Thymidine analogues for tracking DNA synthesis

Replicating cells undergo DNA synthesis in the highly regulated, S-phase of the cell cycle. Analogues of the pyrimidine deoxynucleoside thymidine may be inserted into replicating DNA, effectively tagging dividing cells allowing their characterisation. Tritiated thymidine, targeted using autoradiography was technically demanding and superseded by 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and related halogenated analogues, detected using antibodies. Their detection required the denaturation of DNA, often constraining the outcome of investigations. Despite these limitations BrdU alone has been used to target newly synthesised DNA in over 20,000 reviewed biomedical studies. A recent breakthrough in "tagging DNA synthesis" is the thymidine analogue 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU). The alkyne group in EdU is readily detected using a fluorescent azide probe and copper catalysis using 'Huisgen's reaction' (1,3-dipolar cycloaddition or 'click chemistry'). This rapid, two-step biolabelling approach allows the tagging and imaging of DNA within cells whilst preserving the structural and molecular integrity of the cells. The bio-orthogonal detection of EdU allows its application in more experimental assays than previously possible with other "unnatural bases". These include physiological, anatomical and molecular biological experimentation in multiple fields including, stem cell research, cancer biology, and parasitology. The full potential of EdU and related molecules in biomedical research remains to be explored.     

Molecular layer deposition of aluminum alkoxide polymer films using trimethylaluminum and glycidol

Molecular layer deposition (MLD) of aluminum alkoxide polymer films was examined using trimethlyaluminum (TMA) and glycidol (GLY) as the reactants. Glycidol is a high vapor pressure heterobifunctional reactant with both hydroxyl and epoxy chemical functionalites. These two different functionalities help avoid "double reactions" that are common with homobifuctional reactants. A variety of techniques, including in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements, were employed to study the film growth. FTIR measurements at 100 and 125 °C observed the selective reaction of the GLY hydroxyl group with the AlCH(3) surface species during GLY exposure. Epoxy ring-opening and methyl transfer from TMA to the surface epoxy species were then monitored during TMA exposure. This epoxy ring-opening reaction is dependent on strong Lewis acid-base interactions between aluminum and oxygen. The QCM experiments observed linear growth with self-limiting surface reactions at 100-175 °C under certain growth conditions. With a sufficient purge time of 20 s after TMA and GLY exposures at 125 °C, the mass gain per cycle (MGPC) was 19.8 ng/cm(2)-cycle. The individual mass gains after the TMA and GLY exposures were also consistent with a TMA/GLY stoichiometry of 4:3 in the MLD film. This TMA/GLY stoichiometry suggests the presence of Al(2)O(2) dimeric core species. The MLD films resulting from these TMA and GLY exposures also evolved with annealing temperature to form thinner conformal porous films with increased density. Non-self-limiting growth was a problem at shorter purge times and lower temperatures. With shorter purge times of 10 s at 125 °C, the MPGC increased dramatically to 134 ng/cm(2)-cycle. The individual mass gains after the TMA and GLY exposures in the CVD regime were consistent with a TMA/GLY stoichiometry of 1:1. The MGPC decreased progressively versus purge time. This behavior was attributed to the removal of reactants that could lead to CVD and the instability of the surface species after the reactant exposures. These results reveal that the TMA and GLY reaction displays much complexity and must be carefully controlled to be a useful MLD process.     

Potentiometrie

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Examining the use of oxide particles to enhance the sensitivity of polymer\carbon black nanocomposite gas sensors

This paper investigates the use of NiO particles to enhance the vapour sensing properties of polyethylene adipate (PEA)\carbon black (CB) composite materials. Four PEA\CB suspensions were prepared with 0, 10, 20 and 30 w/w% NiO, respectively. Hypermer PS3 surfactant was shear mixed into each of the suspensions for 300 s to achieve a homogenous dispersion and to prevent reagglommeration of both the CB and NiO particles. A 0.1 μl drop of each composite was deposited between Cu electrodes on a printed circuit board (PCB) substrate using a microlitre syringe. The samples were allowed to dry for 24 h in an oven at 333 K to remove any remaining solvent. After preparation, the sensors were exposed to propanol and butanol at concentrations ranging from 0 to 25 000 ppm in steps of 5000 ppm. The response of the PEA\CB sensors improved significantly as the concentration of NiO particles in the material increased and maximum relative differential responses as high as 37% and 92.8% were recorded after exposure to 25 000 ppm propanol and butanol, respectively. This high response can be explained using the Flory–Huggins interaction parameter along with structural changes in the polymer composite caused by the addition of NiO. This paper concludes that NiO particles can be used as a method to increase the sensitivity of existing conducting polymer composite gas sensing materials.     

Analysis of essential oil of Satureja thymbra by hydrodistillation, thermal desorber, and headspace GC/MS techniques and its antimicrobial activity

The essential oil composition of Satureja thymbra was analyzed by direct thermal desorber and Headspace GC/MS analysis methods. Its constituents were determined to be mainly carvacrol (40.15%), gamma-terpinene (26.56%), p-cymene (16.39%), and thymol (13.16%). The other techniques, thermal desorber and Headspace GC/MS, were used for the plant leaves at three different temperature, which showed similar results. The thermal desorber GC/MS gave better and more sensitive results than Headspace GC/MS. The essential oil was found to be active against the bacteria Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella sonnei, and Staphylococcus aureus and the yeast Candida albicans.     

(4,2)D Projection--reconstruction experiments for protein backbone assignment: application to human carbonic anhydrase II and calbindin D(28K)

Projection-reconstruction NMR experiments have been shown to significantly reduce the acquisition time required to obtain protein backbone assignment data. To date, this concept has only been applied to smaller (15)N/(13)C-labeled proteins. Here, we show that projection-reconstruction NMR techniques can be extended to larger protonated and perdeuterated proteins. We present a suite of (4,2)D triple-resonance experiments for protein backbone assignment and a Hybrid Backprojection/Lower-Value algorithm for reconstructing data with relatively weak signal-to-noise ratios. In addition, we propose a sampling theorem and discuss its implication on the choice of projection angles. We demonstrate the efficacy of this approach using the 29 kDa protein, human carbonic anhydrase II and the 30 kDa protein, calbindin D(28K).     

Spatial characterization of the transversal structure of rotationally symmetric pulsed beams

A simple analytical model is proposed to describe the transversal spatial structure of a tridimensional rotationally symmetric pulsed beam. The spatial behaviour of the pulse amplitude is shown to be linked to its (measurable) second- and higher-order intensity moments, namely, beam width, quality parameter and kurtosis. As an illustrative experimental example, this model has been applied to high-quality TEA CO2 laser pulses. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Differences Between Consecutive Primes

Let p_n be the nth prime. Then this paper is concerned with provingthe following result on the distribution of consecutive primes. The exponent of x in this theorem improves on the work of Heath-Brownwho proved (1) with exponent . Under the Riemann hypothesisone can prove (1) with exponent .The proof of the theorem startswith the Heath-Brown–Linnik identity which leads to aformula giving the number of primes in an interval in termsof coefficients of certain Dirichlet series. I then estimatethe coefficients by using, among other things, the informationwhich can be gained from Montgomery's mean value theorem andHuxley's version of the Hal' asz lemma. Furthermore, by usingfamiliar sieve arguments I am able to discard some of the coefficientsallowing us to gain an improvement over the previous resultof Heath-Brown. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: 11N05.     

Observation of Transition-Metal–Boron Triple Bonds in IrB2O− and ReB2O−

Multiple bonds between boron and transition metals are known in many borylene (:BR) complexes via metal d_π→BR back-donation, despite the electron deficiency of boron. An electron-precise metal–boron triple bond was first observed in BiB₂O⁻ [Bi≡B−B≡O]⁻ in which both boron atoms can be viewed as sp-hybridized and the [B−BO]⁻ fragment is isoelectronic to a carbyne (CR). To search for the first electron-precise transition-metal-boron triple-bond species, we have produced IrB₂O⁻ and ReB₂O⁻ and investigated them by photoelectron spectroscopy and quantum-chemical calculations. The results allow to elucidate the structures and bonding in the two clusters. We find IrB₂O⁻ has a closed-shell bent structure (C_s, ¹A′) with BO⁻ coordinated to an Ir≡B unit, (⁻OB)Ir≡B, whereas ReB₂O⁻ is linear (C_∞v, ³Σ⁻) with an electron-precise Re≡B triple bond, [Re≡B−B≡O]⁻. The results suggest the intriguing possibility of synthesizing compounds with electron-precise M≡B triple bonds analogous to classical carbyne systems.