Abstract: Soluble oligomers of prion proteins (PrP), produced during amyloid aggregation, have emerged as the primary neurotoxic species, instead of the fibrillar end-products, in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies...

This paper focuses on the potential corrosion protection of steel in presence of three polyphenolic model molecules (rutin, esculin, esculetol) in a weak acidic medium (pH = 4). From an electrochemical point of view, the cathodic inhibition was attributed to the oxygen scavenger role of the considered antioxidant compounds. SEM observations, Raman spectroscopy and Synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed furthermore the formation of a surface film by precipitation of iron polyphenolate conversion products, in which iron III is likely coordinated with free-catechol groups. Glycosylated catechol groups are rather adsorbed on a FeOOH layer.

Abstract: Shells of the three subphyla of extant and extinct representatives of the phylum Brachiopoda display coloured patterns with diverse shapes and at different degrees...

This paper aims to study and compare the obsidian economies of Renaghju and I Stantari, two neighbouring Neolithic sites located on the Cauria plateau (south-western Corsica). The occupation phase 3 of Renaghju and phase 1 of I Stantari, both attributed to the Middle Neolithic (fifth millennium BC), have provided respectively 112 and 99 obsidian artefacts. With the aim of completing our rather lacunary knowledge of the obsidian consumption behaviours in place in Corsica during this period, the entire assemblages have been geochemically characterised virtually non-destructively using LA-ICP-MS at SOLARIS (Southern Cross University [SCU]). Our analyses revealed that, while the obsidian raw materials were exclusively sourced from the Monte Arci complex in Sardinia (SA, SB2, and SC sub-types only), rather different consumption patterns are observed for the two sites despite their comparable nature (megalithic sites) and geographical proximity (400 m apart). These differences in obsidian consumption on adjacent sites could be explained by their divergent functions (ceremonial site [Renaghju] vs. ceremonial locus and large settlement [I Stantari]), or eventually point towards the need for a readjustment of the chronological attribution of the I Stantari phase 1 occupation level.

Abstract: In this work we present our findings performing low frequency Raman measurements over temperature in a tellurite-tungstate glass sample. The spectra could be fitted by using only two log-Gaussians, which suggests that quasi-elastic light scattering is negligible...