Calorimetric examination of palmar connective tissue in Dupuytren’s disease

Dupuytren’s disease is a hand deformity in which the connective tissue of the subcutaneous palmar fascia contracts and toughens over time, eventually forming a thick cord that pulls one or more fingers into a bent position. The reason why this tissue becomes thickened is not precisely described yet. The aim of this study was to characterize the altered metabolism in palmar connective tissue that promotes disease progression. Normal and diseased palmar fascial complexes were acquired during live surgery and the investigation was performed in a relatively short period of time compared to the earlier reports. Similar sample environment was provided for the normal and degenerative samples. The thermal properties of samples were determined by differential scanning calorimetry. Before the examination all water from the surface was removed. Samples were heated from 0 to 80 °C. The heating rate was 0.3 K min^?1. Conventional aluminum alloy vessels were used with 40 μL sample volume. All samples showed a clear denaturation peak on the calorimetric curve. Change in the enthalpy was observed in normal palmar aponeurosis at ?1431.85 kJ kg^?1 (SD = 371.58). In the affected sample ?1508.70 kJ kg^?1 (SD = 245.66) was measured. Our results showed clear evidence that complex deviations from the normal matrix composition during the late stage of degeneration correlated significantly with changes in thermal properties.     

Cycloaddition reactions of 1,3-benzothiazines—I. : Reactions of 2-phenyl-4-H and 4-phenyl-2H-1,3-benzothiazine derivatives with substituted acetyl chlorides

6,7-Dimethoxy-2-phenyl-4$\text{H}$-1,3-benzothiazine (1) and 6,7-dimethoxy-4-phenyl-2$\text{H}$-1,3-benzothiazine (2) react with substituted acetyl chlorides to give linearly, and new angularly condensed β-lactam derivatives (4,5). Heating of the latter compounds with hydrogen chloride in anhydrous ethanol leads to the formation of the corresponding 4$\text{H}$- and 2$\text{H}$-1,3-benzothiazinium chloride, respectively. The configurations of these compounds (the mutual positions of the substituents relative to the β-lactam ring) were determined by ¹H and ¹³C studies, also making use of the aromatic solvent-induced shifts.     

Optimization of hydrothermal growth ZnO Nanorods for enhancement of light extraction from GaN blue LEDs

In this study, we report on the enhancement in the light extraction efficiency of GaN blue LEDs topped with ZnO nanorods. The ZnO nanorods were grown by a two-step hydrothermal synthesis with pre-coated ZnO nanoparticles under optimized condition to give the appropriate size and quality, giving an increase in the light output efficiency of 66%. This improvement is attributed to the optimal rod size and spacing with improved thermal dissipation as compared to light extraction from plain GaN surface. During the ZnO growth on the LEDs, 0.55 M of NH₃ was added and the ZnO sample was later annealed at 475 °C in N₂ ambient, to drive out interstitial oxygen atoms from the tetrahedral unstable site. As a result, a high ratio of UV to orange defect band emission was achieved. The two-step growth of ZnO nanorods on GaN LEDs was effective in generating array of ZnO nanorods which serve as reflector to enhance light extraction from LEDs.     

Learning Semidefinite Regularizers

Foundations of Computational Mathematics - Regularization techniques are widely employed in optimization-based approaches for solving ill-posed inverse problems in data analysis and scientific...     

A General Decay Estimate for a Finite Memory Thermoelastic Bresse System

Applications of Mathematics - This work considers a Bresse system with viscoelastic damping on the vertical displacement and heat conduction effect on the shear angle displacement. A general...     

Flow injection fluorometric determination of ascorbic acid using perylenebisimide-linked nitroxide

A simple and sensitive flow injection fluorometric method for the determination of ascorbic acid is described. Perylenebisimide-linked nitroxide (PBILN) is used as a fluorescent reagent, which permits the selective determination of ascorbic acid. The fluorescence of the perylenebisimide moiety in PBILN is quenched by the nitroxide moiety, which is linked to the perylenebisimide. When a stream of a solution of ascorbic acid is merged with a stream of PBILN, the ascorbic acid reacts with the nitroxide moiety of PBILN to form hydroxylamine, and the fluorescence properties of the perylenebisimide moiety are recovered. As a result, a peak-shaped fluorescence signal is produced, which can be observed by a fluorescence detector located downstream. Under optimized conditions, a good linear relationship between the concentration of ascorbic acid and peak height in the concentration range from 0.5 to 10 μmol L⁻¹ was found and the detection limit (S/N = 3) was 0.28 μmol L⁻¹. The relative standard deviation for the determination of 4.0 μmol L⁻¹ ascorbic acid samples was 1.0% (n = 5). The proposed method was applied to the determination of ascorbic acid in several soft drink beverages and the analytical results were in good agreement with those obtained using a conventional method.     

Synthesis and Stereostructure of 3-Amino-5- and -6-hydroxybicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2-carboxylic Acid Diastereomers

Summary. All-endo-3-amino-5-hydroxybicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2-carboxylic acid and two epimers of 3-amino-6-hydroxybicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2-carboxylic acid were prepared via 1,3-oxazine or γ-lactone intermediates by the stereoselective functionalization of endo-3-aminobicyclo[2.2.1]hept-5-ene-2-carboxylic acid derivatives. Their structures were proved by IR and NMR spectroscopy, with the use of HMQC, HMBC, DEPT, and DIFFNOE techniques.     

The copper(II) adduct of the unstructured region of the amyloidogenic fragment derived from the human prion protein is redox-active at physiological pH

Prion diseases are caused by the misfolding and aggregation of the prion protein (PrP). Herein we provide evidence that the CuII adduct of the unstructured amyloidogenic fragment of the human PrP (PrP(91-126)) is redox active under physiological conditions. We have identified that the relevant high-affinity CuII binding region of PrP(91-126) is contained between residues 106 and 114. Both [CuII(PrP(91-126))] and [CuII(PrP(106-114))] have CuII Kd values of approximately 90 microM. Furthermore, the smaller PrP fragment PrP(106-114) coordinates CuII producing an electronic absorption spectrum nearly identical with [CuII(PrP(91-126))] (lambda max approximately 610 nm (epsilon approximately 125 M-1 cm-1)) suggesting a similar coordination environment for CuII. Cu K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) reveals a nearly identical CuN(N/O)2S coordination environment for these two metallopeptides (2N/O at approximately 1.97 A; 1S at approximately 2.30 A; 1 imidazole N at approximately 1.95 A). Both display quasireversible CuII/CuI redox couples at approximately -350 mV vs Ag/AgCl. ESI-MS indicates that both peptides will coordinate CuI. However, XAS indicates differential coordination environments between [CuI(PrP(91-126))] and [CuI(PrP(106-114))]. These data indicate that [CuI(PrP(91-126))] contains Cu in a four coordinate (N/O)2S2 environment with similar (N/O)-Cu bond distances (Cu-(N/O) r = 2.048(4) A), while [CuI(PrP(106-114))] contains Cu in a four coordinate (N/O)2S2 environment with differential (N/O)-Cu bond distances (Cu-(N/O) r1 = 2.057(6) A; r2 = 2.159(3) A). Despite the differential coordination environments both Cu-metallopeptides will catalytically reduce O2 to O2*- at comparable rates.     

Direct solution of Navier–Stokes equations by radial basis functions

The pressure–velocity formulation of the Navier–Stokes (N–S) equation is solved using the radial basis functions (RBF) collocation method. The non-linear collocated equations are solved using the Levenberg–Marquardt method. The primary novelty of this approach is that the N–S equation is solved directly, instead of using an iterative algorithm for the primitive variables. Two flow situations are considered: Couette flow with and without pressure gradient, and 2D laminar flow in a duct with and without flow obstruction. The approach is validated by comparing the Couette flow results with the analytical solution and the 2D results with those obtained using the well-validated CFD-ACE™ commercial package.