Silicene: compelling experimental evidence for graphenelike two-dimensional silicon

Because of its unique physical properties, graphene, a 2D honeycomb arrangement of carbon atoms, has attracted tremendous attention. Silicene, the graphene equivalent for silicon, could follow this trend, opening new perspectives for applications, especially due to its compatibility with Si-based electronics. Silicene has been theoretically predicted as a buckled honeycomb arrangement of Si atoms and having an electronic dispersion resembling that of relativistic Dirac fermions. Here we provide compelling evidence, from both structural and electronic properties, for the synthesis of epitaxial silicene sheets on a silver (111) substrate, through the combination of scanning tunneling microscopy and angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy in conjunction with calculations based on density functional theory.     

Low-temperature synthesis of Zn2SiO4:Mn green photoluminescence phosphor

Zn₂SiO₄:Mn green phosphor having comparable photoluminescence (PL) efficiency with commercial phosphor has been synthesized at 1000 °C using solid state reactions involving ZnO, silicic acid and manganese acetate. The water of crystallization attached to SiO₂ in silicic acid whose dissociation at 1000 °C seem to promote the sintering efficiency of Zn₂SiO₄:Mn. Incremental ZnO addition and re-firing at 1000 °C promote the diffusion rate of ZnO and SiO₂. The formation of a single crystalline phase of willemite structure in the samples was confirmed by powder XRD measurements. The phosphor exhibit an intense excitation band centered around 275 nm and a relatively weak excitation centered around 380 nm while the broad band green emission peaks at 524 nm. Other parameters studied include PL spectra, grain morphology, ZnO/SiO₂ molar ratio, Mn concentration, co-dopant/flux and the effect of chemical forms of Mn dopant as well as silica on the PL efficiency.     

Early contrast enhancement of the liver: exact description of subphases using MRI

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to describe the subphases of early post-contrast enhancement of the liver, using vessel enhancement patterns, and correlate these findings with enhancement patterns of abdominal organs.

Materials and Methods

A total of 114 patients who underwent gadolinium-enhanced abdominal magnetic resonance imaging examinations constituted the final study group, of which 56 were women (age range, 3–94 years; mean, 50 years) and 58 were men (age range, 6–85 years; mean, 54 years). Early post-contrast sequences in all patients were evaluated retrospectively by two reviewers for the determination of the presence of contrast enhancement in predetermined major vessels of the abdomen and qualitative and quantitative extent of enhancement of the renal cortex, spleen, pancreas and liver. Based on the overall findings, subphases of early contrast enhancement of the liver were described and quantitative extent of enhancement of organs was correlated with subphases of early contrast enhancement of the liver. Mann–Whitney U test and one-way unbalanced analysis of variance tests were used for the comparisons.

Results

Early hepatic arterial phase was observed in 14/114 patients, mid-hepatic arterial phase in 23/114 patients, late hepatic arterial phase in 33/114 patients, splenic vein only hepatic arterial dominant phase in 20/114 patients and hepatic arterial dominant phase in 24/114 patients. There was an overall association between the subphases of enhancement and the quantitative extent of enhancement for all studied organs (P<.0001).

Conclusion

The evaluation of vessel and organ enhancement patterns has allowed the characterization of five different subphases in early post-contrast enhancement of the liver. The quantitative extent of enhancement of abdominal organs also demonstrated significant correlation with these five subphases.     

Diethyl 1‐(4‐fluoro­phenyl)‐3‐(2‐furyl)‐5‐oxopyrrolidine‐2,2‐di­carboxyl­ate and diethyl 1‐(3,4‐di­chloro­phenyl)‐3‐(2‐furyl)‐5‐oxopyrrolidine‐2,2‐di­carboxyl­ate

The title compounds, C₂₀H₂₀FNO₆ and C₂₀H₁₉Cl₂NO₆, respectively, may exhibit bioactivity. In these compounds, the pyrrolidine ring adopts a conformation intermediate between envelope and half‐chair. Only one of the two ethoxy­carbonyl side chains is nearly planar. Centrosymmetric pairs are formed, and the crystal structure is stabilized by weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions.     

Natural Compounds Isolated from Stachybotrys chartarum Are Potent Inhibitors of Human Protein Kinase CK2

A large number of secondary metabolites have been isolated from the filamentous fungus Stachybotrys chartarum and have been described before. Fourteen of these natural compounds were evaluated in vitro in the present study for their inhibitory activity towards the cancer target CK2. Among these compounds, stachybotrychromene C, stachybotrydial acetate and acetoxystachybotrydial acetate turned out to be potent inhibitors with IC₅₀ values of 0.32 µM, 0.69 µM and 1.86 µM, respectively. The effects of these three compounds on cell proliferation, growth and viability of MCF7 cells, representing human breast adenocarcinoma as well as A427 (human lung carcinoma) and A431 (human epidermoid carcinoma) cells, were tested using EdU assay, IncuCyte^® live-cell imaging and MTT assay. The most active compound in inhibiting MCF7 cell proliferation was acetoxystachybotrydial acetate with an EC₅₀ value of 0.39 µM. In addition, acetoxystachybotrydial acetate turned out to inhibit the growth of all three cell lines completely at a concentration of 1 µM. In contrast, cell viability was impaired only moderately, to 37%, 14% and 23% in MCF7, A427 and A431 cells, respectively.     

1/fα fractal noise generation from Grünwald–Letnikov formula

This communication presents a recursive algorithm for generating streams of 1/f^α fractal noise, by means of fractional integration/differentiation of a white noise signal. The quality of correlated and anticorrelated noise obtained by this approach is evaluated by applying detrended fluctuation analysis.     

Effect of Reaction Temperature on the Gel Content of Acrylic Latexes

The effect of reaction temperature on the kinetics and the microstructure properties of polyacrylates produced by seeded semicontinuous emulsion homopolymerization of two acrylate monomers (butyl acrylate and 2‐ethylhexyl acrylate) initiated by a thermal initiator was investigated. Contrary to what has been reported at higher temperatures (75–95 °C), increasing reaction temperature (from 60 to 80 °C) led to a decrease of the amount of gel content produced in the semicontinuous polymerizations. These results were analyzed by means of a Monte‐Carlo model of the process.

     

Optimization of clean-up procedure for patulin determination in apple juice and apple purees by liquid chromatography

Patulin (PAT) is a mycotoxin produced in fruits, mainly in apples, by several fungal species that can be carried into industrial apple juice by-products during factory processing. An analytical method for determination of PAT in apple juice and another one for determination of this compound in apple purees and apple compotes by liquid chromatography are proposed in the present paper. These methods have better precision and sensitivity than previously reported methods and focus mainly on extraction and clean-up. To accomplish analytical methods with higher accuracy, lower limits of detection and simpler procedures for application in quality control of the goods, different extraction and clean-up procedures for PAT were comparatively studied. PAT recoveries in apple juice spiked with 1.0 mg PAT/kg varied between 52.3% and 81.0%. The highest PAT recovery in apple puree spiked with 0.1 mg PAT/kg was 82.9%. Addition of NaH₂PO₄ during the extraction phase here reported for the first time has the advantage of keeping the pH slightly acidic, thus avoiding PAT degradation.     

Multidimensional chromatography in food analysis

In this work, the main developments and applications of multidimensional chromatographic techniques in food analysis are reviewed. Different aspects related to the existing couplings involving chromatographic techniques are examined. These couplings include multidimensional GC, multidimensional LC, multidimensional SFC as well as all their possible combinations. Main advantages and drawbacks of each coupling are critically discussed and their key applications in food analysis described.