Compressible flow induced by the transient motion of a wavemaker

The effect of fluid compressibility on the evolution of the pressure distribution and free surface elevation, following the initiation of a horizontal motion of a vertical wavemaker, is analysed. This effect is significant even in a liquid (like water) when the time scale of the motion is very short (e.g. impulsive motions).In the leading order the present problem is analogous to that of supersonic flow about a thin wing, thus the solution is represented by means of an appropriate supersonic source distribution. Closed-form results are obtained for the case of impulsive motion (i.e. a step function velocity). The pressure field corresponds to systems of double rarefaction and double compression waves traversing the fluid domain intermittently. Following the passage of a rarefaction (compression) wave, the free surface becomes locally concave (convex). The resulting free surface profile consists of an elongating wavetrain in front of a jet riding up the vertical wall.On the compressible time-scale the pressure and velocity fields approach a steady long-time limit. This limit corresponds to the short-time incompressible flow prevailing after the attenuation of the pressure waves. The spatial nonuniformity of the asymptotic expansion in the neighbourhood of the waterline is briefly discussed.     

Orbital ground state inversion in [Fe(H2O6](CIO4)2

Mössbauer spectroscopy in external magnetic fields has been used to measure the signs of the principal components of the electric field gradient V_zz in the two forms of [Fe(H₂O)₆)(C10₄)₂. The signs are V_zz negative for the (B) with ΔE_B = 1.4 mm/sec. This implies a trigonally distorted ligand field and the transition (A) → (B) corresponds to compression → elongation with respect to the trigonal axis.     

Structural characterization of the complex of the Rev response element RNA with a selected peptide

INTRODUCTION: The RSG-1.2 peptide was selected for specific binding to the Rev response element RNA, as the natural Rev peptide does. The RSG-1.2 sequence has features incompatible with the helical structure of the bound Rev peptide, indicating that it must bind in a different conformation. RESULTS: The binding of the RSG-1.2 peptide to the Rev response element RNA was characterized using multinuclear, multidimensional NMR. The RSG-1.2 peptide is shown to bind with the N-terminal segment of the peptide along the major groove in an extended conformation and turn preceding a C-terminal helical segment, which crosses the RNA groove in the region widened by the presence of purine-purine base pairs. These features make the details of the bound state rather different than that of the Rev peptide which targets the same RNA sequence binding as a single helix along the groove axis. CONCLUSIONS: These studies further demonstrate the versatility of arginine-rich peptides in recognition of specific RNA elements and the lack of conserved structural features in the bound state.     

Anthrax fusion protein therapy of cancer

Most patients with cancer are treated with chemotherapy but die from progressive disease or toxicities of therapy. Current chemotherapy regimens primarily use cytotoxic drugs which damage cell DNA or impair cell proliferation in both malignant and normal tissues. After several treatment courses, the patients' tumor cells often overexpress multi-drug resistance genes which prevent further tumor cytoreduction. Novel agents which can kill such resistant tumor cells are needed. One such class of agents are targeted peptide toxins. Targeted peptide toxins consist of peptide toxins covalently linked to tumor selective peptide ligands. These molecules bind tumor cell surface receptors, internalize, and facilitate transfer of the toxin catalytic domains to the cytosol. Once in the cytosol, the enzyme activity leads to cell death. A number of plant, bacterial and fungal toxins have been used, and clinical trials with several of these have produced complete remissions in chemoresistant neoplasms. Nevertheless, there is a continuing need for novel targeted toxins. Many patients have pre-existing antibodies against the currently clinically used toxins and many toxins are inactive when used for myeloid malignancies where internalized proteins are rapidly routed and degraded in lysosomes. Anthrax toxins are the cytotoxic components of Bacillus anthracis. While the bacteria has been the source of serious illness, deaths and global anxieties related to past or future bioterrorism, the isolated toxins do not pose public health hazards. In fact, toxin treated patients will likely develop protective antibodies. Anthrax toxin is an excellent choice for tumor cell surface targeting. Other than U.S. military personnel immunized during the Gulf War, most people lack pre-existing antibodies. This may change in the future due to threats of additional terrorist acts, but for the present few patients will have antibodies to anthrax proteins. The separate subunits for binding, translocation and cell killing facilitate genetic engineering to yield tumor-specific cell killing. The toxins are more potent than most of the other peptide toxins and may yield highly efficacious targeted molecules. This essay will review anthrax toxin structure-function, preliminary experiments with re-targeted anthrax toxin and potential designs for new ligand-anthrax therapeutics.     

Dissipative Dynamics for a Class of Nonlinear Pseudo-Differential Equations

We study a class of nonlinear evolutionary equations generated by an elliptic pseudo-differential operator, and with nonlinearity of the form G(u _x ) where cη² ≤ G(η) ≤ Cη² for large |η|. For the evolution in spaces of periodic functions with zero mean we demonstrate existence of a universal absorbing set and compact attractor. Furthermore, we show that the attractor is of a finite Hausdorf dimension. The dissipation mechanism for the class of equations studied in the paper is akin to the nonlinear saturation in the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation. A similar generalization of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation was studied by Nicolaenko et al. under the assumption of a purely quadratic nonlinearity and reflection invariance of both: the equation and solutions.      

Erratum to: Effect of chloride concentration and temperature on growth of 1D pit

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry -