Relevance of gaseous flows in electrochemically assisted soil thermal remediation

Treatment of polluted soil is one of the priorities in the search of a more sustainable planet. Electrochemically assisted soil remediation has been considered a good option for removing organic contaminants contained in soil, including the removal of volatile organic compounds, associated with gaseous streams produced during the treatment. Also, recently, electrochemical gas treatment technologies have been appointed as promising for the treatment of volatile organic compounds. In this work, we review the current opinion about the most recent studies in both areas. The first section focuses on the production of gaseous compounds during soil remediation by conventional and electrochemical systems. The second section describes the recent progress in the integration of adsorption and absorption with electrochemical processes. Finally, we discuss the holistic application of assisted electrochemical technologies in soil remediation, considering also emerging processes recently published in the literature.     

A Rapidly Reversible Chemical Dimerizer System to Study Lipid Signaling in Living Cells

Chemical dimerizers are powerful tools for non‐invasive manipulation of enzyme activities in intact cells. Here we introduce the first rapidly reversible small‐molecule‐based dimerization system and demonstrate a sufficiently fast switch‐off to determine kinetics of lipid metabolizing enzymes in living cells. We applied this new method to induce and stop phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K) activity, allowing us to quantitatively measure the turnover of phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5‐trisphosphate (PIP₃) and its downstream effectors by confocal fluorescence microscopy as well as standard biochemical methods.     

Physical properties and giant magnetoimpedance sensitivity of rapidly solidified magnetic microwires

The relation between the magnetoimpedance and the magnetic properties of a wide set of soft magnetic microwires from several sources has been studied. Magnetic properties were obtained by vibrating sample magnetometry and ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy. The magnetoimpedance voltage sensitivity of each sample, the criterion of interest for high sensitivity magnetometer design, was then evaluated at several frequencies and drive currents. It appears that all samples possess roughly similar properties, regardless of their fabrication process or chemical composition. The voltage sensitivity of the samples obtained from experimental measurement is compared with a simple model of sensitivity. The general trends predicted by the model provide useful insights for materials optimization. Averaged sensitivity over the sample set is around 10 kV/T/cm at 10 MHz. The critical importance for sensitive magnetometry of the maximum excitation current permissible in each wire is also highlighted.     

Synthesis of 4-methoxy-1H-phenalen-1-one: a subunit related to natural phenalenone-type compounds

4-Methoxy-1H-phenalen-1-one (4-methoxyperinaphthenone, 1), a subunit found in some Musa phytoalexins and related natural products from the Haemodoraceae, was synthesized starting from 2-methoxynaphthalene in five steps and an overall yield of 36%. A Heck–Fujiwara coupling between ethyl acrylate and 1-bromonaphthalene afforded the corresponding (E)-naphthylpropanoic acid which, after hydrogenolysis, was subjected to a one-pot Friedel–Crafts acylation–DDQ dehydrogenation procedure to furnish 1.     

High-order theory for arched structures and its application for the study of the electrostatically actuated MEMS devices

A high-order theory for arched rods and beams based on expansion of the two-dimensional (2D) equations of elasticity into Legendre’s polynomials series has been developed. The 2D equations of elasticity have been expanded into Legendre’s polynomials series in terms of a thickness coordinate. Thereby, all equations of elasticity including Hooke’s law have been transformed to corresponding equations for coefficients of Legendre’s polynomials expansion. Then system of differential equations in term of displacements and boundary conditions for the coefficients of Legendre’s polynomials expansion coefficients has been obtained. Cases of the first and second approximations have been considered in details. For obtained boundary-value problems, a finite element method has been used and numerical calculations have been done with COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB. Developed theory has been applied for study pull-in instability and stress–strain state of the electrostatically actuated micro-electro-mechanical Systems.     

Proton irradiation defects in (fluoranthene)2PF6

Electron spin resonance and electron–proton double resonance (Overhauser shift method) are used for the comparison of proton radiation damaged and as-grown (fluoranthene)₂PF₆ single crystals. Chemical modification and various consequences of the nonuniform distribution of radiation induced defects in this quasi-one-dimensional organic conductor with defect dependent Peierls transition are worked out.     

Two Highly Populated Conformations at Room Temperature of Monterine and Granjine, Antitumor Bisbenzylisoquinoline Alkaloids: Origin and Tridimensional Structures

Monterine 1 as well as granjine 3, 1R,1'S configured biphenylic bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids, generate two highly populated conformers. The interconversion of two forms was detected by saturation tranfer in (1)H NMR NOEs experiments. Tridimensional structure of the conformers was determined on the basis of (1)H NMR analysis of anisotropic shielding protons, by NOEs measurements and vicinal proton coupling constants of CH1-CH(2)alpha and CH1'-CH(2)alpha'. The structures established from NMR data were further refined to observe the mobility of 3D conformations by molecular dynamics simulation in vacuo. The highly populated conformers, monterine 1a and 1b, as well as granjine 3a and 3b, are interconvertible by rotation about the C1'-Calpha', Calpha'-C9', and C11'-C11 bonds and inversion of the benzyl D ring by reference to CH(2)alpha'. The slow exchange system was investigated by dynamic NMR spectroscopy: DeltaG()(c) 77.9 KJ/mol and k(c) 200 s(-)(1) for monterine 1; DeltaG()(c) 77.7 KJ/mol and k(c) 211 s(-)(1) for granjine 3. Natural and synthetic biphenylic bisbenzylisoquinolines displayed, in vitro, cytotoxic activities against human prostate and breast cancer cell lines.     

Direct conversion of tert-butyl 2-hydroxyalkyl sulfides to 1,3-oxathiolanes

tert-Butyl 2-hydroxyalkyl sulfides, prepared by reaction of epoxides with 2-methylpropane-2-thiol, are converted directly to 1,3-oxathiolanes upon treatment with pivalaldehyde and boron trifluoride diethyl etherate in the presence of thioanisole.     

Selection of thermotolerant yeasts for simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of cellulose to ethanol

A total of 27 yeast strains belonging to the groupsCandida, Saccharomyces, andKluyveromyces were screened for their ability to grow and ferment glucose at temperatures ranging 32-45°C. K. marxianus andK. fragilis were found to be the best ethanol producing organisms at the higher temperature tested and, so, were selected for subsequent simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) studies.     

A liquid-crystalline silsesquioxane dendrimer exhibiting chiral nematic and columnar mesophases

A hexadecamer, first-generation, octasilsesquioxane liquid-crystalline dendrimer was synthesized by a platinum-catalyzed hydrosilylation reaction of the parent first-generation vinyl octasilsesquioxane dendrimer with a modified, laterally substituted mesogen. The structure and purity of the octasilsesquioxane substrate was confirmed by 1H, 13C, and 29 Si NMR spectroscopy, microanalysis, and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The mesogenic substrate was found to exhibit only a chiral nematic phase, whereas the resulting hexadecamer dendrimer displays enantiotropic chiral nematic, disordered hexagonal columnar, and disordered rectangular columnar phases, with a glass transition below room temperature. The lateral or side-on attachment of the mesogen to the dendritic core was found to be a key design feature in the formation of the mesophases.