1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of azomethine ylides on enantiomerically pure (E)-γ-alkoxy-α,β-unsaturated esters.

Enantiomerically pure (E)-γ-alkoxy-α,β-unsaturated esters were reacted with azomethine ylides obtained from glycine imines in the presence of LiBr and diazabicycloundecene (DBU), to afford tetrasubstituted pyrrolidines with complete regiocontrol and fair to excellent diastereoselectivity (only two diastereoisomers formed in up to 96: 4 diastereoisomeric ratio). The results are compared with those of other 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, and the origin of stereocontrol is discussed.     

A matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry study of the non-enzymatic glycation products of human globins in diabetes

The molecular species present in globins from healthy and diabetic subjects with and without chronic complications have been analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry. The technique demonstrated the presence of glycated and glyco-oxidated species of both alpha- and beta-globins. Their abundances show a good linear relationship with respect to HbA1c values and with the mean daily plasma glucose levels over the 6 weeks preceding the investigation. Interestingly, slightly different behaviour is observed in the data from patients with and without chronic complications; the plots of HbA1c vs. the abundance of glycated and glyco-oxidated species show different slopes and different intercepts with the y-axis. To investigate this aspect the mean abundances of glyco-oxidated species from healthy subjects and from diabetic patients with and without complications were calculated. Higher values were found for the two last sets of samples, but no significant difference was found between them. These data could indicate different individual proclivities to oxidation and/or different oxidation kinetics related to behavioural and environmental factors.     

Mass spectrometric approaches in structural identification of the reaction products arising from the interaction between glucose and lysine

The products arising from the reaction of alpha-protected lysine with glucose have been studied by different techniques, viz. high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV detection, fast atom bombardment (FAB) mass spectrometry (MS), and HPLC/MS. Most of the analytical data were obtained by the last approach and allowed identification of many molecular species for a thorough knowledge of possible reaction pathways or structural data already available in the literature.     

Increase lattice Boltzmann method ability to simulate slip flow regimes with dispersed CNTs nanoadditives inside

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this study, the mixed convection of flow in a microchannel containing nanofluid is simulated by the Lattice Boltzmann Method. The...     

Pyrolysis/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry in the analysis of glycated poly-L-lysine

Pyrolysis/gas chromatography/mass specfrometry was applied to the study of products arising from the interaction between glucose and poly-L -lysine. The comparison of pyrograms of control poly-L -lysine and glycated poly-L -lysine led to the identification of six different compounds, four of which were furan derivatives that can be considered as markers for advanced glycation processes.     

A further investigation on a MALDI‐based method for evaluation of markers of renal damage

The validity of the urinary protein profile to characterize the pathological states of diabetic, nephropathic and diabetic–nephropathic patients was considered on the basis of previously obtained results by MALDI/MS, showing a different abundance ratio of the collagen α1 and α5 chain precursor fragments at m/z 1219 and 2049 and of the uromodulin precursor fragment at m/z 1912 observed in healthy subjects and patients; a larger number of subjects was examined and the obtained results were statistically evaluated. The p values related to the observed differences indicate that they are statistically significant when comparing all patients versus healthy controls, diabetic with normo or microalbuminuria versus nephropathic with advanced renal disease patients and diabetic with normo or microalbuminuria versus diabetic with advanced nephropathy patients. The scatter plot matrix gives evidence of the strict inverse relationship between the abundances of ions at m/z 1912 and 1219, the correlation coefficient being particularly high (r = 0.921, p < 0.001). The relationship between the true positive rate (sensitivity) and false positive rate (1—specificity) for every possible cutoff value in abundance of the considered ionic species was investigated through the receiver‐operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The obtained data indicate that a good differentiation of nephropathic patients with advanced renal disease and diabetic patients with advanced nephropathy versus healthy subjects can be easily obtained by this approach. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Brillouin gain analysis for fibers with different refractive indices

We studied an anomalous result in the measured stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold for single-mode optical fibers with different refractive index profiles and effective areas. It was found that, in addition to the optical effective area, the refractive-index-dependent interaction between the optical and the acoustic fields must be considered in order to account for the differences in the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold between fiber types. A detailed analytical formalism describing the acousto-optic interaction was derived to accommodate the influence of the index profile design on Brillouin scattering.     

A poly(ethylene glycol)-supported quaternary ammonium salt: An efficient, recoverable, and recyclable phase-transfer catalyst

A quaternary ammonium salt readily immobilized on a soluble poly(ethylene glycol) polymer support efficiently catalyzes different reactions carried out under phase-transfer catalysis conditions; the catalyst, easily recovered by precipitation and filtration, shows no appreciable loss of activity when recycled three times.     

An elliptic continuation result for harmonic functions in two dimensions

Let u be harmonic in a simply connected domainG ⊂ ℝ² and letK be a compact subset of G. In this note, it is proved there exists an “elliptic continuation” of u, namely there exist a smooth functionu ₁ and a second order uniformly elliptic operatorL with smooth coefficients in ℝ², satisfying:u ₁=u inK, Lu ₁=0 in ℝ². A similar continuation theorem, with u itself a solution to an elliptic second order equation inG, is also proved.