Synthesis and Evaluation of Thymol-Based Synthetic Derivatives as Dual-Action Inhibitors against Different Strains of H. pylori and AGS Cell Line

Following a similar approach on carvacrol-based derivatives, we investigated the synthesis and the microbiological screening against eight strains of H. pylori, and the cytotoxic activity against human gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS) cells of a new series of ether compounds based on the structure of thymol. Structural analysis comprehended elemental analysis and ¹H/¹³C/¹⁹F NMR spectra. The analysis of structure–activity relationships within this molecular library of 38 structurally-related compounds reported that some chemical modifications of the OH group of thymol led to broad-spectrum growth inhibition on all isolates. Preferred substitutions were benzyl groups compared to alkyl chains, and the specific presence of functional groups at para position of the benzyl moiety such as 4-CN and 4-Ph endowed the most anti-H. pylori activity toward all the strains with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values up to 4 µg/mL. Poly-substitution on the benzyl ring was not essential. Moreover, several compounds characterized by the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration/minimum bactericidal concentration (MIC/MBC) values against H. pylori were also tested in order to verify a cytotoxic effect against AGS cells with respect to 5-fluorouracil and carvacrol. Three derivatives can be considered as new lead compounds alternative to current therapy to manage H. pylori infection, preventing the occurrence of severe gastric diseases. The present work confirms the possibility to use natural compounds as templates for the medicinal semi-synthesis.     

Characterisation of River Po particles by sedimentation field-flow fractionation coupled to GFAAS and ICP-MS

A procedure for elemental composition determination of water-borne river particles (Po River) on both size-fractionated and unfractionated submicron particles (0.1–1 μm) by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is reported. Sample fractionation was performed using sedimentation field-flow fractionation (SdFFF). The distribution of relative mass vs. particle size was determined using UV detection. Fractions were collected over a narrow size range for scanning electron microscopy. With this combination of techniques the mass, elemental composition, and shape distributions can be obtained across the size spectrum of the sample.

The size distributions of the major elements (Al, Fe) were determined by coupling both GFAAS and ICP-MS techniques to the SdFFF. The procedure was validated using a reference clay sample. Satisfactory agreement was found between both the GFAAS and ICP-MS aluminium signal and the UV detector signal. Some discrepancies were observed in the Fe/Al ratios when comparing GFAAS and ICP-MS. Thus further investigation is in order to fully assess the role of SdFFF-ICP-MS and SdFFF-GFAAS techniques for elemental characterisation of aquatic colloids. Both GFAAS and ICP-MS signals unambiguously indicate a significantly higher Fe content in the lower size range, which is consistent with previous investigations.

Trace element levels in unfractionated Po River particles, determined by both GFAAS and ICP-MS, show good agreement. The high levels of Cu, Pb, Cr and Cd found associated with the colloidal particles underlines the significance of the environmental role played by the suspended matter in rivers in both highly industrialised and intensively cultivated areas.     

Representation Formulae for Solutions to Some Classes of Higher Order Systems and Related Liouville Theorems

Let m ≥ 1 be an integer and N > 2m. Let μ be a positive Radon measure on . We study necessary and sufficient conditions on possible distributional solutions of , that guarantee the validity of the representation formula a.e. on , where and c(2m) is a positive constant depending on m and N. Several consequences are derived. In particular we prove Liouville theorems for systems of higher order elliptic inequalities and weighted form of Hardy-Littlewood-Sobolev systems of integral equations. Received: March 2008     

Weak bimonoids in duoidal categories

Weak bimonoids in duoidal categories are introduced. They provide a common generalization of bimonoids in duoidal categories and of weak bimonoids in braided monoidal categories. Under the assumption that idempotent morphisms in the base category split, they are shown to induce weak bimonads (in four symmetric ways). As a consequence, they have four separable Frobenius base (co)monoids, two in each of the underlying monoidal categories. Hopf modules over weak bimonoids are defined by weakly lifting the induced comonad to the Eilenberg–Moore category of the induced monad. Making appropriate assumptions on the duoidal category in question, the fundamental theorem of Hopf modules is proven which says that the category of modules over one of the base monoids is equivalent to the category of Hopf modules if and only if a Galois-type comonad morphism is an isomorphism.     

Mathematical models for the elastic beam with structural damping

In this paper the existence, regularity and sharp estimates for the solutions of an abstract second order evolution equation are proved and applications to models of a (possibly non homogeneous) elastic beam with a frequency-proportional damping are given.     

The L p -Solvability of the Dirichlet Problem for Planar Elliptic Equations, Sharp Results

Assume that the elliptic operator L=div (A(x)∇) is L ^p -resolutive, p>1, on the unit disc \mathbbD ì \mathbb R²\mathbb{D}\subset \mathbb {R}^{2} . This means that the Dirichlet problem

Corrigendum to Cleft Extensions of Hopf Algebroids

Theorem 2.2 stated a monoidal isomorphism between the comodule categories of two bialgebroids in a Hopf algebroid. The proof of Theorem 2.2 was based on the journal version of Brzeziński (Ann Univ Ferrara Sez VII (NS) 51:15–27, 2005, Theorem 2.6), whose proof turned out to contain an unjustified step. Here we show that all other results in our paper remain valid if we drop unverified Theorem 2.2, and return to an earlier definition of a comodule of a Hopf algebroid that distinguishes between comodules of the two constituent bialgebroids.     

Dedekind Complete Commutative BCK-algebras

We study Dedekind complete commutative BCK-algebras with the relative cancellation property and their connection with corresponding universal groups. We shall characterize Dedekind orthogonally complete atomic and Archimedean BCK-algebras, generalizing results of Jakubík known for MV-algebras. Finally, we characterize those Dedekind complete and atomic commutative BCK-algebras that are isomorphic to direct products of basic BCK-chains, generalizing a result of Cignoli for MV-algebras.     

The weak theory of monads

We construct a ‘weak’ version EMw(K) of Lack and Street's 2-category of monads in a 2-category K, by replacing their compatibility constraint of 1-cells with the units of monads by an additional condition on the 2-cells. A relation between monads in EMw(K) and composite pre-monads in K is discussed. If K admits Eilenberg-Moore constructions for monads, we define two symmetrical notions of ‘weak liftings’ for monads in K. If moreover idempotent 2-cells in K split, we describe both kinds of weak lifting via an appropriate pseudo-functor EMw(K)→K. Weak entwining structures and partial entwining structures are shown to realize weak liftings of a comonad for a monad in these respective senses. Weak bialgebras are characterized as algebras and coalgebras, such that the corresponding monads weakly lift for the corresponding comonads and also the comonads weakly lift for the monads.