Cyanobacteria are recognized producers of a wide array of toxic or otherwise bioactive secondary metabolites. The present study utilized the zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryo as an aquatic animal model of vertebrate development to identify, purify and characterize lipophilic inhibitors of development (i.e., developmental toxins) from an isolate of the freshwater cyanobacterial species, Aphanizomen...

Single crystals of the title mol-ecular salt, C4H7N2 (+)·HC2O4 (-)·2H2O, were isolated from the reaction of 2-methyl-1H-imidazole and oxalic acid in a 1:1 molar ratio in water. In the crystal, the cations and anions are positioned alternately along an infinite [010] ribbon and linked together through bifurcated N-H⋯(O,O) hydrogen bonds. The water mol-ecules of crystallization link the chains in...

Since the maximum foaming temperature window is only about 4 °C for supercritical CO₂ (scCO₂) foaming of pristine polypropylene, it is important to raise the melt strength of polypropylene in order to more easily achieve scCO₂ foaming. In this work, radiation cross-linked isotactic polypropylene, assisted by the addition of a polyfunctional monomer (triallylisocyanurate, TAIC), was employed in ...

We have reported the use of carboxylate-alumoxanes as efficient nucleating agents for isotactic polypropylene (iPP) with a possible structural correlation to the nucleation efficiency. The unique, butterfly-like structure of carboxylate-alumoxanes correlates well with the nucleation characteristics of iPP and, for the first time, the impact of a thermally induced, crystalline transition of carb...

Polymer composites based on natural fillers are currently attracting great attention as alternative materials to glass or synthetic fibre reinforced plastics in several applications, mostly for automotive, appliance and packaging products. The main advantage of employing natural fibres is that these are biodegradable and renewable, and exhibit low cost, low density and high toughness. However t...