Development of biobased microwave absorbing composites with various magnetic metals and carbons

The preparation and characterization of a biobased electromagnetic absorbing composites derived from natural lacquer as a renewable resource with microwave‐absorption fillers, including Ni–Zn ferrite and carbonyl iron (CI) as magnetic metals and soot and carbon nanotube (CNT) as carbon materials, were investigated in terms of the gel content, hardness, drying properties, and electromagnetic absorption properties. Interestingly, composites with ferrite and CI contained up to 320 and 550 wt %, respectively, of these compounds. This quite high loading capacity of the metal fillers in a natural‐lacquer base could have been due to the high compatibility between the filler and the natural lacquer; this indicated that the natural lacquer worked as a binder for these metals. The morphology of the biobased composite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The electromagnetic absorption properties of composites were characterized in the frequency range from 0.05 and 20 GHz by the reflection loss (RL) measurement method in terms of the kind of fillers and filler loading. The natural lacquer did not affect the absorption properties of the fillers. Biobased composites showed over 99% electromagnetic absorption in the frequency range 3.0–4.0 GHz for 280 wt % ferrite and 8.9–9.7 GHz for 200 wt % CI. Conversely, 10 and 20 wt % soot exhibited good performance (RL < ?20 dB) between 16.5 and 17.3 and between 8.8 and 9.2 GHz, respectively. The areas with RL values of less than ?20 dB of the CNT composites were 10.4–11.0 GHz for 5 wt % and 14.6–15.2 GHz for 10 wt %. Hence, natural lacquer can be used as a binder material for electromagnetic absorption composites. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 44131.     

Improved fallow: growth and nitrogen accumulation of five native tree species in Brazil

Nitrogen (N) is the most important yield-limiting factor in agricultural systems, however, N application can lead to emissions and environmental problems such as global warming (N₂O) and groundwater contamination (NO₃ ^?). This study analyses the N balance, nitrogen-use efficiency, and N loss potential of conventional farming systems (arable farming, improved arable farming, and agroforestry) and organic farming systems (mixed farming, arable farming, and agroforestry) based on long-term field experiments in southern Germany. The effects of the conversion of farm structure and N management are identified. The conventional farming systems in this study were high N-input and high N-output systems. The conventional arable farming system had the lowest nitrogen-use efficiency and the highest N surplus. An optimised N management and the use of high-yielding crop varieties improved its nitrogen-use efficiency. The establishment of conventional agroforestry resulted in the reduction of N input, N output and N surplus, while maintaining high yields. The organic mixed farming system is characterised by a relatively high N input and N output, the accumulation of soil organic nitrogen, the highest nitrogen-use efficiency, and the lowest N surplus of all analysed systems. These good results can be attributed to the intensive farm N cycle between soil–plant–animal. The shift from organic mixed farming to organic arable farming system extensified the N cycle, reduced N input, crop yield and N output. The change from organic arable farming to organic agroforestry reduced the N input, increased the biomass yield, and remained the N surplus within an optimal range.     

Correlations of Hepatic Hemodynamics,Liver Function,and Fibrosis Markers in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Comparison with Chronic Hepatitis Related to Hepatitis C Virus

The progression of chronic liver disease differs by etiology. The aim of this study was to elucidate the difference in disease progression between chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by means of fibrosis markers, liver function, and hepatic tissue blood flow (TBF). Xenon computed tomography (Xe-CT) was performed in 139 patients with NAFLD and 152 patients with CHC (including liver cirrhosis (LC)). The cutoff values for fibrosis markers were compared between NAFLD and CHC, and correlations between hepatic TBF and liver function tests were examined at each fibrosis stage. The cutoff values for detection of the advanced fibrosis stage were lower in NAFLD than in CHC. Although portal venous TBF (PVTBF) correlated with liver function tests, PVTBF in initial LC caused by nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH-LC) was significantly lower than that in hepatitis C virus (C-LC) (p = 0.014). Conversely, the liver function tests in NASH-LC were higher than those in C-LC (p < 0.05). It is important to recognize the difference between NAFLD and CHC. We concluded that changes in hepatic blood flow occurred during the earliest stage of hepatic fibrosis in patients with NAFLD; therefore, patients with NAFLD need to be followed carefully.     

Pyrolysis Products of Lignin in Open and Sealed Vessels Studied by Py-GC-MS

The pyrolysis products of lignin in open and sealed vessels were studied by pyrolysis—gas chromatography—mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS). Several kinds of phenolic derivatives were observed in the pyrolysates in both treatments, while phenolic compounds with alkenyl or acetyl groups had higher relative contents in the open vessel than those in the sealed vessel. Phenol and its alkyl or mono-methoxy substituted derivatives become the main pyrolysis products in the sealed vessel. Most of the lignin pyrolysis products in the open vessel could be detected by Py-GC-MS, but some active products would go through further reaction in the sealed vessel.     

Crystalline Sodium Selenocarboxylates – synthesis and characterization

A series of sodium selenocarboxylates 2 were isolated from the reaction of diacyl selenides with sodium ethanolate and characterized. A convenient preparation of the sodium salts 2 by the direct reaction of acyl chlorides with sodium selenide was also established. The salts are colourless to slightly pale yellow crystals and labile towards moisture. They readily react with alkyl iodides at room temperature to give the corresponding Se-alkyl esters 3 .     

In Silico/In Vitro Hit-to-Lead Methodology Yields SMYD3 Inhibitor That Eliminates Unrestrained Proliferation of Breast Carcinoma Cells

SMYD3 is a lysine methyltransferase that regulates the expression of over 80 genes and is required for the uncontrolled proliferation of most breast, colorectal, and hepatocellular carcinomas. The elimination of SMYD3 restores normal expression patterns of these genes and halts aberrant cell proliferation, making it a promising target for small molecule inhibition. In this study, we sought to establish a proof of concept for our in silico/in vitro hit-to-lead enzyme inhibitor development platform and to identify a lead small molecule candidate for SMYD3 inhibition. We used Schrodinger^® software to screen libraries of small molecules in silico and the five compounds with the greatest predicted binding affinity within the SMYD3 binding pocket were purchased and assessed in vitro in direct binding assays and in breast cancer cell lines. We have confirmed the ability of one of these inhibitors, Inhibitor-4, to restore normal rates of cell proliferation, arrest the cell cycle, and induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells without affecting wildtype cell behavior. Our results provide a proof of concept for this fast and affordable small molecule hit-to-lead methodology as well as a promising candidate small molecule SMYD3 inhibitor for the treatment of human cancer.     

Models for circular data from time series spectra

Circular data are those for which the natural support is the unit circle and its toroidal extensions. Numerous constructions have been proposed which can be used to generate models for such data. We propose a new, very general, one based on the normalization of the spectra of complex-valued stationary processes. As illustrations of the new construction's application, we study models for univariate circular data obtained from the spectra of autoregressive moving average models and relate them to existing models in the literature. We also propose and investigate multivariate circular models obtained from the high-order spectra of stationary stochastic processes generated using linear filtering with an autoregressive moving average response function. A new family of distributions for a Markov process on the circle is also introduced. Results for asymptotically optimal inference for dependent observations on the circle are presented which provide a new paradigm for inference with circular models. The application of one of the new families of spectra-generated models is illustrated in an analysis of wind direction data.     

Fabrication of CaCO3-Coated Vesicles by Biomineralization and Their Application as Carriers of Drug Delivery Systems

We fabricated CaCO₃-coated vesicles as drug carriers that release their cargo under a weakly acidic condition. We designed and synthesized a peptide lipid containing the Val-His-Val-Glu-Val-Ser sequence as the hydrophilic part, and with two palmitoyl groups at the N-terminal as the anchor groups of the lipid bilayer membrane. Vesicles embedded with the peptide lipids were prepared. The CaCO₃ coating of the vesicle surface was performed by the mineralization induced by the embedded peptide lipid. The peptide lipid produced the mineral source, CO₃²⁻, for CaCO₃ mineralization through the hydrolysis of urea. We investigated the structure of the obtained CaCO₃-coated vesicles using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The vesicles retained the spherical shapes, even in vacuo. Furthermore, the vesicles had inner spaces that acted as the drug cargo, as observed by the TEM tomographic analysis. The thickness of the CaCO₃ shell was estimated as ca. 20 nm. CaCO₃-coated vesicles containing hydrophobic or hydrophilic drugs were prepared, and the drug release properties were examined under various pH conditions. The mineralized CaCO₃ shell of the vesicle surface was dissolved under a weakly acidic condition, pH 6.0, such as in the neighborhood of cancer tissues. The degradation of the CaCO₃ shell induced an effective release of the drugs. Such behavior suggests potential of the CaCO₃-coated vesicles as carriers for cancer therapies.     

Effects of processing and cooking on the levels of pesticide residues in soybean samples

The effects of processing and cooking on the levels of pesticide residues in soybean samples were investigated for 14 pesticides in pre-harvest samples. On soaking, the transfer ratios (%, total pesticide residue amount in product/that in soybean) of soaked soybean were greater than 60% for most of the pesticides investigated. The transfer ratio of soymilk ranged from 37% to 92%, and that of tofu ranged from 7% to 63%. The processing factor (Pf, the concentration (mg/kg) of pesticide in product/that in soybean) of tofu ranged from 0.026 to 0.28. These values varied among pesticides. There was a high correlation between the log P(ow) and the transfer ratio of tofu. The test described here should be useful to obtain the transfer ratios of pesticide residues in processing and/or cooking steps.     

A novel hemiacetal dehydrogenase activity involved in ethyl acetate synthesis in Candida utilis

Acetate ester synthesis was studied in vitro with the ethyl acetate-producing yeast Candida utilis. The level of enzyme activity observed for the NAD+-dependent hemiacetal dehydrogenase acting on hemiacetal, which was produced non-enzymatically from an alcohol and an aldehyde, was much greater than that for the other enzyme involved in ester synthesis, alcohol acetyltransferase. The level of ethyl acetate synthesis in vivo approximately paralleled the hemiacetal dehydrogenase (HADH) activity. The results suggest that the main pathway for ethyl acetate synthesis in C. utilis involves a novel hemiacetal dehydrogenase activity.