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To gain insight into the fundamental processes determining the motion of macromolecules in polymeric matrices, the dynamical hindrance of polymeric dextran molecules diffusing as probe through a polyacrylamide hydrogel is systematically explored. Three complementary experimental methods combined with Brownian dynamics simulations are used to study a broad range of dextran molecular weights and salt concentrations. While multi-parameter fluorescence image spectroscopy (MFIS) is applied to investigate the local diffusion of single molecules on a microscopic length scale inside the hydrogel, a macroscopic transmission imaging (MTI) fluorescence technique and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are used to study the collective motion of dextrans on the macroscopic scale. These fundamentally different experimental methods, probing different length scales of the system, yield long-time diffusion coefficients for the dextran molecules which agree quantitatively. The measured diffusion coefficients decay markedly with increasing molecular weight of the dextran and fall onto a master curve. The observed trends of the hindrance factors are consistent with Brownian dynamics simulations. The simulations also allow us to estimate the mean pore size for the herein investigated experimental conditions. In addition to the diffusing molecules, MFIS detects temporarily trapped molecules inside the matrix with diffusion times above 10 ms, which is also confirmed by anisotropy analysis. The fraction of bound molecules depends on the ionic strength of the solution and the charge of the dye. Using fluorescence intensity analysis, also MTI confirms the observation of the interaction of dextrans with the hydrogel. Moreover, pixelwise analysis permits to show significant heterogeneity of the gel on the microscopic scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of the light-induced metastable state SII of Na2[Fe(CN)5NO]·2H2O was investigated by transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy (TMS) in the temperature range between 85 and 135 K, nuclear inelastic scattering (NIS) at 98 K using synchrotron radiation and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The DFT and TMS results strongly support the view that the NO group in SII takes a side-on molecular orientation and, further, is dynamically displaced from one eclipsed, via a staggered, to a second eclipsed orientation. The population conditions for generating SII are optimal for measurements by TMS, yet they are modest for accumulating NIS spectra. Optimization of population conditions for NIS measurements is discussed and new NIS experiments on SII are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antitumor activity of the four metallocene compounds decaphenylstannocene [η-(CH)C]Sn(II), decabenzylstannocene [η-(CHCH)C]Sn(II), decaphenylgermanocene [η-(CH)C]Ge(II), and decabenzylgermanocene [η-(CHCH)C]Ge(II), containing the main group IV elements tin or germanium as the central metal atom and two pentasubstituted cyclopentadienyl ring ligands in sandwich arrangement, were tested against Ehrlich ascites tumor in female CF1 mice. The complexes caused cure rates of 40% to 90% of the animals treated over rather broad dose ranges. With both germanocene complexes, no strong dose-activity relationship was manifest. The toxicity of all four metallocenes was low, the LD values of both stannocenes being 460 and 500 mg/kg, and those of both germanocenes higher than 700 mg/kg. Regarding the isolated pentasubstituted cyclopentadiene ligands (CH)CH and (CHCH)CH, these also exhibited antitumor activity which was less pronounced than that of the metal-containing sandwich complexes. Decasubstituted stannocene and germanocene compounds represent a new type of non-platinum group metal antitumor agents structurally differing from known inorganic and organometallic cytostatics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]