Fundamental reactions in TiO2 nanocrystallite aqueous solutions studied by pulse radiolysis

Reactions of the hydrated electron, H atoms, 2-propanol, and methanol radicals with the TiO₂ nano-particles have been studied either directly or by competition kinetics. The radicals were produced by radiolysis of 2-propanol, t-butanol, or methanol aqueous solutions in acid pH's. The reactions involve electron injection to the conduction band. As expected, the t-butanol radical is inert towards TiO₂ under our conditions, while the other reducing radicals react with TiO₂. The reactivity decreases in the order: e_aq⁻>H>CH₃COHCH₃>CH₂OH. Two TiO₂ nanocrystallite sizes, with average diameters of 1.0 and 4.7 nm were compared. For equal concentrations (in terms of TiO₂ molecules), the rate of electron injection shows relatively little dependency on particle size. The rates of interfacial electron transfer and transfer coefficient are also reported.     

On Regressive Isols and Comparability of Summands and a Theorem of R. Downey

In this paper we present a collection of results related to the comparability of summands property of regressive isols. We show that if an infinite regressive isol has comparability of summands, then every predecessor of the isol has a weak comparability of summands property. Recently R. Downey proved that there exist regressive isols that are both hyper-torre and cosimple. There is a surprisingly close connection between non-recursive recursively enumerable sets and particular retraceable sets and regressive isols. We apply the theorem of Downey to show that among the regressive isols that are related to recursively enumerable sets there are some with a new property.     

Synthesis of latonduine derivatives via intramolecular Heck reaction

The synthesis of indole ring-fused benzazepinone series as latonduine derivatives has been developed via an intramolecular Heck reaction. The scope has been enlarged not only to indole moiety but also to pyrrolo and benzo[b]thiophene nuclei. Several derivatives prepared have been evaluated in vitro for their antiproliferative activities on breast cancer cell lines. Some of them showed promising cytotoxic activities.     

Microstructure array on Si and SiOx generated by micro-contact printing, wet chemical etching and reactive ion etching

A method, combining micro-contact printing (μCP), wet chemical etching and reactive ion etching (RIE), is reported to fabricate microstructures on Si and SiOx. Positive and negative structures were generated based on different stamps used for μCP. The reproducibility of the obtained microstructures shows the methodology reported herein could be useful in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), optical and biological sensing applications.     

The design, synthesis, and characterization of a PAMAM-based triple helical collagen mimetic dendrimer

The synthesis and characterization of a collagen mimetic dendrimer composed of the Gly-Pro-Nleu sequence is described. The dendrimer is built on a ‘first generation’ poly(amidoamine) core and is synthesized in 38% yield. This dendrimer exhibits a melting temperature of 25 °C, which is in between previously studied analogous molecules of identical sequence and length.     

A fractal analysis of skin pigmented lesions using the novel tool of the variogram technique

The incidence of the cutaneous malignant melanoma is increasing rapidly in the world [Ferlay J, Bray F, Pisani P, et al. GLOBOCAN 2000: Cancer incidence, mortality and prevalence worldwide, Version 1.0 IARC Cancer Base no. 5. Lyon: IARC Press, 2001]. The therapeutic address requires a method having high sensitivity and capability to diagnose such disease at an early stage. We introduce a new diagnostic method based on non-linear methodologies. In detail we suggest that fractal as well as noise and chaos dynamics are the most important components responsible for genetic instability of melanocytes. As consequence we introduce the new technique of the variogram and of fractal analysis extended to the whole regions of interest of skin in order to obtain parameters able to identify the malignant lesion. In a preliminary analysis, satisfactory results are reached.