Lipolysis of didecanoyl-lecithin/triolein mixed monolayers by phospholipaseA 2

A study of enzyme lipolysis by pancreatic phospholipaseA ₂ and by vipera berus phospholipaseA ₂ on monomolecular mixed films of didecanoyl-lecithin and triolein on an aqueous subphase of pH 8 has been carried out. The influence of the composition of the mixed film, the surface pressure of the film and the amount and type of the injected enzyme on the lipolysis rate were studied.In order to relate the lipolytic activity with the monolayer state, the compression isotherms of the didecanoyl-lecithin/triolein mixed monolayers have also been obtained.The resuls are compared to observations on lipolytic activity of phospholipaseA ₂ on the didecanoyl-lecithin/cholesterol mixed monolayers. Triolein improves the kinetic conditions of the lipolysis of lecithin films in a higher degree than cholesterol. Probably it increases the enzyme penetration by the fluidifying effect exerted on the lecithin monolayers.     

Optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) of glycogen

The ORD spectra of three types of glycogen in salt solutions at different concentrations, pH and ionic strength values were determined to investigate the influence of these variables on the rotatory power.The ORD curves obtained with the samples recently prepared correspond to positive monotone dispersion curves, similar to available data for the other polysaccharides.Once the mutarotation equilibrium is attained a maximum is observed at 210±10 nm. The rotatory power decreases with the elapsed time and in some cases, it is possible to find a change in the sign of these curves. Such a phenomenon may be attributed to conformational changes in the monomer units constituting the macromolecule.A considerable increase in the rotatory power is found at pH extreme values.The dispersion constant, _c , was calculated by means of a modified Drude equation and results indicate that the _c value is higher for muscle glycogen in the mussel species, suggesting a higher degree of asymmetry in this macromolecule.     

A novel synthesis of 2-aryl-4-piperidones by mannich cyclization of iminoketals

2-Aryl-4-piperidones have been synthesized by condensation between an aromatic aldehyde and a β-aminoketone ethylene ketal, and further cyclization of the resulting iminoketal with dry hydrogen chloride or anhydrous p-toluensulfonic acid. Alternatively, reaction of the above iminoketals with methyl fluorosulfonate followed by dry hydrogen chloride treatment and acid hydrolysis gives directly N-methyl-4-piperidones. The application of these reactions to the synthesis of some 2-aryl-3-acetylpyrrolidine systems is also described.     

Modification of polysulfone membranes with polyethylene glycol and lignosulfate: electrical characterization by impedance spectroscopy measurements

Two sets of composite membranes having an asymmetric sulfonated polysulfone membrane as support layer have been obtained and electrically characterized (membranes SPS-PEG and PA-LIGS). The skin layer of the membrane SPS-PEG contains different percentages of polyethylene glycol in the casting solution (5, 25, 40, and 60 wt%), while lignosulfonate was used for manufacturing PA-LIGS membranes (5, 10, 20, and 40 wt%). Membrane electrical characterization was done by means of impedance spectroscopy (IS) measurements, which were carried out with the membranes in contact with NaCl solutions at different concentrations (10(-3) < or = c(M) < or = 5x10(-2)). Electrical resistance and equivalent capacitance of the different membrane samples were determined from IS plots by using equivalent circuits as models. Results show a clear decrease in the membrane electrical resistance as a result of both polysulfone sulfonation and the increase of the concentration of modifying substances, although a kind of limit concentration was obtained for both polyethylene glycol and lignosulfonate (40 and 20%, respectively). Results also show a decrease of around 90% in electrical resistance due to polysulfone sulfonation, while the value of the dielectric constant (hydrated state) clearly increases.     

Generalized renormalization group treatment of the growth kinetics of unstable systems

We discuss the generalization of a renormalization group technique developed previously for the study of ordering in unstable systems in the context of the ferromagnetic Ising model with spin-flip dynamics. Difficulties encountered in earlier work are eliminated through the use of new recursion relations dependent on a continuous spatial rescaling factorb 1. A more careful analysis and implementation of the approximation scheme is carried out. Our improved method allows the study of the anisotropy of the time-dependent structure factor and the pre-scaling behavior of the shape function.     

Method development and validation study for quantitative determination of nifedipine and related substances by ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography

A novel stability‐indicating reversed phase ultra‐high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled photodiode array gradient method was developed for determination of the nifedipine and related compounds. Furthermore, based on the chromatographic conditions and forced degradation studies performed through the development of the related substances method a UPLC isocratic method was validated for the determination of the assay of this active substance. An Acquity Shield RP₁₈ (50 × 3.0 mm 1.7 µm) column was used for separation of nifedipine and its five potential impurities within 11 min, which is 5‐fold less than the official method. A mobile phase consisting of 10 mm ammonium formate (pH 4.5) and methanol, delivered at a flow rate 0.5 mL/min, was employed to achieve a minimum resolution of 2.0 for all consecutive pairs of compounds. The precision value expressed as percentage relative standard deviation for method repeatability and reproducibility was <5.0%. The recoveries for all the related compounds were in the range of 99–105.0%. Linearity was found to be acceptable over the concentration range of 0.25–1.5 µg/mL for nifedipine and its impurities. The limit of quantification for nifedipine was 0.05 µg/mL, which is much less than the European Pharmacopoeia method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advanced separation methods of food anthocyanins,isoflavones and flavanols

In recent years, increasing knowledge of the positive health effects of food polyphenols has prompted the need to develop new separation techniques for their extraction, fractionation and analysis. This article provides an updated and exhaustive review of the application of counter-current chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, and their hyphenation with mass spectrometry to the study of food polyphenols. Flavonoids constitute the largest class of polyphenols, widely spread in the plant kingdom and common in human diet which has been the most widely studied with respect to their antioxidant and biological activities. The main subgroups are anthocyanins, catechins, isoflavones, flavonols and flavones. They are reported to exhibit antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-atherogenic, anti-thrombotic, and immune modulating functions, among others. Since red fruit anthocyanins, soy isoflavones and flavanols from grapes and teas are currently the most used phenolic compounds for producing new nutraceuticals and functional foods, this review is focused on these three flavonoid groups.     

Robustness for impulsive equations

For nonautonomous linear impulsive differential equations in Banach spaces, we establish the robustness of exponential contractions and exponential dichotomies, in the sense that the exponential behavior persists under sufficiently small linear perturbations. We also consider the more general case of nonuniform exponential behavior.