The use of dilatometry aiming to evaluate the metallurgical aspect of coil slump in a hot-rolled medium carbon steel

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The hot coil slump is a recurrent problem in the manufacturing process of medium and high equivalent carbon steel plates. Even with the success of the...     

Synthesis and characterization of cellulose acetate from cellophane industry residues. Application as acetaminophen controlled-release membranes

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Cellophane film production generates cellulosic residues from scraps, edges, and low-quality films. In this work, cellophane was used as a raw material...     

Flow-injection determination of inorganic forms of nitrogen by gas diffusion and conductimetry

A flow-injection—conductimetric method was applied to the determination of ammonia, nitrate and nitrite at concentrations down to 5, 20 and 20 ng ml^?1, respectively. Ammonia was determined by merging the injected sample with an alkaline solution (NaOHEDTA) and passing the mixture through a diffusion cell. The ammonia released was collected by a flowing stream of deionized water that passed through a conductance flow cell. Nitrate and nitrite concentrations were determined after reduction to ammonia in alkaline medium using a column filled with metallic zinc. The ammonia produced was then measured as described above. About 60 samples per hour can be processed with a relative standard deviation of about 1%. Satisfactory agreement was observed between results for ammonia in samples of natural water and nitrate in tap and mineral water determined by the proposed method and by standard spectrophotometric procedures. Speciation can be achieved by adding sulphanilic acid to remove nitrite from the sample and determining the ammonia without the use of the column.     

Drying Effects on Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Lippia thymoides Essential Oil,a Natural Source of Thymol

Leaves of Lippia thymoides (Verbenaceae) were dried in an oven at 40, 50 and 60 °C and the kinetic of drying and the influence of the drying process on the chemical composition, yield, and DPPH radical scavenging activity of the obtained essential oils were evaluated. The composition of the essential oils was determined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-flame ionization detection analyses. The influence of drying on the chemical composition of the essential oils of L. thymoides was evaluated by multivariate analysis, and their antioxidant activity was investigated via the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The Midilli model was the most appropriate to describe the behavior of drying kinetic data of L. thymoides leaves. Thymol was the major compound for all analyzed conditions; the maximum content was obtained from fresh leaves (62.78 ± 0.63%). The essential oils showed DPPH radical scavenging activity with an average of 73.10 ± 12.08%, and the fresh leaves showed higher inhibition (89.97 ± 0.31%). This is the first study to evaluate the influence of drying on the chemical composition and antioxidant activity of L. thymoides essential oils rich in thymol.     

Development of Chitosan-Based Surfaces to Prevent Single- and Dual-Species Biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Implantable medical devices (IMDs) are susceptible to microbial adhesion and biofilm formation, which lead to several clinical complications, including the occurrence of implant-associated infections. Polylactic acid (PLA) and its composites are currently used for the construction of IMDs. In addition, chitosan (CS) is a natural polymer that has been widely used in the medical field due to its antimicrobial and antibiofilm properties, which can be dependent on molecular weight (Mw). The present study aims to evaluate the performance of CS-based surfaces of different Mw to inhibit bacterial biofilm formation. For this purpose, CS-based surfaces were produced by dip-coating and the presence of CS and its derivatives onto PLA films, as well surface homogeneity were confirmed by contact angle measurements, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The antimicrobial activity of the functionalized surfaces was evaluated against single- and dual-species biofilms of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Chitosan-based surfaces were able to inhibit the development of single- and dual-species biofilms by reducing the number of total, viable, culturable, and viable but nonculturable cells up to 79%, 90%, 81%, and 96%, respectively, being their activity dependent on chitosan Mw. The effect of CS-based surfaces on the inhibition of biofilm formation was corroborated by biofilm structure analysis using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), which revealed a decrease in the biovolume and thickness of the biofilm formed on CS-based surfaces compared to PLA. Overall, these results support the potential of low Mw CS for coating polymeric devices such as IMDs where the two bacteria tested are common colonizers and reduce their biofilm formation.     

Identification of a Prenyl Chalcone as a Competitive Lipoxygenase Inhibitor: Screening,Biochemical Evaluation and Molecular Modeling Studies

Cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase (LOX) are key targets for the development of new anti-inflammatory agents. LOX, which is involved in the biosynthesis of mediators in inflammation and allergic reactions, was selected for a biochemical screening campaign to identify LOX inhibitors by employing the main natural product library of Brazilian biodiversity. Two prenyl chalcones were identified as potent inhibitors of LOX-1 in the screening. The most active compound, (E)-2-O-farnesyl chalcone, decreased the rate of oxygen consumption to an extent similar to that of the positive control, nordihydroguaiaretic acid. Additionally, studies on the mechanism of the action indicated that (E)-2-O-farnesyl chalcone is a competitive LOX-1 inhibitor. Molecular modeling studies indicated the importance of the prenyl moieties for the binding of the inhibitors to the LOX binding site, which is related to their pharmacological properties.     

Partition into cliques for cubic graphs: Planar case, complexity and approximation

Given a graph G=(V,E) and a positive integer k, the partition into cliques (pic) decision problem consists of deciding whether there exists a partition of V into k disjoint subsets V₁,V₂,…,V_k such that the subgraph induced by each part V_i is a complete subgraph (clique) of G. In this paper, we establish both the NP-completeness of pic for planar cubic graphs and the Max SNP-hardness of pic for cubic graphs. We present a deterministic polynomial time -approximation algorithm for finding clique partitions in maximum degree three graphs.     

A delta white noise functional

The additive renormalization% MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXafv3ySLgzGmvETj2BSbqefm0B1jxALjhiov2D% aebbfv3ySLgzGueE0jxyaibaiGc9yrFr0xXdbba91rFfpec8Eeeu0x% Xdbba9frFj0-OqFfea0dXdd9vqaq-JfrVkFHe9pgea0dXdar-Jb9hs% 0dXdbPYxe9vr0-vr0-vqpWqaaeaabiGaciaacaqabeaadaqaaqGaaO% qaaiaabs7adaWgaaWcbaGaaeySdiaab6cacaqG0bqefeKCPfgBaGqb% diaa-bcaaeqaaOGaeyypa0Jaa8hiaiaacIcacaaIYaGaeqiWdaNaai% ykamaaCaaaleqabaGaeyOeI0IaaGymaiaac+cacaaIYaaaaGqadOGa% a4hiaiGacwgacaGG4bGaaiiCaiaacIcacqGHsislcaqGXoWaaWbaaS% qabeaacaqGYaaaaOGaai4laiaaikdacaGGPaGaa4hiaiaacQdaciGG% LbGaaiiEaiaacchacqGHXcqSdaWadiqaaiabgkHiTiaadkeacaGGNa% GaaiikaiaadshacaGGPaWaaWbaaSqabeaacaaIYaaaaOGaai4laiaa% ikdacaGFGaGaey4kaSIaa4hiaiaabg7acaWGcbGaai4jaiaacIcaca% WG0bGaaiykaaGaay5waiaaw2faaiaacQdaaaa!6C5C!\[{\rm{\delta }}_{{\rm{\alpha }}{\rm{.t}} } = (2\pi )^{ - 1/2} \exp ( - {\rm{\alpha }}^{\rm{2}} /2) :\exp \pm \left[ { - B'(t)^2 /2 + {\rm{\alpha }}B'(t)} \right]:\]is shown to be a generalized Brownian functional. Some of its properties are derived. is shown to be a generalized Brownian functional. Some of its properties are derived.On leave from Universidade do Minho, Area de Matematica, Largo Carlos Amarante, P-4700 Braga, Portugal.     

Infinitesimal 2-braidings and differential crossed modules

We categorify the notion of an infinitesimal braiding in a linear strict symmetric monoidal category, leading to the notion of a (strict) infinitesimal 2-braiding in a linear symmetric strict monoidal 2-category. We describe the associated categorification of the 4-term relations, leading to six categorified relations. We prove that any infinitesimal 2-braiding gives rise to a flat and fake flat 2-connection in the configuration space of n particles in the complex plane, hence to a categorification of the Knizhnik–Zamolodchikov connection. We discuss infinitesimal 2-braidings in a certain monoidal 2-category naturally assigned to every differential crossed module, leading to the notion of a symmetric quasi-invariant tensor in a differential crossed module. Finally, we prove that symmetric quasi-invariant tensors exist in the differential crossed module associated to Wagemann's version of the String Lie-2-algebra. As a corollary, we obtain a more conceptual proof of the flatness of a previously constructed categorified Knizhnik–Zamolodchikov connection with values in the String Lie-2-algebra.