Scorpion digestive lipase: kinetic study using monomolecular film technique

Using the classical emulsified system and the monomolecular film technique, we compared the interfacial properties of the scorpion digestive lipase (SDL) with those of higher animals'. In the absence of bile slats, SDL does not hydrolyse efficiently pure tributyrin, as well as dicaprin films maintained at low surface pressure. The preincubation of bile salts with tributyrin seems to be a better substrate for SDL than the pure tributyrin. A kinetic study on the surface pressure dependency, stereospecificity and regioselectivity of SDL was performed using monomolecular films of either three dicaprin isomers or three pairs of didecanoyl-deoxyamino-O-methyl glycerol enantiomers (DDG) containing a single hydrolysable decanoyl ester bond. With all diacylglycerol isomers, SDL has a surface pressure threshold of about 15 m Nm(-1), below which enzymatic activity is undetectable. SDL seems to prefer vicinal ester groups of the diacylglycerol isomers, with preference for sn-1 position at both 15 and 23 m Nm(-1). Furthermore, the maximum SDL activity is measured with DDG having a primary ester bond (1,3DDG, SII). This shows that SDL has a preference for the sn-1 position of this diacylglycerol analogue. Moreover, this was in line with the fact that SDL is inactive on sn-2 position of both DDG isomers and a triacylglycerol. With diacylglycerol analogue isomers, SDL shows a preference for distal isomers contrary to what has been observed with diacylglycerol isomers. SDL interacts with egg-phosphatidyl choline (egg-PC) monomolecular films. The critical surface pressure value (13 m Nm(-1)) is comparable to those of pancreatic lipases.     

Behavior of 3‐benzylamino‐5‐aryl‐2(3H)‐furanones towards some nitrogen nucleophiles

Ring closure of 2‐N‐benzylamino‐3‐aroylpropionic acids ( 3 ) with acetic anhydride afforded 3‐N‐benzylamino‐5‐aryl‐2(3H)‐furanones ( 4 ). The reaction of the furanones ( 4 ) with benzylamine in benzene was found to be time dependent. Thus refluxing the reaction mixture for 1 h only afforded the open‐chain amides ( 5a‐c ). When the reaction was conducted for 3 h the 2(3H)‐pyrrolones ( 6 ) were obtained. Hydrazine hydrate affected ring opening of the furanones to give the hydrazides ( 5d‐f ). Also, semicarbazide converted ( 4 ) into the corresponding semicarbazide derivatives ( 5g‐i ). The hydrazides ( 5d‐f ) were reacted with benzoyl chloride to give the corresponding diaroylhydrazines ( 5j‐l ). The open‐chain derivatives ( 5 ) were converted into a variety of heterocycles: isothiazolones ( 7 ), dihydropyridazinones ( 8 ), 1,3,4‐oxadiazoles ( 9 ) and 1,2,4‐triazole derivatives ( 10 ) via cyclization reactions.     

Inhibition of Pro-inflammatory Secreted Phospholipase A2 by Extracts from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cynara cardunculus L</Emphasis>.

The aim of the present work was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory properties of Cynara cardunculus L. (Asteraceae) during its growth using various solvents such as n-hexane, dichloromethane, acetone, and methanol for air-dried leaves and stems. The anti-inflammatory activities of crude extracts were evaluated by measuring the inhibition potency of mammalian non-pancreatic phospholipases A2 (hG-IIA). The methanol and acetone extracts of leaves harvested in February exhibit potent inhibition of hG-IIA (IC₅₀ = 50 and 70 μg/ml, respectively). However, the acetone extract of stems harvested in December inhibits the hG-IIA with a lower IC₅₀ around 130 μg/ml. Fractionation on silica gel and hydrophobic gel of the methanol extract of leaves harvested in February increases the inhibitory effect, and the IC₅₀ reached 10 μg/ml.     

Existence results for periodic solutions of integro-dynamic equations on time scales

Using the topological degree method and Schaefer’s fixed point theorem, we deduce the existence of periodic solutions of nonlinear system of integro-dynamic equations on periodic time scales. Furthermore, we provide several applications to scalar equations, in which we develop a time scale analog of Lyapunov’s direct method and prove an analog of Sobolev’s inequality on time scales to arrive at a priori bound on all periodic solutions. Therefore, we improve and generalize the corresponding results in Burton et al. (Ann Mat Pura Appl 161:271–283, 1992)      

A multilevel finite volume method with multiscale-based grid adaptation for steady compressible flows

An implicit multilevel finite volume solver on adaptively refined quadtree meshes is presented for the solution of steady state flow problems. The nonlinear problem arising from the implicit time discretization is solved by an adaptive FAS multigrid method. Local grid adaptation is performed by means of a multiscale-based strategy. For this purpose data of the flow field are decomposed into coarse grid information and a sequence of detail coefficients that describe the difference between two refinement levels and reveal insight into the local regularity behavior of the solution. Here wavelet techniques are employed for the multiscale analysis. The key idea of the present work is to use the transfer operators of the multiscale analysis for the prolongation and restriction operator in the FAS cycle. The efficiency of the solver is investigated by means of an inviscid 2D flow over a bump.     

Microhardness of a dental restorative composite resin containing nanoparticles polymerized with argon ion laser

The objective of this study was to compare the microhardness of two resin composites (microhybrid and nanoparticles). Light activation was performed with argon ion laser 1.56 J (L) and halogen light 2.6 J (H) was used as control. Measurements were taken on the irradiated surfaces and those opposite them, at thicknesses of 1, 2 and 3 mm. To evaluate the quality of polymerization, the percentages of maximum hardness were calculated (PMH). For statistical analysis the ANOVA and Tukey tests were used (p ≤ 0.05). To microhybrid was shown that the hardness with laser was inferior to the hardness achieved with halogen light, for both the 1 mm and 2 mm. The nanoparticles polymerized with laser, presented lower hardness even on the irradiated surface, than the same surface light activated with halogen light. The microhybrid attained a minimum PMH of 80% up to the thickness of 2 mm with halogen light, and with laser, only up to 1 mm. The nanoparticles attained a minimum PMH of 80% up to 3 mm thickness with halogen light and with laser this minimum was not obtained at any thickness. Based on these results, it could be concluded that light activation with argon ion laser is contra-indicated for the studied nanoparticles.     

Spectrofluorimetric Assessment of Hydrochlorothiazide Using Optical Sensor Nano-Composite Terbium Ion Doped in Sol-Gel Matrix

A new, simple, sensitive and selective spectrofluorimetric method for the determination of Hydrochlorothiazide was developed in acetonitrile at pH 6.2. The Hydrochlorothiazide can remarkably enhance the luminescence intensity of the Tb³⁺ ion doped in sol–gel matrix at λ_ex = 370 nm. The intensity of the emission band of Tb³⁺ ion doped in sol–gel matrix was increased due to the energy transfer from the triplet excited state of Hydrochlorothiazide to (⁵D₄) excited energy state of Tb³ ion. The enhancement of the emission band of Tb³⁺ ion doped in sol–gel matrix at (⁵D₄→⁷ F₅) 545 nm was directly proportion to the concentration of Hydrochlorothiazide with a dynamic ranges of 5.0 × 10⁻¹⁰—5.0 × 10⁻⁶ mol L⁻¹ and detection limit of 2.2 × 10⁻¹¹ mol L⁻¹.     

Computing f-divergences and distances of high-dimensional probability density functions

Very often, in the course of uncertainty quantification tasks or data analysis, one has to deal with high-dimensional random variables. Here the interest is mainly to compute characterizations like the entropy, the Kullback–Leibler divergence, more general $f$-divergences, or other such characteristics based on the probability density. The density is often not available directly, and it is a computational challenge to just represent it in a numerically feasible fashion in case the dimension is even moderately large. It is an even stronger numerical challenge to then actually compute said characteristics in the high-dimensional case. In this regard it is proposed to approximate the discretized density in a compressed form, in particular by a low-rank tensor. This can alternatively be obtained from the corresponding probability characteristic function, or more general representations of the underlying random variable. The mentioned characterizations need point-wise functions like the logarithm. This normally rather trivial task becomes computationally difficult when the density is approximated in a compressed resp. low-rank tensor format, as the point values are not directly accessible. The computations become possible by considering the compressed data as an element of an associative, commutative algebra with an inner product, and using matrix algorithms to accomplish the mentioned tasks. The representation as a low-rank element of a high order tensor space allows to reduce the computational complexity and storage cost from exponential in the dimension to almost linear.     

Screen-printed electrochemical sensors for label-free potentiometric and impedimetric detection of human serum albumin

Herein, two electrochemical methods based on potentiometric and impedimetric transductions were presented for albumin targeting, employing screen-printed platforms (SPEs) to make easy and cost-effective sensors with good detection merits. The SPEs incorporated ion-to-electron multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) transducer. Sensors were constructed using either tridodecyl methyl-ammonium chloride (TDMACl) (sensor I) or aliquate 336S (sensor II) in plasticized polymeric matrices of carboxylated poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC-COOH). Analytical performances of the sensors were evaluated using the above-mentioned electrochemical techniques. For potentiometric assay, constructed sensors responded to albumin with −81.7 ± 1.7 (r² = 0.9986) and −146.2 ± 2.3 mV/decade (r² = 0.9991) slopes over the linearity range 1.5 μM–1.5 mM with 0.8 and 1.0 μM detection limits for respective TDMAC- and aliquate-based sensors. Interference study showed apparent selectivity for both sensors. Impedimetric assays were performed at pH = 7.5 in 10 mM PBS buffer solution with a 0.02 M [Fe(CN)₆]^−3/−4 redox-active electrolyte. Sensors achieved detection limits of 4.3 × 10⁻⁸ and 1.8 × 10⁻⁷ M over the linear ranges of 5.2×10⁻⁸–1.0×10⁻⁴ M and 1.4×10⁻⁶–1.4×10⁻³ M, with 0.09 ± 0.004 and 0.168 ± 0.009 log Ω/decade slopes for sensors based on TDMAC and aliquate, respectively. These sensors are characterized with simple construction, high sensitivity and selectivity, fast response time, single-use, and cost-effectiveness. The methods were successfully applied to albumin assessment in different biological fluids.