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The cellular response to cisplatin was assessed in human osteosarcoma cells, using synchrotron-based (SR) Fourier Transform InfraRed nanospectroscopy (nano-FTIR) at the MIRIAM beamline B22 of Diamond Light Source (UK). This label-free mapping method delivered simultaneous morphological and biochemical information on a subcellular level (i.e. 100 s nanometer or better). Based on specific spectral biomarkers, the main biochemical constituents affected by the drug were identified at distinct locations within the cell´s inner body. Cisplatin was shown to have a noteworthy effect on proteins, mostly within the cytoplasm. A clear drug impact on cellular lipids was also observed. Within current literature on s-SNOM, this nanospectroscopy work represents a first successful application in life sciences providing full fingerprint nano-FTIR spectra across intact human cancer cells., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Normal-to-cancer (NTC) transition is known to be closely associated to cell´s biomechanical properties which are dependent on the dynamics of the intracellular medium. This study probes different human cancer cells (breast, prostate and lung), concomitantly to their healthy counterparts, aiming at characterising the dynamical profile of water in distinct cellular locations, for each type of cell, and how it changes between normal and cancer states. An increased plasticity of the cytomatrix is observed upon normal-to-malignant transformation, the lung carcinoma cells displaying the highest flexibility followed by prostate and breast cancers. Also, lung cells show a distinct behaviour relative to breast and prostate, with a higher influence from hydration water motions and localised fast rotations upon NTC transformation. Quasielastic neutron scattering techniques allowed to accurately distinguish the different dynamical processes taking place within these highly heterogeneous cellular systems. The results thus obtained suggest that intracellular water dynamics may be regarded as a specific reporter of the cellular conditions-either healthy or malignant., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Marine plastic contamination is currently considered ubiquitous in aquatic environments. These particles present a resistant and hydrophobic substrate known to promote microbial colonisation and biofilm formation in aquatic ecosystems, the so-called "Plastisphere", raising concerns about its potential ecological risks. The novelty of this topic translates into a relatively low number of studies, including for transitional coastal ecosystems, such as sandy beaches or estuarine habitats. Therefore, a sampling campaign was conducted in two transitional coastal ecosystems - the Mondego estuary (Portugal) - and adjacent sandy beaches (winter 2020). After visual sorting and filtering of suspected particles under sterile conditions DNA extraction and 16S rRNA amplicon high throughput sequencing was used to profile the bacterial communities on the surface of plastic particles and from those found on the water and sediments from the sampled transitional coastal ecosystems. All particles were characterised according to type, colour and size, and the chemical nature of the particles was determined by FTIR-ATR or μ-FTIR spectroscopy after DNA extraction. All samples contained plastics in several sizes (micro and mesoplastics), shapes (higher abundances of fragments on beaches and fibres in the estuarine waters), colours and polymers. Although no significant differences were detected in the α-diversity indexes of the bacterial communities between plastics and their surrounding environments, data showed the occurrence of unique key bacterial groups on plastics from both environments, such as pathogens (e.g., Lactococcus, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus) and groups commonly associated with wastewater treatment plants (e.g., members of the phylum Firmicutes). This highlights the concerns for plastics to act as vectors of transmission and spread of these bacterial groups in transitional coastal ecosystems. Furthermore, it raises the possibility that (micro)plastics entering the estuary from the sea play a substantial contribution to overall dynamics of (micro)plastics and their microbial assemblages in the estuarine system., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The "Hypogeum of the Garlands" is a sepulchral site, recently found in Grottaferrata (Lazio, Italy), dating back to the first-second century AD. Two sarcophagi were discovered inside, hosting the human remains of Aebutia Quarta, a rich Roman woman, and her son Carvilius Gemellus. While the body of Carvilius is exceptionally well-preserved, following its embalming and perfect sealing of the sarcophagus, in the case of Aebutia only the bones were preserved because of the sarcophagus's seal breaking down, although she was covered with perfectly preserved flower garlands. Embalming of the body was a rare ritual in the Imperial Roman times when corpses were more often cremated. The remains of Aebutia showed possible traces of heating. Burned bones from a third individual were discovered on the chamber's floor and preliminary anthropological survey showed that this individual was a male of 40-50 years old. Here, a combination of spectroscopic techniques, including non-destructive inelastic neutron scattering and Raman spectroscopy, and minimally destructive Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, were applied to the analysis of these bone samples to give information about ancient Roman funerary practices. The temperature and burning conditions were thus determined, showing that Aebutia Quarta was exposed to mild temperatures (200 °C) only in the upper part of the body, while the third individual was likely cremated as its bones were exposed to temperatures up to 900 °C in quasi-anaerobic conditions., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The dynamics of 2-methoxybenzaldehyde, 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, and 4-ethoxybenzaldehyde in the solid state are assessed through INS spectroscopy combined with periodic DFT calculations. In the absence of experimental data for 4-ethoxybenzaldehyde, a tentative crystal structure, based on its similarity with 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, is considered and evaluated. The excellent agreement between calculated and experimental spectra allows a confident assignment of the vibrational modes. Several spectral features in the INS spectra are unambiguously assigned and torsional potential barriers for the methyl groups are derived from experimental frequencies. The intramolecular nature of the potential energy barrier for methyl rotation about O-CH 3 bonds compares with the one reported for torsion about saturated C-CH 3 bonds. On the other hand, the intermolecular contribution to the potential energy barrier may represent 1/3 of the barrier height in these systems.

Objectives: Heat exposure can lead to apparently random osteometric changes that hinder the application of metric methods used for biological profiling. The impracticality of using objective and burn-specific osteometric methods reduces the chances of establishing the biological profiles of unknown individuals based on their skeletal remains. We investigated the potential of chemometry analysis based on infrared spectroscopy to predict the amount of heat-induced osteometric changes and how this reflected into sex estimation., Material and Methods: Bones from 41 identified adult skeletons (24 females and 17 males with ages between 62 and 90 years old) were experimentally burnt to maximum temperatures ranging from 450°C to 1,100°C (attained after 65 to 240 min). Measurements were taken both before and after each experiment and powder samples were analyzed through FTIR-ATR. Correlations among heat-induced metric changes and chemometric indices (crystallinity index; B-type carbonates; carbonate [A + B] to carbonate B ratio; hydroxyl to phosphate ratio; 630 cm -1 , 1450 cm -1 , 3572 cm -1 , and 3642 cm -1 ) were tested. Significant variables were used to build regression models to predict heat-induced metric change which were then tested on an independent set of samples. Agreement in sex estimation between the pre- and post-burnt samples was also evaluated., Results: All indices were significantly correlated to heat-induced metric changes (α = .01) and the highest correlations were obtained for the 630 cm -1 , 3572 cm -1 , and crystallinity index. We confirmed that regression models based on chemometrics obtained from infrared spectra through FTIR-ATR are better at estimating heat-induced metric changes affecting bone and at sexing remains than other osteometric methods such as those based on correction factors or on metric references specific to calcined bones., Discussion: Regression models avoid the subjectivity associated with the application of other methods. While the latter can be applied only to calcined bones, which is difficult to assess sometimes, regression models can be applied to all bones regardless of their condition. Also, regression models have the advantage of allowing to infer about heat-induced metric change on a case-by-case basis., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

The Sarcocornia genus is an extreme salt-tolerant plant that can be cultivated in saline habitats almost worldwide. To preserve Sarcocornia perennis , convective drying experiments were conducted and their effects on the physico-chemical properties and phenolic content of the plant were studied using conventional and vibrational spectroscopy techniques. The drying process of Sarcocornia perennis at temperatures of 40 °C, 50 °C, 60 °C and 70 °C revealed three periods of convective drying process with drying times ranging between 4.5 and 24.9 h, respectively to higher and lower temperatures. The heating-up period can be neglected as compared with the drying process, and the duration of constant rate period, as a percentage of the total drying time, ranged between 34 and 20% respectively at 40 °C and 70 °C. The Modified Page model was proposed to describe the drying process at the different temperatures. From a nutritional point of view, this halophyte plant may be considered as a good source of fibres, phenolic compounds and natural minerals, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. The convective drying, in the temperature range currently used, was found to preserve the colour, nutritional characteristics and phytochemical value of Sarcocornia perennis . These results were confirmed by FTIR-ATR and highlight the potential use of the dried plant in novel food products., (© Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) 2020.)

This study examines the geochemical and mineralogical variations in the ferruginous mineralisations that crop out within Grotta della Monaca, which is considered to be the most striking and best known example of a prehistoric iron mine-cave from the southern Apennines (Calabria, Italy). Previous archaeological research identified three local and distinct ancient exploitation phases of these ferruginous mineralisations: (1) an Upper Palaeolithic phase; (2) a Late Neolithic phase; and (3) a post-Medieval phase. These materials, which have various forms of complex mineralogical admixtures and range in colour from yellow-orange to red and darker brown shades, mainly consist of iron oxides/hydroxides (essentially goethite and lepidocrocite), which are often mixed with subordinate and variable amounts of other matrix components (carbonates, sulphates, arsenates, silicates and organic matter). Such ferruginous mineralisations generally correspond to geochemically heterogeneous massive dyke/vein/mammillary/stratiform facies that are exposed within the local caves along open fractures and inclined bedding planes and that partially cover cave wall niches/notches/pockets and ceiling cupolas/holes. Selected samples/sub-samples are analysed through a multi-technique approach with a handheld portable X-ray Fluorescence, X-ray Diffraction, micro-Raman and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscope (both conventional and attenuated total reflection), which is combined with subsequent multivariate statistical analysis of the elemental concentration data. The geochemical and mineralogical results are used to individualise similar compositional clusters. As expected, the identified groups, each of which has very specific geochemical-mineralogical "fingerprints" and spatial distributions, enable us to identify the sampled ferruginous mineralisations. These specific mineral resources can be compared to similar raw materials that are found in other neighbouring archaeological sites, with obvious implications toward understanding local exploitation strategies through time and the exchanges and kinship networks of these materials., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)