The discovery of isotactic polypropylene and its impact on pure and applied science

This article recalls some aspects of the fascinating history of the discovery by Giulio Natta and his research group of the stereoselective polymerization of propylene and the understanding of the relationships between structure and properties of semicrystalline polymers. The impact of the discovery of isotactic polypropylene and stereoregular polymers on pure and applied science is briefly outlined. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 391–395, 2004     

Growth under Visible Light Increases Conidia and Mucilage Production and Tolerance to UV‐B Radiation in the Plant Pathogenic Fungus Colletotrichum acutatum

Light conditions can influence fungal development. Some spectral wavebands can induce conidial production, whereas others can kill the conidia, reducing the population size and limiting dispersal. The plant pathogenic fungus Colletotrichum acutatum causes anthracnose in several crops. During the asexual stage on the host plant, Colletototrichum produces acervuli with abundant mucilage‐embedded conidia. These conidia are responsible for fungal dispersal and host infection. This study examined the effect of visible light during C. acutatum growth on the production of conidia and mucilage and also on the UV tolerance of these conidia. Conidial tolerance to an environmentally realistic UV irradiance was determined both in conidia surrounded by mucilage on sporulating colonies and in conidial suspension. Exposures to visible light during fungal growth increased production of conidia and mucilage as well as conidial tolerance to UV. Colonies exposed to light produced 1.7 times more conidia than colonies grown in continuous darkness. The UV tolerances of conidia produced under light were at least two times higher than conidia produced in the dark. Conidia embedded in the mucilage on sporulating colonies were more tolerant of UV than conidia in suspension that were washed free of mucilage. Conidial tolerance to UV radiation varied among five selected isolates.     

Propagation of periodic long waves

Summary A method is developed for the computation of the steady solution of the shallow water equations with quasi periodic boundary conditions. Because of dissipation the influence of the initial conditions becomes negligible with increasing time and the solution finally depends on the boundary conditions. The unknowns variables (velocity and surface elevation) and the boundary conditions are developed in power series of a small perturbation parameter. The problem is then transformed in a sequence of linear problems which have the same associated homogeneous problem. By separating the time and space variables in the homogeneous problem we obtain an homogeneous elliptic problem of which we compute the first eigenvalues and eigensolutions. These are related to the characteristic oscillations of the water in the basin. The solution of each linear problem is then obtained as an eigensolution expansion with time dependent coefficients. These coefficients are solutions of ordinary differential equations which can be solved directly without proceeding step by step in time. In this way we are reduced to a stationary problem i.e. the determination of the eigenvalues and eigensolutions of the elliptic problem and to the computation of several integrals needed for the determination of the time dependent coefficients. A first test of the method has been carried out for a one-dimensional problem i.e. the tidal wave in a canal of finite length and constant depth. In this case the various steps of the procedure outlined above can be performed analitically. The results have been compared with those obtained by a step by step numerical integration of the shallow water equations. The agreement between these sets of results is good for the range of values of the parameters currently used in the applications.

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Sommario Viene presentato un metodo per il calcolo della soluzione a regime delle equazioni delle onde lunghe, dipendente dalle sole condizioni al contorno quasi-periodiche, dopo aver mostrato che l'influenza delle condizioni iniziali diventa col tempo trascurabile a causa del termine di resistenza. Il metodo si basa sullo sviluppo in serie di potenze di un piccolo parametro sia delle incognite (velocità ed elevazioni del pelo libero) sia delle condizioni al contorno al fine di trasformare il problema non lineare in una serie di problemi lineari aventi lo stesso problema omogeneo associato. Con la separazione delle variabili spazio, tempo quest'ultimo problema viene ricondotto ad un problema ellittico omogeneo di cui si calcolano i primi autovalori ed autosoluzioni. Da ultimo la soluzione di ciascun problema lineare è ottenuta come sviluppo in serie di autosoluzioni a coefficienti dipendenti dal tempo: questi si ricavano risolvendo analiticamente delle equazioni differenziali ordinarie. Si elimina cosi la necessità di procedere passo passo nel tempo analogamente ai classici metodi armonici di soluzione di sistemi lineari. Riassumendo, l'applicazione del metodo riconduce alla soluzione di un problema stazionario (determinazione di autovalori ed autosoluzione del problema ellittico) e quindi al calcolo dei vari integrali necessari per la determinazione dei coefficienti temporali. Il metodo è stato provato nel caso semplice della propagazione di onde di marea in un canale di lunghezza finita e sezione costante. Per questo esempio i vari passi di calcolo possono essere svolti analiticamente. I risultati sono stati confrontati con quelli ottenuti dalla integrazione numerica delle equazioni col metodo delle caratteristiche, ottenendo un buon accordo.

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Work sponsored by the CNR (National Research Council) in the framework of Project ?Conservazione del suolo? Subproject ?Dinamica dei Litorali? Publ. n° 46.     

The synthesis and application of polyamino polycarboxylic bifunctional chelating agents

Bifunctional chelating agents (BFCAs) are molecules which contain two different moieties: a strong metal chelating unit and a reactive functional group. The latter is directed to react with amines, thiols, alcohols or other reactive molecules to form stable covalent bonds while the chelating moiety is able to strongly coordinate a metal ion. In this way, it is possible to label a molecule of interest (e.g. an antibody or a peptide) with a metal or a radioactive metal ion. Of all the ligands reported so far, those based on a polyamino polycarboxylic structure are most efficient and are widely employed for the chelation of metal ions. The resulting metal complexes have found a broad range of applications in chemistry, biology and medicine. Diagnostic imaging (MRI, SPECT, PET), molecular imaging, tumour therapy and luminescent materials are only a few examples. The present critical review gives an overview of the syntheses and most important applications of polyamino polycarboxylic BFCAs (334 references).     

Thermodynamic study of (heptane + amine) mixtures. III: Excess and partial molar volumes in mixtures with secondary,tertiary, and cyclic amines at 298.15 K

Excess molar volumes V^E at 298.15 K were determined by means of a vibrating tube densimeter for binary mixtures of {heptane + open chain secondary (diethyl to dibutyl) and tertiary (triethyl to tripentyl) amines} as well as for cyclic imines (C₂, C₃, C₄, C₆, and C₇) and primary cycloalkylamines (C₅, C₆, C₇, and C₁₂). The V^E values were found positive for mixtures involving small size amines, with V^E decreasing as the size increases. Negative V^E’s were found for tributyl- and tripentylamine, heptamethylenimine, and cyclododecylamine. Mixtures of heptane with cycloheptylamine showed an s-shaped curve.Partial molar volumes $V^{°}$ of amines at infinite dilution in heptane were obtained from V^E and compared with $V^{°}$ of hydrocarbons and other classes of organic compounds taken from literature. An additivity scheme, based on the intrinsic volume approach, was applied to estimate group (CH₃, CH₂, CH, C, NH₂, NH, N, OH, O, CO, and COO) contributions to $V^{°}$. These contributions, the effect of cyclization on $V^{°}$, and the limiting slope of the apparent excess molar volumes were discussed in terms of solute–solvent and solute–solute interactions.     

Promising anticancer mono- and dinuclear ruthenium(III) dithiocarbamato complexes: systematic solution studies

During the last decade, our research group has prepared a number of metal dithiocarbamato derivatives of Pt, Pd and Au that were expected to resemble the main features of cisplatin together with higher activity, improved selectivity and bioavailability, and lower side-effects. Furthermore, we have already published the synthesis, characterization and in vitro cytotoxicity studies of novel ruthenium(III) dithiocarbamato complexes such as [RuL(3)] monomers (11) and α-[Ru(2)L(5)]Cl dimers (12) with five different dithiocarbamate ligands. As both the monomer and the dinuclear complexes have shown significant antitumor activity in different human tumor cell lines, we decided to widen the characterization studies and to analyse thoroughly their behavior in physiological-like medium by UV-visible and CD spectroscopy. In the present paper we report on the crystal structure of [Ru(DMDT)(3)], [Ru(PDT)(3)] and [Ru(ESDT)(3)] complexes and we determine the spin state of the paramagnetic Ru(III) by means of Evans' method. Then, we discuss in detail the UV-visible spectral data of the complexes in different medium. All the studied complexes are stable in dimethyl sulfoxide, and show low solubility in phosphate buffered saline solution, particularly the monomer species, even at low concentration, while increased solubility for both types of complexes have been found in the presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA). Moreover, no changes on the coordination sphere of the metal, as well as no direct interaction between the BSA protein and the complex have been identified by UV-visible spectroscopy. However, some conformational changes on the BSA structure, induced by the ruthenium(III) complexes have been confirmed by CD spectroscopy, indicating a probable secondary electrostatic interaction between the metal complex and the peptide. In addition, no significant interaction has been demonstrated with the components of Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium, used for the in vitro assays.     

On the antibacterial activity of roots of Capparis spinosa L

A decoction of Capparis spinosa L. roots, widely used in the traditional folk medicine of southern Italy, was prepared and submitted to antibacterial activity tests, which showed an interesting bacteriostatic activity on the growth of Deinococcus radiophilus. Heterocyclic compounds were also recovered from the chloroformic extract of the roots.