Antimicrobial Metabolites against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus from the Endophytic Fungus Neofusicoccum australe

Antimicrobial bioassay-guided fractionation of the endophytic fungi Neofusicoccum australe led to the isolation of a new unsymmetrical naphthoquinone dimer, neofusnaphthoquinone B (1), along with four known natural products (2–5). Structure elucidation was conducted by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic methods, and the antimicrobial activity of all the natural products was investigated, revealing 1 to be moderately active towards methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 16 µg/mL.     

Investigation of the structure of detonation waves in a non-premixed hydrogen–air rotating detonation engine using mid-infrared imaging

The structure of detonation waves propagating through the annular channel of an optically accessible non-premixed rotating detonation engine (RDE) are investigated using mid-infrared imaging. The RDE is operated on hydrogen–air mixtures for a range of air mass flow rates and equivalence ratios. Instantaneous images of the radiation intensity from water vapor are acquired using a mid-infrared camera and a band-pass filter (2.890?±?0.033?µm). The instantaneous mid-infrared images reveal the stochastic nature of the detonation wave structure, position and angle of oblique and reflected shock waves, presence of shear layer separating products from the previous and current cycles, and extent of mixing between the reactants and products in the reactant fill zone in front of the detonation wave. The images show negligible signal directly in front of the detonation waves suggesting that there is minimal mixing between the reactants and products from the previous cycle ahead of the detonation wave for most operating conditions. The mid-infrared images provide insights useful for improving fundamental understanding of the detonation structure in RDEs and benchmark data for evaluating modeling and simulation results of RDEs.     

Beyond microstructures: Using the Kerr Effect to characterize the macrostructures of synthetic polymers

The macrostructures of synthetic polymers are essentially the complete molecular chain architectures, including the types and amounts of constituent short‐range microstructures, such as the regio‐ and stereosequences of the inserted monomers, the amounts and sequences of monomers found in co‐, ter‐, and tetra‐polymers, branching, inadvertent, and otherwise, etc. Currently, the best method for characterizing polymer microstructures uses high field, high resolution ¹³C‐nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy observed in solution. However, even ¹³C‐NMR is incapable of determining the locations or positions of resident polymer microstructures, which are required to elucidate their complete macrostructures. The sequences of amino acid residues in proteins, or their primary structures, cannot be characterized by NMR or other short‐range spectroscopic methods, but only by decoding the DNA used in their syntheses or, if available, X‐ray analysis of their single crystals. Similarly, there are currently no experimental means to determine the sequences or locations of constituent microstructures along the chains of synthetic macromolecules. Thus, we are presently unable to determine their macrostructures. As protein tertiary and quaternary structures and their resulting ultimate functions are determined by their primary sequence of amino acids, so too are the behaviors and properties of synthetic polymers critically dependent on their macrostructures. We seek to raise the consciousness of both synthetic and physical polymer scientists and engineers to the importance of characterizing polymer macrostructures when attempting to develop structure–property relations. To help achieve this task, we suggest using the electrical birefringence or Kerr effects observed in their dilute solutions. The molar Kerr constants of polymer solutes contributing to the birefringence of their solutions, under the application of a strong electric field, are highly sensitive to both the types and locations of their constituent microstructures. As a consequence, we may begin to characterize the macrostructures of synthetic polymers by means of the Kerr effect. To simplify implementation of the Kerr effect to characterize polymer macrostructures, we suggest that NMR first be used to determine the types and amounts of constituent microstructures present. Subsequent comparison of observed Kerr effects with those predicted for different microstructural locations along the polymer chains can then be used to identify the most likely macrostructures. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 155–166     

Right-angled Coxeter polytopes, hyperbolic six-manifolds, and a problem of Siegel

By gluing together the sides of eight copies of an all-right angled hyperbolic six-dimensional polytope, two orientable hyperbolic six-manifolds with Euler characteristic ?1 are constructed. They are the first known examples of orientable hyperbolic six-manifolds having the smallest possible volume.     

Extracting the wavefunction of the LSP at the LHC

We consider associated production of squarks and gluinos with the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), or states nearly degenerate in mass with it. Though sub-dominant to pair production of color SU(3)-charged superpartners, these processes are directly sensitive to the wavefunction composition of the lightest neutralinos. Exploiting event-shape variables - including some introduced here for the first time - we are able to identify the composition of the LSP by selecting events involving a single high-pT jet recoiling against missing transverse energy. We illustrate the proposed technique on a set of benchmark cases and propose methods for applying these results in more realistic experimental environments.     

Combined experimental and computational study of W(II), Ru(II), Pt(IV) and Cu(I) amine and amido complexes using 15N NMR spectroscopy

Using 2D proton-coupled gHSQC pulse sequences in addition to 1D ¹⁵N NMR experiments of ¹⁵N labeled systems, ¹⁵N NMR chemical shifts of a range of transition metal amido and amine complexes were determined. Tungsten(II), ruthenium(II), platinum(IV) and copper(I) complexes with aniline and their anilido variants were studied and compared to free aniline, lithium anilido and anilinium tetrafluoroborate. Upon coordination of aniline to transition metals, upfield chemical shifts of 20–60 ppm were observed. Deprotonation of the amine complexes to form amido complexes resulted in downfield chemical shifts of 40–60 ppm for all of the complexes except for the tungsten d⁴ system. For the tungsten(II) complexes, the cationic aniline complex displayed a downfield shift of approximately 56 ppm relative to the neutral anilido complex. The change in chemical shift for amine to amido conversion is proposed to depend on the ability of the amido ligand to π-bond with the metal center, which influences the magnitude of the paramagnetic screening term.     

Properties of the solutions of the fourth-order Bessel-type differential equation

The structured Bessel-type functions of arbitrary even-order were introduced by Everitt and Markett in 1994; these functions satisfy linear ordinary differential equations of the same even-order. The differential equations have analytic coefficients and are defined on the whole complex plane with a regular singularity at the origin and an irregular singularity at the point of infinity. They are all natural extensions of the classical second-order Bessel differential equation. Further these differential equations have real-valued coefficients on the positive real half-line of the plane, and can be written in Lagrange symmetric (formally self-adjoint) form. In the fourth-order case, the Lagrange symmetric differential expression generates self-adjoint unbounded operators in certain Hilbert function spaces. These results are recorded in many of the papers here given as references. It is shown in the original paper of 1994 that in this fourth-order case one solution exists which can be represented in terms of the classical Bessel functions of order 0 and 1. The existence of this solution, further aided by computer programs in Maple, led to the existence of a linearly independent basis of solutions of the differential equation. In this paper a new proof of the existence of this solution base is given, on using the advanced theory of special functions in the complex plane. The methods lead to the development of analytical properties of these solutions, in particular the series expansions of all solutions at the regular singularity at the origin of the complex plane.     

Improvements for ground-based remote sensing of atmospheric aerosol properties by additional polarimetric measurements

We discuss the improvements in the aerosol properties characterization resulting from the additional multi-wavelength polarization measurements measured by a new CIMEL polarized sun/sky-photometer, CE318-DP. In order to process direct-sun, sky and polarization measurements in a wide spectral range (340–1640 nm), we developed new calibration methods and strategies, e.g. using the Langley plot method to calibrate both direct-sun irradiance and sky radiance, as well as combining laboratory facilities with a vicarious method to calibrate the polarized sky measurements. For studying the impact of new polarimetric measurements on the retrievals of aerosol properties, we have processed an extensive record of field measurements using an updated Dubovik and King retrieval algorithm [Dubovik O, Sinyuk A, Lapyonok T, Holben BN, Mishchenko MI, et al. Application of spheroid models to account for aerosol particle nonsphericity in remote sensing of desert dust. J Geophys Res 2006;111:D11208.]. A preliminary analysis shows that adding polarization in the inversion can reduce possible errors (notably for about 30% of our field cases) in the fine mode size distribution, real part of refractive index and particle shape parameter retrievals, especially for small particles.     

EBSD-based continuum dislocation microscopy

Recent advances in high-resolution electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)-based microscopy are applied to the characterization of elastic fields and incompatibility structures near the grain boundaries (GBs) in polycrystals. Two main recoveries are reported here: surface geometrically necessary dislocation (density) tensors, as described by Kröner, and the elastic fields near cracks (unconsolidated portions of interface) in loaded samples. Context for the application of these recoveries is described, using Green’s function solutions for combined heterogeneity and dislocation. Featured recoveries required the cross-correlation based determination of the elastic distortion tensor, aided by application of the simulated pattern method, and determination of the absolute pattern center utilizing the expected pattern properties in a spherical Kikuchi reference frame. High-resolution data obtained along an ultrasonically consolidated nickel boundary of varying amalgamation indicates that the imposed traction free boundary condition at free surfaces is well observed in the data structure. Further, high-resolution data acquired near a single grain boundary in well-annealed, low content steel suggests that it may be possible to measure the intrinsic elastic properties of GBs.