Synthesis and circular dichroism of tetraarylporphyrin-oligonucleotide conjugates

The preparation and circular dichroic (CD) studies of self-complimentary 8-mer DNA sequences with a porphyrin at the 3' end are presented. Electronic interaction between the two porphyrins (the interchromophoric distance is in the range of 28-40 A), attached to both ends of the double-stranded helix, gives rise to a long-range exciton-coupled CD in the visible region (400-450 nm). The porphyrin chromophores act as sensitive probes of geometrical changes in the DNA backbone and sensitively reflect the double-strand to single-strand transition. This study demonstrates the possibility of using exciton-coupled porphyrin CDs for conformational studies of DNA.     

Synthesis and Antiviral Activity of Novel Adamantylpeptides

A novel type of compound that contains a peptide specific for bacterial peptidoglycans (immunomodulatory activity) and an adamantyl residue (antiviral activity) was synthesized. Thus, L -Ala-D -γGln was linked to DL -Gly(Ada) yielding two diasteroisomers 3a and 3b , i.e. ambo-Gly(Ada)-L -Ala-D -γGln (γGln = isoglutamine-4-amino-4-carbamoylbutanoic acid; Ada = adamantyl). The diastereoisomers were easily separated by column chromatography (silica gel) and characterized, but only the use of a stereospecific enzyme led to the assignment of the configuration of the Gly(Ada) moiety in the two diastereoisomers. The cytotoxic effect and antiviral activity of the novel adamantyltripeptides 3a and 3b , observed as the cell survival and the infectivity reduction of the influenza A virus H1N1 and H3N2 strains, respectively, were studied on MDCK cells in vitro. Both 3a and 3b exhibited low cytotoxicity for MDCK cells and reduced the infectivity of the influenza A virus strains, but to a different extent on different Strain.     

Dynamical models of molecular chains and efficient integration algorithms

Chains of point masses and chains of rigid bodies are used to model biological polymers. To investigate their dynamics we propose a method which allows an efficient realization of the constraints jointly with a simple and accurate integration of the free rigid body motion. The method is quite effective to evolute the geodesic flow of a rigid body chain and the global performance depends on the computational complexity of the algorithms used to compute the interaction forces. Our approach is suitable to describe a chain of rigid bodies immersed in a thermal bath. In the method we propose, the constraints are realized by hard springs whose elastic constant is set to maximize the energy dissipation rate of a Runge–Kutta integrator scheme. Moreover the use of local Lagrangian coordinates is introduced using the possibility of a continuous change of chart, such that the distance from the coordinate singularities is the highest possible. For a chain of point masses the numerical results are checked with another method where the constraints are exactly realized by means of Lagrangian coordinates. When the chain is subject to regular interactions potentials plus a thermal bath the exact and approximate constraints realization provide comparable results.     

Investigation of surface laser treatment of ancient calcite: the case of the grave in Torricelle (Naples, Italy)

The laser-cleaning technique has been effectively employed in many areas. Recently it has led to a huge development in art restoration. However, this technique must be optimised to remove contaminations and encrustations from surfaces without generating any physical or chemical changes of the original material.Its use has been considered to clean a 4th century B.C. chamber gravesite in Torricelle, near Nola (Naples). The wall painting could not be seen owing to bioorganic surface layer and resinous material originated from surrounding pinewood. In order to evaluate the technique effectiveness we studied the interaction of the light from a Q-switched Nd: YAG equipped with SHG to work at wavelength of 532 nm.Several characterization techniques have been employed to verify the laser effect on the cleaning of the surface versus the operating parameter configuration and to evaluate the possible damages induced by the beam. In particular, micro X-Ray fluorescence (μXRF) provided information on the chemical composition of the clean surface; X-ray microdiffraction (μXRD) was used to identify the phases and their microstructures. These techniques were effective in assessing the quality of the cleaning process and for following the changes in the microstructure of the sample.Preliminary results suggest a possible influence of the laser on the aragonite–calcite transformation. PACS 61.10.Nz; 33.20.Rm; 42.62.-b; 61.66.Fn; 81.65.Cf     

Lyapunov Pairs in Semilinear Differential Problems with State-Dependent Impulses

Set-Valued and Variational Analysis - The paper deals with semilinear differential inclusions with state-dependent impulses in Banach spaces. Defining a suitable Banach space in which all the...     

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Taming perturbative divergences in asymptotically safe gravity

We use functional renormalization group methods to study gravity minimally coupled to a free scalar field. This setup provides the prototype of a gravitational theory which is perturbatively non-renormalizable at one-loop level, but may possess a non-trivial renormalization group fixed point controlling its UV behavior. We show that such a fixed point indeed exists within the truncations considered, lending strong support to the conjectured asymptotic safety of the theory. In particular, we demonstrate that the counterterms responsible for its perturbative non-renormalizability have no qualitative effect on this feature.     

Crater drilling enhancement obtained in parallel non-collinear double-pulse laser ablation

In order to investigate the double-pulse ablation mechanism, two parallel but non-collinear laser beams, delayed with respect to each other by 1 μs, were focussed on an aluminium sample, so that a lateral distance of 600 microns exists between the centres of the two craters and no superposition of the laser-ablation zones is present. The use of such configuration results in a signal and in a plasma mass enhancement with respect to the single-pulse case almost equal to that obtained in the double-pulse collinear case. However, such a non-collinear geometry evidences a much more effective drilling of the surface. Such unexpected drilling seems to be related to a hydrodynamic drainage out of aerosol and molten material, hindering its re-deposition in and around the crater.     

Electron impact mass spectrometry of some geminal bis-sulphones

The behaviour under electron impact of six 1,1-bis(benzenesulphonyl)cyclioalkanes and of 1-phenyl-1-(benzensesulphaonyl)cyclopropane has been studied in detail with the aid of exact mass measurements, linked scans for metastable ion analysis, collisional spectroscopy and kinetic energy release measurements. The molecular ions of these compounds undergo a sulphone-sulphinate rearrangement with alkyl group migration on oxygen, in analogy with what is found for simple monosulphones and, in general, their fragmentation resembles that of mono-sulphonyl compounds. Loss of SO₂ from the molecular ion is observed for all substrates, but only in the case of 1, 1-bis(benzenesulphonyl)cyclopropane is this followed by loss of the second SO₂ unit; the first loss of SO₂ is probably accompanied by rearrangement since the fragmentation pattern of [M ? SO₂]⁺˙ ions from this compound is different than that of the isobaric molecular ions of 1-phenyl-1-(benzenesulphonyl)cyclopropane.