Enhancement of Photoluminescence Properties via Polymer Infiltration in a Colloidal Photonic Glass.

Photonic glasses (PGs) based on the self-assembly of monosized nanoparticles can be an effective tool for realizing disordered structures capable of tailoring light diffusion due to the establishment of Mie resonances. In particular, the wavelength position of these resonances depends mainly on the morphology (dimension) and optical properties (refractive index) of the building blocks. In this study, we report the fabrication and optical characterization of photonic glasses obtained via a self-assembling technique.

Evaluation of microRNA Expression Features in Patients with Various Types of Arterial Damage: Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm and Coronary Atherosclerosis.

Unlabelled: Circulating serum miRNA are increasingly used as biomarkers and potential treatment targets in several clinical scenarios, including cardiovascular diseases. However, the current data on circulating miRNA in thoracic aorta aneurism (TAA) patients are inconclusive. The aim of the present study is to compare the levels of several circulating miRNA in patients with degenerative TAA, coronary artery disease (CAD), and controls for special profile identification.

Detecting Phytoplankton Cell Viability Using NIR Raman Spectroscopy and PCA.

Raman spectroscopy has long been suggested as a potentially fast and sensitive method to monitor phytoplankton abundance and composition in marine environments. However, the pitfalls of visible detection methods in pigment-rich biological material and the complexity of their spectra have hindered their application as reliable detection methods. In this study we combine 1064 nm confocal Raman spectroscopy with multivariate statistical analysis techniques (principle component analysis and partial leas-squares discriminant analysis) to reliably measure differences in the cell viability of a diatom species () and two haptophyte species ( and ) of phytoplankton.

Data on the soil and vegetation properties at the small gully catchment area: Steppe region of Kalmykia Republic (South Russia).

In rural areas, research on the environment in native (untaught) soils is important to understand the rate of pedogenesis and to prevent the problems associated with hidden huger. In this article, original data on vegetation, chemical properties and elemental and mineralogical composition of Kastanozems (Protosalic, Siltic) and Hypersalic Solonetz (Siltic) of the small gully catchment (2 ha in total) located at the NE Ergeni Upland (Western Kalmykia, Russia) were presented. Vegetation was described and cut off (to characterize an aboveground biomass) at 13 key plots of 1 × 1 m.

Diboron Porphyrins: The Raman Signature of the In-Plane Tetragonal Elongation of the Macrocycle.

We describe an unusual in-plane type of porphyrin core distortion, tetragonal elongation (TE), observed experimentally in diboron porphyrins. The vibrational spectra of several of these complexes exhibit shifts that we have assigned to this TE distortion by comparing experimental spectra with DFT computational findings. The influence of TE in porphyrin systems was isolated using DFT analysis of the well-known model compounds Ni(II)porphine and Zn(II)porphine, with the macrocycle ring constrained to eliminate the influence of out-of-plane (OOP) distortions.

Lighting up sugars: fluorescent BODIPY-gluco-furanose and -septanose conjugates linked by direct B-O-C bonds.

We report the first O-BODIPY-glucose conjugates, in which the sugar is directly attached to the BODIPY boron through covalent B-O-C bonds. The reaction of Cl-BODIPY with glucose in acetonitrile produced the 1 : 1 α-glucofuranose BODIPY (1), 1 : 2 α-glucofuranose BODIPY (2) and 1 : 2 α-glucoseptanose BODIPY (3) esters. Compound 3 is a rare instance of the unnatural septanose form of glucose, and the first example of a septanose borate.

Gold-sputtered Blu-ray discs: simple and inexpensive SERS substrates for sensitive detection of melamine.

Nanostructured gold substrates provide chemically stable, signal-enhancing substrates for the sensitive detection of a variety of compounds through surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Recent developments in advanced fabrication methods have enabled the manufacture of SERS substrates with repeatable surface nanostructures that provide reproducible quantitative analysis, historically a weakness of the SERS technique. Here, we describe the novel use of gold-sputtered Blu-ray disc surfaces as SERS substrates.

TUGAI: An integrated simulation tool for ecological assessment of alternative water management strategies in a degraded river delta.

The development of ecologically sound water allocation strategies that account for the needs of riverine ecosystems is a pressing issue, especially in semiarid river basins. In the Aral Sea Basin, a search for strategies to mitigate ecological and socioeconomic deterioration has been in process since the early 1990s. The Geographic Information System-based simulation tool TUGAI has been developed to support the policy determination process by providing a simple, problem-oriented method to assess ecological effects of alternative water management strategies for the Amudarya River.