Chemical modification of nanocrystalline cellulose for improved interfacial compatibility with poly(lactic acid)

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Immunopharmacological Properties of Methacrylic Acid Polymers as Potential Polymeric Carrier Constituents of Anticancer Drugs

Cytostatic chemotherapeutics provide a classical means to treat cancer, but conventional treatments have not increased in efficacy in the past years, warranting a search for new approaches to therapy. The aim of the study was, therefore, to obtain methacrylic acid (MAA) (co)polymers and to study their immunopharmacological properties. 4-Cyano-4-[(dodecylsulfanylthiocarbonyl)sulfanyl] pentanoic acid (CDSPA) and 2-cyano-2-propyl dodecyl trithiocarbonate (CPDT) were used as reversible chain transfer agents. Experiments were carried out in Wistar rats. The MTT assay was used to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of the polymeric systems on peritoneal macrophages. An experimental tumor model was obtained by grafting RMK-1 breast cancer cells. Serum cytokine levels of tumor-bearing rats were analyzed. The chain transfer agents employed in classical radical polymerization substantially reduced the molecular weight of the resulting polymers, but a narrow molecular weight distribution was achieved only with CDSPA and high CPDT concentrations. Toxicity was not observed when incubating peritoneal macrophages with polymeric systems. In tumor-bearing rats, the IL-10 concentration was 1.7 times higher and the IL-17 concentration was less than half that of intact rats. Polymeric systems decreased the IL-10 concentration and normalized the IL-17 concentration in tumor-bearing rats. The maximum effect was observed for a MAA homopolymer with a high molecular weight. The anion-active polymers proposed as carrier constituents are promising for further studies and designs of carrier constituents of drug derivatives.     

Optical properties of binuclear zinc (II) macrocyclic complexes derived from 4-methyl-2,6-diformylphenol and 1,2-diaminobenzene

In this work, we present the synthesis and optical study of the binuclear zinc(II) macrocyclic complexes, derived from 4-methyl-2,6-diformylphenol and 1,2-diaminobenzene (H₂L). Two zinc macrocyclic complexes with different anions were prepared and characterized: [Zn₂LCl₂]·H₂O (1) and [Zn₂L](NO₃)₂ (2).     

Modelling of Lamb wave propagation in composite plate excited by surface bonded piezoelectrical actuators

Transient propagation of Lamb waves in a multilayered infinite composite plate with the arbitrary elastic anisotropy of each layer is considered in this paper. Integral representations of wave fields, an algorithm of computing the Green's matrix of the multilayered medium in Fourier domain and some methods of the Fourier transform inversion are used as basic analytical research instruments. The piezoelectrical transducers frequently used for Lamb wave excitation are modelled in this paper as surface sources with stresses concentrated on the boundaries of actuators. The contribution of each wave mode to a whole amplitude, focusing of Lamb waves and influence of the geometry of the surface source are discussed in this paper by numerical examples. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Acoustic streaming generated by standing waves in two-dimensional channels of arbitrary width

An analytic solution is derived for acoustic streaming generated by a standing wave in a viscous fluid that occupies a two-dimensional channel of arbitrary width. The main restriction is that the boundary layer thickness is a small fraction of the acoustic wavelength. Both the outer, Rayleigh streaming vortices and the inner, boundary layer vortices are accurately described. For wide channels and outside the boundary layer, the solution is in agreement with results obtained by others for Rayleigh streaming. As channel width is reduced, the inner vortices increase in size relative to the Rayleigh vortices. For channel widths less than about 10 times the boundary layer thickness, the Rayleigh vortices disappear and only the inner vortices exist. The obtained solution is compared with those derived by Rayleigh, Westervelt, Nyborg, and Zarembo.     

Advances in Surface-Enhanced Fluorescence

We report recent achievements in metal-enhanced fluorescence from our laboratory. Several fluorophore systems have been studied on metal particle-coated surfaces and in colloid suspensions. In particular, we describe a distance dependent enhancement on silver island films (SIFs), release of self-quenching of fluorescence near silver particles, and the applications of fluorescence enhancement near metalized surfaces to bioassays. We discuss a number of methods for various shaped silver particle deposition on surfaces.     

Iron-Catalyzed Oxidative C−O and C−N Coupling Reactions Using Air as Sole Oxidant**

We describe the oxygenation of tertiary arylamines, and the amination of tertiary arylamines and phenols. The key step of these coupling reactions is an iron-catalyzed oxidative C−O or C−N bond formation which generally provides the corresponding products in high yields and with excellent regioselectivity. The transformations are accomplished using hexadecafluorophthalocyanine−iron(II) (FePcF₁₆) as catalyst in the presence of an acid or a base additive and require only ambient air as sole oxidant.