40 research outputs found
Derivation of extracts from Persian Gulf sea cucumber (Holothuria leucospilota) and assessment of its antifungal effect
Sea cucumber is presented as a potential marine source of antimicrobial compounds. The purpose of this study is to evaluate antifungal effects of sea cucumber, Holothuria leucospilota, extracts on Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans. Methanol and chloroform extracts of the body wall, gonad and intestine of sea cucumber, H. leucospilota, collected from Persian Gulf, were evaluated for their antifungal activity against A. niger and C. albicans. The activity was determined using serial dilution method. Antifungal activity, minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum fungicidal concentration were evaluated by the different concentrations. Results showed that each of the extracts had antifungal effect at specified concentrations on the A. niger. All examined concentrations of Gonad methanol and intestine chloroform extracts had no inhibitory effect on C. albicans. Chloroform extracts of gonad and intestine had more fungicidal effect against A. niger compared with C. albicans. Gonad chloroform extracts showed more fungicidal effect on the C. albicans at concentrations of 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/ml. Sea cucumber extract can be considered as an antifungal agent in various industries such as medicine and pharmaceutical industry
Magnetic properties of the spin Heisenberg chain with hexamer modulation of exchange
We consider the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with alternating spin exchange %on
even and odd sites in the presence of additional modulation of exchange on odd
bonds with period three. We study the ground state magnetic phase diagram of
this hexamer spin chain in the limit of very strong antiferromagnetic (AF)
exchange on odd bonds using the numerical Lanczos method and bosonization
approach. In the limit of strong magnetic field commensurate with the
dominating AF exchange, the model is mapped onto an effective Heisenberg
chain in the presence of uniform and spatially modulated fields, which is
studied using the standard continuum-limit bosonization approach. In absence of
additional hexamer modulation, the model undergoes a quantum phase transition
from a gapped string order into the only one gapless L\"uttinger liquid (LL)
phase by increasing the magnetic field. In the presence of hexamer modulation,
two new gapped phases are identified in the ground state at magnetization equal
to 1/3 and 2/3 of the saturation value. These phases reveal themselves also in
magnetization curve as plateaus at corresponding values of magnetization. As
the result, the magnetic phase diagram of the hexamer chain shows seven
different quantum phases, four gapped and three gapless and the system is
characterized by six critical fields which mark quantum phase transitions
between the ordered gapped and the LL gapless phases.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 24,
116002, (2012
Free-fermion descriptions of parafermion chains and string-net models
Topological phases of matter remain a focus of interest due to their unique properties: fractionalization, ground-state degeneracy, and exotic excitations. While some of these properties can occur in systems of free fermions, their emergence is generally associated with interactions between particles. Here, we quantify the role of interactions in general classes of topological states of matter in one and two spatial dimensions, including parafermion chains and string-net models. Surprisingly, we find that certain topological states can be exactly described by free fermions, while others saturate the maximum possible distance from their optimal free-fermion description [C. J. Turner et al., Nat. Commun. 8, 14926 (2017)]. Our work opens the door to understanding the complexity of topological models by establishing new types of fermionization procedures to describe their low-energy physics, thus making them amenable to experimental realizations
DNA probe modified with 3-iron bis(dicarbollide) for electrochemical determination of DNA sequence of Avian Influenza Virus H5N1
Biophysical and electrochemical studies of protein-nucleic acid interactions
This review is devoted to biophysical and electrochemical methods used for studying protein-nucleic acid (NA) interactions. The importance of NA structure and protein-NA recognition for essential cellular processes, such as replication or transcription, is discussed to provide background for description of a range of biophysical chemistry methods that are applied to study a wide scope of protein-DNA and protein-RNA complexes. These techniques employ different detection principles with specific advantages and limitations and are often combined as mutually complementary approaches to provide a complete description of the interactions. Electrochemical methods have proven to be of great utility in such studies because they provide sensitive measurements and can be combined with other approaches that facilitate the protein-NA interactions. Recent applications of electrochemical methods in studies of protein-NA interactions are discussed in detail
Synthetic biology to access and expand nature's chemical diversity
Bacterial genomes encode the biosynthetic potential to produce hundreds of thousands of complex molecules with diverse applications, from medicine to agriculture and materials. Accessing these natural products promises to reinvigorate drug discovery pipelines and provide novel routes to synthesize complex chemicals. The pathways leading to the production of these molecules often comprise dozens of genes spanning large areas of the genome and are controlled by complex regulatory networks with some of the most interesting molecules being produced by non-model organisms. In this Review, we discuss how advances in synthetic biology — including novel DNA construction technologies, the use of genetic parts for the precise control of expression and for synthetic regulatory circuits — and multiplexed genome engineering can be used to optimize the design and synthesis of pathways that produce natural products
Band gap and magnetism engineering in Dirac half-metallic <tex>Na_{2}C$</tex> nanosheet via layer thickness, strain and point defects
Tunable electronic and magnetic properties of graphene/carbon-nitride van der Waals heterostructures
In this paper, we explore the electronic properties of C3N, C3N4 and C4N3 and graphene (Gr) van der Waals heterostructures by conducing extensive first-principles calculations. The acquired results show that these heterostructures can show diverse electronic properties, such as the metal (Gr on C3N), semiconductor with narrow band gap (Gr on C3N4) and ferromagnetic-metal (Gr on C4N3). We furthermore explored the effect of vacancies, atom substitution, topological, antisite and Stone-Wales defects on the structural and electronic properties of considered heterostructures. Our results show that the vacancy defects introduce localized states near the Fermi level and create a local magnetic moment. The Gr/C3N heterostructures with the single and double vacancy defects exhibit a ferromagnetic-metal, while Stone-Wales defects show an indirect semiconductor with the band gap of 0.2 eV. The effects of adsorption and insertion of O, C, Be, Cr, Fe and Co atoms on the electronic properties of Gr/C3N have been also elaborately studied. Our results highlight that the electronic and magnetic properties of garphene/carbon-nitride lateral heterostructures can be effectively modified by point defects and impurities.WOS:0005108465000522-s2.0-8507605398