Enhanced microfiltration devices configured with hydrodynamic trapping and a rain drop bypass filtering architecture for microbial cells detection

Ultra-fine (<1 microm) microfilters are required to effectively trap microbial cells. We designed microfilters featuring a rain drop bypass architecture, which significantly reduces the likelihood of clogging at the cost of limited cell loss. The new rain drop bypass architecture configuration has a substantially lower pressure drop and allows a better efficiency in trapping protozoan cells (Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia) in comparison to our previous generation of a microfilter device. A modified version displaying sub-micron filter gaps was adapted to trap and detect bacterial cells (Escherichia coli), through a method of cells labeling, which aims to amplify the fluorescence signal emission and therefore the sensitivity of detection.     

Current chemical biology tools for studying protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation

Amongst different posttranslational events involved in cellular-signaling pathways, phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of proteins are the most prevalent. Aberrant regulations in the cellular phosphoproteome network are implicated in most major human diseases. Consequently, kinases and phosphatases are two of the most important groups of drug targets in medicinal research today. A major challenge in the understanding of protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation is the sheer complexity of the phosphoproteome network and the lack of tools capable of studying protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation as they occur in cells. We highlight herein various chemical biology tools that have emerged in the last decade for such studies. First, we discuss the use of small-molecule mimics of phosphoamino acids and their use in elucidating the function of protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. We also introduce recent advances in the field of activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) for proteome-wide detection of protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. We next discuss the key concepts in the design of peptide- and protein-based biosensors capable of real-time reporting of phosphorylation/dephosphorylation events. Finally, we highlight the application of peptide and small-molecule microarrays (SMMs), and their applications in high-throughput screening and discovery of new compounds related to phosphorylation/dephosphorylation.     

An Exact Penalty Method for Free Terminal Time Optimal Control Problem with Continuous Inequality Constraints

In this paper, we consider a class of optimal control problems with free terminal time and continuous inequality constraints. First, the problem is approximated by representing the control function as a piecewise-constant function. Then the continuous inequality constraints are transformed into terminal equality constraints for an auxiliary differential system. After these two steps, we transform the constrained optimization problem into a penalized problem with only box constraints on the decision variables using a novel exact penalty function. This penalized problem is then solved by a gradient-based optimization technique. Theoretical analysis proves that this penalty function has continuous derivatives, and for a sufficiently large and finite penalty parameter, its local minimizer is feasible in the sense that the continuous inequality constraints are satisfied. Furthermore, this local minimizer is also the local minimizer of the constrained problem. Numerical simulations on the range maximization for a hypersonic vehicle reentering the atmosphere subject to a heating constraint demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.     

Effects of temperature on the alignment and electrooptical responses of a nematic nanoscale liquid crystalline film

The surface-induced alignment and electrooptical (EO) dynamics of a 50-nm-thick liquid crystalline (4-n-pentyl-4'-cyanobiphenyl; 5CB) film were studied at three temperatures: 25 and 33 degrees C (near the crystalline-nematic and nematic-isotropic transition temperatures, respectively) and 29 degrees C (a median temperature in the stability region of the nematic phase). The ZnSe surfaces that entrap the liquid crystal (LC) film have been polished unidirectionally to produce a grooved surface presenting nanometer-scale corrugations, a structure that induces a planar and homogeneous orientation in the nematic phase. The present work attempts to understand the influences of temperature on the surface-induced alignment and corresponding EO dynamics of the material. Step-scan time-resolved spectroscopy measurements were made to determine the rate constants for the electric-field-induced orientation and thermal relaxation of the 5CB film. The field-driven orientation rates vary sensitively with temperature across a range that spans the stability limits of the nematic phase; the relaxation rates, however, vary very little across this same temperature range. We propose that these differences in LC behavior arise as consequence of the interplay of the temperature dependence of the elastic constants, viscosity, and degree of orientational order of the LC medium. A simple theoretical model provides some understanding of these behaviors.     

Charge distribution in chromium and vanadium catecholato complexes: X-ray absorption spectroscopic and computational studies

Transition-metal complexes with redox-active catecholato ligands are of interest as models of bioinorganic systems and as potential molecular materials. This work expands our recent X-ray absorption spectroscopic (XAS) studies of Cr(V/IV/III) triscatecholato complexes (Levina, A.; Foran, G. J.; Pattison, D. I.; Lay, P. A. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 462-465) to a Cr(III) monocatecholato complex, [Cr(tren)(cat)]+ (tren = tris(2-aminoethyl)amine, cat = catecholato2-), and its oxidized analogue, as well as to a series of V(V/IV/III) triscatecholato complexes ([VL3]n-, where L = cat, 3,5-di-tert-butylcatecholato2-, or tetrachlorocatecholato2-, and n = 1-3). Various oxidation states of these complexes in solutions were generated by bulk electrolysis directly in the XAS cell. Increases in the edge energies and pre-edge absorbance intensities in XANES spectra, as well as decreases in the average M-O bond lengths (M = Cr or V) revealed by XAFS data analyses, are consistent with predominantly metal-based oxidations in both the Cr(V/IV/III) and V(V/IV/III) triscatecholato series, but the degree of electron delocalization between the metal ion and the ligands was higher in the case of Cr complexes. By contrast, oxidation of [Cr(III)(tren)(cat)]+ was mainly ligand-based and led to [Cr(III)(tren)(sq)]2+ (sq = semiquinonato-), as shown by the absence of significant changes in the pre-edge and edge features and by an increase in the average Cr-O bond length. The observed differences in electron-density distribution in various oxidation states of Cr and V mono- and triscatecholato complexes have been discussed on the basis of the results of density functional calculations. A crystal and molecular structure of (Et3NH)2[V(IV)(cat)3] has been determined at 25 K and the same complex with an acetonitrile of crystallization at 150 K.     

X-ray and magnetic-field-enhanced change in physical characteristics of silicon crystals

The effect of low-energy (W = 8 keV) low-dose ((0.3?C7.3) × 10² Gy) radiation and a dc magnetic field (B = 0.17 T) on structural, micromechanical, and microplastic characteristics of silicon crystals has been studied. The features in the dynamic behavior of dislocations in silicon crystals, which manifest themselves upon only X-ray exposure and combined (X-ray and magnetic) exposure, have been revealed.