Highly Proton-Conductive Zinc Metal-Organic Framework Based On Nickel(II) Porphyrinylphosphonate

The design of new solid-state proton-conducting materials is a great challenge for chemistry and materials science. Herein, a new anionic porphyrinylphosphonate-based MOF ( IPCE-1Ni ), which involves dimethylammonium (DMA) cations for charge compensation, is reported. As a result of its unique structure, IPCE-1Ni exhibits one of the highest value of the proton conductivity among reported proton-conducting MOF materials based on porphyrins (1.55×10⁻³ S cm⁻¹ at 75 °C and 80 % relative humidity).     

Influence of the Degree of Deacetylation of Chitosan and BMP-2 Concentration on Biocompatibility and Osteogenic Properties of BMP-2/PLA Granule-Loaded Chitosan/β-Glycerophosphate Hydrogels

Compositions based on chitosan/β-glycerophosphate hydrogels with highly porous polylactide granules can be used to obtain moldable bone graft materials that have osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties. To eliminate the influence of such characteristics as chain length, degree of purification, and molecular weight on a designed material, the one-stock chitosan sample was reacetylated to degrees of deacetylation (DD%) of 19.5, 39, 49, 55, and 56. A study of the chitosan/β-glycerophosphate hydrogel with chitosan of a reduced DD% showed that a low degree of deacetylation increased the MSCs (multipotent stromal cells) viability rate in vitro and reduced the leukocyte infiltration in subcutaneous implantation to Wistar rats in vivo. The addition of 12 wt% polylactide granules resulted in optimal composite mechanical and moldable properties, and increased the modulus of elasticity of the hydrogel-based material by approximately 100 times. Excessive filling of the material with PLA (polylactide) granules (more than 20%) led to material destruction at a ~10% strain. Osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties of the chitosan hydrogel-based material with reacetylated chitosan (39 DD%) and highly porous polylactide granules impregnated with BMP-2 (bone morphogenetic protein-2) have been demonstrated in models of orthotopic and ectopic bone formation. When implanted into a critical-size calvarial defect in rats, the optimal concentration of BMP-2 was 10 μg/mL: bone tissue areas filled the entire material’s thickness. Implantation of the material with 50 μg/mL BMP-2 was accompanied with excessive growth of bone tissue and material displacement beyond the defect. Significant osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties of the material with 10 μg/mL of BMP-2 were also shown in subcutaneous implantation.     

A preconditioned domain decomposition algorithm for the solution of the elliptic Neumann problem

A new preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG)-based domain decomposition method is given for the solution of linear equations arising in the finite element method applied to the elliptic Neumann problem. The novelty of the proposed method is in the recommended preconditioner which is constructed by using cyclic matrix. The resulting preconditioned algorithms are well suited to parallel computation.     

Multispectral imaging of Mars: ISM results

Summary Multispectral imaging of planets opens a new class of studies of atmospheric and surface signatures. With ISM experiment on board Phobos, the first IR multispectral imaging of Mars from space was achieved. In viem of the Future Omega experiment on board Mars 94, we present here a sample of data and results (and problems) which can be achieved by studying spectral reflectance. Paper presented at the V Cosmic Physics National Conference, S. Miniato, November 27–30, 1990.     

Violation of isotopic invariance in strong interactions and mass spectrum of the 1/2+ baryon octet

The ideas developed by Gell-Mann and Okubo in studying violation of unitary symmetry are used to describe violation of isototic invariance in strong interactions. The present consideration is performed for the example of the mass spectrum of the octet formed by baryons of spin-parity 1/2⁺: only for this family are the widths of its particles much less than the scale of the effects being investigated, their masses being known from experiments to a fairly high precision. The Gell-Mann-Okubo formula is generalized in such a way that relations both for the splitting between the isomultiplets of the octet and for the mass splitting within these isomultiplets follow from the new formula. Moreover, a relation between masses that describes their electromagnetic splitting and which coincides in form with the Coleman-Glashow relation also follows from this formula. The relations obtained for the masses of the baryons belonging to the octet in question are satisfied to a precision not poorer than 3%.     

Excluded volume effect for large and small solutes in water

The cavitation effect, i.e., the process of the creation of a void of excluded volume in bulk solvent (a cavity), is considered. The cavitation free energy is treated in terms of the information theory (IT) approach [Hummer, G.; Garde, S.; Garcia, A. E.; Paulaitis, M. E.; Pratt, L. R. J. Phys. Chem. B 1998, 102, 10469]. The binomial cell model suggested earlier is applied as the IT default distribution p(m) for the number m of solute (water) particles occupying a cavity of given size and shape. In the present work, this model is extended to cover the entire range of cavity size between small ordinary molecular solutes and bulky biomolecular structures. The resulting distribution consists of two binomial peaks responsible for producing the free energy contributions, which are proportional respectively to the volume and to the surface area of a cavity. The surface peak dominates in the large cavity limit, when the two peaks are well separated. The volume effects become decisive in the opposite limit of small cavities, when the two peaks reduce to a single-peak distribution as considered in our earlier work. With a proper interpolation procedure connecting these two regimes, the MC simulation results for model spherical solutes with radii increasing up to R = 10 A [Huang, D. H.; Geissler, P. L.; Chandler, D. J. Phys. Chem. B 2001, 105, 6704] are well reproduced. The large cavity limit conforms to macroscopic properties of bulk water solvent, such as surface tension, isothermal compressibility and Tolman length. The computations are extended to include nonspherical solutes (hydrocarbons C1-C6).     

Systematic analysis of the PSI experiment to directly measure the sticking probabilityω s in dt fusion

Starting in 1989 an experiment was run at PSI to directly measure the final sticking probability in muon catalyzed dt fusion. This experiment was based on an active-target ionization chamber (IC) built at Gatchina, Russia, and an array of plastic neutron counters. In three runs approximately 5×10⁶ isolated alpha signals were recorded with around one half of these occurring in the inner chamber region where we have more complete understanding of the systematic errors. Particularly from a long run in 1992 we were able to obtain a very clean sticking peak of some 5000 events. However, to reach an accurate value of sticking, all systematic effects and several major backgrounds had to be understood in detail. To this end a Monte Carlo code was written to simulate the full electrostatic environment of the IC and to recreate completely each signal type including the actual tritium decay noise from the live experiment. A slightly model dependent value of approx. 0.56±0.04% is obtained for final sticking.     

Syntheses,molecular structures,and thermal decomposition of cyclopentadienyldicarbonylmanganese chalcogenide derivatives

Transmetallation of the dichalcogenide complexes [CpMn(CO)₂]₂(-X₂) (X = S or Se) with M(CO)₅(thf) (M = Cr or W) afforded new heterometallic complexes CpMn(CO)₂(-Se₂)Cr(CO)₅, CpMn(CO)₂(-Se₂)[Cr(CO)₅]₂, CpMn(CO)₂(-X₂)[W(CO)₅]₂ (X = S or Se), and CpMn(CO)₂(-Se₂)[Cr(CO)₅][W(CO)₅]. According to the X-ray diffraction data, their molecular structures contain the cyclic MnX₂ fragments coordinated by one or two M(CO)₅ groups via the X atoms. Study of thermal decomposition of the manganese complexes with different Mn : M : X ratios (M = Cr, W; X = S, Se, Te) by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry demonstrated that this process took place at rather low temperatures (100—400 °C) and was accompanied by complete elimination of the CO groups followed by elimination of the Cp groups. At any metal to chalcogen ratio, the resulting inorganic chalcogenides contained no impurities of metal oxides and carbides.     

Cation selective ion channels formed by macrodiolide antibiotic elaiophylin in lipid bilayer membranes

The macrodiolide antibiotic elaiophylin (1) forms stable, long-lasting cation selective ion channels in planar lipid bilayer membranes prepared from soybean phosphatidylcholine. Current of the single ion channel displayed two sublevels corresponding to the two substates of the channel conductance: a slow substate, with about 5 s of mean dwell time in the open state at 40% level of the total amplitude conductance, and a fast substate of higher conductance with dwell times in the open and closed state of about 0.1 s. Amplitude conductances of the single ion channels in 200 mM of LiCl, NaCl, KCl, RbCl and CsCl were 75, 140, 220, 240 and 226 pS, and the conductance was linear function of the electrolyte concentration. Ratios of cation to anion permeabilities of the channel for NaCl and KCl were 8+/-2 and >24, respectively. A molecular model of the channel structure is suggested.     

GENETIC VARIATIONS AND LINOLENIC ACID INDUCED CHANGES IN THE ORIENTATION PATTERN OF CHLOROPHYLL a IN THYLAKOID MEMBRANES

Abstract Orientation pattern of the Q_y absorption and emission dipoles of chlorophyll a were studied in wild type Scenedesmus obliquus and in mutants deficient in chlorophyll b and carotenoids. Fluorescence polarization ratio at –140°C and linear dichroism at 25°C were measured in whole cells and thylakoids aligned in polyacrylamide gel. Unlike normal thylakoids, mutants displayed fluorescence polarization ratios significantly lower than 1.0 and showed a negative LD signal around 672 nm, indicating the tendency of the Q_y dipoles to tilt out from the membrane plane. Such an orientation pattern can also be artificially induced by treating normal thylakoids with linolenic acid.