Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oils of Ferula latisecta and Mozaffariania insignis from Iran

The hydrodistilled oils from the aerial parts of Ferula latisecta and Mozaffariania insignis, which is endemic to Iran, were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. (Z)-Ocimenone (32.4%), (E)-ocimenone (20.3%), and cis-pinocarvone (11.4%) were the main components among the 22 constituents characterized in the oil of F. latisecta, representing 87.7% of the total components detected. Twenty-five compounds were identified in the oil of M. insignis, representing 99.0% of the total oil, with octyl acetate (41.1%), β-pinene (30.3%), and α-pinene (23.9%) as the main constituents. The essential oils were examined for their potential antimicrobial activities. Published in Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 6, pp. 561–563, November–December, 2006.     

Study of size, type and the kerma approximation for thermoluminescent dosimetry

This study aimed to investigate effects of the thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) size and type on the absorbed dose value by using of Monte Carlo calculations. The options in creating conditions to establish the kerma approximation were also studied. The Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNPX 2.4.0) transport code was used to design simulations. Results of this work indicate that if common mineral materials of TLDs are replaced by air and a huge volume is applied for the TLD, the accurate assessment of absorbed doses is possible while the photon energy fluence in the TLD cell is convoluted with mass energy absorption coefficients of the real TLD material. In this method the simulation run-time is strongly decreased.     

Optimization of a novel method based on solidification of floating organic droplet by high-performance liquid chromatography for evaluation of antifungal drugs in biological samples

In this study, a simple, rapid, and highly efficient liquid-phase microextraction method based on solidification of floating organic droplet was coupled with high performance liquid chromatography-photo diode array detection (HPLC-PDA) for determination of ketoconazole, clotrimazole, and miconazole as antifungal drugs. Central composite design (CCD) was used for optimization of several factors affecting the extraction efficiency. The optimized conditions were established to be 550 rpm for stirring rate, 35 min for extraction time, 57 °C for extraction temperature, 8.5 for solution pH, 10 μl for organic solvent volume, and 7% (w/v) of NaCl for ionic strength. Limit of detections (LODs) of the extraction method ranged from 0.01 to 0.1 μg L⁻¹ and the linear dynamic ranges (LDRs) ranged from 0.1 to 300 μg L⁻¹ for the three antifungal drugs. Relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the proposed method were 5-11%. Preconcentration factors in the range of 306-1350 were obtained at extraction time of 35 min. Finally, performance of the proposed method was evaluated for the extraction and determination of the drugs’ levels in microgram per liter in samples and satisfactory results were obtained.     

An Efficient One‐Pot,Four‐Component Synthesis of {[(1H‐1,2,3‐Triazol‐4‐yl)methoxy]phenyl}‐1H‐pyrazolo[1,2‐b]phthalazine‐5,10‐dione Derivatives

The 1‐{[(1H‐1,2,3‐Triazol‐4‐yl)methoxy]phenyl}‐1H‐pyrazolo[1,2‐b]phthalazine‐5,10‐dione derivatives 5 were synthesized by a simple and efficient method, i.e., by the four‐component, one‐pot condensation reaction of phthalohydrazide 4 , a (propargyloxy)benzaldehyde 1 , an active methylene compound 3 (malononitrile or ethyl cyanoacetate), and an azide 2 in the presence of Cu(OAc)₂/sodium L ‐ascorbate as catalyst and 1‐methyl‐1H‐imidazolium trifluoroacetate ([Hmim](CF₃COO)) as an ionic‐liquid medium in good to excellent yields (Scheme 1).     

Oxidative properties of a nonheme Ni(II)(O2) complex: Reactivity patterns for C-H activation, aromatic hydroxylation and heteroatom oxidation

Density functional theory calculations on the reactivity of a Ni(II)-superoxo complex in C-H bond activation, aromatic hydroxylation and heteroatom oxidation reactions have been explored; the Ni(II)-superoxo complex is able to react with substrates with weak C-H bonds and PPh(3).     

Non-Smooth Optimization for Robust Control of Infinite-Dimensional Systems

We use a non-smooth trust-region method for H _∞-control of infinite-dimensional systems. Our method applies in particular to distributed and boundary control of partial differential equations. It is computationally attractive as it avoids the use of system reduction or identification. For illustration the method is applied to control a reaction-convection-diffusion system, a Van de Vusse reactor, and to a cavity flow control problem.     

Fabrication,characterization, and drug release study of vitamin C–loaded alginate/polyethylene oxide nanofibers for the treatment of a skin disorder

Pigmented purpuric dermatosis (PPD) is a skin disorder mainly seen in the lower limbs. The nanofibrous web has been shown to be an appropriate alternative for the treatment of skin diseases as a drug delivery vehicle. In this study, sodium alginate (SA)/polyethylene oxide (PEO) nanofibers containing vitamin C (VC) were fabricated using both blended electrospinning and core/shell electrospinning. The resultant nanofibers were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Enhancing the VC content resulted in increasing the nanofibers diameter. Also, the degradation rate and drug release were investigated. Drug release was evaluated using the in vitro dissolution and permeation method. The degradation rate and the drug release of the core/shell nanofibers were found to be lower than those of the blended nanofibers. The drug release of the extended nanofibers followed a different pattern, indicating that the extension of the nanofibers could be a promising way to control the drug release.     

Nonsmooth Bundle Trust-region Algorithm with Applications to Robust Stability

We propose a bundle trust-region algorithm to minimize locally Lipschitz functions which are potentially nonsmooth and nonconvex. We prove global convergence of our method and show by way of an example that the classical convergence argument in trust-region methods based on the Cauchy point fails in the nonsmooth setting. Our method is tested experimentally on three problems in automatic control.