Lipid Peroxidation in Algae Oil: Antagonist Effects of Natural Antioxidants

Tandem mass spectrometry is proposed to check lipid oxidation, a free radical-mediated phenomenon which effects oxidative deterioration in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Antioxidants are used by the food industry to delay the oxidation process. This process can be controlled by antioxidants, which may occur as natural constituents of foods or may be intentionally added to products. Synthetic antioxidants such as BHT, BHA, and propyl gallate have been extensively used as antioxidants in the industry. The worldwide tendency to avoid or minimize the use of synthetic food additives has prompted the replacement of synthetic antioxidants with natural analogues. The entire process can be supported by the detection and characterization of the reacting species by suitable application of electrospray tandem mass spectrometry under collision-induced dissociation (ESI-CID-MS/MS). Natural antioxidants were tested in this study to check the oxidative stability of algae oil when adding the natural additive. Results were observed in algae oil in situ using electrospray mass spectrometry in tandem with collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-CID-MS/MS) and the POBN spin trapper. The results indicate that alpha-tocopherol is a better antioxidant.     

Molecular insights into azumamide e histone deacetylases inhibitory activity

Azumamide E, a cyclotetrapeptide isolated from the sponge Mycale izuensis, is the most powerful carboxylic acid containing natural histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor known to date. In this paper, we describe design and synthesis of two stereochemical variants of the natural product. These compounds have allowed us to clarify the influence of side chain topology on the HDAC-inhibitory activity. The present contribution also reveals the identity of the recognition pattern between azumamides and the histone deacetylase-like protein (HDLP) model receptor and reports the azumamide E unprecedented isoform selectivity on histone deacetylases class subtypes. From the present studies, a plausible model for the interaction of azumamides with the receptor binding pocket is derived, providing a framework for the rational design of new cyclotetrapeptide-based HDAC inhibitors as antitumor agents.     

Heavy-flavour spectra in high-energy nucleus–nucleus collisions

The propagation of the heavy quarks produced in relativistic nucleus–nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC is studied within the framework of Langevin dynamics in the background of an expanding deconfined medium described by ideal and viscous hydrodynamics. The transport coefficients entering into the relativistic Langevin equation are evaluated by matching the hard-thermal-loop result for soft collisions with a perturbative QCD calculation for hard scatterings. The heavy-quark spectra thus obtained are employed to compute the differential cross sections, the nuclear modification factors R _AA and the elliptic-flow coefficients v ₂ of electrons from heavy-flavor decay.     

New high-performance cryofocalizer injector for in-tube solid-phase microextraction and headspace capillary gas chromatographic applications

The construction of a high-efficiency but cheap injector for volatile and very volatile compounds is shown. The device focuses the compounds in a fused-silica (FS) transfer capillary with the aid of liquid nitrogen. A 6.2 mm O.D. glass tube liner (ca. 25 cm x 1.5 mm I.D.) is inserted in the heated (-200 degrees C) injector of the gas chromatograph in place of the standard glass liner, and extends further externally through a liquid nitrogen container made with styrofoam-like material. Inside this glass tube, the FS transfer line passing through the oven door is connected like a pre-column to the analytical high-resolution GC column. It can move fast between the heated and the cooled zone (<-->, deltaL = 13 cm), and when this movement starts, crvofocused analytes are injected "at once" resulting in symmetrical and sharp injection bands with "zero" carryover. The performance of this device is demonstrated by its application to in-tube solid-phase microextraction and to spice volatiles analysis.     

Symmetrical (double-speed) static coating for high-resolution gas chromatography column preparation

"Breakthrough" during static coating could be avoided using a new coating strategy: while filling the capillary support with coating solution, a short mercury plug was placed at the middle of the support length. Mercury was frozen by a cold source and vacuum was applied to both open ends. In this way static coating became symmetric and so evaporation rate was doubled, on a time base, and more than doubled on a coated length base. Coating time at room temperature varied from approximately 20 min for 3-m columns to approximately 3 h for 15-m columns.     

Recurrence properties of sequences of integers

In order to study the recurrence of sequences of integers, we investigate their L2-exactness and Θ-Hartman property (Θ being a set of rational numbers). Two classes of sequences of integers are well studied, which are return times relative to a weakly mixing system and Bernoulli random sequences.