Biodegradation of chlorolignin and lignin-like compounds contained in E1-Pulp bleaching effluent by fungal treatment

The ligninolytic system from the fungi Trametes villosa and Panus crinitus can efficiently degrade all fractions of different molecular mass contained in E1-bleaching effluent, but with different degradation rates. The lower-molecular-mass (MM) materials were better characterized when the elution in the size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography were monitored at 210 than at 280 nm, which indicates that these compounds may be ring cleavage byproducts from depolymerized chlorolignin. The biodegradation of E1 effluent by both fungi was a multistage process, involving an initial chemical modification of the higher-MM compounds and concomitant oxidation of the lower-MM materials. A subsequent depolymerization of chemically modified polymeric lignin-like compounds also took place. Each stage may require one or several different enzymes. The results suggested that laccase was involved in the initial stage.     

Enhanced Raman scattering provided by fullerene nanoclusters

Two new nonlinear optic effects are observed in crystalline solutions of fullerenes in toluene and carbon tetrachloride. Both are provided by a self-clustering of the solute molecules and are referred to fullerene-enhanced Raman scattering and solvent-enhanced luminescence. The effects are induced by the excitation of charge-transfer states of the fullerene nanoclusters, which makes the latter act as amplifiers of local electric fields. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Surface chemical composition of human maxillary first premolar as assessed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)

The surface chemical composition of dental enamel has been postulated as a contributing factor in the variation of bond strength of brackets bonded to teeth, and hence, the probability of bracket failure during orthodontic treatment. This study systematically investigated the chemical composition of 98 bonding surfaces of human maxillary premolars using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to ascertain compositional differences between right and left first premolars. The major elements detected in all samples were calcium, phosphorus, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. Surface compositions were highly variable between samples and several elements were found to be highly correlated. No statistical significant difference in the chemical composition of the maxillary right and left first premolars was found (p > 0.05). Knowledge of the chemical composition of enamel surfaces will facilitate future studies that relate this information to the variations in dental enamel bond strength.     

α-Scale decoupling of the mechanical relaxation and diverging shear wave propagation length scale in triphenylphosphite

We have performed depolarized impulsive stimulated scattering experiments to observe shear acoustic phonons in supercooled triphenylphosphite (TPP) from ~10-500 MHz. These measurements, in tandem with previously performed longitudinal and shear measurements, permit further analyses of the relaxation dynamics of TPP within the framework of the mode coupling theory. Our results provide evidence of α coupling between the shear and longitudinal degrees of freedom up to a decoupling temperature T(c) = 231 K. A lower bound length scale of shear wave propagation in liquids verified the exponent predicted by theory in the vicinity of the decoupling temperature.     

Identification of unavoided crossings in nonadiabatic photoexcited dynamics involving multiple electronic states in polyatomic conjugated molecules

Radiationless transitions between electronic excited states in polyatomic molecules take place through unavoided crossings of the potential energy surfaces with substantial non-adiabatic coupling between the respective adiabatic states. While the extent in time of these couplings are large enough, these transitions can be reasonably well simulated through quantum transitions using trajectory surface hopping-like methods. In addition, complex molecular systems may have multiple "trivial" unavoided crossings between noninteracting states. In these cases, the non-adiabatic couplings are described as sharp peaks strongly localized in time. Therefore, their modeling is commonly subjected to the identification of regions close to the particular instantaneous nuclear configurations for which the energy surfaces actually cross each other. Here, we present a novel procedure to identify and treat these regions of unavoided crossings between non-interacting states using the so-called Min-Cost algorithm. The method differentiates between unavoided crossings between interacting states (simulated by quantum hops), and trivial unavoided crossings between non-interacting states (detected by tracking the states in time with Min-Cost procedure). We discuss its implementation within our recently developed non-adiabatic excited state molecular dynamics framework. Fragments of two- and four-ring linear polyphenylene ethynylene chromophore units at various separations have been used as a representative molecular system to test the algorithm. Our results enable us to distinguish and analyze the main features of these different types of radiationless transitions the molecular system undertakes during internal conversion.     

Single molecule dynamics on hydrophobic self-assembled monolayers

The interactions between adsorbate molecules and hydrophobic surfaces are of significant interest due to their importance in a variety of biological and separation processes. However, it is challenging to extrapolate macroscopic ensemble-averaged force measurements to molecular-level phenomena. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to image individual molecules at hydrophobic solid-aqueous interfaces, we directly observed dynamic behavior associated with the interactions between fluorescently labeled dodecanoic acid (our probe molecules) and self-assembled monolayers (SAM) comprising n-alkyltriethoxysilanes with systematically increasing chain length (from n = 4-18). In all cases, we observed at least two characteristic surface residence times and two diffusive modes, suggesting the presence of multiple distinct adsorbed populations. In general, the mean surface residence time increased and the mobility decreased with increasing SAM chain length, consistent with stronger probe-surface interactions. However, these trends were not primarily due to changes in characteristic residence times or diffusion coefficients associated with the individual populations but rather to a dramatic increase in the fraction associated with the long-lived slow-moving population(s) on long-chain SAMs. In particular, on longer (16-18 carbon) alkylsilane monolayers, the probe molecule exhibited far fewer desorption-mediated "flights" than on short (4-6 carbon) monolayers. Additionally, probes on the longer chain surfaces were much more likely to exhibit extended surface residence times as opposed to short transient surface visits.     

Noncommutative polynomials nonnegative on a variety intersect a convex set

This paper gives a precise algebraic certificate for a noncommutative polynomial to be nonnegative on a free convex semialgebraic set intersect the variety of a free left ideal.     

Development of forensic analytical chemistry method for examination of Merla by thermal analysis and high resolution gas chromatography

The objective of this work is the TG and DSC analysis of “Merla” samples as well as the separation and identification of organic compounds by Ultra Fast GC method. The obtained results showed the grouping and the establishment of the degree of the sample’s similarity based in the Euclidean Distance. The cluster was a useful tool to determine if the samples, confiscated from different users by police, were manufactured in the same or different laboratories. Consequently one can conclude if in any city operates one or more drug manufacturing laboratories.