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Mycotoxins, including zearalenone, are important natural products produced by fungi that occasionally contaminate agricultural commodities and pose serious health risks to consumers of food and feed. Zearalenone and its metabolite, α-zearalanol, are of significant concern due to their estrogenic and anabolic steroid activity. Several governments have regulatory standards and advisory guidelines for zearalenone and α-zearalanol. Raman and ultraviolet spectroscopy were employed with density functional theory methods to evaluate spectroscopic properties to distinguish between zearalenone and α-zearalanol systematically. Raman bands were assigned based on vibrational frequency calculations. A portable Raman spectroscopy instrument (785 nm laser) distinguished between zearalenone and α-zearalanol in a label-free manner. Many vibrational bands of zearalenone and α-zearalanol are similar, including high-intensity peaks at 1315 cm -1 and 1650 cm -1 . However, the intensities in the Raman spectra at 1465 cm -1 , 1495 cm -1 , and 1620 cm -1 enabled the identification of zearalenone. The Raman peak at 1450 cm -1 is associated with α-zearalanol. These vibrational bands serve as spectral indicators to differentiate between the structurally similar zearalenone and α-zearalanol., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Statistical views of literacy development maintain that proficient reading requires the assimilation of myriad statistical regularities present in the writing system. Indeed, previous studies have tied statistical learning (SL) abilities to reading skills, establishing the existence of a link between the two. However, some issues are currently left unanswered, including questions regarding the underlying bases for these associations as well as the types of statistical regularities actually assimilated by developing readers. Here we present an alternative approach to study the role of SL in literacy development, focusing on individual differences among beginning readers. Instead of using an artificial task to estimate SL abilities, our approach identifies individual differences in children's reliance on statistical regularities as reflected by actual reading behavior. We specifically focus on individuals' reliance on regularities in the mapping between print and speech versus associations between print and meaning in a word naming task. We present data from 399 children, showing that those whose oral naming performance is impacted more by print-speech regularities and less by associations between print and meaning have better reading skills. These findings suggest that a key route by which SL mechanisms impact developing reading abilities is via their role in the assimilation of sub-lexical regularities between printed and spoken language -and more generally, in detecting regularities that are more reliable than others. We discuss the implications of our findings to both SL and reading theories.

Ferulic acid and its derivatives are important natural products found throughout the plant kingdom and are of special interest due to their health benefits. 1-Feruloyl-sn-glycerol (FG) and 1,3-diferuloyl-sn-glycerol (F 2 G) are two common bioproducts of ferulic acid that co-occur in nature and during the biocatalytic production of feruloylated lipids. In this paper, we report a comprehensive characterization of FG and F 2 G using Raman and UV spectroscopies and theoretical density functional theory calculations at the B3LYP/6-311+G** level. UV spectroscopy produced spectra for FG and F 2 G with similar peak shape, but difference intensities. The vibrational frequency calculations aided in the assignment of the Raman bands. The Raman analysis demonstrates that Raman spectroscopy is a rapid label free method to clearly distinguish between FG and F 2 G., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Octadecyl ferulate was prepared using solid acid catalyst, monitored using Supercritical Fluid Chromatography and purified to a 42% yield. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements determined octadecyl ferulate to have melting/solidification phase transitions at 67 and 39°C, respectively. AFM imaging shows that 5-mol% present in a lipid bilayer induced domains to form. Phase behavior measurements confirmed that octadecyl ferulate increased transition temperature of phospholipids. Fluorescence measurements demonstrated that octadecyl ferulate stabilized liposomes against leakage, maintained antioxidant capacity within liposomes, and oriented such that the feruloyl moiety remained in the hydrophilic region of the bilayer. Molecular modeling calculation indicated that antioxidant activity was mostly influenced by interactions within the bilayer., (Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Cytochrome c immobilized on alkylthiol self-assembled monolayers exhibits a characteristic Fe(II)/Fe(III) redox signal that is lost when exposed to ionic liquids composed of a butylimidazolium cation combined with either hexafluorophosphate or bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide anion. In this study it was shown that exposure to the aqueous solubilized ionic liquid components, butyl-, hexyl-, and octyl-imidazolium cations and hexafluorophosphate, tetrafluoroborate, and bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide anions, resulted in partial electrochemical signal loss. Absorbance and fluorescence measurements showed that signal loss due to the cationic ionic liquid component followed a different mechanism than that of the anionic component. Although a portion of the signal was recoverable, irreversible signal loss also occurred in both cases. The source of the irreversible component is suggested to be the loss of protein secondary structure through complexation between the ionic liquid components and the protein surface residues. The reversible electrochemical signal loss is likely due to interfacial interactions imposed between the electrode and the cytochrome heme group. The influence of the amount of exposed surface residues was explored with a simplified model protein, microperoxidase-11.