Mussel‐Inspired Protein Nanoparticles Containing Iron(III)–DOPA Complexes for pH‐Responsive Drug Delivery

A novel bioinspired strategy for protein nanoparticle (NP) synthesis to achieve pH‐responsive drug release exploits the pH‐dependent changes in the coordination stoichiometry of iron(III)–3,4‐dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) complexes, which play a major cross‐linking role in mussel byssal threads. Doxorubicin‐loaded polymeric NPs that are based on Fe^III–DOPA complexation were thus synthesized with a DOPA‐modified recombinant mussel adhesive protein through a co‐electrospraying process. The release of doxorubicin was found to be predominantly governed by a change in the structure of the Fe^III–DOPA complexes induced by an acidic pH value. It was also demonstrated that the fabricated NPs exhibited effective cytotoxicity towards cancer cells through efficient cellular uptake and cytosolic release. Therefore, it is anticipated that Fe^III–DOPA complexation can be successfully utilized as a new design principle for pH‐responsive NPs for diverse controlled drug‐delivery applications.     

Deterioration of edible oils during food processing by ultrasound

During food emulsification and processing of sunflower oil (most used edible oil), a metallic and rancid odour has been detected only for insonated oil and foods. Some off-flavour compounds (hexanal and hept-2-enal) resulting from the sono-degradation of sunflower oil have been identified. A wide variety of analytical techniques (GC determination of fatty acids, UV spectroscopy, free fatty acids and GC/MS) were used to follow the quality of insonated sunflower oil and emulsion. Different edible oils (olive, sunflower, soybean, em leader ) show significant changes in their composition (chemical and flavour) due to ultrasound treatment.     

Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of indium homoenolate with aryl halide with wide functional group compatibility

An efficient palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of indium homoenolate with aryl halide is described. The reactions proceeded efficiently in DMA at 100 °C to afford the desired products of β-aryl ketones in moderate to good yields. Various important functional groups including COR, COOR, CHO, CN, OH, and NO(2) can be well tolerated in the protocol.     

Will the US economy recover in 2010? A minimal spanning tree study

We calculated the cross correlations between the half-hourly times series of the ten Dow Jones US economic sectors over the period February 2000 to August 2008, the two-year intervals 2002-2003, 2004-2005, 2008-2009, and also over 11 segments within the present financial crisis, to construct minimal spanning trees (MSTs) of the US economy at the sector level. In all MSTs, a core-fringe structure is found, with consumer goods, consumer services, and the industrials consistently making up the core, and basic materials, oil & gas, healthcare, telecommunications, and utilities residing predominantly on the fringe. More importantly, we find that the MSTs can be classified into two distinct, statistically robust, topologies: (i) star-like, with the industrials at the center, associated with low-volatility economic growth; and (ii) chain-like, associated with high-volatility economic crisis. Finally, we present statistical evidence, based on the emergence of a star-like MST in Sep 2009, and the MST staying robustly star-like throughout the Greek Debt Crisis, that the US economy is on track to a recovery.     

Understanding finite size effects in quasi-long-range orders for exactly solvable chain models

In this paper, we investigate how much of the numerical artefacts introduced by finite system size and choice of boundary conditions can be removed by finite size scaling, for strongly correlated systems with quasi-long-range order. Starting from the exact ground-state wave functions of hardcore bosons and spinless fermions with infinite nearest-neighbor repulsion on finite periodic chains and finite open chains, we compute the two-point, density-density, and pair-pair correlation functions, and fit these to various asymptotic power laws. Comparing the finite-periodic-chain and finite-open-chain correlations with their infinite-chain counterparts, we find reasonable agreement among them for the power-law amplitudes and exponents, but poor agreement for the phase shifts. More importantly, for chain lengths on the order of 100, we find our finite-open-chain calculation overestimates some infinite-chain exponents (as did a recent density-matrix renormalization-group (DMRG) calculation on finite smooth chains), whereas our finite-periodic-chain calculation underestimates these exponents. We attribute this systematic difference to the different choice of boundary conditions. Eventually, both finite-chain exponents approach the infinite-chain limit: by a chain length of 1000 for periodic chains, and >2000 for open chains. There is, however, a misleading apparent finite size scaling convergence at shorter chain lengths, for both our finite-chain exponents, as well as the finite-smooth-chain exponents. Implications of this observation are discussed.     

Photofragmentation in selected tautomers of protonated adenine

The photofragmentation by UV excitation of selectively prepared 1(+) and 3(+) tautomers of protonated adenine is studied after excitation at a 266 and 263 nm wavelengths with two different experimental set-ups located in Seoul and Orsay. While the production of 1(+) tautomers with an electrospray ion source is now well accepted, calculations were used to ascribe the preparation of 3(+) tautomers from cold adenine dimers. The fragmentation patterns are rather similar for both tautomers, suggesting similar mechanisms as a statistical fragmentation in the ground electronic state after internal conversion.     

Microfluidic synthesis of Janus particles by UV-directed phase separation

A synthetic methodology based on microfluidics has been developed to fabricate monodisperse polymer Janus particles by UV-directed phase separation.