Profile Of Phenolic Compounds Of Brazilian Virgin Olive Oils By Rapid Resolution Liquid Chromatography Coupled To Electrospray Ionisation Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry (rrlc-esi-tof-ms).

In recent years, agronomical researchers began to cultivate several olive varieties in different regions of Brazil to produce virgin olive oil (VOO). Because there has been no reported data regarding the phenolic profile of the first Brazilian VOO, the aim of this work was to determine phenolic contents of these samples using rapid-resolution liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry. 25 VOO samples from Arbequina, Koroneiki, Arbosana, Grappolo, Manzanilla, Coratina, Frantoio and MGS Mariense varieties from three different Brazilian states and two crops were analysed. It was possible to quantify 19 phenolic compounds belonging to different classes. The results indicated that Brazilian VOOs have high total phenolic content because the values were comparable with those from high-quality VOOs produced in other countries. VOOs from Coratina, Arbosana and Grappolo presented the highest total phenolic content. These data will be useful in the development and improvement of Brazilian VOO.

Impact and fracture resistance of an experimental acrylic polymer with elastomer in different proportions

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact and fracture resistance of acrylic resins: a heat-polymerized resin, a high-impact resin and an experimental polymethyl methacrylate with elastomer in different proportions (10, 20, 40 and 60%). 120 specimens were fabricated and submitted to conventional heat-polymerization. For impact test, a Charpy-type impact tester was used. Fracture resistance was assessed with a 3-point bending test by using a mechanical testing machine. Ten specimens were used for each test. Fracture (MPa) and impact resistance values (J.m-1) were submitted to ANOVA - Bonferroni's test - 5% significance level. Materials with higher amount of elastomer had statistically significant differences regarding to impact resistance (p < 0.05). Fracture resistance was superior (p < 0.01) for high-resistance acrylic resin. The increase in elastomer concentration added to polymethyl methacrylate raised the impact resistance and decreased the fracture resistance. Processing the material by injection decreased its resistance to impact and fracture.

Forced convection to laminar flow of liquid egg yolk in circular and annular ducts

The steady-state heat transfer in laminar flow of liquid egg yolk - an important pseudoplastic fluid food - in circular and concentric annular ducts was experimentally investigated. The average convection heat transfer coefficients, determined by measuring temperatures before and after heating sections with constant temperatures at the tube wall, were used to obtain simple new empirical expressions to estimate the Nusselt numbers for fully established flows at the thermal entrance of the considered geometries. The comparisons with existing correlations for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids resulted in excellent agreement. The main contribution of this work is to supply practical and easily applicable correlations, which are, especially for the case of annulus, rather scarce and extensively required in the design of heat transfer operations dealing with similar shear-thinning products. In addition, the experimental results may support existing theoretical analyses.

Study of C- and O-glycosylflavones in sugarcane extracts using liquid chromatography: exact mass measurement mass spectrometry

The flavonoids present in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) extracts were analyzed by liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and a study of the fragmentation patterns of selected flavonoids was conducted using orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-oa-ToF MS). Seven C- and O-glycosylflavones were identified in the extracts, namely, schaftoside, isoschaftoside, luteolin-8-C-(rhamnosylglucoside), vitexin, orientin, tricin-7-O-neohesperidoside and tricin-7-O-glucoside. Of these, five were identified in the absence of direct comparison with their respective standards. The described method also permitted the differentiation of the 6-C and 8-C isomeric flavones, schaftoside and isoschaftoside. The combination of fragmentation data and exact mass measurement showed to be complimentary to the HPLC-UV-MS techniques previously utilized for isomers discrimination in sugarcane studies.

Applications of the Rietveld method to quantify the crystalline phases of Portland cement clinker doped with nickel and chromium

The effects of chromium or nickel oxide additions on the composition of Portland clinker were investigated by X-ray powder diffraction associated with pattern analysis by the Rietveld method. The co-processing of industrial waste in Portland cement plants is an alternative solution to the problem of final disposal of hazardous waste. Industrial waste containing chromium or nickel is hazardous and is difficult to dispose of. It was observed that in concentrations up to 1% in mass, the chromium or nickel oxide additions do not cause significant alterations in Portland clinker composition. (C) 2008 International Centre for Diffraction Data.

The role of crystalline anisotropy in mechanical property extractions through Berkovich indentation

This work uses crystal plasticity finite element simulations to elucidate the role of elastoplastic anisotropy in instrumented indentation P-h(s) curve measurements in face-centered Cubic (fcc) crystals. It is shown that although the experimental fluctuations in the loading stage of the P-h(s) curves can be attributed to anisotropy, the variability in the unloading stage of the experiments Is much greater than that resulting from anisotropy alone. Moreover, it is found that the conventional procedure used to evaluate the contact variables ruling the unloading P-h(s) curve introduces all uncertainty that approximates to the more fundamental influence of anisotropy. In view of these results, a robust procedure is proposed that uses contact area measurements in addition to the P-h(s) curves to extract homogenized J(2)-Plasticity-equivalent mechanical properties from single crystals.

A Novel Hepatitis C Virus Genotyping Method Based on Liquid Microarray

The strategy used to treat HCV infection depends on the genotype involved. An accurate and reliable genotyping method is therefore of paramount importance. We describe here, for the first time, the use of a liquid microarray for HCV genotyping. This liquid microarray is based on the 5'UTR - the most highly conserved region of HCV - and the variable region NS5B sequence. The simultaneous genotyping of two regions can be used to confirm findings and should detect inter-genotypic recombination. Plasma samples from 78 patients infected with viruses with genotypes and subtypes determined in the Versant (TM) HCV Genotype Assay LiPA (version I; Siemens Medical Solutions, Diagnostics Division, Fernwald, Germany) were tested with our new liquid microarray method. This method successfully determined the genotypes of 74 of the 78 samples previously genotyped in the Versant (TM) HCV Genotype Assay LiPA (74/78, 95%). The concordance between the two methods was 100% for genotype determination (74/74). At the subtype level, all 3a and 2b samples gave identical results with both methods (17/17 and 7/7, respectively). Two 2c samples were correctly identified by microarray, but could only be determined to the genotype level with the Versant (TM) HCV assay. Genotype ""1'' subtypes (1a and 1b) were correctly identified by the Versant (TM) HCV assay and the microarray in 68% and 40% of cases, respectively. No genotype discordance was found for any sample. HCV was successfully genotyped with both methods, and this is of prime importance for treatment planning. Liquid microarray assays may therefore be added to the list of methods suitable for HCV genotyping. It provides comparable results and may readily be adapted for the detection of other viruses frequently co-infecting HCV patients. Liquid array technology is thus a reliable and promising platform for HCV genotyping.

Melting and freezing of spherical bismuth nanoparticles confined in a homogeneous sodium borate glass

The melting temperature and the crystallization temperature of Bi nanoclusters confined in a sodium borate glass were experimentally determined as functions of the cluster radius. The results indicate that, on cooling, liquid Bi nanodroplets exhibit a strong undercooling effect for a wide range of radii. The difference between the melting temperature and the freezing temperature decreases for decreasing radius and vanishes for Bi nanoparticles with a critical radius R = 1.9 nm. The magnitude of the variation in density across the melting and freezing transitions for Bi nanoparticles with R = 2 nm is 40% smaller than for bulk Bi. These experimental results support a basic core-shell model for the structure of Bi nanocrystals consisting of a central crystalline volume surrounded by a structurally disordered shell. The volume fraction of the crystalline core decreases for decreasing nanoparticle radius and vanishes for R = 1.9 nm. Thus, on cooling, the liquid nanodroplets with R < 1.9 nm preserve, across the liquid-to-solid transformation, their homogeneous and disordered structure without crystalline core.

Magnetic behavior of 10 nm-magnetite particles diluted in lyotropic liquid crystals

A magnetic study of 10 nm magnetite nanoparticles diluted in lyotropic liquid crystal and common liquids was carried out. In the liquid crystal the ZFC-FC curves showed a clear irreversible behavior, and it was possible to distinguish the nematic from the isotropic phase since the magnetization followed the dependence of the nematic order parameter with the temperature. This behavior could be mimicked by Monte Carlo simulation. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3549616]

Free-standing urethane/urea elastomer films undoped and doped with ferro-nano-particles

We report on an experimental study of the structures presented by urethane/urea elastomeric films without and with ferromagnetic nanoparticles incorporated. The study is made by using the X-ray diffraction, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), optical, atomic and magnetic force (MFM) microscopy techniques, and mechanical assays. The structure of the elastomeric matrix is characterized by a distance of 0.46 nm between neighboring molecular segments, almost independent on the stretching applied. The shear casting performed in order to obtain the elastomeric films tends to orient the molecules parallel to the flow direction thus introducing anisotropy in the molecular network which is reflected on the values obtained for the orientational order parameter and its increase for the stretched films. In the case of nanoparticles-doped samples, the structure remains nearly unchanged although the local order parameter is clearly larger for the undoped films. NMR experiments evidence modifications in the molecular network local ordering. Micrometer size clusters were observed by MFM for even small concentration of magnetic particles.

Theory of small-signal ac response of a dielectric liquid containing two groups of ions

The analysis of Macdonald for electrolytes is generalized to the case in which two groups of ions are present. We assume that the electrolyte can be considered as a dispersion of ions in a dielectric liquid, and that the ionic recombination can be neglected. We present the differential equations governing the ionic redistribution when the liquid is subjected to an external electric field, describing the simultaneous diffusion of the two groups of ions in the presence of their own space charge fields. We investigate the influence of the ions on the impedance spectroscopy of an electrolytic cell. In the analysis, we assume that each group of ions have equal mobility, the electrodes perfectly block and that the adsorption phenomena can be neglected. In this framework, it is shown that the real part of the electrical impedance of the cell has a frequency dependence presenting two plateaux, related to a type of ambipolar and free diffusion coefficients. The importance of the considered problem on the ionic characterization performed by means of the impedance spectroscopy technique was discussed. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Combining Monte Carlo simulation and density-functional theory to describe the spectral changes of Na(2) in liquid helium

Spectral changes of Na(2) in liquid helium were studied using the sequential Monte Carlo-quantum mechanics method. Configurations composed by Na(2) surrounded by explicit helium atoms sampled from the Monte Carlo simulation were submitted to time-dependent density-functional theory calculations of the electronic absorption spectrum using different functionals. Attention is given to both line shift and line broadening. The Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof (PBE1PBE, also known as PBE0) functional, with the PBE1PBE/6-311++G(2d,2p) basis set, gives the spectral shift, compared to gas phase, of 500 cm(-1) for the allowed X (1)Sigma(+)(g) -> B (1)Pi(u) transition, in very good agreement with the experimental value (700 cm(-1)). For comparison, cluster calculations were also performed and the first X (1)Sigma(+)(g) -> A (1)Sigma(+)(u) transition was also considered.

Liquid polymorphism, order-disorder transitions and anomalous behavior: A Monte Carlo study of the Bell-Lavis model for water

The Bell-Lavis model for liquid water is investigated through numerical simulations. The lattice-gas model on a triangular lattice presents orientational states and is known to present a highly bonded low density phase and a loosely bonded high density phase. We show that the model liquid-liquid transition is continuous, in contradiction with mean-field results on the Husimi cactus and from the cluster variational method. We define an order parameter which allows interpretation of the transition as an order-disorder transition of the bond network. Our results indicate that the order-disorder transition is in the Ising universality class. Previous proposal of an Ehrenfest second order transition is discarded. A detailed investigation of anomalous properties has also been undertaken. The line of density maxima in the HDL phase is stabilized by fluctuations, absent in the mean-field solution. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3253297]

Dynamic polarizability, Cauchy moments, and the optical absorption spectrum of liquid water: A sequential molecular dynamics/quantum mechanical approach

The dynamic polarizability and optical absorption spectrum of liquid water in the 6-15 eV energy range are investigated by a sequential molecular dynamics (MD)/quantum mechanical approach. The MD simulations are based on a polarizable model for liquid water. Calculation of electronic properties relies on time-dependent density functional and equation-of-motion coupled-cluster theories. Results for the dynamic polarizability, Cauchy moments, S(-2), S(-4), S(-6), and dielectric properties of liquid water are reported. The theoretical predictions for the optical absorption spectrum of liquid water are in good agreement with experimental information.

Frustration and anomalous behavior in the Bell-Lavis model of liquid water

We have reconsidered the Bell-Lavis model of liquid water and investigated its relation to its isotropic version, the antiferromagnetic Blume-Emery-Griffiths model on the triangular lattice. Our study was carried out by means of an exact solution on the sequential Husimi cactus. We show that the ground states of both models share the same topology and that fluid phases (gas and low- and high-density liquids) can be mapped onto magnetic phases (paramagnetic, antiferromagnetic, and dense paramagnetic, respectively). Both models present liquid-liquid coexistence and several thermodynamic anomalies. This result suggests that anisotropy introduced through orientational variables play no specific role in producing the density anomaly, in agreement with a similar conclusion discussed previously following results for continuous soft core,models. We propose that the presence of liquid anomalies may be related to energetic frustration, a feature common to both models.