Electrochemical Assay to Quantify the Hydroxyl Radical Scavenging Activity of Medicinal Plant Extracts

A new electrochemical assay has been developed which is based on quantifying the attack of OH^. radicals on a self‐assembled thiol monolayer on electrodes in the presence and absence of antioxidants. The OH^. radicals were produced in Fenton solutions. The radical scavengers diminish the concentration of the OH^. radicals in the Fenton solution, and the extent of thiol layer destruction is monitored with the help of a redox probe in solution, the signal of which is only generated at SAM‐free electrode surface. The results of the electrochemical assay were compared with those of the standard DPPH^. assay. In case of each plant extract, an excellent linear correlation was observed between the radical scavenging activity and the concentration of plant extracts; however, the scavenging properties of different plants strongly differ in the electrochemical and the DPPH^. assay. Since the proposed new method probes the reactivity of radical scavengers towards OH^., one of the most important reactive oxygen radicals in tissues, it is supposed to provide much more relevant information than the DPPH^. or other assays.     

Dielectric interlayers for increasing the transparency of metal films for mid-infrared attenuated total reflection spectroscopy

By depositing a continuous, thin metal film on a substrate coated with a mid-infrared (IR) transparent dielectric film that fulfils the role of an index-matching, anti-reflective coating for the metal, the transparency of the metal in the IR wavelength range can be significantly enhanced. This effect is used to yield enhanced absorption in attenuated total internal reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy in the presence of continuous thin metal films. The main limitation of the ATR technique when using continuous metal films is the low transparency of metals, especially for infrared light. Computations and experiments show an enhancement in the absorbance of a sample in contact with the metal at certain wavenumbers when the dielectric interlayer is present. The realisation of the setup is the stratified system consisting of zinc selenide-germanium (~1 μm)-gold (40 nm and 20 nm) using the organic solvent acetonitrile as sample. Enhancement is stronger in s- than in p-polarisation. In s-polarisation, enhancement factors of up to 4 have been observed so far in experiments, but calculations show a route to higher enhancements. In addition to the increased absorption, the absorbance spectra show interference fringes which are due to a mismatch in the real part of the refractive index of the sample in contact with the metal film compared to a reference measurement.     

Synthetic UDP-furanoses as potent inhibitors of mycobacterial galactan biogenesis

UDP-galactofuranose (UDP-Galf) is a substrate for two types of enzymes, UDP-galactopyranose mutase and galactofuranosyltransferases, which are present in many pathogenic organisms but absent from mammals. In particular, these enzymes are involved in the biosynthesis of cell wall galactan, a polymer essential for the survival of the causative agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We describe here the synthesis of derivatives of UDP-Galf modified at C-5 and C-6 using a chemoenzymatic route. In cell-free assays, these compounds prevented the formation of mycobacterial galactan, via the production of short "dead-end" intermediates resulting from their incorporation into the growing oligosaccharide chain. Modified UDP-furanoses thus constitute novel probes for the study of the two classes of enzymes involved in mycobacterial galactan assembly, and studies with these compounds may ultimately facilitate the future development of new therapeutic agents against tuberculosis.     

Breather Solutions in Periodic Media

For nonlinear wave equations existence proofs for breathers are very rare. In the spatially homogeneous case up to rescaling the sine-Gordon equation \({\partial^2_t u = \partial^2_x u - \sin (u)}\) is the only nonlinear wave equation which is known to possess breather solutions. For nonlinear wave equations in periodic media no examples of breather solutions have been known so far. Using spatial dynamics, center manifold theory and bifurcation theory for periodic systems we construct for the first time such time periodic solutions of finite energy for a nonlinear wave equation

$ s(x) \partial^2_t u(x,t) = \partial^2_x u(x,t) - q(x) u(x,t)+ r(x)u(x,t)^3, $

with spatially periodic coefficients s, q, and r on the real axis. Such breather solutions play an important role in theoretical scenarios where photonic crystals are used as optical storage.

     

Validity of the KdV equation for the modulation of periodic traveling waves in the NLS equation

Bethuel et al.  and  and Chiron and Rousset [3] gave very nice proofs of the fact that slow modulations in time and space of periodic wave trains of the NLS equation can approximately be described via solutions of the KdV equation associated with the wave train. Here we give a much shorter proof of a slightly weaker result avoiding the very detailed and fine analysis of ,  and . Our error estimates are based on a suitable choice of polar coordinates, a Cauchy–Kowalevskaya-like method, and energy estimates.     

Algebraic properties of classes of path ideals of posets

We consider path ideals associated to special classes of posets such as tree posets and cycles. We express their property of being sequentially Cohen–Macaulay in terms of the underlying poset. Moreover, monomial ideals, which arise in algebraic statistics from the Luce-decomposable model and the ascending model, can be viewed as path ideals of certain posets. We study invariants of these so-called Luce-decomposable monomial ideals and ascending ideals for diamond posets and products of chains. In particular, for these classes of posets, we explicitly compute their Krull dimension, their projective dimension, their Castelnuovo–Mumford regularity and their Betti numbers.     

Numerical test of Born–Oppenheimer approximation in chaotic systems

We study the validity of the Born–Oppenheimer approximation in chaotic dynamics. Using numerical solutions of autonomous Fermi accelerators, we show that the general adiabatic conditions can be interpreted as the narrowness of the chaotic region in phase space.