Determination of environmental persistence and thermogravimetric analysis of paper artificially aged by photoirradiation

Fabriano paper was aged by irradiation with ultraviolet light (k=310) in a veterometer for 300 hours. At fixed time intervals, samples of the paper under test were analysed by titanium dioxide photosensor to determine electrochemically the "environmental persistence" index, by a suitable conductimeter method, to determine the specific conductivity variation and by thermogravimetry to determine the moisture content, the onset temperature of the cellulose degradation process and the value of the activation energy of the same process. The behaviour of these different types of indicators displayed approximately monotonous trends as a function of time.     

Amphiphilic Iminosugar Pharmacological Chaperones towards β-Glucocerebrosidase: Self-Assembly and Biological Activity

Pharmacological chaperones (PCs) can restore correct enzymatic activity at sub-inhibitory concentrations and are considered an emerging therapy for Gaucher Disease (GD). Amphiphilic PCs show more favourable cross-membrane properties and have a higher activity on cells than hydrophilic PCs. To investigate whether the biological activity of amphiphilic iminosugars is related to their state as monomers or as micellar aggregates, we synthesized some novel N-alkylated iminosugars and performed physico-chemical characterizations in the solid state and in aqueous dispersion of the best compound in terms of biological activity. The results suggest that the C12 N-alkylated iminosugar 10 exerts its biological activity in the monomeric state, and that the low cell viability observed in the presence of a 50 μM concentration of compound 10 is not related to the formation of micellar aggregates in solution.