The competition of dipole-dipole and contact interactions leads to exciting new physics in dipolar gases, well illustrated by the recent observation of quantum droplets and rotons in dipolar ...condensates. We show that the combination of the roton instability and quantum stabilization leads under proper conditions to a novel regime that presents supersolid properties due to the coexistence of stripe modulation and phase coherence. In a combined experimental and theoretical analysis, we determine the parameter regime for the formation of coherent stripes, whose lifetime of a few tens of milliseconds is limited by the eventual destruction of the stripe pattern due to three-body losses. Our results open intriguing prospects for the development of long-lived dipolar supersolids.
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•A method for the analysis of 33 human and veterinary pharmaceuticals was developed.•Pharmaceuticals belonging to NSAIDs/analgesics, antibiotics and psychiatric drugs were ...analysed.•The developed SPE-UHPLC–MS/MS was used for the analysis of six aqueous matrices.•Almost all pharmaceuticals were detected at least in one type of water.•Pharmaceuticals were found in drinking water at levels up to 66ngL−1.
The aim of the present work was to develop and validate a multi-residue method for the analysis of 33 human and veterinary pharmaceuticals (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)/analgesics, antibiotics and psychiatric drugs), including some of their metabolites, in several aqueous environmental matrices: drinking water, surface water and wastewaters. The method is based on solid phase extraction (SPE) followed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–MS/MS) and it was validated for different aqueous matrices, namely bottled water, tap water, seawater, river water and wastewaters, showing recoveries between 50% and 112% for the majority of the target analytes.
The developed analytical methodology allowed method detection limits in the low nanograms per liter level. Method intra- and inter-day precision was under 8% and 11%, respectively, expressed as relative standard deviation. The developed method was applied to the analysis of drinking water (bottled and tap water), surface waters (seawater and river water) and wastewaters (wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influent and effluent). Due to the selectivity and sensitivity of the optimized method, it was possible to detect pharmaceuticals in all the aqueous environmental matrices considered, including in bottled water at concentrations up to 31ngL−1 (salicylic acid). In general, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs/analgesics was the therapeutic group most frequently detected, with the highest concentrations found in wastewaters (acetaminophen and the metabolite carboxyibuprofen at levels up to 615 and 120μgL−1, respectively).
Adenosine Receptor Type 2A (A
AR) plays a role in important processes, such as anti-inflammatory ones. In this way, the present work aimed to search for compounds by pharmacophore-based virtual ...screening. The pharmacokinetic/toxicological profiles of the compounds, as well as a robust QSAR, predicted the binding modes via molecular docking. Finally, we used molecular dynamics to investigate the stability of interactions from ligand-A
AR. For the search for A
AR agonists, the UK-432097 and a set of 20 compounds available in the BindingDB database were studied. These compounds were used to generate pharmacophore models. Molecular properties were used for construction of the QSAR model by multiple linear regression for the prediction of biological activity. The best pharmacophore model was used by searching for commercial compounds in databases and the resulting compounds from the pharmacophore-based virtual screening were applied to the QSAR. Two compounds had promising activity due to their satisfactory pharmacokinetic/toxicological profiles and predictions via QSAR (Diverset 10002403 pEC
= 7.54407; ZINC04257548 pEC
= 7.38310). Moreover, they had satisfactory docking and molecular dynamics results compared to those obtained for Regadenoson (Lexiscan
), used as the positive control. These compounds can be used in biological assays (in vitro and in vivo) in order to confirm the potential activity agonist to A
AR.
The global burden of chromoblastomycosis Santos, Daniel Wagner C. L; de Azevedo, Conceição de Maria Pedrozo e Silva; Vicente, Vania Aparecida ...
PLoS neglected tropical diseases,
08/2021, Letnik:
15, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Background Chromoblastomycosis (CBM), represents one of the primary implantation mycoses caused by melanized fungi widely found in nature. It is characterized as a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) ...and mainly affects populations living in poverty with significant morbidity, including stigma and discrimination. Methods and findings In order to estimate the global burden of CBM, we retrospectively reviewed the published literature from 1914 to 2020. Over the 106-year period, a total of 7,740 patients with CBM were identified on all continents except Antarctica. Most of the cases were reported from South America (2,619 cases), followed by Africa (1,875 cases), Central America and Mexico (1,628 cases), Asia (1,390 cases), Oceania (168 cases), Europe (35 cases), and USA and Canada (25 cases). We described 4,022 (81.7%) male and 896 (18.3%) female patients, with the median age of 52.5 years. The average time between the onset of the first lesion and CBM diagnosis was 9.2 years (range between 1 month to 50 years). The main sites involved were the lower limbs (56.7%), followed by the upper limbs (19.9%), head and neck (2.9%), and trunk (2.4%). Itching and pain were reported by 21.5% and 11%, respectively. Malignant transformation was described in 22 cases. A total of 3,817 fungal isolates were cultured, being 3,089 (80.9%) Fonsecaea spp., 552 (14.5%) Cladophialophora spp., and 56 Phialophora spp. (1.5%). Conclusions and significance This review represents our current knowledge on the burden of CBM world-wide. The global incidence remains unclear and local epidemiological studies are required to improve these data, especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The recognition of CBM as NTD emphasizes the need for public health efforts to promote support for all local governments interested in developing specific policies and actions for preventing, diagnosing and assisting patients.
We show that density-dependent synthetic gauge fields may be engineered by combining periodically modulated interactions and Raman-assisted hopping in spin-dependent optical lattices. These fields ...lead to a density-dependent shift of the momentum distribution, may induce superfluid-to-Mott insulator transitions, and strongly modify correlations in the superfluid regime. We show that the interplay between the created gauge field and the broken sublattice symmetry results, as well, in an intriguing behavior at vanishing interactions, characterized by the appearance of a fractional Mott insulator.
We show that the emitter and host combination must be optimized to minimize the reverse intersystem crossing (rISC) barrier and maximize thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF). The blue TADF ...emitter, 2,7-bis(9,9-dimethyl-acridin-10-yl)-9,9-dimethylthioxanthene-S,S-dioxide (DDMA-TXO2), has strong TADF character due to efficient charge transfer (CT) state formation. By combining DDMA-TXO2 with a host of correct polarity (DPEPO) that relaxes the CT manifolds’ energy to become resonant with the lowest-energy local triplet state of DDMA-TXO2, the emitter and host combination produce a minimum rISC barrier (ΔE ST), which maximizes TADF efficiency. We show that the sensitivity of these splittings is highly dependent on emitter environment and must be carefully tuned to optimize device performance. Devices utilizing DDMA-TXO2 in the DPEPO host show blue electroluminescence (EL), with commission internationale de l’éclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of CIE (0.16, 0.24), with a maximum external quantum efficiency of 22.4%. This high device performance is a direct consequence of optimizing the TADF efficiency by this “host tuning”.
The number of biological therapeutic agents in the clinic and development pipeline has increased dramatically over the last decade and the number will undoubtedly continue to increase in the coming ...years. Despite this fact, there are considerable challenges in the development, production and formulation of such biologics particularly with respect to their physical stabilities. There are many cases where self-association to form either amorphous aggregates or highly structured fibrillar species limits their use. Here, we review the numerous factors that influence the physical stability of peptides including both intrinsic and external factors, wherever possible illustrating these with examples that are of therapeutic interest. The effects of sequence, concentration, pH, net charge, excipients, chemical degradation and modification, surfaces and interfaces, and impurities are all discussed. In addition, the effects of physical parameters such as pressure, temperature, agitation and lyophilization are described. We provide an overview of the structures of aggregates formed, as well as our current knowledge of the mechanisms for their formation.
Dirac equation and the Melvin metric Santos, L. C. N.; Barros, C. C.
The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields,
10/2016, Letnik:
76, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
A relativistic wave equation for spin 1/2 particles in the Melvin space-time, a space-time where the metric is determined by a magnetic field, is obtained. The energy levels for these particles are ...obtained as functions of the magnetic field and compared with the ones calculated with the Dirac equation in the flat Minkowski space-time. The numeric values for some magnetic fields of interest are shown. With these results, the effects of very intense magnetic fields on the energy levels, as intense as the ones expected to be produced in magnetars or in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, are investigated.
One-dimensional quasiperiodic systems with power-law hopping, 1/r^{a}, differ from both the standard Aubry-André (AA) model and from power-law systems with uncorrelated disorder. Whereas in the AA ...model all single-particle states undergo a transition from ergodic to localized at a critical quasidisorder strength, short-range power-law hops with a>1 can result in mobility edges. We find that there is no localization for long-range hops with a≤1, in contrast to the case of uncorrelated disorder. Systems with long-range hops rather present ergodic-to-multifractal edges and a phase transition from ergodic to multifractal (extended but nonergodic) states. Both mobility and ergodic-to-multifractal edges may be clearly revealed in experiments on expansion dynamics.
Functional foods fortified with antioxidants are gaining more popularity since consumption alone of foods naturally rich in antioxidants is insufficient to reduce oxidative stress associated with ...various diseases. Despite their beneficial effects, natural antioxidants present in coffee are sensitive to heat, light and oxygen, limiting their application in the food industry. Although microencapsulation is able to protect the antioxidant from degradation, mask its taste and control its release, the process of microparticles incorporation affects the original food properties.
A carefully designed delivery system is essential to produce sensory appealing food, guarantee the delivery of the bioactive ingredient, prevent interactions with other food components and overcome problems encountered during food manufacturing and digestion. This review discusses the implementation of microencapsulation as a delivery system for coffee antioxidants, focusing on the critical aspects of microparticles food incorporation.
The development of microparticles containing coffee antioxidants for food applications should consider technological issues (such as antioxidant bioavailability, food manufacturing process and product final properties) as well as regulatory standards, economic feasibility and consumer acceptability. Further studies regarding the aforementioned parameters are needed in order to design suitable microparticles for functional foods.
•Coffee antioxidants are available and linked to health promoting characteristics.•Microencapsulation alleviates coffee antioxidants limitations for food application.•Careful design of microparticles is essential for further food incorporation.•Technological and market issues are critical aspects in functional food development.
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