5,832 research outputs found
Deamidation at Asparagine and Glutamine As a Major Modification upon Deterioration/Aging of Proteinaceous Binders in MuralPaintings
Proteomic strategies are herein proved to be a
complementary approach to the well established amino acid
composition analysis for the characterization of the aging and
deterioration phenomena occurring to proteinaceous materials
in works-of-art. Amino acid analyses on several samples demonstrated
that proteins in the frescoes from the Camposanto
Monumentale in Pisa are deteriorated as revealed by the
decrease in Met, Lys, and Tyr content and by the presence in
all the samples of amino malonic acid as a result of Ser, Phe, and
Cys oxidation. Proteomic analysis identified deamidation at Asn
and Gln as a further major event occurred. This work paves the
way to the exploitation of proteomic strategies for the investigation
of the molecular effects of aging and deterioration in
historical objects. Results show that proteomic searches for
deamidation by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
(LC-MS/MS) could constitute a routine analysis for paintings or any artistic and historic objects where proteins are present.
Peptides that can be used as molecular markers when casein is present were identified
Rate-Control or Rhythm-Contol: Where do we stand?
Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained rhythm disturbance and its prevalence is increasing worldwide due to the progressive aging of the population. Current guidelines clearly depict the gold standard management of acute symptomatic atrial fibrillation but the best-long term approach for first or recurrent atrial fibrillation is still debated with regard to quality of life, risk of new hospitalizations, and possible disabling complications, such as thromboembolic stroke, major bleeds and death. Some authors propose that regaining sinus rhythm in all cases, thus re-establishing a physiologic cardiac function not requiring a prolonged antithrombotic therapy, avoids the threat of intracranial or extracranial haemorrhages due to Vitamin K antagonists or aspirin. On the contrary, advocates of a rate control approach with an accurate antithrombotic prophylaxis propose that such a strategy may avoid the risk of cardiovascular and non cardiovascular side effects related to antiarrhythmic drugs. This review aims to explore the state of our knowledge in order to summarize evidences and issues that need to be furthermore clarified
Search for decay of Eu to the first excited level of Pm using underground -ray spectrometry
The alpha decay of Eu to the first excited level of Pm
(, keV) was searched for at the HADES underground
laboratory ( m w.e.). A sample of high purity europium oxide with
mass of 303 g and a natural isotopic composition has been measured over 2232.8
h with a high energy resolution ultra-low background n-type semi-planar HPGe
detector (40 cm) with sub-micron deadlayer. The new improved half-life
limit has been set as yr at 68% C.L.
Possibilities to improve the sensitivity of the experiment, which is already
near the theoretical predictions, are discussed. New half-life limit for
decay of Eu is also set as
yr.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, 18 reference
Flow rule, self-channelization and levees in unconfined granular flows
Unconfined granular flows along an inclined plane are investigated
experimentally. During a long transient, the flow gets confined by quasistatic
banks but still spreads laterally towards a well-defined asymptotic state
following a nontrivial process. Far enough from the banks a scaling for the
depth averaged velocity is obtained, which extends the one obtained for
homogeneous steady flows. Close to jamming it exhibits a crossover towards a
nonlocal rheology. We show that the levees, commonly observed along the sides
of the deposit upon interruption of the flow, disappear for long flow
durations. We demonstrate that the morphology of the deposit builds up during
the flow, in the form of an underlying static layer, which can be deduced from
surface velocity profiles, by imposing the same flow rule everywhere in the
flow.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Erosion waves: transverse instabilities and fingering
Two laboratory scale experiments of dry and under-water avalanches of
non-cohesive granular materials are investigated. We trigger solitary waves and
study the conditions under which the front is transversally stable. We show the
existence of a linear instability followed by a coarsening dynamics and finally
the onset of a fingering pattern. Due to the different operating conditions,
both experiments strongly differ by the spatial and time scales involved.
Nevertheless, the quantitative agreement between the stability diagram, the
wavelengths selected and the avalanche morphology reveals a common scenario for
an erosion/deposition process.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PR
Elastic deformation due to tangential capillary forces \ud
A sessile liquid drop can deform the substrate on which it rests if the solid is sufficiently “soft.” In this paper we compute the detailed spatial structure of the capillary forces exerted by the drop on the solid substrate using a model based on Density Functional Theory. We show that, in addition to the normal forces, the drop exerts a previously unaccounted tangential force. The resultant effect on the solid is a pulling force near the contact line directed towards the interior of the drop, i.e., not along the interface. The resulting elastic deformations of the solid are worked out and illustrate the importance of the tangential force
Contact angles on a soft solid: from Young's law to Neumann's law
The contact angle that a liquid drop makes on a soft substrate does not obey
the classical Young's relation, since the solid is deformed elastically by the
action of the capillary forces. The finite elasticity of the solid also renders
the contact angles different from that predicted by Neumann's law, which
applies when the drop is floating on another liquid. Here we derive an
elasto-capillary model for contact angles on a soft solid, by coupling a
mean-field model for the molecular interactions to elasticity. We demonstrate
that the limit of vanishing elastic modulus yields Neumann's law or a slight
variation thereof, depending on the force transmission in the solid surface
layer. The change in contact angle from the rigid limit (Young) to the soft
limit (Neumann) appears when the length scale defined by the ratio of surface
tension to elastic modulus reaches a few molecular sizes
Szeg\"o kernel asymptotics and Morse inequalities on CR manifolds
We consider an abstract compact orientable Cauchy-Riemann manifold endowed
with a Cauchy-Riemann complex line bundle. We assume that the manifold
satisfies condition Y(q) everywhere. In this paper we obtain a scaling
upper-bound for the Szeg\"o kernel on (0, q)-forms with values in the high
tensor powers of the line bundle. This gives after integration weak Morse
inequalities, analogues of the holomorphic Morse inequalities of Demailly. By a
refined spectral analysis we obtain also strong Morse inequalities which we
apply to the embedding of some convex-concave manifolds.Comment: 40 pages, the constants in Theorems 1.1-1.8 have been modified by a
multiplicative constant 1/2 ; v.2 is a final updat
A mutant of phosphomannomutase1 retains full enzymatic activity, but is not activated by IMP : possible implications for the disease PMM2-CDG
The most frequent disorder of glycosylation, PMM2-CDG, is caused by a deficiency of phosphomannomutase activity. In humans two paralogous enzymes exist, both of them require mannose 1,6-bis-phosphate or glucose 1,6-bis-phosphate as activators, but only phospho-mannomutase1 hydrolyzes bis-phosphate hexoses. Mutations in the gene encoding phosphomannomutase2 are responsible for PMM2-CDG. Although not directly causative of the disease, the role of the paralogous enzyme in the disease should be clarified. Phosphomannomutase1 could have a beneficial effect, contributing to mannose 6-phosphate isomerization, or a detrimental effect, hydrolyzing the bis-phosphate hexose activator. A pivotal role in regulating mannose-1phosphate production and ultimately protein glycosylation might be played by inosine monophosphate that enhances the phosphatase activity of phosphomannomutase1. In this paper we analyzed human phosphomannomutases by conventional enzymatic assays as well as by novel techniques such as 31P-NMR and thermal shift assay. We characterized a triple mutant of phospomannomutase1 that retains mutase and phosphatase activity, but is unable to bind inosine monophosphate
The Kinetic Effect of Some Wine Components on the Enzymatic Hydrolysis of β-glucan
Enzymatic preparations containing β-glucanases are utilised extensively in winemaking to facilitate the filtration ofmusts and wines coming from grapes affected by Botrytis cinerea, and to induce the release of mannoproteins andoligosaccharides from the cell walls of yeasts. The aim of the present work was to investigate the possible inhibitoryeffect of some wine components, and in particular of ethanol, on β-glucanase activities. For this purpose, the kineticactivity of a commercial enzymatic preparation containing β-glucanases was tested utilising both model solutions(buffer solution having a pH value similar to a must/wine with or without 13% v/v of ethanol added) and a redwine. When ethanol was added to the model solution, both the kinetic constant k and glucose production suffered adecrease of about 50% compared to the values detected in the absence of ethanol. A further loss of activity (about87%) was found using red wine as reaction medium, suggesting, as already reported in the literature, that phenolscould add their inhibitory effect to that of ethanol. The results obtained provide useful suggestions that can beadopted during winemaking. To promote the hydrolysis of the possible excess of β-glucan coming from grapesaffected by Botritis cinerea, it would be more convenient to add β-glucanases before a significant amount of ethanolaccumulates in the must/wine, while it is not possible to avoid the negative impact of ethanol or other possibleinhibitors (phenols) to promote yeast degradation in wine left on lees
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