In this paper, a novel synthesis for a chemical precursor for nanocrystalline VO2 coatings is elaborated. The compatibility of the precursor towards the substrate is optimized for spin coating. This is done by subjecting multiple solvents to contact angle measurements. A suitable thermal treatment is developed to densify the coating and to induce crystallization. Afterwards the microstructure of the coating is investigated using X-Ray diffraction, electron microscopy and ellipsometry techniques. To assess the thermochromic properties of the fabricated device, optical transmission experiments were conducted both at room temperature and at elevated temperature. A correlation between these thermochromic properties and coating thickness was investigated in order to obtain an optimized thermochromic device, where both high visual transparency and prominent thermochromic switching abilities are aimed for. In this work, an optimal coating thickness is proposed for a thermochromic coating with high switching ability and solar modulation.

Agriculture is the main economic activity of Mozambique and there is lack of information about the quality of agricultural soils. In this paper, five soils from the Manica and Sussudenga districts (Manica province) were sampled in the years 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 (before and after the rainy seasons), were subjected to an agronomical and environmental chemical analysis to assess its quality, either from the fertility and environmental contamination point of view. Standard analytical methodologies from external certified laboratories and local X-ray fluorescence measurements were used. All the studied soils are acidic (pH ranging from 4.5 and 5.4), have no salinity problems (conductivity ranging from 4.2 to 11.8 mS/m), have low amount of soil organic matter (0.90% to 1.81%), and soils from the Sussudenga district have a very low cation exchange capacity (CEC) (average of 3.33 cmolc/kg), while those from Manica district ranges from very low to average CEC (3.59 to 13.11 cmolc/kg). Also, Sussudenga soils have a phosphorous deficiency (values ranging from <20 to 38.5 mg/kg) and there are deficiencies and/or excesses of some macro and micronutrients in all soil samples. Manica soils are contaminated, apparently from geogenic origin, with Cr (280 to 1400 mg/kg), Co (80 mg/kg), Ni (78 to 680 mg/kg) and V (86 mg/kg). Agricultural soils monitoring must be fostered in Mozambique in order to improve food quality and quantity to assure economic and environmental sustainability.

The accumulation of waste plastics has a severe impact on the environment, and therefore, the development of efficient chemical recycling methods has become an extremely important task. In this regard, a new strategy of degradation product-promoted depolymerization process was proposed. Using N,N'-dimethyl-ethylenediamine (DMEDA) as depolymerization reagent, an efficient chemical recycling of poly(bisphenol A carbonate) (BPA-PC) material was achieved under mild conditions. The degradation product 1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone (DMI) was proven to be the critical factor in facilitating the depolymerization process. This strategy does not require catalysts or auxiliary solvents, which is truly green process. This method improves the recycling efficiency of BPA-PC and promotes the development of plastic reutilization.

Essential oils (EOs) are highly concentrated and volatile blends of nonpolar substances, are derived from aromatic plant components and comprise terpenes, terpenoids and phenylpropanoids, exhibiting diverse biological and pharmacological properties. The burgeoning pet industry is interested in EOs as a potential solution for common health issues in domestic animals, particularly in addressing antimicrobial resistance. The present study summarizes the composition, properties, benefits, safety considerations, and effects of EOs on pets and animals. The applications of EOs range from antimicrobial effects to antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities etc. Furthermore, EOs are used extensively in various industries, including beauty care products, detergents, and fragrances. The chemical constituents of EOs, exemplified by eucalyptus EO and rosemary EO, highlight their distinct aromatic profiles and potential benefits. Nevertheless, understanding the chemical makeup of EOs is fundamental in assessing their potential impacts on biological systems. Safety considerations, including potential toxicity, are essential when incorporating EOs into animal care routines. The feed additives incorporating EOs have shown promise in influencing gut microbiota balance, reducing inflammation, and acting as antioxidants. However, cautious application is paramount, considering the potential risks associated with high doses or multiple administrations. Preliminary studies suggest low toxicity levels, but further research is required to evaluate the safety of EOs. Though studies reported the beneficial effects of EOs on pets and animals, further research is needed to validate the findings in real-world conditions. The paper also discussed the regulatory considerations and future perspectives on applying EOs in veterinary medicine.

Thymus is an herbaceous perennials or subshrubs of the Lamiaceae family and is widely distributed worldwide. Essential oils extracted from thymus have attracted much attention owing to their potential biological functions. Here, we evaluated the chemical compositions of eight thyme essential oils (TEOs) using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and assessed their antioxidant activity and in potential role in antibacterial and tumor therapy. The results showed that (1) the main components in eight TEOs were monoterpene hydrocarbons and oxygenated monoterpenes, and the chemical compositions of TEOs were affected by the specie factor; (2) eight TEOs could be divided into 3 groups (thymol-, geraniol-and nerol acetate-type), and thymol was main type; (3) eight TEOs had some common compounds, such as thymol and p-cymene, which were the main components in seven TEOs; (4) eight TEOs had antioxidant activit, and thymol-type EOs had strong antioxidant activity, while geraniol-type EOs had relatively weak antioxidant activity. In addition, it was found thymol had strong antibacterial activity against the growth of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, and antimigratory activity of A549 cell. Overall, our results can provide theoretical basis for further exploring the function of natural products from thyme essential oils.

The rapid development of the photovoltaic (PV) industry will result in an increase in the amount of electrical and electronic waste from used PV panels. Only in Poland, the total capacity installed in photovoltaic sources in Poland in May 2020 exceeded 1,950 MW, and the installation weight was approximately 120,000. tone. The problem arises in the recycling or management of this waste. This work presents methods used to recycle waste into photovoltaic modules. The authors investigated the possibility of mechanical and chemical processing of crystalline silicon. A method of thermal treatment of the panel was also proposed. As a result of the research, it was found that the stage of separating materials (crystalline cream, EVO foil, aluminum frame) plays an important role in the recycling process, which is not easy. Chemical treatment allows the silicon to become plastic and the temperature melts the back layer of the panel.

Increasing genetic diversity in crop plants has been used for chemical mutagenesis. Through the application of various mutagenic agents, over 430 new varieties have been derived as rice mutants (Oryza sativa L.) Chemical mutagens such as ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS), diepoxybutane derivative (DEB), sodium azide, and gamma ray, x-ray, and quick neutron irradiation have been commonly used to induce a large number of functional variations in rice and others crops. Among chemical mutagens, ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) is the alkylating agent most widely used in plants because it induces nucleotide substitutions to be extremely frequent, as detected in various genomes. In this study, seeds of potential genotype of the popular variety, (Oryza sativa L. Super Basmati variety) were treated with EMS at concentrations of 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75%, 1% and 1.5%. Various measurements on the M1 generation determined EMS sensitivity. As concentration of applied EMS increased, will decrease in germination, shoot length, root length, plant height, productive tillers, Panicle Length, Total Spikelet, sterile spikelet and fertility under field conditions were observed in M1 generation as compared to the non-treatment control. Emergence, shoot length, root length, plant height, productive tillers, Panicle Length, Total Spikelet, sterile spikelet and fertility also decreased with increases in EMS mutagenesis in an approximately linear fashion. The LD₅₀ values were observed based on growth reduction of seedlings after EMS treatment with 0.25% and 0.50% on the rice variety (Oryza sativa L. spp.).

Starting from the analysis of the lack of positivity of the Cattaneo heat equation, the article addresses the thermodynamic relevance of the positivity constraint in irreversible thermodynamics, than is at least as important as the entropic constraints. The fulfillment of this condition in hyperbolic models leads to the parametrization of the concentration fields with respect to internal variables associated with the microscopic dynamics. Using Brownian motion theory as a landmarking example for deriving macroscopic transport equations from the equations of motion at the particle/molecular level, we discuss two typical problems involving hydrodynamic interactions at microscale: surface chemical reactions at a solid interface of a diffusing reactant, and mass-balance equations in a complex viscoelastic fluid, in which the physics of the interaction leads either to the overcome the parabolic diffusion model or to consider the parametrization of the concentration with respect to the degrees of freedom associated with the relaxation dynamics of the solvent fluid.

Фундук является одним из самых ценных орехов в мире благодаря своим уникальным органолептическим свойствам и питательным характеристикам. Данная работа была направлена ​​на анализ некоторых физико-химических свойств различных сортов фундука, выращиваемых в Закаталы (Азербайджан), а именно Ата-баба, Эльбари, Топкара, Фирован, Насими, Галиб, Мирзебейли, Тала, Даш финтик, Барли, Азери и Сачагли. В целом результаты показали статистически значимые различия между изучаемыми сортами. Плотность ядер в зависимости от сортов фундука варьировала от 0,71 г/см ³ (азери) до 1,03 г/см ^{3 .}(Сачакли). Очищенные плоды Дашфиндыг в среднем были тяжелее (1,64±0,34 г), а очищенные плоды Насими, Калиб, Мирзебейли и Сачакли в среднем легче (0,8±0,23 г, 0,8±0,31 г, 0,8±0,20 г и 0,80 г). ±0,09 г соответственно.В неочищенном виде самыми тяжелыми были орехи Дашфиндык (3,70±0,34 г), а самыми легкими из всех сортов были орехи Насими и Калиб (2,0±0,48 г и 2,0±0,36 г соответственно). - орехи баба составляют 49 масс./ядро, %, у остальных изученных сортов - 33,3-45,3 мас.%. Орехи насими имеют округлую форму (в экваториальной зоне); талы, ата-баба, фирован и азери - округло-продолговатые; топкара , Барли и Даш финдык – продолговатые; Эльбари, Калиб, Мирзебейли и Сачакли – удлиненные. Фирован, Тала и Топкара имеют более толстую скорлупу. Ата-баба значительно опережает другие сорта по выходу ядер (490 кг/1 т орехов) , На втором месте по этому показателю находится Тала (453 кг/1 тонна орехов), на третьем – Топкара (433 кг/1 тонна орехов). По максимальной жирности выделены сорта Мирзебейли (77,00±2,20 г/100 г ядер) и Фирован (75,0±3,08 г/100 ядер), по белку - Сачакли (16,02±0,50 г/100 ядер) и Ата-баба ( выделено 15,92±0,48 г/100 г ядер). Результаты этого исследования помогают лучше понять различия между некоторыми сортами фундука, выращиваемого в Азербайджане, что дает важную информацию для всех участников этого сектора. 50 ед/100 ядер) и Ата-баба (15,92±0,48 г/100 г ядер). Результаты этого исследования помогают лучше понять различия между некоторыми сортами фундука, выращиваемого в Азербайджане, что дает важную информацию для всех участников этого сектора. 50 ед/100 ядер) и Ата-баба (15,92±0,48 г/100 г ядер). Результаты этого исследования помогают лучше понять различия между некоторыми сортами фундука, выращиваемого в Азербайджане, что дает важную информацию для всех участников этого сектора.

Tomato is considered the most important vegetable crop worldwide. Improving the nutritional value of fruits must be based on sustainable production in terms of varieties and fertilization management. This study aimed to improve the nutritional value (total soluble solids, acidity, lycopene, β-carotene, polyphenols, macro and microelements) of two tomato varieties (‘Cristal’ and ‘Siriana’) under three fertilization types (NPK chemical fertilizer, chicken manure and biological fertilizer with microorganisms) for the greenhouse. Primary metabolism compounds do not vary significantly according to the type of fertilizer used. The results for the antioxidant compounds showed a better effect of biological fertilization compared to chemical fertilizer and control unfertilized. The tomato fruits from the local cultivar (‘Siriana’) are richer in nutritional compounds such as rutin, regardless of the type of fertilization, which denotes a good ability to adapt to crop conditions. Tomato cultivars reacted positively to microbiological fertilization compare to chemical, thus producing nutritious fruits under sustainable management. Tomato fruits were richer in the quality of microelement contents.

Four decades have elapsed since the first quasiperiodic crystal was discovered in the Al-Mn alloy system, and many progresses have been made during this time interval in the science of quasicrystals (QCs). Notwithstanding this, a significant number of open questions still remain regarding both fundamental and technological aspects. For instance: What are QCs good for? How can we improve the current provisional QC definition? What is the role of the underlying quasiperiodic order and the characteristic inflation symmetry of these compounds in the emergence of their unusual physicochemical properties? or, What is the nature of chemical bonding in QCs formed in such different sorts of materials as alloys, oxides, or organic polymers? In this essay I will discuss these, and other closely related, issues from an interdisciplinary perspective and will comment on appealing prospectives in the field for the years to come.

Abstract: Chemical burns are one of the most dangerous and aggressive types of burns as they can cause significant tissue damage, leading to pain, inflammation, necrosis, and scarring. We present a burn case report associated with the use of Acellular Dermal Matrix (MatriDerm® MedSkin Solution Dr. Suwelack AG, Billerbeck, Germany) for the reconstruction of a Hallux after the patient was mistakenly administered intramuscular Nitric Acid at another institution. The patient presented with a third degree burn that compromised the medial aspect of the hallux’s skin, the distal phalanx and nail bed. Early debridement was performed, and Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT VAC, 3M, US) was used to preserve and promote tissue viability. Eight days later, the patient was taken to the OR, and Acellular Dermal Matrix and split-thickness skin graft were used to reconstruct her right hallux’s defect. The patient achieved adequate clinical evolution and was discharged with complete reconstruction of the burned area. Acellular Dermal Matrix proved to be an important and viable option for reconstructive surgery after a chemical burn, and further studies are warranted to ensure its routine usage in this kind of lesions. Keywords: chemical burn, acellular matrix, hallux reconstruction, NPWT

Of the manifold concepts in drug discovery and design, covalent drugs have re-emerged as one of the most promising over the past 20-or so years. All such drugs harness the ability of a covalent bond to drive an interaction between a target biomolecule, typically a protein, and a small molecule. Formation of a covalent bond necessarily prolongs target engagement, opening avenues to targeting shallower binding sites, protein complexes, and other difficult to drug manifolds, amongst other virtues. This opinion piece discusses frameworks around which to develop covalent drugs. Our argument, based on results from our research program on natural electrophile signaling, is that targeting specific residues innately involved in native signaling programs are ideally poised to be targeted by covalent drugs. We outline ways to identify electrophile-sensing residues, and discuss how studying ramifications of innate signaling by endogenous molecules can provide a means to predict drug mechanism and function and assess on- versus off-target behaviors.

The stochastic modelling of chemical physical processes is essentially based on a coarse-grained formulation of fluctuations, usually described by means of Wiener processes. By taking the paradigmatic example of chemical reaction kinetics, we propose a simple representation of microscopic stochastic dynamics grounded on the use of distributional derivatives of counting processes that account for elementary reactive events. This approach is consistent with the statistical analysis based on the Chemical Master Equation, and provides the formal setting for the existing algorithmic approaches (Gillespie algorithm). Some practical advantages of this formulation are addressed, and several other examples are discussed in connection with cluster formation, velocity fluctuations in liquid systems, and quantum transitions (radiative interactions) at the molecular level.

A tunable near-infrared surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor based on gate-controlled graphene plasmons is investigated theoretically. The novel characteristics of chemical potential sensing make the proposed sensor promising in the application of ultra-sensitive and highly specific biosensing technology. The sensitivity of chemical potential sensing in wavelength interrogation mode can be calculated to be 1.5, 1.89, 2.29, 3.21, 3.73 and 4.68 nm/meV respectively at the central wavelength of 1100, 1200, 1310, 1550, 1700 and 1900 nm. The much smaller full width half maximum (FWHMs) comparing with that of 2D nanomaterial-enhanced metal SPR sensors indicates higher figure of merit. The sensitivity of chemical potential sensing in gate voltage interrogation mode also can be calculated to be 156.9822, 143.6147, 131.0779, 111.0351, 101.3415 and 90.6038 mV/meV respectively at the incident wavelength of 1100, 1200, 1310, 1550, 1700 and 1900 nm. It can be estimated theoretically that the limit of detection (LOD) in DNA sensing of the proposed sensor can reach femtomolar level and even attomolar level, comparable to and even lower than that of 2D nanomaterial-enhanced metal SPR sensors with AuNPs as a sensitivity enhancement strategy. The feasibility of preparation and operation of this new concept SPR biosensor is also analyzed and discussed.

Although the effect of thermal modification (TM) on teak wood color is well documented, a few studies were carried out in closed system processes, as well as it remains unclear the effect of different processes on the same material. This work aimed to verify the effect of closed and open system processes of TM on the color of fast-growing teak wood. Thermally modified wood was evaluated in a closed system at 160 °C (CS160) and in an open system at 185 °C and 210 °C (OS185 and OS210). We measured the moisture content (initial and final) of wood, and the corrected mass loss (CML). The chemical analyses encompassed the contents of alpha-cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignin, and extractives (total, in acetone and dichloromethane). Wood color was measured before and after TM according to the CIEL*a*b* color space. It was possible to achieve the same color using different processes of thermal modification (CS160 and OS210). TM reduced wood lightness (L*), red-green chromaticity coordinate (a*), and yellow-blue chromaticity coordinate (b*). L* and a* had the bigger and lower variations, respectively. The color of thermally modified wood was significantly changed, even at the mildest condition tested (OS185, 0.33% CML).

Chemical safety is related to public health, safety and environmental concerns, and the dangerous chemicals safety problem is becoming the one that people commonly pay attention to. Strengthening chemical safety supervision not only involves safe production, but also is an important link to maintain social safety. Most related studies focus on chemical safety under normal regulation, this paper addresses the perspective of ‘special rectification’ and ‘normal regulation’, and establishes an evolutionary game model between chemical enterprises and government supervision departments under different supervision modes. Based on the evolutionary game theory, this paper studies the evolution process of the two game players' strategy choices, and compares and analyzes the evolution, stability and equilibrium between the chemical safety and the behavior strategies of government regulatory departments. The model is effectively analyzed based on numerical simulation, and the results show that: Under the ‘special rectification’ mode, the strategic choice of chemical enterprises engaging in safety without investment depends on the difference between the benefits and costs of safety without investment; In the ‘normal regulation’ mode, the choice of its safety non-investment strategy depends on the difference between the cost of engaging in safety investment and the cost of safety non-investment; Increasing the government's punishment will encourage chemical enterprises to take safety investment behavior under the two supervision modes. Increasing the punishment has a significant impact on the safety investment behavior of chemical enterprises under the ‘normal regulation’ mode, but it has no significant impact on the behavior of chemical enterprises under the ‘special rectification’ mode. At the same time, increasing the punishment will inhibit the strict supervision behavior of the government. The research conclusion provides important decision support for government departments to effectively supervise the safety production of chemical enterprises.

The combination of increased pressures for high-volume, high-impact publications in English language with the high rejection rates of submitted manuscripts for publications presents an often unsurpassable obstacle for (early career) researchers. At the same, the register requirements of peer-reviewed journals -that can contribute to whether a paper is accepted for publication- has received little attention. This paper redresses this gap, by investigating the linguistic choices in 60 published manuscripts in four journals, with impact factor (IF) above 2; all 4 journals, publish original research papers in the field of chemical engineering science and specifically focus on wastewater treatment. Our survey shows that chemical engineering research publications tend to comply to a set of unwritten requirements: multidisciplinarity, brevity, co-authorship, focus on the description of practical results (rather than methods), and awareness of non-specialised audiences. It is found that less discipline-specific vocabulary was used in higher IF journals and this is interpreted within the current context of manuscript publication and consumption. Also, a complex relationship between the advertised scope of each journal and the actual published papers exists, indicating that guide for authors and aims and objective published by the journal's editorial office should be critically evaluated.

Citrus essential oils (EOs) have various bioactivities like antioxidants, with many applications. Antioxidant activities depend on the chemical compositions of the EOs, which are affected by climate, soil, and geographical region. Thus, investigations on chemical compositions and antioxidant activities of Citrus EOs in different countries are valuable. In this study, we distilled EOs from peels of Indonesian-grown Citrus, including C. nobilis, C. limon, C. aurantifolia, C. amblycarpa, and Citrus spp.Chemical compositions of EOs were analyzed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS), whereas the antioxidant activities were determined by employing 2,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to elucidate the main contributing compounds for antioxidant activity. The results show that all EOs possess unique chemical characteristics, with limonene as the majority constituent. For antioxidant activities, C. limon and C. amblycarpa EOs are the two strongest, IC50 values below 7.00 μL/mL. PCA approach suggests that -terpinene mainly contributes to the high antioxidant activities of C. limon and C. amblycarpa. Moreover, o-cymene, thymol, p-cymene, and α-pharnesene may also be responsible for the antioxidant activity of C. limon EO. These results are valuable information for the applications of Citrus EOs as antioxidant sources.

The aim of the study was to verify whether a 20 and 40% reduction of nitrogen (N) fertilization rate will be sufficient to maintain soil basic chemical features, fertility, and yielding in monoculture maize cultivation in the no-tillage (NT) system versus the traditional plowing (PL) system. In addition, it was examined which tillage system (PL, NT) allows reduction of fertilization while maintaining good yields of the tested soils. Two fields (10 ha each) were established for PL and NT maize cultivation and soils (0-20 cm) were sampled two times per year - in spring (before maize sowing) and in autumn (after maize harvesting). A broad range of chemical and biological parameters (i.e. pH, forms of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon, content of selected macronutrients and humic substances, respiration activity) were monitored during the experiment. It was evidenced that the 20% reduction in N fertilization does not have an adverse effect on the chemical and biological characteristics of soils. In turn, the maize yield was mainly the result of both the tillage system and the N rate, i.e. it was significantly higher in the PL system.

We presents results obtained from the numerical simulation of the gas-phase chemical kinetics in atmospheric pressure air non-equilibrium plasmas. In particular we have addressed the effect of pulsed operation mode of a planar dielectric barrier discharge. As it was conjectured, the large difference in the time scales involved in the fast dissociation of molecules in plasmas and their subsequent reactions to produce stable chemical species, makes the presence of a continuously repeated plasma production stage unnecessary and a waste of electrical power and efficiency. Results on NOx remediation, ozone production, water vapor and ammonia dissociation are discussed. A few comparisons with experimental findings in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor already used for applications is briefly addressed too. Our results clearly indicate a pattern for the optimization of the discharge using a carefully designed repetition rate and duty-cycle.

Equines play an important role throughout the world, whether for work, culture, or leisure, providing an ever-growing significant contribution on the economy. The increase in importation and movement of horses, both nationally and internationally, has inevitably allowed for the global equine industry to grow. Subsequently however, the potential for transmission of fatal equine bacterial diseases has also escalated, and devasting outbreaks continue to occur. To prevent such events, disease surveillance and diagnosis must be heightened throughout the industry. Current common, or "gold-standard" techniques, have shown to be inadequate at times, thus requiring newer technology to impede outbreaks. Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has proven to be a reliable, rapid, and accessible tool in both diagnostics and surveillance. This review will discuss equine bacterial diseases of biosecurity relevance and their current diagnostic approaches, as well as their respective LAMP assay developments. Additionally, we will provide insight regarding newer technology and advancements associated with this technique, and their potential use for the outlined diseases.

China Xihu Longjing tea famous for its good flavor and quality. However, the related metabolites information except flavonoids is largely deficient. Different processing methods of China Xihu Longjing tea fixing both by machine at first and second step(A1), first step by machine and second step by hand(A2), first step by hand and second step by machine(A3), both by hand at first and second step (A4) were compared using a UHPLC-QE-MS-based metabolomics approach. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to analyze the metabolic profiles of the processed samples. A total of 490 metabolites (3 alkaloids, 3 anthracenes, 15 benzene and substituted derivatives, 2 benzopyrans, 13 coumarins and derivatives, 128 flavonoids, 4 furanoid lignans, 16 glycosides and derivatives, 5 indoles and derivatives, 18 isocoumarins and derivatives, 4 chalcones and dihydrochalcones, 4 naphthopyrans, 3 nucleosides, 78 organic acids and derivatives, 55 organooxygen compounds, 5 phenols, 109 prenol lipids, 3 saccharolipids, 3 steroids and steroid derivatives, 17 tannins) were identified. The different metabolism profiles were distinguished using PCA and OPLS-DA. There were differences in the types and contents of metabolites, especially flavonoids, furanoid lignans, glycosides and derivatives, organic acids and derivatives and organooxygen compounds. There was a positive correlation between flavonoid metabolism and amino acid metabolism. However, there was a negative correlation between flavonoid metabolism and amino acid metabolism, which had the same trend as prenol lipids metabolism, tannin.This study provides new valuable information for regarding differences in the metabolite profile of China Xihu Longjing tea processed based on machine fixing and manual fixing methods.

Keenjhar Lake is the main source of drinking water for the metropolitan city of Karachi. The release of untreated wastewater from Kotri industrial area and other sources have made the lake water polluted. This study was subjected to determine the impacts of such pollutant sources on the water quality of Keenjhar Lake. The study involves the analysis of water quality parameters of Keenjhar Lake and its Feeding source (KB Feeder). The sampling sites were selected based on the sources of contamination. The water samples are tested for physical, chemical and microbiological parameters. The result of water analysis indicates the contamination level of the lake is quite alarming for the sites of Kotri effluent and WAPDA colony where Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Chloride and other ionic metals were quite higher in concentration than other sites. These sites are also contaminated with Fluoride and Arsenic which are carcinogenic elements. The study reveals that the contamination level of feeding source is causing big non-reversible damage to the lake if continued to be uncontrolled. This contamination is mainly due to the release of toxic metals and ions in the KB feeder caused by human carelessness.

Ozonated oil has several benefits for humans, as it contributes to numerous interventions, maintaining the quality of life and the well-being of individuals. Being a natural product, it has few or almost no side effects. Thus, the study aimed to verify the sensitivity and/or resistance of fixed o “Ozonated” and “Non-Ozonated” oils from Mauritia flexuosa (Buriti), Carapa guaianensis (Andiroba) and essential “Ozonated” oils from Menta piperita (Mint), Eugenia caryophyllus (Clove) in different concentrations, against internationally known bacteria from the American Type Culture Collection – ATCC, comparing with the “Non-Ozonated” versions of the respective oils, using the Agar diffusion technique. Thus, it is evident that the ozonation of the fixed oils of Buriti and Andiroba, as well as the essential oils of Mint and Clove, provided significant results, although they were statistically different. The Buriti and Andiroba oil were ineffective in inhibiting microorganisms. On the other hand, the essential oil of Mint and Clove obtained similar activity of inhibition of microorganisms. With regard to Ozonation, the Essential Oil of “Ozonated” Clove provided greater activity than the “Non-Ozonated” one, which inhibited only one tested microorganism, in addition to producing changes in its chemical composition, requiring individualized studies for the ozonation of each essential oil.

Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest in the use of a wide range of phytoadditives to counteract the harmful effects of heat stress in poultry. Willow (Salix spp.) is a tree with a long history. Among various forms, willow bark is an important natural source of salicin, β-O-glucoside of saligenin, but also of polyphenols (flavonoids and condensed tannins) with antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity. In light of this, the current review presents some literature data aiming to: (1) describe the relationship between heat stress and oxidative stress in broilers, (2) present or summarize literature data on the chemical composition of Salix species, (3) summarize the mechanisms of action of willow bark in heat-stressed broilers, (4) present different biological effects of the extract of Salix species in different experimental models.

This study explores the impact of temperature and molarity on the pyrolysis of Açaí seeds (Euterpe Oleraceae, Mart.) activated with KOH on the yield of bio-oil, hydrocarbon content of bio-oil, antioxidant activity of bio-oil and chemical composition of aqueous phase. The experiments were carried out at 350, 400, and 450 °C and 1.0 atmosphere, with 2.0 M KOH, and at 450 °C and 1.0 at-mosphere, with 0.5 M, 1.0 M and 2.0 M KOH, in laboratory scale. The composition of bio-oils and aqueous phase determined by GC-MS, while the acid value, a physical-chemical property of fundamental importance in biofuels, of bio-oils and aqueous phases by AOCS methods. The antioxidant activity of bio-oils determined by the TEAC method. The solid phase (biochar) characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The diffractograms identified the presence of Kalicinite (KHCO3) in bio-char, and those higher temperatures favor the formation peaks of Kalicinite (KHCO3). The pyrolysis of Açaí seeds activated with KOH show bio-oil yields from 3.19 to 6.79 (wt.%), aqueous phase yields between 20.34 and 25.57 (wt.%), solid phase yields (coke) between 33.40 and 43.37 (wt.%), and gas yields from 31.85 to 34.45 (wt.%). The yield of bio-oil shows a smooth exponential increase with temperature. The acidity of bio-oil varied between 12.3 and 257.6 mgKOH/g, decreasing exponentially with temperature, while that of aqueous phase between 17.9 and 118.9 mgKOH/g, showing and exponential decay behavior with temperature, demonstrating that higher temperatures favor not only the yield of bio-oil but also bio-oils with lower acidity. For the experiments with KOH activation, the GC-MS of bio-oil identified the presence of hydrocarbons (alkanes, alkenes, cycloalkanes, cycloalkenes, and aromatics) and oxygenates (carboxylic acids, phenols, ketones, and esters). The concentration of hydrocarbons varied between 10.19 to 25.71 (area.%), increasing with temperature, while that of oxygenates from 52.69 to 72.15 (area.%), decreasing with temperature. For the experiments with constant temperature, the concentrations of hydrocarbons in bio-oil in-crease exponentially with molarity, while those of oxygenates decrease exponentially, showing that higher molarities favor the formation of hydrocarbons in bio-oil. The antioxidant activity of bio-oils decreases with increasing temperature, as the content of phenolic compounds decreases, and de-creases with increasing KOH molarity, as higher molarities favors the formation of hydrocarbons. Finally, it can be concluded that chemical activation of Açaí seeds with KOH favors the not only the yield of bio-oil but also the content of hydrocarbons. The study of process variables is of utmost importance in order to clearly assess reaction mechanisms, economic viability and design goals that could be derived from chemically activated biomass pyrolysis processes.

Many marine animals use chemicals to defend themselves and their eggs from predators. Beyond their ecologically relevant functions, these chemicals may also have properties that make them beneficial for humans, including with biomedical and industrial applications. For example, some chemical defenses are also powerful antimicrobial or anti-tumor agents with relevance to human health and disease. One such chemical defense, Escapin, an L–amino acid oxidase in the defensive ink of the sea hare Aplysia californica, and related proteins have been investigated for their biomedical properties. This review details our current understanding of Escapin’s antimicrobial activity, including the array of chemicals generated by Escapin’s oxidation of its major substrates, L–lysine and L–arginine, and mechanisms underlying these molecules’ bactericidal and bacteriostatic effects on planktonic cells and the prevention of formation and removal of bacterial biofilms. Models of Escapin’s effects are presented, and future directions are proposed.

Condition monitoring is a primary principle for predictive maintenance. In this regard, several techniques have been employed, each of which has its strengths and weaknesses. In this work, the relationships between the electrical (ε', ε", tan δ) and chemical (Fe, Pb, Cu, Cr, Al, Si, Zn) properties of engine lubricants were investigated using soft computing models. The models' performance was evaluated considering some criteria, including RMSE and MAPE. The RBF model was determined as the best one to predict chemical properties (Fe, Pb, Cu, Cr, Al, Si, Zn) through electrical indexes (ε', ε", tan δ). The RBF’s parameters (e.g., hidden size and training algorithm) were then optimized for optimum performance. For instance, in the RBF model implemented to predict Al, the best hidden size and training algorithmic were 15 and 'trainlm', respectively. Finally, by sensitivity analysis it was observed that eliminating any of the inputs does not improve the performance of the RBF model performance. In general, the results of the current research showed that the electrical properties (e.g., ε', ε", tan δ) have the capability of estimating the contaminants in the lubricants which can improve the existing monitoring methods.

This paper presents the life cycle assessment results of a study of plastic recycling via hydrothermal upgrading (HTU), a chemical recycling technology. It was investigated due to its potential to address current gaps in the plastic recycling system, largely due to several plastic packaging materials and formats that cannot be processed by traditional mechanical recycling technologies (primarily due to technoeconomic reasons). As society transitions towards a net-zero-based circular economy, assessments should be conducted with a futuristic outlook, preventing costly mistakes by employing the right technologies in the right areas. HTU can generate up to 76% reduction in climate change impacts when compared with comparable end-of-life treatment technologies whilst conserving material with the system. Additionally, further reductions could be achieved by changes in electricity consumption within the study. This represents a new insight to chemical recycling of polymers by establishing a prospective life cycle assessment study that looks to introduce a step-change in the recycling system. By creating a transparent cut-off model with consistent allocation, it highlights the benefits of introducing this technology as opposed to the current model of disposal through incineration or landfill.

Egg white lysozyme was modified by chemical methods using organic acids. Caffeic acid and p-coumaric acid in organic acids were used as modifiers, and 1-Ethyl-3- (3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride and N-hydroxy succinimide were used as dehydration condensation agents during modification. A certain degree of modified lysozyme was obtained through appropriate modification conditions. The antibacterial properties and structure of the obtained two organic acid modified lysozymes were compared with natural enzymes. The results showed that compared with the natural enzyme, the activity of modified lysozyme decreased, but the inhibitory effect on Gram-negative bacteria was enhanced. The minimum inhibitory concentrations of caffeic acid modified enzyme and p-coumaric acid modified enzyme on Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were 0.5 mg/mL and 0.75 mg/mL, respectively. However, the antibacterial ability of modified lysozyme to Gram-positive bacteria was lower than that of natural enzyme. The minimum inhibitory concentration of caffeic acid modified enzyme and p-coumaric acid modified enzyme to Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis was 1.25 mg/mL. The peak fitting results of the amide-I band (1600 cm-1-1700 cm-1) absorption peak in the infrared spectroscopy showed that the content of the secondary structure of the two modified enzymes obtained after modification was different from that of natural enzymes.

Thermal energy storage (TES) is a key technology to enhance the efficiency of energy systems as well as to increase the share of renewable energies. In this context, the present paper reports a literature review of the recent advancement in the field of adsorption TES systems. After a first introduction about different heat storage technologies, the adsorption TES working principle is explained and compared to the other technologies. Subsequently, promising features and critical issues at material, component and system levels are deeply analyzed and the ongoing activities to make this technology ready for marketing are introduced.

The aim of the study was to verify whether a reduced nitrogen (N) fertilization rate according to the EU recommendation (“From field to table” directive) may guarantee good yields and will be sufficient to maintain soil fertility in monoculture maize cultivation in the no-tillage (NT) system versus the traditional plowing (P) system. Two fields (10 ha each) were established for P and NT maize cultivation where the following N doses were applied: 0.0; 69.0, 92.0, and 115.0 kg ha-1. Soils (0-20 cm) were sampled two times per year - in spring (before maize sowing) and in autumn (after maize harvesting). A broad range of chemical (reaction, water holding capacity, total and easily degradable carbon, ammonium, nitrates, magnesium, calcium, potassium, sulfur) and biological (respiration, humic acids) parameters were monitored during the experiment. The vast majority of these factors had higher values in autumn than in spring. Although the role of reduced fertilization was not shown to be significant, the correlation analysis revealed some relationships between yield and nutrient availability. The 20% reduction in N fertilization does not have an adverse effect on the chemistry and biological characteristics of soils and does not worsen their chemical and biological quality.

Natural product especially secondary metabolites that produced by plants under the stressed condition shown to have a different pharmacological impact. Aeluropus lagopoides is one of the typical halophyte plants survivals under stressed conditions. It has been used for wound healing and as a painkiller. The bioactivity and the chemical composition of this plant have poorly investigated. Consequently, chemical components of A. lagopoides leaves were extracted using hexane (nonpolar), ethyl acetate (semi-polar), n-butanol (polar) to extract the most extensive variety of metabolites. The cytotoxicity and anticancer impact of extracted secondary metabolites evaluated against breast (MCF-7), colon (HCT-116), and liver (HepG2) cancer cell lines using SRB test. The mechanism of action verified by observing the appearance of apoptotic bodies using the fluorescent microscope while their antiproliferative impact had been evaluated using flow cytometer. Results revealed that secondary metabolites extracted using hexane and ethyl acetate were having the highest cytotoxicity and thus anticancer activity effect on HepG2 with IC₅₀ (24.29 ± 0.85, 11.22 ± 0.679 µg/mL) respectively. Where apoptotic bodies observed, flow cytometer results exhibited that secondary metabolites can inhibit cell cycle in G0/G1 phase. Accordingly, A. lagopoides hexane and ethyl acetate extracts may consider as a candidate anti-cancer drug.

Bee products have a millennial tradition in human use due to their numerous heal-ing properties. The paper presents the chemical characterization, antioxidant, anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory potential of royal jelly, apilarnil and propolis. These were obtained in the Banat area, Romania, in 2022. Royal jelly and apilarnil were analyzed in pure and lyophilized form and propolis in pure form and tincture. The percentage of moisture, dry matter, pH, acidity, content of impurities, sugars, proteins, ash, macro and micro minerals, total amino acids, polyphenols and flavo-noids were studied. The samples analyzed by us have a very well developed antiox-idant and according to the analysis of the mineral content of beekeeping products, an increased variability of macro and microminerals was determined, but also the lack of Pb in their composition. The flavonoid content of the samples was between 2.61519 mg QE/g sample for commercial pure apilarnil and 279.56115 mg QE/g sample for propolis harvested in 2021, and that of polyphenols between 0.63507 mg QE/g sample for natural royal jelly and 42.82186 mg QE/g sample in propolis with harvest in 2021. Propolis acts as a good antimicrobial and antiinflammatory agent, a fact that deserves to be researched in detail and exploited as a product with an ap-itherapeutic role for various microbial and inflammatory conditions.

Silicates are among the most abundant and important inorganic materials, not only in the Earth’s crust but also in the interstellar medium in the form of micro-/nano-particles or embedded in the matrices of comets, meteorites and other asteroidal bodies. Although the crystalline phases of silicates are indeed present in Nature, amorphous forms are also highly abundant. Here we report a theoretical investigation of the structural, dielectric and vibrational properties of the amorphous bulk for forsterite (Mg₂SiO₄) as a silicate test case by a combined approach of classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for structure evolution, and periodic quantum mechanical DFT calculations for electronic structure analysis. Using classical MD based on an empirical partial charge rigid ionic model within a melt-quenching scheme at different temperatures performed with the GULP 4.0 code amorphous bulk structures for Mg₂SiO₄ were generated using as initial guess the crystalline phase. This has been done for bulks with three different unit cell sizes adopting a super-cell approach; i.e., 1×1×2, 2×1×2 and 2×2×2. The radial distribution functions indicated a good degree of amorphisation of the structures. Periodic B3LYP-geometry optimizations performed with the CRYSTAL14 code on the generated amorphous systems were used to analyze their structure, to calculate their high frequency dielectric constants (ε_∞), and to simulate the IR, Raman and reflectance spectra, which were compared with the experimental and theoretical crystalline Mg₂SiO₄. The most significant changes of the physico-chemical properties of the amorphous systems compared to the crystalline ones are presented and discussed (e.g., larger deviations in the bond distances and angles, broadening of the IR bands, etc.), which are consistent with their disordered nature. It is also shown that by increasing the unit cell size the bulk structures present larger degree of amorphisation.

Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer (P. ginseng), has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). It contains a number of chemical components and possesses a variety of pharmacological activities. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is neurodegenerative disease that creates a huge burden on the lives and health of individuals. In recent years, studies have indicated that the chemical components of P. ginseng, especially ginsenosides, play a pronounced positive role in the prevention and treatment of neurological diseases. This review aimed to summarize currently studies on chemical components and the mechanisms action in AD intervention treatment of P. ginseng, especially ginsenosides. In this review, the components of P. ginseng and their respective active effects were first introduced. Then the key molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways of P. ginseng were introduced, and its different active ingredients in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease-related pathogenesis were also summarized from the pathogenesis of AD Aβ generation and aggregation, hyperphosphorylation of tau protein，oxidant stress，neuroinflammation，mitochondrial damage，disorder of neurotransmitter and gut microbiota. Signaling pathway networks related to the action of ginseng active ingredients was constructed, which could serve as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease. In addition to a detailed report on P. ginseng in improving Alzheimer's disease-related pathogenesis, the application of the current technology, spatial metabonomics in AD therapeutics and diagnostics were later discussed. Spatial metabonomics could be applied to investigate the multi-target intervention of P. ginseng on Alzheimer's disease. Research perspectives for the study of P. ginseng in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease were provided for further studies.

Soybean is one of the world’s most economically significant crops and is widely utilized as an essential source of vegetable protein and edible oil. Cultivated soybean is domesticated from its annual counterpart, wild soybean, which is considered valuable germplasm for soybean breeding. However, wild soybean accessions generally produce seeds with impermeable coats, a trait known as hard seededness (HS), which is beneficial for long-term seed survival but is undesirable for the uniform water absorption and germination of seeds, thus limiting the utilization of wild soybeans in breeding. However, moderate HS can isolate the embryo from the surrounding environment and is thus beneficial for long-term seed storage and germplasm preservation. The HS trait is primarily associated with the structure and chemical composition of the seed coat. However, its development is also influenced by various environmental conditions, such as water and temperature. Genetic analysis has revealed that HS of soybean is a complex quantitative trait controlled by multiple genes or minor quantitative trait loci (QTL), with many QTLs and several causal genes currently identified. Investigating the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying this trait is crucial for soybean breeding, production, and food processing. For this article, the literature was reviewed and condensed to create a well-rounded picture of the current understanding of internal and external factors, QTLs, causal genes, and the regulatory mechanisms related to the HS of soybean, with the aim of providing reference for future research and utilization of this trait.

Background: Poisoning is a challenging medical condition facing health care providers, as it usually results in serious outcomes in terms of morbidities or mortalities. Poisoning is a challenging medical condition facing health care providers, as it usually results in serious outcomes in terms of morbidities or mortalities. The lack of or inadequate information about the circumstances, substances and populations at risk are considered barriers to the actual prevention of poisoning and effective intervention strategies in Saudi Arabia. The aim of the current study was to describe the pattern and determinants of chemical and drug overdose poisoning in Makkah.Subjects and methods: All reports of chemical and drug overdose poisoning delivered to the Environmental Health and Occupational Safety Department in Makkah over two years (2018-2019) were reviewed.Results: The total number of cases reported in 2018 was 209 cases, while it reached 42 cases in 2019. The overwhelming majority of the cases were Saudi (91.6%), with a slight predominance of males (57.4%) over females (42.6%). Generally, almost two-thirds of the cases occurred in children below 13 years (61.4%), most of the poisoning cases resulted from drug overdose (63.3%), while 34.7% were chemical poisoning. The most common drug poisoning was attributed to analgesics followed by antiepileptics, antihypertensive drugs, antipsychotics and antimicrobials, while cleaning and detergent agents were the most commonly poisoned chemicals. The majority of these agents were taken by the oral route. Children's chemical poisoning was significantly higher than that in older age groups (p<0.05). All intentional poisoning occurred in adults; the great majority of them (88.9%) used drug overdosing rather than chemical substances.Conclusion and recommendations: The current study results are consistent with most of the previous studies carried out in different regions of Saudi Arabia. Further in-depth studies are needed to elaborate other social and demographic factors associated with chemical and drug overdose poisoning. Public health plans, policies and legislations should be implemented to reduce these factors. Intensive supervision of children is needed. Suicidal poisoning patients should seek psychiatric help to limit the possibility of attempting suicide again in the future. Furthermore, efforts are needed to plan and implement health education programs about the factors proven in the current study to be significantly related to chemical and drug overdose poisoning.

In the production of grafted vines, losses are caused by fungal pathogens during callus forming or after planting in the soil. To control or reduce natural fungal infections in nurseries, certain applications were conducted in sapling cultivation stage to analyse the efficacy of cyprodinil + fludioxonil, floupyram + tebuconazole active substances and Trichoderma harzianum biological preparation. 1103 Paulsen rootstock and Vitis viniferea L. Sultana cultivars were stored in fungicide suspensions for 60 minutes before and after grafting in the study. After grafting, the seedlings were divided into i) cutting + sawdust ii) cutting + sawdust + soil application groups and transferred to the callus room. Fungicides were applied 1 to 7 days after the callus development to wet the seedling roots 1 to 7 days after they were planted. After nine months in the nursery, the plants were uprooted, classified as diseased or healthy, and analysed for morphological and molecular diagnosis of fungal species, isolation incidence, and seedling quality and yield. After callus development, Fusarium solani was most frequently isolated pathogen in the roots (21.5%), cyprodinil + fludioxonil reduced the Ilyonectria sp. isolation rate in both shoots and roots. Botryosphaeria obtusa and I. liriodendri pathogens were not detected in sick and healthy cyprodinil + fludioxonil-treated saplings. The highest seedling yield was observed with fludioxonil + cyprodinil, cutting + sawdust + soil (78.75%) and cutting + sawdust (70.68%) applications. According to the results of this study, it was found that fungicide applications before and after grafting prevented soil-borne pathogen infections and improved sapling quality.

The theoretical limits of water sorbate based chemical sorption heat storage are investigated in this study. First, a classification of \textit{thermochemical heat storage} is proposed based on bonding typology. Then, thermodynamics of chemical solid/gas sorption is introduced. The analysis of the reaction enthalpy from the literature indicates that this value is only slightly varying for one mole of water. Using this observation, and with the help of thermodynamical considerations, it is possible to derive conclusions on energy efficiency of closed and open heat storage systems. Whatever the salt, the main results are 1) the energy required for evaporation of water is, at least, 65% of the available energy of reaction and 2) the maximum theoretical energy efficiency of the system is about 1.8.

Chemical instability of liquid-repellent surfaces is one of the nontrivial hurdles that hinders their real-world applications. Although much efforts have been made to prepare chemically durable liquid-repellent surfaces, few attentions have been paid to exploit the instability for versatile use. Herein, we propose to create hydrophilic patterns on superhydrophobic surface by taking advantage of its chemical instability induced by acid solution treatment. Superhydrophobic Cu(OH)2 nanoneedles covered Cu plate that shows poor stability towards HCl solution (1.0 M) is taken as an example. Results show that 2.5 min of HCl solution exposure leads to the etching of Cu(OH)2 nanoneedles and partial removal of self-assembled fluoroalkyl silane molecular layer, resulting in the wettability transition from superhydrophobocity to hydrophilicity, and the water contact angle decreases from ~160° to ~30°. Hydrophilic dimples with different diameters are then created on the superhydrophobic surfaces by depositing HCl droplets with different volumes. Afterwards, the hydrophilic dimple patterned superhydrophobic surfaces are used for water droplet manipulations, including controlled transfer, merging and nanoliter droplets deposition. The results thereby verify the feasibility of creating wettability patterns on superhydrophobic surfaces by using their chemical instability towards corrosive solutions, which broadens the fabrication methods and applications of functional liquid-repellent surfaces.

Speciation analysis is a relevant topic since the (eco)toxicity, bioavailability, bio (geo)chemical cycles, and mobility of a given element depend on its chemical forms (oxidation state, organic ligands, etc.). Reliability of analytical results for chemical species of elements depends mostly on the maintaining of their stability during sample pretreatment step and on the selectivity of further separation step. Solid phase extraction (SPE) is a matter of choice as most suitable and widely used procedure for both enrichment of chemical species of elements and their separation. Features of sorbent material are of great importance to ensure extraction efficiency from one side and selectivity from other side of SPE procedure. This review presents an update on the application of polymeric materials in solid-phase extraction used in non-chromatographic methods for speciation analysis.

Recently, polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has shown promising dental applications; although surface treatment is essential for dental applications owing to its poor surface energy and wettability, no consensus on an effective treatment method has been achieved. In this study, we attempt to carboxylate PEEK sample surfaces via Friedel–Crafts acylation using succinic anhydride and AlBr3. The possibility of further chemical modifications using carboxyl groups is examined. The samples are subjected to dehydration–condensation reactions with 1H,1H-pentadecafluorooctylamine and N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. The sample surface properties at each reaction stage are evaluated. An absorption band in the 3300–3500 cm-1 wavenumber region is observed. Additionally, peak suggestive of COOH is observed in the sample spectra. Secondary modification diminished the absorption band in 3300–3500 cm-1 and a clear F1s signal is observed. Thus, Friedel–Crafts acylation with succinic anhydride produces carboxyl groups on the PEEK sample surfaces. Further chemical modification of the carboxyl groups by dehydration-condensation reactions is also possible. Thus, a series of reactions can be employed to impart desired chemical structures to PEEK surfaces.

As consequence of the digital transformation, e-learning methodologies have become an inseparable part of the standard classes in schools and universities, assuming an increasingly significant role in compensating for the difficulties resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous pedagogical methodologies and strategies can be easily implemented in high education, promoting students’ motivation and interest in learning. This research study analyses the implementation of gamification pedagogical strategy on 50-60 undergraduate chemical engineering students at the university, by evaluating its effect on the success rate on a specific topic of Chemical Reactions Engineering subject and the motivation effect for the following topics. Our results show a significant positive effect of the gamification strategy on university lectures, increasing up to 25-30 % of the success ratio with an apparent motivation effect. During the subsequent years, the changes in the lifestyle of study also play a role in students’ performance. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate case studies such as the one presented here to understand better the use of these pedagogical methods and strategies in high education, especially in technical subjects described in this paper.

Clove (Syzygium aromaticum L. Myrtaceae) is an aromatic plant widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries, rich in volatile compounds and antioxidants such as eugenol, β-caryophyllene, and α-humulene. Clove essential oil has received considerable interest due to its wide application in the perfumery, cosmetic, health, medical, flavoring, and food industries. Clove essential oil has relevant biological activities to human health, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, and insecticide. This review describes the effect of the extraction method (hydrodistillation, steam distillation, ultrasound-assisted extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, cold pressing, and supercritical fluid extraction) on the chemical composition of essential oil and its correlation with their biological activities. Likewise, are summarized the main compounds and their reported biological activities. Furthermore, the main applications in clove essential oil in the food industry are presented. Finally, this review presents the new biological activities such as anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anesthetic, antinociceptive and anticancer, which are beneficial for human health. This review aims to compile the effect of different methods of extracting clove essential oil on chemical composition, food applications, as well as a current description of biological activities of interest to human health. Biological activities have increased interest in research into this essential oil and its future applications in the food or pharmaceutical industry.

The main bottleneck when performing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of combustion systems is the computation and integration of the highly non-linear and stiff chemical source terms. In recent times, machine learning has emerged as a promising tool to accelerate combustion chemistry, involving the use of regression models to predict the chemical source terms as functions of the thermochemical state of the system. However, combustion is a highly nonlinear phenomenon, and this often leads to divergence from the true solution when the neural network representation of chemical kinetics is integrated in time. This is because these approaches minimize the error during training without guaranteeing successful integration with ordinary differential equation (ODE) solvers. In this work, a novel neural ODE approach to combustion modeling, ChemNODE, is developed to address this issue. The source terms predicted by the neural network are integrated during training, and by backpropagating errors through the ODE solver, the neural network weights are adjusted accordingly to minimize the difference between the predicted and actual ODE solutions. It is shown that even when the dimensionality of the thermochemical manifold is trimmed to remove redundant species, the proposed approach accurately captures the correct physical behavior and reproduces the results obtained using the full chemical kinetic mechanism.

An improved method for Fluctuation Enhanced Sensing (FES) is introduced. We enhanced the old binary fingerprinting method, where the fingerprint bit values were ± 1, by introducing ternary fingerprints utilizing a reference odor. In the ternary method, the fingerprint bit values are -1, 0, and +1 where the 0 value stands for the situation where the slope of the spectrum is identical to that of the reference odor. The application of the reference odor spectrum makes the fingerprint relative to the reference. This feature increases the information entropy of the fingerprints. The method is briefly illustrated by sensing bacterial odor in cow manure isolates.

Over the years, scarcity of fresh potable water has increased the demand for clean water. Meanwhile, with the advent of nanotechnology, the use of nanomaterials for photocatalytic degradation of pollutants in wastewaters has increased. Herein, a new type of nanohybrids of La and Mn co-doped bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃) nanoparticles embedded into transition metal carbide sheets (MXene) were prepared by a low-cost double solvent sol-gel method, and investigated for their photocatalytic activity. The photoluminescence results showed that pure BFO has highest electron hole recombination rate as compared to all the co-doped BFO/MXene nanohybrids. The larger surface area and higher electron-hole pair generation rate provides suitable environment for fast photo-degradation of organic molecules. The band gap of the prepared nanohybrids was tuned to 1.96 eV having largest BiFeO₃ surface area (147 m²g⁻¹) reported till date. Moreover, the BLFO/MXene and BLFMO-5/Mxene degraded the 92% organic pollutant from water in dark and remaining in light spectrum as compare to undoped BFO/Mxene due to enhancement of the surface area and electron-hole recombination rate upon doping. Therefore, these synthesized nanohybrids could be a promising candidate for photocatalytic applications in future.

The improvement of mechanical properties of cantala fiber and its composites. Treatments including alkali, silane, and the combination of both were carried out to modify the fiber surface. The influence of chemical treatments on fiber properties such as the degree of crystallinity and tensile strength was investigated. A variety of short cantala fiber reinforced rHDPE composites were produced by hot press, and the effect of fiber treatment on the flexural strength of composites was observed. SEM observations also carried out to highlight these changes. The result shows that alkali treatment improves tensile strength and tensile modulus of alkali treated fiber (NF12) which was predicted as a result of the enhancement of the cellulose crystallinity. In contrast, the tensile strength and tensile modulus of silane (SF05) and alkali-silane treated fiber (NSF05) decreased compared to untreated fiber (UF) which is caused by the addition of amorphous material. The tensile strength of alkali-silane treated fiber (NSF05) was lower than alkali treated fiber (NF12), but the composites prepared with NSF05 showed the highest increment of flexural strength of 25.9%. This may be due the combination of alkali and silane treatment helped in the better formation of fiber-matrix interface adhesion.

Background: The use of medicinal plants and their effective compounds as natural sources that have antioxidant properties, has been considered by researchers. Antioxidants are compounds that effectively inhibit the reaction of oxygen and nitrogen-free radicals with biomolecules in a variety of ways, reducing damage or preventing cell death, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers. Objective: In this study, chemical compounds of Adiantum capillus-veneris essential oil were used to evaluate its antioxidant and antimicrobial activity using water distillation and gas chromatography. Methods: The whole plant was dried at room temperature at 25 ° C and the distillation method with water with modifications was used using a Clevenger device for essential oil extraction. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to identify the resulting essential oil compounds and the antioxidant and antibacterial activity of the essential oil was evaluated. Results: The most important chemical constituents of Adiantum capillus-veneris essential oil were carvone (33.00%), carvacrol (15.05%), hexadecanoic acid (7.02%), hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (4.25%) and n-nonanal (4.2%). The antibacterial activity of Adiantum capillus-veneris essential oils (mg/ml) was calculated and the highest antibacterial activity was determined by Staphylococcus aureus (8.23±1.07), Streptococcus pyogenes (12.46±1.62), and Diphtheroid (11.37±1.36) at a concentration of 100 mg/ml of essential oils. Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that the essential oil of Adiantum capillus-veneris prevented the growth of three pathogenic bacteria. This antibacterial property is due to the presence of flavonoid compounds in Adiantum capillus-veneris has the capacity for therapeutic and medical uses.

Background: Reducing the impact of malaria is a key to achieving the sustainable development goals which are geared towards eradicating the disease. The main objective of this study was to synthesize, determine the efficacy and safety of antiplasmodial hybrid drug comprising of sarcosine and aniline derivative for management of plasmodial infections. Results: The hybrid drug was synthesized by adding thionyl chloride to sarcosine in order to form acyl chloride which was then added to aniline to form sarcosine-aniline hybrid molecule. The IC50 of sarcosine-aniline hybrid was 44.80 ± 4.70 ng/ml compared to that of aniline derivative which was 22.86 ± 1.26 ng/ml. The IC50 of control drugs were 2.63 ± 0.38 ng/ml, 5.69 ± 0.39 ng/ml for artesunate and chloroquine respectively. There was a significant difference between IC50 of sarcosine-aniline hybrid and aniline derivative (P<0.05). There was also a significant difference between sarcosine-aniline hybrid and standard drugs used to treat malaria including artesunate and chloroquine (P<0.05). The ED50 of sarcosine-aniline hybrid drug was 6.49mg/kg compared to that of aniline derivative which was 3.61mg/kg. The ED50 of control drugs were 3.56 mg/kg, 2.94mg/kg and 1.78 mg/kg for artesunate-aniline hybrid, artesunate and chloroquine respectively. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) between ED50 of sarcosine-aniline hybrid and both controls such as aniline derivative, artesunate, artesunate-aniline hybrid and chloroquine. Cytotoxicity results revealed that sarcosine-aniline hybrid was safe to vero cells with a CC50 of 50.18±3.53µg/ml. Sarcosine-aniline hybrid was significantly less toxic compared to artesunate, chloroquine and doxorubicin. Sarcosine-aniline hybrid was also safe to mice. Conclusion: Therefore, covalent bitherapy should be used in drug development for drug resistance mitigation.

Bioconvective flows have attracted attention in recent years due to actual and potential applications. In this paper, we consider a steady and laminar convective MHD flow of a nanofluid with heat, mass and microorganism transfer with a heat source/sink present. In addition, we assume there exists a first order chemical reaction. The governing partial differential equations (PDEs) are reduced to ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using the scaling group transformation and the associated boundary value problem is then solved. The influences of selected governing parameters on the dimensionless velocity, temperature, nanoparticle concentration, density of motile microorganisms, skin friction, heat transfer, mass transfer, and motile microorganism density rates are computed and discussed

The traditional processing of Dendrobium officinale (DO) is manufactured through five necessary processing steps: fresh strips, drying at 85 °C, curling, molding, and drying at 35 °C (Fengdou), and the antioxidant activity of DO were increased after processing into Fengdou. To comprehensively analyses the changing functional components, a plant-wide target metabolomics were employed. In total, 739 differential ingredients were identified in five processing treatments, mainly highlighting differences in variation with phenolic acids, flavonoids, lipids, and amino acids and their derivatives, and glycosylation of aglycone result in the up-regulation in flavonoid glycosides levels. Temperature is a key step in DO processing production. In addition, the main enrichment of specific differential ingredients was found in five different metabolic pathways, including glucosinolate biosynthesis, linoleic acid metabolism, flavonoid biosynthesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, ubiquinone and other terpene quinone biosynthesis. Correlation analysis clarified that total phenols and flavonoids showed a significant positive correlation with antioxidant capacity. This study provides new insights into the influence of processing processes on DO quality, which may lead to guidance for the high-quality production of DO.

When designing the battery of an electric vehicle, different parameters must be considered to obtain the safest arrangement of the battery/modules/cells from the mechanical and thermal point of view. In this study, the thermal runaway propagation mechanism of lithium-ion cells is analyzed as a function of their arrangement within a battery pack in case of a fire propagation of a battery pack in which a thermal runaway has occurred. The objective is to identify which cell/module arrangement is most critical within the battery pack by microscopic analysis of the structure and chemical composition of the most damaged cells, both horizontally and vertically, of a battery belonging to a burnt vehicle. And their final condition has been compared with the condition of new cells of the same type. In this way the structure and chemical composition of the anode, cathode and separator after Thermal Runaway has been compared. This research has been carried out to obtain information to understand the mechanical properties of lithium-ion cells and their behavior after thermal runaway heating leading to the propagation of a fire. Through the analysis carried out, it is concluded that cells placed in a vertical arrangement have worse behavior than cells in a horizontal arrangement. Regarding the safety of the battery, the results of this study will allow to determine which arrangement and structure of the cells within the battery pack is safer against thermal runaway due to thermal failure.

The materials used as corrosion inhibitors are [Zn-Al-Cl], [Mg-Al-Cl], [Ni-Fe-Cl], and [Co-Fe-Cl] layered double hydroxides (LDHs). They were synthesized by coprecipitation and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and thermal anal-yses. The efficiency of these corrosion inhibitors on mild steel in concentrated hydrochloric acid (18.5%) at 60°C (chemical pickling conditions of steel) was studied using electrochemical and gravimetric methods for different concentrations. The surface morphology and composition were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. The inhibitory efficiency in the case of 1.2 g.L-1 LDH was found to be 83.33%, 83.65%, 68.38%, and 74.73% for [Ni- Fe-Cl], [Zn-Al-Cl], [Co-Fe-Cl], and [Mg-Al-Cl], respectively.

The coffee leaf miner (CLM) Leucoptera coffeella moth is a major threat to coffee production. Insect damage is related to the feeding behavior of the larvae on the leaf. During the immature life stages, the insect feeds in the mesophyll, triggering necrosis and causing loss of photosynthetic capacity, defoliation, and significant yield loss to coffee crops. Chemical control is mandatory to sustain the coffee production chain, though market requirements move towards conscious consumption, claiming for more sustainable methods. In this overview, we discuss aspects about the CLM concerning biology, history, geographical distribution, economic impacts, and the most relevant control strategies in progress. Insights to develop an integrate approach for a safer and eco-friendly control of the CLM are discussed, including bio-extracts, nanotechnology, pheromones, and tolerant cultivars.

The CARA program has been developed since 2008 by the French reference laboratory for air quality monitoring (LCSQA) and the regional monitoring networks to gain a better knowledge at the national level on the particulate matter (PM) chemistry and its diverse origins in urban environments. It results of strong collaborations with international-level academic partners, allowing to bring state-of-the-art, straightforward and robust results and methodologies within operational air quality stakeholders (and subsequently, decision makers). Here, we illustrate some of the main outputs obtained over the last decade thanks to this program, regarding methodological aspects (both in terms of measurement techniques and data treatment procedures) as well as acquired knowledge on the predominant PM sources. Offline and online methods are used following well-suited quality assurance and quality control procedures, notably including inter-laboratory comparison exercises. Source apportionment studies are conducted using various receptor modeling approaches. Overall, the results presented herewith underline the major influences of residential wood burning (during the cold period) and road transport emissions (exhaust and non-exhaust ones, all along the year), as well as substantial contributions of mineral dust and primary biogenic particles (mostly during the warm period). Long-range transport phenomena, e.g., advection of secondary inorganic aerosols from the European continental sector and of Saharan dust into the French West Indies, are also discussed in this paper. Finally, we briefly address the use of stable isotope measurements (δ15N) and of various organic molecular markers for a better understanding of the origins of ammonium and of the different organic aerosol fractions, respectively.

In some cases, the human impact on ancient landscapes has been so profound that local soils still remain significantly affected even after hundreds and thousands of years after ending impact. We studied the Late Bronze Age Muradymovo settlement located in Urals, Russia, aiming to estimate the consequences of the ancient people activity for environment. Despite the present humid climate, the modern soils inside the cultural layer of the study site contain more than 27% of gypsum at a depth of just 10 cm from the surface, and a microrelief of the study site is typical of a gypsum desert. The nearby background Chernozems are gypsum-free to a depth of 2 meters. According to the archaeological data, the ancient people belonged to the ‘Srubno-Alakul’ archaeological culture (1750–1350 yrs BC cal) and had a tradition of building their houses from gypsum rocks. At the present time, this area is still unsuitable for human settlement. The properties of modern soils inside the cultural layer of the study site are directly affected by the Late Bronze Age human activities. It has been identified on soil morphology, micromorphology and chemical properties of soils developed inside the cultural layer of the settlement.

Cholesterol siRNA conjugates attract attention because they allow the delivery of siRNA into cells without the use of transfection agents. In this study, we compared the efficacy and duration of silencing induced by cholesterol conjugates of selectively and totally modified siRNAs and their heteroduplexes of the same sequence and explored the impact of linker length between the 3' end of the sense strand of siRNA and cholesterol on the silencing activity of “light” and “heavy” modified siRNAs. All 3'-cholesterol conjugates were equally active under transfection, but the conjugate with a C3 linker was less active than those with longer linkers (C8 and C15) in a carrier-free mode. At the same time, they are significantly inferior in activity to the 5'-cholesterol conjugate. Shortening the sense strand carrying cholesterol by 2 nucleotides from the 3'-end did not have a significant effect on the activity of the conjugate. Replacing the antisense strand or both strands with fully modified ones has a significant effect on silencing as well as improving the duration in transfection-mediated and carrier-free modes. A significant 78% suppression of MDR1 gene expression in KB-8-5 xenograft tumors developed in mice promises an advantage from the use of fully modified siRNA cholesterol conjugates in combination chemotherapy.

Molecular structures, in chloroform and DMSO solution, of the monounsaturated free fatty acids (FFAs) caproleic acid (dec-9-enoic acid) and oleic acid (octadec-9-enoic acid) and the ω-3 FFAs α-linolenic acid (9Z,12Z,15Z)-octadeca-9,12,15-trienoic acid ALA), eicosapentanoic acid (5Z,8Z,11Z,14Z,17Z)-icosa-5,8,11,14,17-pentaenoic acid) and docosahexaenoic acid (4Z,7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z,19Z)-docosa-4,7,10,13,16,19-hexaenoic acid), are reported with the combined use of NMR and DFT calculations. Variable temperature and concentration chemical shifts of the COOH protons and transient 1D NOE experiments, in CDCl3, demonstrate the major contribution of low molecular weight aggregates of dimerized fatty acids, through intermolecular hydrogen bond interactions of the carboxylic groups, with parallel and antiparallel interdigitated structures, even at the low concentration of 20 mM. For the dimeric DHA, a structural model of an intermolecular hydrogen bond through carboxylic groups and an intermolecular hydrogen bond between the carboxylic group of one molecule and the ω-3 double bond of a second molecule, is shown to play a role. In DMSO-d6 solution the centro-symmetric hydrogen bond interactions are broken and the carboxylic groups form strong intermolecular hydrogen bond interactions with a discrete solvation molecule of DMSO. These solvation species form parallel and antiparallel interdigitated structures of low molecular weight. DFT structural models in CHCl3 and DMSO, in agreement with the NMR data, are compared with the structures in the liquid state

A high perovskite activity is sought for use in magnetic applications. In this paper, we present the simple synthesis of (2.5 and 5%) Tellurium-impregnated-LaCoO3 (Te-LCO), Te and LaCoO3 (LCO) by using a ball mill, chemical reduction, and hydrothermal synthesis, respectively. We also explored the structure stability along with the magnetic properties of Te-LCO. Te has a rhombohedral crystal structure, whereas Te-LCO has a hexagonal crystal system. The reconstructed Te was imbued with LCO that was produced by hydrothermal synthesis; as the concentration of the imbuing agent grew, the material became magnetically preferred. According to the X-ray photoelectron spectra, the oxidation state of the cobaltite is one that is magnetically advantageous. As a result of the fact that the creation of oxygen-deficient perovskites has been shown to influence the mixed (Te4+/2-) valence state of the incorporated samples, it is abundantly obvious that this process is of utmost significance. The TEM image confirms the inclusion of Te in LCO. The samples start out in a paramagnetic state (LCO), but when Te is added to the mixture, the magnetic state shifts to a weak ferromagnetic one. It is at this point that hysteresis occurs due to the presence of Te. Despite being doped with Mn in our prior study, rhombohedral LCO retains its paramagnetic characteristic at room temperature (RT). As a result, the purpose of this study was to determine the impacts of RT field dependency of magnetization (M-H) for Te-impregnated LCO in order to improve the magnetic properties of RT because it is a low-cost material for advanced multi-functional and energy applications.

Electronic Nose (eNose) systems are particularly appreciated for their portability, usability, relative low cost and real-time or near real-time response. Their application finds space in several domains, including environmental monitoring. Within this field, marine monitoring is of particular scientific relevance due to the fragility of this specific environment, daily threatened by human activities that can potentially bring to catastrophic and irreversible consequences on marine wildlife. Under such considerations, a systematic review, complying with the PRISMA guidelines, was conducted covering the period up to October 15, 2018, in PubMed, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. Despite the relatively low number of articles published on this specific topic and the heterogeneity of the technological approaches employed, the results obtained by the various groups highlight the positive contribution eNose has given and can provide in near future for the monitoring and safeguarding of this delicate environment.

This study evaluated the physicochemical, mineralogical properties, mobile chemical species’ bioavailability and translocation in Brassica juncea and Spinacea oleracea L plants of a South African coal fired power utility. Coal fly ash (CFA) disposal is associated with various environmental and health risks including air, soil, surface and ground water pollution due to the leaching of toxic chemical species; these ends up in food webs affecting human health, while repeated inhalation causes bronchitis, silicosis, hair loss and lung cancer. The morphology, chemical, and mineralogical composition of CFA were determined using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray Diffraction, respectively. In pot culture experiments, S. oleracea L and B. juncea plants were grown in three sets of pots containing CFA (set 1), soil (set 2) and a mixture of CFA plus soil at ratio 1:1 (50% CFA: 50% soil) (set 3), while no plants were grown in set 4 as a control for the leachate samples. SEM showed that surface morphology of CFA has a lower degree of sphericity with irregular agglomerations of many particles. The XRF results revealed that CFA contains 43.65%, 22.68% and 10.89% of SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and Fe₂O₃ respectively which indicate that the CFA is an alumino-silicate material. While XRD showed that the coal CFA contains mullite as a major phase followed by quartz mineral phases. Chemical species such as Fe, Mn, B, Ba and Zn were accumulated highly in most parts of the plant species. However, B. juncea showed higher potential to accumulate chemical species as compared to S. oleracea L. The bioconcentration and translocation factors (BF and TF) showed that B. juncea was the most effective in terms of bioconcentration and translocation of most of the chemical species. This indicates that B. juncea has potential in application for phytoremediation of CFA dumps and could contribute to remediation of CFA dumps and reduction of potential health and environmental impacts associated with CFA.

Ga doped ZnO thin films were formed by the Ultrasonic Chemical Spray Pyrolysis method onto substrates using zinc acetate and gallium (III) nitrate hydrate as precursors. The structural, optical, surface and electrical properties were studied as a function of increasing Ga doping concentration from 0 to 6 at %. Structural studies were shown polycrystalline with a hexagonal crystal structure. The transparency in the visible range was around 85% for thin film deposited using 6 at % Ga doping. With the aim of determining surface images and surface roughness of the films atomic force microscope images were taken. Ga doping of ZnO thin films could markedly decrease surface roughness. Electrical resistivity was determined by four point method. The resistivity 2.0% Ga doped ZnO film was the lowest resistivity of 1.7 cm. In the photoluminescence measurements of the films, existence of UV and defect emission band was observed. As a result, Ga doped ZnO films have advanced properties and promising materials for solar cells.

Edible coating gels developed from the Aloe vera plant have been used as a traditional medicine for about 3000 years. Aloe vera contains 110 potentially active constituents from six different classes: chromone and its glycoside derivatives; anthraquinone and its glycoside derivatives; flavonoids; phenylpropanoids and coumarins; phenylpyrone and phenol derivatives; and phytosterols and others. Apart from medicinal uses, Aloe gels have an important role in food preservation as edible coatings. They provide an edible barrier for atmospheric gases and moisture, and help to reduce the respiration and transpiration of fresh produce, which helps to preserve its postharvest quality. To date, numerous studies have been conducted on the postharvest use of Aloe vera gel. The present review article summarizes and discusses existing available information about the chemical constituents, antimicrobial activity, and food preservative characteristics of Aloe vera.

Low temperature cofired ceramics (LTCC) have conquered a niche segment in biological microelectromechanical systems (BioMEMS) during the last two decades. Since 3-dimensional assembly and rapid prototyping capability are outstanding features of the technology, bioreactors with complex geometry can easily be produced. Particularly needed functions are working electrodes, e.g. for impedance measurements and reference electrodes consisting in platinum or silver-silver chloride. Although the distinct grainy surface of thick film materials influences the double layer properties, data describing the bioelectronic interface and biocompatibility of common thick film materials are rarely published up to now. This works aims to fill this gap by studying the surface properties, composition, electrochemical properties and biocompatibility of commercially available thick film materials. It was found that thick film gold is suitable as electrode material in direct cell contact since an appropriate proliferation of the cell culture was observed. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) coating decreases the absolute value of the zeta potential of thick film gold from 16.55 V to 11.78 mV without any change in vitality of the cells. Thick film platinum layers have a porous structure entailing an enlargement of the effective surface by a factor of 21.6 and can be used as reference instead of silver/silver chloride, which was identified to be incompatible with cell culture. The investigations show that some commercially available cost-effective thick film materials are compatible with cell culture and the here presented data give an orientation for the use of the same in LTCC bioreactors.

In the recent years, biochar has emerged as a remarkable biosourced material for addressing global environmental, agricultural, biomedical, and energy challenges. However, the performances of biochar rest in part on finely tuning its surface chemical properties, intended to obtain specific functionalities. In this review, we tackle surface treatment of biochar with silane and other coupling agents such as diazonium salts, titatantes, ionic/non-ionic surfactants, as well as nitrogen-containing (macro)molecules. We summarize the recent progress achieved mostly in the last five years, and correlate the nature and extent of functionalization to eye catchy end applications of the surface engineered biochar.

Food preservatives are compound that are used for the treatment of food to improve the shelf life. In the food industry, is necessary to monitor all processes, for both safety and quality of the product. An electronic nose (or e-nose) is a biomimetic olfactory system that could find numerous industrial applications, including food quality control. Commercial electronic noses are based on sensor arrays composed by a combination of different sensors, which include conductometric metal oxide devices. Metal oxide nanowires are considered among the most promising materials for the fabrication of novel sensing devices, which can enhance the overall performances of e-noses in food applications. In the present work, is reported the fabrication of a novel sensor array based on SnO2, CuO and WO₃ nanowires deposited on top of commercial μHPs, provided by ams Sensor Solutions Germany GmbH. The array was tested for the discrimination of four typical compounds added to food products or used for their treatment to increase the shelf life: ethanol, acetone, nitrogen dioxide and ozone. Results are very promising: the sensors array was able to operate for long time consuming less than 50mW for each single sensor, and PCA analysis confirms that the device was able to discriminate between different compounds.

The innovation of the new psychoactive substances (NPS) market requires the rapid identification of new substances that can be a risk to public health, in order to reduce the damage due to their use. Twelve seized products suspected to contain illicit substances were analyzed by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). Synthetic cathinones (SCat) were found in all products, either as a single component or in mixtures. Infrared spectra of all products were consistent with the molecular structure of SCat, showing an intense absorption band at 1700–1674 cm‐1, corresponding to the carbonyl stretching, a medium/strong peak at 1605-1580 cm-1, indicating stretching vibrations in the aromatic ring (C=C) and bands with relative low intensity at frequencies near 2700–2400 cm-1, corresponding to an amine salt. It was possible to identify a total of eight cathinone derivatives by GC-MS and NMR analysis: 4’-methyl-α-pyrrolidinohexanophenone (MPHP), α-pyrrolidinohexanophenone (α-PHP), 3-fluoromethcathinone (3-FMC), methedrone, methylone, buphedrone, N-ethylcathinone, and pentedrone. Among the adulterants found in these samples, caffeine was the most frequently detected substance, followed by ethylphenidate. These results highlight the prevalence of SCat in seized materials of the Portuguese market. Reference standards are usually required for confirmation, but when reference materials are not available, the combination of complementary techniques is fundamental for a rapid and an unequivocal identification of such substances.

A novel coronavirus, named 2019-nCoV, is responsible for current epidemic outbreaks in China and also other countries that cause acute pneumonia that was primarily linked to a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China. To control and prevent the existing epidemic outbreaks of coronavirus in China, a precise and easy disinfection/sterilization technique is important to disinfect/sterilize the mass-level peoples and their ambient environments (e.g. atmospheric air/aerosols). Among the disinfection techniques, control fire/flame (CF) could be applied. Large-size CF (LSCF) can be generated by using gas burner, gas cylinder that used in restaurant, coals, kerosene (petroleum), dried straws, dried woods) at entry and exit points of big gathering locations (e.g. hospital, airport, rail stations, seaports, apartments, streets/roads, etc. Additionally, small-size CF (SSCF) can be produced by using gas burner of kitchen, electric heater, kindle or waste papers at individual home and ward/room at hospital. Individual person can be soaked/immersed their hands and their belongings nearby CF for a moment, likely followed sterilization during quantification of the number of bacteria in experimental observation, that can rapidly sterilize the person perfectly. Correspondingly, the ambient air/aerosols moved towards CF due to water evaporation by fire that subsequently refresh all ambient air/aerosols by killing all viruses. Such CF could certainly reach the temperature higher than 56 degree C that could effectively disinfect/sterilize/kill the coronavirus. Therefore, CF could be effectively applied to control and prevent the epidemic outbreaks of coronavirus across China and worldwide.

Heavy metals and organic pollutants are ubiquitous environmental pollutants affecting the quality of soil, water and air. Over the past 5 decades, many strategies have been developed for the remediation of polluted water. Strategies involving aquatic plant use are preferable to conventional methods. In this study, an attempt was made to provide a brief review on recent progresses in research and practical applications of phytoremediation for water resources with the following objectives: (1) to discuss the toxicity of toxic chemicals pollution in water to plant, animals and human health (2) to summarise the physicochemical factors affecting removal of toxic chemicals such as heavy metals and organic contaminants in aqueous solutions by aquatic plants; (3) to summarise and compare the removal rates of heavy metals and organic contaminants in aqueous solutions by diverse aquatic plants; and (4) to summarise chemometric models for testing aquatic plant performance. More than 20 aquatic plants specie have been used extensively while duckweed (L. minor), water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), water lettuce (P. stratiotes) are the most common. Overall, chemometrics for performance assessment reported include: Growth rate (GR), Growth rate inhibition (% Inhibition), Metal uptake (MU), translocation/transfer factor (TF), bioconcentration factor (BCF), Percent metal uptake (% MU), Removal capacity (RC) and Tolerance index (TI) while absorption rate have been studied using the sorption kinetics and isotherms models such as pseudo-first-order (PFO), pseudo-second-order (PSO), Freundlich, Langmuir and Temkin. Using modeling and interpretation of adsorption isotherms for performance assessment is particularly good and increases level of accuracy obtained from adsorption processes of contaminant on plant. Conclusion was drawn by highlighting the gap in knowledge and suggesting key future areas of research for scientists and policymakers.

Ti6Al4V samples obtained by selective laser melting were subjected to acid treatment, chemical oxidation in hydrogen peroxide solution and subsequent thermochemical treatment. The effect of temperature and time of acid etching of Ti6Al4V samples on surface roughness, morphology, topography and chemical and phase composition after the thermochemical treatment was studied. The surfaces were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and contact profilometry. Pore and protrusion sizes were measured. Acid etching modified the elemental composition and surface roughness of the alloy. Temperature had a greater influence on the morphology, topography and surface roughness of samples than time. Increases in roughness values were observed when applying successive chemical oxidation and thermochemical treatment compared to the values observed on surfaces with acid etching. After the thermochemical treatment, the samples with acid etching at a temperature of 80 °C showed a multiscale topography. In addition, a network-shaped structure was obtained on all surfaces, both on their protrusions and pores previously formed during the acid etching.

This study addresses the challenge of assessing the carcinogenic potential of hazardous chemical mixtures, such as PFAS, which are known to contribute significantly to cancer development. Here, we propose a novel framework called HNNMixCancer that utilizes a Hybrid Neural Network (HNN) integrated into a machine-learning framework. This framework incorporates a mathematical model to simulate chemical mixtures and enables the creation of classification models for binary and multiclass classification and regression. Through extensive experimentation, we demonstrate that our HNN model outperforms other methodologies, including Random Forest, Bootstrap Aggregating, Adaptive Boosting, Support Vector Regressor, Gradient Boosting, Kernel Ridge, Decision Tree with AdaBoost, and KNeighbors, achieving a superior accuracy of 92.7% in binary classification. To address the limited availability of experimental data and enrich the training data, we generate an assumption-based virtual library of chemical mixtures using a known carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic single chemical for all the classification models. Remarkably, in this case, all methods achieve accuracies exceeding 98% for binary classification. In external validation tests, our HNN method achieves the highest accuracy of 80.5%. Furthermore, in multiclass classification, the HNN demonstrates an overall accuracy of 96.3%, outperforming RF, Bagging, and AdaBoost, which achieved 91.4%, 91.7%, and 80.2%, respectively. In regression models, HNN, RF, SVR, GB, KR, DT with AdaBoost, and KN achieve average R2 values of 0.96, 0.90, 0.77, 0.94, 0.96, 0.96, and 0.97, respectively, showcasing their effectiveness in predicting the concentration at which a chemical mixture becomes carcinogenic. Our method exhibits exceptional predictive power in prioritizing carcinogenic chemical mixtures, even when relying on assumption-based mixtures. This capability is particularly valuable for toxicology studies that lack experimental data on the carcinogenicity and toxicity of chemical mixtures. To our knowledge, this study introduces the first method for predicting the carcinogenic potential of chemical mixtures. The HNNMixCancer framework offers a novel alternative for dose-dependent carcinogen prediction. Ongoing efforts involve implementing the HNN method to predict mixture toxicity and expanding the application of HNNMixCancer to include multi-mixtures.

A multi-methodic analysis was performed on 5 samples of fly ashes coming from different biomasses. The aim of the study was to evaluate their possible re-use and their dangerousness for men and environment. Optical granulometric analyses indicate that the average diameter of the studied fly ashes is around 20 µm, whereas only ~1 vol% has diameter lower that 2.5 µm. The chemical composition, investigated with electron probe microanalysis, indicates that all the samples have a prevalent Ca composition, followed by Si and Al. A large content in K and P was observed in some samples, whereas the content in potentially toxic elements is always below the Italian law thresholds. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are completely absent in all the samples coming from combustion plants, whereas they are present in the fly ashes from the gasification center. Quantitative mineralogical content, determined by Rietveld analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data, indicates that all the samples have a large amorphous content, likely enriched in Ca, and several K and P minerals, such as sylvite and apatite. The results obtained from the performed chemo-mineralogical study allowed to point out that the biomass fly ashes could be interesting materials (1) as amending in clayey soils, in substitution to lime, to stimulating pozzolanic reaction and improve their geotechnical properties, on the one hand, avoiding to mine raw materials and, on the other hand, re-cycling wastes; (2) as agricultural fertilizes made by a new and ecological source of K and P.

The ubiquity of amino acids in carbonaceous meteorites has suggested that amino acids are widespread in the Universe, serving as a common class of components for the emergence of life. However, parameters for modeling amino acid polymerization at mineral–water interfaces remain limited, although the interfacial conditions inevitably exist on planets with surface liquid water. Here, we present a set of extended triple-layer model parameters for aspartate (Asp) and aspartyl-aspartate (AspAsp) adsorptions on ferrihydrite, anatase, and γ-alumina determined based on the experimental adsorption data. By combining the parameters with the reported thermodynamic constants for amino acid polymerization in water, the impacts of these minerals on Asp dimerization are calculable over a wide range of environmental conditions. It was predicted, for example, that ferrihydrite strongly increases the AspAsp/Asp equilibrium ratio in neutral to acidic pH; the ratio in the adsorbed state reaches 40% even from a low Asp concentration (0.1 mM) at pH 4. This percentage is approximately 5 × 107 times higher than that attainable without mineral (8.5 × 10–6%). Our exemplified approach enables us to screen wide environmental settings for abiotic peptide synthesis from a thermodynamic perspective, thereby narrowing down the geochemical situations to be explored for life’s origin on Earth and Earth-like habitable planets.

Target pests of genetically engineered crops producing both defensive allelochemicals and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins often sequentially or simultaneously uptake allelochemicals, Bt toxins, and/or insecticides. How the three types of toxins interact to kill pests remains underexplored. Here we investigated the interactions of Bt toxin Vip3A, plant allelochemical flavone, and insecticide emamectin benzoate in Spodoptera frugiperda. Simultaneous administration of flavone LC25 + Vip3A LC25, emamectin benzoate LC25 + Vip3A LC25, and flavone LC15 + emamectin benzoate LC15 + Vip3A LC15 but not flavone LC25 + emamectin LC25 yielded a mortality significantly higher than their expected additive mortality (EAM). One-day preexposure to one toxin at LC5 followed by 6-day exposure to the same toxin at LC5 plus another toxin at LC50 showed that the mortality of flavone LC5 + Vip3A LC50, emamectin benzoate LC5 + Vip3A LC50, and Vip3A LC5 + emamectin benzoate LC50, were significantly higher than their EAM, while that of flavone LC5 + emamectin benzoate LC50 was significantly lower than their EAM. No significant difference existed among the mortalities of Vip3A LC5 + flavone LC50, emamectin benzoate LC5 + flavone LC50, and their EAMs. The results suggest that the interactions of the three toxins are largely synergistic (inductive) or additive, depending on their combinations and doses.

In this paper, the mechanism of combined process of ion beam sputtering (IBS) and HF acid etching on the chemical structure defects of fused silica and its laser damage resistance perfor-mance were investigated. During the removal process of surface material, the sputtering effect causes lattice atoms to detach from their original positions, forming a large number of unsaturated structures on silica surface, which improves the chemical activity of Si and O atoms, accelerates the chemical reaction process between surface atoms and water molecules, increases the content of hydroxyl (OH-) groups in the shallow layer, and enhances the photothermal weak absorption intensity. However, the presence of OH- groups reduces the bonding strength of Si-O, destroys the spatial network structure of silica bulk, and reduces the mechanical strength of silica surface, resulting in a decrease in its laser damage resistance performance. The paper reveals for the first time the mechanism of IBS to change the structure characteristics of silica material, accelerate the surface hydroxylation process, and thereby reduces the laser damage resistance performance. This work provides technical guidance for effectively suppressing chemical structure defects on silica surface and improving laser damage resistance performance of optical components under high-flux laser irradiation.

Field experiments were carried out during 2011-2014 at the Research and Experimental Center to Combating Desertification located in the Elsen Tasarkhai station of central Mongolia. The study was aimed to identify the effects of oxidized brown coal humic acid fertilizer on the relative growth rate of several trees for forest rehabilitation. The trees used were Populus sibirica, Salix ledebouriana and Acer tataricum. The experiment was carried out with the concentrations of 2,000, 10,000 and 20,000 mg L-1 of humic acid fertilization treatments. The measurement of relative height growth rate (RHGR) was conducted for a period of 4 years. The treatments showed significant differences within humic fertilizer concentrations which differed depending on the species. Compared to the monthly RHGR over the study, the treatment of fertilizers were significantly better for tree growth. P. sibirica in the 10,000 and 20,000 mg L-1 humic acid fertilizers had significant height growth rates. In addition, when the humic acid treatments were compared to control, A. tataricum decreased over the years which were statistically significant for high growth rate and a positive effect of humic acid fertilization treatments was observed. Furthermore, results showed that oxidized brown coal humic acid fertilizers as organic fertilizer can have a positive effect for the growth of A. tataricum during the study years. The results showed that the soil chemical properties EC, CO2, NO3, and K2O were significant among all the treatments compared to the control. The effect on P2O5 statistically significantly increased among all the treatments. However, pH and Mg were not significant effect among all the treatments. Combining the results obtained from the oxidized brown coal humic acid fertilization with sustainable land management practices can help improve soil organics for environmental issues in degraded sandy soil regions.

Using a wide range of organic substrates in the methane fermentation process enables efficient biogas production. Nonetheless, in many cases, the efficiency of electricity generation in biogas plant cogeneration systems is much lower than expected, close to the calorific value of the applied feedstock. This paper analyses energy conversion efficiency in a 1 MWel agricultural biogas plant fed with corn silage or vegetable waste and pig slurry as a feedstock dilution agent, depending on the season and availability. Biomass conversion studies were carried out for 12 months, during which substrate samples were taken once a month. The total primary energy in substrates was estimated in laboratory conditions by measuring the heat of combustion in a ballistic bomb calorimeter (17,760 MWh·year-1), and in the case of pig slurry, biochemical methane potential (BMP, (201.88±3.21 m3·Mg VS-1). Further, the substrates were analysed in terms of their chemical composition — from protein, sugar and fat content to mineral matter determination, among other things. The results obtained during the study were averaged. Based on such things as the amount of biogas produced at the plant, the amount of chemical (secondary) energy contained in methane as a product of biomass conversion (10,633 MWh·year-1) was calculated. Considering the results obtained from the analyses, as well as the calculated values of the relevant parameters, biomass conversion efficiency was determined as a ratio of chemical energy in methane to (primary) energy in substrates, which was 59.87%, as well as electricity production efficiency, as a ratio of electricity produced (4,913 MWh·year-1) to primary energy, with a 35% cogeneration system efficiency. Full energy conversion efficiency, related to electricity production, reached a low value of 27.66%. This article provides an insightful, unique analysis of energy conversion in an active biogas plant as an open thermodynamic system.

Abstract: The chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has been widely used for surface modification of critical materials and components and provided global planarization of topography with a low post-planarization slope high quality and efficiency. The colloidal silica slurries play an important role in the finishing processes of optical components. Monodisperse mesoporous silica nanospheres were synthesized with different surfactant by Stöber method. Their architectural features and texture parameters were characterized by XRD, FTIR, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms, SEM, XPS, and TGA techniques. The spherical SiO2 products presented with the controllable 50-150 nm particle size and distribution. The AFM micrographs reveal that flat and smooth surfaces without distinct scratches residual particles are achieved by using the as-obtained composite particles as abrasives[The particle size of SiO2 slurry plays a critical role in the chemical-mechanical polishing process.

Tributyltin (TBT) is an environmental contaminant present on all continents, including Antarctica, with a potent biocidal action. Its use began to be intensified during the 1970s, being effectively banned in 2003, but remaining in the environment to this day due to several factors that increase its half-life and misuse despite the bans. In addition to the endocrine disrupting effect of TBT, that may lead to imposex induction in some invertebrate species, there are several studies that demonstrated that TBT also has an immunotoxic effect. The immunotoxic effects that have been observed experimentally in vertebrates using in vitro and in vivo models involve different mechanisms, but mainly alterations in the expression and/or secretion of cytokines. In this review, we summarize and update the literature on the impacts of TBT on the immune system, as well as discuss what still needs to be done to fill the knowledge gaps regarding the impact of this endocrine disrupting-chemical on immune system homeostasis.

The contexts where there is mining and agriculture activities are potential sources of risk to human health due to contamination by chemical mixtures. This study explored the association between the frequency of micronuclei and pesticides in regions with ferronickel (Montelibano, Córdoba) and gold (Nechí, Antioquia) mining, and a closed native mercury mine (Aranzazu, Caldas). A cross-sectional study was carried out with 247 residents in the mining regions. Sociodemographic, occupational, and toxicological variables were ascertained. Blood and urine samples were taken for pesticide analysis (12 organochlorines, organophosphates, and carbamates), 68 chemical elements were quantified in hair, and micronuclei (MN) were quantified in lymphocytes. The mixtures of chemical elements were grouped through exploratory factor analysis. Prevalence ratios (PR) were estimated with robust variance Poisson regressions to explore associations. The highest concentrations of chemical elements were in the active mines. The potentially most toxic chemical mixture was observed in the ferronickel mine. Pesticides were detected in a low proportion of participants. The frequency of MN was similar in the three mining contexts. There was great heterogeneity in the exposure to pesticides and chemical elements. The “hormetic effect” of selenium is described, in which at low doses it acts as a chelator and at high doses it can enhance the toxic effects of other elements. It is proposed that future studies in mining contexts include the measurement of chemical mixtures to better assess exposure and potential adverse health effects.

This review summarizes experimental and theoretical studies of transition metal complexes with two types of novel metal-carbon bonds. One type features complexes with carbones CL2 as ligands, where the carbon(0) atom has two electron lone pairs which engage in double (σ and π) donation to the metal atom [M] CL2. The second part of this review reports complexes which have a neutral carbon atom C as ligand. Carbido complexes with naked carbon atoms may be considered as endpoint of the series [M]-CR3 → [M]-CR2 → [M]-CR → [M]-C.

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic microorganisms that colonize diverse environments worldwide, ranging from ocean to freshwaters, soils, and extreme environments. Their adaptation capacities and the diversity of natural products (molecules, metabolites, or compounds) that they synthesize support the cyanobacterial success for the colonization of their respective ecological niches. Although cyanobacteria are well-known for their toxin production and their relative deleterious consequences, they also produce a large variety of molecules that exhibit beneficial properties with high potential for various fields of application (e.g., synthetic analog of the dolastatin 10 used against Hodgkin lymphoma). The present review specially focuses on the beneficial activities of cyanobacterial molecules described so far. Based on an analysis of 670 papers, it appears that more than 90 genera of cyanobacteria have been found to produce compounds with potential beneficial activities, most of them belonging to the orders Oscillatoriales, Nostocales Chroococcales, and Synechococcales. The rest of the cyanobacterial orders (i.e., Pleurocapsales, Chroococcidiopsales, and Gloeobacterales) remain poorly explored in terms of their molecular diversity and relative bioactivity. The diverse cyanobacterial molecules presenting beneficial bioactivities belong to 10 different chemical classes (alkaloids, depsipeptides, lipopeptides, macrolides/lactones, peptides, terpenes, polysaccharides, lipids, polyketides, and others) that exhibit 14 major kinds of bioactivity. However, no direct relation between the chemical class and the bioactivity of these molecules has been demonstrated. We further selected and specifically described 50 molecule families according to their specific bioactivities and their potential uses in pharmacology, cosmetology, agriculture, or other specific fields of interest. This up-to-date review takes advantage of the recent progresses in genome sequencing and biosynthetic pathway elucidation, and presents new perspectives for the rational discovery of new cyanobacterial metabolites with beneficial bioactivity.

Recent advances in single-atom catalysis resulted in readily accessible materials whose application in most catalytic reactions mediated by conventional nanoparticle-based catalysts often results in higher activity and selectivity. Can we expect catalysis by atomically dispersed atoms to find practical applications? Which are the hurdles to be overcome prior to widespread uptake of atomically dispersed metals in industrial synthetic processes and in hydrogen fuel cells?

The purpose of this study was to develop e-learning activities that integrated sustainability concepts and practices in process engineering education. Two blended courses were developed with two activities evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively to measure student engagement, quality of responses, and incorporation of sustainability in their arguments. Social network analysis and lexical analysis were used to assess students’ participation in discussions and peer reviews. In the online discussion, 97 comments were made averaging 120 words per comment. The participants averaged 3.88 comments, with the majority of comments exhibiting simple and complex argumentation, a deep reflection, and widespread use of terms associated with sustainability such as recycling, pollution, waste, and environment. Furthermore, evaluation of peer reviews revealed that the participants demonstrated they could identify errors and positives in an argument. Therefore, this study demonstrated that e-learning, particularly peer review and online discussion could help chemistry and engineering students understand sustainability.

Quinoa, known as the "golden grain" for its high nutritional value, is a significant source of essential nutrients, including proteins, minerals, vitamins, polyphenols, phytosterols, and flavonoids. However, the biological functions of quinoa polysaccharides remain understudied. In this research, two crude quinoa polysaccharides extracts (Q-40 and Q-60) were obtained extracting by 40% and 60% alcohol. The purity of Q-40 and Q-60 was 58.29% and 62.15%, with protein contents of 8.27% and 9.60%, respectively. Monosaccharide analysis revealed that Q-40 contained glucose (Glc), galacturonic acid (GalA), and arabinose (Ara) in a molar ratio of 0.967:0.027:0.006. Q-60 was composed of xylose (xyl), arabinose (Ara), galactose, and galacturonic acid (GalA) with a molar ratio of 0.889:0.036:0.034:0.020. The average molecular weight of Q-40 ranged from 47484 to 626488 Da, while Q-60 showed a range of 10025 to 47990 Da. Rheological experiments showed that Q-40 exhibited higher viscosity, while Q-60 demonstrated more elastic properties. Remarkably, Q-60 showed potent antioxidant abilities, with scavenging rates of 98.49% for DPPH and 57.5% for ABTS. Antibacterial experiments using the microdilution method revealed that Q-40 inhibited the growth of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and E. coli, while Q-60 specifically inhibited MRSA. At lower concentrations, both polysaccharides inhibited MDA cell proliferation, but at higher concentrations, they promoted proliferation. Similar proliferation-promoting effects were observed in HepG2 cells. The research provides important information in application of quinoa in food and functional food industries.

Biomass is an attractive energy source that can be used for production of heat, power, and transport fuels, and when produced and used on a sustainable basis, can make a large contribution to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a suitable technology for reducing organic matter and generating bioenergy in the form of biogas. This study investigates the factors allowing the optimization of the process of biogas production from the co-digestion of wheat straw (WS) and bovine manure. The statistical analysis of the experiments carried out show that ultrasonic processing plays a fundamental role by sonication density and solids concentration leading to improved characteristics of WS by reducing particle size and increasing concentration of soluble chemical oxygen demand. The higher the sonicating power used, the more the waste particles are disrupted. The optimality obtained under mesophilic conditions for WS pretreated with 4% w/w (weight by weight) H2O2 at temperature 36 °C under 10 minutes of ultrasonication at 25 kHz improves the methane yield by 64%.

During the recent decades, global warming by greenhouse gas evolution has attracted worldwide attention and evermore strict regulations thereon have become institutionalized as international policies. In the process, more environment-friendly power generation technologies have been developed utilizing fossil fuels with a view to timely commercialization. As one of such “clean coal” technology, Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell system is a promising power generation means and COS hydrolysis reactor is installed downstream of coal syngas to remove acidic gas constituents such as H2S and COS. The most significant design parameters affecting performance of the COS hydrolysis reactor were selected to be GHSV, (catalytic) reaction temperature, and length ratio and numerical modeling was performed considering heat and fluid flow transfer as well as chemical reaction kinetics. Effect of the selected design parameters on the variation of conversion rate and reactant gas mixture concentration were comprehensively investigated to predict performance of COS hydrolysis reactor. Stochastic modeling of reactor performance was finally performed using Monte Carlo simulation and linear regression fitting.

Pharmaceuticals contain biologically active components that can pollute water courses as a result of the excretions from individuals and/or uncontrolled release of residues from chemical plants, and they can pose a hazard to health. Pharmaceutical residues can persist at low concentrations in the environment, and thus may be potentially harmful to aquatic animals and to humans. Controlling and monitoring such residues are therefore a prime interest, for example, a solid-phase extraction uses solid sorbents to purify and preconcentrate the residues prior to their chemical analysis. In the present study, poly (acrylonitrile-co-divinylbenzene-80) sorbents are synthesised by varying the comonomer feed ratios under precipitation polymerisation conditions to deliver a family of porous polymer microspheres. Acrylonitrile confers polar characters onto the sorbents, and the acrylonitrile-derived nitrile groups can be chemically transformed via polymer-analogous reactions into thioamide and sulfonated residues which make the sorbents even more suitable for the capture of polar analytes, including selected pharmaceuticals. The utility of the porous thioamide-sulfonated containing sorbents is demonstrated via the dispersion-solid phase extraction of mefenamic acid from aqueous media; mefenamic acid is an anthranilic acid derivative which is a potent, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug which is found in environmental waters at low concentrations.

Natural products (NPs) are a rich source of structurally novel molecules, and the chemical space they encompass is far from being fully explored. Over history, NPs have represented a significant source of bioactive molecules and have served as a source of inspiration for developing many drugs on the market. On the other hand, computer-aided drug design (CADD) has contributed to drug discovery research, mitigating costs and time. In this sense, compound databases represent a fundamental element for the CADD. This work reviews the progress toward developing compound databases of natural origin, particularly databases developed in Latin America, and their practical applications in the drug discovery area. We also survey the computational methods, emphasizing chemoinformatic approaches to profile natural product databases.

Prunus dulcis is one of the most widely cultivated species in the world. Its fruit (almond) is rich in various nutritious and bioactive compounds that exert several beneficial effects. The aim of this study was to determine the chemical profile and evaluate the biological potential in vitro of almond shell extracts. The chemical analysis of shell extracts led to the identification of 15 com-pounds by HPLC-DAD of which 11 were first detected in the almond plant. Twenty-six volatile compounds were identified by the GC-MS technique, among them; seven were firstly detected in the studied plant. For the biological activities, the extracts demonstrated moderate inhibition potential against the antioxidant, antidiabetic, and cytotoxic activities. The methanol extract at 50 µg/mL showed the highest antioxidant (45%) and antidiabetic activities (45% against alpha-glucosidase and 31% against alpha-amylase extracts), while the cyclohexane and dichloromethane at 50 µg/mL showed the highest cytotoxic activity towards Hela (32.2% with cyclohexane), and RAW 264-7 (45% with dichloromethane). Overall, these findings demonstrate the potential of almond shell extracts as a source of bioactive compounds that could be applied in the pharmaceutical and medical fields.

In this study, the pristine MgO, MgO/CNT and Ni-MgO/CNT nanocomposites were processed by the impregnation and chemical vapour deposition methods and analyzed for hydrogen evolution (HER) via electrochemical water splitting process. Furthermore, effect of nickel on the deposited carbon was systematically elaborated in this study. The highly conductive carbon nanotubes (CNTs) deposited on the metal surface of the Ni-MgO nanocomposite heterostructure provides the robust stability and superior electrocatalytic activity. The optimized Ni-MgO/CNT nanocomposite exhibited hierarchical helical-shaped carbon nanotubes adorned on the surface of the Ni-MgO flakes, forming a hybrid metal-carbon network structure. The HER catalytic reaction was carried out in 1M alkaline KOH electrolyte, and the optimized Ni-MgO/CNT nanocomposite achieves the low 117 mV overpotential value (ɳ) at the 10 mA cm-2 and needs low 116 mV/dec Tafel value denoted Volmer-Heyrovsky pathway. Also, high electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) value of Ni-MgO/CNT nanocomposite acquires 515 cm2, which is favorable for the generation of abundant electro-active species and the prepared electrocatalyst durability was also performed by chronoamperometry test for prolonged duration of 20 h at 10 mA cm-2 and exhibits the good stability with 72% retention. Hence, obtained results demonstrated that the optimized Ni-MgO/CNT nanocomposite is highly active and cost-effective electrocatalyst towards hydrogen energy production.

Bimetallic Ni/Cu core-shell and Cu-Ni heterostructural micro- and nanoparticles were prepared using two simple successive reduction procedures. Monometallic Ni and Cu particles were synthesized for comparison. The phase constitutions and morphological features of the particles were studied by means of X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy methods. All the obtained mono- and bimetallic particles were applied as electrocatalysts in the electrohydrogenation of p-nitrophenol (p-NPh). An additional electrochemical reduction of copper cations during the hydrogen saturation of Cu-containing particles was established. Some of the prepared particles exhibited high catalytic activity with an increase in the hydrogenation rate of p-NPh by more than 3 times compared to its electrochemical reduction on the non-activated cathode, and p-NPh conversion yielded the maximum values. The main product of p-NPh electrocatalytic hydrogenation over Ni-Cu particles is p-aminophenol, which is an intermediate in the synthesis of many drugs. p-Aminophenol formation is confirmed by UV-Vis spectra.

In the last decades, consumers are increasingly interested in organic products and they strongly demand for reliability of the traceability of the organic products they use to buy and eat. Different researches have been carried out over the years to investigate on new and reliable systems to test the authenticity of products obtained using organic cultivation methods. The monitoring of some chemical components, derived from primary and/or secondary metabolism, in horticultural organic and conventional products, has highlighted the diversity induced by the two production techniques while the difference in fertilization practices has been shown to impact on the isotopic distribution of some elements, with particular reference to nitrogen. An integrated system is proposed to validate, through the acquisition of isotopic data and other chemical and biochemical parameters, the authenticity of organic products. This approach is intended to be coupled to the application of chemometric multivariate analysis of isotopic data combined with other quality and nutraceutical parameters, giving the possibility to discriminate organic from conventional products, thanks to the different isotopic signature impressed by the different nitrogenous source combined with the qualitative pattern of the crops, significantly affected by the different treatments. The main perspectives of the presented integrated approach, based on the combined use of chemometric and analytical tools, are linked to the feasibility of applying a reliable system to authenticate productions obtained with organic fertilizers (organic agriculture) respect to those obtained with the use of synthetic fertilizers (conventional agriculture), protect and valorize virtuous farmers and support political stakeholders and decision makers to counteract food fraud.

Transparent electrodes (TEs) made of metallic nanowires, such as Ag, Au, Cu, and Ni, have attracted rising attention for several reasons: 1) they can act as a substitute for tin oxide-based TEs such as indium-tin oxide (ITO) and fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO); 2) various methods exist for fabricating such TEs such as filtration, spraying and meyer bar coating; 3) greater compatibility with different substrates can be achieved due to the variety of fabrication methods; and 4) extra functions in addition to serving as electrodes, such as catalytic abilities, can be obtained due to the metals that compose the TEs. There are a large number of applications for TEs, ranging from electronics and sensors to biomedical devices. This short review is a summary of recent progress, mainly during the past five years, on silver nanowire-based TEs. The focus of the review will be on theory development, mechanical, chemical and thermal stability and optical properties. The many applications of TEs are outside the scope of this review.

Stellatolides are natural compounds that have shown promising biological activities, including antitumor, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties, making them potential candidates for drug development. Chemical Reactivity Theory (CRT) is a branch of chemistry that explains and predicts the behavior of chemical reactions based on the electronic structure of molecules. Conceptual Density Functional Theory (CDFT) and Computational Peptidology (CP) are computational approaches used to study the behavior of atoms, molecules, and peptides. In this study, we present the results of our investigation of the chemical reactivity and ADMET properties of Stellatolides A-H using a novel computational approach called Conceptual DFT-based Computational Peptidology (CDFT-CP). Our study uses CDFT and CP to predict the reactivity and stability of molecules and to understand the behavior of peptides at the molecular level. We also predict the ADMET properties of the Stellatolides A-H to provide insight into their effectiveness, potential side effects, and optimal dosage and route of administration. This study sheds light on the potential of Stellatolides A-H as promising candidates for drug development and highlights the potential of CDFT-CP for the study of other natural compounds and peptides.

This study evaluated the impact of the level of supplementation of Moringa oleifera leaves on the nutritional (proximate, mineral and vitamin content) as well as on the antioxidant capacities of smoothies made from a blend of pineapple, banana and apple. The beverage (smoothies) were supplemented with Moringa oleifera leaves at 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5% levels and evaluated for proximate, antioxidant (ferric reducing antioxidant power, FRAP and 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picryhydrazy, DPPH), mineral, vitamin, physicochemical and quality acceptability. The results showed that the moisture content of the beverage ranged between 49.24 – 78.62%, total ash: 1.01 – 9.71, crude fiber: 5.14 – 9.39%, crude fat: 0.72 – 1.86%, crude protein: 5.47 – 19.37% and carbohydrate: 3.65 – 16.99%. Calcium (12.03 -15.53) and potassium (17.22 -25.38) were the predominant mineral elements when compared to magnesium (1.51 – 3.05) mg/L. The vitamin contents ranged between 2.5 – 10.8 and 0.15 – 0.93 mg/L for vitamin C and E, respectively. Total phenolic contents ranged between 4.68 – 6.18 mg/ml while the total flavonoid contents ranged between 0.01 – 0.14 mg/ml. The radical scavenging abilities (DPPH) of the samples ranged between 16.05 – 88.77% while the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) ranged between 0.38 – 7.36 mg/ml. The brix values showed high sugar contents (15 – 18%) while the pH results showed that the sample was almost neutral at a range between 6.3 and 6.5. The overall quality (sensory) acceptability of the different quality parameters evaluated indicated that the control sample was more preferred. While supplementation with Moringa oleifera leaves significantly affected the sensory parameters, its addition nevertheless offers a potential avenue to obtain additional nutrients besides its improved antioxidative properties.

This brief review highlights some current issues in Galactic stellar nucleosynthesis, and some recent laboratory studies by the Wisconsin atomic physics group that have direct application to stellar spectroscopy, in order to advance our understanding of the chemical evolution of our Galaxy. The relevant publication history of the lab studies are summarized, and investigations into the abundances of neutron-capture and iron-peak elements in low metallicity stars are described. Finally, new initatives in near-infrared spectroscopy are briefly explored.