Rare earth elements determined in Antarctic ice by inductively coupled plasma--time of flight, quadrupole and sector field-mass spectrometry: An inter-comparison study

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a suitable tool for multi-element analysis at low concentration levels. Rare earth element (REE) determinations in standard reference materials and small volumes of molten ice core samples from Antarctica have been performed with an ICP-time of flight-MS (ICP-TOF-MS) system. Recovery rates for REE in e.g. SPS-SW1 amounted to ∼103%, and the relative standard deviations were 3.4% for replicate analysis at REE concentrations in the lower ng L⁻¹ range. Analyses of REE concentrations in Antarctic ice core samples showed that the ICP-TOF-MS technique meets the demands of restricted sample mass. The data obtained are in good agreement with ICP-Quadrupole-MS (ICP-Q-MS) and ICP-Sector Field-MS (ICP-SF-MS) results. The ICP-TOF-MS system determines accurately and precisely REE concentrations exceeding 5 ng L⁻¹ while between 0.5 and 5 ng L⁻¹ accuracy and precision are element dependent.     

Spatio-temporal anomalous diffusion in heterogeneous media by nuclear magnetic resonance

In this paper, we describe nuclear magnetic resonance measurements of water diffusion in highly confined and heterogeneous colloidal systems using an anomalous diffusion model. For the first time, temporal and spatial fractional exponents, α and μ, introduced within the framework of continuous time random walk, are simultaneously measured by pulsed gradient spin-echo NMR technique in samples of micro-beads dispersed in aqueous solution. In order to mimic media with low and high level of disorder, mono-dispersed and poly-dispersed samples are used. We find that the exponent α depends on the disorder degree of the system. Conversely, the exponent μ depends on both bead sizes and magnetic susceptibility differences within samples. The new procedure proposed here may be a useful tool to probe porous materials and microstructural features of biological tissue.     

Alkoxyamine-cyanoborane adducts: efficient cyanoborane transfer agents

We report the synthesis of the hitherto unknown zwitterionic alkoxyamino cyanoboranes by reduction of O-alkyloximes with sodium cyanoborohydride; unprecedented cyanoboronated N-alkoxyformamidines were also isolated as by-products. Boronated alkoxyamines were found to be efficient cyanoborane transfer agents towards more basic amines, including aminosugars; they were also successfully transformed into neoglycoconjugates by the neoglycorandomization reaction with reducing sugars.     

Langmuir–Blodgett films of pyridinium-dicyanomethanide dyes mixtures with photobleachable absorption bands

We report on Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films characterization of 4-[5-dicyanomethanido)thien-2-y1]-N-(n-hexadecyl)pyridinium (C₁₆H₃₃-PDCNT), and 1-(N-(n-hexadecy]-4-pyridinio)-2-[5-(dicyanomethanido)thien-2-yl]ethene (C₁₆H₃₃-PDCNTE); LB films of the pure compounds and of the mixtures of the two compounds were prepared at 291 K: UV-vis investigation revealed the presence of photobleachable absorption bands, the ones at about 530 nm and 640 nm were due to charge transfer transitions of the monomer of C16H33-PDCNT and C₁₆H₃₃-PDCNTE, respectively; the sharp, photobleachable ones shifted to shorter wavelengths were due to H-aggregates of the two compounds. By changing the molar ratios of the two compounds in the mixtures and in other cases by annealing the LB films, the absorption maxima of the sharp, photobleachable bands due to H-aggregates could be tuned in the range 415–467 nm. These LB films are thus very promising in view of optical data storage applications.     

Mechanical measurement of the parameters in a pseudo-stationary ultrasonic field in liquids

After recalling the formulae relating the energy density of a progressive wave with the sonic field parameters, the problem of deducing these parameters in a pseudo-stationary field is discussed. This field is produced in a ‘fixed force interferometer’ by two torsion balances; it is shown how to deduce from the radiation pressure, measured simultaneously at transducer and at reflector, the local pressure and velocity amplitudes, discussing the errors involved in treating pseudo-stationary fields as purely stationary.     

Monolayers of stearic acid esters at the air-water interface: two-dimensional phases and miscibility

Monolayers of three stearic acid esters, methyl-stearate, propyl-stearate and butyl-stearate, were studied at the air-water interface in the 15–35 °C temperature range.To investigate the surface phases of these esters spread at the air-water interface, some state equations were fitted with the experimental data taken from the isotherms.Surface potential measurements were carried out to obtain information on the molecular orientation. The interfacial orientation and distribution was discussed in relationship to the surface phases present.Ellipsometric measurements were made to determine the thicknesses.The two-dimensional miscibility for the mixture methyl-stearate/butyl-stearate was also studied: surface free energies, enthalpies, and entropies of mixing were computed. The results obtained confirmed previous deductions about the role of the hydrophobic chains in determining the two-dimensional miscibility when they have the same interfacial orientation.     

Comparative modeling: the state of the art and protein drug target structure prediction

The goal of computational protein structure prediction is to provide three-dimensional (3D) structures with resolution comparable to experimental results. Comparative modeling, which predicts the 3D structure of a protein based on its sequence similarity to homologous structures, is the most accurate computational method for structure prediction. In the last two decades, significant progress has been made on comparative modeling methods. Using the large number of protein structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank (~65,000), automatic prediction pipelines are generating a tremendous number of models (~1.9 million) for sequences whose structures have not been experimentally determined. Accurate models are suitable for a wide range of applications, such as prediction of protein binding sites, prediction of the effect of protein mutations, and structure-guided virtual screening. In particular, comparative modeling has enabled structure-based drug design against protein targets with unknown structures. In this review, we describe the theoretical basis of comparative modeling, the available automatic methods and databases, and the algorithms to evaluate the accuracy of predicted structures. Finally, we discuss relevant applications in the prediction of important drug target proteins, focusing on the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) and protein kinase families.     

Einzelschichten aus Gemischen von Polymethylmethacrylat und Polyäthylmethacrylat bei verschiedenen Temperaturen

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