Microwave‐Assisted Solid‐Phase Synthesis of a 1,2‐Disubstituted Benzimidazole Library by Using a Phosphonium Linker

An efficient and rapid microwave‐assisted solid‐phase method for the synthesis of 5‐methyl‐1,2‐disubstituted benzimidazoles derivatives has been developed. The phosphonium linker, obtained by reaction between polymer‐supported triphenylphosphine and 4‐fluoro‐3‐nitrobenzyl iodide, underwent aromatic substitution with primary amines, followed by one‐pot reaction with aldehydes in the presence of SnCl₂·2H₂O, yielded the benzimidazole system under microwave irradiation. The final products were released from the resin with NaOH under microwave irradiation and were obtained in high purity and good overall yield.     

Electrochemical Peptide-Based Sensors for Foodborne Pathogens Detection

Food safety and quality control pose serious issues to food industry and public health domains, in general, with direct effects on consumers. Any physical, chemical, or biological unexpected or unidentified food constituent may exhibit harmful effects on people and animals from mild to severe reactions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unsafe foodstuffs are especially dangerous for infants, young children, elderly, and chronic patients. It is imperative to continuously develop new technologies to detect foodborne pathogens and contaminants in order to aid the strengthening of healthcare and economic systems. In recent years, peptide-based sensors gained much attention in the field of food research as an alternative to immuno-, apta-, or DNA-based sensors. This review presents an overview of the electrochemical biosensors using peptides as molecular bio-recognition elements published mainly in the last decade, highlighting their possible application for rapid, non-destructive, and in situ analysis of food samples. Comparison with peptide-based optical and piezoelectrical sensors in terms of analytical performance is presented. Methods of foodstuffs pretreatment are also discussed.     

Isolation and characterization of cellulose nanofibers from banana peels

Cellulose nanofibers were isolated from banana peel using a combination of chemical treatments, such as alkaline treatment, bleaching, and acid hydrolysis. The suspensions of chemically treated fibers were then passed through a high-pressure homogenizer 3, 5, and 7 times, to investigate the effect of the number of passages on the properties of the resulting cellulose nanofibers. The cellulose nanofibers isolated in this study had a dry basis yield of 5.1 %. Transmission electron microscopy showed that all treatments effectively isolated banana fibers in the nanometer scale. The micrographs of the process steps used to isolate the nanofibers revealed gradual removal of amorphous components. Increasing number of passages in the homogenizer shortened the cellulose nanofibers while furnishing more stable aqueous suspensions with zeta potential values ranging from ?16.1 to ?44.1 mV. All the samples presented aspect ratio in the range of long nanofibers, hence being potentially applicable as reinforcing agents in composites. X-ray diffraction studies revealed that homogenized nanofiber suspensions were more crystalline than non-homogenized suspensions. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed that alkaline treatment and bleaching removed most of the hemicellulose and lignin components present in the banana fibers. Thermal analyses revealed that the developed nanofibers exhibit enhanced thermal properties. In general, the nanoparticles isolated from the banana peel have potential application as reinforcing elements in a variety of polymer composite systems.     

Tandem Oxidation Sequence to Prepare Ethyl (E)‐4,5‐Dioxo‐2‐hexadecenoate: A Formal Synthesis of Podoscyphic Acid

A tandem oxidation reaction has been utilized to prepare ethyl (E)‐4,5‐dioxo‐2‐hexadecenoate, the immediate precusor to the antiviral fungal metabolite podoscyphic acid.     

Thermomechanical treatment of two Ecuadorian zeolite-rich tuffs and their potential usage as supplementary cementitious materials

Two Ecuadorian zeolite-rich tuffs, coded as Zeo1 (Mordenite) and Zeo2 (Clinoptilolite–Heulandite–Mordenite), were treated and used as supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) so as to study the effect of the thermal and mechanical treatments on pozzolanic reaction in mortars. The treatment was carried out by means of thermomechanical process according to a central composite-blocked cube-star experimental design. In this experimental design as independent factors the milling time (48, 60, 90, 120 and 132 min) and the heating temperatures (559, 600, 700, 800 and 841 °C) were used but keeping a constant heating time (5 h), and zeolite-rich tuffs as experimental blocks. The proportion of SCM was kept constant i.e. 15 %. On the other hand, the compressive strength, fixed lime, normalized water in hydrates and mg Ca(OH)₂ per mg Cement at 7, 28 and 45 days, as well as hydration products related to dehydration degree of the zeolitic tuffs (DOD) were used as dependent factors. In addition, Quantitative and High-temperature chamber XRD, TG-DSC, particle size distribution and SEM-EDS were also carried out. The most significant factor was calcination leading to increase in the compressive strength compared to control, but just up to 800 °C because of recrystallization. As a conclusion, a meaningful loss of crystal structure of zeolites was not observed; but instead, the treatment could only lead to removing the water in cages and voids, thus improving the reaction with Ca(OH)₂, producing more hydrates. In addition, lime was not only fixed by pozzolanic reaction, but also by carbonation.     

Interface Energy in the Edwards-Anderson Model

We numerically investigate the spin glass energy interface problem in three dimensions. We analyze the energy cost of changing the overlap from −1 to +1 at one boundary of two coupled systems (in the other boundary the overlap is kept fixed to +1). We implement a parallel tempering algorithm that simulates finite temperature systems and works with both cubic lattices and parallelepiped with fixed aspect ratio. We find results consistent with a lower critical dimension D _c =2.5. The results show a good agreement with the mean field theory predictions.     

Continuous separation of lipid particles from erythrocytes by means of laminar flow and acoustic standing wave forces

Improved continuous acoustic particle separation (separation efficiency close to 100%) and separation of erythrocytes (red blood cells) from lipid microemboli in whole blood is reported.     

Microwave-assisted group-transfer cyclization of organotellurium compounds

Primary- and secondary-alkyl aryl tellurides, prepared by arenetellurolate ring-opening of epoxides/ O-allylation, were found to undergo rapid (3-10 min) group-transfer cyclization to afford tetrahydrofuran derivatives in 60-74% yield when heated in a microwave cavity at 250 degrees C in ethylene glycol or at 180 degrees C in water. To go to completion, similar transformations had previously required extended photolysis in refluxing benzene containing a substantial amount of hexabutylditin. The only drawback of the microwave-assisted process was the loss in diastereoselectivity which is a consequence of the higher reaction temperature. Substitution in the Te-aryl moiety of the secondary-alkyl aryl tellurides (4-OMe, 4-H, 4-CF(3)) did not affect the outcome of the group-transfer reaction in ethylene glycol. However, at lower temperature, using water as a solvent, the CF(3) derivative failed to react. The microwave-assisted group-transfer cyclization was extended to benzylic but not to primary- and secondary-alkyl phenyl selenides.     

Application of trilinear SLICING to analyse a single relaxation curve

Determining the time constants and amplitudes of exponential decays from relaxation data is a common task in LF-NMR. In this communication, we present an application of the SLICING algorithm to evaluate its possibilities for solving this problem. The method, originally introduced to compare different samples, is applied here to analyse a single relaxation curve, using the embedding technique. To test this procedure, we acquired data sets from samples of liquids properly separated, and characterized by different relaxation times. The results show a good estimation of parameters, comparable with those obtained applying Marquardt's algorithm, when the components have sufficiently different relaxation times.     

Forced folding and structural analysis of metastable proteins

A significant fraction of the proteins encoded by the human and other genomes appears to be significantly unfolded in vitro. This will undoubtedly hamper attempts to characterize their structure by classical crystallographic or solution NMR methods. Here we show that encapsulation of a metastable protein within the restricted volume a reverse micelle can be used to force fold the protein and allow its characterization by modern methods of NMR spectroscopy. This may have significant utility in the context of structural proteomics. In addition, variation of the inner volume of the reverse micelle can be used to probe the character of the manifold of unfolded states.