Formation and pharmacological activity of silicon—chitosan-containing glycerohydrogels obtained by biomimetic mineralization

The biomimetic sol—gel synthesis of silicon—chitosan-containing glycerohydrogels was carried out using silicon tetraglycerolate as a precursor. It was found that chitosan accelerates gel formation in weakly acidic media. In more acidic media, the kinetics of the process changes according to the curve with a maximum, which can be attributed to different mechanisms of silanol condensation before and after the isoelectric point. The investigated silicon—chitosan-containing glycerohydrogels exhibit antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and wound healing activity. The synthesized hybrid glycerohydrogels are promising materials for biomedical applications.     

A volatolomic approach using cerumen as biofluid to diagnose bovine intoxication by Stryphnodendron rotundifolium

An innovative volatolomic approach employs the detection of biomarkers present in cerumen (earwax) to identify cattle intoxication by Stryphnodendron rotundifolium Mart., Fabaceae (popularly known as barbatimão). S. rotundifolium is a poisonous plant with the toxic compound undefined and widely distributed throughout the Brazilian territory. Cerumen samples from cattle of two local Brazilian breeds (‘Curraleiro Pé-Duro’ and ‘Pantaneiro’) were collected during an experimental intoxication protocol and analyzed using headspace (HS)/GC–MS followed by multivariate analysis (genetic algorithm for a partial least squares, cluster analysis, and classification and regression trees). A total of 106 volatile organic metabolites were identified in the cerumen samples of bovines. The intoxication by S. rotundifolium influenced the cerumen volatolomic profile of the bovines throughout the intoxication protocol. In this way, it was possible to detect biomarkers for cattle intoxication. Among the biomarkers, 2-octyldecanol and 9-tetradecen-1-ol were able to discriminate all samples between intoxicated and nonintoxicated bovines. The cattle intoxication diagnosis by S. rotundifolium was accomplished by applying the cerumen analysis using HS/GC–MS, in an easy, accurate, and noninvasive way. Thus, the proposed bioanalytical chromatography protocol is a useful tool in veterinary applications to determine this kind of intoxication.     

The 1H and 13C NMR chemical shifts of Strychnos alkaloids revisited at the DFT level

The density functional theory calculation of ¹H and ¹³C NMR chemical shifts in a series of ten 10 classically known Strychnos alkaloids with a strychnine skeleton was performed at the PBE0/pcSseg-2//pcseg-2 level. It was found that calculated ¹H and ¹³C NMR chemical shifts provided a markedly good correlation with experiment characterized by a mean absolute error of 0.08 ppm in the range of 7 ppm for protons and 1.67 ppm in the range of 150 ppm for carbons, so that a mean absolute percentage error was as small as ~1% in both cases.     

Properties of bounded stochastic processes employed in biophysics

Abstract

Realistic stochastic modeling is increasingly requiring the use of bounded noises. In this work, properties and relationships of commonly employed bounded stochastic processes are investigated within a solid mathematical ground. Four families are object of investigation: the Sine-Wiener (SW), the Doering–Cai–Lin (DCL), the Tsallis–Stariolo–Borland (TSB), and the Kessler–Sørensen (KS) families. We address mathematical questions on existence and uniqueness of the processes defined through Stochastic Differential Equations, which often conceal non-obvious behavior, and we explore the behavior of the solutions near the boundaries of the state space. The expression of the time-dependent probability density of the Sine-Wiener noise is provided in closed form, and a close connection with the Doering–Cai–Lin noise is shown. Further relationships among the different families are explored, pathwise and in distribution. Finally, we illustrate an analogy between the Kessler–Sørensen family and Bessel processes, which allows to relate the respective local times at the boundaries.     

Limiting Velocity and Dispersion Law of Domain Walls in Ferrimagnets Close to the Spin Compensation Point

JETP Letters - The motion of domain walls in GdFeCo-type ferrimagnets near the point of compensation of sublattice spins s1 and s2, when the effects of the exchange increase in the limiting wall...     

Formation of porous polymer morphology by microsyneresis during divinylbenzene polymerization

This article describes the investigation of the importance of various reaction conditions on microsyneretic pore formation during polymerization of divinylbenzene (DVB) under so‐called “solvothermal” conditions. To induce microsyneretic pore formation, the most important parameter is an unusually high dilution of monomers with a “good” porogen solvating the polymer chains. High dilution and solvation of the growing poly(DVB) chains promote the prolongation of the polymer chains rather than their interconnection by crosslinking. Consequently, when the polymer gel density reaches the point where syneresis starts, the polymer network is geometrically too extensive to be broken up into precipitating entities and, instead, porogen droplets are formed within the continuous polymer gel. The pore geometry created by microsyneresis offers high surface area in wide mesopores and hence, high capacity for supporting functional groups or reactions with much better accessibility than narrow pores between polymer microspheres produced by macrosyneresis in conventional styrenic polymer supports. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 774–781