Oligo(isosorbide adipate) (OSA), oligo(isosorbide suberate) (OSS), and isosorbide dihexanoate (SDH) were synthesized and evaluated as renewable resource alternatives to traditional phthalate plasticizers. The structure of the synthesized oligomers was confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1 H-and 13 C-NMR), and molecular weight was determined by size exclusion chromatograph. The plasticizers were blended with poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), and the miscibility and properties of the blends were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, tensile testing, and thermogravimetry. Especially the blends plasticized with SDH had almost identical properties with PVC/diisooctyl phthalate (DIOP) blends. The blends containing OSA and OSS plasticizers, based on dicarboxylic acids, had somewhat lower strain at break but higher stress at break and better thermal stability compared to the PVC/DIOP or PVC/SDH blends. All the synthesized isosorbide plasticizers showed potential as alternative PVC plasticizers.

A novel and green aqueous ADIB with high cell voltage based on organic polymers.

NAC (NAM-ATAF1, 2-CUC2) family members play important roles in various environmental responses. Here, we cloned a full-length NAC gene (954 bp) from Solanum lycopersicum (SlNAC1). This gene belonged to ATAF subfamily which included ATAF1 and ATAF2 of Arabidopsis thaliana. SlNAC1 expression was induced by chilling stress (4°C), heat stress (40°C), high salinity, osmotic stress and mechanical wounding. SlNAC1 transcripts were enhanced after application of abscisic acid, methyl jasmonate, salicylic acid, gibberellin, ethylene, methyl viologen and hydrogen peroxide. The seedlings of transgenic plants overexpressing SlNAC1 grew more leaves but were shorter than wild-type (WT) plants. SlNAC1 overexpression increased the chilling tolerance of tomato plants by maintaining the higher maximal photochemical efficiency of photosystem II and oxygen-evolving activities. Compared with WT plants, transgenic plants showed higher superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1) and catalase (EC 1.11.1.6) activities, which reduced levels of H2 O2 and superoxide anion radicals and promoted lower ion leakage and malondialdehyde content. The expression level of SlCBF1 in transgenic plants was also higher than that in WT plants under both normal conditions and chilling stress; this increased expression may be the main factor influencing the high chilling tolerance of transgenic plants. The results suggest that SlNAC1 plays important roles in diversiform plant-stress responses and diverse signaling pathways.

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Core-shell nanoparticle-plasticizers were synthesized and blended with PVC in an attempt to simultaneously improve the toughness and stiffness of the resulting materials. Halloysite, kaolin and silicon dioxide nanofillers, representing acicular, layered and spherical morphologies, were surfacegrafted with poly(butylene adipate) (PBA). The surface-grafting was confirmed by FTIR and the amount of PBA grafted on the surface was determined by TGA. In the case of halloysite and silicon dioxide nanoparticles their dispersion and miscibility in the PVC matrix were remarkably improved by the surface-grafting as shown by SEM, tensile testing and DMA. The tensile stress at break for the PVC films containing 5 wt% surface-treated halloysite nanoparticles increased 15%, modulus by 65% and the strain at break was 30 times higher compared to PVC containing 5 wt% untreated halloysite nanoparticles. The PVC films containing 5 wt% surface-treated silicon dioxide nanoparticles exhibited remarkably higher strain at break values compared to plain PVC/silicon dioxide composites, but also somewhat lower stress at break values probably due to the considerably higher amount of PBA grafted on the silicon dioxide surfaces. The higher storage modulus for PVC with surface modified silicon dioxide, however, still indicates higher stiffness for the material containing surface treated nanoparticles. Altogether the results show that the nanoparticle-plasticizer concept could be applied to simultaneously improve the toughness and stiffness of the materials and further improvements could be achieved after optimization of the number of PBA chains and their molecular weight.

No abstract

BACKGROUND: The valorization of renewable agro‐industrial residues and their further utilization for production of polymers and polymer additives is a highly attractive alternative for replacement of oil‐based materials. RESULTS: Liquefied wood flour and rice bran derived esters were synthesized and evaluated as novel green plasticizers for polylactide (PLA). The liquefied wood flour ester (PWF) showed good miscibility with PLA and good plasticization efficiency as shown by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and tensile testing. Tensile strain at break increased from a few percent for pure PLA to over 100 and 300% for the materials containing 10 and 30 wt‐% of PWF. The addition of PWF accelerated the hydrolysis rate of PLA as shown by faster weight loss during aging in water and faster formation of water‐soluble lactic acid oligomers, which was shown by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS) analysis of the migrants. The liquefied rice bran based product (PRB) was not miscible with PLA and it did not improve the elongation at break of PLA. Rice bran is generally rich in arabinoxylans with only secondary less reactive alcohol groups. The larger number of un‐reacted hydroxyl‐groups in PRB was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and could explain the immiscibility with PLA. CONCLUSIONS: The results demonstrate that the synthesized liquefied wood flour derived plasticizer could have great potential as a biobased polylactide plasticizer. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry

In the present study, hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) susceptibility genes were screened for using whole exome sequencing in 3 HNPCC patients from 1 family and using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping assays in 96 other colorectal cancer and control samples. Peripheral blood was obtained from 3 HNPCC patients from 1 family; the proband and the proband's brother and cousin. High-throughput sequencing was performed using whole exome capture technology. Sequences were aligned against the HAPMAP, dbSNP130 and 1,000 Genome Project databases. Reported common variations and synonymous mutations were filtered out. Non-synonymous single nucleotide variants in the 3 HNPCC patients were integrated and the candidate genes were identified. Finally, SNP genotyping was performed for the genes in 96 peripheral blood samples. In total, 60.4 Gb of data was retrieved from the 3 HNPCC patients using whole exome capture technology. Subsequently, according to certain screening criteria, 15 candidate genes were identified. Among the 96 samples that had been SNP genotyped, 92 were successfully genotyped for 15 gene loci, while genotyping for failed in 4 sporadic colorectal cancer patient samples. In 12 control subjects and 81 sporadic colorectal cancer patients, genotypes at 13 loci were wild-type, namely and . The genotype was mutant in 1 sporadic colorectal cancer patient and was wild-type in all other subjects. A total of 5 of the 12 control subjects and 30 of the 81 sporadic colorectal cancer patients had a mutant genotype. In all 3 HNPCC patients, the same mutant genotypes were identified at all 15 gene loci. Overall, 13 potential susceptibility genes for HNPCC were identified, namely and .