Tailoring the electrochemical charge storage properties of carbonaceous support by redox properties of heteropoly acids: where does the synergy come from?

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The synergistic effects between two Keggin-type heteropoly acids (HPAs) and carbon surface were examined and elucidated. An improved high rate capability...     

Thermal behaviour of glazed ceramic bodies

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Flower-shaped Ni-doped Fe3O4/SnS2 composite was synthesized by a one-pot solvothermal method, where nanosized Ni-doped Fe3O4 particles were dispersed...     

Variation in essential oil content and composition of Ridolfia segetum Moris based on 30-hour prolonged fractionated extraction procedure

Abstract

A comprehensive study on essential oil samples extracted from Ridolfia segetum Moris (Apiaceae) collected in Tarquinia (Italy) is reported. In this study, a 30-hour, fractionated, steam distillation procedure for essential oil preparation was applied. The gas chromatographic-mass spectrometry analysis showed monoterpene o-cymene and phenylpropanoid dill-apiol as the major essential oil’s constituents revealing a new chemotype dependent on extraction duration. Great impact of the duration of the distillation process on chemical profile of essential oil was observed; prolonged distillation gives chemically more diverse essential oil samples. Preliminary microbiological evaluations of the essential oils samples revealed some activity, although not high, against Candida albicans.     

Asymptotic analysis of the nonsteady micropolar fluid flow through a curved pipe

ABSTRACT

We consider the nonsteady flow of a micropolar fluid in a thin (or long) curved pipe via rigorous asymptotic analysis. Germano's reference system is employed to describe the pipe's geometry. After writing the governing equations in curvilinear coordinates, we construct the asymptotic expansion up to a second order. Obtained in the explicit form, the asymptotic approximation clearly demonstrates the effects of pipe's distortion, micropolarity and the time derivative. A detailed study of the boundary layers in space is provided as well as the construction of the divergence correction. Finally, a rigorous justification of the proposed effective model is given by proving the error estimates.     

Sensitive CE-MS method for monitoring of riociguat and desmethylriociguat levels in human serum

Riociguat is novel antihypertensive drug for treatment of pulmonary hypertension. As such, it is still being tested in many clinical and pharmacokinetic trials. Existing methods that determine serum riociguat and desmethylriociguat (DMR) are based solely on liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. Therefore, we present a novel capillary electrophoresis with mass spectrometry method (CE-MS) for their determination in human serum as alternative method for ongoing trials. Complete resolution of both analytes was achieved by means of pH optimization of ammonium formate background electrolytes that are fully compatible with ESI/MS detection. Simple liquid-liquid extraction was used as sample pretreatment. The calibration dependence of the method was linear (in the range of 10–1000 ng/mL), with adequate accuracy (90.1–114.9%) and precision (13.4%). LOD and LOQ were arbitrarily set at 10 ng/mL for both analytes. Clinical applicability was validated using serum samples from patients treated with riociguat in pharmacokinetic study and the results corresponded with reference HPLC-MS/MS values. Capillary electrophoresis proved to be sensitive and selective tool for the analysis of riociguat and DMR.     

Solvophobically Driven Complexation of Adamantyl Mannoside with β-Cyclodextrin in Water and Structured Organic Solvents

The effects of solvent and temperature on the complexation of adamantyl mannoside with β-cyclodextrin and 6-O-monotosyl-6-deoxy-β-cyclodextrin were explored experimentally and by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Efficient binding was observed only in hydrogen-bonded solvents, which indicated solvophobically driven complexation. The stability of the inclusion complex was considerably higher in aqueous media. A pronounced temperature dependence of Δ_rH^○ and Δ_rS^○, resulting in perfect enthalpy–entropy compensation, was observed in water. The complexation thermodynamics was in line with classical rationale for the hydrophobic effect at lower temperatures and the nonclassical explanation at higher temperatures. This finding linked cyclodextrin complexation thermodynamics with insights regarding the effect of temperature on the hydration water structure. The complexation enthalpies and entropies were weakly dependent on temperature in organic media. The signs of Δ_rH^○ and Δ_rS^○ were in accordance with the nonclassical hydrophobic (solvophobic) effect. The structures of the optimized product corresponded to those deduced spectroscopically, and the calculated and experimentally obtained values of Δ_rG^○ were in very good agreement. This investigation clearly demonstrated that solvophobically driven formation of cyclodextrin complexes could be anticipated in structured solvents in general. However, unlike in water, adamantane and the host cavity behaved solely as structure breakers in the organic media explored so far.     

Passive Advection in a Percolation Process: Two-Loop Approximation

Theoretical and Mathematical Physics - We study an instructive model of the directed percolation process near its second-order phase transition between absorbing and active states. We first express...     

Enhancing the Viscosity-Sensitive Range of a BODIPY Molecular Rotor by Two Orders of Magnitude

Molecular rotors are a class of fluorophores that enable convenient imaging of viscosity inside microscopic samples such as lipid vesicles or live cells. Currently, rotor compounds containing a boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) group are among the most promising viscosity probes. In this work, it is reported that by adding heavy-electron-withdrawing −NO₂ groups, the viscosity-sensitive range of a BODIPY probe is drastically expanded from 5–1500 cP to 0.5–50 000 cP. The improved range makes it, to our knowledge, the first hydrophobic molecular rotor applicable not only at moderate viscosities but also for viscosity measurements in highly viscous samples. Furthermore, the photophysical mechanism of the BODIPY molecular rotors under study has been determined by performing quantum chemical calculations and transient absorption experiments. This mechanism demonstrates how BODIPY molecular rotors work in general, why the −NO₂ group causes such an improvement, and why BODIPY molecular rotors suffer from undesirable sensitivity to temperature. Overall, besides reporting a viscosity probe with remarkable properties, the results obtained expand the general understanding of molecular rotors and show a way to use the knowledge of their molecular action mechanism for augmenting their viscosity-sensing properties.     

The Role of Information in Managing Interactions from a Multifractal Perspective

In the framework of the multifractal hydrodynamic model, the correlations informational entropy–cross-entropy manages attractive and repulsive interactions through a multifractal specific potential. The classical dynamics associated with them imply Hubble-type effects, Galilei-type effects, and dependences of interaction constants with multifractal degrees at various scale resolutions, while the insertion of the relativistic amendments in the same dynamics imply multifractal transformations of a generalized Lorentz-type, multifractal metrics invariant to these transformations, and an estimation of the dimension of the multifractal Universe. In such a context, some correspondences with standard cosmologies are analyzed. Since the same types of interactions can also be obtained as harmonics mapping between the usual space and the hyperbolic plane, two measures with uniform and non-uniform temporal flows become functional, temporal measures analogous with Milne’s temporal measures in a more general manner. This work furthers the analysis published recently by our group in “Towards Interactions through Information in a Multifractal Paradigm”.