Polydipropylsiloxane Single Crystals

Polydipropylsiloxane single crystals, grown from a dilute n-butylacetate solution, were characterized by electron microscopy and by selected-area electron-beam diffraction techniques. The electron diffraction study shows that the growth face was parallel to the (100) plane. Fracture of single crystals parallel to the fold plane takes place during the electron diffraction examination to give ribbon like lamellae about 300 A wide and 80 A thick. Fracture normal to the fold plane was also observed.     

Molecule-based kinetic modeling by Monte Carlo methods for heavy petroleum conversion

A methodology for kinetic modeling of conversion processes is presented.The proposed approach allows to overcome the lack of molecular detail of the petroleum fractions and to simulate the reactions of the process by means of a two-step procedure.In the first step,a synthetic mixture of molecules representing the feedstock is generated via a molecular reconstruction method,termed SR-REM molecular reconstruction.In the second step,a kinetic Monte Carlo method,termed stochastic simulation algorithm(SSA),is used to simulate the effect of the conversion reactions on the mixture of molecules.The resulting methodology is applied to the Athabasca vacuum residue hydrocracking.An adequate molecular representation of the vacuum residue is obtained using the SR-REM algorithm.The reaction simulations present a good agreement with the laboratory data for Athabasca vacuum residue conversion.In addition,the proposed methodology provides the molecular detail of the vacuum residue conversion throughout the reactions simulations.     

Uranium,thorium and potassium occurrences in the vicinity of hot springs in the northern neotectonic belt in the Eastern Cape Province,South Africa

Gamma ray measurements were carried out along two parallel lines close to each of the hot springs using a RS 125 spectrometer to find the concentration (ppm) of U, Th, and K at Polile Tshisa, Aliwal North, and Badfontein hot springs. The RS 125 spectrometer is auto-stabilized on the naturally occurring U, Th, and K, and provides concentrations (ppm) of the radioelements. The results show that the concentration of thorium is higher, and is below the world average hazardous threshold of 7.4 ppm. Thorium is related to the occurrence of monazite seen at the scanning electron microscope. Higher ratios of U/K are indicative of an increase of uranium relative to potassium. Binary diagrams (Th–U, K–U, and K–Th) do not show a clear best fit except at Polile Tshisa hot spring where thorium shows a quasi positive correlation to potassium. In general, it can be concluded that the concentrations of these three radioelements are quite low, acceptable for groundwater, and could be hazardous to the health of humans and animals if exposed to long time radiations.     

The Diversity of a Polyclonal FluCell-SELEX Library Outperforms Individual Aptamers as Emerging Diagnostic Tools for the Identification of Carbapenem Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Textbook procedures require the use of individual aptamers enriched in SELEX libraries which are subsequently chemically synthesized after their biochemical characterization. Here we show that this reduction of the available sequence space of large libraries and thus the diversity of binding molecules reduces the labelling efficiency and fidelity of selected single aptamers towards different strains of the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa compared to a polyclonal aptamer library enriched by a whole-cell-SELEX involving fluorescent aptamers. The library outperformed single aptamers in reliable and specific targeting of different clinically relevant strains, allowed to inhibit virulence associated cellular functions and identification of bound cell surface targets by aptamer based affinity purification and mass spectrometry. The stunning ease of this FluCell-SELEX and the convincing performance of the P. aeruginosa specific library may pave the way towards generally new and efficient diagnostic techniques based on polyclonal aptamer libraries not only in clinical microbiology.     

An impedance study of Ir(210) in HCl solutions

In the Ir(210)/aqueous HCl solution system the “hydrogen adsorption region” is due to the combined process of hydrogen and chloride ion adsorption. We demonstrate that by using impedance spectroscopy the rates of, and charges associated with, hydrogen and chloride adsorption rates can be determined separately. Published in Elektrokhimiya in Russian, 2009, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 32–41. Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of B.V. Ershler. The text was submitted by authors in English.