Exhaled breath condensate: Determination of non-volatile compounds and their potential for clinical diagnosis and monitoring. A review

Exhaled breath condensate is a promising, non-invasive, diagnostic sample obtained by condensation of exhaled breath. Starting from a historical perspective of early attempts of breath testing towards the contemporary state-of-the-art breath analysis, this review article focuses mainly on the progress in determination of non-volatile compounds in exhaled breath condensate. The mechanisms by which the aerosols/droplets of non-volatile compounds are formed in the airways are discussed with methodological consequences for sampling. Dilution of respiratory droplets is a major problem for correct clinical interpretation of the measured data and there is an urgent need for standardization of EBC. This applies also for collection instrumentation and therefore various commercial and in-house built devices are described and compared with regard to their design, function and collection parameters. The analytical techniques and methods for determination of non-volatile compounds as potential markers of oxidative stress and lung inflammation are scrutinized with an emphasis on method suitability, sensitivity and appropriateness. The relevance of clinical findings for each group of possible non-volatile markers of selected pulmonary diseases and methodological recommendations with emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration that is essential for future development into a fully validated clinical diagnostic tool are given.     

Ruthenium(II) complexes derived from 2‐phenylthiazoline‐4‐carboxylic acid: structure and catalytic activity for transfer hydrogenation reaction

Piano‐stool ([(p‐cymene)Ru(thz)Cl], 2 ) and six‐coordinated ([Ru(thz)₂(PPh₃)₂], 3 ) ruthenium complexes derived from 2‐phenylthiazoline‐4‐carboxylic acid (Hthz, 1 ) were synthesized for the first time, and fully characterized using conventional methods. Also, the molecular structure of complex 3 was determined using X‐ray analysis. These complexes were evaluated as catalysts for transfer hydrogenation of carbonyl compounds in the presence of isopropyl alcohol and KO^tBu. Complex 2 was found to be more active than 3 in transfer hydrogenation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the Similarity of Sturm–Liouville Operators with Non-Hermitian Boundary Conditions to Self-Adjoint and Normal Operators

We consider one-dimensional Schrödinger-type operators in a bounded interval with non-self-adjoint Robin-type boundary conditions. It is well known that such operators are generically conjugate to normal operators via a similarity transformation. Motivated by recent interests in quasi-Hermitian Hamiltonians in quantum mechanics, we study properties of the transformations and similar operators in detail. In the case of parity and time reversal boundary conditions, we establish closed integral-type formulae for the similarity transformations, derive a non-local self-adjoint operator similar to the Schrödinger operator and also find the associated “charge conjugation” operator, which plays the role of fundamental symmetry in a Krein-space reformulation of the problem.     

Extraction of trivalent europium and americium by the synergistic mixture of bis-1,2-dicarbollylcobaltate and N,N,N′,N′-tetraoctyl diglycolamide in highly polar 3-nitro-α,α,α-trifluorotoluene solvent

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The extraction of trivalent europium and americium in the system water—HNO3—3-nitro-α,α,α-trifluorotoluene...     

Influence of ion bombardment on growth and properties of PLD created DLC films

A hybrid PLD system with ion bombardment of films was developed. Growing DLC films were modified during the laser deposition (10 J?cm^?2) by argon ions with energy in the range from 40 eV to 210 eV and cathode current of 0.15 A and 0.5 A. The content of sp² “graphitic” and sp³ “diamond” bonds was measured using XPS. Sp³ bonds changed from 60 % to 81 %. We found the highest sp³ content for energy of 40 eV. Hardness (and reduced Young’s modulus) were determined by nanoindentation and reached 49 GPa (277 GPa). Film adhesion was studied using the scratch test and was up to 14 N for titanium substrates. Relations among deposition conditions and measured properties are presented.     

Thermal science and analysis

History of thermoscopy and thermometry is reviewed showing the role of temperature degrees including the forgotten logarithmic scale. The importance of natural laws of energy, motion, least action, and thermal efficiency is discussed. The meaning of idiomatic terms—thermal physics, thermodynamics, thermostatics, thermotics, and thermal analysis—is specified and revealed within two parallel developed branches of thermal science. Itemized 105 references with titles.