Maltsev families of varieties closed under join or Maltsev product

Maltsev families of varieties which are closed under join or Maltsev product are investigated. New Maltsev conditions for congruence semi-distributivity are given.     

Kinetics of heterogeneous hybridization on indium tin oxide surfaces with and without an applied potential

The rate of hybridization of oligonucleotide target sequences to chemically immobilized oligonucleotide probes has been studied both with and without an electrical field. The probe size was 20-24 nucleotides (nt) while the target size ranged from 157 to 864 nt. In agreement with previous studies, complete hybridization under normal conditions required 10-30 hours, depending on target size. The kinetics were characterized by a characteristic lag time followed by an asymptotic rise to the final value. In contrast, with an applied electrical field, all but the largest target hybridized in about 10 min while the longest hybridized within 1 h. Deleterious electrode reactions were avoided by close spacing of the anode and cathode and application of very small voltages. Our results suggest that probes and targets orient flat on the surface. A model is suggested to explain the kinetics observed that involves a series of surface states between initial target arrival and final hybridized state. Our results show that the electric field accelerated hybrid capture of solution-phase targets by surface-bound probes. This approach may have implications for enhancing array-based hybrid capture for mutation detection, copy number determination and/or gene expression profiling.     

A monomeric imidazol-2-ylidene-silver(I) chloride complex: synthesis,structure, and solid state 109Ag and 13C CP/MAS NMR characterization

The structure of 1,3-bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)-imidazol-2-ylidene-silver(I) chloride, 1, has been determined to be a monomer with weak head-to-tail H...Cl interactions in the solid state. A multinuclear NMR study using a (13)C(carbene) labeled derivative, 1((13)C), exhibits (13)C-(107,109)Ag coupling in solution. Further, the solid state CP/MAS NMR parameters, including the principal components of the chemical shift tensors for both the (13)C and (109)Ag centers, have been determined. With the aid of DFT calculations, the orientation of the chemical shift tensors have been assigned.     

A critical assessment of two types of personal UV dosimeters

Doses of erythemally weighted irradiances derived from polysulphone (PS) and electronic ultraviolet (EUV) dosimeters have been compared with measurements obtained using a reference spectroradiometer. PS dosimeters showed mean absolute deviations of 26% with a maximum deviation of 44%, the calibrated EUV dosimeters showed mean absolute deviations of 15% (maximum 33%) around noon during several test days in the northern hemisphere autumn. In the case of EUV dosimeters, measurements with various cut-off filters showed that part of the deviation from the CIE erythema action spectrum was due to a small, but significant sensitivity to visible radiation that varies between devices and which may be avoided by careful preselection. Usually the method of calibrating UV sensors by direct comparison to a reference instrument leads to reliable results. However, in some circumstances the quality of measurements made with simple sensors may be over-estimated. In the extreme case, a simple pyranometer can be used as a UV instrument, providing acceptable results for cloudless skies, but very poor results under cloudy conditions. It is concluded that while UV dosimeters are useful for their design purpose, namely to estimate personal UV exposures, they should not be regarded as an inexpensive replacement for meteorological grade instruments.     

Serum Albumin Binding Inhibits Nuclear Uptake of Luminescent Metal‐Complex‐Based DNA Imaging Probes

The DNA binding and cellular localization properties of a new luminescent heterobimetallic Ir^IIIRu^II tetrapyridophenazine complex are reported. Surprisingly, in standard cell media, in which its tetracationic, isostructural Ru^IIRu^II analogue is localized in the nucleus, the new tricationic complex is poorly taken up by live cells and demonstrates no nuclear staining. Consequent cell‐free studies reveal that the Ir^IIIRu^II complex binds bovine serum albumin, BSA, in Sudlow’s Site I with a similar increase in emission and binding affinity to that observed with DNA. Contrastingly, in serum‐free conditions the complex is rapidly internalized by live cells, where it localizes in cell nuclei and functions as a DNA imaging agent. The absence of serum proteins also greatly alters the cytotoxicity of the complex, where high levels of oncosis/necrosis are observed due to this enhanced uptake. This suggests that simply increasing the lipophilicity of a DNA imaging probe to enhance cellular uptake can be counterproductive as, due to increased binding to serum albumin protein, this strategy can actually disrupt nuclear targeting.     

Probing the nucleation mechanism for the binary n-nonane/1-alcohol series with atomistic simulations

The AVUS-HR approach, which combines histogram reweighting with aggregation-volume-bias Monte Carlo nucleation simulations using self-adaptive umbrella sampling, was extended to multicomponent nucleation systems. It was applied to investigate the homogeneous vapor-liquid nucleation for the binary n-nonane/1-alcohol series, including the n-nonane/methanol, n-nonane/ethanol, n-nonane/1-propanol, n-nonane/1-butanol, n-nonane/1-hexanol, and n-nonane/1-decanol systems. The simple transferable potentials for phase equilibria-united atom force field was used in this investigation. It was found that the nucleation free energy (NFE) contour plots obtained for these binary n-nonane/1-alcohol nucleation systems exhibit rather interesting mechanistic features, some of which are distinct from other binary systems previously studied (such as water/ethanol and water/n-nonane). In addition, the NFE profiles show a subtle evolution with the increase in alcohol chain length, from a somewhat two-pathway type of shape as observed for the n-nonane/methanol system to a more normal single-pathway one for systems involving longer alcohols (1-hexanol and 1-decanol). In contrast, the NFE maps obtained for the other three binary systems involving those medium-length alcohols display the most striking feature with the saddle point stretched almost all the way from the n-nonane-enriched to the alcohol-enriched domain, implying that multiple pathways coexist on the nucleation map. These free energy profiles were shown to be consistent with the non-ideal nucleation behavior observed experimentally for this binary series, namely, a rather reluctant conucleation of the alcohols with n-nonane. In particular, this non-ideal behavior becomes more severe with a decrease in the alcohol chain length. Also, analysis of the compositions of the critical nuclei indicates a reluctant mixing behavior between these two species, i.e., depletion of the alcohol at low alcohol activity or depletion of n-nonane at low n-nonane activity, in agreement with the experimental interpretations. Furthermore, a microscopic inhomogeneity is present inside these critical nuclei, that is, alcohols aggregate via hydrogen bonds forming alcohol-enriched domains.     

Biomimetic arrays of oriented helical ZnO nanorods and columns

Extended helical or chiral nanostructures are usually associated with biomolecules but are mostly absent in synthetic materials. Here we report the first synthesis of unusual oriented and extended helical nanostructures in synthetic ceramics. Large arrays of oriented helical ZnO nanorods and columns are formed using simple citrate ions to control the growth habits of the ZnO crystal. This novel mechanism could lead to new approaches to control the orientation, the surface area, and the defect structure of synthetic materials that are critical for practical applications. The morphology generated in the helical ZnO nanostructure shows remarkable resemblance to the growth morphology of nacreous calcium carbonate and thus may shed new light on morphology and orientation control of biominerals.     

Functional tetrametallic linker modules for coordination polymers and metal-organic frameworks

The new biphenol-based tetranucleating ligand, 2,2',6,6'-tetrakis(N,N-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)aminomethyl)-4,4'-biphenolate, dbpbp2-, comprises two linearly disposed phenolato-hinged dinucleating heptadentate units, each of which offer one O and three N donors to a total of four metal ions. The ligand has been isolated as the zinc chloride complex [Zn4(dbpbp)Cl4]2+, and the ZnII ions have been completely or partially substituted by CuII, FeIII, CoII, and CoIII in metathesis reactions. Similarly, the chloride ligands of [Zn4(dbpbp)Cl4]2+ have been exchanged for solvent molecules (acetonitrile and/or water) and bridging carboxylate ligands. The resulting complexes have been characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, ESI mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and EPR spectroscopy. The structures containing [M4(dbpbp)Cl4]2+ with M = ZnII or CuII exhibit 2-D polymeric honeycomb sheets in which intermolecular M...Cl interactions bridge between adjacent [M4(dbpbp)Cl4]2+ cations. Two mixed-metal tetrabenzoate complexes [M4(dbpbp)(O2CC6H5)4]2+/3+ have also been prepared, namely a stoichiometric CuII2ZnII2 complex and a nonstoichiometric FeIII/ZnII system. In the latter case, ESI-MS identifies FeZn3, Fe2Zn2, and Zn4 species, and X-ray crystallography suggests an average composition of Fe0.8Zn3.2. Preparation of a CoII4 complex by metathesis was considerably more difficult than preparation of [Cu4(dbpbp)Cl4]2+, requiring both a large excess of the cobalt source and the presence of auxiliary benzoate. In the presence of 2 equiv of benzoate per starting [Zn4(dbpbp)Cl4]2+ unit and excess CoII, dioxygen binds as peroxide at each end of the molecule to give the CoIII4 complex [Co4(dbpbp)(O2)2(O2CC6H5)2]4+. This latter complex, together with new tetra- and hexametallic benzenedicarboxylato- and benzenetricarboxylato-bridged complexes of dinuclear [Co2(O2)(bpbp)]3+ units (bpbp- = 2,6-bis(N,N-bis-(2-pyridylmethyl)aminomethyl)-4-tert-butyl-phenolate), is a module for potential construction of 1-D and 2-D coordination polymers/metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) capable of reversible O2 binding.     

2:2 Fe(III):ligand and "adamantane core" 4:2 Fe(III):ligand (hydr)oxo complexes of an acyclic ditopic ligand

A bis-hydroxo-bridged diiron(III) complex and a bis-mu-oxo-bis-mu-hydroxo-bridged tetrairon(III) complex are isolated from the reaction of 2,6-bis((N,N'-bis-(2-picolyl)amino)methyl)-4-tert-butylphenol (Hbpbp) with iron perchlorate in acidic and neutral solutions respectively. The X-ray structure of the dinuclear complex [{(Hbpbp)Fe([mu-OH)}(2)](ClO(4))(4).2C(3)H(6)O (1.2C3H6O) shows that only one of the metal-binding cavities of each ligand is occupied by an iron(III) atom and two [Fe(Hbpbp)]3+ units are linked together by two hydroxo bridging groups to form a [Fe(III)-(mu-OH)](2) rhomb structure with Fe...Fe = 3.109(1)A. The non-coordinated tertiary amine of Hbpbp is protonated. Magnetic susceptibility measurements show a well-behaved weak antiferromagnetic coupling between the two Fe(III) atoms, J= -8 cm(-1). The tetranuclear complex [(bpbp)(2)Fe(4)(mu-O)(2)(mu-OH)(2)](ClO(4))(4)(2) was isolated as two different solvates .4CH(3)OH and .6H(2)O with markedly different crystal morphologies at pH ca. 6. Complex .4CH(3)OH forms red cubic crystals and .6H(2)O forms green crystalline platelets. The Fe(4)O(6) core of shows an adamantane-like structure: The six bridging oxygen atoms are provided by the two phenolato groups of the two bpbp(-) ligands, two bridging oxo groups and two bridging hydroxo groups. The hydroxo and oxo ligands could be distinguished on the basis of Fe-O bond lengths of the two different octahedral iron sites: Fe-mu-OH, 1.953(5), 2.013(5)A and Fe-mu-O, 1.803(5), 1.802(5)A. The difference in ligand environment is too small for allowing Mossbauer spectroscopy to distinguish between the two crystallographically independent Fe sites. The best fit to the magnetic susceptibility of .4CH(3)OH was achieved by using three coupling constants J(Fe-OPh-Fe)= 2.6 cm(-1), J(Fe-OH-Fe)=-0.9 cm(-1), J(Fe-O-Fe)=-101 cm(-1) and iron(III) single ion ZFS (|D|= 0.15 cm(-1)).