“Click & Seed” Approach to the Biomimetic Modification of Material Surfaces

A simple, versatile, protein‐repulsive, substrate‐independent biomimetic surface modification is presented that is based on the creation of a PEO brush on a polydopamine anchoring layer and its capacity for selective follow‐up modifications with various ligands using a copper‐catalyzed alkyne‐azide cycloaddition reaction. The desired surface concentration of peptide biomimetic ligands can be controlled by adjusting the peptide concentration in the reaction mixture, then measuring the activity of ¹²⁵I‐radiolabeled peptides that are immobilized on the substrates. The performance of the prepared substrates is tested in cell cultures with MEF cells and a human ECC line.

     

Membrane Affinity and Antibacterial Properties of Cationic Polyelectrolytes With Different Hydrophobicity

The antibacterial behavior of cationic polyelectrolytes is studied using model membrane experiments and in vitro bacterial investigations. The molecular interaction with lipid films is evaluated by the degree of penetration of the polymers into Langmuir monolayers of neutral or negatively charged lipids. The polymer/lipid interaction results in structural changes of the penetrated lipid layer visualized using AFM. The polymers are found to be effective in inhibiting the proliferation of E. coli, B. subtilis and S. aureus. The influence of the chemical structure on the functional behavior is related to the conformational properties. An optimum structure is identified on the basis of antibacterial and hemolytic tests as well as membrane‐destroying efficacy of the antimicrobial polymers.

     

The isometry groups of simply connected 3-dimensional unimodular Lie groups

For each simply connected 3-dimensional unimodular Lie group the left invariant Riemannian metrics up to automorphism are classified in Ha and Lee (2009) [2]. Using this classification, we determine on each such a Lie group the full group of isometries which depends on left invariant Riemannian metrics.     

DFT/TDDFT Study on the Electronic Structure and Spectral Properties of Diphenyl Azafluoranthene Derivative

Paper reports the DFT/TDDFT study on the electronic structure and spectral properties of the five-membered annulated diphenyl azafluoranthene derivative 1,3-diphenyl-3H-indeno[1,2,3-de]pyrazolo[3,4-b]quinoline (DPIPQ) by means of polarizable continuum model (PCM) and Onsager reaction field approaches at the B3LYP/6-31+G(d,p) level of theory. The results of calculations are compared with the optical absorption and fluorescence spectra as well as with the cyclic voltammetry data. The DFT/TDDFT/PCM approaches exhibit rather good quantitative agreement regarding the spectral position of the first absorption band; the discrepancy between the experiment and theory is less than 0.06 eV (linear response approach) or 0.25 eV (state specific approach). As for the fluorescence emission the TDDFT/PCM calculations underestimate the transition energy on about of 0.7–0.8 eV. Such discrepancy should be attributed to insufficient quality of the TDDFT/PCM optimization in the excited state. Ignoring the geometrical relaxation in the excited state provides considerably better agreement between the experiment and theory; discrepancy is less than 0.1–0.22 eV depending on a solvent polarity. The dominant influence on the fluorescence emission results mainly from the solvent reorganization in the excited state whereas the solute relaxation is indeed weak and may be ignored.     

Stability and physical structure tests of piperidyl and morpholinyl derivatives of diphenyl-diketo-pyrrolopyrroles (DPP)

Crystalline structure, thermo-oxidative and thermal stability of symmetrical and asymmetrical piperidyl and morpholinyl derivatives of both N-substituted and non-N-substituted butyl diphenyl-diketo-pyrrolopyrrole (DPP) pigments were studied using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TG). Except for the asymmetrical morpholine DPP derivative, all the samples showed melting peaks which were relatively close to their degradation temperatures (from 260 to 430 °C). Using DSC, monotropic polymorphism was revealed in the symmetrical piperidyl-N-butyl-derivative which confirmed earlier observation about tendency of symmetrical N-alkyl DPP derivates to form several crystalline structures. TG carried out under nitrogen atmosphere served for distinguishing of evaporation/sublimation and degradation temperatures. Temperatures of evaporation/sublimation were typically 10–30 °C lower in comparison with temperatures of thermal degradation. The highest thermal (450 °C) and thermo-oxidative stability (around 360 °C) showed the DPP derivatives containing morpholine moieties with no alkyl substitution on NH-group of DPP core. The presence of the latter was found to be the most destabilizing factor. Piperidyl group showed more stabilizing effect due to its polar character and its influence on π–π intermolecular interactions of neighbouring phenyl groups. The highest stabilizing effect of morpholine moiety on DPP structure was explained based on the presence of polar oxygen atom in that group. The preparations of 3,6-di-(4-morpholinophenyl)-2,5-dihydro-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione and 3-(phenyl)-6-(4-morpholinophenyl)-2,5-dihydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione are reported.     

Riemann boundary value problems on half space in Clifford analysis

In this paper, we discuss some properties of the Cauchy type integral operator defined over the half space of . As applications, we study a type of Riemann boundary value problem for solutions to polynomially generalized Cauchy–Riemann equations including with and as special cases over the half space of . Making use of Fischer‐type decomposition and the Clifford calculus for solutions to these equations, we will obtain explicit expressions of solutions to the kind of boundary value problems over the half space of . Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Riemann Boundary Value Problems on the Sphere in Clifford Analysis

We present and study a type of Riemann boundary value problems (for short RBVPs) for polynomially monogenic functions, i.e. null solutions to polynomially generalized Cauchy-Riemann equations, over the sphere of ${\mathbb{R}^{n+1}}$ . Making use of Fischer type decomposition and the Clifford calculus for polynomially monogenic functions, we obtain explicit expressions of solutions of this kind of boundary value problems over the sphere of ${\mathbb{R}^{n+1}}$ . As special cases the solutions of the corresponding boundary value problems for classical polyanalytic functions and metaanalytic functions are derived respectively.     

Characterization of pottery from Republic of Macedonia. III. A study of comparative mineralogical detection efficiency using micro‐Raman mapping and X‐ray diffraction

Point‐to‐point micro‐Raman and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) techniques were employed for characterization of minerals present in the pottery body of 27 glazed Byzantine and Ottoman pottery shreds, excavated at two different archaeological sites in the Republic of Macedonia: in Skopje (Skopsko Kale) and in Prilep (Markovi Kuli and Sv. Atanas Church). The Raman spectra of 18 Byzantine samples (dating from 12th−14th century) and nine Ottoman samples (dating from 17th−19th century) revealed 26 different minerals. XRD measurements were further performed on the same powder samples to validate the mineralogical assessment obtained by point‐to‐point micro‐Raman spectroscopy. Although only 13 different mineral phases were obtained by the XRD, the results obtained from the Raman and XRD spectra for the most abundant minerals in the investigated pottery bodies match quite well. However, the identification of the less abundant minerals in the clay matrixes from the XRD data was very difficult, if at all possible. The results emphasize the specifics of the applied techniques and their limits. Additionally, wavelength dispersive X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy was used for the elemental analysis. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quantum solvation dynamics of HCN in a helium-4 droplet

Ultracold nanodroplets of helium-4, containing several thousands of He atoms, offer considerable promise as microscopic cryogenic chambers. Potential applications include the creation of tailor-made chemical or biomolecular complexes and studies of superfluidity in nanoscale systems. Recent experiments have succeeded in interrogating droplets of quantum solvent which consist of as few as 1-20 helium-4 atoms and which contain a single solute molecule. This allows the transition from a floppy, but essentially molecular, complex to a dissolved molecule to be followed and, surprisingly, the transition is found to occur quite rapidly, in some cases for as few as N = 7-20 solvent atoms. For example, in experiments on helium-4 droplets seeded with CO molecules [Tang and McKellar, J. Chem. Phys. 119, 754 (2003)], two series of transitions are observed which correlate with the a-type (Delta K = 0) and b-type (Delta K = +/-1) lines of the binary complex, CO-He (K is the quantum number associated with the projection of the total angular momentum onto the vector connecting the atom and the molecular center of mass). The a-type series, which evolves from the end-over-end rotational motion of the CO-He binary complex, saturates to the nanodroplet limit for as few as 10-15 helium-4 atoms, i.e., the effective moment of inertia of the molecule converges to its asymptotic (solvated) value quite rapidly. In contrast, the b-type series, which evolves from the free-molecule rotational mode, disappears altogether for N approximately 7 atoms. Similar behavior is observed in recent computational studies of HCN(4He)N droplets [Paolini et al., J. Chem. Phys. 123, 114306 (2005)]. In this article the quantum solvation of HCN in small helium-4 droplets is studied using a new fixed-node diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) procedure. In this approach a Born-Oppenheimer-type separation of radial and angular motions is introduced as a means of computing nodal surfaces of the many-body wave functions which are required in the fixed-node DMC method. Excited rotational energies are calculated for HCN(4He)N droplets with N = 1-20: the adiabatic node approach also allows concrete physical mechanisms to be proposed for the predicted disappearance of the b-type series as well as the rapid convergence of the a-type series to the nanodroplet limit with increasing N. The behavior of the a-type series is traced directly to the mechanics of angular momentum coupling-and decoupling-between identical bosons and the molecular rotor. For very small values of N there exists significant angular momentum coupling between the molecule and the helium atoms: at N approximately 10 solvation appears to be complete as evidenced by significant decoupling of the molecule and solvent angular momenta. The vanishing of the b-type series is predicted to be a result of increasing He-He repulsion as the number of solvent atoms increases.