Thermal Degradation Of Sucralose: A Combination Of Analytical Methods To Determine Stability And Chlorinated Byproducts

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)In the late years, much attention has been brought to the scientific community regarding the safety of sucralose and its industrial applications. Although it is the most used artificial sweetener in foods and pharmaceuticals, many questions still arise on its potential to form chlorinated byproducts in high temperatures, as demonstrated by several recent studies. In the present contribution, we use a combination of differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis coupled with infrared spectroscopy (DSC/TGA/IR), Hot-stage microscopy (HSM) and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) on samples submitted to water bath at mild temperatures to evaluate a broad spectrum of hazardous compounds formed in the degradation of this product. TGA/IR has revealed that there is effective decomposition in form of CO2 along with the formation of hydrogen chloride and other minor compounds. HSM results have provided accurate information, where the melting of the crystals was observed, followed by decomposition. Chlorinated derivatives, including polychlorinated aromatic hydrocarbons (PCAHs) were also confirmed by HRMS. These findings not only corroborate the suspected instability of sucralose to high temperatures, but also indicate that even exposed to mild conditions the formation of hazardous polychlorinated compounds is observed.5Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)FAPESP [11/50400-0, 14/00084-2

Bis(tetra­phenyl­phospho­nium) tris­[N-(methyl­sulfon­yl)dithio­carbimato(2−)-κ2 S,S′]stannate(IV)

In the title complex, (C24H20P)2[Sn(C2H3NO2S3)3], the SnIV atom is coordinated by three N-(methyl­sulfon­yl)dithio­carbimate bidentate ligands through the anionic S atoms in a slightly distorted octa­hedral coordination geometry. There is one half-mol­ecule in the asymmetric unit; the complex is located on a crystallographic twofold rotation axis passing through the cation and bis­ecting one of the (non-symmetric) ligands, which appears thus disordered over two sites of equal occupancy. In the crystal structure, weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O and C—H⋯S inter­actions contribute to the packing stabilization

Development and optimization of a new MALDI-TOF protocol for identification of the Sporothrix species complex

Accurate species identification of the Sporothrix schenckii complex is essential, since identification based only on phenotypic characteristics is often inconclusive due to phenotypic variability within the species. We used matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for species identification of 70 environmental and clinical isolates of the Sporothrix complex. A reference database was established for MALDI-TOF MS-based species identification according to minor adjustments in the manufacturer's guidelines. The MALDI-TOF MS clearly distinguished strains of Sporothrix brasiliensis, Sporothrix globosa, Sporothrix mexicana, S. schenckii, Sporothrix luriei and Sporothrix pallida, enabling identification of all isolates at the species level, as confirmed by partial calmodulin gene sequence analyses. The present methodology is simple, reliable, rapid and highly suitable for routine identification in clinical mycology laboratories and culture collections, particularly for updating and reclassifying of deposited Sporothrix isolates.The authors wish to thank the following international researchers for generously contributing strains to this study: Conchita Torrielo (EH194, EH252, EH253); Myrtha Arango (04015, 11029, 010221, 10036, 03017, 03022, 12013, 03003, 14879); and Masako Kawasaki (KMU975). Financial support was provided by FAPERJ/Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (grant proc. E-26/110.619/2012) and PAPES VI-Fiocruz/CNPq (Proc. 407693/2012-2) R. M. Z-O. is supported in part by CNPq 304976/2013-0 and FAPERJ E-26/103.157/2011. M. M. E. O. was supported by a grant from CAPES 2445/11-5 and PNPD/CAPES-Fiocruz/Pesquisa Clinica em Doencas Infecciosas. M. M. E. O., C. S. and N. L. thank the FCT Strategic Project PEst-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013 and BioHealth-Biotechnology and Bioengineering approaches to improve health quality, Ref. NORTE-07-0124-FEDER-000027" co-funded by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (ON.2 - O Novo Norte), QREN, FEDER. Automated sequencing was done using the genomic platform/DNA sequencing platform at the Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz-PDTIS/FIOCRUZ (RPT01A), Brazil

Latex insole with sensor system for investigation of plantar pressure distribution in autistic individuals

Autism is a behavior syndrome in which developing process of the affected children is changed. One of the biggest challenges to identify the person with Autistic Disorder lays on the wide range of autism spectrum. As autism affects the abilities of each child differently, like the corporal posture and gestures, it is assumed that the way of moving has as a differentiated result of pressure and energy applied in plant foot. Foot alterations produce differences in plantar pressure during walking and present a modified mechanical etiology due to the cinematic and dynamic alterations. Before the exposed, the aim of this study is to analyze the gait of the person with Autism Spectrum Disorder. For this purpose, it is necessary to, i) make a custom insole derived from latex (biomaterial) integrated with electronic sensors; II) detect differences of pressures applied during gait between individuals with and without ASD. Preliminary results point to a slight difference between both groups of children

Methodology evaluation of pin microrelief meter

The effects of natural weathering and different managements performed in agriculture may best be understood by studying the soil roughness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the optimization of the use of pin microrelief meter, an instrument used to determine the soil surface roughness, as the number of readings collected over traditional methodology proposed in the bibliography. The study was conducted in Rio Paranaiba (MG), in a Haplustox soil. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 2×3 factorial design with four replications. There were combined two types of primary tillage: conventional tillage with disc plow (PCAD) and harrow (PCGA), and three amounts of readings (100, 200, and 300 reading points) sampled in each experimental unit. Independently of the soil tillage, disc plow and harrow, the collection of 100 readings using a pin microrelief meter of a square meter, was sufficient to determine the surface roughness before and after soil preparation, without accuracy loss compared with the traditional method

Fast prototyping microfluidics: Integrating droplet digital lamp for absolute quantification of cancer biomarkers

UID/CTM/50025/2019 UID/Multi/04378/2019 Inn-INDIGO/0002/2015 PTDC/BTM-SAL/31201/2017 SFRH/BPD/124311/2016Microfluidic (MF) advancements have been leveraged toward the development of state-of-the-art platforms for molecular diagnostics, where isothermal amplification schemes allow for further simplification of DNA detection and quantification protocols. The MF integration with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is today the focus of a new generation of chip-based devices for molecular detection, aiming at fast and automated nucleic acid analysis. Here, we combined MF with droplet digital LAMP (ddLAMP) on an all-in-one device that allows for droplet generation, target amplification, and absolute quantification. This multilayer 3D chip was developed in less than 30 minutes by using a low-cost and extremely adaptable production process that exploits direct laser writing technology in “Shrinky-dinks” polystyrene sheets. ddLAMP and target quantification were performed directly on-chip, showing a high correlation between target concentration and positive droplet score. We validated this integrated chip via the amplification of targets ranging from five to 500,000 copies/reaction. Furthermore, on-chip amplification was performed in a 10 µL volume, attaining a limit of detection of five copies/µL under 60 min. This technology was applied to quantify a cancer biomarker, c-MYC, but it can be further extended to any other disease biomarker.publishersversionpublishe

Chaotic itinerancy, temporal segmentation and spatio-temporal combinatorial codes

We study a deterministic dynamics with two time scales in a continuous state attractor network. To the usual (fast) relaxation dynamics towards point attractors (``patterns'') we add a slow coupling dynamics that makes the visited patterns to loose stability leading to an itinerant behavior in the form of punctuated equilibria. One finds that the transition frequency matrix between patterns shows non-trivial statistical properties in the chaotic itinerant regime. We show that mixture input patterns can be temporally segmented by the itinerant dynamics. The viability of a combinatorial spatio-temporal neural code is also demonstrated