PRELIMINARY RESEARCH ON CLAY MINERALS IN SALT LAKE SEDIMENTS OF CHINA AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

Most of the clay minerals in salt lakes of China are characterized by illite-chlorite as-semblage, with a minor amount of montmorillonite and kaolinite and so on. There are ob-vious differences between mineral assemblages, relative contents and chemical compositionof clay minerals in salt lakes of different areas and in different sedimentary stages. Clayminerals in these salt lakes are basically allogenic, but transitional origin may also exist.The characteristics of clay minerals in salt lakes are controlled by the arid climatic zone ofChina and the different material supplies of salt lakes. With the data taken from clay miner-al study, the author discusses the relation of sedimentary environment of salt lakes, theregularities of immigration and enrichment of mineralization elements.     

Boron and gadolinium neutron capture therapy

The principles of neutron capture therapy of tumor diseases, the types of drugs, and the results of their clinical applications are discussed.Based on the report presented at the International Conference Modern Trends in Organoelement and Polymer Chemistry dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the A. N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, May 30–June 4, 2004).Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 9, pp. 1795–1812, September, 2004.     

A preliminary approach to the separation of Leishmania cell-surface antigens

The purpose of the current study was to characterize Leishmania cell-surface antigens by two different methods established for the purification of glycoproteins and proteins, and to point out a useful approach to define their size and mass heterogeneity. L. tropica parasites were initially isolated from patients with active cutaneous leishmaniasis and were then cultured in vitro. The parasite-cell layer was solubilised with 6 M guanidinium chloride (GuHCl) and subsequently prepared for the purification procedure. The methods used in this work were gel filtration chromatography and isopycnic density-gradient centrifugation. Because of the presence of a substantial amount of non-specific proteins in the culture medium, these methods were not effective alone in distinguishing these antigens. However, a good idea of their N-glycosylated structures could be obtained by using Periodic acid-Schiffs (PAS) and Con A lectin, and also size and mass heterogeneity. A combination of these methods effected a clear separation of the antigens. Amino acid analysis of the purified antigens was performed to positively identify them as well-known Leishmania cell-surface antigen gene products. The results confirmed the presence of more than one cell-surface antigen on the Leishmania parasite and the combination of gel chromatography and density-gradient centrifugation could be useful for their isolation.     

Determination of trace levels of ethylenethiourea by HPLC following derivatisation with phenacyl halides

Summary The HPLC determination of ethylenethiourea (ETU, imidazolidine-2-thione) has been carried out by derivatisation with phenacyl halides to give imidazole-[2,1-b]thiazoles, which were separated on a polystyrenedivinylbenzene (PS-DVB) column. A number of different phenacyl halides including p-phenyl-, and naphthyl, were studied and the p-nitro reagent was selected as the most suitable for residue analysis. The analysis was more sensitive than direct HPLC analysis and had a limit of detection of 0.04 ng ETU. Presented at the 15th International Symposium on Chromatography, Nürnberg, October 1984     

The role of external polyamines on photosynthetic responses, lipid peroxidation, protein and chlorophyll a content under the UV-A (352nm) stress in Physcia semipinnata

Physcia semipinnata was exposed to UV-A (352nm) and visible light (210, 800 and 2000mW/cm2) for 30min, 1, 2, 24, and 48h to seek the alterations in the PSII photosynthetic quantum yield, in response to radiation. Chlorophyll a fluorescence did not influence exposure to light, 210, 800 and 2000mW/cm2. Significant alterations of the photosynthetic quantum yield ratio occurred in response to increase in UV-A exposure time. The photosynthetic quantum yield ratio decreased in P. semipinnata following exposure to UV-A for 24 and 48h. The thalli of P. semipinnata treated with 1mM polyamine were not influenced during the exposure to UV-A for 24 and 48h. It was also found that exogenously spd added samples had higher chla content than spm and put added samples. In this study, we showed that lipid peroxidation levels between UV-A-treated samples and exogenously polyamine treated samples that were previously exposed to UV-A for 24 and 48h were significantly decreased. This result is the first record to indicate that external polyamines might have some protective role on photosystem II and membrane against UV-A stress.     

Synthesis,cytotoxic, and carbonic anhydrase inhibitory effects of new 2-(3-(4-methoxyphenyl)-5-(aryl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)benzo[d]thiazole derivatives

2-(3-[4-Methoxyphenyl]-5-aryl-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)benzo[d]thiazoles ( 1b-7b ) were synthesized for the first time except 1b , and spectral methods such as ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and HRMS were utilized to illuminate the chemical structures of the synthesized compounds. Phenyl ( 1b ), 2-methoxyphenyl ( 2b ), 4-methoxyphenyl ( 3b ), 4-methoxy-3-hydroxyphenyl ( 4b ), 2,5-dimethoxyphenyl ( 5b ), 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl ( 6b ), or thiophene-2-yl ( 7b ) was used as a aryl part. The inhibitory effects of the compounds were evaluated toward human carbonic anhydrase I and II enzymes (hCA I and hCA II). In vitro cytotoxic effects of the compounds against human oral squamous carcinomas and human normal oral cells were carried out via MTT. The compounds ( 1b-7b ) had Ki values of 36.87 ± 11.62-66.24 ± 2.99 μM (hCA I) and 22.66 ± 1.41-89.95 ± 6.25 μM (hCA II). Compounds 1b (Ki = 36.87 ± 11.62 μM) toward hCA I, 6b (Ki = 22.66 ± 1.41 μM) toward hCA II had significant enzyme inhibitory potency. Compound 6b had the highest tumor selectivity (TS = 29.3) and potency selectivity expression (PSE = 272.3) values. Therefore, compounds 1b and 6b with CAs inhibition effect and compound 6b with the cytotoxicity may be forwarded to further studies as potent compounds.     

Heterogeneous condensation of the Lennard-Jones vapor onto a nanoscale seed particle

The heterogeneous condensation of a Lennard-Jones vapor onto a nanoscale seed particle is studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Measuring the nucleation rate and the height of the free energy barrier using the mean first passage time method shows that the presence of a weakly interacting seed has little effect on the work of forming very small cluster embryos but accelerates the rate by lowering the barrier for larger clusters. We suggest that this results from a competition between the energetic and entropic features of cluster formation in the bulk and at the heterogeneity. As the interaction is increased, the free energy of formation is reduced for all cluster sizes. We also develop a simple phenomenological model of film formation on a small seed that captures the general features of the nucleation process for small heterogeneities. A comparison of our simulation results with the model shows that heterogeneous classical nucleation theory provides a good estimate of the critical size of the film but significantly overestimates the size of the barrier.