Constructing a new optical sensor for monitoring ammonia in water samples using bis(acetylacetoneethylendiamine)-tributylphosphin cobalt(III) tetraphenylborate complex-coated triacetylcellulose.

A new ammonia optical sensor was designed using bis(acetylacetoneethylendiamine)tributylphosphin cobalt(III) tetraphenylborate complex, coated on transparent triacetylcellulose film as membrane. The change in the absorbance of the optode at the maximum wavelength of 408 nm was related to ammonia concentration in aqueous samples. A buffer solution with a pH of 9 (sodium borate-HCl) was used. The optode was fully regenerated in pH 2. The linear dynamic range for determination of ammonia was 3.3 x 10(-4) to 6.9 x 10(-3) mol l(-1) with a detection limit of 5.0 x 10(-5) mol l(-1) and a response time range of 4 - 6 min. This membrane was successfully applied for determination of ammonia in drinking water.     

π1-classification of real arrangements with up to eight lines

One of the open questions in the geometry of line arrangements is to what extent does the incidence lattice of an arrangement determine its fundamental group. Line arrangements of up to 6 lines were recently classified by K.M. Fan (Michigan Math. J. 44(2) (1997) 283), and it turns out that the incidence lattice of such arrangements determines the projective fundamental group. We use actions on the set of wiring diagrams, introduced in (Garber et al. (J. Knot Theory Ramf.), to classify real arrangements of up to 8 lines. In particular, we show that the incidence lattice of such arrangements determines both the affine and the projective fundamental groups.     

Flow in a waterfall with large Froude number

An approximate method is developed to solve the full nonlinear equations governing two-dimensional irrotational flow in a free waterfall, falling under the influence of gravity, at high Froude number based on conditions far upstream. Schwarz—Christoffel transformation is used to map the region, in the complex potential-plane, onto the upper half-plane. The Hilbert transformation as well as the perturbation technique, for large Froude number, are used as a basis for the approximate solution of the problem. A complete solution, up to second-order approximation, for the downstream free-surfaces profiles, for different Froude number, is discussed and illustrated. The obtained approximate solutions are compared with those of other authors. Favourable agreement with other results suggests that this method is effective in dealing with flow problems strongly influenced by gravity and high Froude number. The results obtained by this method are sufficiently accurate for practical purposes.     

Effects of Frankincense Compounds on Infection,Inflammation, and Oral Health

Boswellia trees, found throughout the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia, are the source of frankincense oil. Since antiquity, frankincense has been traded as a precious commodity, but it has also been used for the treatment of chronic disease, inflammation, oral health, and microbial infection. More recently, the bioactive components of Boswellia trees have been identified and characterized for their effects on cancer, microbial infection (especially infection by oral pathogens), and inflammation. Most studies have focused on cell lines, but more recent research has also investigated effects in animal models of disease. As natural products are considered to be safer than synthetic drugs, there is growing interest in further developing the use of substances such as frankincense oil for therapeutic treatment.     

Light-Responsive Hexagonal Assemblies of Triangular Azo Dyes

The rational design of small building block molecules and understanding their molecular assemblies are of fundamental importance in creating new stimuli-responsive organic architectures with desired shapes and functions. Based on the experimental results of light-induced conformational changes of four types of triangular azo dyes with different terminal functional groups, as well as absorption and fluorescence characteristics associated with their molecular assemblies, we report that aggregation-active emission enhancement (AIEE)-active compound (1) substituted with sterically crowded tert-butyl (t-Bu) groups showed approximately 35% light-induced molecular switching and had a strong tendency to assemble into highly stable hexagonal structures with AIEE characteristics. Their sizes were regulated from nanometer-scale hexagonal rods to micrometer-scale sticks depending on the concentration. This is in contrast to other triangular compounds with bromo (Br) and triphenylamine (TPA) substituents, which exhibited no photoisomerization and tended to form flexible fibrous structures. Moreover, non-contact exposure of the fluorescent hexagonal nanorods to ultraviolet (UV) light led to a dramatic hexagonal-to-amorphous structure transition. The resulting remarkable variations, such as in the contrast of microscopic images and fluorescence characteristics, were confirmed by various microscopic and spectroscopic measurements.     

Effect of Different Processing Methods on the Chemical Constituents of Scrophulariae Radix as Revealed by 2D NMR-Based Metabolomics

Scrophulariae Radix (SR) is one of the oldest and most frequently used Chinese herbs for oriental medicine in China. Before clinical use, the SR should be processed using different methods after harvest, such as steaming, “sweating”, and traditional fire-drying. In order to investigate the difference in chemical constituents using different processing methods, the two-dimensional (2D) ¹H-¹³C heteronuclear single quantum correlation (¹H-¹³C HSQC)-based metabolomics approach was applied to extensively characterize the difference in the chemical components in the extracts of SR processed using different processing methods. In total, 20 compounds were identified as potential chemical markers that changed significantly with different steaming durations. Seven compounds can be used as potential chemical markers to differentiate processing by sweating, hot-air drying, and steaming for 4 h. These findings could elucidate the change of chemical constituents of the processed SR and provide a guide for the processing. In addition, our protocol may represent a general approach to characterizing chemical compounds of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and therefore might be considered as a promising approach to exploring the scientific basis of traditional processing of TCM.     

Ion implanted species dependence in silicon oxidation

The effect on thermal oxidation of implantation of the alkali species Li, Na, K, Rb and Cs has been studied. A correlation is found with the atomic and ionic radii and atomic masses of the implanted species, the larger ions leading to greater oxidation. We propose that the implanted species may affect the oxide plasticity and that this may be the controlling factor which determines the degree of oxidation.