Sensory, physicochemical and microbiological quality of irradiated minimally processed cauliflower

Minimally processed cauliflower samples were irradiated, stored at 5 °C for 2 weeks and analyzed for sensory, physicochemical and microbiological qualities at 0th, 7th and 14th days. The data showed highest mean values of 7.93 and 7.57 for appearance and flavor, respectively, for 1.0 kGy treated samples. The D₁₀ values of contaminating microorganisms on cauliflower were 0.20 (Escherischia coli) and 0.24 kGy (Salmonella paratyphae A.) and the resulting 5D₁₀ value was 1.2 kGy. The study revealed that a dose of 1.5 kGy is enough for retention of quality and reduction of microbial load to 5D₁₀ values in cauliflower during 2 weeks storage at refrigerated temperature.     

Direct preparation and structure determination of tertiary and secondary amine boranes from primary or secondary amine boranes

New secondary and tertiary amine borane derivatives were prepared in a one-pot reaction starting from primary amine boranes. The reaction involves treatment of an amine borane with 2 equivalents of s-BuLi at −78 °C. In general, mixtures of mono and di metallated products were obtained. Alkyl iodides and benzyl chloride reacted with the lithiated amine, but aldehydes and ketones were reduced. Conversion was high as determined by NMR, but moderate to low yields were obtained after chromatography, possibly due to decomposition on silica. Crystal structures were obtained for the compounds 3a, 3b and 3c.     

Addition of hydrogen halides to alkylidenecyclopropanes: a highly efficient and stereoselective method for the preparation of homoallylic halides

The reaction of alkylidenecyclopropanes with HCl or with HBr proceeds very smoothly at 120°C to produce the corresponding homoallylic halides stereoselectively in good to excellent yields. For example, the reaction of (1-phenylbenzylidene)cyclopropane, (1-butylpentylidene)cyclopropane and octylidenecyclopropane with hydrochloric acid produced the corresponding homoallylic chlorides, 4-chloro-1,1-diphenyl-1-butene, 4-butyl-1-chloro-3-octene and (E)-1-chloro-3-undecene in 99, 96, and 87% yields, respectively. The reaction of (1-butylpentylidene)cyclopropane with hydrobromic acid yielded 1-bromo-4-butyl-3-octene in 95% yield.     

Scattering Behavior of Restructured Aggregates: A Simulation Study

Simulations of diffusion-limited cluster-cluster aggregation (DLCA) with no restructuring, full restructuring, and partial restructuring have been performed. The scattering patterns produced from these aggregates have been simulated using the Rayleigh-Gans-Debye approximation. Pure DLCA aggregates produced a scattering pattern with the slope of the fractal region being about -1.8. In contrast, the slope of the fractal region of the scattering pattern for fully restructured aggregates was about -2.1, indicating an increase in fractal dimension. Partial restructuring at large length scales produced an upward turn in the scattering pattern at low qr(o), while at high qr(o) the fractal section of the pure DLCA aggregate was retained. This last result was expected and is consistent with the results and postulations of several other workers. This simulation shows that the type of scattering pattern often obtained from orthokinetic or sheared aggregation can be produced by restructuring of aggregates at large length scales. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Brownian motion in magnetic field: A model for a semi-quantum stochastic process

The Brownian motion of an ensemble of charged particles in a quantizing magnetic field is considered in a simple quasi-classical model. The model describes random jumps between the Landau levels—corresponding to the quantized motion perpendicular to the magnetic field, and markovian fluctuations in momentum space—corresponding to the classical motion parallel to the field. A random walk dynamics is adopted for the former while an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process is considered for the latter. The resulting Fokker-Planck equations constitute a semi-quantum stochastic process. The equations are solved and several physical aspects of the underlying system are discussed.     

Evidence of Shear Rate Dependence on Restructuring and Breakup of Latex Aggregates

Small-angle static light scattering has been used to probe the evolution of aggregate size and structure in the shear-induced aggregation of latex particles. The size of aggregates obtained from the particle-sizing instrument (Coulter LS230) was compared with the size of those obtained with another approach utilizing the Guinier equation on the scattering data. Comparison of the two methods for studying the effects of mixing on the evolution of the aggregate size with time revealed similar trends. The aggregate structures were quantified in terms of their fractal dimensions on the grounds of the validity of Rayleigh-Gans-Debye scattering theory for the fractal aggregates. Analysis of the scattering patterns of aggregates verified that restructuring of the aggregates occurred as the aggregates were exposed to certain shear environments, resulting in a scale-dependent structure that could not be quantified by a fractal dimension. The effect of restructuring on aggregate size was particularly noticeable when the aggregates were exposed to average shear rates of 40 to 80 s(-1), whereas no significant restructuring occurred at lower shear rates. At 100 s(-1), the fragmentation of aggregates appeared to be more significant than aggregate compac-tion. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Solubility Optimization of Loxoprofen as a Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug: Statistical Modeling and Optimization

Industrial-based application of supercritical CO₂ (SCCO₂) has emerged as a promising technology in numerous scientific fields due to offering brilliant advantages, such as simplicity of application, eco-friendliness, and high performance. Loxoprofen sodium (chemical formula C₁₅H₁₈O₃) is known as an efficient nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), which has been long propounded as an effective alleviator for various painful disorders like musculoskeletal conditions. Although experimental research plays an important role in obtaining drug solubility in SCCO₂, the emergence of operational disadvantages such as high cost and long-time process duration has motivated the researchers to develop mathematical models based on artificial intelligence (AI) to predict this important parameter. Three distinct models have been used on the data in this work, all of which were based on decision trees: K-nearest neighbors (KNN), NU support vector machine (NU-SVR), and Gaussian process regression (GPR). The data set has two input characteristics, P (pressure) and T (temperature), and a single output, Y = solubility. After implementing and fine-tuning to the hyperparameters of these ensemble models, their performance has been evaluated using a variety of measures. The R-squared scores of all three models are greater than 0.9, however, the RMSE error rates are 1.879 × 10⁻⁴, 7.814 × 10⁻⁵, and 1.664 × 10⁻⁴ for the KNN, NU-SVR, and GPR models, respectively. MAE metrics of 1.116 × 10⁻⁴, 6.197 × 10⁻⁵, and 8.777 × 10⁻⁵errors were also discovered for the KNN, NU-SVR, and GPR models, respectively. A study was also carried out to determine the best quantity of solubility, which can be referred to as the (x₁ = 40.0, x₂ = 338.0, Y = 1.27 × 10⁻³) vector.     

Study of Michael addition on chalcones and or chalcone analogues

Michael addition reaction of 1,3-diphenyl-propenone 1a, e, and f with o-amino thiophenol in the presence of indium trichloride gave the benzothiazine derivatives 2a–c. Condensation of the compound 1a, e with o-phenylene diamine in triethylamine gave the benzodiazepine derivatives 3a–b. Cyclization of 1d with malononitrile in the presence of NaOR/EtOH gave the compound 4. Addition of thiobarbituric acid in triethylamin to 1a gave 5. Condensation of compound 1c with malononitrile in the presence ammonium acetate gave compound 6. 1,3-diphenyl-propenone 1a used as key starting chalcone to react with different active methylene reagents under phase-transfer catalysis condition gave compound 7–9. The structures of the prepared compounds were mainly confirmed on the basis of spectroscopic methods.     

Quaternary ammonium compounds in roots and leaves of Capparis spinosa L. from Saudi Arabia and Italy: investigation by HPLC-MS and 1H NMR

Capparis spinosa L. is a perennial plant typical of the Mediterranean flora and a multipurpose plant used for curing various human ailments. Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), as constituents of Capparaceae, play important roles in protecting against abiotic stress. Aim of this work was to determine QACs in root and leaves of caper from two proveniences. The presence of stachydrine, choline, glycine betaine and homo-stachydrine has been confirmed by high resolution MS, while ¹H NMR was applied to quantify the main QACs in the aqueous extracts. Stachydrine was quantified at 20.2 mg/g and 32.3 mg/g on dry leaves from South of Italy and Saudi Arabia, respectively, while a minor content was in dry roots (from 10.4 to 12.5 mg/g). Choline was considerably lower both in leaves and roots (from 0.3 to 1.2 mg/g). To our knowledge, this is the first report on the determination of QACs both in root and leaves of C. spinosa.