N-Heterocyclic Carbenes and Their Metal Complexes Based on Histidine and Histamine Derivatives of Bacteriopurpurinimide for the Combined Chemo- and Photodynamic Therapy of Cancer

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is currently regarded as a promising method for the treatment of oncological diseases. However, it involves a number of limitations related to the specific features of the method and the specific characteristics of photosensitizer molecules, including tumor hypoxia, small depth of light penetration into the tumor tissue, and low accumulation sensitivity. These drawbacks can be overcome by combining PDT with other treatment methods, for example, chemotherapy. In this work, we were the first to obtain agents that contain bacteriopurpurinimide as a photodynamic subunit and complexes of gold(I) that implement the chemotherapy effect. To bind the latter agents, N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) based on histidine and histamine were obtained. We considered alternative techniques for synthesizing the target conjugates and selected an optimal one that enabled the production of preparative amounts for biological assays. In vitro studies showed that all the compounds obtained exhibited high photoinduced activity. The C-donor Au(I) complexes exhibited the maximum specific activity at longer incubation times compared to the other derivatives, both under exposure to light and without irradiation. In in vivo studies, the presence of histamine in the NHC-derivative of dipropoxy-BPI (7b) had no significant effect on its antitumor action, whereas the Au(I) metal complex of histamine NHC-derivative with BPI (8b) resulted in enhanced antitumor activity and in an increased number of remissions after photodynamic treatment.     

Preparation and characterization of energetic Al-Mg mechanical alloy powders

Metals such as Al and Mg have high combustion enthalpies and they are widely used as additives in energetic materials for propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics. However, long ignition delays and slow combustion kinetics limit their current applications. An approach suggested in this work is to design new metal-based materials in which pre-determined phase changes will occur and trigger ignition at a desired temperature and also accelerate the rate of heat release during combustion. As a first step, metastable solid solutions of Mg in Al (10-50% of Mg) have been produced by mechanical alloying. The ignition temperatures of the produced alloys in air were determined using digital imaging and three-color pyrometry of the electrically heated filaments coated with different alloy powders. Combustion of mechanical alloys in air was studied using a laminar, premixed flame aerosol burner. The ignition temperatures were around 1,000 K, much lower than the pure aluminum ignition temperature of about 2,300 K. The steady flames of mechanical alloy powders were produced at lower equivalence ratios and had higher propagation velocities than similar pure aluminum powder flames. Phase compositions of the combustion products were determined using X-ray diffraction. In addition to Al₂O₃ and MgO, significant amounts of Al₂MgO₄ were found in experiments.     

Adsorption Dynamics in Adsorptive Heat Transformers: Review of New Trends

This review addresses recent advances in understanding and trends in studying dynamics in adsorptive heat transformers (AHTs), which are considered as an alternative to common compression and absorption machines. Experimental data have been obtained mainly by a new large temperature jump method (LTJM) specifically developed to imitate the conditions of isobaric stages of AHTs. Here we consider merely a simple but quite realistic configuration of an “adsorbent–heat exchanger” (Ad-HEx) with n-layers of loose adsorbent grains (n = 1–8). Water, methanol, and ammonia are used as adsorbates. Several recommendations following from this experimental study have been checked with prototypes of adsorptive chiller in ITAE-CNR (Italy) and the University of Warwick (UK). These tests clearly demonstrated that the dynamic performance of AHT can be significantly improved by a proper management of AHT cycle and Ad-HEx geometry. The most important findings and general regularities that have been revealed by systematic studying of the adsorption dynamics of water, methanol, and ammonia in AHT systems are summarized, illustrated, and discussed in this review.     

Clever Nuclear Fuel Technology

The purpose of given article-consideration of the basic features of modern manufacturing of nuclear fuel which would confirm fact, that the manufacturer does everything that its production would respond not only to requirements of the consumer, but also to its expected inquiries, and would correspond to intended purposes of fuel. It was defined main tendencies and features of modern technology, especially in nuclear fuel production, on base of meeting discussions, themes of journal articles on nuclear subject. They are correspond with practice of JSC NCCP （Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant） and listed in the paper. In result of it number of base features of any advanced technology, not only nuclear, described here with examples from NCCP＇s practice. Of course, there is no certain list of all attributes of modern manufacturing as there is no limit to its perfection. These categories are forming by current needs of the market, but listed ones must be.     

Coherent-interface-induced strain in large lattice-mismatched materials:A new approach for modeling Raman shift

Strain engineering as one of the most powerful techniques for tuning optical and electronic properties of Ⅲ-nitrides requires reliable methods for strain invest...     

Lignite oxidative desulphurization: notice 3—process technological aspects and application of products

International Journal of Coal Science & Technology - The study reviews the process of oxidative desulphurization of high-sulphur Ukrainian lignite, which was performed by coal treatment using...     

Book Reviews

This paper discusses ongoing research to formulate, develop and test a reliability assessment model (GenRel) based on genetic algorithms (GAs). GAs are powerful and broadly applicable stochastic search techniques based on the principles of natural selection, heredity and genetics. The reason for selecting GAs is the fact that the reliability of mining equipment changes over time due to its dependence upon several covariates/factors (e.g. equipment age, operating environment, number and quality of repairs). These factors combine to create a complex impact on a piece of equipment's reliability function. This impact encapsulates and inherits to some degree the individual characteristics of the factors as they evolve over time.

Theoretical probability distributions are commonly used to fit equipment failure data. GenRel uses the exponential probability distribution as its engine to generate predictive patterns based upon historical failure data.

Overall, this paper suggests a methodology for applying GAs for reliability assessment of mining equipment. An example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of using GAs in reliability studies. The research discussed in this paper was carried out by the Laurentian University Mining Automation Laboratory (LUMAL).     

Particle positioning techniques for dusty plasma experiments

Video microscopy is a widely applied diagnostic to investigate the structure and the dynamics of particles in dusty plasmas. Reliable algorithms are required to accurately recover particle positions from the camera images. Here, four different particle positioning techniques have been tested on artificial and experimental data of dusty plasma situations. Two methods that rely on pixel-intensity thresholds were found to be strongly affected by pixel-locking errors and by noise. Two other methods-one applying spatial bandpass filters and the other fitting polynomials to the intensity pattern-yield subpixel resolution under various conditions. These two methods have been shown to be ideally suited to recover particle positions even from small-scale fluctuations that are used to derive the normal mode spectra of finite dust clusters.     

West Siberian palsa peatlands: distribution,typology, cyclic development,present day climate-driven changes,seasonal hydrology and impact on CO2 cycle

Palsa peatlands occupy extensive areas in Western Siberia which is one of the most paludified flat lowlands of the world. Climatic changes in Western Siberia are more dramatic compared with other northern regions, and changes in palsa landscapes are more notable due to the severe continental climate here. The distribution, peculiarities and climate-indication capacities of West Siberian palsas are poorly known outside Russia. Thus, Western Siberia is one of the most interesting vast natural polygons for studying climate-driven changes in the landscapes. This paper aims to fill the gap in knowledge on West Siberian palsas and their capacity as a climate regulator. We present issues in distribution, typology and cyclic development of palsa peatlands and their actual climate-driven changes. We also analyse the role of palsas in the atmospheric cycle of CO₂, and the hydrology of the palsa regions.