Experiments on hydrothermal degradation of Pyrococcus abyssi biomass were conducted at elevated pressure (40 MPa) over a 200-450 °C temperature range in sapphire reaction cells. Few organic compounds could be detected in the 200 °C experiment. This lack was attributed to an incomplete degradation of P. abyssi cells. On the contrary, a wide range of soluble organic molecules were generated at te...

Bedouin goats were fed on wheat straw as a single-component diet under two watering regimens, drinking once daily or once every 4 d, in order to clarify whether lignin-degradation products were absorbed, metabolized and excreted in urine. Acid-soluble lignin accounted for 220 g/kg total lignin, its digestibility was the highest (0.87) and was unaffected by water deprivation. Acid-insoluble lign...

1. The glycine-rich, arginine-rich histone from calf thymus was hydrolyzed with chymotrypsin; the peptides produced were fractionated on Sephadex G-25. The peptides containing the aromatic amino acids were purified by rechromatography on Sephadex G-25 and Aminex A-4 columns and by peptide mapping. 2. The six aromatic amino acids of the glycine-rich, arginine-rich histone were accounted for in e...

A copper(I) catalyzed procedure for carbon-nitrogen bond formation utilizing aryl halides and either amines, including amino acids and diphenylamine, or aliphatic and aromatic amides is described.

An efficient and simple procedure for the synthesis of 1,8-dioxo-octahydroxanthenes from the aromatic aldehydes and 5,5-dimethylcyclohexane-1,3-dione (dimedone) in the presence of boric acid [BO3H3 or B(OH)3] as an inexpensive and reusable catalyst is described. The salient features of this methodology are: the elimination of corrosive liquid acids, high yields, simple methodology, short reacti...

A simple and efficient one-pot, three-component Strecker reaction of protected amino acids, aromatic aldehydes, and trimethylsilyl cyanide has been developed for the synthesis of chiral α-amino nitriles. The reaction was carried out in the presence of catalytic amount of phosphotungstic acid (H3[P(W3O10)4]) as an environmentally friendly cata...

The potentiality of lanthanide chelates as photoluminescent markers and cleaving agents of nucleic acids is discussed, the main emphasis being on the chelates derived from aromatic nitrogen bases.

Cell suspensions of Serratia marcescens catalyzed the oxidation of aromatic aldehydes into the corresponding acids in high yield under mild conditions.

The composition of isolated natural organic matter (NOM) fractions was studied by means of high pressure size-exclusion chromatography (HP-SEC), specific ultraviolet absorbance (SUVA) at 254 nm, total luminescence spectroscopy (TLS) and synchronous scanning fluorescence measurements. The HPSEC, SUVA and TLS studies revealed that humic acids (HA) and hydrophobic acids (HOA) are composed of compl...

Phototransformation of the herbicide fluometuron (1 microM) in natural sunlight was investigated in neutral Milli-Q water and in synthetic waters containing either fulvic acids, nitrate ions or both in order to mimic reactions taking place in aquatic environments. Fluometuron degradation followed a pseudo-first order kinetics. The reaction was faster in synthetic than in Milli-Q water. Fulvic a...