Darobactin B Stabilises a Lateral-Closed Conformation of the BAM Complex in E. coli Cells

The β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM complex) is essential for outer membrane protein (OMP) folding in Gram-negative bacteria, and represents a promising antimicrobial target. Several conformational states of BAM have been reported, but all have been obtained under conditions which lack the unique features and complexity of the outer membrane (OM). Here, we use Pulsed Electron-Electron Double Resonance (PELDOR, or DEER) spectroscopy distance measurements to interrogate the conformational ensemble of the BAM complex in E. coli cells. We show that BAM adopts a broad ensemble of conformations in the OM, while in the presence of the antibiotic darobactin B (DAR-B), BAM′s conformational equilibrium shifts to a restricted ensemble consistent with the lateral closed state. Our in-cell PELDOR findings are supported by new cryoEM structures of BAM in the presence and absence of DAR-B. This work demonstrates the utility of PELDOR to map conformational changes in BAM within its native cellular environment.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of (100)InGaAs/GaAs strained-layer relaxation processes

Molecular dynamics simulations on In_1−xGa_xAs/GaAs(100) systems are performed showing the dynamics of threading dislocations in the overlayers and the formation of misfit dislocations at the heterojunction interface. The developed code, using a modified Tersoff potential, simulates the threading dislocation dynamics in the InGaAs overlayer, and also the formation of interface misfit dislocations. Values for critical thicknesses are predicted and the atomic structure of the dislocation cores are determined.     

CBE growth of GaAs/GaAlAs HBTs using the new DEAlH-NMe3 precursor and all-gaseous dopants

This paper describes the first reported use of diethylaluminium hydride-trimethylamine adduct (DEAlH-NMe₃) for the growth of GaAs/GaAlAs power heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) by chemical beam epitaxy (CBE). This precursor possesses a significantly higher vapour pressure than the more conventionally used triethylaluminium (TEA), and leads to much less stringent requirements for bubbler and gas-line heating, and also much-improved GaAs/GaAlAs heterojunction definition when no carrier gas is employed. The use of all-gaseous n- and p-type dopants offers significant technological advantages in CBE, and the current paper also provides the first report of the use of hydrogen sulphide for n-type doping of CBE-grown GaAlAs HBT emitter regions. In conclusion, DC and RF data obtained from the heterojunction bipolar transistors fabricated to date are described. A DC gain of 40 has already been measured and encouraging early data obtained from RF-probed devices are also presented.     

An effective and simple heuristic for the set covering problem

This paper investigates the development of an effective heuristic to solve the set covering problem (SCP) by applying the meta-heuristic Meta-RaPS (Meta-heuristic for Randomized Priority Search). In Meta-RaPS, a feasible solution is generated by introducing random factors into a construction method. Then the feasible solutions can be improved by an improvement heuristic. In addition to applying the basic Meta-RaPS, the heuristic developed herein integrates the elements of randomizing the selection of priority rules, penalizing the worst columns when the searching space is highly condensed, and defining the core problem to speedup the algorithm. This heuristic has been tested on 80 SCP instances from the OR-Library. The sizes of the problems are up to 1000 rows × 10,000 columns for non-unicost SCP, and 28,160 rows × 11,264 columns for the unicost SCP. This heuristic is only one of two known SCP heuristics to find all optimal/best known solutions for those non-unicost instances. In addition, this heuristic is the best for unicost problems among the heuristics in terms of solution quality. Furthermore, evolving from a simple greedy heuristic, it is simple and easy to code. This heuristic enriches the options of practitioners in the optimization area.     

On the Motion of a Dynamic System with Minimal Dissipation

The motion of a holonomic scleronomic non-conservative mechanicalsystem with minimal dissipation is considered. As applicationsof the theory several problems are studied in detail.     

Theoretical analysis of thermal desorption

The physical causes of multiple peaks obversed in thermal desorption spectra are investigated using chemical rate equations and a two binding site model. An exclusion term is introduced which adds the repulsive adatom-adatom hard sphere interactions into the rate equations. Finally, using a fundamental statistical mechanical approach it is demonstrated how general adatom-adatom interactions can be incorporated into the expression for the surface delay time.     

High-Dimensional Menger-Type Curvatures—Part II: d-Separation and a Menagerie of Curvatures

We estimate d-dimensional least squares approximations of an arbitrary d-regular measure μ via discrete curvatures of d+2 variables. The main result bounds the least squares error of approximating μ (or its restrictions to balls) with a d-plane by an average of the discrete Menger-type curvature over a restricted set of simplices. Its proof is constructive and even suggests an algorithm for an approximate least squares d-plane. A consequent result bounds a multiscale error term (used for quantifying the approximation of μ with a sufficiently regular surface) by an integral of the discrete Menger-type curvature over all simplices. The preceding paper (part I) provided the opposite inequalities of these two results. This paper also demonstrates the use of a few other discrete curvatures which are different from the Menger-type curvature. Furthermore, it shows that a curvature suggested by Léger (Ann. Math. 149(3), pp. 831–869, 1999) does not fit within our framework.     

Light hole transport in a strained GaAs/In0.18Ga0.82As quantum well at high pressures

Abstract

Here we report what we believe to be the first observation of the pressure dependence of the light hole behavior in a modulation doped In_0.18Ga_0.82As/GaAs single strained quantum well grown by MBE. Transport measurements have been undertaken as a function of temperature (4–300K) and hydrostatic pressure (4–8kbar). Hole mobilities of ～17000 cm²/Vs have been obtained for sheet carrier densities of ～3.3×10¹¹ cm^?2. At low temperatures (<100K) persistent photogenerated holes have been observed. The hole mobility is found to decrease with increasing pressure at a rate intermediate between that typically observed for holes and electrons in bulk III-V semiconductors.     

Periods and nonvanishing of central <Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis>-values for GL(2<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>)

Let π be a cuspidal automorphic representation of PGL(2n) over a number field F, and η the quadratic idèle class character attached to a quadratic extension E/F. Guo and Jacquet conjectured a relation between the nonvanishing of L(1/2, π)L(1/2, π ? η) for π of symplectic type and the nonvanishing of certain GL(n,E) periods. When n = 1, this specializes to a well-known result of Waldspurger. We prove this conjecture, and related global results, under some local hypotheses using a simple relative trace formula.We then apply these global results to obtain local results on distinguished supercuspidal representations, which partially establish a conjecture of Prasad and Takloo-Bighash.