Analysis of dissolution profiles of iron,zinc, and manganese from complex dietary supplements by ion chromatography and chemometrics

Four commercially available formulations containing iron, zinc, and manganese were subjected to dissolution profile testing during 60 min and the dissolution was analyzed by ion chromatography. The obtained curves were analyzed directly by principal component analysis (PCA). The main trend (87.1% of variance) was connected with average dissolution percentage over the investigated time. The second component (11.2% of variance) is connected with shape of dissolution profile. All metals behave in the similar way and the differences were connected with excipients. An additional fit was completed on 12 kinetic models: first order kinetics (4 variants), Higuchi (2 variants), Hixson-Crowell (2 variants), Korsemeyer-Peppas, Logistic (2 variants), Peppas-Sahlin, Quadratic (2 variants), Weibull (3 variants), and Zero order kinetics (2 variants). The ranking of the fitting was performed by Akaike information criteria (AIC) values with additional PCA analysis on them, an approach presented in literature for the first time. The main trend (67.4% of variance) was connected with average fit. The second (14.8% of variance) is connected with differences of fitting ability to investigated dissolution curves. This methodology brought an overall look to trends and variances inside obtained data, both the profile shape and fitting ability to particular models.     

Evaluation of an activated carbon from olive stones used as an adsorbent for heavy metal removal from aqueous phases

The performance of a microporous activated carbon prepared chemically from olive stones for removing Cu(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) from single and binary aqueous solutions was investigated via the batch technique. The activated carbon sample was characterized using N₂ adsorption–desorption isotherms, SEM, XRD, FTIR, and Boehm titration. The effect of initial pH and contact time were studied. Adsorption kinetic rates were found to be fast and kinetic experimental data fitted very well the pseudo-second-order equation. The adsorption isotherms fit the Redlich–Peterson model very well and maximum adsorption amounts of single metal ions solutions follow the trend Pb(II) > Cd(II) > Cu(II). The adsorption behavior of binary solution systems shows a relatively high affinity to Cu(II) at the activated carbon surface of the mixture with Cd(II) or Pb(II). An antagonistic competitive adsorption phenomenon was observed. Desorption experiments indicated that about 59.5% of Cu(II) and 23% of Cd(II) were desorbed using a diluted sulfuric acid solution.     

Multicomponent assembling of salicylaldehydes,malononitrile and cyanoacetamides: A simple and efficient approach to medicinally relevant 2-amino-4H-chromene scaffold

Sodium hydroxide catalyzed a new multicomponent reaction of salicylaldehydes, malononitrile and cyanoacetamides under ‘on-water’ conditions, which results in the facile and efficient formation of the corresponding substituted 2-amino-4H-chromenes in 80–95% yields. The convenient approach to the substituted 2-amino-4H-chromenes developed here — the promising small-molecule ligands for different biomedical applications with known spasmolitic, diuretic and antianaphylactic activities — is beneficial from the viewpoint of diversity-oriented large-scale processes and represents a fast, efficient and environmentally benign ‘on-water’ synthetic concept for multicomponent reactions strategy.     

Preliminary selection of clay minerals for the removal of pharmaceuticals,bisphenol A and triclosan in acidic and neutral aqueous solutions

Pharmaceuticals, personal care products and endocrine disruptors demonstrate huge potential to cause adverse ecological health effects at very low concentration in aquatic environment. There is a need to improve current purification technologies used in sewage and drinking-water treatment plants. This article aims at providing new insights into the recent development of natural and modified clay-based sorbents for the removal of aqueous contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products. The removal of six widely used pharmaceuticals: ibuprofen, diclofenac, ketoprofen, carbamazepine, as well as endocrine disrupting chemicals – bisphenol A and a bactericidal agent, triclosan – was examined by sorption onto eight adsorbents. Sorption was performed using natural and modified clay minerals – montmorillonite (Mt), vermiculite (VER), bentonite (B), kaolinite (K), commercial acid activated montmorillonites K10 and K30, and two carbonaceous-mineral nanocomposites, MtG5%T, BAlG3%C. This study showed that among the tested natural clays, vermiculite is the most promising sorbent for the removal of pharmaceuticals in purification processes. Among the modified clay minerals, the best results were achieved for carbonaceous bentonite and two acid activated montmorillonites K10 and K30. However, the removal of acidic pharmaceuticals on montomorillonite K10 and carbonaceous bentonite was strongly dependent on the pH value. In the case of vermiculite and acid-modified montmorillonite K30, the sorption of the selected compounds was not significantly affected by pH, which is crucial in wastewater treatment. The sorption constant divided by the specific surface area (K_d/A) is proposed to assess whether the surface area or chemical properties of the materials control the sorption process. K_d/A values were relatively high in the case of vermiculite, so it should be noticed that individual and specific surface properties of vermiculite were of crucial importance for sorption.     

Simultaneous effect of carbon and water on NOx adsorption on a stabilized Pt–Ba/Al2O3 catalyst

The influence of the presence of H₂O on the contact between carbon, used as model soot, and a model four-way catalyst (1% Pt–10% BaO/Al₂O₃) was investigated. NO_x adsorption/TPD cycles at 300 °C together with XRD, XPS and DRIFTS characterizations showed that only surface nitrate species are destabilized by the carbon present in the catalytic bed, leading to a decrease of the NO_x storage capacity and carbonate species formation. In another way, injection of water in the reactive gas flow decreases also the NO_x storage capacity of the catalyst, but promotes the formation of stable nitrate species. A non-cumulative effect of carbon and water was observed. It was proposed that a competition between the destabilization, by carbon, of weakly bonded surface nitrate species and the enhancement of bulk nitrate species formation in the presence of water occurs.     

Finite Element Based Micro-mechanical Modeling of Interphase in Filler Reinforced Elastomers

Characteristic properties of elastomers can be tailored by embedding them with filler particles. Along with enhancing the overall properties of the composite, filler particles also induce some inelastic effects. In this paper, a finite element computational model is used to study the effect of microstructure morphology in filled elastomers, on its macroscopic large deformation behavior. A multiphase material model that accounts for the hypothesis of shift in glass transition temperature in the vicinity of the filler particle is developed to simulate the interphase between the fillers and the matrix. It also accounts for the breakdown and re-aggregation of filler networks under cyclic loading. Examples at the microstructural level, demonstrating the dynamics of the interphase using the developed multiphase model have been successfully simulated. The obtained results are in good qualitative agreement with the Mullins effect. Therefore, computational experiments using this methodology enable the prediction of the experimentally observed softening behavior in filled elastomers based on its microstructure evolution.     

Stochastic calculus for Markov processes associated with non-symmetric Dirichlet forms

Nakao’s stochastic integrals for continuous additive functionals of zero energy are extended from the symmetric Dirichlet forms setting to the non-symmetric Dirichlet forms setting.It? ’s formula in terms of the extended stochastic integrals is obtained.     

On Connes’ trace formula for the Hankel transformation of order-1/2

A local Hankel transformation of order 1/2 is defined for every finite place of the field of rational numbers.Its inversion formula and the Plancherel type theorem are obtained.A Connes type trace formula is given for each local Hankel transformation of order 1/2.An S-local Connes type trace formula is derived for the S-local Hankel transformation of order 1/2.These formulas are generalizations of Connes’ corresponding trace formulas in 1999.     

Network pharmacology-based screening of the active ingredients and potential targets of the genus of Pithecellobium marthae (Britton & Killip) Niezgoda & Nevl for application to Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder associated with synaptic dysfunction, pathological accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ), and neuronal loss. Given the prevalence of AD and the lack of effective long-term therapies, there is a pressing need to discover viable leads that can be developed into clinically approved drugs with disease-modifying effects. The analysis of current reported literatures confirms the importance of the plants of Pithecellobium genus as candidate against AD. Hence, it is necessary to identify selective anti-dementia agents from this genus. To explore potential compounds with marked effect on AD in Pithecellobium genus, a compound database based on the methods of network pharmacology prediction was established in this paper by constructing the compound-disease target network. The result showed that the most effective compound in the plants of this genus might be (7′R,8′R)-7′-methoxyl strebluslignanol, and the most potential target might be Macrophage colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor.