Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2017-01-10"
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- More about unphysical zeroes in quark mass matricesPublication . Costa, David Emmanuel; Gonzalez Felipe, RicardoWe look for all weak bases that lead to texture zeroes in the quark mass matrices and contain a minimal number of parameters in the framework of the standard model. Since there are ten physical observables, namely, six nonvanishing quark masses, three mixing angles and one CP phase, the maximum number of texture zeroes in both quark sectors is altogether nine. The nine zero entries can only be distributed between the up- and down-quark sectors in matrix pairs with six and three texture zeroes or five and four texture zeroes. In the weak basis where a quark mass matrix is nonsingular and has six zeroes in one sector, we find that there are 54 matrices with three zeroes in the other sector, obtainable through right-handed weak basis transformations. It is also found that all pairs composed of a nonsingular matrix with five zeroes and a nonsingular and nondecoupled matrix with four zeroes simply correspond to a weak basis choice. Without any further assumptions, none of these pairs of up- and down-quark mass matrices has physical content. It is shown that all non-weak-basis pairs of quark mass matrices that contain nine zeroes are not compatible with current experimental data. The particular case of the so-called nearest-neighbour-interaction pattern is also discussed.
- Elucidation of the zeolite role on the hydrogenating activity of Pt-catalystsPublication . Mendes, Pedro; Gregório, André F. C.; Daudin, Antoine; Bouchy, Christophe; Silva, João; Ribeiro, M FilipaToluene hydrogenation was studied over model catalysts with a fixed hydrogenating function (Pt/Al2O3) mechanically mixed with either HUSY or HBEA zeolites. Such mechanical mixtures showed improved platinum turnover frequencies compared to single Pt/Al2O3. Comparing to Pt-impregnated zeolite catalysts, the mechanical mixtures have lower activities per site showing that the contribution of acid sites decreases (and so the hydrogenating activity) with increased distance between Pt clusters and acid sites. Therefore, toluene hydrogenation can be used as a powerful tool to evaluate Pt-acid site intimacy in bifunctional catalysts.
- Multifunctional gold-nanoparticles: A nanovectorization tool for the targeted delivery of novel chemotherapeutic agentesPublication . Fernandes, Alexandra; Jesus, João; Martins, Pedro; Figueiredo, Sara; Rosa, Daniela; Martins, Luisa; Corvo, M. Luísa; Carvalheiro, Manuela; Costa, Pedro M.; Baptista, PedroDue to their small size and unique properties, multifunctional nanoparticles arise as versatile delivery systems easily grafted with a vast array of functional moieties, such as anticancer cytotoxic chemotherapeutics and targeting agents. Here, we formulated a multifunctional gold-nanoparticle (AuNP) system composed of a monoclonal antibody against epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) (anti-EGFR D-11) for active targeting and a Co(II) coordination compound [CoCl(H2O)(phendione)2][BF4] (phendione = 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione) (TS265) with proven antiproliferative activity towards cancer cells (designated as TargetNanoTS265). The efficacy of this nanoformulation, and the non-targeted counterpart (NanoTS265), were evaluated in vitro using cancer cell models and in vivo using mice xenografts. Compared to the free compound, both nanoformulations (TargetNanoTS265 and NanoTS265) efficiently delivered the cytotoxic cargo in a controlled selective manner due to the active targeting, boosting tumor cytotoxicity. Treatment of HCT116-derived xenografts tumors with TargetNanoTS265 led to 93% tumor reduction. This simple conceptual nanoformulation demonstrates the potential of nanovectorization of chemotherapeutics via simple assembly onto AuNPs of BSA/HAS-drug conjugates that may easily be expanded to suit other cargo of novel compounds that require optimized controlled delivery to cancer target.