Chemical Composition and Antibacterial Activity of Lippia multiflora Moldenke Essential Oil from Different Regions of Angola

The purpose of the study was to determine the chemical composition and antibacterial activity of Lippia multiflora Moldenke essential oils (EOs) collected in different regions of Angola. Antibacterial activity was evaluated using the agar wells technique and vapour phase test. Analysis of the oils by GC/MS identified thirty-five components representing 67.5 to 100% of the total oils. Monoterpene hydrocarbons were the most prevalent compounds, followed by oxygenated monoterpenes. The content of the compounds varied according to the samples. The main components were Limonene, Piperitenone, Neral, Citral, Elemol, p-cymene, Transtagetone, and Artemisia ketone. Only one of the eleven samples contained Verbenone as the majority compound. In the vapour phase test, a single oil was the most effective against all the pathogens studied. The principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) of components of the selected EOs and inhibition zone diameter values of agar wells technique allowed us to identify a variability between the plants from the two provinces, but also intraspecific variability between sub-groups within a population. Each group of essential oils constituted a chemotype responsible for their bacterial inhibition capacity. The results presented here suggest that Angolan Lippia multiflora Moldenke has antibacterial properties and could be a potential source of antimicrobial agents for the pharmaceutical and food industry.     

巧用智能手机测定抗贫血药物中铁的含量

铁离子和硫氰化钾反应生成稳定的血红色络合物硫氰化铁,用智能手机拍摄所得图像的颜色反映在图像的RGB值上。随着该溶液浓度的增大,溶液颜色逐渐加深,反映在拍摄的图像中颜色的RGB值也在变化,并且得出该溶液颜色的R值与溶液的浓度成线性关系。结果显示,用该实验方法测得的抗贫血药物中铁的含量与用紫外分光光度法测得同一药品中铁的含量相比误差为5%;并且该实验方法在中学的化学实验课中很容易实现,避免了学生用目视比色法测量抗贫血药物中铁的含量时因标准溶液的色阶选择不合适而导致实验的失败。     

Research Advances in Ion Channel-based Electrochemical Sensing Techniques

During the past few years, the electrochemical sensing techniques based on ion channels have attracted considerable attention. Nowadays, these techniques have been widely used in DNA sequencing, measurement of molecular interactions, and detection of inorganic ions and biological species. Hence, in this review, the research progresses of the ion channel-based electrochemical techniques including amperometry, conductometry and potentiometry in chemical and biological sensing are addressed from the perspective of different electrochemical methods. The sensing mechanism and fabrication process of these sensing methods are mainly introduced. In addition, the further research orientations of the electrochemical sensing based on ion channels are prospected.     

On searching for solutions of the Diophantine equation

We propose a new search algorithm to solve the equation for a fixed value of . By parametrizing min, this algorithm obtains and (if they exist) by solving a quadratic equation derived from divisors of . By using several efficient number-theoretic sieves, the new algorithm is much faster on average than previous straightforward algorithms. We performed a computer search for 51 values of below 1000 (except ) for which no solution has previously been found. We found eight new integer solutions for and in the range of .

     

Oriented growth of large size calcium fluoride single crystals for optical lithography

We report (1 1 1), (1 1 0) and (1 0 0) growth of CaF₂ by the vertical Bridgman method. Crystals up to 250 mm diameter were grown and various growth parameters such as growth rate, temperature gradient and post-growth cooling rate were studied. It was found that the growth rate and the cooling rate are slower for the larger diameter crystals with a fixed temperature gradient. These growth parameters were optimized for growing the crystals along specific orientation after realizing that CaF₂ has a tendency to grow along an orientation close to 1 1 0. Degradation in optical transmittance was evaluated by irradiating the crystal to γ-rays up to a dose of 10⁵ rad. Optimized scavenger addition resulted in crystals with better radiation resistance and excellent VUV transmittance.     

Growth of NaBi(WO4)2 crystal by modified-Bridgman method

NaBi(WO₄)₂ (NBW) crystals have been grown for the first time by modified-Bridgman method. Influences of some factors on the crystal growth process are discussed. X-ray powder diffraction experiments show that the unit cell parameters of NBW crystal are a=b=0.5284 nm, c=1.1517 nm, and V=0.3215 nm³. The differential thermal analysis shows that the NBW crystal melts at 923°C.     

Effect of lattice oxygen on optical absorption, radiation hardness and thermally stimulated luminescence of BaF2 crystal

The influence of the presence of BaO impurity on the optical absorption, radiation hardness and thermally stimulated luminescence of BaF₂ has been investigated. The presence of oxygen impurity gives rise to three absorption bands in the UV region, peaking around 220, 280 and 335 nm. Further, the impurity is found to be detrimental to crystal hardness against ionizing radiations. The thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) has been studied from gamma-irradiated crystals containing different fractions of BaO impurity. Four prominent glow peaks around 100°C (peak I), 150°C (peak II), 220°C (peak III) and 290°C (peak IV) are observed for crystals containing BaO impurity concentrations lower than 0.5% (by wt). For crystals containing higher impurity concentrations, two additional peaks around 75°C and 260°C are also observed. The kinetics of TSL emission is observed to be of first order, implying that the absorption and the emission centers responsible for TSL are the same. The normalized TSL output for peak I is found to vary linearly with the concentration of oxide impurity. This fact can be utilized to detect the presence of minute amounts of oxygen in BaF₂ lattice, which is crucial to the growth of crystals exhibiting high radiation hardness.     

Cone-valued Lyapunov functions and stability for impulsive functional differential equations

The stability criteria in terms of two measures for impulsive functional differential equations are established via cone-valued Lyapunov functions and Razumikhin technique. The stability can be deduced from the (Q₀,Q)-stability of comparison impulsive differential equations. An example is given to illustrate the advantages of the results obtained.     

TG-DTA study of melamine-urea-formaldehyde resins

The thermal behaviour of MUF resins from different suppliers with different content of melamine was studied, along with the ¹³C NMR spectroscopic analysis of resin structure and the testing of particleboards in current production at Estonian PB factory Pärnu Plaaditehas AS. The chemical structure of resins from DMSO-d₆ solutions was analysed by ¹³C NMR spectroscopy on a Bruker AMX500 NMR spectrometer. The melamine level in different MUF resins is compared by the ratios of carbonyl carbon of urea and triazine carbon of melamine in ¹³C NMR spectra. Curing behaviour of MUF resins was studied by stimultaneous TG-DTA techniques on the Labsys? instrument Setaram. The shape of DTA curves characterisises the resin synthesis procedure by the extent of polymerisation of UF and MF components and is in accordance with structural data.