Fatty Acid Ethyl Esters (FAEE): A New,Green and Renewable Solvent for the Extraction of Carotenoids from Tomato Waste Products

Currently there is a drive towards the minimisation and reclamation of valuable materials from the waste products of the food and beverage industry. This can be achieved through the extraction of residual nutraceuticals from such materials. Tomato pomace contains carotenoids and other chemicals which can be extracted directly into edible oils to improve the health-giving properties of such oils. We report here a novel green solvent, fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE), which is significantly more effective than sunflower oil and hexane for the extraction of lycopene and beta-carotene from tomato skin waste. FAEE are a non-toxic renewable resource that is environmentally friendly and to our knowledge has never been used as a vegetal extraction fluid. The efficiency of FAEE extraction was significantly improved relative to both sunflower oil and hexane under ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) conditions. In addition, FAEE have the additional and significant advantage that once enriched with the extracted nutraceuticals can be used directly as a food additive.     

Sprays metrizable by Finsler functions of constant flag curvature

In this paper we characterize sprays that are metrizable by Finsler functions of constant flag curvature. By solving a particular case of the Finsler metrizability problem, we provide the necessary and sufficient conditions that can be used to decide whether or not a given homogeneous system of second order ordinary differential equations represents the geodesic equations of a Finsler function of constant flag curvature. The conditions we provide are tensorial equations on the Jacobi endomorphism. We identify the class of homogeneous SODE where the Finsler metrizability is equivalent with the metrizability by a Finsler function of constant flag curvature.     

A double smoothing technique for solving unconstrained nondifferentiable convex optimization problems

The aim of this paper is to develop an efficient algorithm for solving a class of unconstrained nondifferentiable convex optimization problems in finite dimensional spaces. To this end we formulate first its Fenchel dual problem and regularize it in two steps into a differentiable strongly convex one with Lipschitz continuous gradient. The doubly regularized dual problem is then solved via a fast gradient method with the aim of accelerating the resulting convergence scheme. The theoretical results are finally applied to an l ₁ regularization problem arising in image processing.     

Visible Channeled Spectra of a Multilayer Wood Filter

The transmission factor of multilayer Wood filters containing quartz and rutile layers was simulated in order to avoid the experimental trials for obtaining optical filters with predicted transmission. The main refractive indices of uniaxial crystals—quartz and rutile—were interferometrically determined and Cauchy constants were obtained by simulation. The transmission factor of optical devices consisting of quartz and rutile layers was simulated using the Maple Program.     

Effect of Alkyl Side Chain on the Conformational Properties of Polysulfones with Quaternary Groups

Modification of intrinsic viscosity, temperature coefficient, and preferential adsorption coefficient of polysulfones with different alkyl side groups in N,N-dimethylformamide/methanol and N,N-dimethylformamide/water was investigated at different compositions and temperatures. The specific interactions, such as hydrogen bonding and polyelectrolyte effect induced by an enhanced dissociation of the ionizable groups, determine both the modification of the solvation power of the polymer coil and the difference in the composition of the mixed solvent inside and outside the coil.     

Pseudoharmonic oscillator and their associated Gazeau–Klauder coherent states

In the paper we have constructed and examined the properties of the Gazeau–Klauder coherent states (GK-CSs) for the pseudoharmonic oscillator (PHO), one of three possible kinds in order to define the coherent states for this oscillator potential. In the second part, we have examined some nonclassical properties of these states. Our attention has been concentrated on the mixed states (thermal states). The diagonal P-representation of the corresponding density operator and some thermal expectations for the quantum canonical ideal gas of pseudoharmonic oscillators have also been examined. Like the CSs for the harmonic oscillator (HO), the GK-CSs for the PHO can be useful in the quantum information theory (QIT).     

Discrepancies between metric dimension and partition dimension of a connected graph

Let and be graphs where the set of vertices is the set of points of the integer lattice and the set of edges consists of all pairs of vertices whose city block and chessboard distances, respectively, are 1.In this paper it is shown that the partition dimensions of these graphs are 3 and 4, respectively, while their metric dimensions are not finite. Also, for every n3 there exists an induced subgraph of of order 3n-1 with metric dimension n and partition dimension 3. These examples will answer a question raised by Chartrand, Salehi and Zhang. Furthermore, graphs of order n9 having partition dimension n-2 are characterized, thus completing the characterization of graphs of order n having partition dimension 2, n, or n-1 given by Chartrand, Salehi and Zhang. The list of these graphs includes 23 members.     

Poly(amidoamine) dendrimers on lipid bilayers II: Effects of bilayer phase and dendrimer termination

The molecular structures and enthalpy release of poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers binding to 1,2-dimyristoyl- sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) bilayers were explored through atomistic molecular dynamics. Three PAMAM dendrimer terminations were examined: protonated primary amine, neutral acetamide, and deprotonated carboxylic acid. Fluid and gel lipid phases were examined to extract the effects of lipid tail mobility on the binding of generation-3 dendrimers, which are directly relevant to the nanoparticle interactions involving lipid rafts, endocytosis, lipid removal, and/or membrane pores. Upon binding to gel phase lipids, dendrimers remained spherical, had a constant radius of gyration, and approximately one-quarter of the terminal groups were in close proximity to the lipids. In contrast, upon binding to fluid phase bilayers, dendrimers flattened out with a large increase in their asphericity and radii of gyration. Although over twice as many dendrimer-lipid contacts were formed on fluid versus gel phase lipids, the dendrimer-lipid interaction energy was only 20% stronger. The greatest enthalpy release upon binding was between the charged dendrimers and the lipid bilayer. However, the stronger binding to fluid versus gel phase lipids was driven by the hydrophobic interactions between the inner dendrimer and lipid tails.     

Pyrolysis of poly(phenylene vinylene)s with polycaprolactone side chains

The thermal degradation characteristics of a new macromonomer poly(-caprolactone) with central 4,4′-dicarbaldehyde terphenyl moieties and poly(phenylene vinylene)s with well defined (-caprolactone), (PPV/PCL) as lateral substituents were investigated via direct pyrolysis mass spectrometry. The unexpectedly high thermal stability of the macromonomer was attributed to intermolecular acetylation of benzaldehyde yielding a hemiacetal and causing a crosslinked structure during the pyrolysis. Increased thermal stability of the PCL chains was detected for all samples. The increase in stability of PCL chains was much more pronounced than was detected for poly(p-phenylene)-graft-poly(-caprolactone) copolymer (PPP/PCL); the upward temperature shift was about 100 °C for PPV/PCL and only 20 °C for PPP/CL. This pronounced effect may be due to higher thermal stability of PPV compared to PPP and the decrease in steric hindrance for PPV with PCL side chains.