Cyclodextrin-enhanced in situ bioremediation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons-contaminated soils and plant uptake

In situ bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) polluted soils can be improved by the augmentation of degrading microbial populations and by the increase of hydrocarbon bioavailability. β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) significantly accelerate the induction of hydrocarbon biodegradation, but it is not still clear its effectiveness during final, slower stages of degradation. Moreover, it is yet not known if the PAH uptake from plants is influenced by the presence of CD. A field study was carried out by creating two plots (A and B). Diesel fuel was spread on the surface, and on plot B a commercial microbial consortium and β-CD were spread. Soybean was seeded in both plots. Soil samples were withdrawn every 10 cm layers from 0 to 60 cm depth, before fuel spreading, immediately after seeding and after soya harvesting. Chemical and microbial analyses were carried out throughout the process to characterize the soil and to determine residual PAHs. Soybean seeds were analyzed for PAH content. It was observed that β-CD induced a significant increase of PAH degradation rate. The microbial inoculum did not improve the degradation; biodegradation activity was strong in superficial layers, and some PAH leaching was observed, that was reduced by CD. The analysis of PAH in soyabeans revealed that an uptake of hydrocarbons occurred, and that it was more significant in plot B. This suggests that the β-CD-enhanced bioremediation process can further be improved by phytoremediation, that could also allow to simultaneously reach an additional profit from a non-food yield for biofuel production.     

Réactions de germylènes avec divers oxirannes et le thiiranne. Mise en évidence de germanones et germathiones intermédiaires. Communication préliminaire

Complexed dialkylgermylenes R₂GeNR₃ or R₂GePy react with oxiranes or thiirane and lead to dialkylgermanone and germathione via germaoxetanes or germathiacyclobutane. The formation of germadioxolanes or germadithiolane finally observed arises from condensation of dialkylgermanone (or germathione) on oxiranes (or thiirane).     

X-ray structure determination of a chiral synthon,essential for the synthesis of 25-2H-stigmasterol

Synthesis of sterols with varying side chains, including deuterium labeled stigmasterol and sitosterol may be performed via the Wittig-Horner coupling of a 22 aldehyde derived from stigmasterol and a suitable sulfoxide derivative of the side chain. The X-ray structure determination of this synthon have been performed since it is a crucial step in order to know the absolute configuration of the chiral carbon atoms. Crystallographic data were as follows:a=7.437(2),b=10.103(4),c=10.274(3)Å, =100.32(6)^o, =759.4 ų, space group P2₁ (No.4),Z=2,D _c=1.239 g cm^–3.     

Conservative methods for the Toda lattice equations

We are concerned with the numerical integration of the Todalattice equations by using different conservative methods. Numericalexperiments suggest that the global error for isospectral schemesdecreases exponentially with time but it is almost constantfor either symplectic or more general integrators. We providea theoretical explanation for these experimental findings.