Evaluation of the interaction parameter for poly(ε‐caprolactone)/poly(styrene‐co‐acrylonitrile) blends

In this article, the miscibility of poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) with poly(styrene‐co‐acrylonitrile) (SAN) containing 25 wt % of acrylonitrile is studied from both a qualitative and a quantitative point of view. The evidences coming from thermal analysis (differential scanning calorimetry) demonstrate that PCL and SAN are miscible in the whole range of composition. The Flory interaction parameter χ_1,2 was calculated by the Patterson approximation and the melting point depression of the crystalline phase in the blends; in both cases, negative values of χ_1,2 were found, confirming that the system is miscible. The interaction parameter evaluated within the framework of the mean field theory demonstrates that the miscibility of PCL/SAN blends is due to the repulsive interaction between the styrene and acrylonitrile segments in SAN. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2010     

Achillea moschata Wulfen: From Ethnobotany to Phytochemistry,Morphology, and Biological Activity

A multidisciplinary investigation on Achillea moschata Wulfen (Asteraceae) is outlined herein. This work, part of the European Interreg Italy–Switzerland B-ICE project, originated from an ethnobotanical survey performed in Chiesa in Valmalenco (Sondrio, Lombardy, Northern Italy) in 2019–2021 which highlighted this species’ relevance of use in folk medicine to treat gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, this contribution included analyses of the: (a) phytochemical profile of the aqueous and methanolic extracts of the dried flower heads using LC-MS/MS; (b) morpho-anatomy and histochemistry of the vegetative and reproductive organs through Light, Fluorescence, and Scanning Electron Microscopy; (c) biological activity of the aqueous extract concerning the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential through cell-based in vitro models. A total of 31 compounds (5 phenolic acids, 13 flavonols, and 13 flavones) were detected, 28 of which included in both extracts. Covering and secreting trichomes were observed: the biseriate 10-celled glandular trichomes prevailing on the inflorescences represented the main sites of synthesis of the polyphenols and flavonoids detected in the extracts, along with volatile terpenoids. Finally, significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of the aqueous extract were documented, even at very low concentrations; for the first time, the in vitro tests allowed us to formulate hypotheses about the mechanism of action. This work brings an element of novelty due to the faithful reproduction of the traditional aqueous preparation and the combination of phytochemical and micromorphological research approaches.     

Investigation into the Use of Encorafenib to Develop Potential PROTACs Directed against BRAFV600E Protein

BRAF is a serine/threonine kinase frequently mutated in human cancers. BRAF^V600E mutated protein is targeted through the use of kinase inhibitors which are approved for the treatment of melanoma; however, their long-term efficacy is hampered by resistance mechanisms. The PROTAC-induced degradation of BRAF^V600E has been proposed as an alternative strategy to avoid the onset of resistance. In this study, we designed a series of compounds where the BRAF kinase inhibitor encorafenib was conjugated to pomalidomide through different linkers. The synthesized compounds maintained their ability to inhibit the kinase activity of mutated BRAF with IC₅₀ values in the 40–88 nM range. Selected compounds inhibited BRAF^V600E signaling and cellular proliferation of A375 and Colo205 tumor cell lines. Compounds 10 and 11, the most active of the series, were not able to induce degradation of mutated BRAF. Docking and molecular dynamic studies, conducted in comparison with the efficient BRAF degrader P5B, suggest that a different orientation of the linker bearing the pomalidomide substructure, together with a decreased mobility of the solvent-exposed part of the conjugates, could explain this behavior.     

Performance evaluation of shared and separate inverted files

In this paper, two different structures for inverted files are analyzed and compared, when the relational join operation is taken into account. The structures are called shared and separate inverted files. The results are given of some experiments which show that the shared inverted organization is always advantageous when the inverted files are not sorted and is almost always advantageous when the files are sorted.     

On a Class of Elliptic-Parabolic Equations on Unbounded Intervals

We study a class of degenerate elliptic second order differential operators acting on some polynomial weighted function spaces on [0,+[. We show that these operators are the generators of C ₀-semigroups of positive operators which, in turn, are the transition semigroups associated with right-continuous normal Markov processes with state space [0,+]. Approximation and qualitative properties of both the semigroups and the Markov processes are investigated as well. Most of the results of the paper depend on a representation of the semigroups we give in terms of powers of particular positive operators of discrete type we introduced and studied in a previous paper.     

Failure of n‐uniqueness: a family of examples

In this paper, the connections between model theory and the theory of infinite permutation groups (see 11 ) are used to study the n‐existence and the n‐uniqueness for n‐amalgamation problems of stable theories. We show that, for any n ? 2, there exists a stable theory having (k + 1)‐existence and k‐uniqueness, for every k ? n, but has neither (n + 2)‐existence nor (n + 1)‐uniqueness. In particular, this generalizes the example, for n = 2, due to Hrushovski given in 3 . © 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim