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Imaging tumor microenvironments such as hypoxia, oxygenation, redox status, and/or glycolytic metabolism in tissues/cells is useful for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. New imaging modalities are under development for imaging various aspects of tumor microenvironments. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging (EPRI) though similar to NMR/MRI is unique in its ability to provide quantitative images of pO2 in vivo. The short electron spin relaxation times have been posing formidable challenge to the technology development for clinical application. With the availability of the narrow line width trityl compounds, pulsed EPR imaging techniques were developed for pO2 imaging. EPRI visualizes the exogenously administered spin probes/contrast agents and hence lacks the complementary morphological information. Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), a phenomenon that transfers the high electron spin polarization to the surrounding nuclear spins (1H and 13C) opened new capabilities in molecular imaging. DNP of 13C nuclei is utilized in metabolic imaging of 13C-labeled compounds by imaging specific enzyme kinetics. In this article, imaging strategies mapping physiologic and metabolic aspects in vivo are reviewed within the framework of their application in cancer research, highlighting the potential and challenges of each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Propose PU-CDM to suppress streak artifacts and yield high-quality EPRI images. • Propose PUNet as the Gaussian noise prediction network in PU-CDM. • Extensive experiments have proven the superior performance of PU-CDM. Sparse-view reconstruction in electron paramagnetic resonance imaging (EPRI) aims to reduce scanning times, which is critical for tumor oxygen imaging, yet is often plagued by streak artifacts in filtered back-projection (FBP) reconstructions. To address this, we propose a pyramid UNet based conditional diffusion model (PU-CDM) to suppress these streak artifacts in EPRI images. PU-CDM uniquely introduces pyramid pooling and aggregation into the UNet architecture of the conditional diffusion model, while incorporating two advanced mechanisms—dense convolutions and self-attention—into the input module. By significantly improving the accuracy of the Gaussian noise prediction network in the conditional diffusion model, PU-CDM achieves superior performance in sparse-view reconstruction, generating high-quality images with only 5 sampling steps. Experimental results, both qualitative and quantitative, show that the images reconstructed by PU-CDM outperform those reconstructed by some existing representative deep learning models in terms of artifact removal and structural fidelity. PU-CDM can achieve accurate sparse-view reconstruction in EPRI, thus promoting EPRI towards fast scanning. In addition, PU-CDM can also be used for fast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) reconstruction, and natural image processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imaging tumor microenvironments such as hypoxia, oxygenation, redox status, and/or glycolytic metabolism in tissues/cells is useful for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. New imaging modalities are under development for imaging various aspects of tumor microenvironments. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging (EPRI) though similar to NMR/MRI is unique in its ability to provide quantitative images of pO2 in vivo. The short electron spin relaxation times have been posing formidable challenge to the technology development for clinical application. With the availability of the narrow line width trityl compounds, pulsed EPR imaging techniques were developed for pO2 imaging. EPRI visualizes the exogenously administered spin probes/contrast agents and hence lacks the complementary morphological information. Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), a phenomenon that transfers the high electron spin polarization to the surrounding nuclear spins (1H and 13C) opened new capabilities in molecular imaging. DNP of 13C nuclei is utilized in metabolic imaging of 13C-labeled compounds by imaging specific enzyme kinetics. In this article, imaging strategies mapping physiologic and metabolic aspects in vivo are reviewed within the framework of their application in cancer research, highlighting the potential and challenges of each of them.

• Propose an edge-preserving total nuclear variation for sparse reconstruction. • Propose a method to dynamically adjust the intensity of gradient diffusion. • Extensive experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method. Currently, slow scanning speed has become a technical bottleneck limiting the development of electron paramagnetic resonance imaging (EPRI), a novel oxygen imaging modality. Image reconstruction from sparse-view projections is an important imaging configuration to achieve fast scanning in EPRI. However, EPR images reconstructed from sparse-view projections using traditional analytic algorithms suffer from sparse artifacts, causing severe image degradation. In this work, we aim to use an optimization-based approach to achieve high-precision sparse reconstruction for EPRI. Methods. Inspired by the success of total nuclear variation (TV N) for denoising multi-channel spectral CT images and adaptive-weighted total variation (awTV) for improving the edge-preserving performance of TV, we proposed an edge-preserving total nuclear variation (EPTV N) minimization algorithm for sparse reconstruction in EPRI. The EPTV N combines the advantage of TV N in modelling structural similarity and low-rank prior between multi-channel images for denoising with the advantage of awTV for edge-preserving, which can better protect the edge structure of images while suppressing sparse artifacts. Results. We designed two numerical phantoms with different properties, a piecewise-constant phantom and a gradient phantom, and a physical phantom, and then performed inverse crime, simulation study and real-data study. Experimental results show that the EPTV N minimization algorithm can reconstruct more accurate EPR images from sparse-view projections for both the numerical and physical phantoms. Significance. The proposed method can effectively suppress sparse artifacts and protect edge structures of reconstructed images, thus achieving high-precision sparse-view reconstruction for EPRI. The insights of this work can also be applied to multi-channel image denoising tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We present the concept of image registration using ultrasound (US) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) imaging and discuss the benefits of this solution, as well as its limitations. Both phantoms and murine tumors were used to test US and EPR image co-registration. Comparison of dental molding cast immobilization and predesigned cradle revealed that the latter approach is more effective in stabilizing the fiducial position. In vivo imaging of mouse tumors, image registration and comparison of fiducials system for 3D spatial as well as 4D spatial-spectral EPR imaging supported by 3D US were demonstrated. Ultrasound may provide a convenient alternative to other anatomical imaging methods for image registration in preclinical research. Of particular interest is a fusion of US tissue structure, doppler vascular function and EPR oxygen or redox imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the observations of electron paramagnetic resonance and impedance measurements of graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide performed in the wide temperature range in order to get insight into the electronic properties of graphene-based materials and the role of oxygen functionalities in the charge carrier transport phenomena. In such systems the strong spin localization, hopping charge carrier transport as well as the formation of adsorption layers are observed, all the phenomena changing significantly after the heavily oxidized graphene is reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While linguistic theory posits an arbitrary relation between signifiers and the signified (de Saussure, 1916), our analysis of a large-scale German database containing affective ratings of words revealed that certain phoneme clusters occur more often in words denoting concepts with negative and arousing meaning. Here, we investigate how such phoneme clusters that potentially serve as sublexical markers of affect can influence language processing. We registered the EEG signal during a lexical decision task with a novel manipulation of the words' putative sublexical affective potential: the means of valence and arousal values for single phoneme clusters, each computed as a function of respective values of words from the database these phoneme clusters occur in. Our experimental manipulations also investigate potential contributions of formal salience to the sublexical affective potential: Typically, negative high-arousing phonological segments--based on our calculations--tend to be less frequent and more structurally complex than neutral ones. We thus constructed two experimental sets, one involving this natural confound, while controlling for it in the other. A negative high-arousing sublexical affective potential in the strictly controlled stimulus set yielded an early posterior negativity (EPN), in similar ways as an independent manipulation of lexical affective content did. When other potentially salient formal features at the sublexical level were not controlled for, the effect of the sublexical affective potential was strengthened and prolonged (250-650 ms), presumably because formal salience helps making specific phoneme clusters efficient sublexical markers of negative high-arousing affective meaning. These neurophysiological data support the assumption that the organization of a language's vocabulary involves systematic sound-to-meaning correspondences at the phonemic level that influence the way we process language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EPR (Electron Paramagnetic Resonance) imaging is particularly useful in monitoring hypoxic zones in tumors which are highly resistant to radiation and chemotherapeutic treatment. This first part of the article covers aspects of CW (continuous wave) imaging with details of FT (pulsed Fourier Transform)-EPR imaging covered in Part 2, to be published in the next issue of Resonance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major light harvesting complex II (LHCII) of green plants plays a key role in the absorption of sunlight, the regulation of photosynthesis, and in preventing photodamage by excess light. The latter two functions are thought to involve the lumenal loop and the N-terminal domain. Their structure and mobility in an aqueous environment are only partially known. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) has been used to measure the structure of these hydrophilic protein domains in detergent-solubilized LHCII. A new technique is introduced to prepare LHCII trimers in which only one monomer is spin-labeled. These heterogeneous trimers allow to measure intra-molecular distances within one LHCII monomer in the context of a trimer by using double electron-electron resonance (DEER). These data together with data from electron spin echo envelope modulation (ESEEM) allowed to model the N-terminal protein section, which has not been resolved in current crystal structures, and the lumenal loop domain. The N-terminal domain covers only a restricted area above the superhelix in LHCII, which is consistent with the "Velcro" hypothesis to explain thylakoid grana stacking (Standfuss, J., van Terwisscha Scheltinga, A. C., Lamborghini, M., and Kühlbrandt, W. (2005)EMBOJ. 24, 919'928). The conformation of the lumenal loop domain is surprisingly different between LHCII monomers and trimers but not between complexes with and without neoxanthin bound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A thorough investigation of biomimeticpolydopamine (PDA) by ElectronParamagnetic Resonance (EPR) is shown. In addition, temperature dependentspectroscopic EPR data are presented in the range 3.8–300 K.Small discrepancies in magnetic susceptibility behavior are observedbetween previously reported melanin samples. These variations wereattributed to thermally acitivated processes. More importantly, EPRspatial–spatial 2D imaging of polydopamine radicals on a phantomis presented for the first time. In consequence, a new possible applicationof polydopamine as EPR imagining marker is addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Penetration of the liposome membranes doped with vanadium complex formed in the liquid-crystalline phase from egg yolk lecithin (EYL) by the TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl) spin probes has been investigated. The penetration process was followed by 360 hours at 24°C, using the electron spin resonance (EPR) method. The spectroscopic parameter of the partition ( F) of this probe indicated that a maximum rigidity of the membrane was at 3% concentration of the vanadium complex. Computer simulations showed that the increase in the rigidity of the membrane corresponds to the closure of gaps in the surface layer of the membrane, and indicates the essential role of the membrane surface in transport processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is the application of electron magnetic resonance (EMR) spectroscopy to determine the interactions between NaY and HY zeolites and Cu-Mn-Zn spinels loaded onto the zeolite surfaces. The materials were characterized using XRD and IR spectroscopies. Four types of EMR lines were observed for Cu-Mn-Zn/NaY, Cu-Mn-Zn/HY samples. The difference between the EMR spectra recorded at 77 and 293 K has been shown. The spectra recorded at 77 K allowed us to distinguish between the species formed on NaY and HY zeolites. The EMR spectrum of Cu-Mn-Zn/NaY recorded at 77 K showed only one line attributed to antiferromagnetic spinels Cu1.4Mn1.6O4 and ZnMn2O4 or/and Cu0.5Zn0.5Mn2O4. The spinels appeared to be more stable (more strongly attached) on HY zeolite than on NaY one. It was proved that different strength of interactions between the zeolites and Cu-Mn-Zn spinels was caused by differences in the acidity of NaY and HY zeolites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interface between optical spectroscopy, electron magnetic resonance (EMR), and magnetism of transition ions forms the intricate web of interrelated notions. Major notions are the physical Hamiltonians, which include the crystal field (CF) (or equivalently ligand field (LF)) Hamiltonians, and the effective spin Hamiltonians (SH), which include the zero-field splitting (ZFS) Hamiltonians as well as to a certain extent also the notion of magnetic anisotropy (MA). Survey of recent literature has revealed that this interface, denoted CF (LF) ↔ SH (ZFS), has become dangerously entangled over the years. The same notion is referred to by three names that are not synonymous: CF (LF), SH (ZFS), and MA. In view of the strong need for systematization of nomenclature aimed at bringing order to the multitude of different Hamiltonians and the associated quantities, we have embarked on this systematization. In this article, we do an overview of our efforts aimed at providing a deeper understanding of the major intricacies occurring at the CF (LF) ↔ SH (ZFS) interface with the focus on the EMR-related problems for transition ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The difficulty in determining the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) line parameters of ferromagnetic semiconductors has been addressed. For these materials, the resonance line is very broad and lies at low resonance field, so that only a part of the line can be detected experimentally. Moreover, the line is of asymmetric (Dysonian) shape as described by the line shape parameter α. We have compared values of line parameters derived by computer fitting of the whole experimental EPR line to the Dyson function (or modified Dyson function) with the values obtained by applying this procedure to the left and the right half of the line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In calcite and aragonite, γ-irradiated at 77 K, several paramagnetic centers were generated and detected by EPR spectroscopy; in calcite, CO3− (orthorhombic symmetry, bulk and bonded to surface), CO33−, NO32−, O3−, and in aragonite CO2− (isotropic and orthorhombic symmetry) depending on the type of calcium carbonate used. For calcium carbonates enriched with 13C more detailed information about the formed radicals was possible to be obtained. In both natural (white coral) and synthetic aragonite the same radicals were identified with main differences in the properties of CO2− radicals. An application of Q-band EPR allowed to avoid the signals overlap giving the characteristics of radical anisotropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With gamma spectrometric method 23 samples of mineral and thermal waters of Bosnia and Herzegovina were analyzed. Activity concentrations of the investigated radionuclides were in the range 12-346 mBq·L−1 for 40K, 1.1-791 mBq·L−1 for 226Ra, 0.2-221 mBq·L−1 for 228Ra, 13-367 mBq·L−1 for 238U, and 0.6-17 mBq·L−1 for 235U. For all investigated radionuclides annual effective dose was estimated. The estimated total annual committed effective dose received by population as a result of ingestion of water was in the range 0.11-2.51 μSv·y−1 for thermal water and in the range 0.11-38.8 μSv·y−1 for mineral water. Measurement of activity concentrations of natural radionuclides in the examined samples was carried out with a gamma-spectrometer with high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector, having a relative efficiency of 70%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To design a potent agent for positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) imaging and targeted magnetic hyperthermia-radioisotope cancer therapy radiolabeled surface modified superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) were used as nanocarriers. Folic acid was conjugated for increasing selective cellular binding and internalization through receptor-mediated endocytosis. SPIONs were synthesized by the thermal decomposition of tris (acetylacetonato) iron (III) to achieve narrow and uniform nanoparticles. To increase the biocompatibility of SPIONs, they were coated with (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES), and then conjugated with synthesized folic acid-polyethylene glycol (FA-PEG) through amine group of (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane. Finally, the particles were labeled with 64Cu ( t1/2 = 12.7 h) using 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid mono ( N-hydroxy succinimide ester) DOTA-NHS chelator. After the characterization of SPIONs, their cellular internalization was evaluated in folate receptor (FR) overexpressing KB (established from a HeLa cell contamination) and mouse fibroblast cell (MFB) lines. Eventually, active and passive targeting effects of complex were assessed in KB tumor-bearing Balb/C mice through biodistribution studies. Synthesized bare SPIONs had low toxicity effect on healthy cells, but surface modification increased their biocompatibility. Moreover, KB cells viability was reduced when using folate conjugated SPIONs due to FR-mediated endocytosis, while having little effect on healthy cells (MFB). Moreover, this radiotracer had tolerable in vivo characteristics and tumor uptake. In the receptor blocked case, tumor uptake was decreased, indicating FR-specific uptake in tumor tissue while enhanced permeability and retention effect was major mechanism for tumor uptake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two-temperature electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements, applied to determine the relative contributions of paramagnetic centers - fulfilling and not-fulfilling the Curie law, were carried out. The measurements were made on the macerals - exinite and vitrinite, separated from clarain of the Polish medium-rank coal (85.6 wt% C). The two-temperature EPR measurements, presented in this work, were performed respectively, at temperatures: T1 = 293 K and T2 = 173 K for exinite, and T1 = 293 K and T2 = 153 K for vitrinite. The relative contributions X of spins not-fulfilling the Curie law present in the studied macerals were calculated. A comparison of different methods of calculating the relative contributions of paramagnetic centers - fulfilling and not-fulfilling the Curie law, present in exinite and vitrinite studied by EPR was made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic properties of a Ni50Mn35.5In14.5 Heusler ribbon were studied by ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in the temperature range of 335-100 K. In the temperature region of 265-170 K, the FMR signal disappeared, in spite of the fact that this region comprised the main crystal transformation temperatures: Ms, Mf, As, Af. In the austenite crystal state, a weak antiferromagnetic interaction was observed, whereas ferromagnetism was detected in the low temperature martensitic state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single crystals of ErVO4 were grown by the Czochralski method under ambient pressure in a nitrogen atmosphere. Obtained crystals were transparent with strong pink coloring. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra were recorded as a function of the applied magnetic field. Temperature and angular dependences of the EPR spectra of the samples in the 3-300 K temperature range were analyzed applying both Lorentzian--Gauss approximation for diluted medium and Dyson for dense magnetic medium. EPR-NMR program was done to find local symmetry and spin Hamiltonian parameters of erbium ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the electron magnetic resonance (EMR) spectra of the mullites powders were measured for different grain sizes (0.07 and 0.12 mm). We have used EMR spectroscopy at X-band, combined with superposition model (SPM) calculations to reveal electronic structure and establish correlations between structure, and surroundings of these complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three nCo,N-TiO2 nanocomposites (where cobalt concentration index n = 1, 5 and 10 wt %) were prepared and investigated by magnetic resonance spectroscopy at room temperature. Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) lines of magnetic cobalt agglomerated nanoparticle were dominant in all registered spectra. The relaxation processes and magnetic anisotropy of the investigated spin system essentially depended on the concentration of cobalt ions. It is suggested that the samples contained two magnetic types of sublattices forming a strongly correlated spin system. It is suggested that the existence of strongly correlated magnetic system has an essential influence of the photocatalytic properties of the studied nanocomposites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An 27Al magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study of nominally pure and Cr-doped yttrium-aluminum garnet (Y3Al5O12 and Y3Al5O12:Cr) crystals is reported. It has been shown that the doping by Cr of the Y3Al5O12 crystals leads to the variation of the occupation by Al atoms both octahedrally and tetrahedrally coordinated sites of the garnet lattice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popular pharmaceutical base used in pharmacy - vaselinum flavum - was studied by an X-band (9.3 GHz) EPR spectrometer in the range of microwave power of 2.2-70 mW. The samples were sterilized in hot air oven at temperatures: 160°C (120 min), 170°C (60 min), and 180°C (30 min). The aim of this work was to determine properties and free radical concentrations in vaselinum flavum thermally sterilized at different conditions. The changes in free radical system in vaselinum flavum during storage were analyzed. Free radicals were found in all the heated samples. The lowest free radical concentration was obtained for vaselinum flavum heated at 180°C for 30 min; so these parameters are proposed for the thermal sterilization of this pharmaceutical base. Interactions with oxygen decreased free radical concentration in vaselinum flavum during storage. Strong quenching of free radicals in vaselinum flavum was observed after 2 days for the samples sterilized at temperatures 160 and 180°C. Such an effect for vaselinum flavum heated at temperature 170°C was observed later, 13 days after sterilization. Fast spin-lattice relaxation processes exist in thermally sterilized vaselinum flavum. The EPR lines of heated vaselinum flavum were homogeneously broadened. EPR spectroscopy and its use for examining the thermal sterilization process in pharmacy was confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, we report the results of a spin trapping ESR study of four essential oils widely used for skin care products such as creams and bath salts. The studied essential oils are Rosmarini aetheroleum (rosemary), Menthae piperitae aetheroleum (mint), Lavandulae aetheroleum (lavender), and Thymi aetheroleum (thyme). Fenton reaction in the presence of ethanol was used to generate free radicals. The N- tert-butyl-α-phenylnitrone (PBN) was used as a spin trap. In the Fenton reaction, the rosemary oil had the lowest effect on radical adduct formation as compared to the reference Fenton system. Since essential oils are known to be lipid soluble, we also conducted studies of essential oils in Fenton reaction in the presence of lipids. Two model lipids were used, namely 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) and 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC). The obtained results suggested that in the presence of DOPC lipids, the •OH and PBN/•CHCH3(OH) radicals are formed in both phases, that is, water and lipids, and all the studied essential oils affected the Fenton reaction in a similar way. Whereas, in the DPPC system, the additional type of PBN/X ( aN = 16.1 G, aH = 2.9 G) radical adduct was generated. DFT calculations of hyperfine splittings were performed at B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p)/EPR-II level of theory for the set of c-centered PBN adducts in order to identify PBN/X radical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free radicals formed during thermal sterilization of eucerinum anhydricum - the pharmaceutical base were examined by an X-band (9.3 GHz) spectrometer. Eucerinum anhydricum was sterilized at different physical conditions according to the Polish Pharmacopeia norms. The samples were heated at temperatures: 160°C (120 min), 170°C (60 min), and 180°C (30 min). The aim of this study is to compare free radical concentration and effect of microwave power on EPR spectra of eucerinum anhydricum base thermally sterilized at different temperatures and periods of time. The effect of time storage on the free radicals in the heated samples was tested. Free radical concentrations in the sample stored 15 min strongly decreased with the increasing of sterilization temperature, probably as the result of recombination. Storage caused strong decrease of free radical concentrations in the samples, probably as the result of interactions with oxygen. It was observed to be independent of sterilization conditions from 2 days of storage and longer. Because of the lowest free radical concentration, for eucerinum anhydricum thermal sterilization at 180°C for 30 min is recommended. The sterilized samples should be stored at inert atmosphere without oxygen molecules. Fast spin-lattice relaxation processes existed in sterilized eucerinum anhydricum. The character of changes of amplitudes and linewidths of EPR lines with increasing of microwave power was the same for different storage times. The parameters of thermal sterilization and storage time influenced free radical concentration in eucerinum anhydricum, but magnetic spin-lattice interactions were unchanged. The usefulness of EPR spectroscopy in optimization of thermal sterilization process of eucerinum anhydricum was confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paramagnetic centers in the two exemplary synthetic and natural dental biocompatible materials applied in implantology were examined by the use of an X-band (9.3 GHz) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. The EPR spectra were measured in the range of microwave power 2.2-70 mW. The aims of this work were to compare paramagnetic centers concentrations in different dental biocompatible materials and to determine the effect of microwave power on parameters of their EPR spectra. It is the very first and innovatory examination of paramagnetic centers in these materials. It was pointed out that paramagnetic centers existed in both natural (~1018 spin/g) and synthetic (~1019 spin/g) dental biocompatible materials, but the lower free radical concentration characterized the natural sample. Continuous microwave saturation of EPR spectra indicated that faster spin-lattice relaxation processes existed in synthetic dental biocompatible materials than in natural material. Linewidths (Δ Bpp) of the EPR spectra of the natural dental material slightly increased for the higher microwave powers. Such effect was not observed for the synthetic material. The broad EPR lines (Δ Bpp): 2.4 mT, 3.9 mT, were measured for the natural and synthetic dental materials, respectively. Probably strong dipolar interactions between paramagnetic centers in the studied samples may be responsible for their line broadening. EPR spectroscopy is the useful experimental method in the examination of paramagnetic centers in dental biocompatible materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free radicals in synthetic melanin and melanin from Sepia officinalis were studied by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. The effect of time of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on free radicals in these melanins was tested. The samples were exposed to UV during 15, 30, and 60 minutes. EPR spectra were measured with microwaves from an X-band (9.3 GHz) in the range of microwave power of 2.2-70 mW. The performed EPR examinations indicate that high concentrations (~1021-1022 spin/g) of o-semiquinone free radicals with g factors of 2.0039-2.0045 exist in all the tested samples. For nonirradiated samples, free radical concentration was higher in natural melanin than in synthetic melanin. UV irradiation caused the increase of free radical concentrations in synthetic melanin samples and this effect depends on the time of irradiation. The largest free radical formation in the both melanins was obtained for 60 min of UV irradiation. Free radical concentrations after the UV irradiation of melanins during 30 min were lower than during irradiation by 15 min, and probably this effect was the result of recombination of the radiatively formed free radicals. EPR lines of the tested samples broadened with increasing microwave power, so these lines were homogeneously broadened. The two types of melanins differed in the time of spin-lattice relaxation processes. Slower spin-lattice relaxation processes exist in melanin from Sepia officinalis than in synthetic melanin. UV irradiation did not change the time of spin-lattice relaxation processes in the tested melanins. The performed studies confirmed the usefulness of EPR spectroscopy in cosmetology and medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cookies are a group of convenient food products that are popular among consumers. They may contain high amounts of fats, which can be prone to oxidation. To retard the oxidative deterioration, synthetic and natural antioxidants may be added. Herb and spice extracts can be sources of natural biologically active substances with antioxidant activity. In this work, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to monitor the lipid oxidation in cookies with rosemary and thyme extracts subjected to the storage in elevated temperature. It was shown that thyme extract can be used as a natural antioxidant source for the preparation of bakery products, while the rosemary extract should be used with care in fat-rich products exposed to high temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) techniques have been found to be efficient tools for the elucidation of structure in complex biological systems as they give access to distances in the nanometre range. These measurements can provide additional structural information such as relative orientations, structural flexibility or aggregation states. A wide variety of model systems for calibration and optimisation of pulsed experiments has been synthesised. Their design is based on mimicking biological systems or materials in specific properties such as the distances themselves and the distance distributions. Here, we review selected approaches to the synthesis of chemical systems bearing two or more spin centres, such as nitroxide or trityl radicals, metal ions or combinations thereof and outline their application in pulsed EPR distance measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]