Cloning and Expression of Che a 1, the Major Allergen of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Chenopodium album</Emphasis> in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis>

Chenopodium album is a weedy annual plant in the genus Chenopodium. C. album pollen represents a predominant allergen source in Iran. The main C. album pollen allergens have been described as Che a 1, Che a 2, and Che a 3. The aim of this work was to clone the Che a 1 in Escherichia coli to establish a system for overproduction of the recombinant Che a 1 (rChe a 1). In order to clone this allergen, the pollens were subjected to RNA extraction. A full-length fragment encoding Che a 1 was prepared by polymerase chain reaction amplification of the first-strand cDNA synthesized from extracted RNA. Cloning was carried out by inserting the cDNA into the pET21b (+) vector, thereafter the construct was transformed into E. coli Top10 cells and expression of the protein was induced by IPTG. The rChe a 1 was purified using histidine tag in recombinant protein by means of Ni–NTA affinity chromatography. IgE immunoblotting, ELISA, and inhibition ELISA were done to evaluate IgE binding of the purified protein. In conclusion, the cDNA for the major allergen of the C. album pollen, Che a 1, was successfully cloned and rChe a 1 was purified. Inhibition assays demonstrated allergic subjects sera reacted with rChe a 1 similar to natural Che a 1 in crude extract of C. album pollen. This study is the first report of using the E. coli as a prokaryotic system for Che a 1 cloning and production of rChe a 1.     

Competition of methyltrioxorhenium (MTO) with osmium tetroxide (OsO4) for pyridines binding: Ligand binding assay

Competition of methyltrioxorhenium (MTO) with osmium tetroxide (OsO₄) toward L = pyridine and its derivatives, based on the equilibrium constant for the reaction OsO₄·L + MTO = MTO·L + OsO₄, has been measured. A successful correlation of log K_eq with the Hammett σ constants of the substituents on the ligands was realized. A negative reaction constant, obtained for the reactions, shows that a more positive charge expands on the pyridine nitrogen in the complex MTO·L as compared with the complex OsO₄·L. So, the rhenium center acts as a better electron acceptor than osmium center. The thermodynamic parameters have been obtained and an excellent linear relationship was observed between the enthalpy and entropy of the reactions.     

Ionic liquid mediated sol-gel sorbents for hollow fiber solid-phase microextraction of pesticide residues in water and hair samples

An ionic liquid mediated sol-gel sorbents for hollow fiber solid-phase microextraction (HF-SPME) was developed for extraction of the pesticides: diazinon, fenitrothion, malathion, fenvalerate, phosalone and tridemorph from human hair and water samples. The analytes were subsequently analyzed with high performance liquid chromatography and diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). Preliminary experiments were carried out in order to study experimental conditions for pesticides' extraction from spiked hair and water samples with HF-SPME using hollow fiber-supported ionic liquid mediated sol-gel sorbent. The sol-gel nanocomposites were reinforced with nanoparticles such as carboxylic functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (COOH-MWCNTs), amino functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (NH(2)-MWCNTs), nano SiO(2), nano TiO(2) and nano MgO comparatively to promote extraction efficiency. In this device, the innovative solid sorbents were developed by the sol-gel method via the reaction of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) with 2-amino-2-hydroxymethyl-propane-1,3-diol (TRIS). In the basic condition (pH 10-11), the gel growth process in the presence of ionic liquid and nanoparticles was initiated. Then, the sol was injected into a polypropylene hollow fiber segment for in situ gelation process. Parameters affecting the efficiency of HF-SPME were thoroughly investigated. Linearity was observed over a range of 0.01-25,000 ng/mL with detection limits between 0.004 and 0.095 ng/mL for the pesticides in the aqueous matrices and 0.003-0.080 ng/mL in the hair matrices. The relative recoveries in the real samples ranged from 82.0% to 94.0% for the pesticides store seller's hair and the work researchers' hair. Results are showing the great possibilities of HF-SPME-HPLC-PDA for analysis of pesticides in biological and environmental samples.     

Electrochemical and chemical synthesis of nanostructure copoly(aniline-o-anisidine-o-toluidine) and study of its electrochemical behavior in organic sulfonic acid media

Terpolymerization of aniline, o-anisidine and o-toluidine was carried out by electrochemical and interfacial chemical polymerization. All homopolymers and terpolymer thin films have been synthesized through electropolymerization at room temperature in aqueous solutions containing 0.5 M of organic sulfonic acid, such as p-toluene sulfonic acid, methane sulfonic acid, sulfosalicylic acid, dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid, and 0.1 M of aniline, o-anisidine and o-toluidine monomers, using cyclic voltammetry method, applying a sequential linear potential scan at a rate of 25 mV s^?1 between ?0.1 and 0.9 V. The electrochemical terpolymerization has been performed at various mole ratios of monomers. Nanoparticles obtained from conjugation of homo- and terpolymer with organic sulfonic acids, were prepared by a chemical oxidation via interfacial chemical polymerization. SEM micrographs, FTIR spectra and conductivity measurements using four-probe method were applied for the characterization of the products. Terpolymer was characterized by higher conductivity than poly-o-toluidine and lesser than polyaniline and poly-o-anisidine. The solubility of terpolymers was dependent on the monomers mole ratio.     

A hybrid legendre tau method for the solution of a class of nonlinear wave equations with nonlinear dissipative terms

This article presents a technique based on the hybrid Legendre tau‐finite difference method to solve the fourth order wave equation which arises in the elasto‐plastic‐microstructure models for longitudinal motion of an elasto‐plastic bar. Illustrative examples and numerical results obtained using new technique demonstrate that the proposed approach is efficient in treating longitudinal equation of ealsto‐plastic bar. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 27: 1055–1071, 2011     

The extent of molecular orientation at liquid/vapor interface of pyridine and its alkyl derivatives by molecular dynamics simulation

In this paper, molecular dynamics simulation was performed to investigate the liquid∕vapor interfacial structure of neat polar liquids. Large-scale ensembles of liquid pyridine and its alkyl derivatives, 4-methylpyridine and 4-ethylpyridine, were simulated by classical molecular dynamics at 298 K. For the liquid system of low polarity, the surface density profile of the atoms meet exactly at the middle of interfacial region, and atoms of hydrophobic nature can be hardly discriminated from hydrophilic ones in either vapor or liquid sides. For a liquid system of high polarity, the density profile of atoms with different nature is highly discriminated all over the interfacial region, and as the polarity increases, a dense region of atomic density is clearly developed in the subsurface region. The recognized bivariate method was also used to study the molecular orientational distribution quantitatively. Orientational analysis of the three liquid systems indicates that the pyridine ring plane in the outmost surface tends to be vertical. Its tendency in the innermost interfacial region is parallel. The orientational states available to 4-ethylpyridine and pyridine are discriminated by predicting the possibility of a bisector-wise tumbling for the ring plane in pyridine and a side-wise tumbling in 4-ethylpyridine. The orientational distribution maps explain the trend of experimental surface tension and surface entropy. As the dipole moment of these liquids increases with the alkyl chain length, the surface structural profile changes from a regular definite one to a surface of complex atomic structure involving a dense phase near the interface. The development of dense region in alkyl derivatives is the result of segregation of molecules due to the alkyl group, which is captured and discriminated by molecular dynamics simulation even when the length of a short alkyl chain is increased by one carbon atom.     

Students’ ways of understanding a proof

We present a model for describing the growth of students’ understandings when reading a proof. The model is composed of two main paths. One is focused on becoming aware of the deductive structure of the proof, in other words, understanding the proof at a semantic level. Generalization, abstraction, and formalization are the most important transitions in this path. The other path focuses on the surface-level form of the proof, and the use of symbolic representations. At the end of this path, students understand how and why symbolic computations formally establish a claim, at a syntactic level. We make distinctions between states in the model and illustrate them with examples from early secondary students’ mathematical activity. We then apply the model to one student’s developing understanding in order to show how the model works in practice. We close with some suggestions for further research.     

Highly Efficient,Four Component,One-pot Synthesis of Tetrasubstituted Imidazoles Using a Catalytic Amount of FeCl<Subscript>3</Subscript> · 6H<Subscript>2</Subscript>O

Summary. An efficient and improved procedure for the synthesis of tetrasubstituted imidazoles by FeCl₃ · 6H₂O catalyzed four-component one-pot synthesis in refluxing ethanol is described.     

Preparation of Co3O4 nanoparticles by nonhydrolytic thermolysis of [Co(Pht)(H2O)]n polymers

Benzenedicarboxylate complexes, especially phthalate ones, can be significant precursors for the preparation of nano-sized metal and metal oxides. The injection of organic surfactants such as oleic acid (OA) and triphenylphosphine into molecular precursors has yielded samples with size control, narrow size distributions and crystallinity of individual nanocrystals. Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the OA molecules were adsorbed on the ferromagnetic nanoparticles by chemisorption. The temperature-dependent magnetization curve in zero-field-cooled and field-cooled exhibit weak ferromagnetism of the Co₃O₄ nanoparticles. At 300 K the remanent magnetization is 0.02 emu/g, the coercive field is 441 Oe and the magnetization at saturation is 1.05 emu/g.