Nutraceutical Role of Polyphenols and Triterpenes Present in the Extracts of Fruits and Leaves of Olea europaea as Antioxidants,Anti-Infectives and Anticancer Agents on Healthy Growth

There is currently a worldwide consensus and recognition of the undoubted health benefits of the so-called Mediterranean diet, with its intake being associated with a lower risk of mortality. The most important characteristics of this type of diet are based on the consumption of significant amounts of fruit, vegetables, legumes, and nuts, which provide, in addition to some active ingredients, fiber and a proportion of vegetable protein, together with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) as the main sources of vegetable fat. Fish and meat from poultry and other small farm animals are the main sources of protein. One of the main components, as already mentioned, is EVOO, which is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids and to a lesser extent in polyunsaturated fatty acids. The intake of this type of nutrient also provides an important set of phytochemicals whose health potential is widely spread and agreed upon. These phytochemicals include significant amounts of anthocyanins, stilbenes, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and terpenes of varying complexities. Therefore, the inclusion in the diet of this type of molecules, with a proven healthy effect, provides an unquestionable preventive and/or curative activity on an important group of pathologies related to cardiovascular, infectious, and cancerous diseases, as well as those related to the metabolic syndrome. The aim of this review is therefore to shed light on the nutraceutical role of two of the main phytochemicals present in Olea europaea fruit and leaf extracts, polyphenols, and triterpenes, on healthy animal growth. Their immunomodulatory, anti-infective, antioxidant, anti-aging, and anti-carcinogenic capabilities show them to be potential nutraceuticals, providing healthy growth.     

二氧化碳和丙烯直接合成甲基丙烯酸的NiPMo/TiO2催化剂的研究

用溶胶-凝胶法以磷钼酸(MPA)的镍盐溶液水解钛酸四丁酯制备了NiPMo/TiO2催化剂.使用ICP、 XRD、 TG-DTA、 IR、 TPD-MS和微反应技术研究了催化剂的化学组成、热稳定性、化学吸附性质和催化反应性能.杂多钼酸盐与TiO2通过O2-在TiO2表面发生了键合.在623 K下,杂多阴离子仍保持原有的Keggin结构.CO2在Lewis酸位Ni(Ⅱ)和Lewis碱位Ni-O-Mo的桥氧协同作用下生成CO2卧式吸附态Ni(Ⅱ)←O-(CO)←(O--Ni).丙烯有多种吸附态在催化剂上吸附.在563 K、 1 MPa和空速1500 h-1的反应条件下,丙烯的摩尔转化率为3.2%,产物MAA选择性为95%.     

Self-Assembling Drug Formulations with Tunable Permeability and Biodegradability

This review focuses on key topics in the field of drug delivery related to the design of nanocarriers answering the biomedicine criteria, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, low toxicity, and the ability to overcome biological barriers. For these reasons, much attention is paid to the amphiphile-based carriers composed of natural building blocks, lipids, and their structural analogues and synthetic surfactants that are capable of self-assembly with the formation of a variety of supramolecular aggregates. The latter are dynamic structures that can be used as nanocontainers for hydrophobic drugs to increase their solubility and bioavailability. In this section, biodegradable cationic surfactants bearing cleavable fragments are discussed, with ester- and carbamate-containing analogs, as well as amino acid derivatives received special attention. Drug delivery through the biological barriers is a challenging task, which is highlighted by the example of transdermal method of drug administration. In this paper, nonionic surfactants are primarily discussed, including their application for the fabrication of nanocarriers, their surfactant-skin interactions, the mechanisms of modulating their permeability, and the factors controlling drug encapsulation, release, and targeted delivery. Different types of nanocarriers are covered, including niosomes, transfersomes, invasomes and chitosomes, with their morphological specificity, beneficial characteristics and limitations discussed.     

Pharmacological Extracts and Molecules from Virola Species: Traditional Uses,Phytochemistry, and Biological Activity

Virola is the largest genus of Myristicaceae in America, comprising about 60 species of medium-sized trees geographically spread from Mexico to southern Brazil. The plant species of this genus have been widely used in folk medicine for the treatment of several ailments, such as rheumatic pain, bronchial asthma, tumors in the joints, intestinal worms, halitosis, ulcers, and multiple infections, due to their pharmacological activity. This review presents an updated and comprehensive summary of Virola species, particularly their ethnomedicinal uses, phytochemistry, and biological activity, to support the safe medicinal use of plant extracts and provide guidance for future research. The Virola spp.’s ethnopharmacology, including in the treatment of stomach pain and gastric ulcers, as well as antimicrobial and tryponosomicidal activities, is attributable to the presence of a myriad of phytoconstituents, such as flavonoids, tannins, phenolic acids, lignans, arylalkanones, and sitosterol. Hence, such species yield potential leads or molecular scaffolds for the development of new pharmaceutical formulations, encouraging the elucidation of not-yet-understood action mechanisms and ascertaining their safety for humans.     

Diffusion of symmetrical and spherical solutes in protic,aprotic, and hydrocarbon solvents

The diffusion coefficients of a series of symmetrical tetraalkyltins (tetramethyltin, tetraethyltin, tetrapropyltin, tetrabutyltin, tetradodecyltin) of the gases argon, krypton, xenon, methane, and tetramethylmethane and of carbon tetrachloride and tetraethylmethane in hexane, decane, and tetradecane at 25°C have been determined using the Taylor dispersion technique. Diffusion coefficients for the gases in acetone, 2-propanol, 1-butanol, and 1-octanol were also determined. Deviations from the predictions of Stokes' law were found to be large, and the magnitude of the deviation can be directly related to solute size. The predictions of the Hubbard-Onsager equation were tested using the diffusion data.     

衬底上石墨烯制备及改性研究

大面积高质量石墨烯的制备对石墨烯电子特性及石墨烯基纳器件相关研究有重要意义。本文综述了近几年来衬底上制备石墨烯的相关实验以及衬底与石墨烯相互作用研究的重要进展。目前,采用化学气相沉积、外延生长等方法可在衬底表面上制备出较大面积、高质量的石墨烯材料。衬底与石墨烯相互作用和界面间晶格匹配、原子成键及电荷转移等密切相关,其对吸附石墨烯的几何结构、能带结构及电子特性等产生明显影响。实验与理论计算的结合可望加深衬底与石墨烯作用机理的理解,指导衬底上石墨烯制备及改性的进一步研究。     

Unusual metals as electrode materials for electrochemical sensors

Although noble metals are still widely used in electroanalysis, a plethora of different nonconventional metals is now enriching the panorama of materials acting as the electrochemical transducer in sensing systems. In particular, Ti, Cu, Co, Fe, Mo, Ta, W, Rh, Bi, Sb, Te and Pb are discussed here in view of their peculiar physicochemical properties and of the interesting electrocatalytic activities ascribable to these elements and to the relevant metal oxide ultrathin films that spontaneously form at the electrode–solution interface. This behaviour, exploitable in electroanalysis for the detection of a number on analytes, is often accompanied by low price and high resistance to corrosion and to abrasion characterising these materials. These peculiarities encourage the possible use of the cited metals in a wide number of analytical frames, ranging from process control to bioimplantable sensing systems.     

Multi-Elemental Analysis of Wine Samples in Relation to Their Type,Origin, and Grape Variety

Wine is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages. Therefore, the control of the elemental composition is necessary throughout the entire production process from the grapes to the final product. The content of some elements in wine is very important from the organoleptic and nutritional points of view. Nowadays, wine studies have also been undertaken in order to perform wine categorization and/or to verify the authenticity of products. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the influence of the chosen factors (type of wine, producer, origin) on the levels of 28 elements in 180 wine samples. The concentration of studied elements was determined by ICP-MS (Ag, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Sn, Sr, Te, Tl, U, Zn), ICP-OES (Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Ti), and CVAAS (Hg) techniques in 79 red, 75 white, and 26 rose wine samples. In general, red wines contained higher values of mean and median of B, Ba, Cr, Cu, Mn, Sr and Zn in contrast to other wine types (white and rose). In white wines (when compared to red and rose wines) higher levels of elements such as Ag, Be, Bi, Cd, Co, Li, K and Ti were determined. In contrast, rose wines were characterized by a higher concentration of Fe and U. The study also revealed that in the case of 18 samples, the maximum levels of some metals (Cd—8 samples, Pb—9 samples, Cu—1 sample) were slightly exceeded according to the OIV standards, while for Zn and Ti in any wine sample the measured concentrations of these metals were above the permissible levels. Thus, it can be stated that the studied wines contained, in general, lower levels of heavy metals, suggesting that they should have no effect on the safety of consumption. The results also showed higher pH level for red wines as a consequence of the second fermentation process which is typically carried out for this type of wine (malolactic fermentation). The highest median value of pH was reported for Merlot-based wines, while the lowest was for Riesling. It is assumed that dry Riesling has a higher content of tartaric and malic acid than dry Chardonnay grown in the same climate. From all of the studied countries, wines from Poland seemed to present one of the most characteristic elemental fingerprints since for many elements relatively low levels were recorded. Moreover, this study revealed that also wine samples from USA and Australia can be potentially discriminated from the rest of studied wines. For USA the most characteristic metal for positive identification of the country of origin seems to be uranium, whereases for Australia – strontium and manganese. Based on the highly reduced set of samples, it was not possible to differentiate the studied wine products according to the grape variety other than Syrah, and partially Chardonnay. Since all the Syrah-based samples originated from the same country (Australia) thus, the observed grouping should be more related with the country of origin than the grape variety.     

Elemental Characterization of Ciders and Other Low-Percentage Alcoholic Beverages Available on the Polish Market

Seventy-three samples of alcoholic beverages and juices that were purchased on the Polish market and home-made were analyzed for their elemental profiles. The levels of 23 metals were determined by ICP-MS (Ag, Ba, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Li, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr and Tl), ICP-OES (Al, B, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Na, Ti and Zn) and CVAAS (Hg) techniques in twenty-five samples of ciders widely available on the Polish market; six samples of home-made ciders; two samples of juices used in the production of these ciders; and forty samples of low-percentage, flavored alcoholic beverages based on beer. The gathered analytical data confirmed that the final elemental fingerprint of a product is affected by the elemental fingerprint of the ingredients used (apple variety) as well as the technology and equipment used by the producer, and in the case of commercial ciders, also the impact of type of the packaging used was proven. These factors are specific to each producer and the influence of the mentioned above parameters was revealed as a result of the performed analysis. Additionally, the inclusion of the home-made ciders in the data set helped us to understand the potential origin of some elements, from the raw materials to the final products. The applied statistical tests revealed (Kruskal–Wallis and ANOVA) the existence of statistically significant differences in the concentration of the following metals: Ag, Al, B, Bi, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Na, Ni, Ti and Zn in terms of the type of cider origin (commercial and home-made). In turn, for different packaging (can or bottle) within one brand of commercial cider, the existence of statistically significant differences for Cu, Mn and Na was proved. The concentrations of all determined elements in the commercial cider from the Polish market and home-made cider samples can be considered as nontoxic, because the measured levels of elements indicated in the regulations were lower than the allowable limits. Moreover, the obtained results can be treated as preliminary for the potential authentication of products in order to distinguish the home-made (fake) from the authentic products, especially for premium-class alcoholic beverages.     

STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF LONG-RANGE CONTACTS IN GLOBULAR PROTEINS

The analysis of residue-residue contacts in protein structures can shed some light on our understanding of the folding and stability of proteins. In this paper, we study the statistical properties of long-range and short-range residue-residue contacts of 91 globular proteins using CSU software and analyze the importance of long-range contacts in globular protein structure. There are many short-range and long-range contacts in globular proteins, and it is found that the average number of long-range contacts per residue is 5.63 and the percentage of residue-residue contacts which are involved in long-range ones is 59.4%. In more detail, the distribution of long-range contacts in different residue intervals is investigated and it is found that the residues occurring in the interval range of 4-10 residues apart in the sequence contribute more long-range contacts to the stability of globular protein. The number of long-range contacts per residue, which is a measure of ability toform residue-residue contacts, is also calculated for 20 different amino acid residues. It is shown that hydrophobic residues (including Leu, Val, Ile, Met, Phe, Tyr, Cys and Trp) having a large number of long-range contacts easily form long-range contacts, while the hydrophilic amino acids (including Ala, Gly, Thr, His, Glu, Gln, Asp, Asn, Lys, Ser, Arg, and Pro) form long-range contacts with more difficulty. The relationship between the Fauchere-Pliska hydrophobicity scale (FPH) and the number of short-range and long-range contacts per residue for 20 amino acid residues is also studied. An approximately linear relationship between the Fauchere-Pliska hydrophobicity scale (FPH) and the number of long-range contacts per residue CL is found and can be expressed as     

High-throughput microwave-digestion procedures to monitor neurotoxic elements in body fluids by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Microwave (MW) digestion procedures with high sample throughput (simultaneous digestion of 36 or 80 samples) and procedural simplicity (disposable plastic tubes, or re-usable liners with screw-cap) were investigated for their efficiency in routine analyses of biological samples. Different digestion vessel materials were tested for metal leaching/adsorption and thermal resistance: quartz, glass, polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS). For the instrumental quantification of Al, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Hg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, and Tl at ultra-trace levels in urine, serum, and whole blood, sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS) was used. The different pretreatment conditions and vessels were evaluated in terms of contamination risk, effective power of detection, accuracy, and precision. Results of analyses of serum, urine and whole blood certified reference materials (CRMs) were fully satisfactory for almost all the analytes. In the case of Hg, Mo, and Tl in serum digested in plastic containers the results were just below the lower limit of uncertainty of the certified range. On the basis of the present data the following MW procedures can be suggested: 1. for urine, digestion with nitric acid at atmospheric pressure in plastic vials; 2. for serum, digestion with nitric acid at atmospheric pressure in glass vessels; and 3. for whole blood, digestion under pressure in quartz tubes.Because of the levels of the procedural blanks, Bi was not measurable at the concentrations expected in human fluids, and Al was accurately detectable in whole blood only.     

酞菁染料的金属化和溴化与光物理影响的研究

以α位(2,4-二特戊基)苯氧基邻苯二腈作为环合前体,制备了多种金属酞菁,产物经元素分析、紫外、红外、核磁氢谱等分析手段进行表征.并选择了部分酞菁进行溴化,其中着重研究了不同中心金属以及溴化对染料Q带吸收的影响.结果表明,酞菁染料的金属化对于其Q带吸收影响很大,多数染料金属化后会出现蓝移,而选择合适的条件进行溴化,可以使得金属酞菁的Q带吸收出现一定程度的红移,其中部分溴化金属酞菁的吸收波长与光信息产业中使用的近红外激光器很接近,具有潜在的实用价值.     

Non-metathesis reactions of ruthenium carbene catalysts and their application to the synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles

Non-metathesis reactions of ruthenium carbene catalysts, such as olefin isomerization, hydrogenation, radical reaction, activation of silane, cyclopropanation, epimerization cocyclopropane, [3 + 2] cycloaddition, and cycloisomerization, are summarized. The utility of these reactions was demonstrated by the synthesis of indole using olefin isomerization and subsequent ring-closing metathesis, the synthesis of indoline using cycloisomerization, and the synthesis of the putative structure of fistulosin using cycloisomerization as a key step.     

Cucurbiturils–a New Family of Host Molecules

The supramolecular chemistry of cucurbituril, a synthetic receptor, is fascinating because of the remarkable guest binding behavior of the host. Although cucurbituril is potentially as useful as crown ethers, cyclodextrins, and calixarenes in many applications, its chemistry has not been developed much until recently because of several shortcomings. Recently we synthesized cucurbituril homologues and derivatives. These new members of the cucurbituril family have expanded the scope further, and interest in them has grown enormously. The diversity in guest binding behavior has led to many interesting studies such as redox control of guest binding, stabilization of charge-transfer complexes inside the host cavity, encapsulation of drug molecules, formation of redox-controllable vesicles, and so on. The cucurbituril homologues and derivatives thus provide new opportunities in many areas of supramolecular chemistry including recognition, catalysis, separation, transport, and many others.     

Patterned surfaces for biological applications: A new platform using two dimensional structures as biomaterials

With the highly interdisciplinary of research and great development of microfabrication techniques, patterned surfaces have attracted great attention of researchers since they possess specific regularity and orderness of structures.In recent years,series of two dimensional patterned structures have been successfully fabricated,and widely used in anti-reflection,anti-fogging,self-cleaning,and sensing,etc.In the meantime,patterned structures have been gradually used in biologically relative fields such as biomaterials,aiming to deepen the perception of organism and understand the vital movements of human body.In this review,we provide a brief introduction on current status of techniques for two dimensional patterns fabrication,the applications of patterned surfaces in biologically related fields,and give out a prospective on the development of these patterned surfaces in the future.     

Polymer entanglement loss in extensional flow: Evidence from electrospun short nanofibers

High strain rate extensional flow of a semidilute polymer solution can result in fragmentation caused by polymer entanglement loss, evidenced by appearance of short nanofibers during electrospinning. The typically desired outcome of electrospinning is long continuous fibers or beads, but, under certain material and process conditions, short nanofibers can be obtained, a morphology that has scarcely been studied. Here we study the conditions that lead to the creation of short nanofibers, and find a distinct parametric space in which they are likely to appear, requiring a combination of low entanglement of the polymer chains and high strain rate of the electrospinning jet. Measurements of the length and diameter of short nanofibers, electrospun from PMMA dissolved in a blend of CHCl₃ and DMF, confirm the theoretical prediction that the fragmentation of the jet into short fibers is brought about by elastic stretching and loss of entanglement of the polymer network. The ability to tune nanofiber length, diameter and nanostructure, by modifying variables such as the molar mass, concentration, solvent quality, electric field intensity, and flow rate, can be exploited for improving their mechanical and thermodynamic properties, leading to novel applications in engineering and life sciences. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2013 , 51, 1377–1391     

Minerals in Pregnancy and Their Impact on Child Growth and Development

During pregnancy, women undergo metabolic and physiological changes, and their needs are higher, to maintain growth and development of the fetus. If the nutritional status of the expectant mother is not satisfactory, some maternal and neonatal complications can occur. In the second and third trimester of pregnancy, there is a reserve of nutrients in the fetus that can be utilized after birth; thereby, children present an accelerated growth in the first years of life, which is a proven response to the available nutrition pattern. However, if such a pattern is insufficient, there will be deficits during development, including brain function. Therefore, despite many recent published works about gestational nutrition, uncertainties still remain on the mechanisms of absorption, distribution, and excretion of micronutrients. Further elucidation is needed to better understand the impacts caused either by deficiency or excess of some micronutrients. Thus, to illustrate the contributions of minerals during prenatal development and in children, iodine, selenium, iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium were selected. Our study sought to review the consequences related to gestational deficiency of the referred minerals and their impact on growth and development in children born from mothers with such deficiencies     

MORPHOLOGY EVOLUTION IN PTFE AS A FUNCTION OF MELT TIME AND TEMPERATURE Ⅱ. LOW MOLECULAR WEIGHT FOLDED CHAIN SINGLE CRYSTALS AND BAND STRUCTURES

The effect of sintering dispersed and bulk, low molecular weight (Mn = 50,000 Da), nano-emulsion polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) particles near their melting point is described. With the nascent particles consisting of ca.75 nm diameter, hexagonal, single crystals, sintering at, e.g., 350℃, results, initially, in merger of neighboring particles,followed by individual molecular motion on the substrate and the formation of folded chain, lamellar single crystals and spherulites, and on-edge ribbons. It is suggested these structures develop, with time, in the mesomorphic "melt". Sintering of the bulk resin yields extended chain, band structures, as well as folded chain lamellae; end-surface to end-surface merger,possibly by end-to-end polymerization, occurs with increasing time.