Surface Design for Immobilization of an Antimicrobial Peptide Mimic for Efficient Anti-Biofouling

Microbial surface attachment negatively impacts a wide range of devices from water purification membranes to biomedical implants. Mimics of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) constituted from poly(N-substituted glycine) „peptoids“ are of great interest as they resist proteolysis and can inhibit a wide spectrum of microbes. We investigate how terminal modification of a peptoid AMP-mimic and its surface immobilization affect antimicrobial activity. We also demonstrate a convenient surface modification strategy for enabling alkyne–azide „click“ coupling on amino-functionalized surfaces. Our results verified that the N- and C-terminal peptoid structures are not required for antimicrobial activity. Moreover, our peptoid immobilization density and choice of PEG tether resulted in a „volumetric“ spatial separation between AMPs that, compared to past studies, enabled the highest AMP surface activity relative to bacterial attachment. Our analysis suggests the importance of spatial flexibility for membrane activity and that AMP separation may be a controlling parameter for optimizing surface anti-biofouling.     

Micromechanical Properties of Microstructured Elastomeric Hydrogels

Local, micromechanical environment is known to influence cellular function in heterogeneous hydrogels, and knowledge gained in micromechanics will facilitate the improved design of biomaterials for tissue regeneration. In this study, a system comprising microstructured resilin‐like polypeptide (RLP)–poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) hydrogels is utilized. The micromechanical properties of RLP‐PEG hydrogels are evaluated with oscillatory shear rheometry, compression dynamic mechanic analysis, small‐strain microindentation, and large‐strain indentation and puncture over a range of different deformation length scales. The measured elastic moduli are consistent with volume averaging models, indicating that volume fraction, not domain size, plays a dominant role in determining the low strain mechanical response. Large‐strain indentation under a confocal microscope enables the visualization of the microstructured hydrogel micromechanical deformation, emphasizing the translation, rotation, and deformation of RLP‐rich domains. The fracture initiation energy results demonstrate that failure of the composite hydrogels is controlled by the RLP‐rich phase, and their independence with domain size suggested that failure initiation is controlled by multiple domains within the strained volume. This approach and findings provide new quantitative insight into the micromechanical response of soft hydrogel composites and highlight the opportunities in employing these methods to understand the physical origins of mechanical properties of soft synthetic and biological materials.     

The effect of functionalization on structure and electrical conductivity of multi-walled carbon nanotubes

Nanosized powders of Ti-Nb oxide core-shell nanocrystals with atomic ratios of Nb/Ti = 0.11, 0.25, and 0.38 have been prepared by two preparation routes. The first route was co-precipitation, followed by␣annealing, using NbCl₅ as a source of Nb. The second route was coating of pure TiO₂ nanocrystals by Nb-isopropoxide in liquid medium, followed by impregnation of the Nb into the nanoparticles by annealing. Both methods yielded anatase nanocrystals with a Nb-rich shell and a core, which had much lower Nb loadings. The anatase structure solid solution (with Nb incorporated) was stable under annealing up to 760°C. The particle size remained within the nanometric scale (<50 nm) under heat-treatment up to 760°C. It has been shown that the fabricated powders can be redispersed in aqueous media by simple ultrasound treatment, resulting in nanosized dispersions. Using a variety of analytical techniques, including depth profiling of single nanocrystallites by AES combined with sputtering by Ar ions, the mechanism of the core-shell structure creation was studied. It is proposed that the formation of the core-shell structure is governed by solubility limitations in the co-precipitation route and by solubility and diffusion limitations in the coating-incorporation route.     

On the Automorphism Groups of Cayley Graphs of Finite Simple Groups

Let G be a finite nonabelian simple group and let be a connectedundirected Cayley graph for G. The possible structures for thefull automorphism group Aut are specified. Then, for certainfinite simple groups G, a sufficient condition is given underwhich G is a normal subgroup of Aut. Finally, as an applicationof these results, several new half-transitive graphs are constructed.Some of these involve the sporadic simple groups G = J₁, J₄,Ly and BM, while others fall into two infinite families andinvolve the Ree simple groups and alternating groups. The twoinfinite families contain examples of half-transitive graphsof arbitrarily large valency.     

Inhibition and acceleration of deuterium exchange in amide-functionalized monolayer-protected gold clusters

Hydrogen/deuterium exchange rates in amide-functionalized monolayer protected gold clusters (MPCs) are controlled by the radial nature of the surface, with inhibition and catalysis observed at different chain lengths.     

Finding Optimal Routings in Hamming Graphs

A routing R in a graph consists of a simple path p_uvfromu to v for each ordered pair of distinct vertices (u, v). We will call R optimal if all the paths p_uvare shortest paths and if edges of the graph occur equally often in the paths of R. In 1994, Solé gave a sufficient condition involving the automorphism group for a graph to have an optimal routing in this sense. Graphs which satisfy Solé’s condition are called orbital regular graphs. It is often difficult to determine whether or not a given graph is orbital regular. In this paper, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a Hamming graph to be orbital regular with respect to a certain natural subgroup of automorphisms.