Characterization of Food Packaging Films with Blackcurrant Fruit Waste as a Source of Antioxidant and Color Sensing Intelligent Material

Chitosan and pectin films were enriched with blackcurrant pomace powder (10 and 20% (w/w)), as bio-based material, to minimize food production losses and to increase the functional properties of produced films aimed at food coatings and wrappers. Water vapor permeability of active films increased up to 25%, moisture content for 27% in pectin-based ones, but water solubility was not significantly modified. Mechanical properties (tensile strength, elongation at break and Young’s modulus) were mainly decreased due to the residual insoluble particles present in blackcurrant waste. FTIR analysis showed no significant changes between the film samples. The degradation temperatures, determined by DSC, were reduced by 18 °C for chitosan-based samples and of 32 °C lower for the pectin-based samples with blackcurrant powder, indicating a disturbance in polymer stability. The antioxidant activity of active films was increased up to 30-fold. Lightness and redness of dry films significantly changed depending on the polymer type. Significant color changes, especially in chitosan film formulations, were observed after exposure to different pH buffers. This effect is further explored in formulations that were used as color change indicators for intelligent biopackaging.     

Robust classification for skewed data

In this paper we propose a robust classification rule for skewed unimodal distributions. For low dimensional data, the classifier is based on minimizing the adjusted outlyingness to each group. In the case of high dimensional data, the robustified SIMCA method is adjusted for skewness. The robustness of the methods is investigated through different simulations and by applying it to some datasets.     

Observation of persistent α‐helical content and discrete types of backbone disorder during a molten globule to ordered peptide transition via deep‐UV resonance Raman spectroscopy

The molten globule (MG) state can aid in the folding of a protein to a functional structure and is loosely defined as an increase in structural disorder with conservation of the ensemble secondary structure content. Simultaneous observation of persistent secondary structure content with increased disorder has remained experimentally problematic. As a consequence, modeling how the MG state remains stable and how it facilitates proper folding remains difficult due to a lack of amenable spectroscopic techniques to characterize this class of partially unfolded proteins. Previously, deep‐UV resonance Raman (dUVRR) spectroscopy has proven useful in the resolution of global and local structural fluctuations in the secondary structure of proteins. In this work, dUVRR was employed to study the MG to ordered transition of a model four‐helix bundle protein, HP7. Both the average ensemble secondary structure and types of local disorder were monitored, without perturbation of the solvent, pH, or temperature. The MG to ordered transition is induced by stepwise coordination of two heme molecules. Persistent dUVRR spectral features in the amide III region at 1295–1301 and 1335–1338 cm⁻¹ confirm previous observations that HP7 remains predominantly helical in the MG versus the fully ordered state. Additionally, these spectra represent the first demonstration of conserved helical content in a MG protein. With successive heme binding, significant losses are observed in the spectral intensity of the amide III₃ and S regions (1230–1260 and 1390 cm⁻¹, respectively), which are known to be sensitive to local disorder. These observations indicate that there is a decrease in the structural populations able to explore various extended conformations with successive heme binding events. DUVRR spectra indicate that the first heme coordination between two helical segments diminishes exploration of more elongated backbone structural conformations in the inter‐helical regions. A second heme coordination by the remaining two helices further restricts protein motion. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Model-theoretic complexity of automatic structures

We study the complexity of automatic structures via well-established concepts from both logic and model theory, including ordinal heights (of well-founded relations), Scott ranks of structures, and Cantor–Bendixson ranks (of trees). We prove the following results: (1) The ordinal height of any automatic well-founded partial order is bounded by ω^ω. (2) The ordinal heights of automatic well-founded relations are unbounded below , the first non-computable ordinal. (3) For any computable ordinal α, there is an automatic structure of Scott rank at least α. Moreover, there are automatic structures of Scott rank . (4) For any computable ordinal α, there is an automatic successor tree of Cantor–Bendixson rank α.     

Pricing Equity Swaps in an Economy with Jumps

Abstract

Empirical evidence confirms that asset price processes exhibit jumps and that asset returns are not Gaussian. We provide a pricing model for equity swaps including quanto equity swaps for a non-Gaussian market. The market is driven by a general marked point process as well as by a standard multidimensional Wiener process. In order to obtain closed-form solutions of the swap values, we assume that all parameters in the asset price processes are deterministic, but possibly functions of time. We derive swap prices using martingale methods rather than replicating portfolios, and we show how to calculate the convexity correction term analytically. Our results are an extension of the results of Liao and Wang (2003 Liao, M. and Wang, M. 2003. Pricing models of equity swaps. The Journal of Futures Markets, 23(8): 751–772. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Pricing models of equity swaps, The Journal of Futures Markets, 23(8), pp. 751–772). The martingale method is the key that enables the extension.     

Molecular dynamics simulations,docking and MMGBSA studies of newly designed peptide-conjugated glucosyloxy stilbene derivatives with tumor cell receptors

Molecular Diversity - In this work, for the first time, we designed derivatives of beta-D-glucosyloxy-3-hydroxy-trans-stiblene-2-carboxylic acid (GHS), by conjugating GHS with tumor targeting...