Babassu Cake in Goat Diet Improves Growth Performance and Quality and Fatty Acid Profile of Meat

Babassu cake (BC) is a byproduct from oil extraction from babassu palm kernels. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of including BC levels (0%, 6%, 12%, and 18% on a dry matter basis) in the diet of 28 kids (n = 7 per treatment) on productive performance, and quality and profile of fatty acids (FA) of meat (loin). The inclusion of BC in the diet increases dry matter intake (P = 0.0005), average daily gain (P = 0.0222), slaughter body weight (P = 0.0424) of goats, and increased fat (P = 0.0424), unsaturated fatty acids (P = 0.0041), monounsaturated fatty acids (P = 0.0163), and isomers of conjugated linoleic acid (rumenic acid; P = 0.0002) content and polyunsaturated fatty acids:saturated fatty acids ratio (P = 0.0430) of meat. However, there are reductions in the levels of stearic acid (P < 0.0001) and saturated fatty acids (P = 0.0041) and in the thrombogenicity index (P = 0.0219) of meat. The inclusion of BC in the goat diet improves its growth performance and the quality and fatty acid profile of meat.     

Gas sensor for ammonia detection based on poly(vinyl alcohol) and polyaniline electrospun

In this article, the results of the process and fabrication of ammonia gas sensors are obtained through the production of poly(vinyl alcohol) and polyaniline (PVA/PANI) nanofibers in different concentrations deposited on interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) The results showed good interaction between PVA and PANI, as well as the solvents involved, with good adhesion of the nanofibers in substrate, shown for morphological analysis by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The good performance of the gas sensor was carried out by direct current measurements. It has been proven that the high surface density, dimensions, and quality of nanofibers are essential parameters for a good response of the ammonia gas sensor. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47288.     

Influence of Inflow Nonstationarity on the Multipurpose Optimal Operation of Hydropower Plants Using Nonlinear Programming

Water Resources Management - One of the greatest challenges in the electricity generation sector is to operate hydrothermal plants in view of the randomness of hydrological events and climate...     

Unveiling the Potential of Transition Metal Complexes for Medicine: Translational in Situ Activation of Metal-Based Drugs from Bench to in Vivo Applications

The development of metal-based anticancer drugs has been hampered, among other reasons, by their lack of selectivity for cancer cells. In a recent article, Zou and co-workers presented the successful intracellular activation of organogold(I) complexes for potential cancer treatment through Pd(II)-mediated transmetallation, overcoming some off-target activity of novel gold-based drugs. This unique strategy builds the perfect bridge between metallodrug usage and bioorthogonal intracellular catalysis for more advanced and selective therapies. Such an approach will hopefully pave the way for forthcoming studies in medicinal inorganic chemistry.     

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.

     

Topology‐Preserving λ2‐based Vortex Core Line Detection for Flow Visualization

We propose a novel vortex core line extraction method based on the λ₂ vortex region criterion in order to improve the detection of vortex features for 3D flow visualization. The core line is defined as a curve that connects λ₂ minima restricted to planes that are perpendicular to the core line. The basic algorithm consists of the following stages: (1) λ₂ field construction and isosurface extraction; (2) computation of the curve skeleton of the λ₂ isosurface to build an initial prediction for the core line; (3) correction of the locations of the prediction by searching for λ₂ minima on planes perpendicular to the core line. In particular, we consider the topology of the vortex core lines, guaranteeing the same topology as the initial curve skeleton. Furthermore, we propose a geometry‐guided definition of vortex bifurcation, which represents the split of one core line into two parts. Finally, we introduce a user‐guided approach in order to narrow down vortical regions taking into account the graph of λ₂ along the computed vortex core line. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method by comparing our results to previous core line detection methods with both simulated and experimental data; in particular, we show robustness of our method for noise‐affected data.     

Asymmetric Intramolecular C?H Insertion of α‐Diazoacetamides in Water by Dirhodium(II) Catalysts Derived from Natural Amino Acids

The asymmetric dirhodium(II)‐catalyzed intramolecular C H insertion of α‐diazo acetamides in water is described for the first time. The use of natural α‐amino acids as chiral ligands allowed the preparation of novel dirhodium(II) homochiral complexes by a simple procedure consisting of the in situ ligand exchange starting from dirhodium tetraacetate. The catalytic system was further reused up to 7 cycles and β‐lactams were obtained in good yields and enantiomeric excess.     

Towards Selective Delivery of a Ruthenium(II) Polypyridyl Complex-Containing Bombesin Conjugate into Cancer Cells

An increasing number of novel Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes have been successfully applied as photosensitizers (PSs) for photodynamic therapy (PDT). Despite recent advances in optimized PSs with refined photophysical properties, the lack of tumoral selectivity is often a major hurdle for their clinical development. Here, classical maleimide and versatile NHS-activated acrylamide strategies were employed to site-selectively conjugate a promising Ru(II) polypyridyl complex to the N-terminally Cys-modified Bombesin (BBN) targeting unit. Surprisingly, the decreased cell uptake of these novel Ru-BBN conjugates in cancer cells did not hamper the high phototoxic activity of the Ru-containing bioconjugates and even decreased the toxicity of the constructs in the absence of light irradiation. Overall, although deceiving in terms of selectivity, our new bioconjugates could still be useful for advanced cancer treatment due to their nontoxicity in the dark.