Microspectroscopic Study of Liposome-to-cell Interaction Revealed by Förster Resonance Energy Transfer

We report the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-labeling of liposomal vesicles as an effective approach to study in dynamics the interaction of liposomes with living cells of different types (rat hepatocytes, rat bone marrow, mouse fibroblast-like cells and human breast cancer cells) and cell organelles (hepatocyte nuclei). The in vitro experiments were performed using fluorescent microspectroscopic technique. Two fluorescent dyes (DiO as the energy donor and DiI as an acceptor) were preloaded in lipid bilayers of phosphatidylcholine liposomes that ensures the necessary distance between the dyes for effective FRET. The change in time of the donor and acceptor relative fluorescence intensities was used to visualize and trace the liposome-to-cell interaction. We show that FRET-labeling of liposome vesicles allows one to reveal the differences in efficiency and dynamics of these interactions, which are associated with composition, fluidity, and metabolic activity of cell plasma membranes.     

Thermoelectric energy conversion in layered structures with strained Ge quantum dots grown on Si surfaces

The efficiency of the energy conversion devices depends in many ways on the materials used and various emerging cost-effective nanomaterials have promised huge potentials in highly efficient energy conversion. Here we show that thermoelectric voltage can be enhanced by a factor of 3 using layer-cake growth of Ge quantum dots through thermal oxidation of SiGe layers stacked in SiO₂/Si₃N₄ multilayer structure. The key to achieving this behavior has been to strain the Ge/Si interface by Ge dots migrating to Si substrate. Calculations taking into account the carrier trapping in the dot with a quantum transmission into the neighboring dot show satisfactory agreement with experiments above ≈200 K. The results may be of interest for improving the functionality of thermoelectric devices based on Ge/Si.     

Synthesis and Reaction of 2-Mercapto-3-Arylpropanoic Acids

Abstract

Two synthetic pathways for the preparation of 2-mercapto-3-arylpropanoic acids were developed. First, by the reaction of arenediazonium bromides with acrylic esters in the presence of CuBr, alkyl (2-bromo-3-aryl)propanoates were formed. Their cyclization with thiourea produced 5-(R-benzyl)-2-imino-4-thiazolidinones, which yielded 3-aryl-2-mercaptopropanoic acids by alkaline hydrolysis. Second, direct Meerwein arylation of acrylates in the presence of S-nucleophile (NaSH) allowed isolation of 3-phenyl-2-mercaptopropanoic acid in 8% yield. Such acids were used for cyclization with cyanoguanidine and phenyl isothiocyanate yielding 1-[5-(R-benzyl)-4-oxo-1,3-thiazolidin-2-ylidene]guanidines and new 5-(R-benzyl)-3-phenyl-2-thioxo-1,3-thiazolidin-4-one (rhodanine) derivatives correspondingly.     

Modeling phase decomposition and patterning in binary alloy systems subjected to neutron irradiation

We study processes of phase decomposition and patterning in a model of a binary alloy system subjected to sustained irradiation. We exploit the reaction rate theory and generalize the Darken approach of vacancy diffusion to describe generation, recombination, annihilation and spatial interaction of point defects. It is shown that an increase in the defect production rate phase, decomposition processes are replaced by disordering and patterning with vacancy clusters' formation. At elevated damage rates, both phase separation and patterning are accompanied by pattern selection processes. In the framework of numerical simulations, dynamics of phase decomposition and vacancy clusters formation is studied in detail. A change in the morphology of vacancy clusters during irradiation and their statistical properties are discussed.     

Design of new imidazole derivatives with anti-HCMV activity: QSAR modeling,synthesis and biological testing

Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design - The problem of designing new antiviral drugs against Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) was addressed using the Online Chemical Modeling Environment (OCHEM)....     

Quantum chemical insight on the uranyl benzoates association with cetylpyridinium

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The possibility of analytical determination of the uranyl cation UO22+ (taken in the form of the complex uranyl benzoate anion) by using the...     

Modeling self-organization of nano-size vacancy clusters in stochastic systems subjected to irradiation

We study the self-organization of vacancy clusters in irradiated materials under reactor and accelerator conditions. Using a continuum stochastic model we take into account dynamics of point defects and their sinks with elastic interactions of vacancies. Dynamics of vacancy clusters formation is studied analytically and numerically. We have shown a difference in patterning dynamics at irradiation under reactor and accelerator conditions. The external noise influence related to fluctuation in a defect production rate is studied in detail. Applying our approach to pure nickel irradiated under different conditions we have shown that vacancy clusters having a linear size ～eq 6 nm can arrange in a statistical periodic structure with nano-meter range. We have found that the linear size of vacancy clusters at accelerator conditions decreases down to 20%, whereas a period of vacancy clusters reduces to 6.5%.     

On Combinatorial Expansion of the Conformal Blocks Arising from AGT Conjecture

In their recent paper, Alday et al. (Lett Math Phys 91:167–197, 2010) proposed a relation between \({\mathcal{N}=2}\) four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories and two-dimensional conformal field theories. As part of their conjecture they gave an explicit combinatorial formula for the expansion of the conformal blocks inspired by the exact form of the instanton part of the Nekrasov partition function. In this paper we study the origin of such an expansion from a CFT point of view. We consider the algebra \({\mathcal{A}={\sf Vir} \otimes\mathcal{H}}\) which is the tensor product of mutually commuting Virasoro and Heisenberg algebras and discover the special orthogonal basis of states in the highest weight representations of \({\mathcal{A}}\). The matrix elements of primary fields in this basis have a very simple factorized form and coincide with the function called \({Z_{{\sf bif}}}\) appearing in the instanton counting literature. Having such a simple basis, the problem of computation of the conformal blocks simplifies drastically and can be shown to lead to the expansion proposed in Alday et al. (2010). We found that this basis diagonalizes an infinite system of commuting Integrals of Motion related to Benjamin–Ono integrable hierarchy.