Micelle-Bound Metalloporphyrins as Highly Selective Catalysts for the Epoxidation of Alkenes

The porphyrin–surfactant interaction determines the activity of the title catalysts. Amphiphilic porphyrin derivatives (e.g. 1 with M=MnCl, R=CH₂CH₂(OCH₂CH₂)₂OH) are easy to prepare and can be included in micellar phases.     

Programmable Temperature Vaporizer (PTV) Applied to the Triglyceride Analysis of Milk Fat

The PTV (Programmable Temperature Vaporizer) is a split/splitless injector which allows the sample to be introduced at a relatively low temperature, thus affording accurate and reproducible sampling. After injection the PTV is rapidly heated to transfer the vaporized components into the capillary column. This type of injector has proved to be an efficient tool for the evaluation of fatty acids, essential oils, and pesticides in food analysis. In this work the suitability of PTV for the analysis of milk fat purity by the Official EU method was evaluated. This method is based on the gas chromatographic determination of triglycerides only according to their total number of carbon atoms followed by the application of formulae deriving from multiple linear regressions. The analysis is currently carried out with a packed column or a short capillary column and an on-column injection system. Several samples of pure milk fat and mixtures of milk fat with foreign fat were analyzed with the same capillary column and by using both PTV and on-column injection systems. The results show that the gas chromatographic profile obtained by PTV is comparable with that obtained by the on-column injector, while repeatability and reproducibility data meet the requirements indicated in the Official Method. Therefore, this study demonstrates that it is possible to use the PTV instead of the on-column injector to determine the purity of milk fat with this method.     

Study on the Performance of Three Different Capillary Gas Chromatographic Analyses in the Evaluation of Milk Fat Purity

The adulteration of milk fat with foreign fat has been and still is a major concern in the dairy industry. Milk fat purity is currently evaluated by triglyceride analysis by using the Official EU method. The detection limit of the various vegetable and animal fats ranges between 4 and 6%. This research was carried out to verify whether it is possible to decrease the detection limits of beef tallow, which is the most widely used adulterating animal fat. For this purpose, determinations of diglycerides and 3,5-cholestadiene, together with the Official EU method, were applied both to several samples of pure milk fat and to mixtures of milk fat with different percentages of beef tallow. The best results were obtained combining the data deriving from the three determinations by multivariate statistical techniques; in particular, the statistical model obtained by the UNEQ technique seems to be able to decrease the detection limit of beef tallow from 5.2 to 2%. The diglyceride and 3,5-cholestadiene evaluation, combined with the Official EU method for triglycerides, can be usefully applied both to detect small additions of beef tallow and to demonstrate the adulteration of milk fat samples showing results close to the detection limit of the official method.     

Insights into the Ligand Binding to Bromodomain-Containing Protein 9 (BRD9): A Guide to the Selection of Potential Binders by Computational Methods

The estimation of the binding of a set of molecules against BRD9 protein was carried out through an in silico molecular dynamics-driven exhaustive analysis to guide the identification of potential novel ligands. Starting from eight crystal structures of this protein co-complexed with known binders and one apo form, we conducted an exhaustive molecular docking/molecular dynamics (MD) investigation. To balance accuracy and an affordable calculation time, the systems were simulated for 100 ns in explicit solvent. Moreover, one complex was simulated for 1 µs to assess the influence of simulation time on the results. A set of MD-derived parameters was computed and compared with molecular docking-derived and experimental data. MM-GBSA and the per-residue interaction energy emerged as the main indicators for the good interaction between the specific binder and the protein counterpart. To assess the performance of the proposed analysis workflow, we tested six molecules featuring different binding affinities for BRD9, obtaining promising outcomes. Further insights were reported to highlight the influence of the starting structure on the molecular dynamics simulations evolution. The data confirmed that a ranking of BRD9 binders using key parameters arising from molecular dynamics is advisable to discard poor ligands before moving on with the synthesis and the biological tests.     

A regioselective approach toward the synthesis of pharmacologically important quinone-containing heterocyclic systems

An inexpensive and regioselective approach to dihydrothieno[3,2-g]quinoline-4,9-dione is reported. A combination of a mild version of Skraup reaction with a sequential substitution/Michael addition allowed the selective preparation in acceptable yield of a pharmacologically important quinone derivative, previously obtained only in trace and together with the other regioisomer.     

Calculations of overtone NIR and NIR-VCD spectra in the local mode approximation: Camphor and Camphorquinone

We present a method to calculate near-infrared (NIR) and NIR-vibrational circular dichroism (NIR-VCD) spectra up to the second CH-stretching overtone region in the local mode approximation. Atomic polar tensors and atomic axial tensors are first evaluated by DFT methodology for all CH stretching coordinates with systematic positive and negative displacements off-equilibrium and therefrom anharmonic dipole moment functions are constructed by polynomial interpolations. No adjustable parameters are employed up to this point. Rotational and dipole strengths are finally calculated by evaluating transition moments of Morse-type wave-functions. The method is applied to the case of Camphor and Camphorquinone, for which relevant differences in the vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) data are observed, which are predicted by our approach. Further steps are still to be made for a more complete treatment: the ab initio evaluation of mechanical anharmonicity and the introduction of mechanical and electrical coupling between local modes.     

Poly(ε-caprolactone) modified by functional groups: Preparation and chemical–physical investigation

Functionalization of polymers is a particular relevant approach in the field of biodegradable polymers, where modifications are often required to allow these materials to replace more conventional, not biodegradable polymers in a wider range of applications. This article will report on functionalization of poly(ε-caprolactone) with unsaturated monomers bearing either anhydride groups (PCL-g-(MA-GMA)) or tertiary amines (PCL-g-DMAEA), obtained through radical grafting in a Brabender mixer. Crystallization kinetics parameters have been determined with several techniques (rheology, optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry) and the results obtained are in good agreement. It was observed that the crystallization rate significantly increases in the case of the modified polymers.     

A kinematically coupled time-splitting scheme for fluid–structure interaction in blood flow

We present a new time-splitting scheme for the numerical simulation of fluid–structure interaction between blood flow and vascular walls. This scheme deals in a successful way with the problem of the added mass effect. The scheme is modular and it embodies the stability properties of implicit schemes at the low computational cost of loosely coupled ones.     

Positive solutions for some Schrödinger equations having partially periodic potentials

This paper is concerned with the problem of finding positive solutions of the equation −Δu+(a_∞+a(x))u=|u|^q−2u, where q is subcritical, Ω is either RN or an unbounded domain which is periodic in the first p coordinates and whose complement is contained in a cylinder , a_∞>0, a∈C(RN,R) is periodic in the first p coordinates, infx∈RN(a_∞+a(x))>0 and a(x^′,x^″)→0 as |x^″|→∞ uniformly in x^′. The cases a?0 and a?0 are considered and it is shown that, under appropriate assumptions on a, the problem has one solution in the first case and p+1 solutions in the second case when p?N−2.