A cellular automata model of chemotherapy effects on tumour growth: targeting cancer and immune cells

The effects of therapy on avascular cancer development based on a stochastic cellular automata model are considered. Making the model more compatible with the biology of cancer, the following features are implemented: intrinsic resistance of cancerous cells along with drug-induced resistance, drug-sensitive cells, immune system. Results are reported for no treatment, discontinued treatment after only one cycle of chemotherapy, and periodic drug administration therapy modes. Growth fraction, necrotic fraction, and tumour volume are used as output parameters beside a 2-D graphical growth presentation. Periodic drug administration is more effective to inhibit the growth of tumours. The model has been validated by the verification of the simulation results using in vivo literature data. Considering immune cells makes the model more compatible with the biological realities. Beside targeting cancer cells, the model can also simulate the activation of the immune system to fight against cancer.

Abbreviations CA: cellular automata; DSC: drug sensitive cell; DRC: drug resistant cell; GF: growth fraction; NF: necrotic fraction; ODE: ordinary differential equation; PDE: partial differential equation; SCAM: The proposed stochastic cellular automata model     

Introduction of Ag/CuO/MCM‐48 as an efficient catalyst for the one‐pot synthesis of novel pyran‐pyrrole hybrids

Bimetallic silver and copper incorporated mesoporous MCM‐48 (Ag/CuO/MCM‐48) was synthesized by simple wet‐impregnation method. The knowledge about its structural properties was gathered by means of Fourier transform‐infrared, energy‐dispersive X‐ray, X‐ray diffraction, field emission‐scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analyses. The catalytic activity of Ag/CuO/MCM‐48 was examined in the one‐pot three‐component reaction of 3‐(1‐methyl‐1H‐pyrrol‐2‐yl)‐3‐oxopropanenitrile, malononitrile and various aromatic aldehydes leading to novel pyran‐pyrrole hybrid derivatives in reduced reaction times (5–10 min) and excellent yields (88–97%). Application of Ag/CuO/MCM‐48 as a potent heterogeneous catalyst with good reusability up to five times, use of ethanol as an eco‐compatible medium and chromatography‐free work‐up are some crucial green aspects of this procedure.     

Application of magnetic graphene-based bucky gel as an efficient green sorbent for determination of mercury in fish and water samples

Research on Chemical Intermediates - In this article, a highly efficient method based on coupling magnetic solid-phase extraction and dispersive microsolid-phase extraction was proposed to...     

Surfactant to dye binding degree method for the determination of fluvoxamine maleate and citalopram hydrobromide in pharmaceuticals

The surfactant to dye binding degree (SBDB) methodology was used to determine fluvoxamine maleate and citalopram hydrobromide. Neutral red and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) were used as the dye and surfactant, respectively, to form dye-surfactant aggregates. When a cationic drug is added to dye-surfactant mixture, it interacts with the surfactant and decreases the dye-surfactant binding degree. This decrease is proportional to the drug concentration. This was measured by monitoring the absorbance changes of the dye at 532 nm. Under the optimum conditions, the calibration graphs were linear over the range of 1.2–15 μg mL⁻¹ and 1.1–15 μg mL⁻¹ for fluvoxamine maleate and citalopram hydrobromide, respectively. The detection limits (signal to noise ratio = 3) were found to be 0.37 and 0.35 μg mL⁻¹, for fluvoxamine maleate and citalopram hydrobromide, respectively.      

Mechanism of methanol decomposition by non-thermal plasma

In this investigation available experimental data in the literature were used to propose a reaction mechanism for the destruction of methanol using non-thermal plasma technology. In a recent study [M. Derakhshesh, J. Abedi, M. Omidyeganeh, Modeling of hazardous air pollutant removal in the pulsed corona discharge, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1051–1057.] the reactor performance equation for destruction of pollutants was developed. The order of reaction for methanol decomposition is estimated using a recently developed performance model and the available experimental data. It is found that that methanol decomposition reaction follows order one. In addition, using the experimental data available in the literature the rate constant for methanol decomposition is obtained and the overall rate was compared with our previous study.     

Humidity Sensing Properties of the Sensor Based on V‐doped Nanoporous Ti0.9Sn0.1O2 Thin Film

Vanadium doped nanoporous Ti_0.9Sn_0.1O₂ thin film has been prepared on an alumina substrate by sol‐gel method with Pluronic P123 as the organic template, and humidity sensing properties of it has been investigated. It is found that V‐doped nanoporous Ti_0.9Sn_0.1O₂ thin film shows good humidity sensing properties, and impendence of it decreases more than four orders of magnitude in the relative humidity (RH) range of 11%–95% at 25°C. The response and recovery time of this sensor are about 13 and 17 s, respectively. High sensitivity, narrow hysteresis loop, rapid response and recovery, prominent stability and good repeatability are obtained. A possible mechanism is suggested to explain the humidity sensitive properties.     

Enhancement of the chemiluminescence of permanganate-formaldehyde system by gold/silver nanoalloys and its application to trace determination of melamine

We have examined the specificity of electrosynthesized poly-o-phenylenediamine as a kind of material molecularly imprinted with metal chelates. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared in situ by an electrochemical method. The EDTA chelate complexes of Cu(II), Zn(II), Fe(III) and Cd(II) ions were used as templates of the MIPs deposited on a gold electrode of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The binding ability and specificity of the MIPs were investigated via the frequency response of the QCM to the adsorption of the template chelates and their analogs. Linear relationships are observed between the frequency shift and the concentration of the template chelates over a typical range of ~10^?6 to ~10^?4?mol·L^?1. The results reveal good binding specificity of such MIPs for their templates over structurally related analogs, but the selectivity coefficients are less significant than that for enantiomers. The results also suggest no significant correlation between binding specificity and the ionic (or atomic) radius of the investigated metal ions. The observed specificity is qualitatively attributed to the overall conformational difference of the metal-EDTA complexes resulting from their difference in both ionic radius and electronic structures.

Triphenylphosphine-catalysed one-pot synthesis of γ-butyrolactone derivatives and highly substituted enones via reaction of dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate and aryl aldehydes

The reaction between dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate and various aryl aldehydes in the presence of triphenylphosphine leads to unsaturated γ-butyrolactone derivatives and highly substituted enones in fairly good yields at room temperature.     

Syntheses and Structures of Organotin(IV) Thioesters of N‐Phthaloylamino Acids

Five organotin(IV) thioesters of N‐phthaloyl amino acids with the general formulae R₃SnL (R = Me, Ph) and nBu₂SnL₂ were synthesized with L = N‐phthaloyl‐thioalanine and N‐phthaloyl‐thioleucine. The structures of trimethyltin(IV) N‐phthaloyl‐thioleucinate ( 1 ), trimethyltin(IV) N‐phthaloyl‐thioalaninate ( 2 ), triphenyltin(IV) N‐phthaloyl‐thioleucinate ( 3 ), triphenyltin(IV) N‐phthaloyl‐thioalaninate ( 4 ), and di‐n‐butyltin(IV) di‐N‐phthaloyl‐thioalaninate ( 5 ) were characterized by means of X‐ray diffractometry. Quantumchemical investigations served to clarify several structural peculiarities of the isolated compounds.