Copper and iron interactions with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. A study by fast-atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry

Fast atom bombardment, combined with high-energy collision-induced tandem mass spectrometry, has been used to investigate gas-phase metal-ion interactions with captopril, enalaprilat and lisinopril, all angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.Suggestions for the location of metal-binding sites are presented. For captopril, metal binding occurs most likely at both the sulphur and the nitrogen atom. For enalaprilat and lisinopril, binding preferably occurs at the amine nitrogen. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Euler obstruction of a function on a determinantal variety and on a curve

Given an analytic function germ f: (X, 0) → C on an isolated determinantal singularity or on a reduced curve, we present formulas relating the local Euler obstruction of f to the vanishing Euler characteristic of the fiber X ∩ f^-1(0) and to the Milnor number of f. Restricting ourselves to the case where X is a complete intersection, we obtain an easy way to calculate the local Euler obstruction of f as the difference between the dimension of two algebras.     

A Mössbauer spectroscopy study on iron in marine sediments

The chemical states of iron in near-shore and deep-sea sediments were investigated by means of⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy using selective and chemical leachings. The Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ ratios of deep-sea sediments were much smaller than those of near-shore sediments, while the total contents of iron in the former were much higher than those in the latter. This is principally due to the high content of hydrogenous ferric oxyhydroxide in deep-sea sediments. Also, in the aluminosilicate fraction, the Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ ratios of deep-sea sediments were smaller than those of near-shore sediments. This is probably attributed to the difference in the silicate mineral composition between deep-sea and near-shore sediments. X-ray reflections of clay minerals normalized to those of feldspars and quartz were more intense in deep-sea sediments than in near-shore sediments.     

Single and double orbital excitations probed by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering

The dispersion of the elusive elementary excitations of orbital ordered systems, orbitons, has escaped detection so far. The recent advances in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) techniques have made it, in principle, a powerful new probe of orbiton dynamics. We compute the detailed traces that orbitons leave in RIXS for an e{g} orbital ordered system, using the ultrashort core-hole lifetime expansion for RIXS. We observe that both single- and double-orbiton excitations are allowed, where the former, at lower energy, have sharper features. The rich energy- and momentum-dependent intensity variations that we observe make clear that RIXS is an ideal method to identify and map out orbiton dispersions.     

High Temperature Stable Maghemite Nanoparticles Sandwiched between Hectorite Nanosheets

Maghemite (γ-Fe₂O₃) is a metastable iron oxide phase and usually undergoes fast phase transition to hematite at elevated temperatures (>350 °C). Maghemite nanoparticles were synthesized by the polyol method and then intercalated into a highly swollen (>100 nm separation) nematic phase of hectorite. A composite of maghemite nanoparticles sandwiched between nanosheets of synthetic hectorite was obtained. The confinement of the nanoparticles hampered Ostwald ripening up to 700 °C and consequently the phase transition to hematite is suppressed. Only above 700 °C γ-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles started to grow and undergo phase transition to α-F₂O₃. The structure and the phase transition of the composite was evaluated using X-ray diffraction, TEM, SEM, physisorption, TGA/DSC, and Mößbauer spectroscopy.