Characterization of the Reaction of Chloroacetaldehyde with Single and Double Stranded DNA

Chloroacetaldehyde reacts with viral M13mp18 single and double stranded DNA to form the highly fluorescent adducts, etheno-AMP and etheno-CMP.

Absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy can be used to monitor and characterize these reactions. Both single and double stranded DNA showed increases in the absorbance following reaction with the aldehyde. The fluorescence also increased in these two groups and continued to rise with increasing time of incubation until a point of saturation was reached. The fluorescence of the double stranded moiety was considerably enhanced following reaction with the aldehyde while that of the single stranded population was not, making this method appropriate for the separation of small quantities of the two populations of DNA.     

Felkin–Anh is not enough

The understanding of the electronic effects of the diastereoselective addition of a nucleophile to a polar substituted aldehyde or ketone is not complete, with several theories competing to explain the data. For numerous hydride reductions of 3‐X‐2‐butanones (X = F, Cl, Br), the selectivity for the major syn isomer is significantly and consistently higher for X = Br than for X = F. This result is rationalized as a shift in mechanism from Cornforth (X = F) to Felkin–Anh (X = Br). The experimental data is well modeled by ab initio calculations for the addition to these ketones by BH₃, but not by other nucleophiles such as LiH or LiAlH₄. The energetic ordering of the BH₃ transition states largely follows the trends for the ground state ketones. Here, consistent with electrostatic arguments, the anti orientation of the C―X and C?O bonds is always lower in energy than the syn arrangement. The gauche conformer is intermediate between these two, becoming gradually lower in energy as X increases in size. The hyperconjugative interaction invoked by the Felkin–Anh model provides only a modest stabilization of the relevant transition states as judged by NBO analysis. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A rapid method for analysis of non-equilibrated 90Sr/90Y in infant formula

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - A rapid analytical method for quantifying 90Sr in infant formula prior to secular equilibrium is presented. The approach is dependent on the use...     

Analysis of Overlapped and Noisy Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectra

Noisy and overlapped mass spectrometry data hinder the sequence coverage that can be obtained from hydrogen deuterium exchange analysis, and places a limit on the complexity of the samples that can be studied by this technique. Advances in instrumentation have addressed these limits, but as the complexity of the biological samples under investigation increases, these problems are re-encountered. Here we describe the use of binomial distribution fitting with asymmetric linear squares regression for calculating the accurate deuterium content for mass envelopes of low signal or that contain significant overlap. The approach is demonstrated with a test data set of HIV Env gp140 wherein inclusion of the new analysis regime resulted in obtaining exchange data for 42 additional peptides, improving the sequence coverage by 11 %. At the same time, the precision of deuterium uptake measurements was improved for nearly every peptide examined. The improved processing algorithms also provide an efficient method for deconvolution of bimodal mass envelopes and EX1 kinetic signatures. All these functions and visualization tools have been implemented in the new version of the freely available software, HX-Express v2.

Experimental study of copper leveling additives and their wafer and pattern-scale effect on copper planarization

The impact of Cu leveling additives on electrodeposited Cu topography and subsequent planarization behaviour was studied on both the pattern and wafer scales. The leveling agent significantly reduces as-deposited Cu topography, especially “mounding”. The reduction in topography results in a higher effective Cu removal rate during subsequent Cu planarization, both at the pattern and wafer scales. On the wafer scale, this effect is more evident for lower overburdens as the topography must be eliminated in a shorter total polish time. For Cu electrodeposited from leveler additive-free chemistries, significant pattern-scale topography persists throughout almost the entire planarization process, whereas for Cu deposited using a leveling agent only very wide features (～ > 100 μm) show any significant topography evolution during Cu polish. It is shown that excess electrodeposited Cu topography can lead to poor in-plane Cu wiring leakage performance.     

The Use of tert-Butyl Vinyl Ether in Stepwise Electrophilic Addition Reactions

tert-Butyl vinyl ether (1) reacts with p-TolSCl to give 2-tert-butoxy-2-chloroethyl p-tolyl sulfide (2). In the presence of SnCl₄, 2 reacts with silyl enol ethers, allyltrimethylsilane, and vinyl ethers to form a C-C bond. In the case of vinyl ethers, the reaction proceeds through the formation of the 5-membered sulfonium salt intermediate which in turn can react with H₂O, TMSCN, allyltrimethylsilane, and Grignard reagents.     

Ageing of surface treated thermoplastic polyolefins

Thermoplastic polyolefin panels were treated with a flame, flame & water, and accelerated thermo molecular adhesion process (ATmaP) treatment. XPS, contact angle and adhesion test (pull off) results were acquired over a one year period to determine the changes in the elemental composition, surface energy and adhesion strength respectively over time. All surface-treated thermoplastic polyolefin samples showed a sharp decline in adhesion strength up to an ageing period totalling 6 months. The decline in adhesion strength was correlated with a decline in the nitrogen-containing constituents and C–O functional groups at the surface and a decline in surface energy for the flame & water-treated sample. There was no significant change in adhesion strength for all samples for ageing periods greater than 6 months. ATmaP-treated thermoplastic polyolefin outperformed the other two surface treatments in adhesion strength tests due to ATmaP retaining nitrogen-based functional groups (mainly nitrogen oxides) over the year long study. This retention of functionality allowed for a slower ageing process for ATmaP-treated surfaces in comparison to the other surface treatments.