73 research outputs found
Coincident correlation between vibrational dynamics and primary relaxation of polymers with strong or weak johari-goldstein relaxation
The correlation between the vibrational dynamics, as sensed by the Debye-Waller factor, and the primary relaxation in the presence of secondary Johari-Goldstein (JG) relaxation, has been investigated through molecular dynamics simulations. Two melts of polymer chains with different bond length, resulting in rather different strength of the JG relaxation are studied. We focus on the bond-orientation correlation function, exhibiting higher JG sensitivity with respect to alternatives provided by torsional autocorrelation function and intermediate scattering function. We find that, even if changing the bond length alters both the strength and the relaxation time of the JG relaxation, it leaves unaffected the correlation between the vibrational dynamics and the primary relaxation. The finding is in harmony with previous studies reporting that numerical models not showing secondary relaxations exhibit striking agreement with experimental data of polymers also where the presence of JG relaxation is known
Wind prediction enhancement by supplementing measurements with numerical weather prediction now-casts
This paper explores how the accuracy of short-term prediction of wind speed and direction can be enhanced by considering additional spatial measurements. To achieve this, two different data sets have been used: (i) wind speed and direction measurements taken over 23 Met Office weather stations distributed across the UK, and (ii) outputs from the Consortium for Small-scale Modelling (COSMO) numerical weather model on a grid of points covering the UK and the surrounding sea. A multivariate complex valued adaptive prediction filter is applied to these data. The study provides an assessment of how well the proposed model can predict the data one hour ahead and what improvements can be accomplished by using additional data from the COSMO model
Protective role of dehydroascorbate in rat liver ischemia-reperfusion injury
BACKGROUND:
Oxidative stress plays an important role in liver ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Thus, enhancing the liver antioxidant capacity could be a promising therapeutic strategy. Ascorbate (AA) is considered the perfect antioxidant, but its therapeutic efficacy is greatly limited by its slow achievement of high intracellular levels. This might be circumvented by administering dehydroascorbate (DHA), which presents a several-fold greater uptake than AA, and undergoes rapid intracellular reduction to AA. Thus, our aim was to assess the protective role of DHA in liver I/R injury.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Wistar rats (200-300 g bw) were pretreated iv with different doses of AA or DHA 20 min before liver ischemia, followed by 6 h reperfusion. Liver damage was assessed by biochemical and morphological indices.
RESULTS:
DHA pretreatment induced a rapid increase in liver ascorbate levels, significantly higher than findings for AA, without any significant reduction in glutathione levels. Liver damage during I/R in controls showed significant increases in serum transaminases and hepatic thiobarbituric acid reactive substances with alterations of liver morphology. DHA administration induced a clear, significant protection against I/R injury, whereas liver damage was only moderately prevented by AA.
CONCLUSIONS:
DHA might represent a simple, effective therapeutic option to prevent liver damage associated with ischemia/reperfusion
Antioxidant capacity and protein oxidation in cerebrospinal fluid of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Background The
causes of Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ALS) are unknown. A
bulk of evidence supports the
hypothesis that oxidative stress
and mitochondrial dysfunction
can be implicated in ALS pathogenesis.
Methods We assessed, in
cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and in
plasma of 49 ALS patients and
8 controls, the amount of oxidized
proteins (AOPP, advanced oxidation
protein products), the total
antioxidant capacity (FRA, the
ferric reducing ability), and, in
CSF, two oxidation products, the
4-hydroxynonenal and the sum of
nitrites plus nitrates. Results The
FRA was decreased (p = 0.003) in
CSF, and AOPP were increased in
both CSF (p = 0.0039) and plasma
(p = 0.001) of ALS patients. The
content of AOPP was differently
represented in CSF of ALS clinical
subsets, resulting in increase in
the common and pseudopolyneuropathic
forms (p < 0.001) and
nearly undetectable in the bulbar
form, as in controls. The sum of
nitrites plus nitrates and 4-hydroxynonenal
were unchanged in
ALS patients compared with controls.
Conclusion Our results,
while confirming the occurrence
of oxidative stress in ALS, indicate
how its effects can be stratified
and therefore implicated differently
in the pathogenesis of different
clinical forms of ALS
Covalent Modification of Lipids and Proteins in Rat Hepatocytes, and In Vitro, by Thioacetamide Metabolites
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in
Chemical Research in Toxicology, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher.
To access the final edited and published work see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx3001658Thioacetamide (TA) is a well-known hepatotoxin in rats. Acute doses cause centrilobular necrosis and hyperbilirubinemia while chronic administration leads to biliary hyperplasia and cholangiocarcinoma. Its acute toxicity requires its oxidation to a stable S-oxide (TASO) that is oxidized further to a highly reactive S,S-dioxide (TASO2). To explore possible parallels between the metabolism, covalent binding and toxicity of TA and thiobenzamide (TB) we exposed freshly isolated rat hepatocytes to [14C]-TASO or [13C2D3]-TASO. TLC analysis of the cellular lipids showed a single major spot of radioactivity that mass spectral analysis showed to consist of N-acetimidoyl PE lipids having the same side chain composition as the PE fraction from untreated cells; no carbons or hydrogens from TASO were incorporated into the fatty acyl chains. Many cellular proteins contained N-acetyl- or N-acetimidoyl lysine residues in a 3:1 ratio (details to be reported separately). We also oxidized TASO with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylenthanolamine (DPPE) or lysozyme. Lysozyme was covalently modified at five of its six lysine side chains; only acetamide-type adducts were formed. DPPE in liposomes also gave only amide-type adducts, even when the reaction was carried out in tetrahydrofuran with only 10% water added. The exclusive formation of N-acetimidoyl PE in hepatocytes means that the concentration or activity of water must be extremely low in the region where TASO2 is formed, whereas at least some of the TASO2 can hydrolyze to acetylsulfinic acid before it reacts with cellular proteins. The requirement for two sequential oxidations to produce a reactive metabolite is unusual, but it is even more unusual that a reactive metabolite would react with water to form a new compound that retains a high degree of chemical reactivity toward biological nucleophiles. The possible contribution of lipid modification to the hepatotoxicity of TA/TASO remains to be determined
Ionic liquids at electrified interfaces
Until recently, âroom-temperatureâ (<100â150 °C) liquid-state electrochemistry was mostly electrochemistry of diluted electrolytes(1)â(4) where dissolved salt ions were surrounded by a considerable amount of solvent molecules. Highly concentrated liquid electrolytes were mostly considered in the narrow (albeit important) niche of high-temperature electrochemistry of molten inorganic salts(5-9) and in the even narrower niche of âfirst-generationâ room temperature ionic liquids, RTILs (such as chloro-aluminates and alkylammonium nitrates).(10-14) The situation has changed dramatically in the 2000s after the discovery of new moisture- and temperature-stable RTILs.(15, 16) These days, the âlater generationâ RTILs attracted wide attention within the electrochemical community.(17-31) Indeed, RTILs, as a class of compounds, possess a unique combination of properties (high charge density, electrochemical stability, low/negligible volatility, tunable polarity, etc.) that make them very attractive substances from fundamental and application points of view.(32-38) Most importantly, they can mix with each other in âcocktailsâ of oneâs choice to acquire the desired properties (e.g., wider temperature range of the liquid phase(39, 40)) and can serve as almost âuniversalâ solvents.(37, 41, 42) It is worth noting here one of the advantages of RTILs as compared to their high-temperature molten salt (HTMS)(43) âsister-systemsâ.(44) In RTILs the dissolved molecules are not imbedded in a harsh high temperature environment which could be destructive for many classes of fragile (organic) molecules
Mutual information does not detect growing correlations in the propensity of a model molecular liquid
The dynamical spatial correlations detected by the mutual information (MI) in the isoconfigurational particle displacements of a monodisperse molecular viscous liquid are studied via molecular-dynamics simulations by changing considerably both the molecular mobility and the degree of dynamical heterogeneity. Different from atomic liquids, the MI correlation length does not grow on approaching the glass transition by considering the liquid both in full detail as a collection of monomers and as a coarse-grained ensemble of molecular centers of mass. In the detailed picture, it is found that: (i) the MI correlations between monomers are largely due to inter-molecular correlations, (ii) the MI length scale is numerically identical, within the errors, to the correlation length scale of the displacement direction, as drawn by conventional correlation functions. The time evolution of the MI spatial correlations complies with the scaling between the fast vibrational dynamics and the long-time relaxation. Our findings suggest that the characteristics of the MI length scale are markedly system-dependent and not obviously related to dynamical heterogeneity
Mutual information in molecular and macromolecular systems
The relaxation properties of viscous liquids close to their glass transition (GT) have been widely characterised by the statistical tool of time correlation functions. However, the strong influence of ubiquitous non-linearities calls for new, alternative tools of analysis. In this respect, information theory-based observables and, more specifically, mutual information (MI) are gaining increasing interest. Here, we report on novel, deeper insight provided by MI-based analysis of molecular dynamics simulations of molecular and macromolecular glass-formers on two distinct aspects of transport and relaxation close to GT, namely dynamical heterogeneity (DH) and secondary JohariâGoldstein (JG) relaxation processes. In a model molecular liquid with significant DH, MI reveals two populations of particles organised in clusters having either filamentous or compact globular structures that exhibit different mobility and relaxation properties. In a model polymer melt, MI provides clearer evidence of JG secondary relaxation and sharper insight into its DH. It is found that both DH and MI between the orientation and the displacement of the bonds reach (local) maxima at the time scales of the primary and JG secondary relaxation. This suggests that, in (macro)molecular systems, the mechanistic explanation of both DH and relaxation must involve rotation/translation coupling
Johari-Goldstein Heterogeneous Dynamics in a Model Polymer
The heterogeneous character of the Johari-Goldstein (JG) relaxation is evidenced by molecular-dynamics simulation of a model polymer system. A double-peaked evolution of dynamic heterogeneity, with maxima located at JG and structural relaxation time scales, is observed and mechanistically explained. The short-time single-particle displacement during JG relaxation weakly correlates with the long-time one observed during structural relaxation
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