Antimicrobial active packaging combining essential oils mixture: Migration and odor control study

Thymol is an essential oil (EO), known to have excellent antimicrobial (AM) properties and can potentially be used as an active agent in AM food packages. Mixing Thymol with other EOs may help to reduce the organoleptic impact of its strong odor. In the present study, the effect of thymol, carvacrol, citral, and eugenol binary mixtures on the AM activity, migration over time, and sensory properties of polypropylene (PP)/polyamide (PA)/nanoclays composite blends active package (AP) films was examined. The release of different EOs from the polymer film was found to have a direct correlation with the odor perception of thymol. Varied EOs bearing films have shown different capacity to inhibit bacterial growth over time (Escherichia coli). Lastly, the inhibition of fungal growth on food sample using EO‐loaded films was obtained for over 50 days, indicating the potential use of the developed films as active food packaging.     

Time to Absorption for a Heterogeneous Neutral Competition Model

Neutral models aspire to explain biodiversity patterns in ecosystems where species difference can be neglected and perfect symmetry is assumed between species. Voter-like models capture the essential ingredients of the neutral hypothesis and represent a paradigm for other disciplines like social studies and chemical reactions. In a system where each individual can interact with all the other members of the community, the typical time to reach an absorbing state with a single species scales linearly with the community size. Here we show, by using a rigorous approach based on a large deviation principle and confirming previous approximate and numerical results, that in a mean-field heterogeneous voter model the typical time to reach an absorbing state scales exponentially with the system size.     

A relationship between Gel'fand-Levitan and Marchenko kernels

A new integral equation which relates the output kernels of the Gel'fand-Levitan and Marchenko inverse scattering equations in a continuous range of their variables is specified. Structural details of this integral equation are studied when theS-matrix is a rational function, and the output kernels are separable in terms of Bessel, Hankel and Jost solutions.     

Trace preserving linear transformations on matrix algebras

A characterization is given for all linear transformations on a matrix algebra which preserve (1) the trace (2) the unit matrix (3) the trace and the second elementary symmetric function of the eigenvalues.     

Higher analytic derivatives. I. A new implementation for the third derivative of the SCF energy

This is the first of a series of papers on the ab initio calculation of the second, third, and fourth derivatives of the energy with respect to nuclear coordinates. The knowledge of these derivatives yields anharmonic spectroscopic constants. Here, we present efficient formulae for the analytic evaluation of these derivatives for closed-shell SCF wave functions. We discuss our implementation of the third derivative formula, in particular the integral and vectorization procedures. Applications are reported for H₂S, CHOF, and HCCF.     

Reentrant isotropic phase in a discotic liquid crystal mixture

We have used X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy to study binary mixtures of 2,3,7,8,12,13-hexa-n-tetradecanoyloxy- and 2,3,7,8,12,13-hexa(4-n-undecyloxybenzoyloxy) truxenes. Our measurements confirm the existence of a reentrant isotropic phase, which is however always preceded by a mixed phase region rather than by a pure columnar phase. The nematic N_D phase displays an anomalously negative thermal expansion coefficient. We speculate on mechanisms for reentrancy in discotic mesogens.     

Predictions of a microscopic model of p-A scattering

Proton scattering from nuclei can be predicted using optical Poten tials formed by full folding an effective two-nucleon interaction with detailed nuclear structure. Excellent results are found in comparison with measured total reaction as well as with measured differential cross sections.