ELLIPSOMETRY OF BLACK LIPID MEMBRANES OF EGG LECITHIN AND CHLOROPLAST EXTRACTS

Abstract— Ellipsometric angles and reflectivity of black lipid membranes containing either egg lecithin or chloroplast extracts were measured at a wavelength of 6328 Å. Evidence was found for positive uniaxial anisotropy in membranes of lecithin. If the thickness of those films is assumed to be 62 Å, the refractive index normal to the film surface is 1.471 ± 0.004, and the refractive index parallel to the film surface is 1.454 ± 0.003. The results for membranes of chloroplast extracts also indicate a positive anisotropy in the indices of absorption.     

DOUBLESLICING: a non-iterative single profile multi-exponential curve resolution procedure. Application to time-domain NMR transverse relaxation data

A new non-iterative curve resolution technique for resolving single decay profiles is proposed. The new technique, called DoubleSlicing, is based on the Decra (Direct Exponential Curve Resolution Algorithm) principle. While the original Decra was designed to resolve several decay curves simultaneously and thus fitting common pure exponentials, DoubleSlicing can resolve single decay profiles by a simple double data transformation followed by an analytical and unique three-way decomposition. The new approach is successfully demonstrated on experimental NMR CPMG relaxation data, measured on combinations of unmixed paramagnetic CuSO(4) solutions. Decay signals of the water component were acquired following an innovative experimental design that ensured no interaction between the components present in each sample under observation. DoubleSlicing proved to be accurate in estimating relaxation times differing in one order of magnitude (range: 19.6-159.4ms). Its performance was comparable to discrete exponential fitting with the advantage of being much faster - in terms of computation time, DoubleSlicing outperformed exponential fitting by a factor of four.     

Overtone spectroscopy of some benzaldehyde derivatives

Overtone spectrum of o, m and p-nitrobenzaldehydes and p-chlorobenzaldehyde has been studied in 2000–12000 cm⁻¹ region. Vibrational frequencies and anharmonicity constants for aryl as well as alkyl CH stretch vibrations have been determined. We have also determined the internuclear distances for the aryl CH bond in the different molecules. The small variation observed in these distances is an indication of the substitution effect. It is observed that in the case of p-disubstituted benzens, the shift in aryl CH bond is proportional to sum of the Hammet σ of the substituents. However in the case of o-disubstituted benzenes it is only 80% of the para-substituted shift.     

icoshift: An effective tool for the alignment of chromatographic data

The Interval Correlation Optimised Shifting algorithm (icoshift) has recently been introduced for the alignment of nuclear magnetic resonance spectra. The method is based on an insertion/deletion model to shift intervals of spectra/chromatograms and relies on an efficient Fast Fourier Transform based computation core that allows the alignment of large data sets in a few seconds on a standard personal computer. The potential of this programme for the alignment of chromatographic data is outlined with focus on the model used for the correction function. The efficacy of the algorithm is demonstrated on a chromatographic data set with 45 chromatograms of 64,000 data points. Computation time is significantly reduced compared to the Correlation Optimised Warping (COW) algorithm, which is widely used for the alignment of chromatographic signals. Moreover, icoshift proved to perform better than COW in terms of quality of the alignment (viz. of simplicity and peak factor), but without the need for computationally expensive optimisations of the warping meta-parameters required by COW. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to show how a significant reduction on data complexity was achieved, improving the ability to highlight chemical differences amongst the samples.     

Daily duration of vitamin D synthesis in human skin with relation to latitude, total ozone, altitude, ground cover, aerosols and cloud thickness

Vitamin D production in human skin occurs only when incident UV radiation exceeds a certain threshold. From simulations of UV irradiances worldwide and throughout the year, we have studied the dependency of the extent and duration of cutaneous vitamin D production in terms of latitude, time, total ozone, clouds, aerosols, surface reflectivity and altitude. For clear atmospheric conditions, no cutaneous vitamin D production occurs at 51 degrees latitude and higher during some periods of the year. At 70 degrees latitude, vitamin D synthesis can be absent for 5 months. Clouds, aerosols and thick ozone events reduce the duration of vitamin D synthesis considerably, and can suppress vitamin D synthesis completely even at the equator. A web page allowing the computation of the duration of cutaneous vitamin D production worldwide throughout the year, for various atmospheric and surface conditions, is available on the Internet at http://zardoz.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD.html and http://zardoz.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez.html. The computational methodology is outlined here.     

Determination of Al, Cu, Li and Mn in spruce seeds and plant reference materials by slurry sampling graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

An ultrasonic slurry sampling graphite furnace AAS method was developed for the determination of Al, Cu, Li and Mn in spruce seeds, NBS SRM 1575 pine needles and GBW CRM 07602 bush branches and leaves. The only sample preparation was grinding in a Mixer Mill before preparing a slurry by adding 0.14 mol/L nitric acid to a small sample aliquot. Cryogenic grinding was used for the spruce seeds to solve the problem of agglomerating during grinding at room temperature. A modified sample tray was applied allowing the use of both the commercial 1.5 mL vials and home-made 15 mL vials. With optimal conditions for ultrasonic agitation the homogeneity and particle size distributions in the slurries prepared in the two different vials were similar. Several aspects of the slurry sampling approach are discussed and data of important parameters are given, including the total number of particles injected into the graphite furnace, densities of the materials and percentage of analyte extracted into the liquid phase of the slurry. The density of the materials was determined by two methods; by using a Coulter particle analyser and by using a gravimetric method. The two methods gave similar accuracy and precision. The concentration ranges of the elements (in microg g(-1)) were: 80-2100 for Al, 3-15 for Cu, 0.06-2.5 for Li and 50-700 for Mn. External calibration with aqueous standards was employed. Chemical modifiers were not found to be necessary. The relative standard deviations were in the range 1.7-7%. Analyses of the two certified plant reference materials confirmed the accuracy of the method. In addition no significant difference was found for analyses of digested and slurried spruce seeds. The detection limit was 10 ng g(-1) for Li and 170 ng g(-1) for Cu. The characteristic mass (area measurements) was 4.4 pg for Li and 11 pg for Cu. For Al and Mn less sensitive wavelengths were used.     

β-Lactose in the View of a CFF-Optimized Force Field

Abstract

A recently developed force field PEF95SAC, based on Consistent Force Field (CFF) optimized potential energy parameters for alcohols and most of the naturally occurring carbohydrates, is applied to and tested on β-lactose. The properties of the potential energy surface of this disaccharide are compared to X-ray structures, NMR coupling constants and optical rotation data. The overall performance indicates good extrapolative power for the modeling of oligo- and polysaccharide structures. A new glycosidic linkage geometry region is proposed for β-lactose as being important in both solid state and water solutions. This finding is supported by calculated J _H,C coupling constants and calculated optical rotation values.

In relation to the spectral calculations on β-lactose, the error of the use of relative energies (ΔE) in place of the Gibbs free energy (ΔG) as the basis for calculating Boltzmann distributed properties is demonstrated. In the β-lactose case it is shown that the conformational entropy is neither negligible nor uniformly distributed over the potential energy surface.     

Effect of beta-O-glucosylation on L-Ser and L-Thr diamides: a bias toward alpha-helical conformations

Beta-D-O-glucosylation produces a remarkable effect on the peptide backbone of the model peptides derived from serine and threonine. Consequently, this type of glycosylation is responsible for the experimentally observed shift from extended conformations (model peptides) towards the folded conformations (model glycopeptides). The conclusion has been solidly assessed by a combined NMR/MD protocol. Interestingly, the MD (molecular dynamics) results for the glycopeptides point towards the existence of water-bridging molecules between the sugar and peptide moieties, which could explain the stabilization of the folded conformers in aqueous solution.     

Overcoming matrix interferences in ion-exchange solid phase extraction of As, Cr, Mo, Sb, Se and V species from leachates of cement-based materials using multiple extractions

Solid phase extraction (SPE) methods based on multiple extractions have been developed to overcome matrix interferences in the charge-based fractionation analysis of As, Cr, Mo, Sb, Se and V leached from cement-based materials. Disposable SPE tubes packed with 500 mg strong anion-exchange (SAX) or strong cation-exchange (SCX) sorbents were used to extract the anionic and cationic species of the elements, respectively. The multiple extractions were based on the percolation of a small sample volume (5.0 mL) through a series of identical ion-exchange tubes. For most of the elements, more than 90% of the anionic species were extracted from a sample containing up to 16 g L⁻¹ NO₃⁻ by passing the aliquot through five identical SAX tubes. Percolating a sample aliquot through three identical SCX cartridges gave more than 99% retention for Cr(III) from leachates containing a high concentration of interfering metal cations. The anionic and cationic analytes showed only slight non-specific adsorption on the SCX and SAX sorbents, respectively, except for V(V) on the SCX sorbent. A condition was established for the quantitative elution of the retained analytes from the ion-exchange sorbents with 1.0 mol L⁻¹ HNO₃. The multiple ion-exchange SPE procedures were validated using spike recovery tests. The methods were used to determine the anionic and cationic fractions of the target elements in concrete leachates covering a broad range of pH (3.8-13.4). The elements were found to exist predominantly as anions in the alkaline and neutral leachates. A high fraction (85%) of cationic Cr was detected in the most acidic leachate (pH 3.8).