RESUMO
Despite the extensive literature on the retrieval of digestible starches from archaeological contexts, there are still significant concerns regarding their genuine origin and durability. Here, we propose a multi-analytical strategy to identify the authenticity of ancient starches retrieved from macrolithic tools excavated at Upper Paleolithic sites in the Pontic steppe. This strategy integrates the morphological discrimination of starches through optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with single starch chemo-profiling using Fourier transform infrared imaging and microscopy. We obtained evidence of aging and biomineralization in the use-related starches from Palaeolithic sites, providing a methodology to establish their ancient origin, assess their preservation status, and attempt their identification. The pivotal application of this multidisciplinar approach demonstrates that the macrolithic tools, from which starches were dislodged, were used for food-processing across the Pontic Steppe around 40,000 years ago during the earliest colonization of Eurasia by Homo sapiens.
Assuntos
Arqueologia , Amido , Humanos , Amido/químicaRESUMO
The use of silver nanoparticles (NPs) in medical devices is constantly increasing due to their excellent antimicrobial properties. In wound dressings, Ag NPs are commonly added in large excess to exert a long-term and constant antimicrobial effect, provoking an instantaneous release of Ag ions during their use or the persistence of unused NPs in the wound dressing that can cause a release of Ag during the end-of-life of the product. For this reason, a Safe-by-Design procedure has been developed to reduce potential environmental risks while optimizing functionality and costs of wound dressings containing Ag NPs. The SbD procedure is based on ad-hoc criteria (e.g., mechanical strength, antibacterial effect, leaching of Ag from the product immersed in environmental media) and permits to identify the best one among five pre-market alternatives. A ranking of the SbD alternatives was obtained and the safer solution was selected based on the selected SbD criteria. The SbD framework was also applied to commercial wound dressings to compare the SbD alternatives with products already on the market. The iterative procedure permitted to exclude one of the alternatives (based on its low mechanical strength) and proved to be an effective approach that can be replicated to support the ranking, prioritisation, and selection of the most promising options early in the innovation process of nano-enabled medical devices as well as to encourage the production of medical devices safer for the environment.
RESUMO
In this paper we report the study of the dynamics of a thermally modulated intramolecular spin exchange interaction of a novel diradical nitronyl nitroxide-substituted disulfide in solution and when it is grafted on a gold surface. The structure of this diradical was designed to have flexible chains leading to intramolecular collisions and hence spin exchange interaction, and with an appropriate binding group to be grafted on the gold surface to study its behavior on the surface. In solution, this diradical shows a strong spin exchange interaction between both radicals which is modulated by temperature, but also gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) functionalized with this diradical permit investigation of such a phenomenon in surface-grafted radicals. The spin-labelled AuNP synthesis was optimized to obtain high coverage of spin labels to lead to high spin exchange interaction. The obtained AuNPs were studied by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR), UV-Vis, and IR spectroscopies, HR-TEM microscopy, Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). This inorganic-organic hybrid material also showed dipolar interactions between its radicals which were confirmed by the appearance in the EPR spectra of an |Δms| = 2 transition at half-field. This signal gives direct evidence of the presence of a high-spin state and permitted us to study the nature of the magnetic coupling between the spins which was found to be antiferromagnetic. Self-Assembled Monolayers (SAMs) of these radicals on the Au (111) substrate were also prepared and studied by contact angle, X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), Cyclic Voltammetry and EPR. The magnetic as well as the electrochemical properties of the hybrid surfaces were studied and compared with the properties of this diradical in solution. Analogies between the properties of AuNPs with high coverage of radicals and those of SAM were observed.
