Modifying the physicochemical properties,solubility and foaming capacity of milk proteins by ultrasound-assisted alkaline pH-shifting treatment

This study investigated the effects of different treatment of alkaline pH-shifting on milk protein concentrate (MPC), micellar casein concentrate (MCC) and whey protein isolate (WPI) assisted by the same ultrasound conditions, including changes in the physicochemical properties, solubility and foaming capacity. The solubility of milk proteins had a significant increase with gradual enhancement of ultrasound-assisted alkaline pH-shifting (p < 0.05), especially for MCC up to 99.50 %. Also, treatment made a significant decline in the particle size of MPC and MCC, as well as the turbidity of the proteins (p < 0.05). The foaming capacity of MPC, MCC, and WPI was all improved, especially at pH 11, and at this pH, the milk protein also showed the highest surface hydrophobicity. The best foaming capacity at pH 11 was the result of the combined effect of particle size, potential, protein conformation, solubility, and surface hydrophobicity. In conclusion, ultrasound-assisted pH-shifting treatment was found to be effective in improving the physicochemical properties and solubility and foaming capacity of milk proteins, especially MCC, with promising application prospect in food industry.     

Liquid-Repellent Metal Oxide Photocatalysts

Metal oxide photocatalysts (MOPCs) decompose organic molecules under illumination. However, the application of MOPCs in industry and research is currently limited by their intrinsic hydrophilicity because MOPCs can be wetted by most liquids. To achieve liquid repellency, the surface needs to possess a low surface energy, but most organic molecules with low surface energy are degraded by photocatalytic activity. Herein, current methods to achieve liquid repellency on MOPCs, while preventing degradation of hydrophobic coatings, are reviewed. Classically, composite materials containing MOPCs and hydrophobic organic compounds possess good liquid repellency. However, composites normally form irregular coatings and are hard to prepare on surfaces such as those that are mesoporous or nanostructured. In addition, the adhesion of composites to substrates is often weak, resulting in delamination. Recent studies have shown that the direct grafting reaction of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) from silicone oil (methyl-terminated PDMS) under illumination results in a stable polymer brush. This easy and simple grafting method allows us to create stable liquid-repellent surfaces on MOPCs of various types, structures, and sizes. In particular, super-liquid-repellent drops with an underlying air layer can be created on PDMS-grafted nano-/microstructured MOPCs. Potential applications of surfaces combining liquid repellency and photocatalytic activity are also discussed; thus offering new ways of using MOPCs in a wider range of applications.     

New lower bounds on the radius of spatial analyticity for the KdV equation

The radius of spatial analyticity for solutions of the KdV equation is studied. It is shown that the analyticity radius does not decay faster than $t^{?1/4}$ as time t goes to infinity. This improves the works of Selberg and da Silva (2017) [30] and Tesfahun (2017) [34]. Our strategy mainly relies on a higher order almost conservation law in Gevrey spaces, which is inspired by the I-method.     

Synthesis of Highly Functionalized N,N-Diarylamides by an Anodic C,N-Coupling Reaction

We report an innovative, sustainable and straightforward protocol for the synthesis of N,N-diarylamides equipped with nonprotected hydroxyl groups by using electrosynthesis. The concept allows the application of various substrates furnishing diarylamides with yields up to 57 % within a single and direct electrolytic protocol. The method is thereby easy to conduct in an undivided cell with constant current conditions offering a versatile and short-cut alternative to conventional pathways.     

Dose‐dependent exposure profile and metabolic characterization of notoginsenoside R1 in rat plasma by ultra‐fast liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry

Notoginsenoside R₁ (NGR₁), a diagnostic protopanaxatriol‐type (ppt‐type) saponin in Panax notoginseng, possesses potent biological activities including antithrombotic, anti‐inflammatory, neuron protection and improvement of microcirculation, yet its pharmacokinetics and metabolic characterization as an individual compound remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the exposure profile of NGR₁ in rats after oral and intravenous administration and to explore the metabolic characterization of NGR₁. A simple and sensitive ultra‐fast liquid chromatographic–tandem mass spectrometric method was developed and validated for the quantitative determination of NGR₁ and its major metabolites, and for characterization of its metabolic profile in rat plasma. The blood samples were precipitated with methanol, quantified in a negative multiple reaction monitoring mode and analyzed within 6.0 min. Validation parameters (linearity, precision and accuracy, recovery and matrix effect, stability) were within acceptable ranges. After oral administration, NGR₁ exhibited dose‐independent exposure behaviors with t_1/2 over 8.0 h and oral bioavailability of 0.25–0.29%. A total of seven metabolites were characterized, including two pairs of epimers, 20(R)‐notoginsenoside R₂/20(S)‐notoginsenoside R₂ and 20(R)‐ginsenoside Rh₁/20(S)‐ginsenoside Rh₁, with the 20(R) form of saponins identified for the first time in rat plasma. Five deglycometabolites were quantitatively determined, among which 20(S)‐notoginsenoside R₂, ginsenoside Rg₁, ginsenoside F₁ and protopanaxatriol displayed relatively high exploration, which may partly explain the pharmacodynamic diversity of ginsenosides after oral dose.     

Kinetics and mechanism of trichloroisocyanuric acid/NaNO2-triggered nitration of aromatic compounds under acid-free and Vilsmeier-Haack conditions

Kinetics and mechanism of nitration of aromatic compounds using trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA)/NaNO₂, TCCA-N,N-dimethyl formamide (TCCA-DMF)/NaNO₂, and TCCA-N,N-dimethyl acetamide (TCCA-DMA)/NaNO₂ under acid-free and Vilsmeier-Haack conditions. Reactions followed second-order kinetics with a first-order dependence on [Phenol] and [Nitrating agent] ([TCCA], [(TCCA-DMF)], or [(TCCA-DMA)] >> [NaNO₂]). Reaction rates accelerated with the introduction of electron-donating groups and retarded with electron-withdrawing groups, but did not fit well into the Hammett's theory of linear free energy relationship or its modified forms like Brown-Okamoto or Yukawa-Tsuno equations. Rate data were analyzed by Charton's multiple linear regression analysis. Isokinetic temperature (β) values, obtained from Exner's theory for different protocols, are 403.7 K (TCCA-NaNO₂), 365.8 K (TCCA-DMF)/NaNO₂, and 358 K (TCCA-DMA)/NaNO₂. These values are far above the experimental temperature range (303-323 K), indicating that the enthalpy factors are probably more important in controlling the reaction.     

New multifunctional heterobinuclear palladium (II) complexes based on organometallic dithiocarbazate ligands

In the research of new compounds with multifunctional applications, heterobinuclear palladium (II) complexes based on organometallic dithiocarbazates (DTCZs) have been isolated. The organometallic DTCZ ligands of the general formula [{(η⁵-C₅H₄)-CH=NNHC(S)SCH₃}]MLn [MLn = Re (CO)₃ ( 2a ); Mn (CO)₃ ( 2b ); FeCp ( 2c )] were prepared by the reaction between formyl organometallic precursors ( 1a−c ) with S-methyldithiocarbazate. Subsequently, a two-step reaction of 2a−c with: (i) K₂[PdCl₄] and (ii) PPh₃ yielded heterobinuclear complexes [Pd{MLn(η⁵-C₅H₄)-CH=NNHC(S)SCH₃}–(Cl)(PPh₃)] [MLn = Re (CO)₃ ( 3a ); Mn (CO)₃ ( 3b ); FeCp ( 3c )]. All compounds were characterized by conventional spectroscopic techniques (infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and elemental analysis). In addition, the molecular structures of 2a , 2c and 3c were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The new palladium (II) complexes ( 3a−c ) were evaluated as antiproliferative agents against non-small cell lung cancer cells (H1299 cells). Complexes 3a and 3b containing cyrhetrenyl- and cymantrenyl-DTCZ ligands, respectively, were more active than their ferrocenyl analogue 3c . The activity was associated with the electron-withdrawing properties of the (η⁵-C₅H₄)M (CO)₃ moieties and their better lipophilicity than that of the ferrocenyl analogue. In addition, we studied the capacity of metalloligands ( 2a−c ) and palladium (II) complexes ( 3a−c ) to remove methylene blue in water under UV–visible light irradiation. The results established that the complexes showed moderate efficiency and were less active than their corresponding free ligands.     

Homogenization of Periodically Heterogeneous Thin Beams

Consider an elastic thin three-dimensional body made of a periodic distribution of elastic inclusions. When both the thickness of the beam and the size of the heterogeneities tend simultaneously to zero the authors obtain three different one-dimensional models of beam depending upon the limit of the ratio of these two small parameters.     

Order-Stability in Complex Biological,Social, and AI-Systems from Quantum Information Theory

This paper is our attempt, on the basis of physical theory, to bring more clarification on the question “What is life?” formulated in the well-known book of Schrödinger in 1944. According to Schrödinger, the main distinguishing feature of a biosystem’s functioning is the ability to preserve its order structure or, in mathematical terms, to prevent increasing of entropy. However, Schrödinger’s analysis shows that the classical theory is not able to adequately describe the order-stability in a biosystem. Schrödinger also appealed to the ambiguous notion of negative entropy. We apply quantum theory. As is well-known, behaviour of the quantum von Neumann entropy crucially differs from behaviour of classical entropy. We consider a complex biosystem S composed of many subsystems, say proteins, cells, or neural networks in the brain, that is, S=(Si). We study the following problem: whether the compound system S can maintain “global order” in the situation of an increase of local disorder and if S can preserve the low entropy while other Si increase their entropies (may be essentially). We show that the entropy of a system as a whole can be constant, while the entropies of its parts rising. For classical systems, this is impossible, because the entropy of S cannot be less than the entropy of its subsystem Si. And if a subsystems’s entropy increases, then a system’s entropy should also increase, by at least the same amount. However, within the quantum information theory, the answer is positive. The significant role is played by the entanglement of a subsystems’ states. In the absence of entanglement, the increasing of local disorder implies an increasing disorder in the compound system S (as in the classical regime). In this note, we proceed within a quantum-like approach to mathematical modeling of information processing by biosystems—respecting the quantum laws need not be based on genuine quantum physical processes in biosystems. Recently, such modeling found numerous applications in molecular biology, genetics, evolution theory, cognition, psychology and decision making. The quantum-like model of order stability can be applied not only in biology, but also in social science and artificial intelligence.