Carbon and nitrogen distribution in the sediments of lagoon of Ravenna (Italy)

The distribution and the origin of carbon and nitrogen in sediments of an Italian lagoon--located north-east of Ravenna town--were investigated. From 1957 to 1976, the lagoon had been affected by a strong industrial pollution due to an important petrochemical complex. At present, industrial and domestic waste waters undergo a treatment process before being discharged into the lagoon. Sediment samples from 10 locations throughout the lagoon were analysed, in order to document the spatial and vertical distribution of C and N. Data show a very strong variability (organic carbon content varies between 8.9% and 0.14%) and the highest values were found in the immediate vicinity of the industrial discharge. Sediment organic matter shows allochthonous origin in proximity of industrial discharge and autochthonous origin in the remaining areas.     

Ferrocenoyl glycylcystamine: organization into a supramolecular helicate structure

Extensive intermolecular hydrogen bonding in ferrocenoyl glycylcystamine gives rise to a novel ordered double helical arrangement with a helical pitch height of 14 A.     

Neural markers of a greater female responsiveness to social stimuli

Background  

There is fMRI evidence that women are neurally predisposed to process infant laughter and crying. Other findings show that women might be more empathic and sensitive than men to emotional facial expressions. However, no gender difference in the brain responses to persons and unanimated scenes has hitherto been demonstrated.     

On row-cyclic codes with algebraic structure

In this article, some row-cyclic error-correcting codes are shown to be ideals in group rings in which the underlying group is metacyclic. For a given underlying group, several nonequivalent codes with this structure may be generated. Each is related to a cyclic code generated in response, to the metrics associated with the underlying metacyclic group. Such codes in the same group ring are isomorphic as vector spaces but may vary greatly in weight distributions and so are nonequivalent. If the associated cyclic code is irreducible, examining the structure of its isomorphic finite field yields all nonequivalent codes with the desired structure. Several such codes have been found to have minimum distances equalling those of the best known linear codes of the same length and dimension.This work was presented in part at the First International Conference on Finite Fields, Coding Theory, and Advances in Communications and Computing, Las Vegas, Nevada, August, 1991.     

Stereoselective iodocyclization of 3-acylamino-2-methylene alkanoates: synthesis of analogues of N-benzoyl-syn-phenylisoserine

[reaction: see text] A convenient approach to racemic analogues of N-benzoyl-syn-phenylisoserine was realized via the stereoselective iodocyclization of amides obtained from Baylis-Hillman adducts.     

Quantification of arecoline (areca nut alkaloid) in neonatal biological matrices by high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray quadrupole mass spectrometry

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with mass spectrometric detection is described for determination of arecoline in newborn meconium, urine and cord serum, using pilocarpine as internal standard. The analytes were extracted from neonatal biological matrices with chloroform/isopropanol (95:5, v/v) at alkaline pH. Extracts were analyzed by HPLC coupled to an electrospray (ESI) interface and a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Chromatography was performed on a C(8) reversed-phase column using 10 mM ammonium acetate (pH 4.3)/acetonitrile (90:10, v/v) as mobile phase. The mass spectrometer was operated in selected ion monitoring mode. The method was validated over the concentration range 0.005-1.00 micro g/g meconium, 0.004-1.00 micro g/mL cord serum and 0.001-1.00 micro /mL urine. Mean recoveries ranged between 86.5 and 90.7% for arecoline in the different biological matrices, with precision always better than 10%. The quantification limits of arecoline were 0.005 micro g/g meconium, 0.004 micro g/mL cord serum, and 0.001 micro g/mL urine. The method was applied to the analysis of neonatal biological matrices to assess eventual fetal exposition to arecoline. Two newborns from Asian mothers who declared areca nut consumption presented arecoline in meconium with concentrations in the range 0.006-0.008 micro g/g; also the urine from one neonate tested positive for the drug.