Dendrimer modified graphite sensors for detection of anticancer drug Daunorubicin by voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

The development of amino-terminated G4 PAMAM dendrimer (PDR) modified disposable electrodes were developed as the first time in our study by using the dendrimer modified disposable graphite (PDR-PGE) and multiwalled carbon nanotube based screen-printed graphite (PDR-MWCNT-SPE) electrodes. Firstly, the microscopic characterization of bare PGEs and PDR modified PGEs was performed. These sensors were then applied for electrochemical monitoring of an anticancer drug, Daunorubicin (DNR). The enhanced oxidation signal of DNR was measured at +0.50 V by using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in combination with the PDR-PGEs. The detection limit, estimated from S/N = 3, corresponds accordingly to 317 nM and 128 nM for DNR respectively at the PGE and PDR-PGE. The voltammetric results were consistent with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) that was used to characterize the successful modification of PDR onto the surface of PGE and MWCNT-SPE.     

Characterization and Wear Behavior of Plasma Nitrided Nickel Based Dental Alloy

In the present work, the plasma nitriding behavior of a nickel based dental alloy was investigated. Plasma nitriding experiments carried out under constant gas mixture (15% H₂?C85% N₂) for different process parameters including time (4, 6, 10, and 20 h) and temperature (400, 450, 500, and 550 °C). Depending on nitriding parameters, it was found that triple or double layers formed on the surface of the samples. Increasing of treatment time and temperature has resulted in a double layer. ??_N1 layer was in formed all nitrided samples. However, ??_N2 layer is formed only at low temperatures and in short times. Layer growth of nickel based alloys increases until a critical time or a critical temperature reached. Above these critical values, it is observed that the layer thickness decreases. It was also found that plasma nitriding not only increases the surface hardness but also improves the wear resistance of nickel based dental alloy. The maximum wear resistance was observed at 400 °C for 10 h due to the high hardness and thickness of the nitride layers.     

Model-based sound synthesis of the guqin

This paper presents a model-based sound synthesis algorithm for the Chinese plucked string instrument called the guqin. The instrument is fretless, which enables smooth pitch glides from one note to another. A version of the digital waveguide synthesis approach is used, where the string length is time-varying and its energy is scaled properly. A body model filter is placed in cascade with the string model. Flageolet tones are synthesized with the so-called ripple filter structure, which is an FIR comb filter in the delay line of a digital waveguide model. In addition, signal analysis of recorded guqin tones is presented. Friction noise produced by gliding the finger across the soundboard has a harmonic structure and is proportional to the gliding speed. For pressed tones, one end of a vibrating string is terminated either by the nail of the thumb or a fingertip. The tones terminated with a fingertip decay faster than those terminated with a thumb. Guqin tones are slightly inharmonic and they exhibit phantom partials. The synthesis model takes into account these characteristic features of the instrument and is able to reproduce them. The synthesis model will be used for rule based synthesis of guqin music.     

Effect of oxide thickness on the capacitance and conductance characteristics of MOS structures

In this work, the investigation of the interface states density and series resistance from capacitance–voltage (C–V) and conductance–voltage (G–V) characteristics in Au/SnO₂/n-Si (MOS) structures prepared at various SnO₂ layer thicknesses by spray deposition technique have been reported. It is fabricated five samples depending on deposition time. The thicknesses of SnO₂ films obtained from the measurement of the oxide capacitance in the strong accumulation region for MOS Schottky diodes are 37, 79, 274, 401, and 446 Å, for D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5 samples, respectively. The C–V and G–V measurements of Au/SnO₂/n-Si MOS structures are performed in the voltage range from −6 to +10 V and the frequency range from 500 Hz to 10 MHz at room temperature. It is observed that peaks in the forward C–V characteristics appeared because of the series resistance. It has been seen that the value of the series resistance R_s of samples D1 (47 Ω), D2 (64 Ω), D3 (98 Ω), D4 (151 Ω), and D5 (163 Ω) increases with increasing the oxide layer thickness. The interface state density D_it ranges from 2.40×10¹³ cm⁻² eV⁻¹ for D1 sample to 2.73×10¹² cm⁻² eV⁻¹ for D5 sample and increases with increasing the oxide layer thickness.     

Santamarine Shows Anti-Photoaging Properties via Inhibition of MAPK/AP-1 and Stimulation of TGF-β/Smad Signaling in UVA-Irradiated HDFs

Chronic UVA exposure results in elevated reactive oxygen species in skin which leads to photoaging characterized as upregulated matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and loss of collagen. Therefore, natural antioxidants are hailed as promising agents to be utilized against photoaging. In the current study, reynosin and santamarine, two known sesquiterpene lactones isolated from Artemisia scoparia, were analyzed for their anti-photoaging properties in UVA-irradiated human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). Results showed that UVA irradiation (8 J/cm²) upregulated the MMP-1 secretion and expression, and suppressed collagen production, which were significantly reverted by santamarine treatment (10 µM). Although both reynosin and santamarine exhibited ROS scavenging abilities, reynosin failed to significantly diminish UVA-stimulated MMP-1 release. UVA-irradiated HDFs showed increased collagen production when treated with santamarine. As a mechanism to suppress MMP-1, santamarine significantly suppressed the UVA-induced phosphorylation of p38 and JNK and nuclear translocation of p-c-Fos and p-c-Jun. Santamarine promoted collagen I production via relieving the UVA-induced suppression on TGF-β and its downstream activator Smad2/3 complex. Antioxidant properties of santamarine were also shown to arise from stimulating Nrf2-dependent expression of antioxidant enzymes SOD-1 and HO-1 in UVA-irradiated HDFs. In conclusion, santamarine was found to be a promising natural antioxidant with anti-photoaging properties against UVA-induced damages in HDFs.     

Supercurrent and Its Quantum Statistical Properkies in Mesoscopic Josephson Junction in the Presence of Nonclassical Light Fields

In this paper, we study the supercurrent in a mesoscopic Josephson junction (MJJ) and its quantum statistical properties in the presence of nonclassical light fields. We investigate in detail the influence of external nonclassical light fields on current-voltage step structures of the MJJ. We also study in detail quantum statistical properties of the supercurrent when the external quantum electromagnetic fields are even and odd coherent-sta!e light fields. It is shown that the supercurrent in the MJJ exhibits both squeezing effect and quantum coherence. It is demonstrated that the MJJ can feel the difference not only between classical light fields and nonclassical light fields but also between different nonclassical light fields.     

Covariance-Guided Mixture Probabilistic Principal Component Analysis (C-MPPCA)

To extract information from high-dimensional data efficiently, visualization tools based on data projection methods have been developed and shown useful. However, a single two-dimensional visualization is often insufficient for capturing all or most interesting structures in complex high-dimensional datasets. For this reason, Tipping and Bishop developed mixture probabilistic principal component analysis (MPPCA) that separates data into multiple groups and enables a unique projection per group; that is, one probabilistic principal component analysis (PPCA) data visualization per group. Because the group labels are assigned to observations based on their high-dimensional coordinates, MPPCA works well to reveal homoscedastic structures in data that differ spatially. In the presence of heteroscedasticity, however, MPPCA may still mask noteworthy data structures. We propose a new method called covariance-guided MPPCA (C-MPPCA) that groups subsets of observations based on covariance, not locality, and, similar to MPPCA, displays them using PPCA. PPCA projects data in the dimensions with the highest variances, thus grouping by covariance makes sense and enables some data structures to be visible that were masked originally by MPPCA. We demonstrate the performance of C-MPPCA in an extensive simulation study. We also apply C-MPPCA to a real world dataset. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Cyclic codes over $${{\mathbb{F}}_2+u{\mathbb{F}}_2+v{\mathbb{F}}_2+uv{\mathbb{F}}_2}$$

In this work, we focus on cyclic codes over the ring \mathbbF₂+u\mathbbF₂+v\mathbbF₂+uv\mathbbF₂{{{\mathbb{F}}_2+u{\mathbb{F}}_2+v{\mathbb{F}}_2+uv{\mathbb{F}}_2}} , which is not a finite chain ring. We use ideas from group rings and works of AbuAlrub et.al. in (Des Codes Crypt 42:273–287, 2007) to characterize the ring (\mathbbF₂+u\mathbbF₂+v\mathbbF₂+uv\mathbbF₂)/(xⁿ-1){({{\mathbb{F}}_2+u{\mathbb{F}}_2+v{\mathbb{F}}_2+uv{\mathbb{F}}_2})/(x^n-1)} and cyclic codes of odd length. Some good binary codes are obtained as the images of cyclic codes over \mathbbF₂+u\mathbbF₂+v\mathbbF₂+uv\mathbbF₂{{{\mathbb{F}}_2+u{\mathbb{F}}_2+v{\mathbb{F}}_2+uv{\mathbb{F}}_2}} under two Gray maps that are defined. We also characterize the binary images of cyclic codes over \mathbbF₂+u\mathbbF₂+v\mathbbF₂+uv\mathbbF₂{{{\mathbb{F}}_2+u{\mathbb{F}}_2+v{\mathbb{F}}_2+uv{\mathbb{F}}_2}} in general.     

Soil-to-mushroom transfer of <Superscript>137</Superscript>Cs, <Superscript>40</Superscript>K,alkali–alkaline earth element and heavy metal in forest sites of Izmir,Turkey

The present work is devoted to an investigation on the soil to mushroom transfer parameters for ¹³⁷Cs and ⁴⁰K radionuclides, as well as for some stable elements and heavy metals. The results of transfer factors for ¹³⁷Cs and ⁴⁰K were within the range of 0.06–3.15 and 0.67–5.68, respectively and the most efficiently transferred radionuclide was ⁴⁰K. The TF values for ¹³⁷Cs typically conformed to a lognormal distribution, while for ⁴⁰K showed normal distribution. Statistically significant correlations between ¹³⁷Cs soil to mushroom transfer factors and agrochemical soil properties have been revealed. Although the concentration ratios varied within the species, the most efficiently transferred elements seems to have been K, followed by Rb, Zn, Cu, Cd, S, Cs and Hg.     

Terrestrial gamma exposure in the granodiorite area of Bergama (Pergamon)�CKozak, Turkey

As higher radiation levels are associated with granite and Bergama (Pergamon) has increasingly become a large market for granite use over the last years, an extensive investigation was started in 2009. Samples from the granites and soils underlying this area were collected and analyzed by HPGe gamma spectrometry system. The specific activities of the naturally occurring radionuclides ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K were found to be in the range of 29?C111 Bq kg^?1 for ²²⁶Ra, 35?C87 Bq kg^?1 for ²³²Th and 698?C1100 Bq kg^?1 for ⁴⁰K in granite samples. The ranges of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, and ⁴⁰K activity concentrations for soils were 32?C82, 42?C88 and 667?C1127 Bq kg^?1, respectively. From these data radiological parameters were calculated and compared with respective data from the UNSCEAR reports.