Predictive Models of Phytosterol Degradation in Rapeseeds Stored in Bulk Based on Artificial Neural Networks and Response Surface Regression

The need to maintain the highest possible levels of bioactive components contained in raw materials requires the elaboration of tools supporting their processing operations, starting from the first stages of the food production chain. In this study, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and response surface regression (RSR) were used to develop models of phytosterol degradation in bulks of rapeseed stored under various temperatures and water activity conditions (T = 12–30 °C and a_w = 0.75–0.90). Among ANNs, networks based on a multilayer perceptron (MLP) and a radial basis function (RBF) were tested. The model input constituted a_w, temperature and storage time, whilst the model output was the phytosterol level in seeds. The ANN-based modeling turned out to be more effective in estimating phytosterol levels than the RSR, while MLP-ANNs proved to be more satisfactory than RBF-ANNs. The approximation quality of the ANNs models depended on the number of neurons and the type of activation functions in the hidden layer. The best model was provided by the MLP-ANN containing nine neurons in the hidden layer equipped with the logistic activation function. The model performance evaluation showed its high prediction accuracy and generalization capability (R² = 0.978; RMSE = 0.140). Its accuracy was also confirmed by the elliptical joint confidence region (EJCR) test. The results show the high usefulness of ANNs in predictive modeling of phytosterol degradation in rapeseeds. The elaborated MLP-ANN model may be used as a support tool in modern postharvest management systems.     

Suspension Fertilizers Based on Waste Phosphates from the Production of Polyols

Phosphorus raw materials are non-renewable, and their resources are shrinking faster and faster as a result of increased fertilizer production. This is due to the increasing population and the need to produce more food. Phosphorus, on the other hand, is one of the main nutrients of plants, without which it is impossible to conduct intensive agricultural production. There are no economically significant phosphate resources in Europe, so they must be imported. That is why it is so important to reduce losses and recover this element from waste streams, which was reflected in the new EU Regulation 2019/1009. A prospective option is to use waste phosphates from the production of polyether polyols. Previous studies show that they contain about 20% phosphorus. Due to their high water content, the most advantageous form of their application is the production of fertilizers in the form of a suspension. The aim of the study is to assess the possibility of using waste phosphates from the production of polyols as raw materials for the production of suspension fertilizers.     

Colloids for Catalysts: A Concept for the Preparation of Superior Catalysts of Industrial Relevance

Compared to conventional preparation methods for supported heterogeneous catalysts, the use of colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) allows for a precise control over size, size distribution, and distribution/location of the NPs on the support. However, common colloidal syntheses have restrictions that limit their applicability for industrial catalyst preparation. We present a simple, surfactant‐free, and scalable preparation method for colloidal NPs to overcome these restrictions. We demonstrate how precious‐metal NPs are prepared in alkaline methanol, how the particle size can be tuned, and how supported catalysts are obtained. The potential of these colloids in the preparation of improved catalysts is demonstrated by two examples from heterogeneous catalysis and electrocatalysis.     

Polytopes vibrations within Coxeter group symmetries

We are considering polytopes with exact reflection symmetry group G in the real 3-dimensional Euclidean spaceR³. By changingone simple element of the polytope (position of one vertex or length of an edge), one canretain the exact symmetry of the polytope by simultaneously changing other correspondingelements of the polytope. A simple method of using the symmetry of polytopes in order todetermine several resonant frequencies is presented. Knowledge of these frequencies, or atleast their ratios can be used for control of some principal changes of the polytopes.     

Stochastic incoherence in the response of rebound bursters

At an optimal value of the noise intensity, the maximum variability in rebound burst durations is observed and referred to as a response stochastic incoherence. A general mechanism underlying this phenomenon is given, being different from those reported so far in excitable systems. It is shown to be determined by (i) the monotonic reduction of the hysteresis responsible for bursting caused by noise and consequent transformation of responses from rebound bursts to single spikes, and (ii) a symmetry breaking in distributions of burst durations caused by the existence of the minimum response length. The phenomenon is studied numerically in a Morris-Lecar model for neurons and its mechanism is explained with the use of canonical models describing hard excitation states.     

Spectroscopy and crystal structure of anabasine salts

The anabasinium hydrochloride, hydriodide and perchlorate were characterized by IR and NMR spectroscopy as well as by X-ray diffraction. Anabasinium hydrochloride crystallizes with three independent ionic pairs in the asymmetric part of the orthorhombic unit cell, while anabasinium hydriodide and perchlorate crystals, being isostructural, are hexagonal and contain only one symmetry independent ionic pair. Despite these differences in the crystal data, both types of crystals display very similar helical solid-state patterns. The reported results combined with the CSD searches indicate an inherent tendency of anabasinium salts to crystallize with multiple asymmetric units, and to form folded arrangements in crystals. In the solid state the anabasinium cations predominantly adopt either synperiplanar or antiperiplanar conformations with respect to the mutual orientation of C^*–H and pyridine C–C(N) bonds, with deformations towards, respectively, (+) synclinal or (+) anticlinal rotamers.     

Soluble Flavanthrone Derivatives: Synthesis,Characterization, and Application to Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Simple modification of benzo[h]benz[5,6]acridino[2,1,9,8‐klmna]acridine‐8,16‐dione, an old and almost‐forgotten vat dye, by reduction of its carbonyl groups and subsequent O‐alkylation, yields solution‐processable, electroactive, conjugated compounds of the periazaacene type, suitable for the use in organic electronics. Their electrochemically determined ionization potential and electron affinity of about 5.2 and ?3.2 eV, respectively, are essentially independent of the length of the alkoxyl substituent and in good agreement with DFT calculations. The crystal structure of 8,16‐dioctyloxybenzo[h]benz[5,6]acridino[2,1,9,8‐klmna]acridine ( FC‐8 ), the most promising compound, was solved. It crystallizes in space group P and forms π‐stacked columns held together in the 3D structure by dispersion forces, mainly between interdigitated alkyl chains. Molecules of FC‐8 have a strong tendency to self‐organize in monolayers deposited on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite surface, as observed by STM. 8,16‐Dialkoxybenzo[h]benz[5,6]acridino[2,1,9,8‐klmna]acridines are highly luminescent, and all have photoluminescence quantum yields of about 80 %. They show efficient electroluminescence, and can be used as guest molecules with a 4,4′‐bis(N‐carbazolyl)‐1,1′‐biphenyl host in guest/host‐type organic light‐emitting diodes. The best fabricated diodes showed a luminance of about 1900 cd m^?12, a luminance efficiency of about 3 cd A^?1, and external quantum efficiencies exceeding 0.9 %.     

Aryl h-phosphonates. 14. Synthesis of new nucleotide analogues with phosphonate-phosphate internucleosidic linkage

[reaction: see text] Aryl nucleoside H-phosphonates 3 and aryl nucleoside P-acylphosphonates 4, generated in situ from the appropriate H-phosphonate 1 and acylphosphonate monoesters 2, respectively, reacted rapidly in the presence of tertiary amines to produce in high yields the extended, pyrophosphate analogues, diaryl dinucleoside phosphonate-phosphate derivatives 6. These, depending on a substituent on the alpha-carbon of the phosphonate moiety, either underwent transformation into the dinucleoside phosphonate-phosphate 7 or afforded nucleoside H-phosphonates 8 and aryl nucleoside phosphate 9.     

Application of ICP-MS and various computational methods for drinking water quality assessment from the Silesian District (Southern Poland)

In this study, more than 200 samples of drinking water from taps in the Silesian District (southern Poland) were analyzed. Concentrations of As, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Mo, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sb, Se, Te, Tl and V were measured using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry technique (ICP-MS). The levels of the tested elements generally met European Union regulations. All analytical results were processed using computational methods, including the Pearson and Gini coefficients with the Lorenz curves, one-way ANOVA, the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance, the Mann-Whitney U test, the variance correlation test and the Spearman’s test. In addition, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax and Cluster Analysis with Ward’s Method were applied. It was shown, that some parameters (e.g. hardness and alkalinity) were highly correlated. The score plot described the degree of mineralization of water samples, so the origin of water could be easily determined. In turn, based on the created dendrogram, the division of samples into several groups (with soft, medium and highly mineralized water) could be deduced.