Nanoproteomic Approach for Isolation and Identification of Potential Biomarkers in Human Urine from Adults with Normal Weight,Overweight and Obesity

In this work, previously synthesized and characterized core-shell silica nanoparticles (FCSNP) functionalized with immobilized molecular bait, Cibacron blue, and a porous polymeric bis-acrylamide shell were incubated with pooled urine samples from adult women or men with normal weight, overweight or obesity for the isolation of potential biomarkers. A total of 30 individuals (15 woman and 15 men) were included. FCSNP allowed the capture of a variety of low molecular weight (LMW) proteins as evidenced by mass spectrometry (MS) and the exclusion of high molecular weight (HMW) proteins (>34 kDa) as demonstrated by SDS-PAGE and 2D SDS-PAGE. A total of 36 proteins were successfully identified by MS and homology database searching against the Homo sapiens subset of the Swiss-Prot database. Identified proteins were grouped into different clusters according to their abundance patterns. Four proteins were found only in women and five only in men, whereas 27 proteins were in urine from both genders with different abundance patterns. Based on these results, this new approach represents an alternative tool for isolation and identification of urinary biomarkers.     

Spin polarisation in dual catalysts for the oxygen evolution and reduction reactions

Strongly correlated catalysts can be understood from precise quantum approximations. Incorporating properly electronic correlations thus let’s define Spin rules in catalysis, opening a new door towards optimum compositions for the most important reactions for a sustainable future.     

Probing the Catalytically Active Species in POM-Catalysed DNA-Model Hydrolysis**

Phosphoester hydrolysis is an important chemical step in DNA repair. One archetypal molecular model of phosphoesters is para-nitrophenylphosphate (pNPP). It has been shown previously that the presence of molecular metal oxide [Mo₇O₂₄]⁶⁻ may catalyse the hydrolysis of pNPP through the partial decomposition of polyoxomolybdate framework resulting in a [(PO₄)₂Mo₅O₁₅]⁶⁻ product. Real-time monitoring of the catalytic system using electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) provided a glance into the species present in the reaction mixture and identification of potential catalytic candidates. Following up on the obtained spectrometric data, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to characterise the hypothetical intermediate [Mo₅O₁₅(pNPP)₂(H₂O)₆]⁶⁻ that would be required to form under the hypothesised transformation. Surprisingly, our results point to the dimeric [Mo₂O₈]⁴⁻ anion resulting from the decomposition of [Mo₇O₂₄]⁶⁻ as the active catalytic species involved in the hydrolysis of pNPP rather than the originally assumed {Mo₅O₁₅} species. A similar study was carried out involving the same species but substituting Mo by W. The mechanism involving W species showed a higher barrier and less stable products in agreement with the non-catalytic effect found in experimental results.     

A Note on the Subcritical Two Dimensional Keller-Segel System

The existence of solution for the 2D-Keller-Segel system in the subcritical case, i.e. when the initial mass is less than 8π, is reproved. Instead of using the entropy in the free energy and free energy dissipation, which was used in the proofs (Blanchet et al. in SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 46:691–721, 2008; Electron. J. Differ. Equ. Conf. 44:32, 2006 (electronic)), the potential energy term is fully utilized by adapting Delort’s theory on 2D incompressible Euler equation (Delort in J. Am. Math. Soc. 4:553–386, 1991).     

Is the US stock market becoming weakly efficient over time? Evidence from 80-year-long data

We propose a degree of market efficiency in terms of entropy concepts. The relative efficiency for the US stock market varies over time from 1929 to 2012, with a slight decline in the past 10 years.     

Metal Oxide Assisted Preparation of Core–Shell Beads with Dense Metal–Organic Framework Coatings for the Enhanced Extraction of Organic Pollutants

Dense and homogeneous metal–organic framework (MOF) coatings on functional bead surfaces are easily prepared by using intermediate sacrificial metal oxide coatings containing the metal precursor of the MOF. Polystyrene (PS) beads are coated with a ZnO layer to give ZnO@PS core–shell beads. The ZnO@PS beads are reactive in the presence of 2‐methylimidazole to transform part of the ZnO coating into a porous zeolitic imidazolate framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) external shell positioned above the internal ZnO precursor shell. The obtained ZIF‐8@ZnO@PS beads can be easily packed in column format for flow‐through applications, such as the solid‐phase extraction of trace priority‐listed environmental pollutants. The prepared material shows an excellent permeance to flow when packed as a column to give high enrichment factors, facile regeneration, and excellent reusability for the extraction of the pollutant bisphenol A. It also shows an outstanding performance for the simultaneous enrichment of mixtures of endocrine disrupting chemicals (bisphenol A, 4‐tert‐octylphenol and 4‐n‐nonylphenol), facilitating their analysis when present at very low levels (<1 μg L^?1) in drinking waters. For the extraction of the pollutant bisphenol A, the prepared ZIF‐8@ZnO@PS beads also show a superior extraction and preconcentration capacity to that of the PS beads used as precursors and the composite materials obtained by the direct growth of ZIF‐8 on the surface of the PS beads in the absence of metal oxide intermediate coatings.