Radiation induced degradation of pharmaceutical residues in water: Chloramphenicol

The γ-radiolytic degradation of chloramphenicol (CPL) was investigated in 0.1–1 mmol dm^?3 aqueous solutions at various radiation conditions. The destruction of CPL was monitored by UV–vis spectrophotometric method through the decrease in the intensity of the absorbance band at 276 nm. LC-MS/MS was used to identify the degradation products. Results indicate that ^?OH can add onto the CPL aromatic ring or can abstract H-atom from the side chain. The reductive dechlorination of CPL was also studied based on the reaction of e_aq^? with CPL. In 0.1 mmol dm^?3 solution above 2.5 kGy dose complete CPL degradation was achieved. In the presence of dissolved oxygen at relatively low dose, various oxidation products were observed. In the presence of tertiary butanol radical scavenger tertiary butanol group containing products were also detected. The toxicity increased as a function of dose to 1.0 kGy. At doses higher than 1.0 kGy the toxicity decreased continuously due to further degradation. It was also demonstrated that the O₂^??/HO₂^? pair has low reactivity in CPL solution.     

Horseradish Peroxidase as a Catalyst for Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

The hemoprotein horseradish peroxidase (HRP) catalyzes the polymerization of N‐isopropylacrylamide with an alkyl bromide initiator under conditions of activators regenerated by electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP) in the absence of any peroxide. This is a novel activity of HRP, which we propose to name ATRPase activity. Bromine‐terminated polymers with polydispersity indices (PDIs) as low as 1.44 are obtained. The polymerization follows first order kinetics, but the evolution of molecular weight and the PDI upon increasing conversion deviate from the results expected for an ATRP mechanism. Conversion, and PDI depend on the pH and on the concentration of the reducing agent, sodium ascorbate. HRP is stable during the polymerization and does not unfold or form conjugates.

     

External field induced tricritical phenomenon in the isotropicnematic phase transition of hard non-spherical particle systems

The effect of static external field is studied on the isotropic–nematic phase transition of a system of hard non-spherical particles (rods or platelets) with negative anisotropic polarizability (susceptabilities). On the basis of Onsager theory, the phase coexistence curve is calculated numerically without any approximation. It is found that a weakly ordered nematic phase (uniaxial planar) is in coexistence with a highly ordered biaxial nematic phase which ends at a tricritical point. In the limit of infinite field strength, the orientations of the particles are confined in a plane perpendicular to the field and continuous isotropic–nematic phase transition takes place.     

Special Relativity over the Field of Rational Numbers

We investigate the question: what structures of numbers (as physical quantities) are suitable to be used in special relativity? The answer to this question depends strongly on the auxiliary assumptions we add to the basic assumptions of special relativity. We show that there is a natural axiom system of special relativity which can be modeled even over the field of rational numbers.     

Bi-exponential diffusion signal decay in normal appearing white matter of multiple sclerosis

Purpose

Our aim was to characterize bi-exponential diffusion signal changes in normal appearing white matter of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients.

Methods

Diffusion parameters were measured using mono-exponential (0–1000 s/mm²) and bi-exponential (0–5000 s/mm²) approaches from 14 relapsing-remitting subtype of MS patients and 14 age- and sex-matched controls after acquiring diffusion-weighted images on a 3T MRI system. The results were analyzed using parametric or nonparametric tests and multiple linear regression models.

Results

Mono-exponential apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) slightly increased in controls (P=.09), but decreased significantly in MS as a function of age, nonetheless an elevated ADC was observed with increasing lesion number in patients. Bi-exponential analyses showed that the increased ADC is the result of decreased relative volume fraction of slow diffusing component (f_s). However, the fast and slow diffusion components (ADC_f, ADC_s) did not change as a function of either age in controls or lesion number and age in MS patients.

Conclusions

These data demonstrated that the myelin content of the white matter affects diffusion in relapsing-remitting subtype of multiple sclerosis that is possibly a consequence of the shift between different water fractions.     

On the sup-norm of Maass cusp forms of large level. III

Let $f$ be a Hecke–Maass cuspidal newform of square-free level $N$ and Laplacian eigenvalue $\lambda $ . It is shown that $\left||f \right||_\infty \ll _{\lambda ,\epsilon } N^{-\frac{1}{6}+\epsilon } \left||f \right||_2$ for any $\epsilon >0$ .     

Generalized Robba rings

We prove that any projective coadmissible module over the locally analytic distribution algebra of a compact p-adic Lie group is finitely generated. In particular, the category of coadmissible modules does not have enough projectives. In the Appendix a “generalized Robba ring” for uniform pro-p groups is constructed which naturally contains the locally analytic distribution algebra as a subring. The construction uses the theory of generalized microlocalization of quasi-abelian normed algebras that is also developed there. We equip this generalized Robba ring with a selfdual locally convex topology extending the topology on the distribution algebra. This is used to show some results on coadmissible modules.     

Microcalorimetric Studies of the Surface Reactivity of Pollutant Gas Atmospheres on Supported SnO2 and Ga2O3 Catalysts

The surface properties of gallium oxide and tin dioxide supported on alumina or titania have been studied by adsorption microcalorimetry. The differential heats of adsorption of various pollutant adsorbates such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and also ammonia were measured on these catalytic surfaces. NH₃, SO₂, NO₂ are strongly adsorbed while NO is only physisorbed. The supported Ga₂O₃ samples show a slight decrease in acidity as probed by ammonia adsorption, compared to alumina or titania. The addition of SnO₂ decreases the number of strong acid sites but creates a few weak and medium strength acid sites on alumina and does not modify the acidity of titania. In all cases, the basicity, probed by SO₂ adsorption, is very strongly affected by the deposition of Ga₂O₃ or SnO₂. The differential heats of NO₂ adsorption remain nearly constant on all samples. The heats of adsorption are discussed as a function of the coverage and of the amount of guest oxide. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Development and characterization of ultra-porous silica films made by the sol–gel method. Application to biosensing

The aim of this work is to demonstrate the sensing ability of reverse-symmetry waveguides to investigate adsorption of casein and build-up of poly-L-lysine mediated casein multilayers. A first part of this study is dedicated to the elaboration and characterization of ultra-porous thin films with very low refractive indices by an appropriate sol–gel method. This will form the basis of our planar optical sensors. Optical waveguide light mode spectroscopy is a real-time and sensitive method to study protein adsorption kinetics and lipid bilayers. We used it to test the obtained waveguides for in-situ monitoring of biomolecule adsorption. As a result, significant changes in the incoupling peak position were observed during the layer-by-layer adsorption. Finally, refractive index and thickness of the adsorbed layers were established.     

Synthesis of hemilabile P,N-ligands with a pentane-2,4-diyl backbone

A general and convenient two-step synthetic method has been developed for the preparation of a novel class of aminoalkyl-phosphine type compounds, which involves nucleophilic ring-opening of cyclic sulfate esters. The ring-opening step was performed using several different aliphatic and aromatic amines to produce aminoalkyl sulfates that were reacted with LiPPh₂ to give the corresponding P,N-ligands. The desymmetrization procedure affords an easy route to synthesize enantiomerically pure pentane-2,4-diyl based P,N-ligands with a highly tunable structure. The ligands derived from primary amines have a stereogenic N-atom that can be useful in asymmetric catalytic syntheses.