Rose Hips,a Valuable Source of Antioxidants to Improve Gingerbread Characteristics

The present study analyzes the complex of bioactive compounds from rose hips pulp powder (RHP) obtained after separating the seeds from Rosa canina L. in order to obtain the oil. The extract prepared from RHP was characterized in terms of the total content of polyphenols, flavonoids, cinnamic acids, flavonols, carotenoids, but also the content of individual polyphenols and carotenoids, antioxidant activity, and CIELab color parameters. The effects of some salts, potentially present in foods, and pH variations were examined to predict possible interactions that could occur when adding rosehip pulp as a food component. The results turned out to be a high content of polyphenols, carotenoids and antioxidant activity. The main phenolic components are procyanidin B1, chlorogenic acid, epicatechin, procyanidin B2, gallic acid, salicylic acid, and catechin. The carotenoid complex includes all-trans-β-carotene, all-trans-lycopene, zeaxanthin, α-cryptoxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, rubixanthin, cis-β-carotene, cis-γ-carotene and cis-lycopene. The addition of CaCl₂ and NaCl to the RHP extract reduced the antioxidant activity and the strong acidic environment (pH to 2.5) decreased the antioxidant activity by 29%. The addition of rose hip powder to gingerbread has improved its general characteristics, and increased its antioxidant activity and microbiological stability, the effects of 4% RHP being the most important.     

Type monotonic allocation schemes for a class of market games

We consider an extension of glove markets, called T-markets, characterize a family of weighted allocation rules, and define related cooperative games. For the class of T-market games we introduce a new solution concept called the type monotonic allocation scheme. It turns out that the nucleolus and the τ-value generate the same type monotonic allocation scheme with nice extra properties. Initial research for this paper was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund grant OTKA T030945. The authors thank Ruud Hendrickx for his valuable comments. Research of T. Solymosi was also supported in part by OTKA grant T046194.     

Determination of the anchoring constant for a compensated binary cholesteric mixture

The optical transmission and the electric power was simultaneously recorded for the binary compensated cholesteric mixture cholesteryl chloride + cholesteryl nonanoate (70:30 molar). The values of the critical voltages U₁ and U₂ (at which the planar texture changes into a conic focal one, and the cholesteric-nematic transition take place) at different temperatures were obtained. The temperature dependence of the anchoring constant is determined.     

The Influence of Temperature,Storage Conditions,pH, and Ionic Strength on the Antioxidant Activity and Color Parameters of Rowan Berry Extracts

Recent trends in the food industry combined with novel methods in agriculture could transform rowan into a valuable raw material with potential technological applications. Thus, the aim of this research was to investigate the content of bioactive compounds in its fruits and to assess the color and antioxidant stability of the extracts prepared from such fruits during various thermal treatments and at different pH and ionic strength values. Various spectrophotometric methods, HPLC, and capillary electrophoresis were used to quantify the concentrations of bioactive compounds—polyphenols, carotenoids, organic acids, and to assess antioxidant activity and color. The results show that rowan berries contain circa 1.34–1.47 g/100 g of polyphenols among which include catechin, epicatechin, ferulic acid methyl ester, procyanidin B1, etc.; ca 21.65 mg/100 g of carotenoids including zeaxanthin, β-cryptoxanthin, all-trans-β-carotene, and various organic acids such as malic, citric, and succinic, which result in a high antioxidant activity of 5.8 mmol TE/100 g. Results also showed that antioxidant activity exhibited high stability when the extract was subjected to various thermal treatments, pHs, and ionic strengths, while color was mainly impacted negatively when a temperature of 100 °C was employed. This data confirms the technological potential of this traditional, yet often overlooked species.     

Photopyroelectric (PPE) Spectroscopy of Surface Reflectance for Nd2−xCexCuo4 Single Crystals

The relevance of the sample surface reflectance Rs when applying the photopyroelectric technique is demonstrated and, based on this, a method for determining Rs spectra of opaque samples, is presented. Measurements were done on single crystals of Nd₂CuO₄ and Nd_1.97Ce_0.03CuO₄ and the results were found in good agreement with the data obtained by optical methods.     

On the sonic composites subjected to severe acoustic loads

Transformation acoustics opens a new avenue towards the fabrication of a new class of sonic composites with scatterers made of auxetic materials embedded in the epoxy matrix. The design of the acoustic scatterers is based on the property of Helmoltz equations to be invariant under coordinate transformations, i.e. a specific spatial compression is equivalent to a variation of the material parameters in the original space. In this paper, the noise suppression for a wide full band-gap of frequencies is discussed for spherical shell scatterers made of auxetic materials. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Evaluating the biological potential of some new cobalt (II) complexes with acrylate and benzimidazole derivatives

This paper presents the synthesis, physico‐chemical and biological properties of four new coordination compounds with mixed ligands: acrylate ion (acr) and benzimidazole/benzimidazole derivatives with the general formula [Co(L) ₂ (acr) ₂ ]·nH ₂ O [ (1) L: benzimidazole (HBzIm), n: 0.5; (2) L: 2‐methylbenzimidazole (2‐MeBzIm), n: 0.5; (3) L: 5‐methylbenzimidazole (5‐MeBzIm), n: 0; (4) L: 5,6‐dimethylbenzimidazole (5,6‐Me₂BzIm), n: 0]. Their chemical formulae were achieved correlating the chemical analysis with mass spectrometry data, the ligands coordination modes were assigned by Fourier transform‐infrared measurements, and the trigonal bipyramidal geometry of cobalt ion in complexes was assigned by data correlation of UV–Vis‐NIR spectra and magnetic moments measurements. Single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction reveals a mononuclear structure with a pentacoordinated cobalt (II) ion, connected to two acrylato coordinated in different modes and two unidentate 5,6‐dimethylbenzimidazole ligands for compound (4) . The biological tests were performed against several microbial strains, the cytotoxicity was evaluated on HCT8 cellular lines and the cell cycle analysis was performed on HT29 cellular lines. Microbiological assays indicated that Co (II) complexes present a very good to good activity against Candida albicans 1760, Enterococcus faecium E5, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6683 and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922. Predictive pharmacokinetic (ADME), toxicity and drug‐likeness profiles were evaluated for Co (II) complexes. Our results highlight that Co (II) complexes depicted in the present study are suitable to be used as efficient pharmacological agents.     

Thermal and mineralogical investigations of historical ceramic

The selected sample for this study represents a piece of pavement ceramics from a private collection. The ceramic (approximately XVIIIth century) comes from Campania region, Naples province. A chemical, mineralogical and morphological characterization of a Campagna ceramic piece received from a particular collection has been performed. Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy—(ICP-AES) was used for the determination of Al₂O₃, CaO, Fe₂O₃, K₂O, MgO, MnO, Na₂O, and TiO₂ as major constituents and Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Zn as minor and trace selected elements. There is a very important characterization method used for the control of the reaction process and of the properties of the materials obtained. Physical and mineralogical analyses were made by using the thermal behavior (thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTG)) and X-ray diffraction spectrometry for the mineralogical composition. The results of these analyses allow the establishment of conclusions about several aspects of their manufacture, the origin of the raw materials and their provenance (local or imported). They provide information supporting certain archeological hypothesis. The performed analysis revealed some very interesting characteristics: lower amount of silica and increased concentration of alumina, the presence of calcium in relatively low concentration (Ca-poor ceramic) and a mineralogical composition.     

Magnetite‐polylactic acid core–shell nanoparticles by ring‐opening polymerization under microwave irradiation

The synthesis of magnetic core–shell nanoparticles consisting of magnetite cores surface‐functionalized by glycolic acid covered by polylactic acid was performed by applying the “grafting‐from” strategy, where the polymerization is initiated from the particle surface. The surface initiated ring‐opening polymerization of D,L ‐lactide was initiated by tin (II) 2‐ethylhexanoate using microwave irradiation. Core–shell nanoparticles of high colloidal stability in water were obtained in this way. The morphology of the magnetic core–shell nanostructure was determined by transmission electron microscopy, and the chemical structure was elucidated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Magnetic measurements revealed superparamagnetic behavior and high magnetization values. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Histamine detection using functionalized porphyrin as electrochemical mediator

This study reports on deposition of asymmetrical substituted meso-phenyl porphyrin, 5-(4-carboxyphenyl)-10,15,20-triphenylporphyrin (CPTPP) thin films by matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) on screen-printed electrodes, aiming for histamine detection. Raman spectrometry confirmed that CPTPP chemical structure was preserved in MAPLE-deposited thin films at 200 mJ/cm² laser fluence. Atomic force microscopy topography revealed that MAPLE-deposited thin films have a better coverage on the working electrode made of carbon compared to the ones obtained by dropcasting. Cyclic voltammetry demonstrated that CPTPP is an appropriate mediator for histamine detection in trichloroacetic acid solution. We proved that MAPLE serves as a soft technique in fabrication of porphyrin thin films and patterns.