Phytotoxic metabolites by nine species of Botryosphaeriaceae involved in grapevine dieback in Australia and identification of those produced by Diplodia mutila,Diplodia seriata,Neofusicoccum australe and Neofusicoccum luteum

Botryosphaeria dieback is one of the main trunk diseases of grapevine caused by several species of Botryosphaeriaceae. Twenty-four fungal isolates representing the eight most widespread and most virulent Botryosphaeriaceae were tested for their ability to produce phytotoxic metabolites. The chromatographic profiles of their culture filtrates organic extracts showed the ability of all isolates to produce several and different metabolites. When tested on grapevine leaves and tomato cuttings the organic extracts phytotoxicity varied among isolates and species. To our knowledge, this is the first study on phytotoxic compounds produced by Botryosphaeriaceae species found in Australian vineyards. The phytotoxic metabolites produced by Diplodia seriata, Diplodia mutila, Neofusicoccum australe and, for the first time, by Neofusicoccum luteum were isolated and chemically identified essentially by spectroscopic methods.

     

Methods for analysis of conjugated linoleic acids and trans-18:1 isomers in dairy fats by using a combination of gas chromatography, silver-ion thin-layer chromatography/gas chromatography, and silver-ion liquid chromatography

Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) are octadecadienoic acids (18:2) that have a conjugated double-bond system. Interest in these compounds has expanded since CLA were found to be associated with a number of physiological and pathological responses such as cancer, metastases, atherosclerosis, diabetes, immunity, and body fat/protein composition. The main sources of these conjugated fatty acids are dairy fats. Rumen bacteria convert polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially linoleic and linolenic acids, to CLA and numerous trans- containing mono- and diunsaturated fatty acids. It has been established that an additional route of CLA synthesis in ruminants and monogastric animals, including humans, occurs via delta9 desaturation of the trans-18:1 isomers. To date, a total of 6 positional CLA isomers have been found in dairy fats, each occurring in 4 geometric forms (cis,trans; trans,cis; cis,cis; and trans,trans) for a total of 24. All of these CLA isomers can be resolved only by a combination of gas chromatography (GC), using 100 m highly polar capillary columns, and silver-ion liquid chromatography, using 3 of these 25 cm columns in series. Complete analysis of all the trans-18:1 isomers requires prior isolation of trans monoenes by silver-ion thin-layer chromatography (TLC), followed by GC analysis using the same 100 m capillary columns operated at low temperatures starting from 120 degrees C. These analytical techniques are required to assess the purity of commercial CLA preparations, because their purity will affect the interpretation of any physiological and/or biochemical response obtained. Prior assessment of CLA preparations by TLC is also recommended to determine the presence of any other impurities. The availability of pure CLA isomers will permit the evaluation and analysis of individual CLA isomers for their nutritional and biological activity in model systems, animals, and humans. These techniques are also essential to evaluate dairy fats for their content of specific CLA isomers and to help design experimental diets to increase the level of the desired CLA isomers in dairy fats. These improved techniques are further required to evaluate the CLA profile in monogastric animals fed commercial CLA preparations for CLA enrichment of animal products. This is particularly important because absorption and metabolism will alter the ingested-CLA profile in the animal fed.     

Theoretical studies on the geometric and electronic structure of substituted SCN isomers: Part 1. Non-empirical and MNDO results for some thiocyanates

Some well known thiocyanates have been studied by non-empirical and MNDO methods. The reliability of the adopted basis set and the unimportance of d orbitals on sulfur in describing thiocyanates have been tested on the HSCN molecule.The geometrical parameters computed at the STO—3G level are in good agreement with experimental data and indicate that thiocyanates are w shaped molecules with a high bending constant around the sulfur atom and quite important coupling between CSC and SCN angles.The MNDO method gives similar results, except for CS bond lengths, which are systematically underestimated.The correlation between geometry and electronic structure of thiocyanates is discussed, with special reference to cyanates, on the basis of PMO theory, Walsh diagrams and Mulliken population analysis.     

Nonlinear transmission in fibres at 308 nm

Intensity-induced variations in the energy transmittivity and temporal shape of pulses emerging from a 200-m-diameter core silica fibre have been investigated with a single-pulse XeCl laser. By coupling an XeCl laser pulse of 3mJ with a temporal width of 20 ns into a 30-m-long all-silica fibre, a total laser pulse of 1 mJ and 3 ns duration has been extracted at the fibre end. A pulse shortening larger than 80% has been observed. It is shown that the shape variations in the transmitted laser pulses are mainly due to stimulated Raman scattering processes. Substantial shape variations have been observed even at energy conversion efficiencies to the Stokes radiation of lower than 10%. The drop in energy transmittivity at higher fluences seems mainly due to two-photon absorption processes.     

Validation of a new HPLC‐UV method for determination of the antibiotic linezolid in human plasma and in bronchoalveolar lavage

A rapid and selective HPLC‐UV method was developed for the quantification of linezolid (LNZ) in human plasma and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) at the concentrations associated with therapy. Plasma samples were extracted by solid‐phase extraction followed by evaporation to dryness and reconstitution in mobile phase solution. The chromatographic separation was carried out on a C₁₈ column with an isocratic mobile phase consisting of dihydrogen phosphate buffer 50 mm (pH 3.5) and acetonitrile (60:40 v/v). The detection was performed using a photodiode array. Under these conditions, a single chromatographic run could be completed within 12 min. The method was validated by estimating the precision and the accuracy for inter‐ and intra‐day analysis in the concentration range of 25–25600 ng/mL. The method was linear over the investigated range with all the correlation coefficients R > 0.999. The intra‐ and inter‐day precision was within 8.90% and the accuracy ranged from ?4.76 to +5.20%. This rapid and sensitive method was fully validated and could be applied to pharmacokinetic study for the determination of LNZ levels in human plasma and BAL samples. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mg based photocathodes for high brightness RF photoinjectors

Advanced high brightness radio frequency (RF) gun injectors require photocathodes with a fast response, high quantum efficiency (QE) and good surface uniformity. Metal films deposited by various techniques on the gun back wall could satisfy these requirements. A new deposition technique has been recently proposed, i.e. pulsed laser ablation. Several Mg samples have been deposited by this technique: the emission performance and morphological changes induced on the cathode surface during laser activation are compared and discussed.     

Parallel solution in time of ODEs: some achievements and perspectives

The parallel solution of initial value problems for ordinary differential equations (ODE-IVPs) has received much interest from many researchers in the past years. In general, the possibility of using parallel computing in this setting concerns different aspects of the numerical solution of ODEs, depending on the parallel platform to be used and/or the complexity of the problem to be solved. In particular, in this paper we examine possible extensions of a parallel method previously proposed in the mid-nineties [P. Amodio, L. Brugnano, Parallel implementation of block boundary value methods for ODEs, J. Comput. Appl. Math. 78 (1997) 197–211; P. Amodio, L. Brugnano, Parallel ODE solvers based on block BVMs, Adv. Comput. Math. 7 (1997) 5–26], and analyze its connections with subsequent approaches to the parallel solution of ODE-IVPs, in particular the “Parareal” algorithm proposed in [J.L. Lions, Y. Maday, G. Turinici, Résolution d'EDP par un schéma en temps “pararéel”, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 332 (2001) 661–668; Y. Maday, G. Turinici, A parareal in time procedure for the control of partial differential equations, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 335 (2002) 387–392].     

Preconditioning techniques for the iterative solution of scattering problems

We consider a time-harmonic electromagnetic scattering problem for an inhomogeneous medium. Some symmetry hypotheses on the refractive index of the medium and on the electromagnetic fields allow to reduce this problem to a two-dimensional scattering problem. This boundary value problem is defined on an unbounded domain, so its numerical solution cannot be obtained by a straightforward application of usual methods, such as for example finite difference methods, and finite element methods. A possible way to overcome this difficulty is given by an equivalent integral formulation of this problem, where the scattered field can be computed from the solution of a Fredholm integral equation of second kind. The numerical approximation of this problem usually produces large dense linear systems. We consider usual iterative methods for the solution of such linear systems, and we study some preconditioning techniques to improve the efficiency of these methods. We show some numerical results obtained with two well known Krylov subspace methods, i.e., Bi-CGSTAB and GMRES.     

Long-time behavior for the full one-dimensional Frémond model for shape memory alloys

This note deals with a well-posed one-dimensional initial-boundary value problem related to the Frémond thermomechanical model of structural phase transitions in shape memory materials. The long-time behavior is investigated and it is proved that the limit set in a suitable topology only contains stationary states. Received July 06, 2000