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Larger Molecules (larger + molecule)
Selected AbstractsVisualisation of the uptake of two model xenobiotics into bean leaves by confocal laser scanning microscopy: diffusion pathways and implication in phloem translocationPEST MANAGEMENT SCIENCE (FORMERLY: PESTICIDE SCIENCE), Issue 5 2004Dr Zhiqian Liu Abstract The diffusion of two fluorescent dyes, Oregon Green 488 (Oregon Green) and Rhodamine B into the leaves of broad bean (Vicia faba L) plants was studied to simulate the foliar uptake process of pesticides. The uptake rate of these model xenobiotics into bean foliage was measured using a standard leaf surface wash-off method. Diffusion into leaf tissues was visualised in vivo by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). The moderately lipophilic dye (Rhodamine B) showed faster uptake than the hydrophilic one (Oregon Green), despite the former being a larger molecule. While no distinct channels or domains for preferential entry of any of the dyes could be detected in the cuticle layer by CLSM, two different diffusion patterns were identified for the movement of these two dyes after traversing the cuticle. Upon desorption from the cuticle, Rhodamine B diffused extensively into the vacuole of the epidermal cells. Further transport of this dye from the epidermal cells to the mesophyll cells was not observed. In contrast, Oregon Green was found in the epidermal cell walls and cytoplasm, and was also present in the mesophyll cells. Examination of the petioles of the treated leaves revealed that, once absorbed, Oregon Green moved readily out of the treated leaf, whereas Rhodamine B did not show any phloem translocation. It is proposed that these two different diffusion characters may be responsible for the contrasting phloem mobility of the two xenobiotics. The results are discussed in relation to the current knowledge on the uptake, translocation and efficacy of pesticides as influenced by their properties. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry [source] Localization of deposited polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in leaves of PlantagoENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 5 2001Martine I. Bakker Abstract After deposition to foliage, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) may remain on the leaf surface, accumulate in the cuticular wax, or diffuse into the remaining interior of the plant. In a field study, the location of deposited PAHs in the leaves of two Plantago species was determined. To this aim, leaves of Plantago major and Plantago media were divided into three fractions. First, the leaves were washed (wash-off fraction), then cuticular wax was extracted (wax fraction). Finally, the remaining leaf material was extracted (interior fraction). The presence of PAHs could be demonstrated in all three fractions. For both plants, the distribution of PAHs over the three fractions changed with molecular weight (mol wt) of the PAHs. The wash-off fraction increased with increasing molecular weight, likely because high molecular-weight PAHs occur predominantly bound to particles, which can be readily washed off from the leaves. In contrast, the amount of PAHs detected in the interior of the leaves decreased with increasing molecular weight. This can be explained by a slow desorption of the PAHs from the particles and a low diffusion rate of the larger molecules. This study shows that washing reduces the amount of high molecular-weight PAHs on plant surfaces. Therefore, washing of leafy vegetables is important to minimize human dietary intake of PAHs. [source] Fallacies of High-Speed HemodialysisHEMODIALYSIS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2003Zbylut J. Twardowski Chronic hemodialysis sessions, as developed in Seattle in the 1960s, were long procedures with minimal intra- and interdialytic symptoms. Financial and logistical pressures related to the overwhelming number of patients requiring hemodialysis created an incentive to shorten dialysis time to four, three, and even two hours per session in a thrice weekly schedule. This method spread rapidly, particularly in the United States, after the National Cooperative Dialysis Study suggested that time of dialysis is of minor importance as long as urea clearance multiplied by dialysis time and scaled to total body water (Kt/Vurea) equals 0.95,1.0. This number was later increased to 1.3, but the assumption remained unchanged that hemodialysis time is of minimal importance as long as it is compensated by increased urea clearance. Patients accepted short dialysis as a godsend, believing that it would not be detrimental to their well-being and longevity. However, Kt/Vurea measures only removal of low molecular weight substances and does not consider removal of larger molecules. Besides, it does not correlate with the other important function of hemodialysis, namely ultrafiltration. Whereas patients with substantial residual renal function may tolerate short dialysis sessions, the patients with little or no urine output tolerate short dialyses poorly because the ultrafiltration rate at the same interdialytic weight gain is inversely proportional to dialysis time. Rapid ultrafiltration is associated with cramps, nausea, vomiting, headache, fatigue, hypotensive episodes during dialysis, and hangover after dialysis; patients remain fluid overloaded with subsequent poor blood pressure control, left ventricular hypertrophy, diastolic dysfunction, and high cardiovascular mortality. Short, high-efficiency dialysis requires high blood flow, which increases demands on blood access. The classic wrist arteriovenous fistula, the access with the best longevity and lowest complication rates, provides "insufficient" blood flow and is replaced with an arteriovenous graft fistula or an intravenous catheter. Moreover, to achieve high blood flows, large diameter intravenous catheters are used; these fit veins "too tightly," so predispose the patient to central-vein thrombosis. Longer hemodialysis sessions (5,8 hrs, thrice weekly), as practiced in some centers, are associated with lower complication rates and better outcomes. Frequent dialyses (four or more sessions per week) provide better clinical results, but are associated with increased cost. It is my strong belief that a wide acceptance of longer, gentler dialysis sessions, even in a thrice weekly schedule, would improve overall hemodialysis results and decrease access complications, hospitalizations, and mortality, particularly in anuric patients. [source] Evaluation of the intramolecular basis set superposition error in the calculations of larger molecules: [n]helicenes and Phe-Gly-Phe tripeptideJOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY, Issue 6 2008Haydée Valdés Abstract Correlated ab initio calculations on large systems, such as the popular MP2 (or RI-MP2) method, suffer from the intramolecular basis set superposition error (BSSE). This error is typically manifested in molecules with folded structures, characterized by intramolecular dispersion interactions. It can dramatically affect the energy differences between various conformers as well as intramolecular stabilities, and it can even impair the accuracy of the predictions of the equilibrium molecular structures. In this study, we will present two extreme cases of intramolecular BSSE, the internal stability of [n]helicene molecules and the relative energies of various conformers of phenylalanyl-glycyl-phenylalanine tripeptide (Phe-Gly-Phe), and compare the calculated data with benchmark values (experimental or high-level theoretical data). As a practical and cheap solution to the accurate treatment of the systems with large anticipated value of intramolecular BSSE, the recently developed density functional method augmented with an empirical dispersion term (DFT-D) is proposed and shown to provide very good results in both of the above described representative cases. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem 2008 [source] Comparison of the numerical stability of methods for anharmonic calculations of vibrational molecular energiesJOURNAL OF COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY, Issue 10 2007Petr Dan Abstract On model examples, we compare the performance of the vibrational self-consistent field, variational, and four perturbational schemes used for computations of vibrational energies of semi-rigid molecules, with emphasis on the numerical stability. Although the accuracy of the energies is primarily dependent on the quality of the potential energy surface, approximate approaches to the anharmonic vibrational problem often do not converge to the same results due to the approximations involved. For furan, the sensitivity to variations of the anharmonic potential was systematically investigated by adding random noise to the cubic and quartic constants. The self-consistent field methods proved to be the most resistant to the potential variations. The second order perturbational techniques are sensitive to random degeneracies and provided the least stable results. However, their stability could be significantly improved by a simple generalization of the perturbational formula. The variational configuration interaction is practically limited by the size of the matrix that can be diagonalized for larger molecules; however, relatively fewer states need to be involved than for smaller ones, in favor of the computing. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2007 [source] Production of Resistant Starch by Extrusion Cooking of Acid-Modified Normal-Maize StarchJOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE, Issue 7 2009Jovin Hasjim ABSTRACT:, The objective of this study was to utilize extrusion cooking and hydrothermal treatment to produce resistant starch (RS) as an economical alternative to a batch-cooking process. A hydrothermal treatment (110 °C, 3 d) of batch-cooked and extruded starch samples facilitated propagation of heat-stable starch crystallites and increased the RS contents from 2.1% to 7.7% up to 17.4% determined using AOAC Method 991.43 for total dietary fiber. When starch samples were batch cooked and hydrothermally treated at a moisture content below 70%, acid-modified normal-maize starch (AMMS) produced a greater RS content than did native normal-maize starch (NMS). This was attributed to the partially hydrolyzed, smaller molecules in the AMMS, which had greater mobility and freedom than the larger molecules in the NMS. The RS contents of the batch-cooked and extruded AMMS products after the hydrothermal treatment were similar. A freezing treatment of the AMMS samples at ,20 °C prior to the hydrothermal treatment did not increase the RS content. The DSC thermograms and the X-ray diffractograms showed that retrograded amylose and crystalline starch,lipid complex, which had melting temperatures above 100 °C, accounted for the RS contents. [source] Matrix dependence of blue light emission from a novel NH2 -functionalized dicyanoquinodimethane derivativeJOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, Issue 3 2006Marek Szablewski Abstract The reactions of primary and secondary amines with (cyclohexa-2,5-diene-1,4-diylidene)-dimalononitrile (TCNQ) lead to mono- and disubstituted dicyanoquinodimethane derivatives and fluorescence emission has been observed for several of these compounds. We report the luminescence properties, synthesis and crystal structure of the novel dicyanoquinodimethane derivative 2-{4-[amino-(2,6-dimethyl-morpholin-4-yl)-methylene]-cyclohexa-2,5- dienylidene}-malononitrile (Ammor), a unique example of an asymmetric dicyanoquinodimethane derivative in which one of the nitrile groups has been replaced with an NH2 moiety, which provides a reactive centre for potential further substitution or tethering to larger molecules or polymers. The luminescence properties of the title compound were investigated in a variety of environments, including alcohol solutions at room temperature and a glass-forming solvent at low temperature. The fluorescence quantum yields and Stokes' shifts of the blue emission were found to be very sensitive to the matrix. The crystal structure of the subject compound was determined, revealing that the molecules are non-planar in the ground state. The environmentally sensitive emission is discussed in terms of the conformational change during photoexcitation and the constraint imposed on this by the matrix. This behaviour is also compared with that of other related amino-functionalized dicyanoquinodimethane derivatives. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Analysis of 5-fluorouracil in saliva using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopyJOURNAL OF RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY, Issue 3 2005Stuart Farquharson Abstract The ability of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to measure the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil in saliva is presented. A silver-doped sol,gel provided SERS and also some chemical selectivity. 5-Fluorouracil and physiological thiocyanate produced SERS, whereas large biochemicals, such as enzymes and proteins, did not, supporting the expectation that the larger molecules do not diffuse through the sol,gel to any appreciable extent. In addition, 5-fluorouracil samples of 2 µg ml,1 were easily measured, and an estimated limit of detection of 150 ng ml,1 in 5 min should provide sufficient sensitivity to perform pharmacokinetic studies and to monitor and regulate patient dosage. This would fill a critical need for this highly used drug, since genetic-based variations in its metabolism can range by as much as five-fold from one patient to another. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Molecular mass ranges of coal tar pitch fractions by mass spectrometry and size-exclusion chromatographyRAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY, Issue 13 2009F. Karaca A coal tar pitch was fractionated by solvent solubility into heptane-solubles, heptane-insoluble/toluene-solubles (asphaltenes), and toluene-insolubles (preasphaltenes). The aim of the work was to compare the mass ranges of the different fractions by several different techniques. Thermogravimetric analysis, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and UV-fluorescence spectroscopy showed distinct differences between the three fractions in terms of volatility, molecular size ranges and the aromatic chromophore sizes present. The mass spectrometric methods used were gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), pyrolysis/GC/MS, electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (ESI-FTICRMS) and laser desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LD-TOFMS). The first three techniques gave good mass spectra only for the heptane-soluble fraction. Only LDMS gave signals from the toluene-insolubles, indicating that the molecules were too involatile for GC and too complex to pyrolyze into small molecules during pyrolysis/GC/MS. ESI-FTICRMS gave no signal for toluene-insolubles probably because the fraction was insoluble in the methanol or acetonitrile, water and formic acid mixture used as solvent to the ESI source. LDMS was able to generate ions from each of the fractions. Fractionation of complex samples is necessary to separate smaller molecules to allow the use of higher laser fluences for the larger molecules and suppress the formation of ionized molecular clusters. The upper mass limit of the pitch was determined as between 5000 and 10,000,u. The pitch asphaltenes showed a peak of maximum intensity in the LDMS spectra at around m/z 400, in broad agreement with the estimate from SEC. The mass ranges of the toluene-insoluble fraction found by LDMS and SEC (400,10,000,u with maximum intensity around 2000,u by LDMS and 100,9320,u with maximum intensity around 740,u by SEC) are higher than those for the asphaltene fraction (200,4000,u with maximum intensity around 400,u by LDMS and 100,2680,u with maximum intensity around 286,u by SEC) and greater than values considered appropriate for petroleum asphaltenes (300,1200,u with maximum intensity near 700,u). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] From 3D to 2D: A Review of the Molecular Imprinting of ProteinsBIOTECHNOLOGY PROGRESS, Issue 6 2006Nicholas W. Turner Molecular imprinting is a generic technology that allows for the introduction of sites of specific molecular affinity into otherwise homogeneous polymeric matrices. Commonly this technique has been shown to be effective when targeting small molecules of molecular weight <1500, while extending the technique to larger molecules such as proteins has proven difficult. A number of key inherent problems in protein imprinting have been identified, including permanent entrapment, poor mass transfer, denaturation, and heterogeneity in binding pocket affinity, which have been addressed using a variety of approaches. This review focuses on protein imprinting in its various forms, ranging from conventional bulk techniques to novel thin film and monolayer surface imprinting approaches. [source] | |||||||||||||