Determination of Saffron Volatiles by HS-SBSE-GC in Flavored Cured Ham

At present, the development of new agri-food products, including flavored meat products presented in ready-to-eat vacuum packs, is encouraged. The addition of ingredients used as flavoring agents creates the need to be able to determine the volatile compounds responsible for their characteristic aroma. The aim of this study is to propose, develop, and validate a new method that uses headspace-stir bar sorptive extraction-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (HS-SBSE-GC/MS) to determine the saffron aroma in cured ham flavored with this spice. Results showed that safranal was the main volatile compound that could be identified and quantified in cured ham flavored with saffron. This analytical method was adequate in terms of linearity, selectivity, sensitivity, and accuracy. To our knowledge, this is the first time that an HS-SBSE-GC/MS method for determining the saffron aroma of flavored cured ham has been developed and validated, and it is of interest to agri-food industries.     

Synthesis and Conformational Analysis of Hybrid α/β‐Dipeptides Incorporating S‐Glycosyl‐β2,2‐Amino Acids

We synthesized and carried out the conformational analysis of several hybrid dipeptides consisting of an α‐amino acid attached to a quaternary glyco‐β‐amino acid. In particular, we combined a S‐glycosylated β^2,2‐amino acid and two different types of α‐amino acid, namely, aliphatic (alanine) and aromatic (phenylalanine and tryptophan) in the sequence of hybrid α/β‐dipeptides. The key step in the synthesis involved the ring‐opening reaction of a chiral cyclic sulfamidate, inserted in the peptidic sequence, with a sulfur‐containing nucleophile by using 1‐thio‐β‐D ‐glucopyranose derivatives. This reaction of glycosylation occurred with inversion of configuration at the quaternary center. The conformational behavior in aqueous solution of the peptide backbone and the glycosidic linkage for all synthesized hybrid glycopeptides was analyzed by using a protocol that combined NMR experiments and molecular dynamics with time‐averaged restraints (MD‐tar). Interestingly, the presence of the sulfur heteroatom at the quaternary center of the β‐amino acid induced θ torsional angles close to 180° (anti). Notably, this value changed to 60° (gauche) when the peptidic sequence displayed aromatic α‐amino acids due to the presence of CH–π interactions between the phenyl or indole ring and the methyl groups of the β‐amino acid unit.     

A New Protonated form of Porphyrins in Solutions

The H-associate as a new protonated form of metalloporphyrins in strong acid media has been obtained and a qualitative reaction for its determination has been found; the properties and structure of a protonated form have been analyzed by spectral methods and quantum-chemical calculations.     

Experimental study of controlling chaos in a DC–DC boost converter

This paper presents a delayed feedback control scheme for eliminating chaotic behaviour in a peak current-mode controlled DC–DC boost converter operating in the continuous current conduction mode. Experimental results and FORTRAN simulations show the effectiveness and robustness of the scheme.     

Aaptanone, a novel zwitterionic metabolite of the aaptamine class with an oxygenated 1,6-naphthyridine core from the Vietnamese marine sponge Aaptos aaptos

A new zwitterionic compound, aaptanone, having a rare oxygenated 1,6-naphthyridine core, has been isolated from the Vietnamese marine sponge Aaptos aaptos, along with the known metabolites, aaptamine, isoaaptamine, and their hydrochloride salts. The structure of aaptanone was determined as 8-methoxy-1-methyl-5,6-dioxo-5,6-dihydro-4H-benzo[de]-1,6-naphthyridine-1-ium-9-olate from spectroscopic data, X-ray analysis, and by spectroscopic analysis of an N-methyl derivative.     

Local compactness in right bounded asymmetric normed spaces

We characterize the finite dimensional asymmetric normed spaces which are right bounded and the relation of this property with the natural compactness properties of the unit ball, such as compactness and strong compactness. In contrast with some results found in the existing literature, we show that not all right bounded asymmetric norms have compact closed balls. We also prove that there are finite dimensional asymmetric normed spaces that satisfy that the closed unit ball is compact, but not strongly compact, closing in this way an open question on the topology of finite dimensional asymmetric normed spaces. In the positive direction, we will prove that a finite dimensional asymmetric normed space is strongly locally compact if and only if it is right bounded.     

On a vibration problem of antiplane strain (shear) of orthotropic non-homogeneous prismatic shell-like bodies

Vibration problem of an antiplane strain (shear) of orthotropic non-homogeneous prismatic shell-like bodies is considered when the shear moduli depending on the body projection (i.e. on a domain lying in the plane of interest) variables may vanish on a part of the boundary of the projection.