Synthesis and structure of a dimeric scandium bis(μ-methoxy) complex

Reaction of hydrated scandium nitrate with 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) in methanol leads to formation of the unusual dimeric complex [(phen)(NO₃)₂Sc(μ-OMe)₂Sc(NO₃)₂(phen)], in which the scandium centres are eight co-ordinate. The complex features two bridging methoxy ligands, as well as bidentate nitrates and chelating 1,10-phenanthroline ligands.     

Controllability analysis of modified Petlyuk structures

Fully thermally coupled distillation columns (Petlyuk‐type columns) represent an interesting alternative to conventional distillation sequences used in multicomponent mixture separation processes, due to potential savings in both energy and capital costs. However, possible operational difficulties have limited the industrial applications of Petlyuk systems. Some of the control challenges result from the transfer of vapour stream back and forth between columns. This means that those columns do not display a uniform lower or higher pressure with respect to the other. Recently, some alternative Petlyuk‐type schemes that might provide better operation properties than the traditional Petlyuk column have been proposed. In this work, the theoretical control properties of six alternative schemes to the Petlyuk system were obtained and compared. This was performed by using the singular value decomposition (SVD) technique in the frequency domain. Also, dynamic closed‐loop responses for set point tracking and disturbance rejection were obtained to support the theoretical control properties. The results showed that the reduction in the number of interconnections and the use of unidirectional flows affected the dynamic properties of the complex schemes leading to potential operational advantages in thermally coupled distillation sequences.     

Enrichment of pomace olive oil in triterpenic acids during storage of “Alpeorujo” olive paste

Triterpenic acids are natural compounds present in plants and foods with beneficial properties for human health and thus they are desirable in the food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Pomace olive is considered a good source of these substances. In this study, oleanolic and maslinic acids were found to be the main triterpenic acids identified in pomace olive oil obtained from stored “Alpeorujo”. Determination of the two acids was achieved by a new procedure that consists of extracting the acids from the oil with a mixture of methanol/ethanol, and then separating and quantifying them by HPLC. Results showed that their concentration increased up to 16 g/kg of oil during storage of the pomace in large ponds for 7 months. The concentration of both triterpenic acids was similar in the pomace olive oil obtained by using the centrifugation system. By contrast, a much lower concentration of maslinic than oleanolic acid was detected in pomace olive oils obtained by solvent extraction from the previously centrifugated “Alpeorujo” paste. These triterpenic acids also contributed to the acidity of the crude oil. Likewise, the oil of the pomace paste was enriched in other substances such as 4‐ethylphenol and aliphatic alcohols during the storage of the paste in large ponds. Consequently, crude pomace olive oil can be considered a good source of triterpenic acids when obtained from a stored olive paste.     

Ultra-high pressure homogenisation of milk: technological aspects of cheese-making and microbial shelf life of a starter-free fresh cheese

Fresh cheeses from pasteurised (80 °C for 15 s), homogenised-pasteurised (15 + 3 MPa at 60 °C; 80 °C for 15 s) or ultra-high pressure homogenised milks (300 MPa and inlet temperature of 30 °C) were produced in order to evaluate different technological aspects during cheese-making and to study their microbial shelf life. Although the coagulation properties of milk were enhanced by ultra-high pressure homogenisation (UHPH), the cheese-making properties were somewhat altered; both conventional homogenisation and UHPH of milk provoked some difficulties at cutting the curd due to crumbling and improper curd matting due to poor cohesion of the grains. Cheese-milk obtained by UHPH showed a higher microbiological quality than milk obtained by conventional treatments. Starter-free fresh cheeses made from UHPH-treated milk showed less syneresis during storage and longer microbiological shelf-life than those from conventionally treated milk samples.     

Comparison of ultra high pressure homogenization and conventional thermal treatments on the microbiological,physical and chemical quality of soymilk

The effect of ultra high pressure homogenization (UHPH) at 200 and 300 MPa in combination with different inlet temperatures (55, 65 and 75 °C) on soymilk was studied. UHPH-treated soymilk was compared with the base product (untreated), with pasteurized (95 °C for 30 s) and with ultra high temperature (UHT; 142 °C for 6 s) treated soymilks. Microbiological (total aerobic meshophilic bacteria, aerobic spores, and Bacillus cereus), physical (dispersion stability and particle size distribution) and chemical (lipoxygenase activity, hydroperoxide index and trypsin inhibitor activity) parameters of special relevance in soymilk were studied. Microbiological results showed that pressure and inlet temperature combination had a significant impact on the lethal effect of UHPH treatment. While most of UHPH treatments applied produced high quality of soymilks better than that pasteurized, the combination of 300 MPa and 75 °C produced a commercially sterile soymilk. UHPH treatments caused a significant decrease in particle size resulting in a high physical stability of samples compared with conventional heat treatments. UHPH treatment produced lower values of hydroperoxide index than heat treated soymilks although trypsin inhibitor activity was lower in UHT-treated products.     

Effect of androgen treatment during foetal and/or neonatal life on ovarian function in prepubertal and adult rats

We investigated the effects of different windows of testosterone propionate (TP) treatment during foetal and neonatal life in female rats to determine whether and when excess androgen exposure would cause disruption of adult reproductive function. Animals were killed prepubertally at d25 and as adults at d90. Plasma samples were taken for hormone analysis and ovaries serial sectioned for morphometric analyses. In prepubertal animals, only foetal+postnatal and late postnatal TP resulted in increased body weights, and an increase in transitory, but reduced antral follicle numbers without affecting total follicle populations. Treatment with TP during both foetal+postnatal life resulted in the development of streak ovaries with activated follicles containing oocytes that only progressed to a small antral (smA) stage and inactive uteri. TP exposure during foetal or late postnatal life had no effect upon adult reproductive function or the total follicle population, although there was a reduction in the primordial follicle pool. In contrast, TP treatment during full postnatal life (d1-25) resulted in anovulation in adults (d90). These animals were heavier, had a greater ovarian stromal compartment, no differences in follicle thecal cell area, but reduced numbers of anti-Mullerian hormone-positive smA follicles when compared with controls. Significantly reduced uterine weights lead reduced follicle oestradiol production. These results support the concept that androgen programming of adult female reproductive function occurs only during specific time windows in foetal and neonatal life with implications for the development of polycystic ovary syndrome in women.     

Multi-aggressor capacitive and inductive coupling noise modeling and mitigation

Crosstalk noise in on-chip interconnect plays a major role in the performance of modern integrated circuits. Multi-aggressor capacitive and inductive coupling complicates both the modeling and mitigation of the noise. A novel method to model and analyze noise in RLC multi-line structures is proposed in this paper, exhibiting an error of up to 9% as compared to SPICE. This method is physically intuitive since it decomposes the noise produced by each of the aggressors into individual capacitive and inductive noise sources. The proposed model and related layout noise mitigation guidelines are applied to crosstalk noise reduction in multi-line structures.     

On the Use of Asymmetric Windows for Robust Speech Recognition

This paper deals with the problem of searching for a suitable window for robust speech recognition in noisy conditions. A set of asymmetric windows, so-called DDR _c,w , are proposed which are controlled by two parameters, center c and width w. These windows are derived from the DDR window used in the higher-lag autocorrelation spectrum estimation (HASE) method and act over the OSA (One-Sided Autocorrelation) in order to perform spectral estimation. The two parameters, c and w, allow us to control the level of weight given to the first noisy autocorrelation coefficients and to emphasize the important ones. Finally, it is shown that the best window of the proposed set is the DDR _62,200. This window is centered around the average pitch of human speech and it provides a higher speech recognition performance over the Aurora-2 and Aurora-3 databases than those obtained by previously proposed windows.     

Effects of aqueous polymeric surfactants on silicone-hydrogel soft- contact-lens wettability and bacterial adhesion of Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Prevention of Pseudomonas aeruginosa binding to soft-contact lenses (SCLs) may curtail sight-threatening microbial keratitis. Substrate surface wettability is known to modulate adhesion of P. aeruginosa. This study investigates the use of aqueous alkoxylate block co-polymer surfactants for enhanced wettability and antibacterial adhesion of SCLs under leaching conditions. Specifically, Pluronic^® F127 (PF) and three ethylene oxide-butylene oxide (EOBO) surfactants were studied with four commercially available silicone–hydrogel contact lenses: Pure Vision?, Acuvue Advance?, Acuvue Oasys? and O₂Optix?. Dilute aqueous PF and EOBO surfactants impregnated all four soft-contact lenses, as demonstrated by surface-tension decline for leached surfactant. For PF surfactant, significant surface-wettability improvement upon rinsing occurred only after overnight leaching. EOBO surfactant showed a similar pattern with O₂Optix? lenses. EOBO-pretreated Pure Vision? lenses, however, showed fast leaching and a significant change in surface energy towards improved wettability. Adhesion assays of P. aeruginosa displayed a small decrease in the binding rate of PAK bacteria for EOBO-pretreated Pure Vision? lenses, but not for EOBO-pretreated O₂Optix? lenses. P. aeruginosa strain-PAO1 bacteria adhesion to all lenses was independent of surface wettability. Despite the ability of polymeric surfactants to lower advancing contact angles under leaching conditions, increased lens wettability is not a universal panacea for antifouling of soft-contact lenses.