Ultra performance liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry studies of formalin‐induced alterations of human brain lipidome

The development of ‘omics’ sciences offers new opportunities for the study of neurodegenerative diseases but increases at the same time the sample demand on brain banks that collect and store valuable human post‐mortem tissue. Our study aims to evaluate in lipidomics the potential of formalin‐fixed tissue compared with the cryopreservation method, considered as the gold standard for biochemical research. Two complementary liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry analytical platforms were used on the basis of hybrid quadrupole time‐of‐flight and triple quadrupole mass spectrometers. Untargeted fingerprinting, semitargeted profiling of specific lipid classes and targeted monitoring of lipid species were performed in formalin‐fixed and cryopreserved samples to provide detailed information at the molecular level on the formalin‐induced alterations of the brain tissue. In vitro incubations of lipid standards were also performed to further describe the degradation processes induced by formaldehyde. Phospholipid compounds were found to be extensively hydrolysed, whilst the sphingolipid ones were preserved. N‐methylation and N‐formylation of amine‐containing phospholipids have also been evidenced. These findings show that the potential detrimental effect of formalin on the analytes of interest must be taken into account when analysing formalin‐fixed samples. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Central limit theorems for realized volatility under hitting times of an irregular grid

We consider a continuous semi-martingale sampled at hitting times of an irregular grid. The goal of this work is to analyze the asymptotic behavior of the realized volatility under this rather natural observation scheme. This framework strongly differs from the well understood situations when the sampling times are deterministic or when the grid is regular. Indeed, neither Gaussian approximations nor symmetry properties can be used. In this setting, as the distance between two consecutive barriers tends to zero, we establish central limit theorems for the normalized error of the realized volatility. In particular, we show that there is no bias in the limiting process.     

In Situ Correlations Between Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) and Pah Metabolizing System Activities in Mussels and Fish in the Mediterranean Sea: Preliminary Results

Abstract

Biochemical indices based on enzymatic activities have been determined in fish and mussels sampled in various different coastal locations in the Mediterranean Sea. Preliminary results show a good agreement between biochemical measurements in marine organisms and chemical analyses of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons present in sediments. The results obtained suggest the use of biochemical indices for application in chemical contaminant biomonitoring.     

Hydrogen Migration and Reductive Elimination of Alkyne in Fe(CO)4 P(tBu) (C °CPh)H Induced by the Action of Co2 (CO)8

Abstract

One of the possible ways of getting phosphacumulene complexes could be the complexation of phosphinoalkynes, which might induce the migration of hydrogen from phosphorus to the β carbon of the alkynyl group.     

[HFe(CO)4 – A Versatile Reagent toward Dichlorophosphines,Phosphenium Salts,Phospha-alkenes and Diphosphenes

Abstract

A new entry to non classical phosphorus complexes is reported.     

Semi-classical limit of the Levy–Lieb functional in Density Functional Theory

In a recent work, Bindini and De Pascale have introduced a regularization of N-particle symmetric probabilities that preserves their one-particle marginals. In this short note, we extend their construction to mixed quantum fermionic states. This enables us to prove the convergence of the Levy–Lieb functional in Density Functional Theory, to the corresponding multi-marginal optimal transport in the semi-classical limit. Our result holds for mixed states of any particle number N, with or without spin.