Solvation oscillations and excited-state dynamics of 2-amino- and 2-hydroxy-7-nitrofluorene and its 2'-deoxyriboside

Push-pull substituted fluorenes are considered for use as dynamic solvation probes in polynucleotides. Their fluorescence band is predicted (by simulations) to show weak spectral oscillations on the subpicosecond time scale depending on the nucleotide sequence. The oscillations reflect the local far-infrared spectrum of the environment around the probe molecule. A connection is provided by the continuum theory of polar solvation which, however, neglects molecular aspects. We examine the latter using acetonitrile solution as a test case. A collective librational solvent mode at 100 cm(-1) is observed with 2-amino-7-nitrofluorene, 2-dimethylamino-7-nitrofluorene, 2-hydroxy-7-nitrofluorene, and its 2'-deoxyriboside. Different strengths of the oscillation indicate that rotational friction of nearby acetonitrile molecules depends on the solute structure or that H bonding is involved in launching the librational coherence. Polar solvation in methanol is used for comparison. With hydroxynitrofluorenes, the observation window is limited by intersystem crossing for which rates are reported. A prominent excited-state absorption band of nitrofluorenes at 430 nm can be used to monitor polar solvation. Structural and electronic relaxation pathways are discussed with the help of quantum chemical calculations.     

Gas chromatographic separation of hydrogen isotopes on columns packed with alumina,modified alumina and sol–gel alumina

The stationary phase of alumina adsorbents, prepared by different chemical processes, was used to study the separation behaviour of hydrogen isotopes. Three types of alumina, obtained by conventional hydroxide route alumina coated with silicon oxide and alumina prepared by internal gelation process (IGP), were used as packing material to study the separation of HT and T₂ in a mixture at various temperatures. The conventional alumina and silicon oxide coated alumina resolved HT and T₂ at 77 K temperature with different retention times. The retention times on SiO₂ coated columns were found to be higher than those of other adsorbents. However, the column filled with IGP alumina was found to be ideal for the separation of HT and T₂ at 240 K. The peaks were well resolved in less than 5 min on this column.     

Ultrahigh sensitivity assays for human cardiac troponin I using TiO2 nanotube arrays

Rapid, highly sensitive troponin assays for the analysis of serum at the point-of-care are particularly desirable for the effective treatment of myocardial infarction (MYI). TiO(2) nanotube arrays constitute a low cost, high surface area, semiconducting architecture with great promise for biosensing applications due to their compatibility with multiple detection techniques. Using TiO(2) nanotube arrays functionalized with highly robust and ordered carboxyalkylphosphonic acid self-assembled monolayers, we have developed a simple and highly sensitive fluorescence immunoassay which can detect concentrations of human cardiac troponin I as low as 0.1 pg ml(-1) without the use of enzymatic amplification. Varying the morphological parameters of the nanotube arrays allows tuning the detection range over 6 orders of magnitude of the troponin concentration from 0.1 pg ml(-1)-100 ng ml(-1).     

Production of Acid-Stable and High-Maltose-Forming α-Amylase of Bacillus acidicola by Solid-State Fermentation and Immobilized Cells and Its Applicability in Baking

Among matrices used for immobilizing Bacillus acidicola cells [calcium alginate, chitosan + alginate, scotch brite, and polyurethane foam (PUF)], ??-amylase production was highest by PUF-immobilized cells (9.1?U?ml^?1), which is higher than free cells (7.2?U?ml^?1). The PUF-immobilized cells could be reused over seven cycles with sustained ??-amylase production. When three variables (moisture, starch, and ammonium sulfate), which significantly affected enzyme production in solid-state fermentation (SSF), were optimized using response surface methodology, 5.6-fold enhancement in enzyme production was attained. The enzyme production in SSF is 3.8-fold higher than that in submerged fermentation. The bread made by supplementing dough with ??-amylase of B. acidicola scored better than those with the xylanase of Bacillus halodurans and thermostable ??-amylase of Geobacillus thermoleovorans.     

Elicitation of Andrographolide in the Suspension Cultures of Andrographis paniculata

Andrographis paniculata belonging to the family Acanthaceae produces a group of diterpene lactones, one of which is the pharmaceutically important??andrographolide. It is known to possess various important biological properties like anticancer, anti-HIV, anti-inflammatory, etc. This is the first report on the production of andrographolide in the cell suspension cultures of Andrographis paniculata by ??elicitation??. Elicitation was attempted to enhance the andrographolide content in the suspension cultures of Andrographis paniculata and also to ascertain its stimulation under stress conditions or in response to pathogen attack. The maximum andrographolide production was found to be 1.53?mg/g dry cell weight (DCW) at the end of stationary phase during the growth curve. The biotic elicitors (yeast, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Agrobacterium rhizogenes 532 and Agrobacterium tumefaciens C 58) were more effective in eliciting the response when compared to the abiotic elicitors (CdCl₂, AgNO₃, CuCl₂ and HgCl₂). Yeast has shown to stimulate maximum accumulation of 13.5?mg/g DCW andrographolide, which was found to be 8.82-fold higher than the untreated cultures.     

Physicochemical and solvatochromic analysis of an imidazole derivative as NLO material

Bioactive imidazole derivative, 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-1-phenyl-1H-imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline, has been synthesized and characterized by IR, UV-vis, NMR and elemental (CHN) analysis. The electric dipole moment (μ) and the hyperpolarizability (β) have been studied both experimentally and theoretically, which reveals that the synthesized imidazole derivative possesses non-linear optical (NLO) behavior. This chromophore possess more appropriate ratio of off-diagonal versus diagonal β tensorial component (r=β(xyy)/β(xxx)=-0.19) which reflects the in plane nonlinearity anisotropy. Since they have largest μβ(0) value, the reported imidazole can be used as potential NLO material. Within this context, reasonable conclusions concerning the steric hindrance in the chromospheres, push-pull character, hyperpolarizability of the imidazole and their application as NLO materials will be drawn. The solvent effect on the absorption and fluorescence bands was analyzed by a multi-component linear regression in which several solvent parameters were analyzed simultaneously.     

A protocol for stripping and reprobing of Western blots originally developed with colorimetric substrate TMB

Western blotting is a widely used analytical technique for detection of specific protein(s) in a given sample of tissue/cell homogenate or extract. Both chemiluminescence (CL) and colorimetric detections can be used for imaging Western blots. Colorimetric substrates offer background free, sensitive, and clean imaging results directly on the blotted membrane and provides more accurate profile with respect to prestained marker. However, blots stained with colorimetric substrates cannot be reused since no stripping protocols have been reported for such blots, thus limiting their reuse for detection of another protein. In the present study, for the first time, we report a novel method of stripping Western blots developed with the colorimetric substrate TMB for detection of a low‐abundant protein and reprobing of these blots after stripping for detection of a more abundant protein through CL procedure. The stripping procedure utilizes a stripping buffer consisting of β‐mercaptoethanol, SDS, and Tris‐HCl and a washing buffer consisting of PBS added with 0.1% Tween‐20 involves a series of steps and facilitates accurate detection of the second protein (i.e., more abundant protein) in the stripped blot through CL. The protocol is reproducible and facilitates saving of precious clinical samples, in addition to saving cost and time as compared to the existing procedures.     

Dibenzyltin(IV) complexes of the 5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]quinolin-8-olates: Synthesis and an investigation of structures by X-ray diffraction, solution and solid-state tin NMR, Sn Mössbauer and electrospray ionization MS

A series of cis-bis{5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]quinolinolato}dibenzyltin(IV) complexes have been synthesized by reacting sodium salts of 5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]quinolin-8-ol (LH) and dibenzyltin dichloride. These complexes have been characterized by ¹H, ¹³C, ¹¹⁹Sn NMR, ESI-MS in solution and by IR and ^119mSn Mössbauer, ¹¹⁷Sn CP-MAS NMR spectroscopy in solid state. In addition, the structures of three of the dibenzyltin(IV) complexes, viz., Bz₂Sn(L²)₂ (2), Bz₂Sn(L³)₂ (3), and Bz₂Sn(L⁵)₂ (5) (L = 5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]quinolin-8-ol: aryl = 4′-methylphenyl- (L²H), 4′-methoxylphenyl- (L³H) and 4′-bromophenyl- (L⁵H)) were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. In general, the complexes were found to adopt a distorted cis-octahedral arrangement around the tin atom in both solution and solid state.     

Photoluminescence and Raman scattering from catalytically grown Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Se alloy nanowires

Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Se alloy nanowires, with composition x = 0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.7, and 1, have been successfully synthesized by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method assisted with laser ablation. The as-synthesized alloy nanowires, 60-150 nm in diameter and several tens of micrometers in length, complied with a typical vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism. The Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Se nanowires are single crystalline revealed from high-resolution transmission electron microscopic (HRTEM) images, selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement. Compositions of the alloy nanowires can be adjusted by varying the precursor ratios of the laser ablated target and the CVD deposition temperature. Crystalline structures of the Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Se nanowires are hexagonal wurtzite at x = 0, 0.2, and 0.5 with the [0 1 -1 0] growth direction and zinc blende at x = 0.7 and 1 with the [1 -1 1] growth direction. Energy gaps of the Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Se nanowires, determined from micro-photoluminescence (PL) measurements, change nonlinearly as a quadratic function of x with a bowing parameter of approximately 0.45 eV. Strong PL from the Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Se nanowires can be tuned from red (712 nm) to blue (463 nm) with x varying from 0 to 1 and has demonstrated that the alloy nanowires have potential applications in optical and sensory nanotechnology. Micro-Raman shifts of the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon mode observed in the Zn(x)Cd(1-x)Se nanowires show a one-mode behavior pattern following the prediction of a modified random element isodisplacement (MREI) model.     

Large dynamic Stokes shift of DNA intercalation dye Thiazole Orange has contribution from a high-frequency mode

Fluorescence of the cyanine dye Thiazole Orange (TO) is quenched by intramolecular twisting in the excited state. In polypeptide nucleic acids, a vibrational progression in a 1400 cm(-1) mode depends on base pairing, from which follows that the high-frequency displacement is coupled to the twist coordinate. The coupling is intrinsic to TO. This is shown by femtosecond fluorescence upconversion and transient absorption spectroscopy with the dye in methanol solution. Narrow emission from the Franck-Condon state shifts to the red and broadens within 100 fs. The radiative rate does not decrease during this process. Vibrational structure builds up on a 200 fs time scale; it is assigned to asymmetric stretching activity in the methine bridge. Further Stokes shift and decay are observed over 2 ps. Emission from the global S(1) minimum is discovered in an extremely wide band around 12 000 cm(-1). As the structure twists away from the Franck-Condon region, the mode becomes more displaced and overlap with increasingly higher vibrational wave functions of the electronic ground state is achieved. Twisting motion is thus leveraged into a fast-shrinking effective energy gap between the two electronic states, and internal conversion ensues.