In vitro antiprotozoal activity of extracts of five Turkish Lamiaceae species

The in vitro antiprotozoal activities of crude methanolic extracts from the aerial parts of five Lamiaceae plants (Salvia tomentosa, S. sclarea, S. dichroantha, Nepeta nuda subsp. nuda and Marrubium astracanicum subsp. macrodon) were evaluated against four parasitic protozoa, i.e. Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, T. cruzi, Leishmania donovani and Plasmodium falciparum. The cytotoxic potentials of the extracts on L6 cells were also evaluated. Melarsoprol, benznidazole, miltefosine, chloroquine and podophyllotoxin were used as reference drugs. All crude MeOH extracts showed antiprotozoal potential against at least three parasites, so they were dispersed in water and partitioned against n-hexane and chloroform to yield three subextracts that were screened in the same test systems. The n-hexane extract of N. nuda was the most active against T. brucei rhodesiense while the CHCl3 extracts of S. tomentosa and S. dichroantha showed significant activity against L. donovani. All organic extracts displayed in vitro antimalarial and moderate trypanocidal activities against T. cruzi with the n-hexane extract of S. sclarea being the most active against the latter. The extracts displayed low or no cytotoxicity towards mammalian L6 cells.     

DSC and X-ray diffraction studies of HxBPA

A detailed DSC study has been done for the substance HxBPA in the temperature range 170 to 380 K and the scheme of transitions in this compound has been deduced. From X-ray work, values for the smectic layer thickness and inplane intermolecular distance have been found in two of the liquid crystalline phases, P₂ and S_H.     

Synthesis, spectroscopy and electrochemical behaviors of nickel(II) complexes with tetradentate shiff bases derived from 3,5-Bu(2)(t)-salicylaldehyde

Nickel(II) complexes of a series of N,N'-polymethylenebis(3,5-Bu(2)(t)-salicylaldimine) ligands containing 2,4-di-Bu(2)(t)-phenol arms, NiL(x), were synthesized and their spectroscopic and redox properties were examined. The UV-vis, (1)H NMR spectroscopic and magnetic results indicate that complexes NiL(1)-NiL(4) unlike NiL(5) and NiL(6) have a square-planar structure in the solid state and in solution. Cyclic voltammograms of NiL(x) (x=1-4) complexes displayed two-step oxidation processes. The first oxidation peak potentials of all Ni(II) complexes corresponds to the reversible one-electron oxidation process of the metal center, yielding Ni(III) species. The second oxidation peak of the complexes was assigned as the ligand based oxidation generating a coordinated phenoxyl radical species.     

Optimal iterative perturbation technique for solving Jeffery--Hamel flow with high magnetic field and nanoparticle

In this research paper, a different semi-analytical analysis of modified magnetohydrodynamic Jeffery--Hamel flow is conducted via the newly developed technique. We use the optimal iterative perturbation method with multiple parameters to see the effects of the magnetic field and nanoparticle on the Jeffery--Hamel flow. Comparing our new approximate solutions with some earlier works proved the excellent accuracy of the newly proposed technique. Convergence analysis of the proposed method is also discussed and error estimation is given to anticipate the accuracy of higher-order approximate solutions.     

Ion specific surface forces between membrane surfaces

Entities such as ion distributions and forces between lipid membranes depend on effects due to the intervening salt solution that have not been recognized previously. These specific ion or Hofmeister effects influence membrane fusion. A typical illustrative example is this: measurements of forces between double-chained cationic bilayers adsorbed onto molecularly smooth mica surfaces across different 0.6-2 mM salt solutions have revealed a large degree of ion specificity [Pashley et al. J. Phys. Chem. 1986, 90, 1637]. This has been interpreted in terms of very specific anion "binding" to the adsorbed bilayers, as it would too for micelles and other self-assembled systems. However, we show here that inclusion of nonelectrostatic (NES) or ionic dispersion potentials acting between ions and the two surfaces explains such "ion binding". The observed Hofmeister sequence for the calculated pressure without any direct ion binding is given correctly. This demonstrates the importance of a source of ion specificity that has been ignored. It is due to ionic physisorption caused by attractive NES ionic dispersion potentials. There appear to be some far reaching consequences for interpretations of membrane intermolecular interactions in salt solutions.     

Light harvesting and efficient energy transfer in a boron-dipyrrin (BODIPY) functionalized perylenediimide derivative

[reaction: see text] Click chemistry has been successfully applied in the synthesis of a bay region tetraboron-dipyrrin (BODIPY) appended perylenediimide (PDI). This light-harvesting molecule presents a large cross section for the absorption of light in the visible region. Excitation energy is efficiently channeled to the perylenediimide core. This novel antenna system is the first demonstration of the efficiency of energy transfer in a BODIPY-PDI bichromophoric system and appears to be highly promising for the design and synthesis of similar dendritic structures.     

Ionic conductivity of PVdF-co-HFP/LiClO4 in terms of free volume defects probed by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy

ABSTRACT

Polymers based on ionic conducting materials have important interest because of their potential applications in polymer electrolytes and membranes for fuel cell application. PVdF-co-HFP poly(viniliden-co-hexafluoropropylene) was chosen as a polymer matrix because of its high ionic conductivity and better mechanical properties. Polymer matrix composites were prepared with various amounts of LiClO₄ salt by a solution casting method. The sample-ionic conductivity measurements were recorded by AC impedance analyzer at different frequencies from 0.1?Hz to 20?MHz and at different temperatures from 273 to 373?K.

The changes of nanoscopic free volume and free volume fraction in these materials were investigated in terms of temperature from 273 to 373?K using Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS) and Simha-Somcynsky (SS) Hole Theory. The free volume had a bump at about 3% in weight percentage of the salt and there is a slight increase after 10%. The effects of weight percentages of LiClO₄ and temperature were investigated. The mechanism of the ac ionic conductivity was presented in terms of the free volume models, however thermo-occupancy function justifies the best accurate representation of the data.     

Linear and nonlinear nonlocal boundary value problems for differential-operator equations

This study focuses on nonlocal boundary value problems (BVPs) for linear and nonlinear elliptic differential-operator equations (DOEs) that are defined in Banach-valued function spaces. The considered domain is a region with varying bound and depends on a certain parameter. Some conditions that guarantee the maximal L_p -regularity and Fredholmness of linear BVPs, uniformly with respect to this parameter, are presented. This fact implies that the appropriate differential operator is a generator of an analytic semigroup. Then, by using these results, the existence, uniqueness and maximal smoothness of solutions of nonlocal BVPs for nonlinear DOEs are shown. These results are applied to nonlocal BVPs for regular elliptic partial differential equations, finite and infinite systems of differential equations on cylindrical domains, in order to obtain the algebraic conditions that guarantee the same properties.     

A landing theorem for periodic dynamic rays for transcendental entire maps with bounded post-singular set

In this article, we present a landing theorem for periodic dynamic rays for transcendental entire maps which have bounded post-singular sets, by using standard hyperbolic geometry results.