Carbon Supported Gold Nanoparticles for the Catalytic Reduction of 4-Nitrophenol.

This work is a detailed study on how to optimize gold colloids preparation and their deposition to very different in nature carbon materials. The change of the continuous phase and its dielectric constant is used to assure the good dispersion of the hydrophilic/hydrophobic carbons and the successful transfer of the preformed small size colloids to their surface. The sintering behavior of the particles during the calcination step is also studied and the optimal conditions to reduce to a minimum the particle size increase during the protecting agent removal phase are found. The as prepared catalysts have been tested in a relevant reaction in the field of environmental catalysis such as the reduction of 4-nitrophenol leading to promising results. Overall, this work proposes an important methodology to follow when a carbonaceous material are selected as catalyst supports for green chemistry reactions.

Subtle trisomy 12q24.3 and subtle monosomy 22q13.3: three new cases and review.

The high resolution G-bands (850 bands) karyotype have made it possible to identify small chromosome anomalies (5 megabases) which are now microscopically visible. New techniques have been improved, such as the Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) with subtelomeric probes, which can be employed to detect cryptic chromosome alterations not visible microscopically. We present three cases which had been remitted for a high resolution karyotype. The high resolution G-band karyotype and the FISH techniques led us to conclude that the three cases were carriers of a similar subtle chromosomal alteration. Case I is a new born female with developmental and psychomotor delay, hypotonia, and long limbs with arachnodactily. A high resolution G-band karyotype showed an abnormal chromosome 22. FISH techniques confirmed a der(22)t(12;22)(q24.31;q13.3). Case II is a 12-year-old girl, with growth retardation, long shaped face with thick eyebrows, smooth philtrum, and thin upper lip with severe mental retardation (still no language), with a phenotype very similar to that of his sister: long shaped face, thick eyebrows, smooth philtrum, and thin upper lip. A high resolution G-band karyotype also showed in Case II and III an abnormal chromosome 22, studied by FISH techniques which confirmed a der(22)t(12;22)(q24.3;q13.3) in both cases.