DFT study of adsorbing SO2, NO2, and NH3 gases based on pristine and carbon-doped Al24N24 nanocages.

The adsorption of SO2, NO2, and NH3 toxic gases on Al24N24 and Al24N23C nanocages was investigated by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The adsorption energies, frontier orbitals, charge transfer using natural bonding orbital (NBO) analysis, dipole moment, the partial density of states (PDOS), thermodynamic relationships, non-covalent interaction (NCI), and quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) were considered. The results reveal that carbon-doped Al24N24 nanocage increases the adsorption energies for SO2 and NO2 gases while decreasing the adsorption energy of NH3 gas. The ΔG for all configurations were negative except the configurations A1 and G2 confirming the weak adsorption of these two complexes. In conclusion, Al24N24 and Al24N23C nanocages are in general promising adsorbents for the removal of SO2, NO2, and NH3 toxic gases. The Al24N24 and Al24N23C nanocages are ideal electronic materials.

Phenotypic analysis of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Egypt.

Leukemic cells from 46 T ALL cases were studied with a wide panel of mAb reacting with T cells using an immunoperoxidase technique. The cases included 15 adults (16 years or over) and 31 children (less than 16 years). The mAb used in the panel were: CD1, (T6), CD2 (T11, X11, D66, clone 2), CD3 (T3/Leu4), CD4, (T4/Leu3a), CD5 (Leu1, T1, A50, I73D9), CD7 (Leu9, I21), CD8 (T8/Leu2a) and HNK1. Based on their reactivity with the mAb panel all cases were assigned to one of the intrathymic differentiation compartments. Among the adults, five cases were assigned to compartment I, six to compartment II and four to compartment III. The pediatric cases included eight in compartment I, eighteen in compartment II and five in compartment III. Fifteen L1 cases studied included four in compartment I, seven in compartment II and four in compartment III; while thirty L2 cases showed nine in compartment I, sixteen in compartment II and five cases in compartment III. The most frequently observed CD groups among T ALL cells were CD5 (100% and 88.9% in children and adults respectively), CD7 (93.1% and 84.6%) and CD2 (76.7% and 76.9%). The most frequently reactive mAb in our series was Leu1 (81.8% followed by I21 (71.1%) and Leu9 (68.9%). The most frequently reactive combination of two mAb was Leu1/I21 (100%) followed by Leu1/T11 (97.4%). Five of the 46 cases reacted with HNK1, suggesting an origin from the natural killer (NK) subset. Our results indicate that in T-cell ALL in Egypt the surface phenotype is similar to that of intermediate or late thymocytes in more than 66% of cases. CD5, CD7 and CD2 were the most frequently detected antigens. Studies of the association between T-cell phenotype and socioeconomic status are warranted.

Immunological phenotypic pattern of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in Egypt.

We have performed immunophenotyping studies on 186 untreated cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in an Egyptian population, using panels of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) and an avidin-biotin-immunoperoxidase detection system. Sixty-two of these cases were tested with a panel of mAb directed against the T-cell markers CD2, CD4, CD8, B-cell markers CD20, kappa and lambda, the common ALL antigen (common ALLa) and class II HLA antigens. The remaining 124 cases were also tested with additional markers of T- and B-cell precursors, namely CD7 and CD19. The common leukocyte antigen, T200, was used to exclude nonhemopoietic neoplasms. Cases that remained unclassifiable were further tested with a wider panel of T-cell markers, including CD1, CD2, CD3 and CD5. In some cases multiple mAb directed against the same antigens were used. The relative frequencies of common ALL and B ALL were calculated from the total number of cases and were found to be 39.2% and 3.2%, respectively. The proportions of T-cell and null leukemias were calculated from the better characterized subgroup of 124 cases, and were found to be 50% and 4.8%, respectively. In our series, the age distribution of common ALL revealed a peak at 2-5 yr, but this was partially obscured in the entire series by the high proportion of T-cell cases, which had an age peak between 4 and 12 yr of age. Our results demonstrate marked differences in the phenotypic pattern of ALL in Egypt compared to Western Countries, the predominant finding being a relative excess of T-cell ALL and a paucity of common ALL cases. At present it is not clear whether this results from an increased incidence of T-cell ALL or a decreased incidence of common ALL.