Improved procedure for protein binder analysis in mural painting by LC-ESI/Q-q-TOF mass spectrometry: detection of different milk species by casein proteotypic peptides

Diagnostic techniques applied to the field of cultural heritage represent a very important aspect of scientific investigation. Recently, proteomic approaches based on mass spectrometry coupled with traditional spectroscopic methods have been used for painting analysis, generating promising results for binder’s protein identification. In the present work, an improved procedure based on LC-ESI/Q-q-TOF tandem mass spectrometry for the identification of protein binders has been developed for the molecular characterization of samples from an early-twentieth-century mural painting from the St. Dimitar Cathedral in Vidin, Bulgaria. The proteomic investigation has led to the identification of both egg white and egg yolk proteins, according to traditional old recipes for tempera paintings. In addition, beyond the egg components, the presence of caseins was also revealed, thus suggesting the use of milk as binding medium, fixative or stabilising agent. Furthermore, for the first time, the capability to discriminate the milk origin on the basis of alpha casein proteotypic peptides is reported, that are diagnostic for a given species, thus opening interesting perspectives in art and archaeological fields.     

The operad Lie is free

We show that the operad Lie is free as a non-symmetric operad. Then we study the generating series counting the operadic generators. We find a recursive formula for the coefficients of the series and show that the asymptotic density of the operadic generators is 1/e.     

Electrochemical investigation of melittin reconstituted into a mercury-supported lipid bilayer

The channel-forming peptide melittin was incorporated into a biomimetic membrane consisting of a mercury electrode coated with a thiolipid monolayer, with a lipid monolayer self-assembled on top of it. The thiolipid consisted of a hydrophilic tetraethyleneoxy chain terminated at one end with a disulfide group, for anchoring to the mercury surface, and covalently linked at the other end to two diphytanyl chains, which formed a lipid bilayer with the overhanging lipid monolayer. The conductance of the lipid bilayer in contact with aqueous 0.1 M KCl was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy over a frequency range from 1 x 10(-2) to 1 x 10(5) Hz and a potential range of 0.7 V for different compositions of the outer lipid monolayer. The conductance increases abruptly above the background level at sufficiently negative applied potentials, attaining a maximum value that increases with the composition of the outer monolayer in the order PC/chol (60:40) < PC < PC/SM/chol (59:15:26) < PS, with PC = phosphatidylcholine, chol = cholesterol, SM = sphingomyelin, and PS = phosphatidylserine. The higher the maximum conductance, the less negative the applied potential at which it is attained. This behavior is also discussed using a model of the electrified interphase.     

Tunneling motions of argon on chlorofluoromethane

The rotational supersonic jet Fourier transform microwave spectra of the 35Cl and 37Cl species of the molecular complex chlorofluoromethane-argon show that, in its equilibrium conformation, the argon atom is located out of the ClCF plane, interacting with the F and Cl atoms. All rotational transitions are split into several quadrupole components, each of them further split into two lines, due to the tunneling motion of the Ar atom between two equivalent positions, below and above the ClCF plane. The feasible low energy pathway between the structurally degenerate conformations is described, in a first approximation, by a circular motion around the C-Cl bond, with barriers estimated to be about 61 and 100 cm(-1).     

Amination of CF3-enones with nosyloxycarbamates

CF3-enones showed a different reactivity in amination reactions with nosyloxycarbamates. 4-Oxazolines or vinyl carbamates were obtained as unique products depending on the nature of double-bond substituents and on the choice of carbamates and bases. Starting from trans-trifluoroacetyl olefins carrying a heterocyclic residue or the p-methoxyphenyl group on the double bond, a rare loss of CF3CO was observed when the aminations were performed under heterogeneous conditions using CaO as the base.     

Stereoselective uncatalyzed synthesis of 2,3-unsaturated-4-n-substituted-beta-O-glycosides by means of a new D-galactal-derived N-(mesyl)-aziridine

The reaction of the new D-galactal-derived allylic aziridine 1beta with O-nucleophiles (alcohols and monosaccharides) affords, in a high to complete beta-stereoselectivity, the corresponding 2,3-unsaturated-beta-O-glycosides bearing a beta-N-functionality at C4.     

p1,n1 salts: Self-assembled supramolecular structures sequestering racemates. Diastereomeric separation and enantiomeric enrichment of trans-chrysanthemic acid

The occurrence of p1,n1 salts can be exploited to sequester racemates; an application to technical mixtures of chrysanthemic acids (ChA) allowed the separation of trans- and cis-ChA and the recovery of the excess enantiomer of trans-ChA.     

Structural characterization of ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) particles in aqueous suspension by energy dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXD)

Ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) particles were structurally characterized in situ in an aqueous dilute suspension by energy dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXD) and ex situ as powders obtained by lyophilization of the suspension by angular dispersive X-ray diffraction (ADXD) at 20 degrees C. Structural parameters obtained by the Rietveld method on ADXD data were used as starting parameters for modeling the structure of the particles in suspension. Although each particle is a single crystal, as evidenced by conventional X-ray diffraction, our results indicate that the structural order, specific to a crystal, does not extend to the entire volume of the particle. In fact, each individual particle, averagely, has a crystalline structural extension ca. 4.0 nm smaller than the apparent dimensions obtained by both ADXD and TEM (ca. 8.0 nm).     

The redox chemistry of the covalently immobilized native and low-pH forms of yeast iso-1-cytochrome c

Cyclic voltammetry experiments were carried out on native Saccharomyces cerevisiae iso-1-cytochrome c and its C102T/N62C variant immobilized on bare polycrystalline gold electrode through the S-Au bond formed by a surface cysteine. Experiments were carried out at different temperatures (5-65 degrees C) and pH values (1.5-7). The E degrees ' value at pH 7 (+370 mV vs SHE) is approximately 100 mV higher than that for the protein in solution. This difference is enthalpic in origin and is proposed to be the result of the electrostatic repulsion among the densely packed molecules onto the electrode surface. Two additional electrochemical waves are observed upon lowering the pH below 5 (E degrees ' = +182 mV) and 3 (E degrees ' = +71 mV), which are attributed to two conformers (referred to as "intermediate" and "acidic", respectively) featuring an altered heme axial ligation. This is the first determination of the reduction potential for low-pH conformers of cytochrome c in the absence of denaturants. Since the native form of cytochrome c can be restored, bringing back the pH to neutrality, the possibility offered by this transition to reversibly modulate the redox potential of cytochrome c is appealing for bioelectronic applications. The immobilized C102T/N62C variant, which differs from the native protein in the orientation of the heme group with respect to the electrode, shows very similar reduction thermodynamics. For both species, the rate constant for electron transfer between the heme and the electrode increases for the acidic conformer, which is also found to act as a biocatalytic interface for dioxygen reduction.     

Chemical and physical analysis for the improvement of the dry mounting method for fragile documents

Paper lamination is a widely used method to consolidate fragile documents. Previous studies have presented a new method of lamination that allows the consolidation of documents before undertaking aqueous treatments. In this method a thin Japanese paper coated with an acrylic resin is applied on the fragile document by means of a heated press. In this work we optimised the preparation of the lamination sheets as well as the working procedures, and we were able to establish that our laboratory-made specimens are chemically stable, easily reversible and permeable to aqueous solutions. The latest property is of particular importance, since it allows a subsequent aqueous deacidification even for fragile documents. The laminated paper documents were further analysed by means of colorimetry and FTIR spectroscopy before and after accelerated ageing as well as by determination of the alkali reserve left on the coated paper, in order to compare our lamination method with other commercially available lamination sheets.