Treatment-related central nervous system toxicity: MR imaging evaluation with CT and clinical correlation

Thirteen patients with abnormal brain MR scans attributable to treatment-induced injury were retrospectively reviewed. All patients were treated with radiation therapy and 62% received chemotherapy. Five patients were graded as having severe white matter (WM) changes, four had moderate WM changes, and four had mild WM changes. CT was generally equivalent to MR in evaluation of severe and moderate WM abnormalities, whereas MR was superior to CT in detection of mild WM abnormalities. In general, the severity of changes depicted by MR/CT correlated with the extent of neurologic dysfunction. The most severe changes were seen in those patients treated with combination irradiation and chemotherapy.     

Alliances, partnerships and the Banzhaf semivalue

The coordination of strategies in a cooperative game, when some players decide to act together, is the basis of the partnership notion. Nevertheless, in some situations, it may be more convenient to form an effective coalition or alliance. In this work, we consider the Banzhaf semivalue and use it to discuss the convenience to form either partnerships or alliances, especially in simple games. Throughout the paper, some mathematical properties of the Banzhaf semivalue, in relation with the partnership formation, are derived.     

Practical preparation of benzyloxyacetic acids

An efficient and practical method for the preparation of benzyloxyacetic acids is described. The procedure involves the reaction of readily available chloroacetic acid with benzyl alcohol in the presence of powdered KOH providing a safer alternative to the known literature procedures, which completely eliminates the use of pyrophoric bases such as sodium hydride and sodium metal.     

Taking a little off the top: nanorod array morphology and growth studied by focused ion beam tomography

The high surface area, large aspect ratio, and porous nature of nanorod arrays make them excellent foundation materials for many devices. Of the many synthesis techniques for forming nanorods, glancing angle deposition (GLAD) offers one of the more straightforward and flexible methods for ensuring control of alignment, porosity, and architecture of the nanorods. Here we demonstrate the first use of a dual-beam (focused ion beam (FIB) combined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM)) instrument to section and image the internal morphology of a nanorod array fabricated using the GLAD technique. We have used the FIB-SEM to reconstruct the 3D composition of TiO(2) nanorods, allowing us to visualize for the first time the core structures of many potential devices. We have also been able to probe the relationship between critical parameters such as diameter (w(act)), internanorod spacing (ν(act)), center-to-center spacing (c(act)), and nanorod population density (d(act)) and the depth of the nanocolumn (t) for a single homogeneous structure. A continuous data set was obtained from a single 5-μm-thick GLAD film, avoiding the artifacts arising from the analysis of the top surfaces of multiple samples of varying thicknesses. An analysis of the acquired sectioned data has allowed us to determine that the critical nanocolumn parameters follow a power-law scaling trend with w(act) = 9.4t(0.35) nm, ν(act) = 15.2t(0.25) nm, c(act) = 24.8t(0.31) nm, and d(act) = 3402t(-0.65) columns μm(-2). Using the FIB/SEM images acquired for the TiO(2) nanorods, we have also investigated the evolution of individual nanocolumns and have observed that bifurcation and branching play a significant role in the extinction or survival of these nanorods. These findings will allow for the optimization of nanorod properties for device applications. Also, the FIB sectioning and reconstruction process developed here will permit for the investigation of nanorod arrays formed from a range of synthesis techniques and materials.     

Nanotome cluster bombardment to recover spatial chemistry after preparation of biological samples for SIMS imaging

A C₆₀⁺ cluster ion projectile is employed for sputter cleaning biological surfaces to reveal spatio-chemical information obscured by contamination overlayers. This protocol is used as a supplemental sample preparation method for time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) imaging of frozen and freeze-dried biological materials. Following the removal of nanometers of material from the surface using sputter cleaning, a frozen-patterned cholesterol film and a freeze-dried tissue sample were analyzed using ToF-SIMS imaging. In both experiments, the chemical information was maintained after the sputter dose, due to the minimal chemical damage caused by C₆₀⁺ bombardment. The damage to the surface produced by freeze-drying the tissue sample was found to have a greater effect on the loss of cholesterol signal than the sputter-induced damage. In addition to maintaining the chemical information, sputtering is not found to alter the spatial distribution of molecules on the surface. This approach removes artifacts that might obscure the surface chemistry of the sample and are common to many biological sample preparation schemes for ToF-SIMS imaging.     

Coverings and dimensions in infinite profinite groups

Answering a question of Miklós Abért, we prove that an infinite profinite group cannot be the union of less than continuum many translates of a compact subset of box dimension less than 1. Furthermore, we show that it is consistent with the axioms of set theory that in any infinite profinite group there exists a compact subset of Hausdorff dimension 0 such that one can cover the group by less than continuum many translates of it.     

Paradigms and Paradoxes: Fractional and Other Non-integer Charges in Chemistry—an Understanding of Aromaticity

Structural Chemistry - In the current study, the energetics of fractionally (and indeed arbitrary non-integer) charged species is explicitly discussed for the enhanced understanding of aromaticity...     

Structure of the product formed via Cu(I)-promoted oxidative dimerization ofexo-8-ethynylpentacyclo[5.4.0.02,6.03,10.05.9]undecan-endo-8-ol

The structure consists of two acetyl-substituted PCU cages linked by a diyne fragment. The conformation about the linker is midway between staggered and eclipsed, and the acetyl groups are somewhat distorted due to the proximity to the bulky cage units.     

Glycomimetic building blocks: a divergent synthesis of epimers of shikimic acid

A divergent synthesis of (-)-4-epi-shikimic acid was developed. This route features a one-pot zinc-mediated reductive ring opening of an arabinofuranose followed by a Barbier reaction and culminates in a ring-closing metathesis. Functionalization of (-)-4-epi-shikimic acid via conjugate addition of a thiol occurs in high diastereoselectivity to afford a product with the features of fucosylated glycans.