Two-dimensional coordination polymer with tellurium nodes

Bis(diphenylphosphino)hexane disulfide and TeCl₄ afforded layered network coordination polymer with Te(II) nodes. The two-dimensional nets are positively charged, the anions and form layers alternating the polymeric networks.     

Effect of Dietary Stilbenes on 5-Lipoxygenase and Cyclooxygenases Activities In Vitro

Stilbenes contained in various foods are associated with health beneficial effects. In this study six natural and one synthetic stilbene were tested for their potential to regulate the activity of lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase in vitro. The most potent inhibitor of 5-lipoxygenase was pterostilbene (IC₅₀ = 9.32 μM), whereas the strongest inhibitor of cyclooxygenase-1 and cyclooxygenase-2 was pinostilbene (IC_50s = 1.90 and 0.35 μM, respectively). Pterostilbene (IC_50s = 11.70 and 27.04 μM for cyclooxygenase-1 and cyclooxygenase-2, respectively) and oxyresveratrol (IC_50s = 18.49; 2.79 and 14.71 μM for 5-lipoxygenase, cyclooxygenase-1, and cyclooxygenase-2, respectively) were capable to inhibit catalytic activity of all three tested enzymes. Isorhapontigenin (IC_50s = 8.81 and 24.00 μM for cyclooxygenase-1 and cyclooxygenase-2, respectively) and rhapontigenin (IC_50s = 24.55 and 36.12 μM for cyclooxygenase-1 and cyclooxygenase-2, respectively) were only moderate or weak inhibitors of both cyclooxygenase forms. In summary, these results indicated that besides the known cyclooxygenase inhibitor resveratrol also other natural stilbenes could be potent inhibitors of the arachidonic acid pathway and deserve further attention as compounds with promising health benefits.     

Radon im Grundwasser des Mühlviertels (Oberösterreich)

In the occurrence areas of selected crystalline rocks—mainly granites—the Radon-222 content of groundwater has been investigated. The results show a significant correlation with the Uranium concentrations in the rocks. The Uranium concentrations were between 1 and 15 ppm, while the Radon-222 concentrations were between 0.2 and 719.5 Bq/l. To identify Radon-decreasing effects like degasification and admixture of surface water, CO₂ partial pressures and Oxygen-18 in water samples were determined and the local hydrological situation has been taken under consideration. Samples which showed clear evidence of Radon-decreasing effects were excluded from further evaluation because they would not represent the full empiric potential of Radon emanation in the aquifer. In combination with geological maps, petrologic information and airborne radiometry, Radon-222 analyses in groundwater can provide important data for Radon potential mapping. The significance of the groundwater Radon analyses can be improved by supplementary hydrochemical and hydrological isotope investigations.     

Ultrathin Polymeric Coatings Based on Hydrogen‐Bonded Polyphenol for Protection of Pancreatic Islet Cells

Though transplantation of pancreatic islet cells has emerged as a promising treatment for Type 1 diabetes its clinical application remains limited due to a number of limitations including both pathogenic innate and adaptive immune responses. This paper reports on a novel type of multifunctional cytoprotective material applied to coat living pancreatic islets. The coating utilizes hydrogen‐bonded interactions of a natural polyphenol (tannic acid) with poly(N‐vinylpyrrolidone) deposited on the islet surface via non‐ionic layer‐by‐layer assembly. It is demonstrated that the coating is conformal over the surface of mammalian islets including those derived from rat, non‐human primate (NHP), and human. In contrast to unmodified controls, the coated islets maintain their viability and β‐cell functionality for at least 96 hours in vitro. It is also determined that the coating demonstrates immunomodulatory cytoprotective properties suppressing pro‐inflammatory cytokine synthesis in stimulated bone marrow‐derived macrophages and diabetogenic BDC‐2.5 T cells. The coating material combines high chemical stability under physiologically relevant conditions with capability of suppressing cytokine synthesis, crucial parameters for prolonged islet integrity, viability, and function in vivo. This study offers new opportunities in the area of advanced multifunctional materials to be used for a cell‐based transplantation therapy     

Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Treatment of Maize Grains—Induction of Growth,Enzyme Activities and Heat Shock Proteins

Zea mays L. is one of the most produced crops, and there are still parts of the world where maize is the basic staple food. To improve agriculture, mankind always looks for new, better methods of growing crops, especially in the current changing climatic conditions. Cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAPP) has already showed its potential to enhance the culturing of crops, but it still needs more research for safe implementation into agriculture. In this work, it was shown that short CAPP treatment of maize grains had a positive effect on the vitality of grains and young seedlings, which may be connected to stimulation of antioxidant and lytic enzyme activities by short CAPP treatment. However, the prolonged treatment had a negative impact on the germination, growth, and production indexes. CAPP treatment caused the increased expression of genes for heat shock proteins HSP101 and HSP70 in the first two days after sowing. Using comet assay it was observed that shorter treatment times (30–120 s) did not cause DNA damage. Surface diagnostics of plasma-treated grains showed that plasma increases the hydrophilicity of the surface but does not damage the chemical bonds on the surface.     

Synthesis of novolac on the basis of bisphenol A as curing agent for epoxy resins

Bisphenol A novolacs were synthesized in a melting process using paraformaldehyde, and in a solution process using a formalin solution and oxalic acid catalyst. ¹H-NMR investigations show a higher content of methylene bridges in the novolacs synthesized in a melting process. These novolacs were analysed by HPLC, GPC, DSC and FT-IR spectroscopy. The molecular masses were determined by vapour pressure osmometry. The results were shown to be related with the molar ratio of the components. The bisphenol A novolacs were used as curing agents for epoxy resins. There exists a dependence of the gel times on the content of methylene bridges; this dependence is influenced by temperature. The activation energy for gel formation is nearly the same in all curing reactions investigated. The networks synthesized were investigated by thermomechanical analysis.     

Multiple instance learning with bag dissimilarities

Multiple instance learning (MIL) is concerned with learning from sets (bags) of objects (instances), where the individual instance labels are ambiguous. In this setting, supervised learning cannot be applied directly. Often, specialized MIL methods learn by making additional assumptions about the relationship of the bag labels and instance labels. Such assumptions may fit a particular dataset, but do not generalize to the whole range of MIL problems. Other MIL methods shift the focus of assumptions from the labels to the overall (dis)similarity of bags, and therefore learn from bags directly. We propose to represent each bag by a vector of its dissimilarities to other bags in the training set, and treat these dissimilarities as a feature representation. We show several alternatives to define a dissimilarity between bags and discuss which definitions are more suitable for particular MIL problems. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is computationally inexpensive, yet very competitive with state-of-the-art algorithms on a wide range of MIL datasets.