Pressure effect on grain boundary wetting at various temperatures

Bicrystals of Fe-6 at.% Si alloy containing <001> 5 tilt grain boundaries with a deposited zinc layer have been annealed at various hydrostatic pressure at four temperatures between 700° and 905°C. After the anneals the dihedral angle of the grain boundary groove formed at the site of the grain boundary intersection with the solid-melt interphase boundary has been measured. The transition from complete to incomplete wetting of the grain boundary by the zinc-rich melt (dewetting phase transition) has been found to occur as the pressure increased at all temperatures studied. The temperature dependence of the dewetting transition pressure p _w has been determined. That dependence has a minimum at a temperature of 790°C, which is close to the peritectic temperature in the Fe–Zn system (782°C). A thermodynamic analysis of the wetting phenomena in the two-component system, based on Becker's regular solution model for the surface tension of the interphase boundary, explains the minimum in the p _w (T) dependence.     

Kalorimetrische messungen zur ermittlung der spezifischen grenzflächenenergie einer zweiphasigen Cu-7,5 At.-% In-legierung

With the help of a commercial heat-flux calorimeter the enthalpy change was measured as a function of the interlamellar spacing for lamellar precipitated Cu-In samples. This is related to the replacement of the two-phase structure (α + δ) by the homogeneous solid solution (α₀. From this, the specific interfacial enthalpy of the α-δ interface was determined to be ΔH^δ = 1100 ± 550 mJ m^?2. A value of ΔH^c = 1320 ± 60 J mol^?1 results for the chemical part of the total measured transformation enthalpy. A value of ΔS^δ = 0.66 mJ m^?2 K^?1 was estimated for the specific interfacial entropy and using the Gibbs-Helmholtz equation the specific interfacial free energy was calculated as ΔG^δ = 700 ± 400 mJ m^?2 at 600 K.     

Clorobiocin biosynthesis in Streptomyces: identification of the halogenase and generation of structural analogs

Clorobiocin (clo) and novobiocin (nov) are potent inhibitors of bacterial DNA gyrase. The two substances differ in the substitution pattern at C-8' of the aminocoumarin ring, carrying a chlorine atom or a methyl group, respectively. By gene inactivation, clo-hal was identified as the gene of the halogenase responsible for the introduction of the chlorine atom of clorobiocin. Inactivation of cloZ did not affect clorobiocin formation, showing that this ORF is not essential for clorobiocin biosynthesis. Expression of the methyltransferase gene novO in the clo-hal(-) mutant led to the very efficient formation of a hybrid antibiotic containing a methyl group instead of a chlorine atom at C-8'. Comparison of the antibacterial activity of clorobiocin analogs with -Cl, -H, or -CH(3) at C-8' showed that chlorine leads to 8-fold higher activity than hydrogen and to 2-fold higher activity than a methyl group.     

Pharmacokinetics of ICG and HPPH-car for the detection of normal and tumor tissue using fluorescence, near-infrared reflectance imaging: a case study

We present in vivo fluorescent, near-infrared (NIR), reflectance images of indocyanine green (ICG) and carotene-conjugated 2-devinyl-2-(1-hexyloxyethyl) pyropheophorbide (HPPH-car) to discriminate spontaneous canine adenocarcinoma from normal mammary tissue. Following intravenous administration of 1.0 mg kg-1 ICG or 0.3 mg kg-1 HPPH-car into the canine, a 25 mW, 778 nm or 70 mW, 660 nm laser diode beam, expanded by a diverging lens to approximately 4 cm in diameter, illuminated the surface of the mammary tissue. Successfully propagating to the tissue surface, ICG or HPPH-car fluorescence generated from within the tissue was collected by an image-intensified, charge-coupled device camera fitted with an 830 or 710 nm bandpass interference filter. Upon collecting time-dependent fluorescence images at the tissue surface overlying both normal and diseased tissue volumes, and fitting these images to a pharmacokinetic model describing the uptake (wash-in) and release (wash-out) of fluorescent dye, the pharmacokinetics of fluorescent dye was spatially determined. Mapping the fluorescence intensity owing to ICG indicates that the dye acts as a blood pool or blood persistent agent, for the model parameters show no difference in the ICG uptake rates between normal and diseased tissue regions. The wash-out of ICG was delayed for up to 72 h after intravenous injection in tissue volumes associated with disease, because ICG fluorescence was still detected in the diseased tissue 72 h after injection. In contrast, HPPH-car pharmacokinetics illustrated active uptake into diseased tissues, perhaps owing to the overexpression of LDL receptors associated with the malignant cells. HPPH-car fluorescence was not discernable after 24 h. This work illustrates the ability to monitor the pharmacokinetic delivery of NIR fluorescent dyes within tissue volumes as great as 0.5-1 cm from the tissue surface in order to differentiate normal from diseased tissue volumes on the basis of parameters obtained from the pharmacokinetic models.     

The photophysics of monomeric bacteriochlorophylls c and d and their derivatives: properties of the triplet state and singlet oxygen photogeneration and quenching

Measurements of pigment triplet-triplet absorption, pigment phosphorescence and photosensitized singlet oxygen luminescence were carried out on solutions containing monomeric bacteriochlorophylls (Bchl) c and d, isolated from green photosynthetic bacteria, and their magnesium-free and farnesyl-free analogs. The energies of the pigment triplet states fell in the range 1.29-1.34 eV. The triplet lifetimes in aerobic solutions were 200-250 ns; they increased to 280 +/- 70 microseconds after nitrogen purging in liquid solutions and to 0.7-2.1 ms in a solid matrix at ambient or liquid nitrogen temperatures. Rate constants for quenching of the pigment triplet state by oxygen were (2.0-2.5) x 10(9) M-1 s-1, which is close to 1/9 of the rate constant for diffusion-controlled reactions. This quenching was accompanied by singlet oxygen formation. The quantum yields for the triplet state formation and singlet oxygen production were 55-75% in air-saturated solutions. Singlet oxygen quenching by ground-state pigment molecules was observed. Quenching was the most efficient for magnesium-containing pigments, kq = (0.31-1.2) x 10(9) M-1 s-1. It is caused mainly by a physical process of singlet oxygen (1O2) deactivation. Thus, Bchl c and d and their derivatives, as well as chlorophyll and Bchl a, combine a high efficiency of singlet oxygen production with the ability to protect photochemical and photobiological systems against damage by singlet oxygen.     

Photochemistry of artificial photosynthetic reaction centers in liquid crystals probed by multifrequency EPR (9.5 and 95 GHz)

Photoinduced charge separation and recombination in a carotenoid-porphyrin-fullerene triad C-P-C(60)(1) have been followed by multifrequency time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) at intermediate magnetic field and microwave frequency (X-band) and high field and frequency (W-band). The electron-transfer process has been characterized in the different phases of two uniaxial liquid crystals (E-7 and ZLI-1167). The triad undergoes photoinduced electron transfer, with the generation of a long-lived charge-separated state, and charge recombination to the triplet state, localized in the carotene moiety, mimicking different aspects of the photosynthetic electron-transfer process. Both the photoinduced spin-correlated radical pair and the spin-polarized recombination triplet are observed starting from the crystalline up to the isotropic phase of the liquid crystals. The W-band TREPR radical pair spectrum has allowed unambiguous assignment of the spin-correlated radical pair spectrum to the charge-separated state C(.+)-P-C(60)(.-). The magnetic interaction parameters have been evaluated by simulation of the spin-polarized radical pair spectrum and the spin-selective recombination rates have been derived from the time dependence of the spectrum. The weak exchange interaction parameter (J = +0.5 +/- 0.2 G) provides a direct measure of the dominant electronic coupling matrix element V between the C(.+)-P-C(60)(.-) radical pair state and the recombination triplet state (3)C-P-C(60). The kinetic parameters have been analyzed in terms of the effect of the liquid crystal medium on the electron-transfer process. Effects of orientation of the molecular triad in the liquid crystal are evidenced by simulations of the carotenoid triplet state EPR spectra at different orientations of the external magnetic field with respect to the director of the mesophase. The order parameter (S = 0.5 +/- 0.05) has been evaluated.     

Investigation on the Decomposition of Carboplatin in Infusion Solutions

 An integrated solid-phase spectrophotometry/flow injection analysis (FIA) method is proposed for the determination of the synthetic colorant matter Ponceau 4R (P4R) in the presence of its unsulfonated derivative 2-hydroxy-1-[(naphthalenyl)azo] naphthalene (N2N). The procedure is based on the measurement of P4R at λ = 508, followed by retention and preconcentration of the low level concentration of N2N on a C₁₈ silica gel minicolumn and subsequent measurement of the absorbance of N2N at λ = 508 nm after its elution. The applicable concentration range, the detection and the relative standard were the following: for P4R, from 0.30 to 20.0 mg/L; 0.052 mg/L 1.1%; and for N2N, between 0.020 to 3.0 mg/L 0.003 mg/L and 1.1%. The method was applied to the determination of small amounts of N2N present in P4R in food and cosmetic products. Percentages of recovery between 95 and 105% were obtained in all instances. The method was applied satisfactorily to the determination of the compounds P4R and N2N in samples of sweets and cosmetic products when compared to results offered by a HPLC reference method. Received April 5, 2001. Revision July 25, 2001.