Composition and antioxidant activity of Thymus vulgaris volatiles: Comparison between supercritical fluid extraction and hydrodistillation

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of the volatile oil from Thymus vulgaris L. aerial flowering parts was performed under different conditions of pressure, temperature, mean particle size and CO₂ flow rate and the correspondent yield and composition were compared with those of the essential oil isolated by hydrodistillation (HD). Both the oils were analyzed by GC and GC‐MS and 52 components were identified. The main volatile components obtained were p‐cymene (10.0–42.6% for SFE and 28.9–34.8% for HD), γ‐terpinene (0.8–6.9% for SFE and 5.1–7.0% for HD), linalool (2.3–5.3% for SFE and 2.8–3.1% for HD), thymol (19.5–40.8% for SFE and 35.4–41.6% for HD), and carvacrol (1.4–3.1% for SFE and 2.6–3.1% for HD). The main difference was found to be the relative percentage of thymoquinone (not found in the essential oil) and carvacryl methyl ether (1.0–1.2% for HD versus t?0.4 for SFE) which can explain the higher antioxidant activity, assessed by Rancimat test, of the SFE volatiles when compared with HD. Thymoquinone is considered a strong antioxidant compound.     

Volatiles from Thymbra and Thymus species of the western Mediterranean basin, Portugal and Macaronesia

Thyme is the common name of many taxa belonging to the Thymbra and Thymus genera. Given the economic importance of thyme oils, many thyme species have been studied and their essential oils and other volatile-containing extracts chemically characterized. Thymbra and Thymus species are frequent in the west Mediterranean region, considered to be the centre of origin of the genus Thymus, and extend further westwards in the Iberian Peninsula and northwest Africa, to the Macaronesian region in the Atlantic Ocean. The present work gives an overview of the chemical composition of the volatiles from the taxa of these two genera occurring in the above geographic area.     

Synthesis and Study of the Photophysical Properties of a New Eu<Superscript>3+</Superscript> Complex with 3-Hydroxypicolinamide

This work reports on the synthesis and characterization of a new complex of Eu³⁺ with the 3-hydroxypicolinamide ligand (Hhpa). Here we present an approach for obtaining bis[2-carbamoyl(κO)pyridin-3-olato(κO’)] lanthanide complexes, which were characterized through elemental analysis, thermal analysis, infrared and photoluminescence spectroscopies (emission, excitation, luminescence lifetimes, quantum efficiencies, Judd-Ofelt parameters and quantum yields). Although hpa can act as a bidentate ligand in different conformations, the results attest for the occurrence of a unique coordination site of low symmetry for the Eu³⁺ ions, in which two anionic hpa ligands coordinate the cations through an O/O chelating system. The phosphorescence of the synthesized gadolinium complex provides the energy of the triplet state, which is determined to be at 20,830 cm^-1 over the ground state. This makes the Hhpa ligand very adequate for sensitizing the Eu³⁺ luminescence, which leads to a very efficient antenna effect and opens a wide range of applications for the complex in light emitting organic-inorganic devices.     

The influence of adsorption phenomena on the impedance spectroscopy of an electrolytic cell

In this work we investigate the influence of the adsorption of ions on the impedance spectroscopy of an electrolytic cell. We consider that the positive and negative ions present in a dielectric liquid are adsorbed in the electrode surfaces with different adsorption energies. This difference in adsorption energies causes an additional plateaux in the limit of the low-frequency range of the real part of the impedance Z . In the same frequency range, a second minimum in the imaginary part of Z is predicted. The theory is illustrated with measurements of the impedance of an electrolytic solution in the frequency range from 10^-2Hz to 1KHz. A comparison between the present model and others from the literature to describe the experimental results is also made.     

Free-standing urethane/urea elastomer films undoped and doped with ferro-nano-particles

We report on an experimental study of the structures presented by urethane/urea elastomeric films without and with ferromagnetic nanoparticles incorporated. The study is made by using the X-ray diffraction, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), optical, atomic and magnetic force (MFM) microscopy techniques, and mechanical assays. The structure of the elastomeric matrix is characterized by a distance of 0.46nm between neighboring molecular segments, almost independent on the stretching applied. The shear casting performed in order to obtain the elastomeric films tends to orient the molecules parallel to the flow direction thus introducing anisotropy in the molecular network which is reflected on the values obtained for the orientational order parameter and its increase for the stretched films. In the case of nanoparticles-doped samples, the structure remains nearly unchanged although the local order parameter is clearly larger for the undoped films. NMR experiments evidence modifications in the molecular network local ordering. Micrometer size clusters were observed by MFM for even small concentration of magnetic particles.     

The maximum balanced subgraph of a signed graph: Applications and solution approaches

The Maximum Balanced Subgraph Problem (MBSP) is the problem of finding a subgraph of a signed graph that is balanced and maximizes the cardinality of its vertex set. This paper is the first one to discuss applications of the MBSP arising in three different research areas: the detection of embedded structures, portfolio analysis in risk management and community structure. The efficient solution of the MBSP is also in the focus of this paper. We discuss pre-processing routines and heuristic solution approaches to the problem. a GRASP metaheuristic is developed and improved versions of a greedy heuristic are discussed. Extensive computational experiments are carried out on a set of instances from the applications previously mentioned as well as on a set of random instances.     

Existence and Multiplicity of Radial Positive Solutions for a Quasilinear Elliptic Equation with Sign-Changing Nonlinearity

In this paper we will be concerned with questions of existence and multiplicity of radial nonnegative solutions of the quasilinear elliptic equation We will use variational methods in order to prove the existence of multiple solutions in case f is a sign-changing nonlinearity.     

Electrochemical permeability of GCO: Estimation of overpotentials

The basic relationships required to analyse permeability data of fluorite-based solid electrolytes are rewritten in order to account for an overpotential term related to slow surface exchange. Results of a gadolinia doped ceria solid electrolyte suggest that surface exchange might limit the permeability especially at low Po₂ and temperature. However, the analysis of the data with different relationships leads to somewhat different estimates of the electron and hole conductivity and overpotential values. Paper presented at the 5th Euroconference on Solid State Ionics, Benalmádena, Spain, Sept. 13–20, 1998     

Cadmium determination in biological samples by direct solid sampling flame atomic absorption spectrometry

A direct solid sampling flame atomic absorption spectrometric procedure for trace determination of cadmium in biological samples has been developed. Test samples (0.05–2.00 mg) were ground and weighed into small polyethylene vials, which were connected to the device for solid sample introduction into a conventional air/acetylene flame. Test samples were carried as a dry aerosol to a quartz cell, placed between the burner and the optical path, which had a perpendicular entrance and a slit in the upper part. The atomic vapor generated in the flame produced a transient signal that was totally integrated within 1 s. The effect of operating conditions and the extent of grinding on the analytical signal were evaluated. Background signals were always low and a characteristic mass of 0.29 ng Cd was obtained. Calibration was performed using different masses of solid certified reference materials. Results obtained for certified and in-house reference materials were typically within the 95% confidence interval of the certified and/or reference value, and the precision, expressed as relative standard deviation, was between 3.8 and 6.7%. The proposed system is simple and it might be adapted to conventional atomic absorption spectrometers allowing the determination of Cd in more than 80 test samples per hour, excluding weighing.