On the impact of large amplitude pairing fluctuations on nuclear spectra

The influence of large amplitude pairing fluctuations is investigated in the framework of beyond mean field symmetry conserving configuration mixing calculations. In the numerical application the finite range density dependent Gogny force is used. We investigate the nucleus $^{54}$Cr with particle number and angular momentum projected wave functions considering the axial quadrupole deformation and the pairing gap degree of freedom as generator coordinates. We find that the effects of the pairing fluctuations increase with the excitation energy and the angular momentum. The self-consistency in the determination of the basis states plays an important role.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Biological activity of phenolic compounds from argentinean herbs infusions

Argentinean herbal infusions were studied for their beneficial biological properties and secondary metabolites content, such as phenolic compounds in order to find new natural products beneficial. The modifications of antihypertensive and antioxidant activities by the addition of commonly used additives (lemon, sugar and sweetener) were studied also. Ilex paraguaiensis infusion showed the highest concentration of phenolic compounds and flavonoid fraction, the supplementation with lemon juice increased the phenolic compound content. All infusion showed high DPPH radical scavenging assays and additives did not modify significantly this activity. The infusion of I. paraguaiensis presents the maximum viability reduction of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and the herbs combination Lippia integrifolia-Ilex paraguaiensis was the most effective to reduce S. aureus and E.coli viability. The phenolic compounds concentration as well as the qualitative composition of each infusion plays an important role in the antimicrobial activity. Because the high correlation between the concentration of total phenolic compounds and antioxidant and antihypertensive activities, we can infer that the phenolic compounds are responsible for such activities. The results obtained allow us to propose the herbs studied as potential natural antioxidants and antihypertensive compounds that could be used in pharmaceutical and food industries.Fil: Rodriguez Vaquero, Maria Jose. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Vallejo, Claudia Veronica. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Aredes Fernández, Pedro Adrián. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Phenolic compounds from wines as natural preservative of fish meat

The aims of this work were to investigate the antibacterial effect of phenolic compound combinations and total polyphenols of Argentinean red wines varieties against Escherichia coli ATCC 35218 and Listeria monocytogenes using commercial fish meat as model food. Rutin- quercetin combination and the three wine varieties produced cellular death of both bacteria on fish meat at 4 oC. Rutin-quercetin combination was effect even at 20 °C on fish meat. Clarified wines were inactive against both bacteria, indicating that the responsible of observed effect were the polyphenols of wines. The use of wine phenolic compounds as antibacterial agent could be used to prevent contamination and extend the shelf life of fish meat. A big finding of this work is the use of rutin–quercetin combination as preservative during the transport and conservation of fish meat to the fish market, which is an effective antibacterial agent even when there is an Interrupted in the cold chain.Fil: Rodriguez Vaquero, Maria Jose. Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Bioquimica, Quimica y Farmacia. Instituto de Microbiologia; Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos (i); Argentina;Fil: Aredes Fernández, Pedro Adrián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos (i); Argentina;Fil: Manca, Maria Cristina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos (i); Argentina

Housing prices and credit constraints in competitive search

We embed a competitive search model of the real estate market into a heterogeneous agentsetting where hoeholds face credit constraints and idiosyncratic turnover shocks. Householdscan accumulate a risk-free asset to build a down payment and to smooth non-housing consumption.There is an inelastic supply of identical homes. The model is "block recursive". Inequilibrium wealthier home buyers sort into submarkets with higher prices and shorter buyingtimes. We identify a novel amplification mechanism, arising from sorting, by which demandshocks can substantially affect housing prices. In particular, lowering down payment requirementsinduces entry of new buyers in the market and higher asset accumulation by currentsearchers, as these agents target more expensive (less congested) submarkets. This affects thedistribution of prices and trading probabilities, and thereby the wealth distribution. Our quantitativeresults suggest that the effects on the long-run level and dispersion of housing pricescan be significant.Support from the Spanish Ministerio Economía y Competitividad, grants ECO2016-76818-C3-1-P and ECO2017-86261-P, MDM 2014-0431, and Comunidad de Madrid, MadEco-CM (S2015/HUM-3444), is gratefully acknowledged

Inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella Typhimurium in strawberry juice enriched with strawberry polyphenols

BACKGROUND: Low molecular-weight phenolic fractions (LMPFs) were extracted from Albion (LMPF-A) and Camarosa (LMPF-C) strawberry cultivars. Their antibacterial activity against Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella Typhimurium cocktails in vitro and in vivo was investigated using strawberry juice as a food model. This study also sought to determine their antibacterial mechanism. RESULTS: Quercetin was identified as a principal compound in both phenolic fractions. The minimum bactericide concentration (MBC) values were 750 and 850 μg mL−1 (LMPF-C) and 800 and 950 μg mL−1 (LMPF-A) against S.Typhimurium and L. monocytogenes, respectively. The possible antibacterial activity of the phenolic extracts could be related to the release of phosphate and potassium ions, the effect of the disruption of membrane integrity on L. monocytogenes, and the effect of the inhibition of dihydronicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) oxidase activity on S. Typhimurium. Quercetin and kaempferol were the most active compounds in producing bacterial damage. Strawberry juice supplemented with the phenolic fractions and incubated at 37, 20, and 4 °C reduced bacterial viability; moreover, after treatment with the phenolic fraction at the lowest temperature, no viable cells were detected after 7 days’ incubation. Salmonella was more sensitive to the supplements than Listeria in strawberry juice. CONCLUSIONS: This study could form the basis for the development of natural antibacterial agents that could be included in natural juice or used by the pharmaceutical industry.Fil: Vallejo, Claudia Veronica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia. Instituto de Microbiología "Luis Verna". Cátedra de Microbiología General; ArgentinaFil: Minahk, Carlos Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Investigaciones Biológicas; ArgentinaFil: Rollan, Graciela Celestina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez Vaquero, Maria Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia. Instituto de Microbiología "Luis Verna". Cátedra de Microbiología General; Argentin

Isolation and identification of Homolactic bacteria from Solanum melongena L. with antibacterial activity that improve vegetable fermentation

The aim of this work was the isolation and identification of lactic acid bacteria with homolactic metabolism from eggplant; the lactic acid production and antibacterial activity were adopted as selected criteria to be included in the elaboration of fermented carrots as starter cultures. Between 50 isolated colonies, 14 were identified as lactic acid bacteria with homolactic metabolism, but only lactic acid bacteria identified phenotypic and genotypic as Lactobacillus plantarum were effective to produce cellular death and inhibit biofilm formation of five pathogenic bacteria. L. plantarum SB1 and SB2 were included in carrot fermentation on the basis of the best lactic acid production, antibacterial activity as well as the lowest C4 compounds and H2S formation. The scalded process was not enough effective to reduce Gram negative bacteria, but the addition of the selected bacteria isolated from eggplant to fermentation was effective to reduce all Gram negative population at 7 day. The big finding of this work was the isolation and identification of L. plantarum SB1 and SB2 from eggplant that could adapted in an different ecological niche and their addition to fermented carrots increase stability and microbiological safety of final product, preventing infectious diseases, with optimal sensorial attributed.Fil: Rodriguez Vaquero, Maria Jose. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Perato, Silvia Marisa. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Rivero, Luciana del Valle. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Saguir, Fabiana M.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentin

Evaluation of a dielectric-only transmitarray for generating multi-focusing near-field spots using a cluster of feeds in the Ka-Band

A transmitarray antenna is evaluated to generate a multi-focusing spot area in the Fresnel region of the antenna in the Ka-band. The antenna is designed to focus the radiated field at a certain point using a central feeding configuration. The number of feeds is increased to create as many focusing spots as feeds. The feeds are placed along an arc defined in the principal planes of the transmitarray, radiating independent near-field spots and providing a solution with a wide-angle spot scanning without an antenna displacement and a high isolation between feeds. To validate this concept, a transmitarray based on dielectric-only cells is designed and simulated under full-wave conditions. Then, this design is manufactured using a 3D printing technique, and the prototype is measured in a planar acquisition range. Measurements are performed for different feed positions in order to validate the multi-focusing capability of the antenna. Measurements and simulations show a high agreement and validate the proposed design technique.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bessel beam generation using dielectric planar lenses at millimeter frequencies

In this work a dielectric planar lens is proposed to generate a Bessel beam. The lens works at Ka-band and produces a non-diffraction range within the Fresnel region of the antenna. The methodology to design the aperture antenna at millimetre or microwave frequencies is presented. It is applied to a dielectric planar lens made up of cells that shapes the radiated near-field by adjusting the unit cell response. An approach based on a second order polynomial is proposed to consider the angular dependence of the phase-shift response of the cell in the designing process. In order to implement the lens physically, two novel cells, based on rectangular and hexagonal prisms, are proposed, and their performance is compared. The cells ensure the index dielectric media variation using airgaps to control the overall density of the material. After fully characterizing the cells, a design is carried out for the two proposed type of cells. The requirement for the Bessel beam is a depth-of-field of 650 mm at 28 GHz. After evaluating the design in a full-wave simulation, both prototypes were manufactured using a 3-D printing technique. Finally, the prototypes were measured in a planar acquisition range to evaluate the performances of the Bessel beam. Both lenses show a good agreement between simulations and measurements, obtaining promising results in the Bessel beam generation by index-graded dielectric lenses at Ka-band.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterization, antibacterial and biological activities of phenolic fraction of argentinean red wines

For the first time, the qualitative and quantitative characterization of phenolic compounds of lower molecular weight fraction (LMF) were evaluated in commercial Cabernet Sauvignon (CS) and Tannat (T) wines varieties produced in Cafayate, Argentine. The antimicrobial activity against Pediococcus pentosaceus 12p, spoilage wine bacteria as well as the “in vitro” antioxidant and antihypertensive activities were also evaluated. The composition of LMF obtained by liquidliquid extraction with ethyl acetate, determined by HPLC-DAD, showed a total content of phenolic compounds of 229.4 and 311.1 mg L-1 for CS and T wines respectively. Synthetic like-wine media (SWM), pH 4.5 supplemented with LMF at identical concentration of the wine (1X), four (4X) and eight times concentrated (8X), was inoculated with P. pentosaceus 12p at 107CFU mL-1. Samples were collected at the beginning and final incubation time to determine cell viability in MRS-agar medium and the damage of the cell membrane integrity by electron microscopy observation. In the presence of LMF at 1X concentration, both fractions diminish growth parameters without cellular damage. In the presence of LMF of CS and T wine varieties four and eight times concentrated, cellular death of the microorganism as well as plasmatic membrane disruption was observed. The LMF of both wines analyzed in this study have high antioxidant, radical scavenging and antihypertensive activity. The use of phenolic compounds as potential antimicrobial agents could be an effective additive to controll wine spoilage bacteria, adding on wines beneficial properties to human health.Fil: Stivala, Maria Gilda. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Villecco, Margarita B.. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; ArgentinaFil: Fanzone, Martín. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro Reg.cuyo Mendoza-san Juan. Estacion Exptal.agrop.mendoza. Laboratorio de Aromas y Sustancias Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Jofré, Viviana. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro Reg.cuyo Mendoza-san Juan. Estacion Exptal.agrop.mendoza. Laboratorio de Aromas y Sustancias Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez Vaquero, Maria Jose. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Aredes Fernández, Pedro Adrián. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Bioquímica, Química y Farmacia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin