An indecomposable Banach space of continuous functions which has small density

Using the method of forcing we construct a model for ZFC where CH does not hold and where there exists a connected compact topological space K of weight omega(1) < 2(omega) such that every operator on the Banach space of continuous functions on K is multiplication by a continuous function plus a weakly compact operator. In particular, the Banach space of continuous functions on K is indecomposable.

Automorphism Groups of Generalized (Binary) Icosahedral, Tetrahedral and Octahedral Groups

Let G be any of the (binary) icosahedral, generalized octahedral (tetrahedral) groups or their quotients by the center. We calculate the automorphism group Aut(G).

Biochemical composition of two red seaweed species grown on the Brazilian coast

BACKGROUND: Algae species have been used as an important source of food because they are highly nutritive considering their vitamin, protein, mineral, fiber, essential fatty acid and carbohydrate contents. However, a large number of seaweeds have been poorly studied, especially Brazilian species. Two red macroalgae species from the Brazilian coast (Plocamium brasiliense and Ochtodes secundiramea) were assessed with respect to their total lipid, fatty acid, total nitrogen, protein, amino acid and total carbohydrate contents. RESULTS: The total lipid contents (dry weight) were 36.3 and 35.4 g kg(-1); fatty acid contents were 9.3 and 12.1 g kg(-1); total nitrogen contents were 37.4 and 24.9 g kg(-1); protein contents were 157.2 and 101.0 g kg(-1); amino acid contents were 127.5 and 91.4 g kg(-1); and total carbohydrate contents were 520.3 and 450.7 g kg(-1) for P. brasiliense and O. secundiramea, respectively. CONCLUSION: Considering these compositions, both algae species were determined to have sources of protein, essential amino acids and carbohydrates similar to the edible seaweeds Laminaria japonica and Palmaria palmata. (C) 2011 Society of Chemical Industry

Essential Oil Composition of Aloysia gratissima From Brazil

The study of Aloysia gratissima essential oil from leaves was obtained by hydrodistillation using a Clevenger type apparatus. The essential oil composition was analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The major compounds were identified representing 94.7% of the oil. The most abundant compounds were isopinocamphone (cis-3-pinanone) (25.4%), limonene (15.1%), and guaiol (12.7%).

Feasible estimation of generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) with weak dependency between groups

This paper presents a two-step pseudo likelihood estimation technique for generalized linear mixed models with the random effects being correlated between groups. The core idea is to deal with the intractable integrals in the likelihood function by multivariate Taylor's approximation. The accuracy of the estimation technique is assessed in a Monte-Carlo study. An application of it with a binary response variable is presented using a real data set on credit defaults from two Swedish banks. Thanks to the use of two-step estimation technique, the proposed algorithm outperforms conventional pseudo likelihood algorithms in terms of computational time.

A note on policy, the composition of public expenditures and economic growth

In this article we study the growth and welfare effects of fiscal and monetary policies in economies where public investment is part of the productive process we present four different models that share the same technology with public infrastructure as a separate argument of the production function. We show that growth is maximized at positive levels of income tax and inflation. However, unless there are no transfers or public goods in the economy, maximization of growth does not imply welfare maximization we show that the optimal tax rate is greater than the rate that maximizes growth and the optimal rate of money creation is below the growth maximizing rate. With public infrastructure in the production function we no longer obtain superneutrality in the Sidrausky model.

Changes in volatile composition of Madeira wines during their oxidative ageing

The influence of the age in the volatile composition of Madeira wines made with Boal, Malvazia, Sercial and Verdelho varieties and aged in oak barrel during 1, 11 and 25 years old was been studied. For this purpose, the evolution of volatile compounds: higher alcohols, ethyl esters, fatty acids, furan compounds, enolic compounds, γ-lactones, dioxanes and dioxolanes, of the four most utilised varieties were determined using liquid–liquid extraction with dichloromeihane. Octan-3-ol was used as internal standard. The wines made with these varieties showed great differences in sugar content and small variations on pH and alcoholic degree. The results show that during ageing, the concentration of fatty acids ethyl esters, acetates and fatty acids decrease significantly contrarily to the great increase of ethyl esters of diprotic acids. There is a strong correlation between sotolon, 2-furfural, 5-methyl-2-furfural, 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural and 5-ethoxymethyl-2-furfural with wine ageing. These findings indicate that these compounds can be used as ageing wine markers. Among the molecules studied, sotolon [3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone] was one of the few molecules present in concentrations above the perception threshold in Madeira wines. 5-Eihoxymethyl-2-furfural formed from 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural and 2-furfural, derived from sugars, are also involved in the aroma of sweet fortified white wines aged in oxidative conditions. The sensory properties change significantly after long periods of conservation.

Effectiveness of high-throughput miniaturized sorbent- and solid phase microextraction techniques combined with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis for a rapid screening of volatile and semi-volatile composition of wines: a comparative study

In this study the feasibility of different extraction procedures was evaluated in order to test their potential for the extraction of the volatile (VOCs) and semi-volatile constituents (SVOCs) from wines. In this sense, and before they could be analysed by gas chromatography–quadrupole first stage masss spectrometry (GC–qMS), three different high-throughput miniaturized (ad)sorptive extraction techniques, based on solid phase extraction (SPE), microextraction by packed sorbents (MEPS) and solid phase microextraction (SPME), were studied for the first time together, for the extraction step. To achieve the most complete volatile and semi-volatile signature, distinct SPE (LiChrolut EN, Poropak Q, Styrene-Divinylbenzene and Amberlite XAD-2) and MEPS (C2, C8, C18, Silica and M1 (mixed C8-SCX)) sorbent materials, and different SPME fibre coatings (PA, PDMS, PEG, DVB/CAR/PDMS, PDMS/DVB, and CAR/PDMS), were tested and compared. All the extraction techniques were followed by GC–qMS analysis, which allowed the identification of up to 103 VOCs and SVOCs, distributed by distinct chemical families: higher alcohols, esters, fatty acids, carbonyl compounds and furan compounds. Mass spectra, standard compounds and retention index were used for identification purposes. SPE technique, using LiChrolut EN as sorbent (SPELiChrolut EN), was the most efficient method allowing for the identification of 78 VOCs and SVOCs, 63 and 19 more than MEPS and SPME techniques, respectively. In MEPS technique the best results in terms of number of extractable/identified compounds and total peak areas of volatile and semi-volatile fraction, were obtained by using C8 resin whereas DVB/CAR/PDMS was revealed the most efficient SPME coating to extract VOCs and SVOCs from Bual wine. Diethyl malate (18.8 ± 3.2%) was the main component found in wine SPELiChrolut EN extracts followed by ethyl succinate (13.5 ± 5.3%), 3-methyl-1-butanol (13.2 ± 1.7%), and 2-phenylethanol (11.2 ± 9.9%), while in SPMEDVB/CAR/PDMS technique 3-methyl-1-butanol (43.3 ± 0.6%) followed by diethyl succinate (18.9 ± 1.6%), and 2-furfural (10.4 ± 0.4%), are the major compounds. The major VOCs and SVOCs isolated by MEPSC8 were 3-methyl-1-butanol (26.8 ± 0.6%, from wine total volatile fraction), diethyl succinate (24.9 ± 0.8%), and diethyl malate (16.3 ± 0.9%). Regardless of the extraction technique, the highest extraction efficiency corresponds to esters and higher alcohols and the lowest to fatty acids. Despite some drawbacks associated with the SPE procedure such as the use of organic solvents, the time-consuming and tedious sampling procedure, it was observed that SPELiChrolut EN, revealed to be the most effective technique allowing the extraction of a higher number of compounds (78) rather than the other extraction techniques studied.

Headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-quadrupole mass spectrometric methodology for the establishment of the volatile composition of Passiflora fruit species

Dynamic headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by thermal desorption gas chromatography-quadrupole mass spectrometry analysis (GC-qMS), was used to investigate the aroma profile of different species of passion fruit samples. The performance of five commercially available SPME fibres: 65 μm polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene, PDMS/DVB; 100 μm polydimethylsiloxane, PDMS; 85 μm polyacrylate, PA; 50/30 μm divinylbenzene/carboxen on polydimethylsiloxane, DVB/CAR/PDMS (StableFlex); and 75 μm carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane, CAR/PDMS; was evaluated and compared. Several extraction times and temperature conditions were also tested to achieve optimum recovery. The SPME fibre coated with 65 μm PDMS/DVB afforded the highest extraction efficiency, when the samples were extracted at 50 °C for 40 min with a constant stirring velocity of 750 rpm, after saturating the sample with NaCl (17%, w/v — 0.2 g). A comparison among different passion fruit species has been established in terms of qualitative and semi-quantitative differences in volatile composition. By using the optimal extraction conditions and GC-qMS it was possible to tentatively identify seventy one different compounds in Passiflora species: 51 volatiles in Passiflora edulis Sims (purple passion fruit), 24 in P. edulis Sims f. flavicarpa (yellow passion fruit) and 21 compounds in Passiflora mollissima (banana passion fruit). It was found that the ethyl esters comprise the largest class of the passion fruit volatiles, including 82.8% in P. edulis variety, 77.4% in P. edulis Sims f. flavicarpa variety and 39.9% in P. mollissima. The semi-quantitative results were then submitted to principal component analysis (PCA) in order to establish relationships between the compounds and the different passion fruit species under investigation.

Poly(Lactide-co-Glycolide) Nanocapsules Containing Benzocaine: Influence of the Composition of the Oily Nucleus on Physico-Chemical Properties and Anesthetic Activity

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Antimicrobial resistance and species composition of Enterococcus spp. isolated from waters and sands of marine recreational beaches in Southeastern Brazil

Density, species composition and antimicrobial resistance in bacteria of the Enterococcus genus were evaluated in seawater and sands from 2 marine recreational beaches with different levels of pollution. The 2 beaches showed predominance of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, in the water and the sand. Dry sand presented higher densities of Enterococcus sp. and higher frequency of resistant strains than wet sand and seawater. The beach with a higher degree of pollution presented higher percentages of resistant strains (66.7% and 61.5%, in sand and in water, respectively) and resistance to a larger number of antimicrobials compared with the less polluted beach, Ilha Porchat (35.7% and 31.25% of resistant strains in sand and water, respectively). in water samples, the highest frequencies of resistance were obtained against streptomycin (38.5%) and erythromycin (25%), whilst in sand, the highest frequencies were observed in relation to erythromycin and tetracycline (38.1% and 14.3%, respectively). These results show that water and sands from beaches with high indexes of faecal contamination of human origin may be potential sources of contamination by pathogens and contribute to the dissemination of bacterial resistance. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.