Spectrofluorimetric Determination of Coumarin in Commercial Tablets

A simple, rapid and effective analytical method based on fluorescence spectroscopy for the determination of coumarin in pharmaceutical formulations without pre-treatment or pre-concentration step was development. Coumarin had maximum excitation and emission at 310 nm and 390 nm, respectively. Optimum conditions for the detection of coumarin were investigated. Under optimized conditions, we observed a linear behavior for the sign of coumarin in the concentration range of 2.5 × 10⁻⁶ to 1.0 × 10⁻⁴ mol L⁻¹, with linearity of 0.998 and sensitivity of 2.9 × 10¹⁰ u.a/mol L⁻¹. The proposed method was validated in terms of accuracy, precision and specificity of coumarin using the standard addition and external calibration. It was noted that the results support (P < 0.05), indicating that the matrices were not an interference in the determination of coumarin by fluorescence spectroscopy. The results were favorable compared with those obtained by reference chromatographic methods.     

Transversality conditions for infinite horizon variational problems on time scales

We consider problems of the calculus of variations on unbounded time scales. We prove the validity of the Euler–Lagrange equation on time scales for infinite horizon problems, and a new transversality condition.     

The influence of adsorption phenomena on the impedance spectroscopy of an electrolytic cell

In this work we investigate the influence of the adsorption of ions on the impedance spectroscopy of an electrolytic cell. We consider that the positive and negative ions present in a dielectric liquid are adsorbed in the electrode surfaces with different adsorption energies. This difference in adsorption energies causes an additional plateaux in the limit of the low-frequency range of the real part of the impedance Z . In the same frequency range, a second minimum in the imaginary part of Z is predicted. The theory is illustrated with measurements of the impedance of an electrolytic solution in the frequency range from 10^-2Hz to 1KHz. A comparison between the present model and others from the literature to describe the experimental results is also made.     

Evaluation of the antibacterial activity of poly-(<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">d</Emphasis>,<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles containing violacein

Since violacein—an antibiotic, antiviral, and antiparasitic compound—exhibits poor solubility in water, polymeric poly-(d,l-lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles containing this compound improved its solubility and biological activity. The nanoparticles were prepared by the nanoprecipitation method and characterized in terms of average diameter, zeta potential, drug loading, polymer recovery, in vitro release kinetic, and in vitro antibacterial activity. Nanoparticles with diameters between 116 and 139 nm and negative-charged outer surfaces were obtained. Drug-loading efficiency and polymer recovery were 87 and 93%, respectively. In vitro release kinetics assays showed that violacein loaded in these nanoparticles has sustained release behavior until 5 days. Both free and nanoparticles-loaded violacein exhibited in vitro antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 and ATCC 25923 strains and exhibiting around two to five times lower minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) than free violacein, respectively. The encapsulated violacein was efficient against methicilin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains. No significant activity against Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica was found.     

Electronics with and on paper

Today there is a strong interest in the scientific and industrial community concerning the use of biopolymers for electronic applications, driven mainly by low‐cost and disposable applications. Adding to this interest, we must recognise the importance of the dream of wireless auto‐sustained and low‐energy‐consumption electronics. This dream can be fulfilled by cellulose paper, the lightest and the cheapest known substrate material, as well as the Earth's major biopolymer and of tremendous global economic importance. Most of the paper used up to now is optimised in terms of the required mechanical and physical properties to be used as the support of inks of different origins. In the future, specific electronic heterogeneous paper sheets should be fabricated aiming to get paper fibers with required bulk and surface functionalities, proper water/vapour barrier, size and diameter/thickness of the fibrils and full paper thickness. This will be the function of components/devices to be incorporated/integrated such as thin‐film transistors, complementary metal oxide semiconductor devices, passive electronic components (resistances, inductors and capacitors), memory transistors, electrochromics and thin‐film paper batteries. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Spatial distribution of AT- and GC-rich DNA within interphase cell nuclei of Triatoma infestans Klug

Heterochromatin bodies in single- and multichromocentered interphase cell nuclei of Triatoma infestans, a vector of Chagas disease, have been suggested to contain AT-rich DNA, based on their positive response to Q-banding and Hoechst 33248 treatment. No information exists on whether GC-rich DNA is also present in these nuclei and whether it plays a role on chromatin condensation. Considering that methodologies more precise than those previously used to determine DNA base composition in situ are currently available, and that the spatial distribution of chromatin areas differing in composition in interphase cell nuclei of different species is a matter of interest, the localization of AT- and GC-rich DNA in T. infestans nuclei is revisited here. The methodologies used included DAPI/AMD and CMA(3)/Distamycin differential staining, Feulgen-DNA image analysis following Msp I and Hpa II enzymatic digestion, 5-methylcytidine immunodetection, AgNOR response, confocal microscopy, and the 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-AZA) demethylation assay. The results identified the presence of AT-rich/GC-poor DNA in chromocenters and evenly distributed AT and GC sequences in euchromatin. A GC-rich DNA zone encircling the chromocenters was also found but it could not be associated with NOR regions. To corroborate the DNA AT-richness in T. infestans nuclei, bioinformatic analyses were also performed. Methylated cytosine was evident at some points of the chromocenters' edge in single- and multichromocentered nuclei and at the euchromatin of multichromocentered nuclei and could be transiently affected by the 5-AZA treatment. The present results suggest that in the particular case of chromocenters of the hemipteran T. infestans, cytosine methylation is not a relevant factor involved in chromatin condensation.     

Adaptive and multi-mining versions of the DM-GRASP hybrid metaheuristic

Metaheuristics represent an important class of techniques to solve, approximately, hard combinatorial optimization problems for which the use of exact methods is impractical. Some researches have been combining machine learning techniques with metaheuristics to adaptively guide and improve the search for near optimal solutions. An example of such development is the DM-GRASP, a hybrid version of the Greedy Randomized Adaptative Search Procedures (GRASP) metaheuristic which incorporates a data mining process. In this hybrid proposal, after executing half of the total number of iterations, the data mining process extracts patterns from an elite set of sub-optimal solutions for the optimization problem. These patterns present characteristics of near optimal solutions and can be used to guide the following half GRASP iterations in the search through the solution space. In this work, we explore new versions of the DM-GRASP metaheuristic to experiment, not a single activation, but multiple and adaptive executions of the data mining process during the metaheuristic execution. We also applied the data mining technique into a reactive GRASP to show that a more sophisticated and not memoryless GRASP approach can also benefit from the use of this technique. In order to evaluate these new proposals, we adopted the server replication for reliable multicast problem since the best known results for this problem were obtained by GRASP and DM-GRASP implementations. The computational experiments, comparing traditional GRASP, DM-GRASP, and the new proposals, showed that multiple and adaptive executions of the data mining process can improve the results obtained by the DM-GRASP hybrid metaheuristic—the new proposals were able to find better results in less computational time for the reliable multicast problem.     

Effect of melt viscosity on the crystallization kinetics of pre-sheared metallocene polyethylene melts

This work aims to verify the impossibility mentioned in the literature of saturating the crystallization kinetics of pre-sheared metallocene polyethylene melts. Similarly to results reported for other materials, and contrary to other published works, an acceleration of crystallization kinetics with the increase of shear strain and its saturation at large strain values was found. Similar strain values, with the same temperature variation, were evaluated with independent experiments using different devices, which allowed us to identify the steady state as the melt state responsible for the saturation of crystallization kinetics. Since this is a partially disentangled melt state, with viscosity lower than that of fully entangled (relaxed) melts, we assign the acceleration of crystallization kinetics by application of shear, and its saturation, mainly to the facilitated diffusion of chain segments to the lamellae growth front. This conclusion is supported additionally with the experimental results of other authors.     

Temperature-insensitive strain sensor based on four-wave mixing using Raman fiber Bragg grating laser sensor with cooperative Rayleigh scattering

A temperature-insensitive strain sensor based on Four-Wave Mixing (FWM) using two Raman fiber Bragg grating (FBG) lasers with cooperative Rayleigh scattering is proposed. Two FBG were used to form two linear cavities laser sensors based on Raman amplification combined with cooperative Rayleigh scattering. Due to the very low dispersion coefficient of the fiber, it is possible to obtain the FWM using the two lasers. This configuration allows the operation as a temperature-insensitive strain sensor where both sensors have the same sensitivity to temperature but only one of the FBG laser is sensitive to strain. The difference between the wavelengths of the signal sensor and the converted signal presents a strain coefficient sensitivity of 2?pm/??? with insensitivity to temperature. The FWM efficiency is also dependent on the applied strain, but it is temperature independent, presenting a maximum sensibility of 0.01?dB/???.