Efficient organic monoliths prepared by γ-radiation induced polymerization in the evaluation of histone deacetylase inhibitors by capillary(nano)-high performance liquid chromatography and ion trap mass spectrometry

New monolithic HPLC columns were prepared by γ-radiation-triggered polymerization of hexyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate monomers in the presence of porogenic solvents. Polymerization was carried out directly within capillary (250-200 μm I.D.) and nano (100-75 μm I.D.) fused-silica tubes yielding highly efficient columns for cap(nano)-LC applications. The columns were applied in the complete separation of core (H2A, H2B, H3, and H4) and linker (H1) histones under gradient elution with UV and/or electrospray ionization (ESI) ion trap mass spectrometry (MS) detections. Large selectivity towards H1, H2A-1, H2A-2, H2B, H3-1, H3-2 and H4 histones and complete separation were obtained within 8 min time windows, using fast gradients and very high linear flow velocities, up to 11 mm/s for high throughput applications. The method developed was the basis of a simple and efficient protocol for the evaluation of post-translational modifications (PTMs) of histones from NCI-H460 human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and HCT-116 human colorectal carcinoma cells. The study was extended to monitoring the level of histone acetylation after inhibition of Histone DeACetylase (HDAC) enzymes with suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), the first HDAC inhibitor approved by the FDA for cancer therapy. Attractive features of our cap(nano)-LC/MS approach are the short analysis time, the minute amount of sample required to complete the whole procedure and the stability of the polymethacrylate-based columns. A lab-made software package ClustMass was ad hoc developed and used to elaborate deconvoluted mass spectral data (aligning, averaging, clustering) and calculate the potency of HDAC inhibitors, expressed through a Relative half maximal Inhibitory Concentration parameter, namely R_IC(50) and an averaged acetylation degree.     

Measurement of elastic scattering in antiproton-proton collisions at 52.8 GeV centre-of-mass energy

We measured the differential cross section for p?p and pp elastic scattering in the momentum-transfer range 0.01 <|t| < 1.0 GeV² at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings with center-of-mass energy $\text{s}\text{= 52.8}\text{GeV}$. Fitting the differential cross section with an exponential [Aexp (bt)], we found $\text{b}\text{p}\text{p = 13.92 ± 0.59}\text{GeV}{}^{\mathrm{?2}}$ for |t| < 0.05 GeV², whilst for |t| > 0.09 GeV², $\text{b}\text{p}\text{p = 10.68 ± 0.26}\text{GeV}{}^{\mathrm{?2}}$. Using the optical theorem, we obtained for the total cross section $\text{σ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>tot</mtext>}}\text{(}\text{p}\text{p)= 44.86 ± 0.78}\text{mb}$ and, by integrating the differential cross section, we obtained for the total elastic cross section $\text{σ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>el</mtext>}}\text{(}\text{p}\text{p) = 7.89 ± 0.28}\text{mb}$. Calculations of σ_tot combining elastic-rate and total-rate measurements are also given. All of these measurements were also performed for pp scattering at the same energy, and the results for both reactions are compared.     

Solar modulation of cosmic deuteron fluxes in the PAMELA experiment

The preliminary results from measurements of deuteron fluxes in galactic cosmic rays (GCR) in the vicinity of the Earth in 2006–2009 are presented. The results are obtained by analyzing data from the PAMELA experiment aboard the Resurs DK-1 satellite. High-precision detection instruments provided an opportunity to identify GCR deuterons and measure their spectrum in the energy interval of 90–650MeV/nucleon. Spectra averaged over six-month intervals from the summer of 2006 to the summer of 2009 (the solar activity minimum) are presented. The influence of solar modulation on the observed spectrum is clearly seen in the results.     

Trapped Positrons and Electrons in the Inner Radiation Belt According to Data of the PAMELA Experiment

Measurements of secondary-electron and secondary-positron fluxes below the geomagnetic cutoff in near-Earth space were performed by means of the PAMELA magnetic spectrometer installed on board the Resurs-DK1 satellite launched on June 15, 2006, in an elliptical orbit of inclination 70° and altitude 350 to 600 km. This spectrometer permits measuring the fluxes of electrons and positrons over a wide energy range, as well as determining their spatial distributions to a precision of about 2°. A calculation of particle trajectories in the geomagnetic field makes it possible to separate electrons and positrons originating from cosmic-ray interactions in the Earth’s magnetosphere. The spatial distributions of quasitrapped, trapped, and short-lived albedo positrons and electrons of energy above 70 MeV in the radiation belt were analyzed. The ratio of the electron-to-positron fluxes and the energy spectra of the electrons and positrons in question are indicative of different productionmechanisms for stably trapped and quasitrapped secondary particles.     

Non‐Hermitian perturbations of Hermitian matrix‐sequences and applications to the spectral analysis of the numerical approximation of partial differential equations

This article concerns the spectral analysis of matrix‐sequences which can be written as a non‐Hermitian perturbation of a given Hermitian matrix‐sequence. The main result reads as follows. Suppose that for every n there is a Hermitian matrix X_n of size n and that {X_n}_n～_λf, that is, the matrix‐sequence {X_n}_n enjoys an asymptotic spectral distribution, in the Weyl sense, described by a Lebesgue measurable function f; if $\Vert Y_n{\Vert }_2=o(\sqrt{n})$ with ‖·‖₂ being the Schatten 2 norm, then {X_n+Y_n}_n～_λf. In a previous article by Leonid Golinskii and the second author, a similar result was proved, but under the technical restrictive assumption that the involved matrix‐sequences {X_n}_n and {Y_n}_n are uniformly bounded in spectral norm. Nevertheless, the result had a remarkable impact in the analysis of both spectral distribution and clustering of matrix‐sequences arising from various applications, including the numerical approximation of partial differential equations (PDEs) and the preconditioning of PDE discretization matrices. The new result considerably extends the spectral analysis tools provided by the former one, and in fact we are now allowed to analyze linear PDEs with (unbounded) variable coefficients, preconditioned matrix‐sequences, and so forth. A few selected applications are considered, extensive numerical experiments are discussed, and a further conjecture is illustrated at the end of the article.     

Surface roughness effect on optical absorptivity of metals

The white light (3700 K) optical absorptivity has been measured, using a calorimetric method, for a series of rough cold-worked metal surfaces. Results show a strong maximum (30%) in absorptivity vs roughness. The depth variance of surface imperfections (from 20 to 700 nm) has been determined by measuring infrared reflectance of the samples.