Dicarboxylic acids and hydroxy fatty acids in different species of fungi

Secondary metabolites of fungi can be responsible for allergies; therefore, the identification of compounds produced by these organisms is very important. Fungi produce large amounts of secondary metabolites, which belong to groups of chemicals such as: dicarboxylic acids, hydroxy acids, alcohols, hydrocarbons, esters, fatty acids, sterols, amino acids and mycotoxins. The presence of all these compounds in human proximity contributes to many diseases. Therefore, the aim of the study was a qualitative and quantitative analysis of hydroxy and dicarboxylic acids produced by fungi occurring in student hostel in Poland, in the province of Pomerania. The following species of fungi were subjected to extraction: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus candidus, Rhizopus sp., Geotrichum candidum, and Penicillium chrysogenum. A mixture of ethyl acetate and methanol was used for the extraction. The obtained extracts were further analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC–MS). In all samples of fungi, the presence of a total of 22 acids, including 13 dicarboxylic and 9 hydroxy acids, was confirmed. Most acids (17 different acids) were identified in A. fumigatus. Only 10 acids were identified in the mycelium of G. candidum and A. niger. Acids which were identified in all samples of the mycelium were 22-hydroxydocosanoic acid, 24-hydroxytetracosanoic acid and adipic acid. The most abundant compounds were 22-hydroxydocosanoic acid in A. fumigatus, A. candidus, Rhizopus sp., G. candidum and P. chrysogenum, and succinic acid in A. niger. More experiments are needed to understand the physiological role of hydroxy and dicarboxylic acids. We hope that our results are an important contribution to further studies on the human health.     

Field-amplified sample injection coupled with pseudo-isotachophoresis technique for sensitive determination of selected psychiatric drugs in human urine samples after dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction

A field-amplified sample injection (FASI) technique was elaborated for fast and sensitive determination of selected central nervous system drugs in human urine samples. Factors affecting the sensitivity enhancement, such as background electrolyte (BGE) and the analytical matrix composition were optimized and discussed. Pseudo-isotachophoresis (p-ITP) mechanism contribution in preconcentration mechanism was discussed. All separations were performed in uncoated fused silica capillaries 50 μm × 57 cm at 22 kV. The optimized analytical matrix was composed of 0.25 mM HCOOH in 90% (v/v) methanol, while BGE contained 45 mM TRIS/HCl (pH 2.20). The head-column injection was performed in 0.25 mM HCOOH water solution (3 s, 3.45 kPa). Sample was introduced into the capillary by electrokinetic injection (70 s, 5 kV) followed by short BGE plug (3 s, 3.45 kPa). Seven psychiatric drugs (olanzapine, prochlorperazine dimaleate, trifluoperazine dihydrochloride, perphenazine, promazine hydrochloride, clomipramine hydrochloride, and chlorprothixene hydrochloride) were separated in about 6 min. The elaborated method was additionally supported with dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) technique which in summary with FASI provided about 8000–13,000-fold sensitivity enhancement in comparison to the capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method with standard hydrodynamic injection (5 s, 3.45 kPa).     

Complementation and decompositions in some weakly Lindelöf Banach spaces

Let Γ denote an uncountable set. We consider the questions if a Banach space X of the form C(K) of a given class (1) has a complemented copy of c₀(Γ) or (2) for every c₀(Γ)⊆X has a complemented c₀(E) for an uncountable E⊆Γ or (3) has a decomposition X=A⊕B where both A and B are nonseparable. The results concern a superclass of the class of nonmetrizable Eberlein compacts, namely Ks such that C(K) is Lindelöf in the weak topology and we restrict our attention to Ks scattered of countable height. We show that the answers to all these questions for these C(K)s depend on additional combinatorial axioms which are independent of ZFC ± CH. If we assume the P-ideal dichotomy, for every c₀(Γ)⊆C(K) there is a complemented c₀(E) for an uncountable E⊆Γ, which yields the positive answer to the remaining questions. If we assume ♣, then we construct a nonseparable weakly Lindelöf C(K) for K of height ω+1 where every operator is of the form cI+S for c∈R and S with separable range and conclude from this that there are no decompositions as above which yields the negative answer to all the above questions. Since, in the case of a scattered compact K, the weak topology on C(K) and the pointwise convergence topology coincide on bounded sets, and so the Lindelöf properties of these two topologies are equivalent, many results concern also the space Cp(K).     

Strong connections on quantum principal bundles

A gauge invariant notion of a strong connection is presented and characterized. It is then used to justify the way in which a global curvature form is defined. Strong connections are interpreted as those that are induced from the base space of a quantum bundle. Examples of both strong and non-strong connections are provided. In particular, such connections are constructed on a quantum deformation of the two-sphere fibrationS ²→RP ². A certain class of strongU _q (2)-connections on a trivial quantum principal bundle is shown to be equivalent to the class of connections on a free module that are compatible with theq-dependent hermitian metric. A particular form of the Yang-Mills action on a trivialU _q (2)-bundle is investigated. It is proved to coincide with the Yang-Mills action constructed by A. Connes and M. Rieffel. Furthermore, it is shown that the moduli space of critical points of this action functional is independent ofq. This work was in part supported by the NSF grant 1-443964-21858-2. Writing up the revised version was partially supported by the KBN grant 2 P301 020 07 and by a visiting fellowship at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste.     

Symmetries of quantum spaces. Subgroups and quotient spaces of quantumSU(2) andSO(3) groups

We prove that each action of a compact matrix quantum group on a compact quantum space can be decomposed into irreducible representations of the group. We give the formula for the corresponding multiplicities in the case of the quotient quantum spaces. We describe the subgroups and the quotient spaces of quantumSU(2) andSO(3) groups.     

On sequential properties of Banach spaces,spaces of measures and densities

We show that a conjunction of Mazur and Gelfand-Phillips properties of a Banach space E can be naturally expressed in terms of weak* continuity of seminorms on the unit ball of E*.     

Random groups do not split

We prove that random groups in the Gromov density model, at any density, satisfy property (FA), i.e. they do not act non-trivially on simplicial trees. This implies that their Gromov boundaries, defined at density less than \frac12{\frac{1}{2}} , are Menger curves.     

Approximation of the Hausdorff distance by the distance of continuous surjections

The aim of this paper is to answer the following question: let (X,?) and (Y,d) be metric spaces, let A,B⊂Y be continuous images of the space X and let be a fixed continuous surjection. When is the inequality