Composition and content of seed flavonoids in forage and grain legume crops

Flavonoid content and composition in 124 accessions of forage and grain legumes was assessed by means of HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI-MS analyses of seed extracts. Excluding soybean, only 7 out of 77 grain legume accessions exhibited a total flavonoid content higher than 0.1 mg/g fresh seed weight (mean content 0.33 +/- 0.31 mg/ g fresh seed weight); while in 38 out of 47 forage legume, the mean flavonoid content was 1.49 +/- 0.89 mg/g fresh seed weight. On the basis of their higher seed flavonoid content and agronomic relevance, two grain and five forage legume accessions were selected for further HPLC-ESI-MS analyses aimed to identify bioactive compounds. Chemical analysis of the selected accessions permitted the identification of several flavonoids with pharmaceutical properties such as vitexin in Vigna angularis and Trigonella foenum-graecum, quercetin in all Trifolium spp and Medicago sativa, taxifolin in Trifolium pratense and Trifolium alexandrinum, myricetin in Trifolium repens, kaempferol in Phaseolus vulgaris and T. repens and luteolin in M. sativa and T. alexandrinum. Since much of literature information is regarding flavonoid content and composition of the green part of legume species, the obtained results contributed to fill the gap in knowledge about flavonoid content at the seed level.     

Weyl's theorem for perturbations of paranormal operators

A bounded linear operator on a Banach space is said to satisfy ``Weyl's theorem' if the complement in the spectrum of the Weyl spectrum is the set of all isolated points of the spectrum which are eigenvalues of finite multiplicity. In this paper we show that if is a paranormal operator on a Hilbert space, then satisfies Weyl's theorem for every algebraic operator which commutes with .

     

Generalized Browder’s Theorem and SVEP

A bounded operator a Banach space, is said to verify generalized Browder’s theorem if the set of all spectral points that do not belong to the B-Weyl’s spectrum coincides with the set of all poles of the resolvent of T, while T is said to verify generalized Weyl’s theorem if the set of all spectral points that do not belong to the B-Weyl spectrum coincides with the set of all isolated points of the spectrum which are eigenvalues. In this article we characterize the bounded linear operators T satisfying generalized Browder’s theorem, or generalized Weyl’s theorem, by means of localized SVEP, as well as by means of the quasi-nilpotent part H ₀(λI − T) as λ belongs to certain subsets of . In the last part we give a general framework for which generalized Weyl’s theorem follows for several classes of operators.     

High-efficiency volume reflection of an ultrarelativistic proton beam with a bent silicon crystal

The volume reflection phenomenon was detected while investigating 400 GeV proton interactions with bent silicon crystals in the external beam H8 of the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. Such a process was observed for a wide interval of crystal orientations relative to the beam axis, and its efficiency exceeds 95%, thereby surpassing any previously observed value. These observations suggest new perspectives for the manipulation of high-energy beams, e.g., for collimation and extraction in new-generation hadron colliders, such as the CERN Large Hadron Collider.     

Viscoelasticity of dynamically self-assembled paramagnetic colloidal clusters

Paramagnetic particles in a liquid above a solid dynamically self-assemble into two-dimensional (2D) viscoelastic clusters in a processing magnetic field if the precession angle exceeds the magic angle. Hexagonal clusters rotate with a frequency proportional to the precession frequency of the magnetic field. The rotation is explained by viscoelastic shear waves excited in the clusters that can be visualized slightly above the magic angle. The cluster rotation and the visualization of viscoelastic modes are independent techniques to probe the rheological properties of the cluster. We find agreement between both techniques when determining the 2D cluster viscosity eta(c) approximately 10(-11) N s/m.     

Molecularly imprinted polymers for 5-fluorouracil release in biological fluids

The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility of employing Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) as a controlled release device for 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in biological fluids, especially gastrointestinal ones, compared to Non Imprinted Polymers (NIPs). MIPs were synthesized using methacrylic acid (MAA) as functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as crosslinking agent. The capacity of the polymer to recognize and to bind the template selectively in both organic and aqueous media was evaluated. An in vitro release study was performed both in gastrointestinal and in plasma simulating fluids. The imprinted polymers bound much more 5-Fu than the corresponding non-imprinted ones and showed a controlled/sustained drug release, with MIPs release rate being indeed much more sustained than that obtained from NIPs. These polymers represent a potential valid system for drug delivery and this study indicates that the selective binding characteristic of molecularly imprinted polymers is promising for the preparation of novel controlled release drug dosage form.     

Do collisions inside the collision cell play a relevant role in CID‐LIFT experiments?

Collision experiments are a valid approach to characterize the ionic species generated by matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI). When a time-of-flight analyzer is employed, three different approaches are available for these experiments: the postsource decay (PSD), the LIFT and the MALDI-TOF/TOF. The last two are of particular interest because of the overcoming of the PSD problems related to mass calibration of the product ion spectra. Experiments performed by LIFT on linear or cyclic peptides, in presence or in absence of collision gas in the collision cell, gave evidence of an unexpected behavior: the two spectra were practically superimposable, and in the former case only a few new fragmentation channels were activated with low yield. These results mean that the selected ion exhibits a large amount of internal energy, capable of promoting fragmentation processes in the time window corresponding to the flight time between ion source and the acceleration electrode placed after the collision cell. Experiments performed by varying the plume density show that this internal energy uptake occurs in the expanding plume, through multiple collisions. The LIFT data have been compared with those achieved by collisions of ESI-generated [MH](+) ions of angotensin II performed under 'in-source' conditions and by triple-quadrupole experiments. The obtained results show a strong similarity among the spectra, indicating that the internal energy uptake in a MALDI source is comparable with that of 40-eV ions colliding with Ar in a triple-quadrupole instrument.     

Property (R) for Bounded Linear Operators

We introduce the spectral property (R), for bounded linear operators defined on a Banach space, which is related to Weyl type theorems. This property is also studied in the framework of polaroid, or left polaroid, operators.