Pigment Production by Filamentous Fungi on Agro-Industrial Byproducts: an Eco-Friendly Alternative

The search for new sources of natural pigments has increased, mainly because of the toxic effects caused by synthetic dyes used in food, pharmaceutical, textile, and cosmetic industries. Fungi provide a readily available alternative source of natural pigments. In this context, the fungi Penicillium chrysogenum IFL1 and IFL2, Fusarium graminearum IFL3, Monascus purpureus NRRL 1992, and Penicillium vasconiae IFL4 were selected as pigments producers. The fungal identification was performed using ITS and part of the β-tubulin gene sequencing. Almost all fungi were able to grow and produce water-soluble pigments on agro-industrial residues, with the exception of P. vasconiae that produced pigments only on potato dextrose broth. The production of yellow pigments was predominant and the two strains of P. chrysogenum were the largest producers. In addition, the production of pigments and mycotoxins were evaluated in potato dextrose agar using TOF-MS and TOF-MS/MS. Metabolites as roquefortine C, chrysogine were found in both extracts of P. chrysogenum, as well fusarenone X, diacetoxyscirpenol, and neosolaniol in F. graminearum extract. In the M. purpureus extract, the pigments monascorubrin, rubropunctatin, and the mycotoxin citrinin were found. The crude filtrates have potential to be used in the textile industry; nevertheless, additional pigment purification is required for food and pharmaceutical applications.     

Three-component diastereoselective cascade synthesis of thiohydantoins

A new three-component cascade reaction for the synthesis of thiohydantoins is reported. The reaction between α-amino esters, nitrostyrenes, and aromatic isothiocyanates is efficiently promoted by organic bases to afford highly substituted thiohydantoins in moderate to good yields and diastereoselectivities.     

Biolabeling with nanoparticles based on Y2O3: Nd and luminescence detection in the near-infrared

Neodymium based fluorescence presents several advantages in comparison to conventional rare earth or enzyme-substrate based fluorescence emitting sources (e.g.Tb, HRP) . Based on this fact we have herein explored a Nd-based fluoroimmunoassay. We efficiently detected the presence of an oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) in human plasma a well-known marker for cardiovascular diseases, which causes around 30% of deaths worldwide. Conventional fluoroimmunoassay uses time-resolved luminescence techniques, with detection in the visible range, to eliminate the fluorescence background from the biological specimens. By using an immunoassay based on functionalized Y₂O₃:Nd³⁺ nanoparticles, where the excitation and emission processes in the Nd³⁺ ion occur in the near-infrared (NIR) region, we have succeeded in eliminating the interferences from the biological fluorescence background, avoiding the use of time-resolved techniques. This yields higher emission intensity from the Nd³⁺-nanolabels and efficient detection of anti-oxidized low-density lipoproteins (anti-oxLDL) by Y₂O₃:Nd³⁺-antibody-antigen conjugation, leading to a novel biolabeling method.     

Multi-period forecasting and scenario generation with limited data

Data for optimization problems often comes from (deterministic) forecasts, but it is naïve to consider a forecast as the only future possibility. A more sophisticated approach uses data to generate alternative future scenarios, each with an attached probability. The basic idea is to estimate the distribution of forecast errors and use that to construct the scenarios. Although sampling from the distribution of errors comes immediately to mind, we propose instead to approximate rather than sample. Benchmark studies show that the method we propose works well.     

Evaluation of antioxidants on the thermo-oxidative stability of soybean biodiesel

This work shows the evaluation of three antioxidants (2,6-di-t-butyl-4-methylphenol (BHT)—synthetic antioxidant, hydrogenated cardanol (HC), and alkyl hydrogenated cardanol (AHC)—both derived from cashew nut shell liquid) on the thermo-oxidative stability of the soybean biodiesel. The antioxidants were added at concentrations of 200, 300, and 400 ppm, and the oxidative stability of the biofuel with and without antioxidants were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TG-DTG and IPDT) and Metrohm 743 Rancimat per the EN 14112 method. The results showed that all antioxidants contributed for the thermo-oxidative stability of the soybean biodiesel as follows: soybean biodiesel < soybean biodiesel + BHT < soybean biodiesel + HC < soybean biodiesel + AHC. In the Rancimat method, the results showed that the antioxidants influenced the biodiesel stability with an increase of at least 71 %.     

A rapid heating and high magnetic field thermal analysis technique

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - A new thermal analysis technique is described that allows measurements to be performed on bulk samples at extreme heating and cooling rates and in high...     

Impact of Collection Volume and DNA Extraction Method on the Detection of Biomarkers and HPV DNA in First-Void Urine

The potential of first-void (FV) urine as a non-invasive liquid biopsy for detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA and other biomarkers has been increasingly recognized over the past decade. In this study, we investigated whether the volume of this initial urine stream has an impact on the analytical performance of biomarkers. In parallel, we evaluated different DNA extraction protocols and introduced an internal control in the urine preservative. Twenty-five women, diagnosed with high-risk HPV, provided three home-collected FV urine samples using three FV urine collection devices (Colli-Pee) with collector tubes that differ in volume (4, 10, 20 mL). Each collector tube was prefilled with Urine Conservation Medium spiked with phocine herpesvirus 1 (PhHV-1) DNA as internal control. Five different DNA extraction protocols were compared, followed by PCR for GAPDH and PhHV-1 (qPCR), HPV DNA, and HBB (HPV-Risk Assay), and ACTB (methylation-specific qPCR). Results showed limited effects of collection volume on human and HPV DNA endpoints. In contrast, significant variations in yield for human endpoints were observed for different DNA extraction methods (p < 0.05). Additionally, the potential of PhHV-1 as internal control to monitor FV urine collection, storage, and processing was demonstrated.     

Spectral coarse graining of complex networks

Reducing the complexity of large systems described as complex networks is key to understanding them and a crucial issue is to know which properties of the initial system are preserved in the reduced one. Here we use random walks to design a coarse graining scheme for complex networks. By construction the coarse graining preserves the slow modes of the walk, while reducing significantly the size and the complexity of the network. In this sense our coarse graining allows us to approximate large networks by smaller ones, keeping most of their relevant spectral properties.     

Grain boundary,triple junction and quadruple point mobility controlled normal grain growth

Reduction in stored free energy provides the thermodynamic driving force for grain and bubble growth in polycrystals and foams. Evolution of polycrystalline networks exhibit the additional complication that grain growth may be controlled by several kinetic mechanisms through which the decrease in network energy occurs. Polyhedral boundaries, triple junctions (TJs), and quadruple points (QPs) are the geometrically distinct elements of three dimensional networks that follow Plateau’s rules, provided that grain growth is limited by diffusion through, and motion of, cell boundaries. Shvindlerman and co-workers have long recognized the kinetic influences on polycrystalline grain growth of network TJs and QPs. Moreover, the emergence of interesting polycrystalline nanomaterials underscored that TJs can indeed influence grain growth kinetics. Currently there exist few detailed studies concerned either with network distributions of grain size, number of faces per grain, or with ‘grain trajectories’, when grain growth is limited by the motion of its TJs or QPs. By contrast there exist abundant studies of classical grain growth limited by boundary mobility. This study is focused on a topological/geometrical representation of polycrystals to obtain statistical predictions of the grain size and face number distributions, as well as growth ‘trajectories’ during steady-state grain growth. Three limits to grain growth are considered, with grain growth kinetics controlled by boundary, TJ, and QP mobilities.     

Asymmetric organocatalytic anthrone additions to activated alkenes

Asymmetric organocatalytic additions of anthrones to activated alkenes are discussed. The reaction between anthrone or dithranol and α,β-unsaturated aldehydes is catalyzed by diphenylprolinol trimethylsilyl ether in toluene at −40 °C, giving the Michael adducts with good yields and enantioselectivities. Bifunctional amino-thioureas efficiently catalyze the additions of anthrones to both nitroalkenes and maleimides, and high enantioselectivities can be achieved in both instances at room temperature. In the case of nitroalkenes, a Michael addition takes exclusively place. Anthrone generally gives Diels-Alder cycloadducts in the reaction with maleimides, while dithranol affords the Michael adducts. Transition state working models in which the bifunctional catalyst binds simultaneously to the alkene and to the anthrone enolate account for the stereochemical outcome of these additions.