Characterization of Gasoline by 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Chemometrics

Automotive fuel adulteration is an old and significant problem. One common type of fuel adulteration is the addition of diesel to gasoline. Unsupervised models were developed through hierarchical cluster and principal component analysis models. Supervised models through partial least square discriminant analysis using ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance spectra as the input were used to classify samples as adulterated or unadulterated. Quantitative models were developed using partial least squares to determine the gasoline and diesel concentrations in the samples. This set contained samples composed of pure gasoline and anhydrous ethanol reproducing commercial gasoline and other samples treated with diesel. Hierarchical cluster and principal component analysis did not distinguish between adulterated and unadulterated samples except for the most adulterated materials. However, partial least square discriminant analysis classified 100% of the samples correctly. The partial least square algorithm provided excellent regression models for the gasoline and diesel content. The determination coefficient was 0.9920 for both models, whereas the root mean square error of cross-validation and root mean square error of prediction for the diesel model were 2.32 and 1.42%, respectively, and 2.40 and 1.38% for the gasoline model.     

Effects of potassium on the supramolecular structure and electronic properties of eumelanin thin films

The role of potassium in the formation of synthetic eumelanin aggregates is investigated by atomic force microscopy and soft-X-ray spectroscopy. Control over the thin film granularity is achieved by using K salts, in both drop casting and electrodeposition of eumelanin thin films. Further control over orientation is made possible by a suitable choice of the substrate: evidence of self-assembly is found for thin films deposited on gold. Finally, it is shown that the potassium content affects not only the samples morphology, but also the low-lying states in the valence band, where a transfer of spectral weight across the HOMO-LUMO gap is observed, disclosing possible applications of this multifunctional biomacromolecule.     

FTIR microspectroscopy of melanocytic skin lesions: a preliminary study

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy has been employed to investigate benign (ordinary dermal and Reed nevi), dysplastic and malignant (invasive melanoma) skin lesions through the analysis of spectral changes of melanocytes as well as in the evaluation of the presence of melanin. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis led to a satisfactory separation of malignant from dysplastic and normal melanocytes. Also, on enlarging the clustering with spectra from Reed and dermal nevi, the multivariate analysis segregated well the spectral data into discrete clusters, allowing the obtaining of reliable average spectra for analysis at the molecular level of the main groups or components responsible for the biological and biochemical changes. The most significant spectral characteristics appear to be related to differences in secondary protein structures, in nucleic acid conformation, in intra- and intermolecular bonding. In all cases, supervised and unsupervised spectral analyses resulted in satisfactory agreement with histopathological findings.     

Separation of cis/trans geometrical fatty acid isomers by silver-exchanged zeolite Y

The separation of cis and trans isomers is relevant for biological and nutritional applications, silver-exchanged zeolite Y was prepared and applied for the treatment of mixtures of cis and trans geometrical isomers of mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). cis FAMEs were adsorbed into zeolite with a high degree of selectivity (cis/trans ratio in the range of 1.9-3.2). The effectiveness was due to the synergism of the π-complexation between the silver ion and the double bonds and the different FAME structures trapped into the zeolite cages. Some indication of the complex stabilities came from theoretical studies using unsaturated lipids. A prototype cartridge was also designed for application in the fractionation of cis/trans FAME mixtures.     

Identification of archaeal proteins that affect the exosome function in vitro

Background  

The archaeal exosome is formed by a hexameric RNase PH ring and three RNA binding subunits and has been shown to bind and degrade RNA in vitro. Despite extensive studies on the eukaryotic exosome and on the proteins interacting with this complex, little information is yet available on the identification and function of archaeal exosome regulatory factors.     

Effects of Lactobacillus rhamnosus on zebrafish oocyte maturation: an FTIR imaging and biochemical analysis

The aim of this study was to verify the effects of probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus on zebrafish oocyte maturation using FPA (focal plane array) FTIR imaging together with specific biochemical assays (SDS-PAGE, real-time PCR and enzymatic assay). Oocyte growth is prevalently due to a vitellogenic process which consists of the hepatic synthesis of vitellogenin and its selective uptake during maturation. The administration of L. rhamnosus IMC 501 for 10 days induced chemical changes to oocyte composition, promoting the maturation process. Some interesting biochemical features, linked to protein secondary structure (amide I band) and to phospholipidic and glucidic patterns, were detailed by vibrational analysis. The spectroscopic results were supported by the early increase of the lysosomal enzyme involved in the final oocyte maturation, the cathepsin L. This enzyme increases during follicle maturation, with the highest levels in class IV oocytes. In treated females, class III oocytes showed higher cathepsin L gene expression and enzymatic activity, with levels comparable to class IV oocytes isolated from controls; this can be related to the proteolytic cleavage of the higher molecular mass yolk protein components, as evidenced by SDS-PAGE.     

A new on-line solid phase extraction high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method to study the sun light photodegradation of mono-chloroanilines in river water

The study investigates the natural photodegradation pathway of mono-chloroanilines in river waters, with the aim to identify the predominant photoproducts formed. At this purpose a new sensitive on-line SPE HPLC–MS/MS method has been developed with LOQ values equal or lower than the legal threshold concentration levels allowed for mono-chloroanilines in waters. The degradation processes of o-, m- and p-chloroaniline have been investigated subjecting their solutions, prepared both in ultrapure and in river water, to sun light irradiation simulated by a solar box system. The SPE HPLC–MS/MS methodology allowed to evaluate the degradation kinetics, to identify the predominant photodegradation products and to propose the chemical structures. Two photoproducts (aniline and 3-aminophenol), for which standards are available, have also been quantified.     

Thorough evaluation of the validity of conventional enantio-gas chromatography in the analysis of volatile chiral compounds in mandarin essential oil: A comparative investigation with multidimensional gas chromatography

The present research is focused on the determination of the enantiomeric distribution of chiral compounds, contained in mandarin essential oils, by means of conventional chiral gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (enantio-GC-FID); the results attained were compared with those derived from heart-cutting multidimensional GC-mass spectrometry (MDGC/MS), to evaluate the reliability of the monodimensional technique as a tool for quality control. The Deans-switch MDGC system was equipped with two GC ovens, which were connected via a heated transfer line, a flame ionization detector (FID1) in the first dimension and a quadrupole MS as second-dimension detector. The a priori knowledge of potential co-elutions concerning target compounds (an enantiomer and an interfering compound), when using enantio-GC-FID, could enable the use of corrected enantiomer excess values. Correction factors could be calculated through a preliminary GC-FID analysis (using an apolar column), considering the peak areas of the known interferences. The method used for the calculation of a so-called “coelution correction factor” is described, along with some examples.     

Monogenic pseudo‐complex power functions and their applications

The use of a non‐commutative algebra in hypercomplex function theory requires a large variety of different representations of polynomials suitably adapted to the solution of different concrete problems. Naturally arises the question of their relationships and the advantages or disadvantages of different types of polynomials. In this sense, the present paper investigates the intrinsic relationship between two different types of monogenic Appell polynomials. Several authors payed attention to the construction of complete sets of monogenic Appell polynomials, orthogonal with respect to a certain inner product, and used them advantageously for the study of problems in 3D‐elasticity and other problems. Our goal is to show that, as consequence of the binomial nature of those generalized Appell polynomials, their inner structure is determined by interesting combinatorial relations in which the central binomial coefficients play a special role. As a byproduct of own interest, a Riordan–Sofo type binomial identity is also proved. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the spectrum of stiffness matrices arising from isogeometric analysis

We study the spectral properties of stiffness matrices that arise in the context of isogeometric analysis for the numerical solution of classical second order elliptic problems. Motivated by the applicative interest in the fast solution of the related linear systems, we are looking for a spectral characterization of the involved matrices. In particular, we investigate non-singularity, conditioning (extremal behavior), spectral distribution in the Weyl sense, as well as clustering of the eigenvalues to a certain (compact) subset of \(\mathbb C\) . All the analysis is related to the notion of symbol in the Toeplitz setting and is carried out both for the cases of 1D and 2D problems.