Biopolymer Skeleton Produced by Rhizobium radiobacter: Stoichiometric Alternation of Glycosidic and Amidic Bonds in the Lipopolysaccharide O‐Antigen

The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) O‐antigen structure of the plant pathogen Rhizobium radiobacter strain TT9 and its possible role in a plant‐microbe interaction was investigated. The analyses disclosed the presence of two O‐antigens, named Poly1 and Poly2. The repetitive unit of Poly2 constitutes a 4‐α‐l ‐rhamnose linked to a 3‐α‐d ‐fucose residue. Surprisingly, Poly1 turned out to be a novel type of biopolymer in which the repeating unit is formed by a monosaccharide and an amino‐acid derivative, so that the polymer has alternating glycosidic and amidic bonds joining the two units: 4‐amino‐4‐deoxy‐3‐O‐methyl‐d ‐fucose and (2′R,3′R,4′S)‐N‐methyl‐3′,4′‐dihydroxy‐3′‐methyl‐5′‐oxoproline). Differently from the O‐antigens of LPSs from other pathogenic Gram‐negative bacteria, these two O‐antigens do not activate the oxidative burst, an early innate immune response in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, explaining at least in part the ability of this R. radiobacter strain to avoid host defenses during a plant infection process.     

Polymersomes, smaller than you think: ferrocene as a TEM probe to determine core structure

By incorporating ferrocene into the hydrophobic membrane of PEG-b-PCL polymersome nanoparticles it is possible to selectively visualize their core using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Two different sizes of ferrocene-loaded polymersomes with mean hydrodynamic diameters of approximately 40 and 90 nm were prepared. Image analysis of TEM pictures of these polymersomes found that the mean diameter of the core was 4–5 times smaller than the mean hydrodynamic diameter. The values obtained also allow the surface diameter and internal volume of the core to be calculated.     

Application of the dissipation theorem to turbulent flow and mass transfer in a pipe

The dissipation theorem is applied to turbulent pipe flow. The eddy-viscosity profiles can be made to agree with some in the literature in the sense that the eddy viscosity starts at zero on the solid pipe wall, rises to a maximum, and declines again toward the center line. A relationship between the volumetric dissipation and the eddy viscosity is derived by means of an energy balance on a core of fluid of radius r. The question of what exponent to use on the radius in another governing equation is clarified, thereby giving better agreement with experimental data than other values tried. Negative values of the eddy viscosity can be obtained in some regions of the flow field, such as near the center line, and it is suggested that these can be eliminated by slight modification of the decay term. Better agreement with the shapes of friction-factor and mass-transfer curves could be achieved by further (empirical) modification of the stress dependence of parameters in the model.     

An infinite family of convex Brunnian links in $${\mathbb{R}^n}$$

This paper proves that convex Brunnian links exist for every dimension n ≥ 3 by constructing explicit examples. These examples are three-component links which are higher-dimensional generalizations of the Borromean rings.     

Associations between Neurocardiovascular Signal Entropy and Physical Frailty

In this cross-sectional study, the relationship between noninvasively measured neurocardiovascular signal entropy and physical frailty was explored in a sample of community-dwelling older adults from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). The hypothesis under investigation was that dysfunction in the neurovascular and cardiovascular systems, as quantified by short-length signal complexity during a lying-to-stand test (active stand), could provide a marker for frailty. Frailty status (i.e., “non-frail”, “pre-frail”, and “frail”) was based on Fried’s criteria (i.e., exhaustion, unexplained weight loss, weakness, slowness, and low physical activity). Approximate entropy (ApEn) and sample entropy (SampEn) were calculated during resting (lying down), active standing, and recovery phases. There was continuously measured blood pressure/heart rate data from 2645 individuals (53.0% female) and frontal lobe tissue oxygenation data from 2225 participants (52.3% female); both samples had a mean (SD) age of 64.3 (7.7) years. Results revealed statistically significant associations between neurocardiovascular signal entropy and frailty status. Entropy differences between non-frail and pre-frail/frail were greater during resting state compared with standing and recovery phases. Compared with ApEn, SampEn seemed to have better discriminating power between non-frail and pre-frail/frail individuals. The quantification of entropy in short length neurocardiovascular signals could provide a clinically useful marker of the multiple physiological dysregulations that underlie physical frailty.     

A New Reaction Involving the Formation of Unsaturated Carbenes

Treatment of 5,5-dialkyl-N-nitrosooxazolidones (1) with Lithium ethoxide (and other bases) under certain conditions yields reaction products the formation of which seems best explained by assuming that unsaturated carbenes [A] are involved.^3–5     

A Short,Affordable, One-Pot Synthesis of a Camphor-Derived Amino Alcohol

The commercially available α-ketoxime of camphorquinone (1) was reduced to the corresponding exo,exo-amino alcohol (2) in a two-step, one-pot procedure using sodium borohydride and nickel(II) chloride hexahydrate.     

2D FDTD simulation of low loss small angle bend and Y branch configurations in a photonic crystal waveguide layout with a Mach–Zehnder device design configuration

A technique to produce low loss small angle bends in photonic crystal waveguides is presented. The technique consists of bridging parallel input and output waveguide segments with an inclined waveguide region of the same basic design that has a lateral dielectric shift. Results are presented for waveguides produced by enlarging the silicon gap along the central line, separating air holes in a square array photonic crystal for the TE polarization and an operating wavelength of λ_o = 1.55 μm. This low loss waveguide bending technique is applied to the design of Y branch and Mach–Zehnder photonic crystal structures. Simulation of the performance of the dielectric structures is achieved using 2-D FDTD, similar results are anticipated when applied to 3-D waveguide configurations and for other photonic crystal layouts.