Classical Food Quality Attributes and the Metabolic Profile of Cambuci,a Native Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest Fruit

The cambuci is a native Brazilian fruit from the Atlantic Forest biome. A soft and astringent pulp, a green color, and a sweet aroma are its main characteristics. Classical food quality attributes (fresh fruit mass, fruit height, diameters, total soluble solid, titratable acidity, and ratio) and the metabolic profile from ten accessions from three different locations were analyzed herein by analytical methods (refractometry and neutralization titration) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Concerning sugar content, sucrose was the predominant compound, with glucose and fructose alternating in second, depending on the accession. Citric acid was the most relevant acid, followed by shikimic and quinic acids in quite variable amounts. These three main acids vary in amounts for each accession. Ascorbic acid content emerges as an important quality attribute and makes this fruit nutritionally attractive, due to values comparable to those contained in citric fruits. The main amino acids identified in cambuci were glutamic acid individually or in comprising the tripeptide glutathione (glutamic acid, cysteine, glycine). The quality diversity of the evaluated accessions suggests the potentiality of cambuci use in future breeding programs.     

“Green Electrodes” Modified with Au Nanoparticles Synthesized in Glycerol,as Electrochemical Nitrite Sensor

A new environmentally friendly Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) synthesis in glycerol by using ultraviolet irradiation and without extra‐added stabilizers is described. The synthesis proposed in this work may impact on the non‐polluting production of noble nanoparticles with simple chemicals normally found in standard laboratories. These Au NPs were used to modify a carbon paste electrode (CPE) without having to separate them from the reaction medium. This green electrode was used as an electrochemical sensor for the nitrite detection in water. At the optimum conditions the green sensor presented a linear response in the 2.0×10^?7–1.5×10^?5 M concentration range, a good detection sensitivity (0.268 A L mol^?1), and a low detection limit of 2.0×10^?7 M of nitrite. The proposed modified green CPE was used to determine nitrite in tap water samples.     

Parkia pendula Seed Lectin: Potential Use to Treat Cutaneous Wounds in Healthy and Immunocompromised Mice

Parkia pendula seed lectin was used to treat cutaneous wounds of normal and immunocompromised mice, inducing cicatrization. Methotrexate (0.8 mg/kg/week) was used as immunosuppressive drug. Wounds were produced in the dorsal region (1 cm²) of female albino Swiss mice (Mus musculus), health and immunocompromised. Wounds were daily topically treated with 100 μL of the following solutions: (1) control (NaCl 0.15 M), (2) control Im (0.15 M NaCl), (3) P. pendula seed lectin (100 μg/mL), and (4) P. pendula seed lectin Im (100 μg/mL). Clinical evaluation was performed during 12 days. Biopsies for histopathology analysis and microbiological examinations were carried out in the second, seventh, and 12th days. The presence of edema and hyperemia was observed in all groups during inflammatory period. The first crust was detected from the second day, only in the groups treated with P. pendula seed lectin. Microbiological analysis of wounds from day 0 to day 2 did not show bacterium at P. pendula seed lectin group; however, Staphylococcus sp. was detected every day in the other groups. The lectin markedly induced a total wound closing at P. pendula seed lectin and P. pendula seed lectin Im groups on 11th day of evolution. The present study suggests that P. pendula seed lectin is a biomaterial potential to show pharmacological effect in the repair process of cutaneous wounds.     

Concentration multi-échelles de courbure dans des fibres de Milnor

Résumé. Etant donné un germe de morphisme analytique complexe à fibre réduite, nous étudions la manière dont la courbure de Lipschitz-Killing de la fibre de Milnor pour la métrique induite par celle de se concentre asymptotiquement, lorsque , dans l'intersection de cette fibre avec des boules dont les centres peuvent être décrits mais surtout dont les rayons sont de la forme où les des nombres rationnels dont la collection ne dépend que de la topologie du plongement dans du germe de courbe plane réduite . Received: May 29, 1998.     

Determination of seven selected antipsychotic drugs in human plasma using microextraction in packed sorbent and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A method using microextraction by packed sorbent (MEPS) and gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) is described for the determination of seven antipsychotic drugs in human plasma. The studied compounds were chlorpromazine (CPZ), haloperidol (HAL), cyamemazine, quetiapine, clozapine, olanzapine (OLZ), and levomepromazine; promazine, protriptyline, and deuterated CPZ were used as internal standards. The validation parameters included selectivity, linearity and limits of detection and quantitation, intra- and interday precision and trueness, recovery, and stability and were studied according to internationally accepted guidelines. The method was found to be linear between the lower limit of quantitation and 1000 ng/mL, except for OLZ and HAL (200 ng/mL), with determination coefficients higher than 0.99 for all analytes, and extraction efficiencies ranged from 62 to 92 %. Intra- and interday precision ranged from 0.24 to 10.67 %, while trueness was within a ±15 % interval from the nominal concentration for all analytes at all studied levels. MEPS has shown to be a rapid procedure for the determination of the selected antipsychotic drugs in human plasma, allowing reducing the handling time and the costs of analysis. Furthermore, GC-MS/MS has demonstrated to be a powerful tool for the simultaneous quantitation of the studied compounds, enabling obtaining adequate selectivity and sensitivity using a sample volume of as low as 0.25 mL.     

Affinity Matrices of Cratylia mollis Seed Lectins for Isolation of Glycoproteins from Complex Protein Mixtures

This work reports the use of matrices containing Cratylia mollis lectins (Cramoll 1,2,3-Sepharose and Cramoll 3-Sepharose) for isolation of glycoproteins from fetal bovine serum, human colostrum, hen egg white, and human blood plasma. Cramoll 1,2,3-Sepharose was able to bind a glycoprotein from fetal bovine serum which showed the same fetuin electrophoretic profile. The data indicate that this protein adsorbed to the matrix by interaction with Cramoll 3. Cramoll 1,2,3-Sepharose was not efficient to retain glycoproteins from human colostrum or commercial ovalbumin. Cramoll 3-Sepharose bound ovalbumin, and the support retained protein from hen egg white. Protein peaks eluted from the column with 1.0 M NaCl or 0.3 M galactose showed apparent molecular mass of ovalbumin. Two main proteins from blood plasma with apparent molecular mass 67 (similar to albumin) and 50 kDa (similar to fetuin) adsorbed on Cramoll 3-Sepharose and were eluted with 1.0 M NaCl as a single peak. Elution of adsorbed plasma proteins with 0.3 M galactose was less selective than with 1.0 M NaCl as revealed by SDS-PAGE. In conclusion, the Cramoll 1,2,3-Sepharose and Cramoll 3-Sepharose matrices were useful to separate glycoproteins from complex protein mixtures, and the adsorption phenomena was a carbohydrate-dependent event.     

Existence of complete vector topologies with prescribed conditions

In every infinite-dimensional vector space we build a complete, non-locally convex linear Hausdorff topology under the prescribed condition that it shall be compatible with a bounded algebraic structure for the space, that is, it admits a bounded Hamel basis whose coefficient linear functionals are continuous. As a byproduct, we obtain the existence of non-locally convex topologies having the approximate and fixed point property as prescribed conditions. The obstruction of bounded Hamel bases by complete vector topologies on linear space of countable dimension is also discussed.     

Development and validation of UPLC for the determination of phenolic compounds and furanic derivatives in Brandy de Jerez

Brandy and other aged distillates are a rich source of polyphenols. For brandies, contact with wood during ageing makes an important contribution to their polyphenols content. This paper describes the use of a previously devised ultra performance LC (UPLC) method to study the polyphenols content of Brandy de Jerez. UPLC is a new technique in LC offering several potential advantages, especially the reduction of time. Analyses of brandy performed by HPLC were repeated by UPLC. A special UPLC analytical column (Acquity UPLC BEH C₁₈ column, 100×2.1 mm), with a particle size of 1.7 μm, forms part of this system. Using the UPLC system enabled the time needed for analysis to be reduced to one tenth of the time needed in the conventional HPLC system. In conclusion, the separation factor results of the UPLC were compared to those obtained using HPLC methods; this demonstrated that simple, high efficiency UPLC gradients are viable and advantageous substitutes for traditional analysis of polyphenols in brandy by HPLC. The method enabled 14 phenolic compounds to be identified and determined in 33 different commercial brandies, and this allowed them to be differentiated in function of quality.     

Bilevel optimization applied to strategic pricing in competitive electricity markets

In this paper, we present a bilevel programming formulation for the problem of strategic bidding under uncertainty in a wholesale energy market (WEM), where the economic remuneration of each generator depends on the ability of its own management to submit price and quantity bids. The leader of the bilevel problem consists of one among a group of competing generators and the follower is the electric system operator. The capability of the agent represented by the leader to affect the market price is considered by the model. We propose two solution approaches for this non-convex problem. The first one is a heuristic procedure whose efficiency is confirmed through comparisons with the optimal solutions for some instances of the problem. These optimal solutions are obtained by the second approach proposed, which consists of a mixed integer reformulation of the bilevel model. The heuristic proposed is also compared to standard solvers for nonlinearly constrained optimization problems. The application of the procedures is illustrated in case studies with configurations derived from the Brazilian power system.