Review of Clinical Effects and Presumed Mechanism of Action of the French Oak Wood Extract Robuvit.

Since ancient times, oak wood polyphenols are consumed concomitantly with beverages that are stored and aged in oak wood barrels. Among these polyphenols are roburins, which belong to the class of ellagitannins and only occur in oak. To date, water-extracted standardized French wood extract, commercially known as Robuvit, has been investigated in 1172 subjects in over 20 published clinical trials.

How are small endohedral silicon clusters stabilized?

Clusters in the (Be, B, C)@Si(n)((0,1,2+)) (n = 6-10) series, isoelectronic to Si(n)(2-), present multiple symmetric structures, including rings, cages and open structures, which the doping atom stabilizes using contrasting bonding mechanisms. The most striking feature of these clusters is the absence of electron transfer (for Be) or even the inversion (for B and C) in comparison to classic endohedral metallofullerenes (e.g.

Identifying clusters as low-lying mimina--efficiency of stochastic and genetic algorithms using inexpensive electronic structure levels.

Molecular candidates possessing unconventional chemical bonding paradigms (e.g., boron wheels, molecular stars, and multicenter bonding) have attracted a great deal of attention by the computational community.

Efficiency of random search procedures along the silicon cluster series: Si(n) (n=5-10, 15, and 20).

The efficiency of the simplest isomeric search procedure consisting in random generation of sets of atomic coordinates followed by density functional theory geometry optimization is tested on the silicon cluster series (Si(5-10, 15, 20)). Criteria such as yield, isomer distributions and recurrences are used to clearly establish the performance of the approach with respect to increasing cluster size. The elimination of unphysical candidate structures and the use of distinct box shapes and theoretical levels are also investigated.

Non-intuitive separation of vanilla compounds using rapid resolution high-performance liquid chromatography.

A method is presented for modeling the retention peak migration in rapid resolution high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) depending on experimental parameter values. It allows time reduction on the determination of the experimental conditions for optimal resolution (especially for untrained chromatographers). Separation for 18 species present in a conventional vanilla formulation was not possible in a single chromatogram, due to a systematic error in defining single peak migration with the usual assumptions.

Conformational changes and aggregation of alginic acid as determined by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy.

Insight into the conformations and aggregation of alginic acid was gained by measuring its diffusion coefficient at very dilute concentrations using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Both the pH and ionic strength (I) had an important influence on the diffusion coefficient of the polysaccharide. For pH, three effects were isolated: (i) below pH 4, the charge density decreased causing increased aggregation; (ii) between pH 4 and 8, a molecular expansion was observed with increasing pH, whereas (iii) above pH 8 some dissociation of the polymer was observed.

Mathematical discretization of size-exclusion chromatograms applied to commercial corn maltodextrins.

Discretization of a size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) chromatogram is shown here to be an important calculation for characterizing the distribution of a polydisperse polymer, especially when the polydispersity is large. Commercial poly-glucose maltodextrins are known to have such a polydispersity. A mathematical discretization method with Gaussian peaks centered on each individual degree of polymerization is proposed and is performed on the entire SEC chromatogram for three different grades of corn maltodextrins.

Quantifying Pb and Cd complexation by alginates and the role of metal binding on macromolecular aggregation.

The Pb and Cd binding capacity of alginates were quantified by the determination of their complex stability constants and the concentration of complexing sites using H+, Pb2+, or Cd2+ selective electrodes in both static and dynamic titrations. Centrifugation filter devices (30 kDa filter cutoff), followed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) measurements of lead or cadmium in the filtrates, were used to validate the results. The influence of ionic strength, pH, and the metal-to-alginate ratio was determined for a wide range of metal concentrations.