Rapid activation analysis of trace vanadium in tissue using 3.8-minute vanadium-52

Submicrogram amounts of vanadium in rat liver tissue have been analyzed by rapid activation analysis. A 5-min radiochemical separation coupled with γ-ray spectrometry permitted utilization of the 3.8-min vanadium-52 radioisotope. With this procedure the lower limit of detection at a thermal neutron flux of 10¹² n/cm²/sec was about 3·10^-9 g of vanadium.     

Syntheses of nucleosides with 2′-spirolactam and 2′-spiropyrrolidine moieties as potential inhibitors of hepatitis C virus NS5B polymerase

To discover novel nucleosides as potential antiviral agents, 2′-spirolactam and 2′-spiropyrrolidine-containing nucleoside analogs were envisioned. Efficient synthetic routes were developed with an epoxide opening as the key step to establish the quaternary center at the 2′ position, leading to the design and synthesis of uridine analogs 8 and 21, prodrugs 13–16, and cytidine analog 11.     

Syntheses of 4′-spirocyclic phosphono-nucleosides as potential inhibitors of hepatitis C virus NS5B polymerase

To discover novel nucleosides as potential antiviral agents, 4′-spirocyclic phosphono-nucleosides were designed to mimic the monophosphate of R-1479, a known nucleoside inhibitor of HCV NS5B. Bypassing the first kinase step to nucleoside monophosphate is viewed as advantageous since this phosphorylation is often observed as the rate-limiting transformation to the active NTP for many nucleosides. Efficient synthetic routes were developed with a triphenylphosphine–iodine cyclization reaction as the key step to form the tetrahydrofuran 4′-spirocycle. The desired 4′-spirocyclic phosphono-cytidine analogs 12a, 12b, and 16 were prepared in 11 steps.     

Cosmetic Formulations with Melaleuca alternifolia Essential Oil for the Improvement of Photoaged Skin: A Double-Blind,Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Study

This aim of this study was to evaluate the penetration depth, antioxidant capacity and the clinical efficacy of Melaleuca alternifolia pure essential oil and in a nanoemulsion to prevent skin photoaging. For this, 2% of pure essential oil or 2% of this essential oil in a nanoemulsion were vehiculated in a formulation. The skin penetration was evaluated using confocal Raman microspectroscopy. The radical protection factor was evaluated using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. For a clinical study, 40 male participants, aged 18–28 years, were enrolled, being divided into three groups: vehicle formulation, M. alternifolia pure essential oil and M. alternifolia Nanoemulsion. All the participants also received a sunscreen SPF 50 to use during the day. Before and after 90 days of study, skin hydrolipidics and morphological characteristics were performed by skin imaging and biophysical techniques. The nanoemulsion presented a lower antioxidant capacity and a higher penetration through the stratum corneum, reaching the viable epidermis, improving the stratum granulosum morphology. The groups presented an increase in the papillary depth, improving in the dermis echogenicity and the collagen fibers. Melaleuca alternifolia essential provides the potential to improve photoaged skin, being the application of nanoemulsion able to reach deeper skin layers.     

Friction Drag Variation via Spanwise Transversal Surface Waves

The introduction of spanwise velocity is a promising technique to effect the near-wall turbulent flow field to influence friction drag. However, the essential physical mechanism which significantly reduces friction drag has not been understood, yet. It is the objective of this numerical study to improve the fundamental knowledge on the drag reduction mechanism. The investigation is based on spanwise traveling transversal surface waves which are applied to modify the near-wall flow field and to influence friction drag. Two actuation configurations are analyzed in detail. Compared with an unactuated flat plate boundary layer simulation the first wave setup, which represents a low frequency wave at an amplitude larger than the viscous sublayer, leads to a reduced wall-shear stress resulting in friction drag reduction of up to 9%. The second wave setup, which possesses a higher frequency and an amplitude in the range of the viscous sublayer, yields an increase of friction drag of about 8%. Unlike previous investigations which focus on excitation setups to lower friction drag, the comparison of the two wave setups in this study allows to identify the effects which on the one hand, lead to drag reduction and on the other hand, result in drag increase. That is, due to the pronounced differences the major effects determining the friction distribution are more evident. The two key features for drag reduction are the damping of the wall-normal vorticity fluctuations above the entire surface and the decrease of turbulence production. Furthermore, the effect of rearranging streamwise vorticity, which has been stated to be responsible for drag reduction, is found to occur at increasing and decreasing drag, i.e., it is not the effect that lowers the friction drag.     

On accuracy and efficiency of constrained reinitialization

The reinitialization, which is required to regularize the level set function, can be computationally expensive and hence is a determining factor for the overall efficiency of a level set method. However, it often has a significantly adverse impact on the accuracy of the level set solution. This short note is meant to shed light on the efficiency and accuracy issues of the reinitialization process. Using just one clearly defined level set propagation test case with an analytical solution the solutions obtained using a recently proposed efficient lower‐order constrained reinitialization (CR) scheme and standard low‐ and high‐order reinitialization schemes are juxtaposed to evidence the superiority of the novel CR formulation. It is shown that maintaining the location of the zero level set during the reinitialization is crucial for the accuracy and that the displacement caused by standard high‐order reinitialization schemes clearly outweighs the benefit of the high‐order smoothing of the level set function. Finally, results of a three‐dimensional problem are concisely reported to demonstrate the general applicability of the CR scheme. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

碱金属钾对Ni基催化剂纤维素水蒸气气化活性的影响

采用两段式催化气化方式研究了生物质热解气化过程中碱金属的挥发对Ni基催化剂活性的影响。实验结果表明,负载K盐的纤维素水蒸气催化气化过程中,K挥发后会在催化剂表面沉积,而少量K的存在和表面沉积不但能够提高镍基催化剂的抗积炭能力,而且有助于提高其催化活性,产生更多的氢气。然而纤维素中K的浓度过大,将会抑制Ni基催化剂的效果;K在催化剂上的沉积随催化剂循环次数的增加而增加,K的含量愈高,对催化剂的抑制效果愈明显,从而缩短了催化剂的使用寿命。     

Field distortions from persistent currents in the superconducting HERA magnets

Measurements and calculations are presented on the sextupole and decapole components in the HERA dipole magnets and the 12-pole and 20-pole components in the quadrupoles. The data show a strong current dependence and a characteristic hysteresis behaviour. Good agreement is found with model calculations which are based on eddy currents in the niobium-titanium filaments of the superconducting cable.     

The constrained reinitialization equation for level set methods

Based on the constrained reinitialization scheme [D. Hartmann, M. Meinke, W. Schröder, Differential equation based constrained reinitialization for level set methods, J. Comput. Phys. 227 (2008) 6821–6845] a new constrained reinitialization equation incorporating a forcing term is introduced. Two formulations for high-order constrained reinitialization (HCR) are presented combining the simplicity and generality of the original reinitialization equation [M. Sussman, P. Smereka, S. Osher, A level set approach for computing solutions to incompressible two-phase flow, J. Comput. Phys. 114 (1994) 146–159] in terms of high-order standard discretization and the accuracy of the constrained reinitialization scheme in terms of interface displacement. The novel HCR schemes represent simple extensions of standard implementations of the original reinitialization equation. The results evidence the significantly increased accuracy and robustness of the novel schemes.