“Squalenoylcurcumin” Nanoassemblies as Water‐Dispersible Drug Candidates with Antileishmanial Activity

Curcumin, a natural polyphenolic compound, showed antiparasitic potential, including trypanocidal and leishmanicidal activity, in several in vitro and in vivo models. The molecule is well tolerated in humans. However, it is insoluble in water and displays poor oral bioavailability as a result of low absorption. New derivatives of curcumin were prepared by esterification of one or two of its phenolic groups with 1,1′,2‐tris‐norsqualenic acid. These “squalenoylcurcumins” were formulated as water‐dispersible nanoassemblies of homogeneous size, and they proved to be stable. Squalenoylcurcumins were inactive against Trypanosoma brucei brucei trypomastigotes, even as nanoassemblies, in contrast with curcumin. However, against Leishmania donovani promastigotes, the activities of the squalenoylcurcumins and their nanoassemblies were enhanced relative to that of curcumin. In L. donovani axenic and intramacrophagic amastigotes, they showed activity in the range of miltefosine, with good selectivity indexes. In regard to their dispersibility in water and to the safety of curcumin, these nanoassemblies are promising candidates for preclinical study toward the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis.     

Polymorphic transformations in sn-1, 3-distearoyl-2-ricinoleyl-glycerol

Polymorphic transformations of sn-1,3-distearoyl-2-ricinoleyl-glycerol (SRS) have been studied with differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) techniques by using a 99.8% pure sample. Four polymorphs, α, γ, β′₂, and β′₁, were isolated. The thermal behavior of the four forms showed that the fusion of α at 25.8°C was followed by the crystallization of γ which melts at 40.6°C, and β′₂ and β′₁ revealed melting peaks at 44.3 and 48.0°C, respectively. No β form was observed, even when the two β′ forms were annealed around their melting points over one week. The XRD long spacing indicates that α packs into a double chain-length structure; however, γ and the two β′ phases pack into a triple chain-length structure. The polarized and nonpolarized FTIR spectra in methylene scissoring and methylene rocking regions indicated a parallel subcell packing in γ, and a mixture of orthorhombic perpendicular and parallel or hexagonal subcells in the β′₂ and β′₁ phases. Consequently, SRS exhibits quite a unique polymorphic behavior, compared to tristearoyl glycerol and sn-1,3-distearoyl-2-oleoyl-glycerol.     

Analysis of human male armpit sweat after fenugreek ingestion: Instrumental and sensory optimisation of the extraction method

In this study, we intend to develop a simple and selective procedure to extract compounds involved in the strong odour which appears after fenugreek ingestion (this odour is responsible of the so-called pseudo-maple syrup urine disease). Two procedures, solvent extraction and headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME), were employed to extract compounds from armpits sweat samples collected from two volunteer subjects. The HS-SPME extraction parameters were first optimised and then applied to extracts of armpit sweat collected from subjects after fenugreek ingestion. The sensory evaluation of the different extracts was carried by eight trained assessors; the HS-SPME and solvent extracts were, respectively, smelled by direct gas chromatography–olfactometry and direct olfaction. The results of sensory evaluation indicate that HS-SPME with a divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (DVB/CAR/PDMS) fibre, of 50/30 μm film thickness and 2 cm length, gives a global odour close to that of sweat after ingestion of fenugreek infusion.     

Bandwidth Estimation for IEEE 802.11-Based Ad Hoc Networks

Since 2005, IEEE 802.11-based networks are able to provide a certain level of Quality of Service by the means of service differentiation, thanks to the IEEE 802.11e amendment. However, no mechanism or method has been standardized to accurately evaluate the amount of resources remaining on a given channel. Such evaluation would however be a good asset for bandwidth-constrained applications. In multi-hop ad hoc networks, such evaluation becomes even more difficult. Consequently, despite the various contributions around this research topic, the estimation of the available bandwidth still represents one of the main issues in this field. In this article, we propose an improved mechanism to estimate the available bandwidth in IEEE 802.11-based ad hoc networks. Through simulations, we compare the accuracy of the estimation we propose to the estimation performed by others state of the art QoS protocols, BRuIT, AAC and QoS-AODV.     

Multivariate Study on Phenanthrene Sorption in Soils

Batch tests and different statistical tools of data analysis were used to re-evaluate the overall effect of soil characteristics and liquid phase composition on the extent of phenanthrene adsorption in complex soil-water systems. The linear isotherm models was capable of adequately describing the equilibrium data under extremely varying conditions of soil type, environmental conditions (pH, temperature, ionic strength) and amendments (surfactant, oil, dispersing agent, glucose). Consistent with existing mechanistic models, the multivariate approach also identified the organic carbon content (foc) of soil as the key parameter controlling the phenanthrene adsorption constant (Kd) in nonamended systems (Koc was 17,700 mL/g). From studying the effect of the amendments, two interactions (surfactant-pH and surfactant-oil) and two main effects (surfactant and oil) have been detected. An empirical linear model of Kd as a function of foc, pH, oil content of soil, and surfactant dose was developed for the range of conditions studied. The proposed model and modeling approach can be adapted to other types of contaminants or variables for specific natural and engineered systems.     

Design of grasping methodologies for rotational assembly components

This article describes a design methodology for grasping assembly components. Three heuristics are developed. The first determines feasible grasping configurations based on component geometric information. The second heuristic determines feasible grasping configurations by including gripper functional attributes. The third heuristic generates the final set of grasping configurations by including the area available for grasping a component. An interactive program written in Fortran 77 is developed to capture the user inputs, and a sample application is described. The methodology does not assume an initial feeding state of the component to the robot. The grasping configurations generated (if more than one) provide the designer with alternate feasible feeding methods.     

Comparative study of dewatering characteristics of metal precipitates generated during treatment synthetic polymetallic and AMD solutions

The sludge dewatering characteristics expressed in terms of settling, filtration and centrifugation of metal precipitates generated during treatment of polymetallic solutions and synthetic acid mine drainage have been evaluated in this research. Results show that dewatering properties of metallic sludge vary depending on the type of matrix (Cl⁻; SO₄²⁻), precipitating agent, and metals present in effluent. Metal hydroxides (at pH 10.0) and metal phosphates precipitates (at pH 7.0) are amorphous in nature, thus difficult to dewater. In these treatment methods, the substitution of chloride matrix by sulphate one improves considerably dewatering properties (specific resistance to filtration = 6.60 × 10¹³ and 2.35 × 10¹³ m/kg for the chloride and sulphate matrix, respectively). In the case of sulphide and carbonate treatments (pH 8.0), precipitates obtained are semi crystalline, and crystalline form, respectively, and no influence of the matrix was detected on dewatering characteristics.     

Modulations and fading points

This document relates to NRZ and QPSK modulation codes or formats that have varying degrees of success in optical links. Indeed, these modulation formats undergo, during their path through the optical media, encounter the following limitations: (1) linear effects (attenuation, chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion), (2) non-linear effects (Kerr, Raman and Brillouin effects). In addition to these limiting factors, the NRZ code in its propagation on the optical links encounters phenomena of fading of the signal as a function of the flow and the range. To reduce these fading phenomena, the QPSK code can be a solution. QPSK code makes it possible to reduce the number of fading points to the third on an optical link using a bit rate ranging from 10 to 30 Gbit s^?1.