar entropy)的表达式。在无限稀溶液情形,过剩偏摩尔内能的溶剂-溶剂部分又称重组织内能（reorganization energy）,它反映了溶质存在时对其周围溶剂分子之间的相互作用能的影响。研究表明,在溶质的粒子数密度相对较大时,溶质分子之间的相互作用将影响过剩偏摩尔内能的溶剂-溶剂部分,对于稀溶液,过剩偏摩尔内能的溶剂-溶剂部分与溶质的摩尔分数成线性关系。对低密度二元溶液,溶质的过剩偏摩尔内能和过剩偏摩尔熵也与溶质的摩尔分数成线性关系。     

Bump-hunting for the proficiency tester--searching for multimodality

Kernel density estimation is a method for producing a smooth density approximation to a dataset and avoiding some of the problems associated with histograms. If it is used with a degree of smoothing determined by a fitness for purpose criterion, it can be applied to proficiency test data in order to test for multimodality in the z-scores. The bootstrap is an essential additional technique to determine how rugged the initially estimated kernel density is: the random resampling of the data in the bootstrap simulates a complete blind repeat of the proficiency test. In addition, useful estimates of the standard error of a mode can be thus obtained. It is suggested that a mode and its standard error can be used as an assigned value and its standard uncertainty.     

Polymeric Lids for Microcontainers for Oral Protein Delivery

Oral delivery of proteins and peptides is one of the main challenges in pharmaceutical drug development. Microdevices have the possibility to protect the therapeutics until release is desired, avoiding losses by degradation. One type of microdevice is polymeric microcontainers. In this study, lysozyme is chosen as model protein and loaded into microcontainers with the permeation enhancer sodium decanoate (C10). The loaded microcontainers are sealed and functionalized by applying polymeric lids onto the cavity of the devices. The first lid is poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic) acid (PLGA) and on top of this either polyethylene glycol (PEG) or chitosan is applied (PLGA+PEG or PLGA+chitosan, respectively). The functionalization is evaluated in vitro for morphology, drug release, and mucoadhesive properties. These are coupled with in vitro and ex vivo studies using Caco‐2 cells, Caco‐2/HT29‐MTX‐E12 co‐cultures, and porcine intestinal tissue. PLGA+chitosan shows slower release compared to PLGA+PEG or only PLGA in buffer and the transport of lysozyme across cell cultures is not enhanced compared to the bulk powder. Microcontainers coated with chitosan or PEG demonstrate a three times stronger adhesion during ex vivo mucoadhesion studies compared to samples without coatings. Altogether, functionalized microcontainers with mucoadhesive properties and tunable release for oral protein delivery are developed and characterized.     

Wetting for self-healing and electrowetting for additive manufacturing

Advanced additive manufacturing actively widens its tool box of wettability-related phenomena to be used in production of new items. Novel self-healing engineering materials incorporate vascular networks with two types of nanochannels: the one containing a resin monomer, whereas another one — a curing agent. If such nanocomposites are damaged locally, both types of channels are locally broken, and they release resin monomer and curing agent droplets. These droplets spread by wettability over the nanotextured matrix, touch each other, and coalesce, which triggers polymerization reaction and crack stitching. Wettability-facilitated droplet spreading is accompanied by liquid imbibition in the pores in the nanofiber network. Such process peculiarities are in focus in the present review. An additional process relevant in direct writing and 3D printing is electrowetting (EW). It stems from the change in the contact angle in response to the electric polarization of dielectric substrates. EW allows movement of droplets on horizontal, vertical, and inverse surfaces, which can significantly facilitate the existing direct writing and 3D printing technologies. Accordingly, EW is also in focus in the present review.     

Protective coatings for stainless steel for SOFC applications

In this paper, a coating procedure based on spin coating of metal oxide polymer precursors on stainless steel, which decreases the oxide scale growth rate, is evaluated. The yttrium and cobalt solutions were used as polymer precursors, while a ferritic stainless steel Crofer 22 APU was used for the deposition of protective coatings. The thickness of deposited protective film was about ~500 nm. The effectiveness of protective layer was evaluated by cyclic thermogravimetry, oxide scale electrical conductivity, and X-ray diffractometry. The results show that steel coated with yttrium polymer precursor has better properties than uncoated or cobalt-coated sample.     

New ceramic-carbon composites for electrodes for electrochemical capacitors

A new class of composite materials is introduced. Fine powders of silica, titania, Y-modified zirconia, and three types of alumina were pressed and sintered to form porous monoliths with relatively uniform pore structure. Carbon was then deposited in the pores of such monoliths by thermal decomposition of dichloromethane, cyclohexene, and glucose. The structure of the carbon deposit was studied by low-temperature nitrogen adsorption and by thermal analysis. The composite materials were used as electrodes in electrochemical capacitors with 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethylsulfonate (a low-temperature ionic liquid) as the electrolyte. High capacitances were observed for glucose-derived materials, which had high specific surface areas.     

A methodology for choosing parameters for ESR readout of alanine dosimeters for radiotherapy

Spectrometer settings for ESR readout of alanine dosimeters for radiotherapy have been investigated. Several ESR parameters were studied and determined. The main reason for this work is to choose the suitable parameters to increase signal-to-noise ratio and to reduce the uncertainty on ESR readout, which is one of the main components of uncertainty of alanine/ESR dosimetry system for radiotherapy. The new spectrometer settings have been applied for ESR readout of alanine dosimeters irradiated from 1 to 10 Gy. A higher signal-to-noise ratio has been achieved compared to our old spectrometer settings. The extended uncertainty (k=2) has been evaluated in the dose range 2–10 Gy (maximum uncertainty of 4.9% for 2 Gy, while minimum uncertainty of 1.4% for 10 Gy), which implies that the alanine/ESR dosimetry system can be applied to radiotherapy dose level that needs a global accuracy of 5%.     

Epidemiological Support for an Hypothesis for Melanoma Induction Indicating a Role for UVA Radiation

An hypothesis for melanoma induction is presented: UV radiation absorbed by melanin in melanocytes generates products that may activate the carcinogenic process. Products formed by UV absorption in the upper layers of the epidermis cannot diffuse down as far as to the melanocytes. Thus, melanin in the upper layer of the skin may be protective, while that in melanocytes may be photocarcinogenic. Observations that support this hypothesis include: (1) Africans with dark skin have a reduced risk of getting all types of skin cancer as compared with Caucasians, but the ratio of their incidence rates of cutaneous malignant melanoma to that of squamous cell carcinoma is larger than the corresponding ratio for Caucasians. (2) Albino Africans, as compared with normally pigmented Africans, seem to have a relatively small risk of getting cutaneous malignant melanomas compared to nonmelanomas. This is probably also true for albino and normally pigmented Caucasians. (3) Among sun-sensitive, poorly tanning persons, frequent UV exposures are associated with increased risk of melanoma, whereas among sun-resistant, well-tanning persons, increased frequency of exposure is associated with decreased melanoma risk. (4) It is likely that UVA, being absorbed by melanin, might have a melanoma-inducing effect. This is in agreement with some epidemiological investigations which indicate that sun-screen lotions may not protect sufficiently against melanoma induction. The relative latitude gradient for UVA is much smaller than that for UVB. The same is true for the relative latitude gradient of cutaneous malignant melanoma as compared with squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma. Under the assumption that the average slopes of the curves relating incidence rates with fluences of carcinogenic UV radiation are similar for melanomas and nonmelanomas, these facts are in agreement with the assumption that UVA plays a significant role in the induction of melanomas in humans. This is in agreement with the experimental results with Xiphophorus.     

Advances for proficiency testing for genetic laboratory science

Nucleic acid based clinical genetic testing has undergone explosive growth in recent years due in large part to the human genome project. Characterization of the human genome has led to a molecular understanding of the pathogenesis of many human diseases, and ultimately to clinical molecular tests becoming routinely used to diagnose a wide diversity of diseases. This rapid growth in clinical molecular genetic testing coupled with the complexity of the analytical procedures underscores the necessity for proficiency testing (i.e. external quality assessment) to allow laboratories offering such services the ability to evaluate their analytical procedures via inter-laboratory comparisons. The American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) in partnership with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) have been offering proficiency testing for clinical molecular genetics laboratories since 1995, and presently have more than 230 laboratories from 11 countries enrolled in this program. This paper describes the evolution of this program and several challenges encountered in the delivery of a proficiency testing program for laboratories offering clinical molecular genetic services. Received: 13 April 2002 Accepted: 18 July 2002     

Methods for improving models for condensed phase equilibrium calculations

Local composition models like UNIQUAC, NRTL and the UNIFAC group contribution method are used the world over in the synthesis and design of separation processes, as well as for a large number of other applications of industrial interest. They can qualitatively describe the equilibrium behaviour of systems of different complexities but, sometimes, not with the precision required for the design of separation equipment. Regrettably, this precision is not even achieved for the LLE of many conventional type 1 and some type 2 ternary systems. High deviations in correlation results are not rare, thus showing that more capable and flexible models are needed. The analysis of the topology of the Gibbs energy of mixing function, and therefore the knowledge of the geometrical conditions that this function has to fulfil, is a valuable tool that has allowed avoiding inconsistencies in the use of the existing methods, to ascertain their capabilities and limitations to reproduce complex systems and additionally to suggest new models that improve the flexibility and accuracy needed. In this work, a simple equation based on the NRTL model, that takes into account such topological conditions, is proposed and its capabilities are tested with selected systems.     

Strategies for Enhancing Polyester-Based Materials for Bone Fixation Applications

Polyester-based materials are established options, regarding the manufacturing of bone fixation devices and devices in routine clinical use. This paper reviews the approaches researchers have taken to develop these materials to improve their mechanical and biological performances. Polymer blending, copolymerisation, and the use of particulates and fibre bioceramic materials to make composite materials and surface modifications have all been studied. Polymer blending, copolymerisation, and particulate composite approaches have been adopted commercially, with the primary focus on influencing the in vivo degradation rate. There are emerging opportunities in novel polymer blends and nanoscale particulate systems, to tune bulk properties, and, in terms of surface functionalisation, to optimise the initial interaction of devices with the implanted environment, offering the potential to improve the clinical performances of fracture fixation devices.     

Perspectives for microelectrode arrays for biosensing and membrane electroporation

Electrochemical microelectrode devices are among the great challenges for bioelectrochemistry, cell biology and recently also for biomedical research and new clinical electrotherapies. Two representative cases in cell biology and medical research for new trends in the technical devices are selected, heading at new diagnostic and therapeutic clinical applications. One example is from the field of biosensing cholinergic neurotransmitter substances by the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AcChoR) in solid-supported lipid bilayer membrane and the other one refers to new developments of electrode systems for the electrochemical delivery of drugs and genes to biological cell aggregates and tissue by the powerful method of membrane electroporation. In both cases addressed to, the new developments include the use of electrical feedback control of electrode arrays for biosensing processes as well as for the extent and duration of tissue electroporation. In line with the impressive advances in medical microsurgery, where increasingly smaller organ targets become accessible, microelectrode systems have become a continuous technical challenge for bioanalytical purposes and, as discussed here in some detail, for the new field of the electroporative delivery of effector substances like drugs and genes, using miniaturized electrochemical electrode arrays.     

Methods for determining neurotransmitter metabolism markers for clinical diagnostics

Published data describing the current status and prospects for the development of clinical diagnostics of a number of neurodegenerative and neuroendocrine diseases associated with neurotransmitter balance disorders in a human body are generalized, systematized, and assessed in the review. Characteristics, advantages, and limitations of neuroimaging techniques and different diagnostic methods based on measuring concentrations of protein markers, catecholamines, and their metabolites are discussed. Prospects of the application of optical methods, such as fluorimetry and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, to the development of sensor systems for the diagnosis of these diseases by the concentration of catecholamines and their metabolites in biological fluids are demonstrated.     

有机化合物脂水分配系数logP 的计算

logP作为有机化合物流水性的量反，在定量的效关系研究中扮演了重要的角色，广泛应用于生物化学、药学以及环境科学等各领域．运用计算的方法获得10gP值由于能够弥补实验方法的不足，在药物分子设计等应用中具有重要意义．随着计算机辅助药物分子设计的发展，高精度、简便易行的IOgPi十算方法日益受到重视．logP的计算方法见诸报导的已有多种［‘－7］．这些方法各具特色，但也都分别存在一些明显的缺点．目前流行的片段加合法［‘一句的出发点是将分手划分为基本片段，每个基本片段对10gP具有特定的贡献，但实际上相同片段对10gP的影响…     

Piperazine-based buffers for liposome coating of capillaries for electrophoresis

Anionic liposomes can be coated on fused-silica capillaries for electrophoresis in the presence of N-(hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-(2-ethanesulfonic acid) (HEPES) as background electrolyte (BGE) solution. In this work, the interaction of various compounds with zwitterionic and anionic phospholipid coatings was studied with HEPES at pH 7.4 as BGE solution. The chromatographic and electrophoretic behavior of three test sample solutions (anionic, cationic, and neutral) was investigated for evaluation of the phospholipid coatings. Our results show that hydrophobic interactions between analytes and the phospholipid coating are important for the migration of charged analytes. In addition, the performances of other piperazine-based buffers, i.e., N-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazine-N'-(2-hydroxypropanesulfonic acid), piperazine-N,N'-bis(2-ethanesulfonic acid), and piperazine-N,N'-bis(hydroxypropane sulfonic acid), at pH 7.4, as liposome solvent and BGE solution were evaluated and compared with the performance of HEPES at pH 7.4. The anionic liposome solution comprised 80/20 mol% phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylserine. A simple test solution was selected and the chromatographic and electrophoretic migration behavior of the analytes was evaluated. The results show that, in addition to HEPES, other piperazine-based buffers at pH 7.4 are suitable for coating of fused-silica capillaries with anionic liposomes.     

Call for nominations for the Heinrich-Emanuel-Merck Award

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Call for nominations for the Heinrich-Emanuel-Merck Award     

Prospects for Using Polyacrylonitrile for Preparing Carbonized Polymeric Composites

The thermochemical cyclization of different polyacrylonitrile samples prepared by radical and anionic polymerization was studied by thermal analysis, spectroscopy, and AM1 semiempirical calculations. The possibility of using polyacrylonitrile as a cocarbonizate for preparing mixed carbon composites with nitrogen-containing polysaccharides was examined.__________Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Khimii, Vol. 78, No. 5, 2005, pp. 810–813.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Sazanov, Novoselova, Amsharov, Ugolkov, Andreeva, Gribanov.     

Protecting Groups for Thiols Suitable for Suzuki Conditions

The thiol group is one of the few groups NOT tolerated by the Suzuki reaction. Therefore, a new protective group, the 2-methoxyisobutyryl group, was developed by tuning the electronic/steric properties of the acyl residue. Other thioesters, such as thioacetate, result in a more or less dominant side reaction, which to date has not been described: sulfur-assisted acylation of boronic acids. The reaction pathway for this new reaction is discussed.     

Finite-size scaling for critical conditions for stable quadrupole-bound anions

We present finite-size scaling calculations of the critical parameters for binding an electron to a finite linear quadrupole field. This approach gives very accurate results for the critical parameters by using a systematic expansion in a finite basis set. The model Hamiltonian consists of a charge Q located at the origin of the coordinates and k charges -Q/k located at distances R(i), i=1, em leader,k. After proper scaling of distances and energies, the rescaled Hamiltonian depends only on one free parameter q=QR. Two different linear charge configurations with q>0 and q<0 are studied using basis sets in both spherical and prolate spheroidal coordinates. For the case with q>0, the finite size scaling calculations give an extrapolated critical value of q(c)=1.469 70+/-0.000 05 a.u. by using a basis set with prolate spheroidal coordinates. For the quadrupole case with q<0, we obtained an extrapolated critical value of mid R:q(c)mid R:=3.982 51+/-0.000 01 a.u. for stable quadrupole bound anions. The corresponding critical exponent for the ground state energy alpha=1.9964+/-0.0005, with E approximately (q-q(c))(alpha).     

Adhesives for assembly procedures for products of radioelectronic industry

A list of adhesive materials, sealants, and potting compounds used at the enterprise is given. The basic properties of these materials are discussed, and particular process procedures in which they are employed are described.