Interaction between green tea extract and 99mTc-pertechnetate on in vivo distribution

People drink various types of tea without knowing the side effects of biological and chemical contents and radiopharmaceutical interactions. In current study, it is aimed to evaluate the effects of green tea extract in different extraction solvents on the radiolabeling of the blood constituents with ^99mTc and on the biodistribution of radiopharmaceutical sodium pertechnetate (Na^99mTcO₄) in male Wistar Albino rats. The extraction of green tea was performed in different solvents. Biodistribution studies were performed on male rats which were treated via gavage with green tea extract in different extraction solvents or saline (0.9 % NaCl) as a control group for 7 days. The radiolabeling of blood constituents performed incubating with SnCl₂ and ^99mTc. According to experimental results, radiolabeling blood components with ^99mTc were not modified in the usage of the different extraction solvents for green tea extraction, but a significant alteration (P < 0.05) of biodistribution of Na^99mTcO₄ was observed after treatment with green tea extract in distilled water. Although there is no considerable effect on radiolabeling of blood components, there is an outstanding change on the biodistribution studies especially with green tea extract in distilled water. The identified change monitored in this study may cause to reduce the risk of misdiagnosis and/or avoid the repetition of the examinations in nuclear medicine.     

Fabrication and characterization of Ag- and Cu-doped TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) by in situ anodization method as an efficient photocatalyst

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - In this study, copper (Cu) and silver (Ag)–doped TiO2 nanotubes were fabricated by in situ anodization method to improve their photocatalytic...     

Enhanced ethanol sensing properties of WO3 modified TiO2 nanorods

Pristine and WO₃ decorated TiO₂ nanorods (NRs) were synthesised to investigate n-n-type heterojunction gas sensing properties. TiO₂ NRs were fabricated via hydrothermal method on fluorine-doped tin oxide coated glass (FTO) substrates. Then, tungsten was sputtered on the TiO₂ NRs and thermally oxidised to obtain WO₃ nanoparticles. The heterostructure was characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy. Fabricated sensor devices were exposed to VOCs such as toluene, xylene, acetone and ethanol, and humidity at different operation temperatures. Experimental results demonstrated that the heterostructure has better sensor response toward ethanol at 200 °C. Enhanced sensing properties are attributed to the heterojunction formation by decorating TiO₂ NRs with WO₃.     

Substituent effects on the ring‐opening mechanism of gem‐dibromospiropentanes to related allenes: a theoretical study

Density functional theory computations at B3LYP and X3LYP levels were performed for ring openings of substituted gem‐dibromospiropentanes (R = ―H, ―Cl, ―Br, ―CH₃, ―SiH₃, ―OH, ―OCH₃, ―CF₃, ―BF₂, and ―SH) to related allenes. The conversion of spiropentanoids 5a , 5b , 5c , 5d , 5e , 5f , 5g , 5h , 5i , 5j to the corresponding allenes 7a , 7b , 7c , 7d , 7e , 7f , 7g , 7h , 7i , 7j can proceed in both concerted and stepwise mechanism except for R = ―H. Both ring‐opening mechanisms have similar activation energy barriers to open the spiropentanylidene ring and generate the structure of allene at all theoretical levels used herein. Generally the π electron‐donating group (―OH or ―SH) decreases the activation barrier for the follow‐up reaction of 1‐bromo‐1‐lithiospiropentanoid and free spiropentanylidene. Hence, both bearing electron‐donating substituents are more reactive than those with electron‐withdrawing group, and the first one to open the ring to the LiBr–allene complex does so more readily than the second. The sEDA index used to measure sigma‐electron excess/deficiency of the cyclopropylidene ring is mutually correlated for the studied systems. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generation of 250 mW narrowband pulsed ultraviolet light by frequency quadrupling of an amplified erbium-doped fiber laser

We demonstrate a high-power, narrowband pulsed source at 390 nm by two stages of frequency doubling in periodically poled MgO:LiNbO(3) and periodically poled KTiOPO(4) of an amplified, passively mode-locked fiber laser. With a frequency quadrupling efficiency of 5.5% and a 0.1 nm bandwidth, the 250 mW ultraviolet source is a suitable compact pump source for many entanglement-based quantum information processing tasks.     

Improvements of Tolerance to Stress Conditions by Genetic Engineering in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae during Ethanol Production

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, industrial yeast isolate, has been of great interest in recent years for fuel ethanol production. The ethanol yield and productivity depend on many inhibitory factors during the fermentation process such as temperature, ethanol, compounds released as the result of pretreatment procedures, and osmotic stress. An ideal strain should be able to grow under different stress conditions occurred at different fermentation steps. Development of tolerant yeast strains can be achieved by reprogramming pathways supporting the ethanol metabolism by regulating the energy balance and detoxicification processes. Complex gene interactions should be solved for an in-depth comprehension of the yeast stress tolerance mechanism. Genetic engineering as a powerful biotechnological tool is required to design new strategies for increasing the ethanol fermentation performance. Upregulation of stress tolerance genes by recombinant DNA technology can be a useful approach to overcome inhibitory situations. This review presents the application of several genetic engineering strategies to increase ethanol yield under different stress conditions including inhibitor tolerance, ethanol tolerance, thermotolerance, and osmotolerance.     

A Novel Chronoimpedimetric Glucose Sensor in Real Blood Samples Modified by Glucose‐imprinted Pyrrole‐Aminophenylboronic Acid Modified Screen Printed Electrode

In this study, a molecularly imprinted sensor technology is engineered to detect glucose in real blood samples by chronoimpedimetrically. The imprinting process of glucose (Glc) was carried out by electrochemical polymerization of aminophenylboronic acid (APBA) and pyrrole (Py) by performing cyclic voltammetry (CV). Afterwards, glucose molecule was removed from imprinted surface by 5 % acetic acid to reveal glucose imprinted cavities. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) was used to characterize sensor modification steps and glucose removal. Glucose monitoring process was carried out chronoimpedimetrically(CI) for the first time in real blood samples. Calibration curve was prepared between 20–800 mg/dL. The standard deviations of the 18 calibration curves R² were calculated as 0.9866±0.0066 to assess reproducibility. Recovery was calculated by using 105 mg/dL Glc Serum Sample, which was monitored by auto analyzer and into this sample 50 mg/dL Glc added and our sensor response was 147.92±2.43 mg/dL, 98.6±1.62 % (n=5). Non‐imprinted (NIP) sensor gave no signal for the glucose concentration.     

Transition‐Metal Catalysis of Triene 6π Electrocyclization: The π‐Complexation Strategy Realized

Triene 6π electrocyclization, wherein a conjugated triene undergoes a concerted stereospecific cycloisomerization to a cyclohexadiene, is a reaction of great historical and practical significance. In order to circumvent limitations imposed by the normally harsh reaction conditions, chemists have long sought to develop catalytic variants based upon the activating power of metal–alkene coordination. Herein, we demonstrate the first successful implementation of such a strategy by utilizing [(C₅H₅)Ru(NCMe)₃]PF₆ as a precatalyst for the disrotatory 6π electrocyclization of highly substituted trienes that are resistant to thermal cyclization. Mechanistic and computational studies implicate hexahapto transition‐metal coordination as responsible for lowering the energetic barrier to ring closure. This work establishes a foundation for the development of new catalysts for stereoselective electrocyclizations.     

Entanglements in amorphous polymer networks

This paper consists of two parts. In the first part, the strain dependence of entanglements or constraints acting along the contour of a Gaussian chain is derived. The functional form of the elastic free energy resulting from constraints along the chain contour is identical to that obtained in the Flory constrained junction model. In the second part, the effective number of constraints acting along the contour of a chain is discussed. The choice of this number results from postulates imposed by various authors and cannot be derived by rigorous theory. The paper compares the predictions based on these assumptions with experimental data from model networks.