The oak (Quercus brantii) acorn as a growth promotor for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): growth performance,body composition,liver enzymes activity and blood biochemical parameters

Abstract

Medicinal plants play an important role in aquaculture as feed additives. This study aimed to investigate effects of alcoholic extract of acorn on growth performance, body composition, digestive enzymes activity and blood biochemical parameters of rainbow trout (O. mykiss) as a commercially important fish. Five dietary treatments were supplemented: 100, 200, 400 and 600?mg.kg^?1 of the extract. Fishes were fed twice per day for 8?weeks, and results showed that acorn extract positively affected all investigated parameters in rainbow trout fishes. Digestive enzymes activity and growth performance were increased, while activity of liver enzymes and cortisol were lowed in comparison to control individuals. Body composition of treated animals was also enhanced. Comparison between treated groups together with integrative biomarker response (IBR) values indicated greatest effects in animals fed with 400 and 600?mg.kg^?1 of the extract. Positive effects of the acorn represent promising start point for further studies.     

Novel concurrent redox cascades of (R)- and (S)-carvones enables access to carvo-lactones with distinct regio- and enantioselectivity

Within this study, we investigated a one-pot enzymatic redox cascade composed of different enoate reductases (5 EREDs from diverse bacterial origins) and various Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases (4 BVMOs) with complementary regioselectivity that enabled access to six out of eight carvo-lactone stereoisomers starting from readily available natural carvones. Applicability of this two-step cascade was demonstrated by preparative scale experiments yielding up to 76% of the desired chiral carvolactone.     

On the moments of Kloosterman sums and fibre products of Kloosterman curves

Let q=p^r with p=3 and r2. We give a recursion formula for the moments of a Kloosterman sum over the finite field , which utilizes known weight formulae for the ternary Melas code M of length q−1. The method is illustrated by giving explicit formulae for the moments up to the tenth moment. As an application for the formulae, and for their analogues obtained earlier in case p=2, we get the exact number of rational points on fibre products of certain Kloosterman curves. As a corollary we obtain identities between Ramanujan's tau-function, Kronecker class numbers, and Dickson polynomials.     

Pore structure of pyrolyzed scrap tires

Internal structure of carbon black produced by pyrolysis (CBp) of rubber samples from the top and bottom parts of sidewall and tread of a passenger car tire was investigated in nitrogen flow at different temperatures. The pore structure (specific surface area, pore size distribution, and porosity) of CBp and commercial CB, was compared. The development of pore structure and the increase of the specific surface area were most intensive during the thermal decomposition at temperatures ranging from 300°C to 500°C. This is caused by the intensive release of volatiles during the pyrolysis. After the pyrolysis was finished, at temperatures above 500°C, further decomposition of solid matter was associated with a slight increase of the specific surface area. Presented at the 34th International Conference of the Slovak Society of Chemical Engineering, Tatranské Matliare, 21–25 May 2007.     

The trapezoidal cylinder phase: a new mode of self-assembly in liquid-crystalline soft matter

A new rectangular columnar liquid crystalline phase with p2gg lattice is reported, which represents a polygonal cylinder array composed of cylinders with trapezoidal cross section. In these polygonal cylinders, one of the sides has a different length and is composed of a different material than the others. This tiling pattern was obtained in two series of T-shaped facial amphiphilic triblock molecules in which a rigid rod-like p-terphenyl core is substituted laterally by a polar and flexible oligoethylene glycol chain, terminated either by a hydrogen-bonding COOH group or by a Li carboxylate group, and having identical or different alkyl groups in the terminal positions. The trapezoidal cylinder phase provides an improved packing for relatively long and rigid alkyl chains at lower temperature and more space inside the polygonal cylinders than triangular cylinders. This combination of conformational and space-filling effects leads to different phase sequences. The trapezoidal cylinder phases pave the way to a new level of complexity in LC engineering and show the huge potential of the general concept of polyphilic tectons for the design of new complex soft matter structures.     

Benchmarks for electronically excited states: CASPT2, CC2, CCSD, and CC3

A benchmark set of 28 medium-sized organic molecules is assembled that covers the most important classes of chromophores including polyenes and other unsaturated aliphatic compounds, aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocycles, carbonyl compounds, and nucleobases. Vertical excitation energies and one-electron properties are computed for the valence excited states of these molecules using both multiconfigurational second-order perturbation theory, CASPT2, and a hierarchy of coupled cluster methods, CC2, CCSD, and CC3. The calculations are done at identical geometries (MP26-31G*) and with the same basis set (TZVP). In most cases, the CC3 results are very close to the CASPT2 results, whereas there are larger deviations with CC2 and CCSD, especially in singlet excited states that are not dominated by single excitations. Statistical evaluations of the calculated vertical excitation energies for 223 states are presented and discussed in order to assess the relative merits of the applied methods. CC2 reproduces the CC3 reference data for the singlets better than CCSD. On the basis of the current computational results and an extensive survey of the literature, we propose best estimates for the energies of 104 singlet and 63 triplet excited states.     

Non-Stationary Abstract Friedrichs Systems

Inspired by the results of Ern et al. (Commun Partial Differ Equ 32:317–341, 2007) on the abstract theory for Friedrichs symmetric positive systems, we give the existence and uniqueness result for the initial- (boundary) value problem for the non-stationary abstract Friedrichs system. Despite the absence of the well-posedness result for such systems, there were already attempts for their numerical treatment by Burman et al. (SIAM J Numer Anal 48:2019–2042, 2010) and Bui-Thanh et al. (SIAM J Numer Anal 51:1933–1958, 2013). We use the semigroup theory approach and prove that the operator involved satisfies the conditions of the Hille–Yosida generation theorem. We also address the semilinear problem and apply the new results to a number of examples, such as the symmetric hyperbolic system, the unsteady div–grad problem, and the wave equation. Special attention was paid to the (generalised) unsteady Maxwell system.     

Alpha-substituted organic peroxides: synthetic strategies for a biologically important class of gem-dihydroperoxide and perketal derivatives

In this paper we review the recent developments in the synthesis of alpha-substituted hydroperoxides. Alpha-substituted hydroperoxides are interesting compounds due to their chemistry and bioactivity and as intermediates for the synthesis of other peroxides, of which cyclic peroxides are of major importance. Although the emphasis of this report will be on the derivatives of gem-dihydroperoxides, perketals, as well as the less studied nitrogen and sulfur derivatives, will also be covered.