Dynamic nuclear polarization-enhanced solid-state NMR of a 13C-labeled signal peptide bound to lipid-reconstituted Sec translocon

Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) has made it possible to record 2D double-quantum-filtered (DQF) solid-state NMR (ssNMR) spectra of a signal peptide bound to a lipid-reconstituted SecYEG translocon complex. The small quantity of peptide in the sample (~40 nmol) normally prohibits multidimensional ssNMR experiments. Such small amounts are not the exception, because for samples involving membrane proteins, most of the limited sample space is occupied by lipids. As a consequence, a conventional 2D DQF ssNMR spectrum with the sample used here would require many weeks if not months of measurement time. With the help of DNP, however, we were able to acquire such a 2D spectrum within 20 h. This development opens up new possibilities for membrane protein studies, particularly in the exploitation of high-resolution spectroscopy and the assignment of individual amino acid signals, in this case for a signal peptide bound to the translocon complex.     

Fulleropyrrolidine end-capped molecular wires for molecular electronics--synthesis, spectroscopic, electrochemical, and theoretical characterization

In continuation of previous studies showing promising metal-molecule contact properties a variety of C(60) end-capped "molecular wires" for molecular electronics were prepared by variants of the Prato 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction. Either benzene or fluorene was chosen as the central wire, and synthetic protocols for derivatives terminated with one or two fullero[c]pyrrolidine "electrode anchoring" groups were developed. An aryl-substituted aziridine could in some cases be employed directly as the azomethine ylide precursor for the Prato reaction without the need of having an electron-withdrawing ester group present. The effect of extending the π-system of the central wire from 1,4-phenylenediamine to 2,7-fluorenediamine was investigated by absorption, fluorescence, and electrochemical methods. The central wire and the C(60) end-groups were found not to electronically communicate in the ground state. However, the fluorescence of C(60) was quenched by charge transfer from the wire to C(60). Quantum chemical calculations predict and explain the collapse of coherent electronic transmission through one of the fulleropyrrolidine-terminated molecular wires.     

Photosynthetic energy conversion in the diatom <Emphasis Type="Italic">Phaeodactylum tricornutum</Emphasis>

Isothermal microcalorimetry can be used to investigate the photosynthetic energy conversion of autotrophic organisms. In this study, for the first time a diatom alga was used to compare the calorimetrically measured heat flux with measurements of the photosynthetic performance by oxygen evolution and pulse-amplitude modulated fluorescence. The presented experimental setup proved suitable to compare calorimetric data with those of conventional methods of the determination of photosynthesis rates. Special attention was paid to the contribution of energy dissipation via non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) of chlorophyll fluorescence to the metabolic energy balance. This was achieved by a combination of different light conditions and the use of an inhibitor of NPQ. Although NPQ is an important photoprotective mechanism in diatoms, the inhibition of NPQ resulted in an activation of alternative, energy dissipating pathways for absorbed radiation which completely compensated for the fraction of energy dissipation by NPQ.     

Routing a mix of conventional,plug-in hybrid,and electric vehicles

We introduce an electric vehicle routing problem combining conventional, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are constrained in their service range by their battery capacity, and may require time-consuming recharging operations at some specific locations. Plug-in hybrid vehicles have two engines, an internal combustion engine and an electric engine using a built-in rechargeable battery. These vehicles can avoid visits to recharging stations by switching to fossil fuel. However, this flexibility comes at the price of a generally higher consumption rate and utility cost.To solve this complex problem variant, we design a sophisticated metaheuristic which combines a genetic algorithm with local and large neighborhood search. All route evaluations, within the approach, are based on a layered optimization algorithm which combines labeling techniques and greedy evaluation policies to insert recharging stations visits in a fixed trip and select the fuel types. The metaheuristic is finally hybridized with an integer programming solver, over a set partitioning formulation, so as to recombine high-quality routes from the search history into better solutions. Extensive experimental analyses are conducted, highlighting the good performance of the algorithm and the contribution of each of its main components. Finally, we investigate the impact of fuel and energy cost on fleet composition decisions. Our experiments show that a careful use of a mixed fleet can significantly reduce operational costs in a large variety of price scenarios, in comparison with the use of a fleet composed of a single vehicle class.     

Generalized triangulations and diagonal-free subsets of stack polyominoes

For n?3, let Ω_n be the set of line segments between vertices in a convex n-gon. For j?1, a j-crossing is a set of j distinct and mutually intersecting line segments from Ω_n such that all 2j endpoints are distinct. For k?1, let Δ_n,k be the simplicial complex of subsets of Ω_n not containing any (k+1)-crossing. For example, Δ_n,1 has one maximal set for each triangulation of the n-gon. Dress, Koolen, and Moulton were able to prove that all maximal sets in Δ_n,k have the same number k(2n-2k-1) of line segments. We demonstrate that the number of such maximal sets is counted by a k×k determinant of Catalan numbers. By the work of Desainte-Catherine and Viennot, this determinant is known to count quite a few other objects including fans of non-crossing Dyck paths. We generalize our result to a larger class of simplicial complexes including some of the complexes appearing in the work of Herzog and Trung on determinantal ideals.     

Transient field measurements on light and heavy ions in amorphous iron-boron compounds

Measurements of transient magnetic fields (TF) were performed for the first time in the amorphous compounds of Fe₈₀B₂₀ and Fe₈₅B₁₅ for ²⁴Mg(2⁺), ²⁸Si(2⁺), ⁴⁸Ti(2⁺) and ⁵⁶Fe(2⁺) probe ions employing light and heavy ion beams. The motivation for these experiments was to investigate whether ion beam induced attenuations of TF are substantially weaker in these materials than in crystalline Fe. This expectation was indeed satisfied. The attenuations observed were found to be smaller at least by a factor of 2.     

Quantitative Imaging by Optical Diffraction Tomography

Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) is applied to reconstruct the cross-sectional, complex refractive index distribution of cylindrical objects. Experimental reconstructions showing noticeable image contrast for refractive index variations of about 0.001, and having a spatial resolution of about 2 μm, are obtained for objects with cross-sectional diameters of about 100 μm. The results demonstrate that ODT can be used for quantitative imaging of semitransparent fibers.Presented at the International Commission of Optics Topical Meeting, Kyoto, 1994.     

Focusing of electromagnetic waves into a uniaxial crystal

We derive integral representations suitable for studying the focusing of electromagnetic waves through a plane interface into a uniaxial crystal. To that end we start from existing exact solutions for the transmitted fields due to an arbitrary three-dimensional (3D) wave that is incident upon a plane interface separating two uniaxial crystals with arbitrary orientation of the optical axis in each medium. Then we specialize to the case in which the medium of the incident wave is isotropic and derive explicit expressions for the dyadic Green's functions associated with the transmitted fields as well as integral representations suitable for asymptotic analysis and efficient numerical evaluation. Relevant integral representations for focused 3D electromagnetic waves are also given. Next we consider the special case in which (i) the incident field is a two-dimensional (2D) TM wave and (ii) the optical axis in the crystal lies in the plane of incidence, implying that we have a 2D vectorial problem, and derive dyadic Green's functions, integral representations suitable for asymptotic and numerical treatment, and integral representations for focused TM fields. Numerical results for focused 2D TM fields based on these integral representations as well as corresponding experimental results will be presented in forthcoming papers.     

Synthetic strategies to prepare 2-alkyl, 2-aryl and 2-acetylenyl substituted 4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazines

We have developed synthetic protocols to generate 2-alkyl, 2-aryl and 2-acetylenyl substituted 4,6-diamino-1,3,5-triazines from the corresponding 2-chloro compound.