Gadolinium Complexes of Highly Rigid, Open-Chain Ligands Containing a Cyclobutane Ring in the Backbone: Decreasing Ligand Denticity Might Enhance Kinetic Inertness.

In an effort to explore novel ligand scaffolds for stable and inert lanthanide complexation in magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent research, three chiral ligands containing a highly rigid (1,2)-1,2-cyclobutanediamine spacer and different number of acetate and picolinate groups were efficiently synthesized. Potentiometric studies show comparable thermodynamic stability for the Gd complexes formed with either the octadentate (L3) bearing two acetate or two picolinate groups or the heptadentate (L2) analogue bearing one picolinate and three acetate groups (log = 17.41 and 18.

[Nurses and action policy: a historical and current lack].

Both in the past and at present, we see a very weak presence of nurses both in Spanish Parliament and in the parliaments of the seventeen autonomous communities that constitute the kingdom of Spain. The present study, focused on the current legislature (X Legislature, 2011-2015), aims to give the exact number of deputies nurses in each of the mentioned legislative chambers, and size their position in them and identify their coordinates of identity, gender, age, educational qualification and political party they belong to, in order to specify the exact percentages of participation of nurses. The conclusion of this research presents a picture so bleak that has been diagnosed, quite rightly, as "political anorexia of the nurse power".

Quantitative spectroscopy analysis of prokaryotic cells: vegetative cells and spores.

Multiwavelength ultraviolet/visible (UV-Vis) spectra of microorganisms and cell suspensions contain quantitative information on properties such as number, size, shape, chemical composition, and internal structure of the suspended particles. These properties are essential for the identification and classification of microorganisms and cells. The complexity of microorganisms in terms of their chemical composition and internal structure make the interpretation of their spectral signature a difficult task.

Application of wavelet transforms and an approximate deconvolution method for the resolution of noisy overlapped peaks in DNA capillary electrophoresis.

A new procedure for resolving noisy overlapped peaks in DNA separations by capillary electrophoresis (CE) is developed. The procedure combines both a wavelet-based denoising method that effectively denoises the signal and a novel approximate deconvolution technique that resolves the fragment peaks and improves the ability to separate highly overlapped peaks early in the electrophoresis process. Different kinds of overlapped peaks with and without noise simulated by computer as well as some DNA experimental electropherograms were submitted to the new procedure.

Liquid core waveguide for full imaging of electrophoretic separations.

We employed a liquid core waveguide to image both DNA electrophoresis separations and isoelectric focusing of proteins. The utility of the system is demonstrated for DNA fragment sizing and protein separations. The system utilizes the liquid-core waveguide as an efficient window for both the excitation of separated samples and the collection of light through total internal reflectance, with an ability to detect target molecules in the zeptomolar range.