The Polarised Valence Quark Distribution from semi-inclusive DIS

The semi-inclusive difference asymmetry A^{h^{+}-h^{-}} for hadrons of opposite charge has been measured by the COMPASS experiment at CERN. The data were collected in the years 2002-2004 using a 160 GeV polarised muon beam scattered off a large polarised ^6LiD target and cover the range 0.006 < x < 0.7 and 1 < Q^2 < 100 (GeV/c)^2. In leading order QCD (LO) the asymmetry A_d^{h^{+}-h^{-}} measures the valence quark polarisation and provides an evaluation of the first moment of Delta u_v + Delta d_v which is found to be equal to 0.40 +- 0.07 (stat.) +- 0.05 (syst.) over the measured range of x at Q^2 = 10 (GeV/c)^2. When combined with the first moment of g_1^d previously measured on the same data, this result favours a non-symmetric polarisation of light quarks Delta u-bar = - Delta d-bar at a confidence level of two standard deviations, in contrast to the often assumed symmetric scenario Delta u-bar = Delta d-bar = Delta s-bar = Delta s.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, COMPASS, revised: details added, author list update

Carbon Dioxide Utilisation -The Formate Route

UIDB/50006/2020 CEEC-Individual 2017 Program Contract.The relentless rise of atmospheric CO2 is causing large and unpredictable impacts on the Earth climate, due to the CO2 significant greenhouse effect, besides being responsible for the ocean acidification, with consequent huge impacts in our daily lives and in all forms of life. To stop spiral of destruction, we must actively reduce the CO2 emissions and develop new and more efficient “CO2 sinks”. We should be focused on the opportunities provided by exploiting this novel and huge carbon feedstock to produce de novo fuels and added-value compounds. The conversion of CO2 into formate offers key advantages for carbon recycling, and formate dehydrogenase (FDH) enzymes are at the centre of intense research, due to the “green” advantages the bioconversion can offer, namely substrate and product selectivity and specificity, in reactions run at ambient temperature and pressure and neutral pH. In this chapter, we describe the remarkable recent progress towards efficient and selective FDH-catalysed CO2 reduction to formate. We focus on the enzymes, discussing their structure and mechanism of action. Selected promising studies and successful proof of concepts of FDH-dependent CO2 reduction to formate and beyond are discussed, to highlight the power of FDHs and the challenges this CO2 bioconversion still faces.publishersversionpublishe

Features of the phase transformations in titanium-containing zinc aluminosilicate glasses doped with cobalt oxide

We demonstrated the efficiency of the Raman spectroscopy method in the study of the process of the formation of the amorphous zinc aluminotitanate (ZAT) phase during the phase decomposition of the titanium-containing zinc aluminosilicate glasses doped with cobalt oxide. The quantitative dependences of the variation of the intensity of the Raman bands characteristic for amorphous and crystalline phases on the temperature of the thermal treatment and the cobalt oxide concentration have been obtained. The speed of phase decomposition with the separation of the nanosize crystals of zinc aluminate spinel (gahnite) and ZAT phase increases at low-temperature thermal treatments with increasing cobalt oxide concentration. The addition of cobalt oxide increases the amount of the amorphous ZAT phase separated during phase decomposition and increases its thermal stability during high-temperature treatments. It has been shown that the Co2+ ions enter the zinc aluminate spinel (gahnite) crystals precipitated during phase decomposition. It has been supposed that the composition of the residual glass is close to that of the quartz glass and it contains a very small amount of titanium-oxygen tetrahedra.392113123Russian Foundation for Basic Research [10-03-00978-a]Russian Foundation for Basic Research [10-03-00978-a

Liposomal formulation of a methotrexate lipophilic prodrug: assessment in tumor cells and mouse T-cell leukemic lymphoma

Anna A Alekseeva,1 Ekaterina V Moiseeva,1 Natalia R Onishchenko,1 Ivan A Boldyrev,1 Alexander S Singin,2,&dagger; Andrey P Budko,2 Zoya S Shprakh,2 Julian G Molotkovsky,1 Elena L Vodovozova1 1M.M. Shemyakin and Yu.A. Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russian Federation &dagger;Alexander S Singin passed away on October 4, 2011 Abstract: In a previous study, a formulation of methotrexate (MTX) incorporated in the lipid bilayer of 100-nm liposomes in the form of diglyceride ester (MTX-DG, lipophilic prodrug) was developed. In this study, first, the interactions of MTX-DG liposomes with various human and mouse tumor cell lines were studied using fluorescence techniques. The liposomes composed of egg phosphatidylcholine (PC)/yeast phosphatidylinositol/MTX-DG, 8:1:1 by mol, were labeled with fluorescent analogs of PC and MTX-DG. Carcinoma cells accumulated 5 times more MTX-DG liposomes than the empty liposomes. Studies on inhibitors of liposome uptake and processing by cells demonstrated that the formulation used multiple mechanisms to deliver the prodrug inside the cell. According to the data from the present study, undamaged liposomes fuse with the cell membrane only 1.5&ndash;2 hours after binding to the cell surface, and then, the components of liposomal bilayer enter the cell separately. The study on the time course of plasma concentration in mice showed that the area under the curve of MTX generated upon intravenous injection of MTX-DG liposomes exceeded that of intact MTX 2.5-fold. These data suggested the advantage of using liposomal formulation to treat systemic manifestation of hematological malignancies. Indeed, the administration of MTX-DG liposomes to recipient mice bearing T-cell leukemic lymphoma using a dose-sparing regimen resulted in lower toxicity and retarded lymphoma growth rate as compared with MTX. Keywords: liposomes, methotrexate, lipophilic prodrug, endocytosis, hematological malignancies, leukemia/lymphom