Culture conditions dictate protease and tannase production in submerged and solid-state cultures of Aspergillus niger Aa-20

Undesirable protease production by Aspergillus niger Aa-20 in submerged culture and solid-state culture was evaluated using different concentrations of tannic acid as sole carbon source in a model system designed for tannase production. Protease production was found to be dependent on the culture system used (submerged culture or solid-state culture) and on the initial tannic acid concentration. Expression of protease activity in submerged culture was higher (up to 10 times) than activity obtained in solid-state culture, using identical culture medium composition. In submerged culture, the lowest final protease activity (0.13 IU) was obtained with the highest tannic acid concentration, while in solid-state culture protease activity was not affected by changes in initial substrate concentration. Absence of detectable proteolytic activity in solid-state culture is related to high production of tannase enzyme. Hence, the use of solid-state culture for fungal enzyme production may allow for higher and more stable enzyme titers present in culture extracts.     

Solid-phase synthesis of the cyclic lipononadepsipeptide [N-Mst(Ser1), d-Ser4, L-Thr6, L-Asp8, L-Thr9]syringotoxin

An optimized solid-phase strategy for the preparation of the cyclic lipononadepsipeptide [N-Mst(L-Ser1), D-Ser4, L-Thr6, L-Asp8, L-Thr9]syringotoxin is reported. The strategy is based on the use of a mild orthogonal protection scheme and the incorporation of the nonproteinogenic amino acid (Z)-Dhb into the peptide chain as the dipeptide Fmoc-Thr(tBu)-(Z)-Dhb-OH. The didehydrodipeptide was synthesized by a water-soluble carbodiimide-induced beta-elimination of a protected dipeptide containing a residue of Thr with its free hydroxy side chain unprotected.     

Intramolecular hydrogen abstraction. Iodosobenzene diacetate,an efficient and convenient reagent for alkoxy radical generation

Photolysis of several hydroxy compounds in presence of iodosobenzene diacetate and iodine leads to alkoxy radical derivatives which undergo intramolecular hydrogen abstraction to produce cyclic ethers in good yield.     

Effects of Total Thermal Balance on the Thermal Energy Absorbed or Released by a High-Temperature Phase Change Material

Front tracking and enthalpy methods used to study phase change processes are based on a local thermal energy balance at the liquid–solid interface where mass accommodation methods are also used to account for the density change during the phase transition. Recently, it has been shown that a local thermal balance at the interface does not reproduce the thermodynamic equilibrium in adiabatic systems. Total thermal balance through the entire liquid–solid system can predict the correct thermodynamic equilibrium values of melted (solidified) mass, system size, and interface position. In this work, total thermal balance is applied to systems with isothermal–adiabatic boundary conditions to estimate the sensible and latent heat stored (released) by KNO3 and KNO3/NaNO3 salts which are used as high-temperature phase change materials. Relative percent differences between the solutions obtained with a local thermal balance at the interface and a total thermal balance for the thermal energy absorbed or released by high-temperature phase change materials are obtained. According to the total thermal balance proposed, a correction to the liquid–solid interface dynamics is introduced, which accounts for an extra amount of energy absorbed or released during the phase transition. It is shown that melting or solidification rates are modified by using a total thermal balance through the entire system. Finally, the numerical and semi-analytical methods illustrate that volume changes and the fraction of melted (solidified) solid (liquid) estimated through a local thermal balance at the interface are not invariant in adiabatic systems. The invariance of numerical and semi-analytical solutions in adiabatic systems is significantly improved through the proposed model.     

Spectroscopic and photochemical properties of the lichen compound lobaric acid

Lichens synthesize and accumulate photoprotective compounds against possible damage induced by UV radiation in the photobiont. A biological model has been recently formulated that allows the use of lichens to evaluate changes at different UV radiation levels. The thermodynamics, photophysical and photochemical properties of lobaric acid were studied in acetonitrile, ethanol and Brij 35(3%) micelles at different pH values. Also the sun protector factor (SPF) was determined by in vitro methods. Lobaric acid was extracted from Stereoculon alpinum Laur. and characterized by means of standard procedures. Solutions were irradiated in oxygen and under nitrogen conditions with a UV medium pressure lamp. Lobaric acid absorbs at 287, 303 nm, and no fluorescence emission was observed. The maximum value of the molar extinction coefficient (5479.6 M(-1) cm(-1)) was obtained in Brij 35 at pH 12. Solubility is pH dependant and is highest in Brij 35 at pH 12 (4.45 x 10(-4) M). Photoconsumption quantum yields ranged between 10(-4) and 10(-5) in aerobic and anaerobic experimental conditions. Lobaric acid SPF was very low (0.5) compared with homosalate (4.0), (reference solar filter). Two pKa values, 5.05 (carboxylic acid group deprotonation) and 9.75 (phenolic OH deprotonation), were determined.     

Migration of seismic data

Prospecting for oil and gas resources poses the problem of determining the geological structure of the earth's crust from indirect measurements. Seismic migration is an acoustic image reconstruction technique based on the inversion of the scalar wave equation. Extensive computation is necessary before reliable information can be extracted from large sets of recorded data. In this paper a collection of industrial migration techniques, each giving rise to a data parallel algorithm, is outlined. Computer simulations on synthetic seismic data illustrate the problem and the approach.     

Nonuniversality and analytical continuation in moments of directed polymers on hierarchical lattices

We prove the moments of the directed polymer partition function GZ, using an exact position space renormalization group scheme on a hierarchical lattice. After sufficient iteration the characteristic functionf(n)=lnGZⁿ of the probability (Z) converges to a stable limitf ^*(n). For smalln the limiting behavior is independent of the initial distribution, while for largen,f ^*(n) is completely determined by it and is thus nonuniversal. There is a smooth crossover between the two regimes for small effective dimensions, and the nonlinear behavior of the small moments can be used to extract information on the universal scaling properties of the distribution. For large effective dimensions there is a sharp transition between the two regimes, and analytical continuation from integer moments ton0 is not possible. Replica arguments can account for most features of the observed results.     

Fragmentation of carbohydrate anomeric alkoxyl radicals. Synthesis of highly functionalized chiral vinyl sulfones

The reaction of derivatives of 3-acetyl-d-glucal, 3-acetyl-l-rhamnal, 3-acetyl-d-galactal, and 3-acetyl-d-lactal with sodium benzenesulfinate in acid medium catalyzed by HgSO₄ afforded diastereoisomeric mixtures of the corresponding 2,3-dideoxy-3-(phenylsulfonyl)-hexopyranoses through a Ferrier rearrangement. The anomeric alkoxyl radical fragmentation of these γ-hydroxy sulfones using the system (diacetoxyiodo)benzene and iodine gave vinyl sulfones with structures of 1,2-dideoxy-4-O-formyl-2-(phenylsulfonyl)-pent-1-enitol and configurations d-erythro, l-erythro, and d-threo at the two stereogenic centers.