Synthesis of Nanostructured Erbium Oxides and Investigation of Influence Oxides on the Immune System and of Some Animal Tissues

Nanostructured erbium oxides （Er2O3） with coherent scattering length 26, 31, 62 and 65 nm were obtained using as a precursor of erbium chloride and erbium oleate. The influences of Er203 on the immune system and some animal tissues were carried out. The experiments have been made on white mouse＇s and outbred rats. Complex pharmaco-toxicological research presented erbium oxide nanostructure size of coherent scattering regions 26, 31, 56 and 65 nm showed that when administered orally no acute toxicity, no effect on the immune system of the body, has no effect on blood cells. But, long-term （30 day） intragastric administration shows toxicities on the internal organs of experimental animals, which lead to structural changes and functional impairment due to tissue accumulation of nanoparticles.     

Constraints on the applicability range of Hill’s criterion: strong orthotropy or transverse isotropy

Commonly used orthotropic Hill’s criterion of plastic flow initiation (Hill in Proc R Soc Lond A 193:281–297, 1948) suffers from some constraints and inconsistencies, which are of two different origins. Firstly, in case of high orthotropy degree, the quadratic form corresponding to Hill’s criterion may change type from convex and closed elliptic to concave and open hyperbolic in the deviatoric stress space (Ottosen and Ristinmaa in the mechanics of constitutive modeling, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2005). Secondly, application of classical Hill’s criterion to transversely isotropic materials shows a discrepancy between Hill’s limit curves in the transverse isotropy plane and the Huber-von Mises prediction for isotropic materials (Huber 1904; von Mises 1913). The basic result of the present paper is to propose the new transversely isotropic von Mises–Hu–Marin’s-type criterion of hexagonal symmetry that is free from both constraints. The new enhanced Hu–Marin’s-type limit surface represents an elliptic cylinder, the axis of which is proportional to stress/strength, in contrast to Hill’s-type limit surface possessing the hydrostatic axis. Hence, this condition does not exhibit the deviatoricity property, which is a price for coincidence with the Huber–von Mises condition in the transverse isotropy plane, but with cylindricity ensured for an arbitrarily high orthotropy degree. The hybrid-type transversely isotropic Hu–Marin’s criterion of mixed symmetry based on additional biaxial bulge test, capable of fitting experimental findings for some complex composites, is also proposed. Application of this criterion has been verified for a unidirectional SiC/Ti composite examined by Herakovich (Thermal stresses V, Lastran Corp. Publ. Division, pp 1–142, 1999).     

Rhodium‐Catalysed Tandem Hydroformylation/Arylation Reaction with Boronic Acids

A new efficient multicatalytic process involving a single catalyst to promote tandem hydroformylation/arylation reactions is disclosed. The effect of the rhodium ligand was evaluated and the rhodium/triphenylphosphine catalytic system was selected to apply the methodology to different olefins and boronic acids. High yields (up to 89%) and good to excellent isomer ratios (up to 98:2) were achieved using aryl olefins as starting materials. This new methodology allows the preparation of secondary alcohols, from simple olefins, and paves the way for the synthesis of high‐value products, namely vinylindole and anethole derivatives.

     

Immunodetection of legume proteins resistant to small intestinal digestion in weaned piglets

Experiments were conducted to investigate the biochemistry of digestion of the major storage proteins from soya bean, pea, faba bean, blue lupin, and chickpea seeds in the ileum of piglets. Hyperimmune plasmas against the crude protein extracts and the purified 11S and 7S globulin fractions of each legume seed and an anti‐pea albumin PA2 and lectin antibody were used. They served to probe immunoblots of feed protein extracts and ileal digesta samples. Globally, the recognition by plasmas of intact or partially digested proteins in ileal digesta was rather faint, in agreement with the fairly high in vivo digestibility data obtained with these legume seed proteins. Nevertheless, immunoreactive polypeptides found in digesta of piglets fed pea, faba bean and chickpea belonged mainly to proteins of the 7S family, and to other proteins including low‐molecular weight components such as PA2 albumin and lectin in the case of pea. In piglets fed lupin, nearly intact polypeptides from the 11S family were detected. To conclude, the present immunochemical study conducted on ileal digesta of piglets revealed a few dietary legume proteins of the vicilin and albumin families. Legumin proteins were demonstrated unequivocally in the case of lupin and white chickpea. Copyright © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

Changes in the Cell Wall Proteome of Leaves in Response to High Temperature Stress in Brachypodium distachyon

High temperature stress leads to complex changes to plant functionality, which affects, i.a., the cell wall structure and the cell wall protein composition. In this study, the qualitative and quantitative changes in the cell wall proteome of Brachypodium distachyon leaves in response to high (40 °C) temperature stress were characterised. Using a proteomic analysis, 1533 non-redundant proteins were identified from which 338 cell wall proteins were distinguished. At a high temperature, we identified 46 differentially abundant proteins, and of these, 4 were over-accumulated and 42 were under-accumulated. The most significant changes were observed in the proteins acting on the cell wall polysaccharides, specifically, 2 over- and 12 under-accumulated proteins. Based on the qualitative analysis, one cell wall protein was identified that was uniquely present at 40 °C but was absent in the control and 24 proteins that were present in the control but were absent at 40 °C. Overall, the changes in the cell wall proteome at 40 °C suggest a lower protease activity, lignification and an expansion of the cell wall. These results offer a new insight into the changes in the cell wall proteome in response to high temperature.     

Protein haze formation in wines revisited. The stabilising effect of organic acids

The effect on the wine protein haze potential of five organic acids commonly encountered in wines (l(+)-tartaric, l(−)-malic, citric, succinic and gluconic acids) was assessed. All five acids, tested at 20 mM, reduced dramatically the haze potential of proteins, either in wine or dissolved in water, throughout the range of pH values typical of wines (i.e., from 2.8 through 3.8). Subtle differences among the acid effects did not correlate with the number of their carboxyl groups, but were attributed to electrostatic interactions that depend upon the acid pK_a values, the protein pI values and the medium pH. These results invalidate or question the validity of all experiments on wine proteins involving wine model solutions containing organic acids. Overall, the results obtained in the present work clearly indicate that organic acids with a common occurrence in wines exhibit a stabilising effect upon the haze potential of the wine proteins.     

Mechanical characteristics of artificial cell walls

Artificial plant cell walls were produced from bacterial cellulose and cell wall constituents. The artificial cell walls were stored at low, medium and high relative humidity, and then subjected to micro-mechanical tests. From chemical composition and microstructure analysis it was found that, among all artificial cell wall materials produced, the most representative analogue of natural apple cell wall was based on bacterial cellulose supplemented with xyloglucan and pectin. Uniaxial tensile tests revealed that the different cell wall materials differed in their mechanical properties; increasing the humidity during storage resulted in a decrease in the value of the secant modulus. The cell wall model material obtained may be used for the simulation of the effect of external factors on the physical and chemical properties of cell walls.     

New contact acoustic emission detector for texture evaluation of apples

A new contact acoustic emission detector (CAED) was developed for the instrumental texture evaluation of apples. The goal of this work was to determine the relations between instrumental parameters and sensory texture attributes, and to develop calibration models for prediction of the sensory texture of apples with CAED. Seven apple cultivars were used for the construction and validation of the models. CAED is particularly useful for evaluation of sensory crispness, crunchiness and hardness. There is also a significant correlation of acoustic emission counts with juiciness, mealiness and overall texture. Validation of the models indicates better prediction of these sensory attributes by total acoustic emission counts than prediction by puncture firmness in terms of variance explained, root-mean-square of a model prediction, and bias.     

Floral Biosynthesis of Mn<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript> and Fe<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> Nanoparticles Using <Emphasis Type="Italic">Chaenomeles</Emphasis> sp. Flower Extracts for Efficient Medicinal Applications

Manganese oxide (Mn₃O₄) and iron oxide (Fe₂O₃) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized with the flower extracts of Chaenomeles sp. This is the first ever approach to synthesize nanoparticles from Chaenomeles sp. flower extracts. The organic molecules present in the flower extracts actively converted the nitrate precursor into its corresponding nanoparticles. The organic molecules that are involved in the synthesis of nanoparticles are identified using different phytochemical and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analyses. The identified components are glycosides, alkaloids, terpenoids, saponins, flavonoids, quinines, and steroids. The structural and chemical compositions of the synthesized powder were also analyzed. The x-ray powder diffraction analysis revealed that the particles show tetragonal and rhombohedral crystalline phases. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis showed the functional groups that are involved in the reduction of nitrates into the corresponding nanoparticles. Energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analysis confirmed the presence of the elements in the synthesized nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscopy images showed the formation of spherical nanoparticles with an average size of 30–100 nm. Antioxidant analysis showed that the synthesized nanoparticles had excellent antioxidant potential. The antibacterial study showed that they inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus pyogenes. Thus, this study proposes a new eco-friendly and nontoxic method to synthesize nanoparticles for medicinal applications.