Synthesis and characterization of a smart contrast agent sensitive to calcium

A novel first-generation Ca2+ sensitive contrast agent, Gd-DOPTRA has been synthesized and characterized. The agent shows approximately 100% relaxivity enhancement upon addition of Ca2+. The agent is selective and sensitive to Ca2+ also in the presence of Mg2+ and Zn2+. The relaxivity studies carried out in physiological fluids prove the prospects of the agent for in vivo measurements.     

Study of the interactions of sodium thiocyanate, potassium thiocyanate and ammonium thiocyanate in water+N,N-dimethylformamide mixtures by Raman spectroscopy

Raman spectra of water+N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) mixtures and their solutions with NaNCS, KNCS and NH(4)NCS were obtained. The bands of nu(CO) stretching, delta(OCN) bending, r(CH(3)) rocking and nu(N-CH)(3)) stretching of the DMF molecule with and without salts were studied. The dependence of the vibration frequencies and Raman intensities of the bands on the composition of the mixed solvent was discussed. The change of the band frequencies as a result of the presence of the salts and the solvation of the cations by the solvent molecules was examined. The stronger cation solvation by the aprotic solvent molecules instead of the water molecules in DMF concentrated solutions was discussed. The nu(CN) and nu(CS) vibrations of the SCN(-) ions were observed as a function of the cation present and the solvent composition. The presence of the SCN(-) ions as "free", contact ion pairs, or solvent separated pairs, was discussed.     

Transport Processes at α‐Quartz–Water Interfaces: Insights from First‐Principles Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Car–Parrinello molecular dynamics (CP–MD) simulations are performed at high temperature and pressure to investigate chemical interactions and transport processes at the α‐quartz–water interface. The model system initially consists of a periodically repeated quartz slab with O‐terminated and Si‐terminated (1000) surfaces sandwiching a film of liquid water. At a temperature of 1000 K and a pressure of 0.3 GPa, dissociation of H₂O molecules into H⁺ and OH^? is observed at the Si‐terminated surface. The OH^? fragments immediately bind chemically to the Si‐terminated surface while Grotthus‐type proton diffusion through the water film leads to protonation of the O‐terminated surface. Eventually, both surfaces are fully hydroxylated and no further chemical reactions are observed. Due to the confinement between the two hydroxylated quartz surfaces, water diffusion is reduced by about one third in comparison to bulk water. Diffusion properties of dissolved SiO₂ present as Si(OH)₄ in the water film are also studied. We do not observe strong interactions between the hydroxylated quartz surfaces and the Si(OH)₄ molecule as would have been indicated by a substantial lowering of the Si(OH)₄ diffusion coefficient along the surface. No spontaneous dissolution of quartz is observed. To study the mechanism of dissolution, constrained CP–MD simulations are done. The associated free energy profile is calculated by thermodynamic integration along the reaction coordinate. Dissolution is a stepwise process in which two Si? O bonds are successively broken. Each bond breaking between a silicon atom at the surface and an oxygen atom belonging to the quartz lattice is accompanied by the formation of a new Si? O bond between the silicon atom and a water molecule. The latter loses a proton in the process which eventually leads to protonation of the oxygen atom in the cleaved quartz Si? O bond. The final solute species is Si(OH)₄.     

Subspaces with a Common Complement in a Separable Hilbert Space

We present an alternative proof of a characterization, due to M. Lauzon and S. Treil, of subspaces with a common complement in a separable Hilbert space. Our approach is motivated by known results concerning the relative position of two subspaces in a Hilbert space. As byproducts we obtain a simple example of a double triangle subspace lattice which is not similar to an operator double triangle and a characterization of pairs of subspaces in generic position which are not completely asymptotic to one another.      

Search for critical fluctuations of the proton density in central A+A collisions at maximum SPS energy

We performed an intermittency analysis of the proton density fluctuations in transverse momentum space for the collisions Si+A (A=Al,Si,P) and C+A (A=C,N) at maximum SPS energy $\sqrt {s_{NN} } $ ?? 17 GeV). In our analysis we used exclusively proton tracks in the midrapidity region (|y _CM | ?? 0.75). For the Si+A system we find signature of power-law distributed density fluctuations quantified by the intermittency index ? ₂ which approaches in size the predictions of critical QCD [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 032002 (2006)]. This result supports further the recent findings of power-law fluctuations in the density of (?? ⁺, ?? ^?) pairs with invariant mass close to their production threshold for the Si+Si at the same energy, reported in [Phys. Rev. C 81, 064907 (2010)].     

Polysaccharides as a source of advanced materials: Cellulose hollow microspheres for drug delivery in cancer therapy

Biocompatible hollow poly(methyl acrylic acid-co-N-isopropylacrylamide-co-ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate)@cellulose succinate (P(MAA-co-NIPAAM-co-EGDMA)@CS) microspheres have been synthesized by employing uniform silica-MPS microspheres as template. Silica spheres were synthesized via Stöber method involving tetraethyl orthosilicate. The surface of resulting silica Stöber microspheres was modified using 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS), a polymerizable silane coupling agent. The above reagent introduces carbon–carbon double bonds on microspheres’ surface. This strategy uses the copolymerization of the following monomers, methacrylic acid (MAA), N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAAM) and the ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), which was used as cross-linker, aiming at fabricating the first shell. Distillation precipitation polymerization method was carried out with 2,2-azobis(2-methylpropionitrile) as initiator in acetonitrile aiming at coating the inorganic microspheres with organic shell of the above-mentioned copolymer. In continuation, cellulose succinate and cellulose powder was absorbed through electrostatic interactions onto microspheres’ surface and the isolated product was cross-linked through esteric bonds formation. The cellulose succinate hollow microspheres were obtained after the silica core removal. The resulting spheres were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and observed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Dynamic light scattering was used to study the hydrodynamic diameter of the synthesized microspheres. The anticancer drug daunorubicin was loaded in the spheres, and its release behavior was evaluated at acidic and slightly basic pH conditions, aiming at evaluating its behavior at the healthy and pathogenic tissues.     

Adsorption monitoring of phospho-l-serine on hydroxyapatite

The adsorption of the aminoacid phospho-l-serine (PLS) on the surface of hydroxyapatite {Ca₅(PO₄)₃OH, HAP}, was investigated using streaming potential measurements. Solutions saturated with respect to HAP, containing different concentrations of PLS, were brought in contact under carefully controlled flow conditions through plugs made of well dispersed HAP powder. The measurement of PLS adsorption during the equilibration of the solute with the HAP substrate, showed a plateau regime corresponding, according to geometrical considerations, to monolayer surface coverage. The PLS uptake measurements on HAP suggested that it is possible to monitor in situ adsorption during the monolayer surface coverage measuring the streaming potential of HAP. Analysis of the surface potential measurements suggested that during the monolayer surface coverage step, the negatively charged (HL^2?) PLS species were adsorbed. The adsorbed HL^2? was located at the inner Helmholtz plane of the electrical double layer, forming surface complexes with the positively charged ≡CaOH ₂ ⁺ sites on the surface of HAP. The rate constants of adsorption and desorption were calculated from the kinetics of adsorption of PLS on HAP.     

Conformations and fluorescence of encapsulated stilbene

Absorption and emission spectra of free and encapsulated stilbene in two different capsules were calculated using the DFT and the TDDFT methodology at the B3LYP, CAM-B3LYP, M06-2X, PBE0, and ωB97X-D/6-31G(d,p) levels of theory. The present work is directed toward the theoretical interpretation of recent experimental results on control of stilbene conformation and fluorescence in capsules [Ams, M. R.; et al. Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2009, 5, 79]. The results of the calculations are in agreement with experiment and show that fluorescence of trans-stilbene persists in the large cage while it is quenched in the small one. It is found that the geometry of trans-stilbene in the ground as well as in the first excited singlet state is unaffected by encapsulation in the large cage, and consequently the absorption and emission spectra are similarly unaffected. In the small cage, the ground state of encapsulated trans-stilbene is distorted, with the two phenyl groups twisted, while the geometry of the excited state, after relaxation, lies at the conical intersection with the ground state. Consequently, there is no emission similar to that of free trans-stilbene, and the state decays nonradiatively to the ground state.     

Combined passive and active shimming for in vivo MR spectroscopy at high magnetic fields

The use of high magnetic fields increases the sensitivity and spectral dispersion in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of brain metabolites. Practical limitations arise, however, from susceptibility-induced field distortions, which are increased at higher magnetic field strengths. Solutions to this problem include optimized shimming, provided that active, i.e., electronic, shimming can operate over a sufficient range. To meet our shim requirements, which were an order of magnitude greater than the active shim capacity of our 7T MR system, we developed a combined passive and active shim approach. Simple geometries of ferromagnetic shim elements were derived and numerically optimized to generate a complete set of second-order spherical harmonic shim functions in a modular manner. The major goals of the shim design were maximization of shim field accuracy and ease of practical implementation. The theoretically optimized ferro-shim geometries were mounted on a cylindrical surface and placed inside the magnet bore, surrounding the subject's head and the RF coil. Passive shimming generated very strong shim fields and eliminated the worst of the field distortions, after which the field was further optimized by flexible and highly accurate active shimming. Here, the passive-shimming procedure was first evaluated theoretically, then applied in phantom studies and subsequently validated for in vivo 1H MRS in the macaque visual cortex. No artifacts due to the passive shim setup were observed; adjustments were reproducible between sessions. The modularity and the reduction to two pieces per shim term in this study is an important simplification that makes the method applicable also for passive shimming within single sessions. The feasibility of very strong, flexible and high-quality shimming via a combined approach of passive and active shimming is of great practical relevance for MR imaging and spectroscopy at high field strengths where shim power is limited or where shimming of specific anatomical regions inherently requires strong shim fields.