Posts tagged: Chemistry

Environmental fate of silver nanoparticles and antibiotic resistance genes: Research highlights in March

Bailey Fallon on April 19, 2013 at 11:02 am - 0 Comments

Two articles published in Chemistry Central Journal last month were amongst the first to appear in a thematic series on Emerging Contaminants.

In the first, Casey Doolette and colleagues investigated the fate of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in sludge that were subjected to aerobic and anaerobic treatment, and the impact of AgNPs on microbial processes and communities. Due to their antibacterial properties, AgNPs are increasingly being used in consumer products such as deodorants and wound dressings, and are therefore entering wastewater treatment plants where they may have an adverse effect on the microbes involved in sewage treatment. The authors investigated the fate of transformed AgNPs during activated sludge treatment and found that AgNPs are very unlikely to affect the efficient …

Heritage Science – the chemistry of conservation

Bailey Fallon on April 4, 2013 at 8:54 am - 0 Comments

Heritage Science, a new open access journal published by Chemistry Central, has now launched.

By examining the pigments in a painting can we tell how it was painted, where it was painted and even whether it is a forgery? By looking at dyes in a textile can we find out about the origin of manufacture and the geographical route it took to get to its destination and hence about trade routes? By analysing the metal content of a coin can we tell about the economic factors of the time? These are the sorts of questions that Heritage Science will address, with a focus on the development and application of scientific techniques to study cultural heritage.

The launch papers feature a tremendous …

Emerging contaminants – A new thematic series in Chemistry Central Journal

Bailey Fallon on March 22, 2013 at 2:59 pm - 0 Comments

Papers are welcomed for a new thematic series in Chemistry Central Journal devoted to the environmental chemistry of emerging contaminants.

The series is edited by Sébastien Sauvé, Associate Professor at the University of Montreal, and a Section Editor for Chemistry Central Journal. “Emerging contaminants can be considered as those contaminants that have appeared only recently, but would be better named as contaminants of emerging concerns” he explains. “ Many emerging contaminants have been in the environment for a while but concerns over their presence and potential impact have been raised much more recently”. In addition to research on emerging contaminants, the series will also cover emerging issues about more traditional contaminants.

The series has launched with four papers:

A review from …

Carnosine, molecular networks, and web-based structure searching: research highlights in February

Bailey Fallon on March 7, 2013 at 4:45 pm - 0 Comments

An article published in Chemistry Central Journal last month by Roslyn Bill and colleagues from Aston University reviews some of the properties of carnosine, a dipeptide found in meat. Carnosine has been shown to delay the onset of senescence in human fibroblast cells, yet also selectively inhibits growth of cancer cells. These contradictory effects have led to speculation that carnosine may have therapeutic potential for a wide range of age-related conditions, including cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and the complications of type-2 diabetes.

In Journal of Systems Chemistry, a Commentary by Eörs Szathmáry looks at the propagation of a conceptual error concerning hypercycles and cooperation. The hypercycle is a system of replicators, whose members are auto- and cross-catalytic, but …

Systems chemistry: Using molecular networks to assess molecular similarity

Bailey Fallon on February 13, 2013 at 4:28 pm - 1 Comment

In new research published in Journal of Systems Chemistry, Sijbren Otto and colleagues have provided the first experimental approach towards molecular networks that can predict bioactivity based on an assessment of molecular similarity.

Molecular similarity is an important concept in drug discovery. Molecules that share certain features such as shape, structure or hydrogen bond donor/acceptor groups may have similar properties that make them common to a particular target. Assessment of molecular similarity has so far relied almost exclusively on computational approaches, but Dr Otto reasoned that a measure of similarity might be obtained by interrogating the molecules in solution experimentally.

In their study, the authors employed a dynamic molecular network containing a variety of potential receptors. The receptors were based …

Most accessed articles in December

Bailey Fallon on January 11, 2013 at 10:14 am - 0 Comments

Take a look at our ten most accessed papers for December.

Among the most accessed articles is a research article in Journal of Cheminformatics from Saber Akhondi et al. published as part of a thematic series on the IUPAC International Chemical Identifier. The paper demonstrates that considerable inconsistency exists in structural representation and systematic chemical identifiers within and between databases. Such inconsistency is important to highlight as it can affect drug discovery research activities such as quantitative structure–property relationship modelling.

Another widely read article published in Journal of Cheminformatics last month is a methodology describing the first steps towards a purely functional cheminformatics toolkit in Scala, showing how typical calculations required in chemical applications can be written with a …

Most accessed articles in November

Bailey Fallon on December 12, 2012 at 2:47 pm - 1 Comment

Take a look at our ten most accessed papers for November.

One of the most popular articles from the past month comes from a supplement published in Chemistry Central Journal earlier this year on “Roles for chemistry in the world’s energy problems”. The paper, entitled “Algae biodiesel – a feasibility report”, provides an overview of algae-related research and explains the scientific processes of producing biodiesel from algae. It also provides an economic feasibility analysis, taking into account public policy measures that could change the costs of production, and shows the possible scenarios in which algae biodiesel could become cost effective.

Another widely read article published in Journal of Cheminformatics describes an extension to the Ultrafast Shape Recognition (USR) algorithm, which …

Most accessed articles in October

Bailey Fallon on November 6, 2012 at 1:49 pm - 1 Comment

Take a look at our ten most accessed papers for October.

A study by Monica Butnariu and Cristina Coradini that aimed to identify and characterise the phenolic and flavonoid components of marigold flowers was the most read paper last month. Due to the diverse range of biologically active substances they contain, marigolds have had a number of therapeutic properties attributed to them, and marigold extracts have been used to treat eczema, conjunctivitis, stomach ulcers and inflammation, among other conditions. In this study, the authors used spectrophotometry to identify the biologically active compounds in marigold flowers, and evaluated their radical-scavenging activity. Methods like this that can obtain a bioactive profile of different vegetation matrices might help to meet the increasing demand …

Most accessed articles in September

Bailey Fallon on October 12, 2012 at 2:50 pm - 0 Comments

Take a look at our ten most accessed papers for September.

Among the most popular articles last month was an article in Journal of Cheminformatics covering the Open Molecule Generator software. The program represents the first general purpose open source structure generator and it has been implemented using the Chemistry Development Kit (CDK), a widely used open source library for the development of cheminformatics software. Egon Willighagen, a member of the Journal of Cheminformatics Editorial Board who works on CDK, has commented that this was an “important piece of functionality still missing from Open Source cheminformatics. [The authors] have picked up a difficult algorithm, based in mathematics, but not the straightforward graph theory either. What …

Most accessed articles in August

Bailey Fallon on September 14, 2012 at 3:36 pm - 0 Comments

Take a look at our ten most accessed papers for August.

A software article published in Journal of Cheminformatics was the most popular paper last month, with over 2000 accesses in the first two weeks of publication. The paper describes Avogadro – an advanced molecule editor and visualizer designed for cross-platform use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. The Avogadro project was started in 2007, and in the first 5 years of development the software has been downloaded over 270,000 times. The development team has included members of the Blue Obelisk movement, following the three principles of Open Data, Open Standards and Open Source.

1. Avogadro: An advanced …