Characterisation and deployment of an immobilised pH sensor spot towards surface ocean pH measurements

The oceans are a major sink for anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide, and the uptake causes changes to the marine carbonate system and has wide ranging effects on flora and fauna. It is crucial to develop analytical systems that allow us to follow the increase in oceanic pCO₂ and corresponding reduction in pH. Miniaturised sensor systems using immobilised fluorescence indicator spots are attractive for this purpose because of their simple design and low power requirements. The technology is increasingly used for oceanic dissolved oxygen measurements.     

Relaxing nonequilibrated polymers in thin films at temperatures slightly above the glass transition

We have studied the dewetting process of thin polystyrene films on nonwettable substrates in the viscoelastic regime slightly above the glass transition temperature. The evolution of the shape of the dewetting rim for varying film thickness, molecular weights and dewetting temperatures allowed us to determine the relaxation rates of residual stresses, which originated from nonequilibrated polymer chain conformations formed during film preparation by spin‐coating. For long chain polymers, we found rates notably faster than the longest bulk relaxation processes, highly independent of molecular weight and temperature. Our study demonstrates that dewetting is a powerful tool for sensitive characterization of nonequilibrium properties of thin polymer films. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55, 515–523     

Thermodynamics of Amino Acid Methyl Ester Hydrochlorides—Crown Ether Complexes in Methanol at 25°C

Stability constants, free energies, and enthalpies and entropies of the complexation of L-alanine methyl ester hydrochloride (L-Ala-HCl), L-phenylalanine methyl ester hydrochloride (L-Phe-HCl), and valine methyl ester hydrochloride (L-Val-HCl) with 15-crown-5 (15C5), benzo-15-crown-5 (B15C5), 18-crown-6 (18C6), benzo-18-crown-6 (B18C6), dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 (DC18C6), and dicyclohexano-24-crown-8 (DC24C8) in methanol are reported for 20°C. No significant variation in the stability constants and free energies of complexation is observed, indicating that the various crown ethers are poorly selective in binding the amino acids. However, the nature of the crown ether and the amino acid and their pattern of substitution cause a remarkable variation in the enthalpies and entropies of complexation. This indicates a strong enthalpy–entropy compensation effect. The enthalpy–entropy compensation effect for the crown ether complexes of the amino acid methyl ester hydrochlorides reported herein is compared with that of the crown ethers complexes of the amino alcohols and the free amino acid. It is found that the enthalpy–entropy compensation effect holds equally for the three classes of complexes.     

Local well-posedness of a nonlinear KdV-type equation

In this paper, a generalized nonlinear KdV equation with time- and space-dependent coefficients is considered. We show that the control of the dispersive and “diffusion” terms is possible if we use an adequate weight function determined with respect to the dispersive and “diffusion” coefficients to define the energy. We use the dispersive properties of the equation to prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions.     

A measure of statistical complexity based on predictive information with application to finite spin systems

We propose the binding information as an information theoretic measure of complexity between multiple random variables, such as those found in the Ising or Potts models of interacting spins, and compare it with several previously proposed measures of statistical complexity, including excess entropy, Bialek et al.?s predictive information, and the multi-information. We discuss and prove some of the properties of binding information, particularly in relation to multi-information and entropy, and show that, in the case of binary random variables, the processes which maximise binding information are the ‘parity’ processes. The computation of binding information is demonstrated on Ising models of finite spin systems, showing that various upper and lower bounds are respected and also that there is a strong relationship between the introduction of high-order interactions and an increase of binding-information. Finally we discuss some of the implications this has for the use of the binding information as a measure of complexity.     

Lanthanide upconversion nanoparticles and applications in bioassays and bioimaging: A review

Through the process of photon upconversion, trivalent lanthanide doped nanocrystals convert long-wavelength excitation radiation in the infrared or near infrared region to higher energy emission radiation from ultraviolet to infrared. Such materials offer potential for numerous advantages in analytical applications in comparison to molecular fluorophores and quantum dots. The use of IR radiation as an excitation source reduces autofluorescence and scattering of excitation radiation, which leads to a reduction of background in optical experiments. The upconverting nanocrystals offer excellent photostability and are composed of materials that are not particularly toxic to biological organisms. Excitation at long wavelengths also minimizes damage to biological materials. In this review, the different mechanisms responsible for the upconversion process, and methods that are used to synthesize and decorate upconverting nanoparticles are presented to indicate how absorption and emission can be tuned. Examples of recent applications of upconverting nanoparticles in bioassays for the detection of proteins, nucleic acids, metabolites and metal ions offer indications of analytical advantages in the development of methods of analysis. Examples include multi-color and multi-modal imaging, and the use of upconverting nanoparticles in theranostics.     

Thermoresponsive polymer colloids for drug delivery and cancer therapy

Many difficulties in treating cancer arise from the problems in directing highly cytotoxic agents to the deseased tissues, cells and intracellular compartments. Many drug delivery systems have been devised to address this problem, including those that show a change in properties in response to a temperature stimulus. In particular, colloidal materials based on thermoresponsive polymers offer a means to transport drugs selectively into tumour tissues that are hyperthermic, either intrinsically or through the application of clinical procedures such as localised heating. In this paper, the key attributes of thermoresponsive polymer colloids are considered, a number of important recent examples are discussed and the possible future developments of these materials are evaluated.     

Green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoflowers using Hypericum triquetrifolium extract: characterization,antibacterial activity and cytotoxicity against lung cancer A549 cells

Zinc oxide nanoparticles have attracted significant interest in recent years due to their unique multifunctional chemical and physical properties along with their biological activities. This study demonstrated for the first time the biogenetic synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles by utilization of the methanolic extract of Hypericum triquetrifolium (HT). The obtained nanoparticles (HT-ZnO) were characterized by ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The shape of the resulted nanoparticles is fusiform nanoflowers with an average hydrodynamic size of 275.46 ± 0.20 nm and a zeta potential of −8.23 ± 0.26 mV. SEM micrographs revealed that HT-ZnO nanoflowers have a multi-process structure in which one of the processes is large and the others have similar smaller dimensions. The synthesized nanoflowers have an average length of 312.28 ± 78.93 nm and the tip of its processes has a width of 48.69 ± 9.71 nm. The antimicrobial activity of HT-ZnO nanoflowers was performed using microbroth dilution format. It showed a bactericidal mode of action against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis with MIC/MBC values of 20 μg/mL and 5 μg/mL, respectively. MTT assay had revealed that HT-ZnO nanoflowers caused a dose-dependent decline in the viability of A549 adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells with an IC₅₀ value of 20.45 μg/mL. The effect of HT-ZnO nanoflowers on the migration and colony formation abilities against the same cells was evaluated as well. In conclusion, zinc oxide nanoflowers were successfully synthesized using methanolic extract of H. triquetrifolium. The resulting particles showed a bactericidal effect against Gram-positiveS. aureus and E. faecalis and a cytotoxic activity against A549 cells.     

Posterior simulation via the exponentially tilted signed root log-likelihood ratio

We explore the use of importance sampling based on exponentially tilted signed root log-likelihood ratios for Bayesian computation. Approximations based on exponentially tilted signed root log-likelihood ratios are used in two distinct ways; firstly, to define an importance function with antithetic variates and, secondly, to define suitable control variates for variance reduction. These considerations give rise to alternative simulation-consistent schemes to other importance sampling techniques (for example, conventional and/or adaptive importance sampling) for Bayesian computation in moderately parameterized regular problems. The schemes based on control variates can also be viewed as usefully supplementing computations based on asymptotic approximations by supplying external estimates of error. The methods are illustrated by a censored regression model and a more challenging 12-parameter nonlinear repeated measures model for bacterial clearance.