Polymeric complements to the Alzheimer's disease biomarker β-amyloid isoforms Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 for blood serum analysis under denaturing conditions

Treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is plagued by a lack of practical and reliable methods allowing early diagnosis of the disease. We here demonstrate that robust receptors prepared by molecular imprinting successfully address current limitations of biologically derived receptors in displaying affinity for hydrophobic peptide biomarkers for AD under denaturing conditions. C-terminal epitope-imprinted polymers showing enhanced binding affinity for Aβ1-42 were first identified from a 96-polymer combinatorial library. This information was then used to synthesize molecularly imprinted polymers for both of the β-amyloid (Aβ) isoforms and a corresponding nonimprinted polymer. A solid-phase extraction method was developed to be compatible with sample loading under conditions of complete protein denaturation. This resulted in a method capable of quantitatively and selectively enriching a shorter C-terminal peptide corresponding to the sequences Aβ33-40 and Aβ33-42 as well as the full-length sequence Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 from a 4 M guanidinum chloride solution. Application of the method to serum allowed selective, high-recovery extraction of both biomarkers at spiking levels marginally higher than clinically relevant concentrations found in cerebrospinal fluid.     

Instanton effects in supersymmetric gauge theories

We investigate how in supersymmetric gauge theories non-perturbative effects are able to generate non-trivial vacuum properties otherwise forbidden by perturbative non-renormalization theorems. This conclusion can be reliably drawn since the constancy of certain Green functions — due to supersymmetry (SUSY) — allows one to connect vacuum-dominated large distances with short-distance behaviour which is reliably computed by instanton methods. In all the cases we discuss (without matter, with massive or massless matter in real representations and, finally, with matter in complex representations) instanton calculations imply the occurrence of a variety of condensates. For the pure SUSY gauge theory, a gluino condensate induces the spontaneous breaking of Z_2N. For massive super-quantum chromodynamics (SQCD) we find a peculiar mass dependence of matter condensates whose origin is traced to mass singularities of non-zero mode instanton contributions. These contributions force the massless limit of SQCD to differ from the strictly massless case, in which the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetries is induced. Inconsistency with an anomaly equation forces either infinite matter condensates or spontaneous SUSY breaking in the massless cases. For non-constant Green functions, instantons are shown to provide new calculable short-distance singularities of an obvious non-perturbative nature.     

Modular retractions of numerical semigroups

Let S be a numerical semigroup, let m be a nonzero element of S, and let a be a nonnegative integer. We denote ${\rm R}(S,a,m) = \{ s-as \bmod m \mid s \in S \}$ (where asmodm is the remainder of the division of as by m). In this paper we characterize the pairs (a,m) such that ${\rm R}(S,a,m)$ is a numerical semigroup. In this way, if we have a pair (a,m) with such characteristics, then we can reduce the problem of computing the genus of S=〈n ₁,…,n _p 〉 to computing the genus of a “smaller” numerical semigroup 〈n ₁?an ₁modm,…,n _p ?an _p modm〉. This reduction is also useful for estimating other important invariants of S such as the Frobenius number and the type.     

Gold-ligand interaction studies of water-soluble aminoalcohol capped gold nanoparticles by NMR

Novel reproducible preparations of gold nanoparticles capped by aminoalcohols have been set up by reduction of HAuCl4 with NaBH4 in aqueous solution. The characterization of Au@aminoalcohol nanoparticles performed by 1H NMR, ATR-FTIR, UV-vis spectroscopies, and TEM microscopy highlighted the binding site and the nature of the Au-NH bond.     

Photoinduced Energy- and Electron-Transfer Processes in a Side-to-Face RuII-Porphyrin/Perylene-bisimide Array

A side-to-face array DPy-gPBI[Ru(4-tBuTPP)(CO)]₂, based on a “green” perylene bisimide chromophore sandwiched between two Ru^II-porphyrins, has been prepared by self-assembly. Its photophysical properties have been characterized in detail by a combination of steady-state and time-resolved techniques upon selective excitation of the two different components. Different photoinduced processes are observed as a function of the excitation wavelength. Electron transfer quenching is attained upon “red light” excitation of the perylene unit, whilst an energy transfer pathway is followed upon “green light” excitation of the metallo-porphyrin moiety. Regardless of the excitation wavelength efficient population of the triplet excited state of the perylene chromophore is achieved. The photophysical results are discussed within the framework of classical electron transfer theory and compared with those of a previously reported system.     

Hybrid iodoperfluoroalkane-ferrocene supramolecular arrays: the shortest contacts iodine forms with nitrogen atoms and unsaturated moieties

α,ω-Diiodoperfluoralkanes self-assemble in solution and in the solid phase with (S)-(−)-N,N-dimethyl-1-ferrocenylethylamine. The formed adducts have been characterized by DSC, IR, Raman, and NMR techniques. Single crystal X-ray analysis of one of the obtained adducts shows that perfluorinated and organometallic modules alternate giving rise to infinite one-dimensional (1D) chains. The interacting modules are connected through strong n-type halogen bondings, involving nitrogen and iodine atoms, and weak π-type halogen bondings, involving Cp rings and iodine atoms. Both interactions are the shortest reported to now in their respective classes. Theoretical calculations have been performed to quantify the observed π-type halogen bonding. For the first time a metallocene-perfluorocarbon (PFC) hybrid material is described.     

Frobenius pseudo-varieties in numerical semigroups

Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata (1923 -) - The common behavior of several families of numerical semigroups led up to defining the Frobenius varieties. However, some interesting families were...