Variation of counting efficiency in determination of 131I activity in the thyroid gland as a result of its position relative to the detector

The appropriate determination of the ¹³¹I which was absorbed into the human body, especially by thyroid, depends not only on individual features of each measurement subjects but also on reproducibility of their position or the thyroid’s position in the human neck. Possible uncertainties caused by changes of the thyroid position relative to detector were studied in a series of measurements. The research has shown that the dispersion of the results can reach up even to the level of 50 %.     

Use of silver trifluoroacetate together with lanthanide shift reagents for simplification of 1H NMR spectra of aromatic hydrocarbons

The equimolar mixtures of typical lanthanide shift reagents such as Eu(fod)₃, Pr(fod)₃ or Yb(fod)₃ with silver trifluoroacetate, previously used to induce paramagnetic shifts in the ¹H NMR spectra of alkenes, have been successfully applied to simple aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes. In benzene and p-xylene the signals of all the aromatic protons are shifted identically. In other substituted benzenes the magnitude of the induced shift depends on the distance between the proton and the substituents. In addition, the different behaviour of the signals of the methyl groups in meta-and para-xylene on the addition of the complex shift reagent allows the quantitative analysis of the two xylenes in their mixtures.     

Infrared spectra of lanthanide complexes with eriochrome cyanine r

An infrared spectroscopic study of the composition of these complexes in the solid state is described. Evaluation of the spectra made it possible to distinguish changes in the character of the lanthanide—ligand bonds in the series La — Lu, and to study the “double-double” effect.     

Quantum chemistry in parallel with PQS

This article describes the capabilities and performance of the latest release (version 4.0) of the Parallel Quantum Solutions (PQS) ab initio program package. The program was first released in 1998 and evolved from the TEXAS program package developed by Pulay and coworkers in the late 1970s. PQS was designed from the start to run on Linux‐based clusters (which at the time were just becoming popular) with all major functionality being (a) fully parallel; and (b) capable of carrying out calculations on large—by ab initio standards—molecules, our initial aim being at least 100 atoms and 1000 basis functions with only modest memory requirements. With modern hardware and recent algorithmic developments, full accuracy, high‐level calculations (DFT, MP2, CI, and Coupled‐Cluster) can be performed on systems with up to several thousand basis functions on small (4‐32 node) Linux clusters. We have also developed a graphical user interface with a model builder, job input preparation, parallel job submission, and post‐job visualization and display. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2009     

Acidic and catalytic properties of boron-containing porous glasses

Heat treatment of porous glasses results in a migration of boron to the surface changing surface acidity. The surface acidity of thermally modified porous glasses was characterized by NH₃ desorption and the catalytic activity for conversion of alcohols was investigated.

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Dielectric investigations of the N-SmB transition in a porous glass

Dielectric measurements in the frequency range 0.01 Hz to 10 MHz on a liquid crystal material with SmB/N dimorphism confined to randomly oriented and interconnected mesoporous (pore diameter 2-10 nm) and macroporous glasses (pore diameter 86 nm) were carried out. In the macroporous glasses the liquid crystal behaves similarly to the bulk phase, but the phase transition temperature SmB-N is suppressed. In the mesoporous glass the transition SmB-N is completely suppressed.     

On the recursive sequence

In this section we present some open problems and conjectures about some interesting types of difference equations. Please submit your problems and conjectures with all relevant information to G. Ladas.     

Thermal degradation studies of polyurethane/POSS nanohybrid elastomers

Reported here is the synthesis of a series of polyurethane/POSS nanohybrid elastomers, the characterisation of their thermal stability and degradation behaviour at elevated temperatures using a combination of thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and thermal volatilisation analysis (TVA). A series of PU elastomer systems have been formulated incorporating varying levels of 1,2-propanediol-heptaisobutyl-POSS (PHIPOSS) as a chain extender unit, replacing butane diol. The bulk thermal stability of the nanohybrid systems has been characterised using TGA. Results indicate that covalent incorporation of POSS into the PU elastomer network increases the non-oxidative thermal stability of the systems. TVA analysis of the thermal degradation of the POSS/PU hybrid elastomers have demonstrated that the hybrid systems are indeed more thermally stable when compared to the unmodified PU matrix; evolving significantly reduced levels of volatile degradation products and exhibiting a ∼30 °C increase in onset degradation temperature. Furthermore, characterisation of the distribution of degradation products from both unmodified and hybrid systems indicate that the inclusion of POSS in the PU network is directly influencing the degradation pathways of both the soft and hard-block components of the elastomers: The POSS/PU hybrid systems show reduced levels of CO, CO₂, water and increased levels of THF as products of thermal degradation.     

Recognition of chromosomal DNA by PNAs

The recognition of cellular nucleic acids by synthetic oligonucleotides is a versatile strategy for regulating biological processes. The vast majority of published studies have focused on antisense oligonucleotides that target mRNA, but it is also possible to design antigene oligonucleotides that are complementary to chromosomal DNA. Antigene oligomers could be used to inhibit the expression of any gene or analyze promoter structure and the mechanisms governing gene regulation. Other potential applications of antigene oligomers include activation of expression of chosen genes or the introduction of mutations to correct genetic disease. Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is a nonionic DNA/RNA mimic that possesses outstanding potential for recognition of duplex DNA. Here we describe properties of PNAs and the challenges for their development as robust antigene agents.