Rhodamines with a Chloronicotinic Acid Fragment for Live Cell Superresolution STED Microscopy**

Formylation of 2,6-dichloro-5-R-nicotinic acids at C-4 followed by condensation with 3-hydroxy-N,N-dimethylaniline gave analogs of the popular TAMRA fluorescent dye with a 2,6-dichloro-5-R-nicotinic acid residues (R=H, F). The following reaction with thioglycolic acid is selective, involves only one chlorine atom at the carbon between pyridine nitrogen and the carboxylic acid group and affords new rhodamine dyes absorbing at 564/ 573 nm and emitting at 584/ 597 nm (R=H/ F, in aq. PBS). Conjugates of the dyes with “small molecules” provided specific labeling (covalent and non-covalent) of organelles as well as of components of the cytoskeleton in living cells and were combined with fluorescent probes prepared from 610CP and SiR dyes and applied in two-color STED microscopy with a 775 nm STED laser.     

Torus Actions in the Normalization Problem

Let f be a germ of biholomorphism of ℂ ⁿ , fixing the origin. We show that if the germ commutes with a torus action, then we get information on the germs that can be conjugated to f, and furthermore on the existence of a holomorphic linearization or of a holomorphic normalization of f. We find out in a complete and computable manner what kind of structure a torus action must have in order to get a Poincaré-Dulac holomorphic normalization, studying the possible torsion phenomena. In particular, we link the eigenvalues of df _O to the weight matrix of the action. The link and the structure we found are more complicated than what one would expect; a detailed study was needed to completely understand the relations between torus actions, holomorphic Poincaré-Dulac normalizations, and torsion phenomena. We end the article giving an example of techniques that can be used to construct torus actions.     

Simultaneous preconcentration and determination of nickel and cobalt using functionalised mesoporous silica spheres by ICP-OES

In this work functionalised mesoporous silica spheres have been utilised for the simultaneous preconcentration of nickel and cobalt. The silica spheres (SiSPs) prepared by the sol-gel method were functionalised with sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC-SiSPs). They were characterised by SEM, TEM, XRD, FTIR, CHN and nitrogen adsorption. The adsorption efficiency of DDTC-SiSPs was examined by batch equilibrium technique. The DDTC-SiSPs showed 100% adsorption for Ni (II) and Co (II). The effect of changing variables such as pH, shaking time, sample volume, preconcentration factor, eluent type and volume were investigated so as to obtain maximum recovery with high selectivity over interfering ions. The maximum adsorption capacity was found to be 15.15 mg g^?1 and 11.80 mg g^?1 for Ni (II) and Co (II) respectively using DDTC-SiSPs. 100% recovery was achieved with 5 mL of 2 M HNO₃. The maximum preconcentration factor was 400 and the 3σ limits of detection were 0.201 µg L^?1 and 0.198 µg L^?1 for Ni (II) and Co (II) respectively. Thermodynamic studies showed that adsorption of Ni (II) and Co (II) on DDTC-SiSPs is exothermic with enthalpy changes of –0.514 KJ mol^?1 and –0.854 KJ mol^?1 for Ni (II) and Co (II) respectively. The method was applied to the preconcentration and determination of Ni (II) and Co (II) from tap, river and sea water.     

Functional Analysis of Autoantibody Signatures in Rheumatoid Arthritis

For the identification of antigenic protein biomarkers for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), we conducted IgG profiling on high density protein microarrays. Plasma IgG of 96 human samples (healthy controls, osteoarthritis, seropositive and seronegative RA, n = 24 each) and time-series plasma of a pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) rat model (n = 24 total) were probed on AIT’s 16k protein microarray. To investigate the analogy of underlying disease pathways, differential reactivity analysis was conducted. A total of n = 602 differentially reactive antigens (DIRAGs) at a significance cutoff of p < 0.05 were identified between seropositive and seronegative RA for the human samples. Correlation with the clinical disease activity index revealed an inverse correlation of antibodies against self-proteins found in pathways relevant for antigen presentation and immune regulation. The PIA model showed n = 1291 significant DIRAGs within acute disease. Significant DIRAGs for (I) seropositive, (II) seronegative and (III) PIA were subjected to the Reactome pathway browser which also revealed pathways relevant for antigen presentation and immune regulation; of these, seven overlapping pathways had high significance. We therefore conclude that the PIA model reflects the biological similarities of the disease pathogenesis. Our data show that protein array analysis can elucidate biological differences and pathways relevant in disease as well be a useful additional layer of omics information.     

Synthesis,Structure, Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy,and Electronic Structures of the Phosphidotrielates Li3AlP2 and Li3GaP2

The lithium phosphidoaluminate Li₉AlP₄ represents a promising new compound with a high lithium ion mobility. This triggered the search for new members in the family of lithium phosphidotrielates, and the novel compounds Li₃AlP₂ and Li₃GaP₂, obtained directly from the elements via ball milling and subsequent annealing, are reported here. It was unexpectedly found through band structure calculations that Li₃AlP₂ and Li₃GaP₂ are direct band gap semiconductors with band gaps of 3.1 and 2.8 eV, respectively. Rietveld analyses reveal that both compounds crystallize isotypically in the orthorhombic space group Cmce (no. 64) with lattice parameters of a=11.5138(2), b=11.7634(2) and c=5.8202(1) Å for Li₃AlP₂, and a=11.5839(2), b=11.7809(2) and c=5.8129(2) Å for Li₃GaP₂. The crystal structures feature TrP₄ (Tr=Al, Ga) corner- and edge-sharing tetrahedra, forming two-dimensional layers. The lithium atoms are located between and inside these layers. The crystal structures were confirmed by MAS-NMR spectroscopy.