Capillary electrophoresis of DNA for molecular diagnostics

A number of applications of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) in sieving liquid polymers (notably linear polyacrylamides and cellulose) for the analysis of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products of clinically relevant, diagnostic DNA, are reviewed. The fields covered are: human genetics, quantitative gene dosage, microbiology and virology, forensic medicine and therapeutic DNA (notably, antisense nucleotides). Some unique, novel developments are highlighted, such as: (i) nonisocratic CZE, i.e., temperature-programmed CZE for detection of DNA point mutations; (ii) the synthesis of novel N-substituted acrylamides, offering extreme resistance to alkaline hydrolysis coupled to high hydrophilicity. In the field of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), as routinely performed in gel slabs, a novel methodology is described in CZE: double-gradient DGGE. In this technique, two gradients are simultaneously applied along the migration direction: a chemical (or thermal) denaturing gradient, for partially unwinding homo- and hetero-duplexes of DNA, and a porosity gradient, for recompacting diffuse bands melting over a broader range of denaturing conditions. It is thus demonstrated that chemical gradients, in addition to temperature gradients, can be easily implemented even in a capillary format.     

Green Synthesis,Characterization, and Antibacterial Properties of Silver Nanoparticles Obtained by Using Diverse Varieties of Cannabis sativa Leaf Extracts

Cannabis sativa L. (hemp) is a plant used in the textile industry and green building material industry, as well as for the phytoremediation of soil, medical treatments, and supplementary food products. The synergistic effect of terpenes, flavonoids, and cannabinoids in hemp extracts may mediate the biogenic synthesis of metal nanoparticles. In this study, the chemical composition of aqueous leaf extracts of three varieties of Romanian hemp (two monoecious, and one dioecious) have been determined by Fourier-Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), high-performance liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometry (UHPLC-DAD-MS). Then, their capability to mediate the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and their pottential antibacterial applications were evaluated. The average antioxidant capacity of the extracts had 18.4 ± 3.9% inhibition determined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH^•) and 78.2 ± 4.1% determined by 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS™) assays. The total polyphenolic content of the extracts was 1642 ± 32 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) L⁻¹. After this, these extracts were reacted with an aqueous solution of AgNO₃ resulting in AgNPs, which were characterized by UV−VIS spectroscopy, FT-IR, scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The results demonstrated obtaining spherical, stable AgNPs with a diameter of less than 69 nm and an absorbance peak at 435 nm. The mixture of extracts and AgNPs showed a superior antioxidant capacity of 2.3 ± 0.4% inhibition determined by the DPPH^• assay, 88.5 ± 0.9% inhibition as determined by the ABTS^•+ assay, and a good antibacterial activity against several human pathogens: Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Staphylococcus aureus.     

Development of a Third Generation Snack of Rice Starch Enriched with Nopal Flour (Opuntia ficus indica)

This study aimed to obtain a third-generation snack from native rice starch (NS), rice starch modified by extrusion (MS), nopal flour (NF) and xanthan gum (XG). These raw materials were characterized by proximal analysis, pH, particle size distribution, water absorption index (WAI) and water solubility index (WSI), degree of substitution (DS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), rheology, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The analysis of the response variables in the nine formulations of the snack: expansion index (EI), apparent density (AD), hardness (H), luminosity (L*) and tendency to green-red (a*), was performed through a composite central design (CCD), the selected formulations were characterized by SEM. Results showed an increase in WAI, 4.69 ± 0.04, and WSI, 12.61 ± 0.10, for MS, higher than NS values due to chemical modification. According to the color analysis the NF obtained a value of 60.73 ± 0.008 in L* and −6.51 ± 0.004 in a* with green tendency. The DS value obtained was 0.09 ± 0.005, being within the FDA’s permissible range for food use. By FTIR analysis, the acetyl group was corroborated. Finally, employing microwave cooking, snacks made from NS with concentrations of NF (5%) and XG (0%) obtained the highest EI value, 4.47, as well the low Dap and D value (0.37 g/cm³, 2.25 N, respectively), corroborated by SEM analysis.     

Time-Resolved Spectroscopy and Electronic Structure of Mono-and Dinuclear Pyridyl-Triazole/DPEPhos-Based Cu(I) Complexes

Chemical and spectroscopic characterization of the mononuclear photosensitizers [(DPEPhos)Cu(I)(MPyrT)]^0/+ ( CuL , CuLH ) and their dinuclear analogues ( Cu₂L’ , Cu₂L'H₂ ), backed by (TD)DFT and high-level GW-Bethe-Salpeter equation calculations, exemplifies the complex influence of charge, nuclearity and structural flexibility on UV-induced photophysical pathways. Ultrafast transient absorption and step-scan FTIR spectroscopy reveal flattening distortion in the triplet state of CuLH as controlled by charge, which also appears to have a large impact on the symmetry of the long-lived triplet states in Cu₂L’ and Cu₂L'H₂ . Time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy (solid state), supported by transient photodissociation spectroscopy (gas phase), confirm a lifetime of some tens of μs for the respective triplet states, as well as the energetics of thermally activated delayed luminescence, both being essential parameters for application of these materials based on earth-abundant copper in photocatalysis and luminescent devices.     

Adulteration of Essential Oils: A Multitask Issue for Quality Control. Three Case Studies: Lavandula angustifolia Mill., Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck and Melaleuca alternifolia (Maiden & Betche) Cheel

The quality control of essential oils (EO) principally aims at revealing the presence of adulterations and at quantifying compounds that are limited by law by evaluating EO chemical compositions, usually in terms of the normalised relative abundance of selected markers, for comparison to reference values reported in pharmacopoeias and/or international norms. Common adulterations of EO consist of the addition of cheaper EO or synthetic materials. This adulteration can be detected by calculating the percent normalised areas of selected markers or the enantiomeric composition of chiral components. The dilution of the EO with vegetable oils is another type of adulteration. This adulteration is quite devious, as it modifies neither the qualitative composition of the resulting EO nor the marker’s normalised percentage abundance, which is no longer diagnostic, and an absolute quantitative analysis is required. This study aims at verifying the application of the two above approaches (i.e., normalised relative abundance and absolute quantitation) to detect EO adulterations, with examples involving selected commercial EO (lavender, bergamot and tea tree) adulterated with synthetic components, EO of different origin and lower economical values and heavy vegetable oils. The results show that absolute quantitation is necessary to highlight adulteration with heavy vegetable oils, providing that a reference quantitative profile is available.     

Identification of a source factor in a control problem for the heat equation with a boundary memory term

We consider a material with thermal memory occupying a bounded region Ω with boundary Γ. The evolution of the temperature u(t,x) is described by an integrodifferential parabolic equation containing a heat source of the form f(t)z₀(x). We formulate an initial and boundary value control problem based on a feedback device located on Γ and prescribed by means of a quite general memory operator. Assuming both u and the source factor f are unknown, we study the corresponding inverse and control problem on account of an additional information. We prove a result of existence and uniqueness of the solution (u,f). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monadic MV-algebras I: a study of subvarieties

In this paper, we study and classify some important subvarieties of the variety of monadic MV-algebras. We introduce the notion of width of a monadic MV-algebra and we prove that the equational class of monadic MV-algebras of finite width k is generated by the monadic MV-algebra [0, 1] ^k . We describe completely the lattice of subvarieties of the subvariety ${\mathcal{V}([{\bf 0}, {\bf 1}]^k)}$ generated by [0, 1] ^k . We prove that the subvariety generated by a subdirectly irreducible monadic MV-algebra of finite width depends on the order and rank of ?A, the partition associated to A of the set of coatoms of the boolean subalgebra B(A) of its complemented elements, and the width of the algebra. We also give an equational basis for each proper subvariety in ${\mathcal{V}([{\bf 0}, {\bf 1}]^k)}$ . Finally, we give some results about subvarieties of infinite width.     

Countable Partially Exchangeable Mixtures

Partially exchangeable sequences representable as mixtures of Markov chains are completely specified by de Finetti’s mixing measure. The paper characterizes, in terms of a subclass of hidden Markov models, the partially exchangeable sequences with mixing measure concentrated on a countable set, for sequences of random variables both on a discrete space and on a Polish space.