A Nyström method for a class of Fredholm integral equations of the third kind on unbounded domains

The author proposes a numerical procedure in order to approximate the solution of a class of Fredholm integral equations of the third kind on unbounded domains. The given equation is transformed in a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind. Hence, according to the integration interval, the equation is regularized by means of a suitable one-to-one map or is transformed in a system of two Fredholm integral equations that are subsequently regularized. In both cases a Nyström method is applied, the convergence and the stability of which are proved in spaces of weighted continuous functions. Error estimates and numerical tests are also included.     

Quantitative analysis of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in adipose tissue, human serum and foodstuff samples by gas chromatography with ion trap tandem mass spectrometry and isotope dilution

A method based on gas chromatography (GC) separation followed by ion trap tandem mass spectrometry detection in EI mode (ITD-MS/MS), using isotope dilution, was developed for the determination of ten native polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and four (13)C(12)-labeled congeners in biological (fat tissue and human serum) and food samples. The highest-mass fragment ions were used as precursor ions for those congeners with molecular ions with m/z values higher than the maximum of the instrument. In these cases (hepta-BDEs and (13)C(12)-hexa-BDEs) no fragmentation was achieved under the experimental conditions employed. Repeatability (lower than 9%) and reproducibility (lower than 13%), expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD, n = 3 and 4, respectively), were satisfactory. Similarly, the coefficient of variation (n = 4) of the isotopic ratio between the two most abundant product ions was lower than 10 and 6% for native and labeled congeners, respectively. To evaluate the feasibility of the method, the optimized isotope dilution GC/ITD-MS/MS method was used for the quantitation of selected PBDE congeners in different samples including adipose tissue, human serum and foodstuff samples, from three inter-laboratory comparative exercises, covering a wide range of concentrations. A solid-phase extraction procedure, previously developed for PCB determination in small-size bird serum samples, was successfully applied to quantification of PBDEs in 1 mL samples of human serum.     

Role of the counterion in the effects of added ethylene glycol to aqueous alkyltrimethylammonium micellar solutions

The influence of the addition of various amounts of ethylene glycol, EG, up to a weight percent of 50%, on the micellization process in N-hexadecyl, N-tetradecyl, and N-dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride micellar solutions was investigated. Conductivity, fluorescence, and spectroscopic measurements give information about changes in the cmc, in the micellar ionization degree, in the aggregation number and in the polarity of the interfacial region upon changing the percentage by weight of the organic solvent. These changes were compared to those found when ethylene glycol was added to the analogous alkyltrimethylammonium bromide aqueous micellar solutions, results showing that the effects caused by the presence of the organic solvent were practically independent of the counterion nature. This conclusion was in agreement with the micellar kinetic effects observed on the spontaneous hydrolysis of phenyl chloroformate in both water-ethylene glycol alkyltrimethylammonium bromide and chloride micellar solutions.     

Radical reduction of aromatic azides to amines with triethylsilane

Aromatic azides are inert toward triethylsilane under thermal conditions in the presence of a radical initiator, but in the presence of additional catalytic amounts of tert-dodecanethiol, they afford anilinosilanes and thence the corresponding anilines in virtually quantitative yields.     

Massively parallel mesh adaptation and linear system solution for multiphase flows

ABSTRACT

In this paper, a work performed to allow massively parallel finite element flow computations is presented. It includes the development and optimisation of two particular features of a finite element multiphase computational fluid dynamics software, which are mesh generation and linear system solution, using anisotropic adaptation and multigrid preconditioning. Parallel performances on supercomputers are shown, where the largest generated mesh (on 65 536 Intel Xeon or 261 144 Power PC cores) had 33.4 billions of nodes, leading to a 100 billion of unknowns linear system solution. Final applications concern, between others, image-based flow simulations.     

Cytotoxic Podophyllotoxin Type-Lignans from the Steam Bark of <em>Bursera fagaroides </em>var. <em>fagaroides</em>

The hydroalcoholic extract of the steam bark of B. fagaroides var. fagaroides displayed potent cytotoxic activity against four cancer cell lines, namely KB (ED₅₀ = 9.6 × 10^-2 μg/mL), PC-3 (ED₅₀ = 2.5 × 10^-1 μg/mL), MCF-7 (ED₅₀ = 6.6 μg/mL), and HF-6 (ED₅₀ = 7.1 × 10^-3 μg/mL). This extract also showed anti-tumour activity when assayed on mice inoculated with L5178Y lymphoma cells. Bioactivity-directed isolation of this extract, afforded seven podophyllotoxin-type lignans identified as podophyllotoxin (1), β-peltatin-A-methylether (2), 5'-desmethoxy-β-peltatin-A-methylether (3), desmethoxy-yatein (4), desoxypodophyllotoxin (5), burseranin (6), and acetyl podophyllotoxin (7) by 1D and 2DNMR and FAB-MS analyses, and comparison with reported values. All the isolated compounds showed potent cytotoxic activity in the cell lines tested, especially compound 3, which exhibited greater activity than camptothecin and podophyllotoxin against PC-3 (ED₅₀ = 1.0 × 10^-5 μg/mL), and KB (ED₅₀ = 1.0 × 10^-5 μg/mL). This is the first report of the isolation of podophyllotoxin and its acetate in a Bursera species.     

Development of a chemiluminescence-based quantitative lateral flow immunoassay for on-field detection of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene

Simple, rapid and highly sensitive assays, possibly allowing on-site analysis, are required in the security and forensic fields or to obtain early signs of environmental pollution. Several bioanalytical methods and biosensors based on portable devices have been developed for this purpose. Among them, Lateral Flow ImmunoAssays (LFIAs) offer the advantages of rapidity and ease of use and, thanks to the high specificity of antigen–antibody binding, allow greatly simplifying and reducing sample pre-analytical treatments. However, LFIAs usually employ colloidal gold or latex beads as labels and they rely on the formation of colored bands visible by the naked eye. With this assay format, only qualitative or semi-quantitative information can be obtained and low sensitivity is achieved. Recently, the use of enzyme-catalyzed chemiluminescence detection in LFIA has been proposed to overcome these problems. In this work, we describe the development of a quantitative CL-LFIA assay for the detection of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) in real samples. Thanks to the use of a portable imaging device for CL signal measurement based on a thermoelectrically cooled CCD camera, the analysis could be performed directly on-field. A limit of detection of 0.2 μg mL⁻¹ TNT was obtained, which is five times lower than that obtained with a previously described colloidal gold-based LFIA developed employing the same immunoreagents. The dynamic range of the assay extended up to 5 μg mL⁻¹ TNT and recoveries ranging from 97% to 111% were obtained in the analysis of real samples (post blast residues obtained from controlled explosion).     

Diastereoselective protocols for the synthesis of 2,3-trans- and 2,3-cis-6-methoxy-morpholine-2-carboxylic acid derivatives

Two diastereoselective and straightforward protocols for the high-yielding synthesis of 2,3-trans- and 2,3-cis-6-methoxy-3-substituted morpholine-2-carboxylic esters were realized in few steps, through the condensation between 5,6-diethoxy-5,6-dimethyl-1,4-dioxan-2-one and an appropriate imine, which is the key reaction to control the C2-C3 relative stereochemistry, followed by a methanolysis/ring-closure tandem reaction sequence. In particular, 2,3-trans-morpholines derive from the R*,S*-product of the acid condensation of N-functionalized alkylimines with the silylketene acetal of the above lactone, whereas 2,3-cis-morpholines derive from the R*,R*-product of basic condensation of an N-tosylimines with the lactone.