Artemisia annua Growing Wild in Romania—A Metabolite Profile Approach to Target a Drug Delivery System Based on Magnetite Nanoparticles

The metabolites profile of a plant is greatly influenced by geographical factors and the ecological environment. Various studies focused on artemisinin and its derivates for their antiparasitic and antitumoral effects. However, after the isolation and purification stage, their pharmaceutical potential is limited due to their low bioavailability, permeability and lifetime. The antibacterial activity of essential oils has been another topic of interest for many studies on this plant. Nevertheless, only a few studies investigate other metabolites in Artemisia annua. Considering that secondary metabolites act synergistically in a plant, the existence of other metabolites with antitumor and high immunomodulating activity is even more important. Novel nano-carrier systems obtained by loading herbs into magnetic nanoparticles ensures the increase in the antitumor effect, but also, overcoming the barriers related to permeability, localization. This study reported the first complete metabolic profile from wild grown Romanian Artemisia annua. A total of 103 metabolites were identified under mass spectra (MS) positive mode from 13 secondary metabolite categories: amino acids, terpenoids, steroids, coumarins, flavonoids, organic acids, fatty acids, phenolic acids, carbohydrates, glycosides, aldehydes, hydrocarbons, etc. In addition, the biological activity of each class of metabolites was discussed. We further developed a simple and inexpensive nano-carrier system with the intention to capitalize on the beneficial properties of both components. Evaluation of the nano-carrier system’s morpho-structural and magnetic properties was performed.

L-ARGININE AND L-GLUTAMIC ACID INCREASE THE CONTENT OF PROTEIN C IN THE EARLY STAGES OF ISOLATION FROM DONOR PLASMA

Current large-scale production of blood-derived pharmacological preparations is aimed at expanding the list of products and deeper extraction of target proteins especially at the pre-purification stage. In particular, this problem becomes critical for the isolation of proteins like protein C (PC), which is present in plasma in trace amounts. Aim. We aimed to improve the buffer composition to minimize the interaction of PC with other proteins and lipids that are inevitably present in the stock material. Methods. The content of protein C in plasma and its derivatives was assessed by the amidolytic activity to the chromogenic substrate S2366. A decrease in homologous impurities and plasma enrichment with protein C was provided by selective bulk adsorption on DEAE-cellulose. Results. Here we describe that an equimolar mixture of two amino acids (L-arginine and L-glutamic acid) essentially increased the content of protein C at the stage of cryo-depleted plasma pre-purification, including initial dilution and subsequent enrichment of plasma with protein C due to selective bulk adsorption on DEAE- cellulose. Additionally, it was revealed that solutions of these amino acids, when combined, inhibit the induced amidolytic activity of protein C and increase its solubility (in contrast to other plasma proteases). Conclusion. Pre-adding of a mixture of amino acids L-arginine and L-glutamic acid to cryo-depleted plasma significantly optimizes the pre-purification stage of protein C, providing a 5-fold increase in its yield after elution from DEAE-cellulose.

Design of Driving Waveform Based on a Damping Oscillation for Optimizing Red Saturation in Three-Color Electrophoretic Displays

At present, three-color electrophoretic displays (EPDs) have problems of dim brightness and insufficient color saturation. In this paper, a driving waveform based on a damping oscillation was proposed to optimize the red saturation in three-color EPDs. The optimized driving waveform was composed of an erasing stage, a particles activation stage, a red electrophoretic particles purification stage, and a red display stage. The driving duration was set to 360 ms, 880 ms, 400 ms, and 2400 ms, respectively. The erasing stage was used to erase the current pixel state and refresh to a black state. The particles’ activation stage was set as two cycles, and then refreshed to the black state. The red electrophoretic particles’ purification stage was a damping oscillation driving waveform. The red and black electrophoretic particles were separated by changing the magnitude and polarity of applied electric filed, so that the red electrophoretic particles were purified. The red display stage was a low positive voltage, and red electrophoretic particles were driven to the common electrode to display a red state. The experimental results showed that the maximum red saturation could reach 0.583, which was increased by 27.57% compared with the traditional driving waveform.

Meaningful work and organizational outcomes

PurposeThis study aims to explore how employees’ meaningful work is associated with organizational outcomes at public Jordanian universities with the existence of individual work performance as a mediating variable.Design/methodology/approachThe population of the study was 7,746 administrative staff working at four public Jordanian universities. Questionnaires were distributed to 576 participants. However, only 442 questionnaires were acceptable for further investigation, and these questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS version 22. Several statistical data analysis techniques were used including exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, descriptive analysis and multiple regression. Moreover, Baron and Kenny’s approach was applied to test the hypotheses developed.FindingsA new dimensionality of variables under investigation emerged at the purification stage using validity and reliability techniques. The findings of the study show that meaningful work has a positive relationship with organizational outcomes. The findings also indicate that individual work performance shows a partial mediating role in the link between meaningful work and organizational outcomes. In addition, the findings imply that any effort to improve individual work performance at public Jordanian universities can help in offering a better understanding of organizational outcomes.Practical implicationsThis study recommends that universities focus more on meaningful work and individual work performance programs and practices.Originality/valueThis study provides a framework and understanding of how work meaning and individual work performance relates to organizational outcomes in one model.

Investigation of flocculant influence on the kinetic parameters of copper recovery in aqueous solution with metal zinc

We studied a number of models for the description of copper reduction by fine zinc powder in aqueous solutions. The experimentswere carried out in devices with a magnetic stirrer at mixing speeds of 40–150 rpm and temperatures of 15–50 °C. We investigated the influence exerted on the process by macromolecular flocculants such as non-ionic magnafloc 333, cationic besflok 6645 and anionic besfloc 4034. Under industrial conditions, these flocculants are used at the hydrolytic solution purification stage and then they are fed to cementing purification together with the clarified solution. Aqueous flocculant solutions of 2,5 g/l containing 2–4 g/l of zinc dust and 50–200 mg/l of flocculant were used in the experiments. Copper content in the initial and final solutions was quantitatively determined by spectrophotometric analysis with the preliminary copper transfer to the ammonia complex. Experiment duration varied from 1 to 8 min. The degree of copper reduction from solutions was 10–90 %. It was found that at low mixing rates the process kinetics can be described by the kinetic equation of the first order. At high speeds, the kinetics of the studied heterogeneous reactionwith added flocculants is more adequately described by the velocity change equation as a square root of the process duration. It wasshown that the highest constant of cementation rate is observed in experiments without the addition of surfactants. Anionic flocculant slows down the cementation process to a lesser extent than cationic one, which is consistent with the theory of electrochemical processes and shows that the discharge of copper cations under these conditions limits the cementation process. Regularities revealed in the studied process remain as temperature increases. It was noted that the addition of high-molecular substances with a relative molecular mass of 20 million in an amount of 50–200 mg/l inhibit the cementation process. This fact must be taken into account in industrial conditions where cementing purification from copper and other impurities is carried out from flocculant-containing solutions.

Analisis Pembuatan Asam Lemak Hidroksamat Dari Minyak Kelapa Melalui Metode Enzimatis

Generally, fatty hydroxamic acids (FHA) are synthesized from basic ingredients containing fatty acids.Fatty acids can be obtained from coconut oil among several other sources. Coconut oil contains fatty acids with medium and long chains so it has enormous potential as a raw material for the synthesis of hydroxamic fatty acids. The purpose of this research is to synthesize FHA from coconut oil enzymatically and determine the amount of FHA products produced. The method used is the enzymatic method which includes several stages of work, namely the synthesis stage, the multiplication stage, and the purification stage. From the research results, the percentage obtained from the synthesis was around 48.58% of hydroxamic fatty acids from coconut oil after propagation using the synthesis conditions.The number of hydroxamic acid groups in 1 gram of dry hydroxamic fatty acid sample was 2.97 mmol. Thus, from the two results mentioned above, it was concluded that hydroxamic fatty acids can be synthesized from coconut oil

Triethanolamine as an efficient cosolvent for biodiesel production by CaO-catalyzed sunflower oil ethanolysis: An optimization study

Triethanolamine was applied as an efficient ?green? cosolvent for biodiesel production by CaO-catalyzed ethanolysis of sunflower oil. The reaction was conducted in a batch stirred reactor and optimized with respect to the reaction temperature (61.6-78.4?C), the ethanol-to-oil molar ratio (7:1-17:1) and the cosolvent loading (3-36 % of the oil weight) by using a rotatable central composite design (RCCD) combined with the response surface methodology (RSM). The optimal reaction conditions were found to be: the ethanol-to-oil molar ratio of 9:1, the reaction temperature of 75?C and the cosolvent loading of 30 % to oil weight, which resulted in the predicted and actual fatty acid ethyl ester (FAEE) contents of 98.8 % and 97.9?1.3 %, respectively, achieved within only 20 min of the reaction. Also, high FAEE contents were obtained with expired sunflower oil, hempseed oil and waste lard. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) was used to understand the changes in the CaO phase. The CaO catalyst can be used without any treatment in two consecutive cycles. Due to the calcium leaching into the product, an additional purification stage must be included in the overall process.