New HPLC method for determination of cystatin C biomarker in human blood

A rapid and sensitive method for determination of cystatin C (CC) protein in human blood by means of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed and validated. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) has been calculated for the patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Ion pair liquid chromatography technique was utilized to separate CC along with UV detection. Calibration curve with excellent correlation (r2 = 0.99) over the range from 0.75 to 20.50 mg/L of CC was accomplished. Limits of detection and quantify-cation were 0.375 and 0.75 mg/L of CC, respectively. The recoveries were in the range of 93.6-102.3%. Intra-assay and inter-assay variabilities were 8.2 and 6.14%, respectively

Production of flexible nanocomposite membranes for x-ray detectors

Flexible membranes of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymer and CuO nanoparticles for x-ray detection applications are reported in this work. PVA represents a polymer matrix for nanoparticles, and its flexibility and electrical conductivity are enhanced by addition of glycerol (GL) plasticizer. Nanoparticles of an average size of 6.3∓2.4nm are produced by a solvothermal method and added to the PVA + GL solution with different concentrations. The flexible membranes are fabricated by solution casting on glass substrates. The effect of blending of PVA + GL with nanoparticles on different characteristics of the membranes including the flexibility as well as the melting, glass transition, and degradation temperatures are tested by differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, as well as both Raman and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Electrical impedance tests reveal that both dc resistance and activation energy decrease with increasing temperature as well as nanoparticle concentration. The produced membranes reveal electrical response to x-ray due to the presence of CuO nanoparticles, and this response rises with x-ray generator voltage. The results presented in this study specify that the produced membranes are easy to produce with low cost, thus, they represent potential candidates for practical applications including x-ray detection

Synthetic, structural, spectroscopic and theoretical study of a Mn(III)-Cu(II) dimer containing a Jahn-Teller compressed Mn ion

The heterobimetallic complex [Cu(II)Mn(III)(L)(2)(py)(4)](ClO4)center dot EtOH (1) built using the pro-ligand 2,2'-biphenol (LH2), contains a rare example of a Jahn-Teller compressed Mn(III) centre. Dc magnetic susceptibility measurements on 1 reveal a strong antiferromagnetic exchange between the Cu(II) and Mn(III) ions mediated through the phenolate O-atoms (J = -33.4 cm(-1)), with magnetisation measurements at low temperatures and high fields suggesting significant anisotropy. Simulations of high-field and high frequency powder EPR data suggest a single-ion anisotropy D-Mn(III) = +4.45 cm(-1). DFT calculations also yield an antiferromagnetic exchange for 1, though the magnitude is overestimated (J(DFT) = -71 cm(-1)). Calculations reveal that the antiferromagnetic interaction essentially stems from the Mn(d(x2-y2))-Cu(d(x2-y2)) interaction. The computed single-ion anisotropy and cluster anisotropy also correlates well with experiment. A larger cluster anisotropy for the S = 3/2 state compared to the single-ion anisotropy of Mn(III) is rationalised on the basis of orbital mixing and various contributions that arise due to the spin-orbit interaction

Bias-reduction for sparsity promoting regularization in Magnetic Particle Imaging

Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is a tracer based medical imaging modality with great potential due to its high sensitivity, high spatial and temporal resolution, and ability to quantify the tracer concentration. Image reconstruction in MPI is an ill-posed problem that can be addressed by regularization methods that each lead to a bias. Reconstruction bias in MPI is most apparent in a mismatch between true and reconstructed tracer distribution. This is expressed globally in the spatial support of the distribution and locally in its intensity values. In this work, MPI reconstruction bias and its impact are investigated and a two-step debiasing method with significant bias reduction capabilities is introduced.   Int. J. Mag. Part. Imag. 6(2), Suppl. 1, 2020, Article ID: 2009041, DOI: 10.18416/IJMPI.2020.200904

Accelerated Kaczmarz for Convergence Speed-up in Multi-Contrast Magnetic Particle Imaging

Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is a tracer based medical imaging modality with great potential due to its high sensitivity, high spatio-temporal resolution, and ability to quantify the tracer concentration. Image reconstruction in MPI is an ill-posed problem, which can be addressed by the use of regularization methods. The corresponding optimization problem is most commonly solved using the Kaczmarz algorithm. Reconstruction using the Kaczmarz method for single-contrast MPI is very efficient as it produces the desired images fast with a small number of iterations. For multi-contrast MPI, however, the regular Kaczmarz algorithm fails to obtain good quality images without channel leakage when using a small number of iterations. In this work, we propose to use an accelerated Kaczmarz method in order to reduce the reconstruction time needed to achieve a good separation of the channels and a good image quality in multi-contrast MPI

CCDC 692004: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: A.-A.H.Abu-Nawwas, C.A.Muryn, M.A.Malik|2009|Inorg.Chem.Commun.|12|125|doi:10.1016/j.inoche.2008.11.01

Reduction of bias for sparsity promoting regularization in MPI

Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is a tracer based medical imaging modality with great potential due to its high sensitivity, high spatial and temporal resolution, and its ability to quantify the tracer concentration. Image reconstruction in MPI is an ill-posed problem, which can be addressed by regularization methods that lead to a reconstruction bias, which is apparent in a systematic mismatch between true and reconstructed tracer distribution. This is expressed in a background signal, a mismatch of the spatial support of the tracer distribution and a mismatch of its values. In this work, MPI reconstruction bias and its impact are investigated and a recently proposed debiasing method with significant bias reduction capabilities is adopted.   Int. J. Mag. Part. Imag. 7(2), 2021, Article ID: 2112002, DOI: 10.18416/IJMPI.2021.211200

CCDC 692006: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: A.-A.H.Abu-Nawwas, C.A.Muryn, M.A.Malik|2009|Inorg.Chem.Commun.|12|125|doi:10.1016/j.inoche.2008.11.01

CCDC 692003: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

Related Article: A.-A.H.Abu-Nawwas, C.A.Muryn, M.A.Malik|2009|Inorg.Chem.Commun.|12|125|doi:10.1016/j.inoche.2008.11.01