Nano‐structured gemini‐based supramolecular solvent for the microextraction of cyhalothrin and fenvalerate

A novel supramolecular solvent‐based microextraction followed by high‐performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection method has been developed for the extraction and determination of two pyrethroid analytes, cyhalothrin and fenvalerate, in water and soil samples. The liquid–liquid‐phase separation of surfactants has been used in analytical extraction. The surfactant‐rich phase is a nano‐structured liquid, recently named as a supramolecular solvent, generated from the amphiphiles. The alkyl carboxylic acid based supramolecular solvents were introduced before. Coacervates made up of gemini surfactant, consisting of two amphiphilic moieties, were first used as solvent. The effective parameters on extraction (i.e., type of organic solvent, the amount of surfactant and volume of tetrahydrofuran, sample solution pH, salt addition, ultrasonic and centrifugation time) were investigated and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, preconcentration factors of 110 and 145 were obtained for the analytes. The linearity was 0.5–200.0 μg/L with the correlation of determination of (R²) ≥ 0.9984. The limit of detection of the method was (S/N = 3) 0.2 μg/L, and precisions in the range of 6.3–10.3% (RSDs, n = 5) were obtained. This method has been successfully applied to analyze real samples, and good recoveries in the range of 101.2–108.8% were obtained.     

Combining gold nanoparticle-based headspace single-drop microextraction and a paper-based colorimetric assay for selenium determination

Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry - A novel method combining headspace single-drop microextraction with a paper-based colorimetric assay was developed. Headspace single-drop microextraction...     

Increasing proteome coverage for gel‐based human tear proteome maps: towards a more comprehensive profiling

In situations where the molecular mechanism of many ocular disorders is unknown, owing to the difficulties associated with sampling from ocular tissues, human tear film can be a promising medium in ophthalmic research. The present study demonstrates an in‐depth gel‐based proteome optimization survey to approach more appropriate and efficient systems in various situations such as normal and dry‐eye syndromes. Therefore, systematic and statistical evaluations were performed on different preparation methods, including acetone, acetone–methanol, chloroform–methanol–water, trichloroacetic acid (TCA)–acetone, tri‐n‐butylphosphate–acetone–methanol precipitations and ammonium sulfate fractionation at three different percentages of saturations (50, 70 and 90%). Methods were compared quantitatively on both one‐ and two‐dimensional patterns. Some important parameters such as total protein recovery yield, densitometric analysis of some protein contaminants, banding patterns and total spot numbers along with statistical models for proper clustering were considered. Findings revealed noticeable impacts of preparation methods on all aspects of gel‐based separations as well as recovery yield (ranging from 5.29 ± 0.96 to 22.56 ± 1.77 µg/mm) and banding and pattern resolution. In addition to all these, the most important point is that the total protein spot number on the final two‐dimensional patterns (varied from 528.00 ± 19.00 to 657.00 ± 21.52 for different methods) were also noticeably increased in comparison with previously published reports (maximum of 250 spots), which is essential for a more comprehensive analysis. Increasing the proteome coverage in the present study is supposed to originate from improved solubility and effective rehydration during the sample application and isoelectric focusing (IEF) procedure along with proper sample preparation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relating the second and fourth order terms in the asymptotic expansion of the heat equation

Leta _n be the coefficients in the asymptotic expansion of the heat equation. In this paper, we study the relationship betweena ₂ ² anda ₄ in the context of both Riemannian and affine geometry.Research partially supported by the DFG project on Affine differential geometryResearch partially supported by the NSF (USA) and MSRI (USA)     

On the complete decomposition of curvature tensors of Riemannian manifolds with symmetric connection

We give a complete decomposition of the space of curvature tensors with the symmetry properties as the curvature tensor associated with a symmetric connection of Riemannian manifold. We solve the problem under the action ofS0(n). The dimensions of the factors, the projections, their norms and the quadratic invariants of a curvature tensor are determined. Several applications for Riemannian manifolds with symmetric connection are given. The group of projective transformations of a Riemannian manifold and its subgroups are considered.     

Time relaxation algorithm for flow ensembles

Modeling for fast calculation of fluid flow ensembles based on time relaxation regularization is studied herein. At each time step, the proposed model requires the storage of a single coefficient matrix with multiple right‐hands sides, corresponding to each ensemble member. The time relaxation regularization penalizes the deviation of the fluctuations from the ensemble average. The algorithm is shown to be stable under a time step restriction, which holds provided fluctuations are small enough. Also, the numerical tests show that a grad‐div stabilization weakened the condition considerably. Finite element convergence results for the time relaxation ensemble algorithm are studied too. Then, 2D and 3D numerical experiments that support the theoretical results are presented. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 757–777, 2016     

From Oncogenic Signaling Pathways to Single-Cell Sequencing of Immune Cells: Changing the Landscape of Cancer Immunotherapy

Over the past decade, there have been remarkable advances in understanding the signaling pathways involved in cancer development. It is well-established that cancer is caused by the dysregulation of cellular pathways involved in proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, cell metabolism, migration, cell polarity, and differentiation. Besides, growing evidence indicates that extracellular matrix signaling, cell surface proteoglycans, and angiogenesis can contribute to cancer development. Given the genetic instability and vast intra-tumoral heterogeneity revealed by the single-cell sequencing of tumoral cells, the current approaches cannot eliminate the mutating cancer cells. Besides, the polyclonal expansion of tumor-infiltrated lymphocytes in response to tumoral neoantigens cannot elicit anti-tumoral immune responses due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Nevertheless, the data from the single-cell sequencing of immune cells can provide valuable insights regarding the expression of inhibitory immune checkpoints/related signaling factors in immune cells, which can be used to select immune checkpoint inhibitors and adjust their dosage. Indeed, the integration of the data obtained from the single-cell sequencing of immune cells with immune checkpoint inhibitors can increase the response rate of immune checkpoint inhibitors, decrease the immune-related adverse events, and facilitate tumoral cell elimination. This study aims to review key pathways involved in tumor development and shed light on single-cell sequencing. It also intends to address the shortcomings of immune checkpoint inhibitors, i.e., their varied response rates among cancer patients and increased risk of autoimmunity development, via applying the data from the single-cell sequencing of immune cells.     

On the properties of McShane’s functional and their applications

In this paper we derive some remarkable properties of McShane’s functional, defined by means of positive isotonic linear functionals. These properties are then applied to weighted generalized means. A series of consequences among additive and multiplicative type mean inequalities is given, as well as a special consideration of Hölder’s inequality, in view of the new results.     

Characterizations of the simple group {^2D_n(3)} by prime graph and spectrum

In this paper, we prove that there exists an infinite series of finite simple groups of Lie type with connected prime graphs which are uniquely determined by their prime graphs. More precisely, we show that every finite group G with the same prime graph as ${{}^2D_{n}(3)}$ , where n ≥ 5 is odd, is necessarily isomorphic to the group ${{}^2D_{n}(3)}$ . In fact, we give a positive answer to an open problem that arose in Zavarnitsine (Algebra Logic 45(4):220–231, 2006). As a consequence of our result, we obtain that the simple group ${{}^2D_n(3)}$ , where n is an odd number, is characterizable by its spectrum.     

On the accuracy of the viscous form in simulations of incompressible flow problems

We present a numerical study of drag/lift and flux estimates using two forms of Navier‐Stokes equations (NSE) that are equivalent in the continuum formulation but not in the discrete finite element formulation. The two investigated forms of the NSE differ in the viscous term that is represented in one form by νΔ u with ν being the viscosity and 2ν?·?^S u in the other form where ?^S represents the deformation tensor. The study consists of numerical analysis of the two forms and computations of drag/lift, pressure drop on the cylinder problem and computations of flux for the Poiseuille flow. The main objective is to provide a clear comparison of the reference values for the maximal drag and lift coefficient at the cylinder and for the pressure difference between the front and the back of the cylinder at the final time for the two forms of NSEs. Our computational results of the reference values do not differ significantly between the two forms, but the differences are there. For the Poiseuille flow, the differences in the flux computations were much smaller, and this agreed with the computationally obtained results of the divergence of the velocity field. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 28: 523–541, 2012