Classification of edible vegetable oils using square wave voltammetry with multivariate data analysis

This paper proposes a simple and non-expensive electroanalytical methodology for classification of edible vegetable oils with respect to type (canola, sunflower, corn and soybean) and conservation state (expired and non-expired shelf life). The proposed methodology employs an alcoholic extraction procedure followed by square wave voltammetry (SWV). Two chemometric methods were compared for classification of the resulting voltammograms, namely Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) with variable selection by the Successive Projections Algorithm (SPA). The results were evaluated in terms of errors in a set of samples not included in the modelling process. The best results were obtained with the SPA-LDA method, which correctly classified all samples in terms of type and conservation state.     

Biosensor for chlorogenic acid based on an ionic liquid containing iridium nanoparticles and polyphenol oxidase

A biosensor based on the ionic liquid, 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate containing dispersed iridium nanoparticles (Ir-BMI.PF₆) and polyphenol oxidase was constructed. This enzyme was obtained from the sugar apple (Annona squamosa), immobilized in chitosan ionically crosslinked with oxalate. The biosensor was used for determination of chlorogenic acid by square wave voltammetry. The polyphenol oxidase catalyzes the oxidation of chlorogenic acid to the corresponding o-quinone, which is electrochemically reduced back to this substance at +0.25 V vs. Ag/AgCl. Under optimized operational conditions the chlorogenic acid concentration was linear in the range of 3.48 × 10⁻⁶ to 4.95 × 10⁻⁵ mol L⁻¹ with a detection limit of 9.15 × 10⁻⁷ mol L⁻¹. The biosensor was applied in the determination of chlorogenic acid in organic and decaffeinated coffee and the results compared with those obtained using the capillary electrophoresis method. The recovery study for chlorogenic acid in these samples gave values of 93.2-105.7%.     

Study on the cyclization of 6-arylethynylpyrimidine-5-carbaldehydes with tert-butylamine: microwave versus thermal preparation of pyrido[4,3-d]pyrimidines

Thermal and microwave initiated cyclization of 2,4-disubstituted 6-arylethynylpyrimidine-5-carbaldehydes with tert-butylamine has been studied. A novel high-yielding preparation of 2,4-disubstituted 7-arylpyrido[4,3-d]pyrimidines has been developed. The intermediate compounds were isolated and possible mechanism of the reactions is discussed.     

Covalent Immobilization of α-Galactosidase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Penicillium griseoroseum</Emphasis> and its Application in Oligosaccharides Hydrolysis

Partially purified α-Galactosidase from Penicillium griseoroseum was immobilized onto modified silica using glutaraldehyde linkages. The effective activity of immobilized enzyme was 33%. Free and immobilized α-galactosidase showed optimal activity at 45 °C and pH values of 5 and 4, respectively. Immobilized α-galactosidase was more stable at higher temperatures and pH values. Immobilized α-galactosidase from P. griseoroseum maintained 100% activity after 24 h of incubation at 40 °C, while free enzyme showed only 32% activity under the same incubation conditions. Defatted soybean flour was treated with free and immobilized α-galactosidase in batch reactors. After 8 h of incubation, stachyose was completely hydrolyzed in both treatments. After 8 h of incubation, 39% and 70% of raffinose was hydrolyzed with free and immobilized α-galactosidase respectively. Immobilized α-galactosidase was reutilized eight times without any decrease in its activity.     

Environmental isotopes (15N and 18O) in the assessment of groundwater degradation: Aveiro Quaternary aquifer (NW Portugal)

The Aveiro region, situated on the Northwest coast of Portugal is one of the most industrialized areas of Portugal. The shallow Quaternary aquifer system, mainly of detrital sediments of Pleistocene and Holocene ages, is still today an important water resource for this region despite growing evidence of diffuse pollution problems. Isotope techniques have been used to evaluate the aquifer vulnerability to nitrate contamination (δ¹⁸O and δ¹⁵N from NO₃ and δ²H and δ¹⁸O from H₂O). Nitrogen isotopes were used to identify nitrogen sources and assess agriculture, cattle-breeding, urban and industrial contributions to the nitrogen cycle in the Aveiro ecosystem.     

Assessing sample representativeness for inorganic chemical investigation of invertebrates by INAA

The quality of environmental studies depends on the utilization of adequate sampling protocol and analytical method for obtaining reliable results and minimizing analytical uncertainties. In order to demonstrate the applicability of INAA for determining chemical element composition of invertebrates, this work evaluated sample representativeness in terms of subsampling and sample size. Br, Co, Fe, K, Na, Sc and Zn could be determined in very small samples despite increasing of analytical uncertainties. Special attention should be directed to invertebrate species with small structures because of the high chemical variation observed among different sample sizes tested.     

Magnetization temperature dependence in Fe/Cr superlattices

We report the temperature dependence of the saturation magnetization, M_s(T), of Fe(t)/Cr(40 Å) superlattices grown on MgO(1 0 0) and MgO(1 1 0) and its variation with Fe-layer thickness (5 Å<t<80 Å). The structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction. M_s(t) vs. T, as measured by DC magnetization and ferromagnetic resonance, show a large interface effect. The origins of this effect are discussed.     

An N-lithio-indole from the reaction of LiCH(TMS)2 and PhNC

The reaction of LiCH(TMS)2 with phenyl isocyanide PhNC has unexpectedly led to the N-lithio-indole derivative 1, that has been fully characterised including its X-ray crystal structure determination.     

Hyperelliptic Prym Varieties and Integrable Systems

We introduce two algebraic completely integrable analogues of the Mumford systems which we call hyperelliptic Prym systems, because every hyperelliptic Prym variety appears as a fiber of their momentum map. As an application we show that the general fiber of the momentum map of the periodic Volterra lattice