Effect of three vitrification methods on development of two-cell mouse embryos

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of three vitrification procedures [conventional straw (CS), open pulled straw (OPS) and closed pulled straw (CPS)] on the development of two-cell mouse embryos. Two-cell mouse embryos were randomly divided into vitrified and non-vitrified control groups. Embryos in the vitrified group were cryopreserved within a combination of 5.5 M ethylene glycol and 1M sucrose as cryoprotectants, loaded within three different straws (CS, OPS and CPS) and warmed in stepwise sucrose solutions. The survived embryos from each procedure were cultured in human tubal fluid (HTF). The non-vitrified control embryos were also cultured in the same manner. The rates of the development in all the groups were daily determined and statistically compared. On day 4 of the cultivation period, several expanded blastocysts from each group were randomly selected and stained either with propidium iodide (PI) and bisbenzimide or with terminal transferase- mediate DNA end labeling (TUNEL) Technique. The mean number of the inner cell mass (ICM), trophoectoderm (TE), necrotic and apoptotic cells were counted and statistically compared. The survival rate of embryos in CPS was significantly higher than that in OPS and CS. The rate of hatched blastocysts did not differ in the three vitrification procedures, but in comparison with that of the control, CS and OPS showed a significant reduction. The mean number of ICM and TE decreased in CS and OPS, whereas in CPS it was almost identical to that of the control. The incidence of apoptosis and necrosis appeared to be almost similar in all the groups. In conclusion, CPS seems to be an effective, easy and rapid method for the cryopreservation of two-cell mouse embryos.     

Highly selective thiocyanate poly(vinyl chloride) membrane electrode based on a cadmium–Schiff’s base complex

A PVC membrane electrode based on a cadmium–salen (N,N′-bis-salicylidene-1,2ethylenediamine) complex as an anion carrier is described. The electrode has an anti-Hofmeister selectivity sequence with a preference for thiocyanate at pH 1.5–11.0. It has a linear response to thiocyanate from 1.0 × 10^–6 to 1.0 × 10^–1 mol L^–1 with a slope of 59.1 ± 0.2 mV per decade, and a detection limit of 7 × 10^–7 mol L^–1. This electrode has high selectivity for thiocyanate relative to many common organic and inorganic anions. The proposed sensor has a fast response time of approximately 15 s. It was applied to the determination of thiocyanate in a milk sample. Received: 1 December 2000 / Revised: 19 April 2001 / Accepted: 30 April 2001     

On the performance of density functional schemes for computing the static dipole polarizability of 4d transition-metal monohalides

This article presents the static dipole polarizabilities of 4d transition-metal monohalides in the framework of density functional theory. The behavior of a large number of density functionals, including various types of the local spin density approximation (LSDA), the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), meta GGA (MGGA), hybrid GGA (HGGA), and hybrid meta GGA (HMGGA), has been assessed in polarizability calculations. The highly accurate CCSD(T) methodology is used to benchmark a variety of functionals. Our results indicate that there is a large variation in performance of the various functionals of each type in the calculation of the dipole polarizability. It turned out that, in the LSDA class, SVWN5 gives better results than SVWN3 for the reference values. Of the GGA methods, BP86 and BPW91 give the best results for our data set, followed by G96LYP. The TPSS functional is the best method of the MGGA class, followed by the VSXC and BB95 functionals. Moreover, the B98 and mPW1PW91 functionals are the best methods of the HGGA lineage, predicting the most accurate static dipole polarizabilities. Finally, TPSS1KCIS and PBE1KCIS are the best methods of the HMGGA functionals for that purpose. In general, it was found that the HGGA and HMGGA functionals provide the best performance.     

Fabrication, characterization, and measurement of viscosity of α-Fe2O3-glycerol nanofluids

Magnetic nanofluids, ferrofluids, are a special category of smart nanomaterials, consisting of stable dispersion of magnetic nanoparticles in different fluids. In this study, magnetic nanoparticles of hematite, α-Fe₂O₃, were prepared by solvothermal method using Fe(NO₃)₃ as a starting material. The nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electronic microscope (TEM).To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research on the rheological properties of nanofluids of α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles and glycerol. The experimental results showed that the viscosity of α-Fe₂O₃-glycerol nanofluids increases with increasing the particle volume fraction and decreases with increasing temperature. Our results clearly showed that the α-Fe₂O₃-glycerol nanofluids are non-Newtonian shear-thinning and their shear viscosity depends strongly on temperature. The experimental data were compared with some theoretical models. The measured values of the effective viscosity of nanofluids are underestimated by the theoretical models.     

d-Glucosamine as an efficient and green additive for palladium-catalyzed Heck reaction

The Heck coupling of haloarenes with various alkenes was successfully performed in the presence of 0.5 mole % Pd(OAc)₂ and 1.0 mole % d-glucosamine as an additive with K₂CO₃ as the optimal base in a mixture of H₂O/iPrOH (φ _r = 2: 1) as the reaction solvent at 80°C after 6 h. d-Glucosamine was found to be an inexpensive, air-stable, easy to available, and efficient additive in palladium-catalyzed Heck reactions of aryl iodides (67–95 % conversion) and bromides (38–72 % conversion).     

Efficient imidazolium salts for palladium-catalyzed Mizoroki-Heck and Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions

The system, Pd(OAc)2/imidazolium salts (L2), was found as an efficient catalyst in the Heck coupling reaction of olefins with aryl halides and Suzuki reactions of various aryl halides with aryl boronic acids under aerobic condition. This catalytic system demonstrates great tolerance to a wide range of groups on all substrates of aryl halides, alkenes and aryl boronic acids.     

Purification of L-Lysine in Simulated Moving Bed and Fixed-Bed Chromatography

 L-Lysine was produced by a microbial process utilizing a Corynebacterium glutamicum (ATCC 21799) strain. L-Lysine was purified from the cultivated medium by fixed-bed and simulated moving bed （SMB） chromatography. The separation conditions including pH, eluent concentration and Lys+ and Lys2+ adsorption isotherms were studied in batch adsorption. The column capacity, eluent flow rate and eluent concentration have been studied in fixed-bed chromatography. Maximum purification rate of lysine was obtained as 0.066 g/(g·h) (per gram resin and per hour) at an eluent flow rate of 10 mL/min in fixed-bed chromatography. The results obtained from SMB were 0.11 g/(g·h) for L-lysine purification rate and 96% for L-lysine recovery.     

Effect of composition,solvent exchange liquid and drying method on the porous structure of phenol–formaldehyde gels

Organic gels have been synthesized by sol–gel polycondensation of phenol (P) and formaldehyde (F) catalyzed by sodium carbonate (C). The effect of synthesis parameters such as phenol/catalyst ratio (P/C), solvent exchange liquid and drying method, on the porous structure of the gels have been investigated. The total and mesopore volumes of the PF gels increased with increasing P/C ratio in the range of P/C ≤ 8, after this both properties started to decrease with P/C ratio for P/C > 8 and the gel with P/C = 8 showed the highest total and mesopore volumes of 1.281 and 1.279 cm³ g⁻¹ respectively. The gels prepared by freeze drying possessed significantly higher porosities than the vacuum dried gels. The pore volume and average pore diameter of the freeze dried gels were significantly higher than those of the vacuum dried gels. T-butanol emerged as the preferred solvent for the removal of water from the PF hydrogel prior to drying, as significantly higher pore volumes and specific surface areas were obtained in the corresponding dried gels. The results showed that freeze drying with t-butanol and lower P/C ratios were favourable conditions for the synthesis of highly mesoporous phenol–formaldehyde gels.     

Headspace solvent microextraction A new method applied to the preconcentration of 2-butoxyethanol from aqueous solutions into a single microdrop

A new procedure and experimental setup for the headspace solvent microextraction of volatile organic materials from aqueous sample solutions is described. The extraction occurs by suspending a 3-μl drop of the solvent from the tip of a microsyringe to the headspace of a stirred aqueous sample solution for a preset extraction time. The temperature of the microdrop and the bulk of sample solution should be kept constant at optimized values. The sample analyses were carried out by gas chromatography. The procedure was successfully applied to the extraction and determination of 2-butoxyethanol from content of some color samples used for painting the outer coverage of some machines such as coolers, refrigerator, cloths machine, etc. Parameters such as extraction time, nature of extraction solvent, size of microdrop, sample volume, stirring rate, ionic strength and pH of sample solution were studied and optimized, and the method performance was evaluated.