Highly cytotoxic iron(II) complexes with pentadentate pyridyl ligands as a new class of anti-tumor agents

The iron(II) complexes and with pentadentate pyridyl ligands are stable under physiological conditions and exhibit higher cytotoxicities toward a series of human carcinoma cell lines than cisplatin; can significantly increase intracellular oxidant levels, cleave supercoiled plasmid DNA in vitro without addition of a reductant and induce apoptotic cell death in human cervical epithelioid carcinoma cells (HeLa) as observed in flow cytometric studies.     

PHOTOTACTIC RESPONSE OF CHLAMYDOMON AS TO FLASHES OF LIGHT-I. RESPONSE OF CELL POPULATIONS

Abstract— Chlamydomonas reinhardi responds phototactically to a single, very short flash of blue light (6-4 μs). Net oriented response of a cell population is monitored photometrically, using the "population system" of Feinleib and Curry (1967). A single high-intensity flash elicits a small, but definite net movement away from the stimulus source. Repetitive flashing at low frequency (between 8 and 60 flashes per min) and at the same intensity elicits a prolonged response in the same direction. Net phototactic response to single or repetitive flashes varies with stimulus intensity in the same way as does response to continuous light (Feinleib and Curry, 1971b); response is positive at low intensity and negative at high intensity. These data indicate that at least some cells become oriented in response to a short flash. The occurrence of such a response has implications for the mechanism of phototactic orientation. If almost all the cells responded, one would assume that Chlamydomonas perceives light direction instantaneously by detecting an absorption gradient within the cell. Unequivocal interpretation of the short-flash response requires examination of the behavior of individual cells.     

PHOTOTACTIC RESPONSE OF CHLAMYDOMONAS TO FLASHES OF LIGHT –II. RESPONSE OF INDIVIDUAL CELLS

Abstract— –Video-microscope studies provide further evidence that Chlamydomonas can become oriented in response to a single short flash of light. Following a flash, 50% of the cells in a negatively phototactic population undergo a transient deflection in swimming path ('turn response'), 10% show a 'stop response', and 40% continue to swim straight ahead. The direction of turning is related to the direction of the stimulus; a majority of cells turn away from the flash source. Repetitive flashing at 60 per s elicits oriented swimming, indistinguishable from that observed with continuous light. Responses at the onset of repetitive flashing resemble single-flash responses, reinforcing the idea that response to a single flash corresponds to the initial stages of orientation to continuous light. A stop response sometimes occurs at the onset of orientation to repetitive flashing, but it is apparently not an essential component of orientation. The fact that only 60% of the cells turn or stop in response to a flash is consistent with the hypothesis that light direction is perceived by comparing light absorbed in one photoreceptive region at two instants in time (before and during the flash). The only cells to turn or to stop would be those in which the photoreceptor organelle is appropriately oriented at the instant of the flash.     

Monitoring stereoselective degradation of metolachlor in a constructed wetland: use of statistically valid enantiomeric and diastereomeric fractions as opposed to ratios

Environmentally contaminated aqueous samples are examined for evidence of stereoselective degradation of metolachlor. The unique chemical structure of metolachlor, a chloroacetamide herbicide, consists of four stereoisomers due to axial and/or C-chirality. The degradation of metolachlor is monitored over time in agricultural runoff water that is applied to a subsurface flow constructed wetland. Metolachlor stereoisomers are isolated from aqueous samples by achiral reversed-phase solid-phase extraction and analyzed by normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography using a chiral stationary phase. The analyses of 64 post-application samples, collected over a period of four weeks, are reported. The samples are filtered (0.45 microm) prior to analysis and thereby represent metolachlor in solution and/or associated with dissolved organic carbon. Sixteen samples demonstrate total racemic metolachlor concentrations greater than 10 ppb. Of these 16 samples, one sample is determined statistically to demonstrate enantioselective degradation. Significant contributions made by this study include the evaluation of stereoselectivity based on mathematically derived fractions, rather than ratios, and statistical evaluation of precision establishing the variability resulting from chromatographic processes versus metabolic processes. The research demonstrates that distribution of metolachlor between the solid phase composed of chemical and/or biological particulates and the aqueous phase is not primarily stereoselective, and that stereoselectively enriched metolachlor does not dominate in the aqueous phase.     

Colorimetric Nanofibers as Optical Sensors

Sensors play a major role in many applications today, ranging from biomedicine to safety equipment, where they detect and warn us about changes in the environment. Nanofibers, characterized by high porosity, flexibility, and a large specific surface area, are the ideal material for ultrasensitive, fast‐responding, and user‐friendly sensor design. Indeed, a large specific surface area increases the sensitivity and response time of the sensor as the contact area with the analyte is enlarged. Thanks to the flexibility of membranes, nanofibrous sensors cannot only be applied in high‐end analyte detection, but also in personal, daily use. Many different nanofibrous sensors have already been designed; albeit, the most straightforward and easiest‐to‐interpret sensor response is a visual change in color, which is of particular interest in the case of warning signals. Recently, many researchers have focused on the design of so‐called colorimetric nanofibers, which typically involve the incorporation of a colorimetric functionality into the nanofibrous matrix. Many different strategies have been used and explored for colorimetric nanofibrous sensor design, which are outlined in this feature article. The many examples and applications demonstrate the value of colorimetric nanofibers for advanced optical sensor design, and could provide directions for future research in this area.     

Optimized superpixel and AdaBoost classifier for human thermal face recognition

Infrared spectrum-based human recognition systems offer straightforward and robust solutions for achieving an excellent performance in uncontrolled illumination. In this paper, a human thermal face recognition model is proposed. The model consists of four main steps. Firstly, the grey wolf optimization algorithm is used to find optimal superpixel parameters of the quick-shift segmentation method. Then, segmentation-based fractal texture analysis algorithm is used for extracting features and the rough set-based methods are used to select the most discriminative features. Finally, the AdaBoost classifier is employed for the classification process. For evaluating our proposed approach, thermal images from the Terravic Facial infrared dataset were used. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach achieved (1) reasonable segmentation results for the indoor and outdoor thermal images, (2) accuracy of the segmented images better than the non-segmented ones, and (3) the entropy-based feature selection method obtained the best classification accuracy. Generally, the classification accuracy of the proposed model reached to 99% which is better than some of the related work with around 5%.     

Microdischarge-Induced Decomposition of Ammonia and Reduction of Silver Ions for Formation of Two-Dimensional Network Structure

Microdischarge-induced reaction processes working at atmospheric pressure create fractal-like network structure of metal nano-particles which shows variable electric and optical properties. Due to their smallness, microdischarges or microplasmas can be installed in a gas-tubing system, and they enable us to create a compact chemical reduction reactor which includes decomposers of molecules, gas flows, and aqueous solutions with metallic ions at atmospheric pressure. Ammonia (NH₃) gas is successfully decomposed in this reactor, and its products which include mainly hydrazine (N₂H₄) and flow in the downstream induce reduction reactions for AgNO₃ solution. Various parameters in the reactor trigger formation of functional patterns of silver nano-particles like partially transparent layers whose conductivity is variable. Optical properties of this equivalent films show some absorption spectra coming from structure resonances, which can be an optical metamaterials in this self-assembly process.     

The Synergistic Extraction of Lanthanide Ions by a Mixture of Calix[4]resorcinarene or its Dimethylamino-, Piperidyl- or Trimethylammoniummethylated Derivatives and 1,10-Phenanthroline in n-Heptanol

The alkylaminomethylatedcalix[4]resorcinarene derivatives, modified bydimethylamino-, piperidyl- and trimethylammoniummoieties, have been synthesised to investigate theirextractability towards lanthanide ions and to comparewith the extractability of calix[4]resorcinarene. Both calix[4]resorcinarene and its derivatives have beenshown to synergistically affect lanthanide ionextraction from neutral aqueous solutions by1,10-phenanthroline through outer-sphere interactionof lanthanide bis-phenanthrolinate cations withdeprotonated forms of calix[4]resorcinarene. Thederivatives with dimethylamino- andpiperidylmethylated moieties are shown to be moreeffective extractants in comparison with theunsubstituted one.     

Determination of the design space of the HPLC analysis of water‐soluble vitamins

Analysis of water‐soluble vitamins has been tremendously approached through the last decades. A multitude of HPLC methods have been reported with a variety of advantages/shortcomings, yet, the design space of HPLC analysis of these vitamins was not defined in any of these reports. As per the food and drug administration (FDA), implementing the quality by design approach for the analysis of commercially available mixtures is hypothesized to enhance the pharmaceutical industry via facilitating the process of analytical method development and approval. This work illustrates a multifactorial optimization of three measured plus seven calculated influential HPLC parameters on the analysis of a mixture containing seven common water‐soluble vitamins (B₁, B₂, B₆, B_12, C, PABA, and PP). These three measured parameters are gradient time, temperature, and ternary eluent composition (B1/B2) and the seven calculated parameters are flow rate, column length, column internal diameter, dwell volume, extracolumn volume, %B (start), and %B (end). The design is based on 12 experiments in which, examining of the multifactorial effects of these 3 + 7 parameters on the critical resolution and selectivity, was carried out by systematical variation of all these parameters simultaneously. The 12 basic runs were based on two different gradient time each at two different temperatures, repeated at three different ternary eluent compositions (methanol or acetonitrile or a mixture of both). Multidimensional robust regions of high critical R_s were defined and graphically verified. The optimum method was selected based on the best resolution separation in the shortest run time for a synthetic mixture, followed by application on two pharmaceutical preparations available in the market. The predicted retention times of all peaks were found to be in good match with the virtual ones. In conclusion, the presented report offers an accurate determination of the design space for critical resolution in the analysis of water‐soluble vitamins by HPLC, which would help the regulatory authorities to judge the validity of presented analytical methods for approval.