Enantioselective ethylation of aldehydes with 1,3-N-donor ligands derived from (+)-camphoric acid

Derivatives of (+)-camphoric acid were prepared by a short and simple synthetic sequence and proved to be excellent ligands for the enantioselective ethylation of benzaldehyde with diethylzinc, with ees of up to 96% being obtained. The most efficient ligand was tested with several aromatic aldehydes and ees of up to 99% were observed. Structural features of the ligands are determinant for achieving high enantioselectivities.     

Production of Lactic Acid from Sucrose: Strain Selection, Fermentation, and Kinetic Modeling

Lactic acid is an important product arising from the anaerobic fermentation of sugars. It is used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, chemical, and food industries as well as for biodegradable polymer and green solvent production. In this work, several bacterial strains were isolated from industrial ethanol fermentation, and the most efficient strain for lactic acid production was selected. The fermentation was conducted in a batch system under anaerobic conditions for 50 h at a temperature of 34 °C, a pH value of 5.0, and an initial sucrose concentration of 12 g/L using diluted sugarcane molasses. Throughout the process, pulses of molasses were added in order to avoid the cell growth inhibition due to high sugar concentration as well as increased lactic acid concentrations. At the end of the fermentation, about 90% of sucrose was consumed to produce lactic acid and cells. A kinetic model has been developed to simulate the batch lactic acid fermentation results. The data obtained from the fermentation were used for determining the kinetic parameters of the model. The developed model for lactic acid production, growth cell, and sugar consumption simulates the experimental data well.     

Regularity Conditions in Differentiable Vector Optimization Revisited

This work is concerned with differentiable constrained vector optimization problems. It focus on the intrinsic connection between positive linearly dependent gradient sets and the distinct notions of regularity that come to play in this context. The main aspect of this contribution is the development of regularity conditions, based on the positive linear dependence or independence of gradient sets, for problems with general nonlinear constraints, without any convexity hypothesis. Being easy to verify, these conditions might be useful to define termination criteria in the development of algorithms. This work was supported by Fundación Antorchas, Grant 13900/4; by Southern National University, Grant UNS 24/L069; by Comahue National University, Grant E060/04; by CNPq-Brazil (Grants 302412/2004-2, 473586/2005-5 and 303465/2007-7) and by FAPESP-Brazil (06/53768-0).     

Optimization Strategies Based on Sequential Quadratic Programming Applied for a Fermentation Process for Butanol Production

In this work, the mathematical optimization of a continuous flash fermentation process for the production of biobutanol was studied. The process consists of three interconnected units, as follows: fermentor, cell-retention system (tangential microfiltration), and vacuum flash vessel (responsible for the continuous recovery of butanol from the broth). The objective of the optimization was to maximize butanol productivity for a desired substrate conversion. Two strategies were compared for the optimization of the process. In one of them, the process was represented by a deterministic model with kinetic parameters determined experimentally and, in the other, by a statistical model obtained using the factorial design technique combined with simulation. For both strategies, the problem was written as a nonlinear programming problem and was solved with the sequential quadratic programming technique. The results showed that despite the very similar solutions obtained with both strategies, the problems found with the strategy using the deterministic model, such as lack of convergence and high computational time, make the use of the optimization strategy with the statistical model, which showed to be robust and fast, more suitable for the flash fermentation process, being recommended for real-time applications coupling optimization and control.     

Chitosan nanoparticles: a promising system in novel drug delivery

The ability of nanoparticles to manipulate the molecules and their structures has revolutionized the conventional drug delivery system. The chitosan nanoparticles, because of their biodegradability, biocompatibility, better stability, low toxicity, simple and mild preparation methods, offer a valuable tool to novel drug delivery systems in the present scenario. Besides ionotropic gelation method, other methods such as microemulsion method, emulsification solvent diffusion method, polyelectrolyte complex method, emulsification cross-linking method, complex coacervation method and solvent evaporation method are also in use. The chitosan nanoparticles have also been reported to have key applications in parentral drug delivery, per-oral administration of drugs, in non-viral gene delivery, in vaccine delivery, in ocular drug delivery, in electrodeposition, in brain targeting drug delivery, in stability improvement, in mucosal drug delivery in controlled drug delivery of drugs, in tissue engineering and in the effective delivery of insulin. The present review describes origin and properties of chitosan and its nanoparticles along with the different methods of its preparation and the various areas of novel drug delivery where it has got its application.     

3-Aza-8,10-dioxa-bicyclo[5.2.1]decane (9-exo BTKa) carboxylic acid as a new reverse turn inducer: synthesis and conformational analysis of a model peptide

Dipeptide isostere 5, belonging to the class of 9-exo BTKa, was synthesised starting from R,R-tartaric acid and 4-nitro-1-(3-nitrophenyl)butan-1-one. The nine-membered lactam showed interesting structural features and was inserted in a 5-residue model peptide. The conformational properties of this modified peptide have been studied by NMR and molecular modelling, indicating that compound 5 acted as a reverse turn inducer.     

Chitosan/carboxymethyl cashew gum polyelectrolyte complex: synthesis and thermal stability

Chitosan/carboxymethyl cashew gum polyelectrolyte complexes were synthesized using different proportions of chitosan (CH) and carboxymethyl cashew gum (CMCG). The optimum CH:CMCG ratio was 25:75, which produced highest product yield. Polyelectrolyte (PEC) samples were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis and FT-IR spectroscopy. Parameters such as initial and maximal degradation temperatures and activation energy (E_a) were determined. Activation energies follows the order CMCG > CH > PECs samples. Infrared analysis from residual products after heating at 280 °C in different times indicated that cleavage of the glycosidic bond and formation of unsaturated products occurred.