Fluorescent Flavin/PVP-Coated Silver Nanoparticles: Design and Biological Performance

A red-emitting fluorescent Riboflavin (RF)/Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-coated silver nanoparticles system, λ_em?=?527 nm, Φ?=?0.242, with a diameter of the metallic core of 27.33 nm and a zeta potential of ? 25.05 mV was prepared and investigated regarding its biological activity. We found that PVP has a key role in RF adsorption around the SNPs surface leading to an enhancement of antioxidant properties (～70%), low cytotoxicity (> 90% cell viability, at 50 µL/mL, after 48 h of incubation) as well as to an efficient process of its cellular uptake (～ 60%, after 24 h of incubation) in L929 cells. The results are relevant concerning the involvement of RF and its coenzymes forms in SNPs - based systems, in cellular respiration as well as for future studies as antioxidant marker system on tumoral cells for viewing and monitoring them, by cellular imaging.

     

Tensor product surfaces of euclidean plane curves

Recently B.Y. CHEN initiated the study of the tensor product immersion of two immersions of a given Riemannian manifold [3]. In [6] the particular case of tensor product of two Euclidean plane curves was studied. The minimal one were classified, and necessary and sufficient conditions for such a tensor product to be totally real or complex or slant were established. In the present paper we study for tensor product of Euclidean plane curves the problem of B.Y. CHEN: to what extent do the properties of the tensor product immersion f ? h of two immersions f, h determines the immersions f, h ? [3]     

The number of spanning trees of plane graphs with reflective symmetry

A plane graph is called symmetric if it is invariant under the reflection across some straight line (called symmetry axis). Let G be a symmetric plane graph. We prove that if there is no edge in G intersected by its symmetry axis then the number of spanning trees of G can be expressed in terms of the product of the number of spanning trees of two smaller graphs, each of which has about half the number of vertices of G.     

On hermitian polynomial optimization

We compare three levels of algebraic certificates for evaluating the maximum modulus of a complex analytic polynomial, on a compact semi-algebraic set. They are obtained as translations of some recently discovered inequalities in operator theory. Although they can be stated in purely algebraic terms, the only known proofs for these decompositions have a transcendental character. Received: 27 June 2005     

Boundary behaviour of the mappings satisfying generalized inverse modular inequalities

We study the geometric properties of the mappings for which generalized inverse modular inequalities hold. We generalize in this way known theorems from the theory of analytic mappings and the theory of quasiregular mappings, like the theorems of Fatou, M. and F. Riesz, Beurling and Lindelöf and their extensions given for quasiregular mappings by Martio, Rickman and Vuorinen.     

Fixed point results on a metric space endowed with a finite number of graphs and applications

In this paper, we consider self-mappings defined on a metric space endowed with a finite number of graphs. Under certain conditions imposed on the graphs, we establish a new fixed point theorem for such mappings. The obtained result extends, generalizes and improves many existing contributions in the literature including standard fixed point theorems, fixed point theorems on a metric space endowed with a partial order and fixed point theorems for cyclic mappings.     

A Variational Characterization of the Effective Yield Set for Ionic Polycrystals

The effective yield set of ionic polycrystals is characterized by means of variational principles in $L^\infty $ associated to supremal functionals acting on matrix-valued divergence-free fields.     

Novel nanocomposite membranes from cellulose acetate and clay‐silica nanowires

In this study, a new class of heterogeneous membranes based on cellulose acetate (CA) polymer and a complex filler clay‐silica nanowires (SiO₂NWs) was investigated for potential biomedical applications. SiO₂NWs were synthesized using natural clay through a facile sol–gel method and were dispersed in the polymer solution by sonication in the 1.25, 2.5, and 5% weight ratio to the CA acetate polymer. Membranes were subsequently prepared via phase inversion by precipitation of the CA polymer in water. The pristine CA membrane and SiO₂NWs based nanocomposites membranes were characterized using different characterization techniques. The presence of the SiO₂NWs in the CA membrane was found to significantly enhance the protein retention, water wettability and thermal as well as mechanical properties in comparison to the pristine CA membrane. Water flows studies at different temperatures and the retention of bovine serum albumin have been studied and the nanocomposite membranes were found to exhibit superior performances compared with the pristine CA membranes. SiO₂NWs‐CA membranes showed a much higher stability to the water temperature change during separation than CA membranes. Morphological changes clearly revealed that the composite membrane were much more compact than the pristine CA membranes. The rabbit dermal fibroblasts cell viability in cultures after 72 hr of incubation was found to be greater than 80%. These newly synthesized composite membranes exhibit a high potential to be used for various medical applications because of their non‐cytotoxic characteristics. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Plutonium concentration distribution in bed load sediment samples along the Romanian sector of the Danube river and the Black Sea coast

The concentrations of²³⁸Pu and^{239, 240}Pu were determined in 12 sediment samples collected from the bed of the Romanian Danube river and Black Sea coast during June–September 1994. After the sample material has been properly prepared and²⁴²Pu tracer added, plutonium was separated from americium and curium by anion exchange. After electrodeposition on stainless steel discs the elements were counted with an -spectrometry system with silicon surface-barrier detectors. The^{239, 240}Pu concentrations range between 150 and 800 mBq kg^–1 dry, while the²³⁸Pu concentrations rise up to max 150 mBq kg^–1 dry. Although the chemical yields are rather low (51%) we appreciate the results as valuable since they report for the first time the distribution of the plutonium contamination along the Danube river and the Black Sea coast-Romanian sector.