The atomic structure and the properties of ununbium (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Z</Emphasis> = 112) and Mercury (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Z</Emphasis> = 80)

A super heavy element Uub (Z = 112) has been studied theoretically in conjunction with rela-tivistic effects and the effects of electron correlations. The atomic structure and the oscillator strengths of low-lying levels have been calculated, and the ground states have also been determined for the singly and doubly charged ions. The influence of relativity and correlation effects to the atomic properties of such a super heavy element has been investigated in detail. The results have been compared with the properties of an element Hg. Two energy levels at wave numbers 64470 and 94392 are suggested to be of good candidates for experimental observations.     

The kinetics of homogeneous nucleation of silver nanoparticles stabilized by polymers

The formation of Ag nanoparticles synthesized by homogeneous nucleation, stabilized by polymers (PVA and PVP) was monitored by UV–Vis spectrophotometry and transmission electron microscopy. Our aim was to differentiate between the two main phases of particle formation, i.e. nucleation and growth and to characterize their rates with the help of appropriate kinetic equations. Time resolved spectrophotometric measurements revealed that particle formation is an autocatalytic process: a slow, continuous nucleation phase (3–5 min) is followed by a rapid, autocatalytic growth phase where the maximal particle size is 5–7 nm. By freezing the reaction mixture, the process of particle growth can be followed from 5 to 40 min on TEM pictures. The first order rate constants were calculated and they are strongly depend on the polymer concentration. If the growing particles are attached by PEI to the surface of a solid support, the formation of silver nanoparticles can also be followed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and we can control the particle growth on mica surface. The cross section analysis of the pictures show, that the particle growing process can be also monitored at solid–liquid interface.     

Gallavotti–Cohen Theorem,Chaotic Hypothesis and the Zero-Noise Limit

The Fluctuation Relation for a stationary state, kept at constant energy by a deterministic thermostat—the Gallavotti–Cohen Theorem— relies on the ergodic properties of the system considered. We show that when perturbed by an energy-conserving random noise, the relation follows trivially for any system at finite noise amplitude. The time needed to achieve stationarity may stay finite as the noise tends to zero, or it may diverge. In the former case the Gallavotti–Cohen result is recovered, while in the latter case, the crossover time may be computed from the action of ‘instanton’ orbits that bridge attractors and repellors. We suggest that the ‘Chaotic Hypothesis’ of Gallavotti, Cohen and Ruelle can thus be reformulated as a matter of stochastic stability of the measure in trajectory space. In this form this hypothesis may be directly tested.     

Homothetic self-similar solutions of three-dimensional Brans-Dicke gravity

All homothetic self-similar solutions of the Brans-Dicke scalar field in three-dimensional spacetime with circular symmetry are found in closed form.     

Structural characterization of microwave-synthesized zinc-substituted cobalt ferrite nanoparticles

Microwave combustion technique modified by post treatment procedure is used to synthesize single-phase spinel ferrites of cobalt, zinc, and substituted magnetic nanoparticles of typical size 390 Å. The post treatment does not alter the crystal structure but increases the crystallinity. This is confirmed by powder x-ray diffraction and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) studies. Citric acid is used as a fuel. The fresh synthesized sample shows an impurity phase in x-ray and in FTIR. This is due to the unreacted citrate molecule adsorbed on the particle surface. It is shown that by treating the sample with 0.1 M HCl, we can eliminate the impurity phase, and one can obtain a pure single phase. The magnetization at 8 kOe increases by nearly 8% after the removal of impurity. In order to remove surface adsorbed OH^? ion, samples are treated with NaCl and heated to 200°C for four hours. The XRD result indicates that after the treatment neither the crystallite size nor the distribution changes, but it removes OH^? ion. This is also confirmed by FTIR analysis. Thus, this modified technique can be used to synthesize pure nanocrystalline samples of spinel ferrites.     

Zinc-phosphate nanoparticles with reversibly attached TNF-α analogs: an interesting concept for potential use in active immunotherapy

The authors’ intention was to prepare nanometer-sized zinc-phosphate nanoparticles that would be capable of binding histidine-rich TNF-α analogs onto their surface via a coordinative bond. Zinc-phosphate nanoparticles with a size of around 60 nm were prepared by a wet precipitation method and characterized using SEM, EDX, XRD, and DLS. First, BSA was bound as a testing protein, afterward two TNF-α analogs with decreased activity were bound to the described nanoparticles. The efficiency of binding and the existence of coordinative bond were confirmed with SDS-PAGE analysis. During binding, particle storage, and release experiments, the prepared TNF-α analogs retained their biological activity—hence the epitopes necessary for formation of antibodies stayed intact. The particle size did not change within a period of 2 weeks. No significant agglomeration was observed, the particles could be quickly dispersed in ultrasound. The present nanoparticles and the general approach of coordinative binding are widely applicable for natural and engineered histidine-rich proteins. The nanoparticles bearing appropriate TNF-α analogs could also be potentially used for active immunotherapy to tackle the chronic inflammatory diseases associated with pathogenically elevated levels of TNF-α.     

Nonlinear dust-ion-acoustic waves in a multi-ion plasma with trapped electrons

A dusty multi-ion plasma system consisting of non-isothermal (trapped) electrons, Maxwellian (isothermal) light positive ions, warm heavy negative ions and extremely massive charge fluctuating stationary dust have been considered. The dust-ion-acoustic solitary and shock waves associated with negative ion dynamics, Maxwellian (isothermal) positive ions, trapped electrons and charge fluctuating stationary dust have been investigated by employing the reductive perturbation method. The basic features of such dust-ion-acoustic solitary and shock waves have been identified. The implications of our findings in space and laboratory dusty multi-ion plasmas are discussed.     

Constant curvature coefficients and exact solutions in fractional gravity and geometric mechanics

We present a study of fractional configurations in gravity theories and Lagrange mechanics. The approach is based on a Caputo fractional derivative which gives zero for actions on constants. We elaborate fractional geometric models of physical interactions and we formulate a method of nonholonomic deformations to other types of fractional derivatives. The main result of this paper consists of a proof that, for corresponding classes of nonholonomic distributions, a large class of physical theories are modelled as nonholonomic manifolds with constant matrix curvature. This allows us to encode the fractional dynamics of interactions and constraints into the geometry of curve flows and solitonic hierarchies.     

Comparison between decoherence time for a two-state spin ½ system with its corresponding quantum retrieval period

The evolution of a two-state quantum system (a spin ½ particle) in both the framework of standard quantum mechanics and under the decoherence regime is considered. The former approach on this issue is the well-known quantum flipping process of a dichotomic system subjected to a time-dependent magnetic field. In the latter approach, the Spin-Boson model is utilized to describe the interaction of system with its environment and the Born-Markov master equation is derived to obtain the decoherence time. It is possible to show that under certain conditions, one may find a potential conflict between the predictions of decoherence theory and the result observed in a typical quantum flipping experiment.     

VEGFR-2 targeted cellular delivery of doxorubicin by gold nanoparticles for potential antiangiogenic therapy

We report a novel gold nanobioconjugate system that achieves targeted delivery of the small molecule drug doxorubicin to endothelial cells using anti-VEGFR-2 antibody conjugated gold nanoparticles (GNPs). The reported nanobioconjugate system combines the inherent ability of GNPs to undergo high levels of derivatization with the precision of antibody recognition of a cell surface antigen. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) confirmed intracellular presence of the GNPs. Using a VEGFR-2 expressing cell line and a cell line that is negative for the receptor, in combination with competition assay we established the cell specific targeted delivery of the nanobioconjugate. The nanobioconjugate system described here may have potential drug delivery applications for antiangiogenic cancer therapy.