Crystallization of Arthrobacter sp. strain 1C N-(1-D-carboxyethyl)-L-norvaline dehydrogenase and its complex with NAD+

The novel NAD+-linked opine dehydrogenase from a soil isolate Arthrobacter sp. strain 1C belongs to an enzyme superfamily whose members exhibit quite diverse substrate specificites. Crystals of this opine dehydrogenase, obtained in the presence or absence of co-factor and substrates, have been shown to diffract to beyond 1.8 ? resolution. X-ray precession photographs have established that the crystals belong to space group P21212, with cell parameters a = 104.9, b = 80.0, c = 45.5 ? and a single subunit in the asymmetric unit. The elucidation of the three-dimensional structure of this enzyme will provide a structural framework for this novel class of dehydrogenases to enable a comparison to be made with other enzyme families and also as the basis for mutagenesis experiments directed towards the production of natural and synthetic opine-type compounds containing two chiral centres.     

Orientable Hamilton Cycle Embeddings of Complete Tripartite Graphs II: Voltage Graph Constructions and Applications

In an earlier article the authors constructed a hamilton cycle embedding of in a nonorientable surface for all and then used these embeddings to determine the genus of some large families of graphs. In this two‐part series, we extend those results to orientable surfaces for all . In part II, a voltage graph construction is presented for building embeddings of the complete tripartite graph on an orientable surface such that the boundary of every face is a hamilton cycle. This construction works for all such that p is prime, completing the proof started by part I (which covers the case ) that there exists an orientable hamilton cycle embedding of for all , . These embeddings are then used to determine the genus of several families of graphs, notably for and, in some cases, for .     

Prism‐hamiltonicity of triangulations

The prism over a graph G is the Cartesian product G □ K₂ of G with the complete graph K₂. If the prism over G is hamiltonian, we say that G is prism‐hamiltonian. We prove that triangulations of the plane, projective plane, torus, and Klein bottle are prism‐hamiltonian. We additionally show that every 4‐connected triangulation of a surface with sufficiently large representativity is prism‐hamiltonian, and that every 3‐connected planar bipartite graph is prism‐hamiltonian. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 57: 181–197, 2008     

Ultralong Raman fiber lasers as virtually lossless optical media

By transforming the optical fiber span into an ultralong cavity laser, we experimentally demonstrate quasilossless transmission over long (up to 75 km) distances and virtually zero signal power variation over shorter (up to 20 km) spans, opening the way for the practical implementation of integrable nonlinear systems in optical fiber. As a by-product of our technique, the longest ever laser (to the best of our knowledge) has been implemented, with a cavity length of 75 km. A simple theory of the lossless fiber span, in excellent agreement with the observed results, is presented.     

Short cellulose nanofibrils as reinforcement in polyvinyl alcohol fiber

Short cellulose nanofibrils (SCNF) were investigated as reinforcement for polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers. SCNF were mechanically isolated from hard wood pulp after enzymatic pretreatment. Various levels of SCNF were added to an aqueous PVA solution, which was gel-spun into continuous fibers. The molecular orientation of PVA was affected by a combination of wet drawing during gel spinning and post-hot-drawing at a high temperature after drying. A maximum total draw ratio of 27 was achieved with various SCNF contents investigated. The PVA crystal orientation increased when small amounts of SCNF were added, but decreased again as the SCNF content was increased above about 2 or 3 %, likely due to SCNF percolation resulting in network formation that inhibited alignment. SCNF fillers were effective in improving PVA fiber tensile properties (i.e., ultimate strength and elastic modulus). For example, the ultimate strength and modulus of PVA/SCNF composite fiber with a SCNF weight ratio of 6 were nearly 60 and 220 % higher than that of neat PVA. Shifts in the Raman peak at ~1,095 cm^?1, which were associated with the C–O–C glycosidic bond of SCNF, indicated good stress-transfer between the SCNF and the PVA matrix due to strong interfacial hydrogen bonding. Cryogenic fractured scanning electron microscopy images of filled and unfilled PVA fibers showed uniform SCNF dispersion.     

Toughness,trees, and walks

A graph is t‐tough if the number of components of G\S is at most |S|/t for every cutset S ⊆ V (G). A k‐walk in a graph is a spanning closed walk using each vertex at most k times. When k = 1, a 1‐walk is a Hamilton cycle, and a longstanding conjecture by Chvátal is that every sufficiently tough graph has a 1‐walk. When k ≥ 3, Jackson and Wormald used a result of Win to show that every sufficiently tough graph has a k‐walk. We fill in the gap between k = 1 and k ≥ 3 by showing that, when k = 2, every sufficiently tough (specifically, 4‐tough) graph has a 2‐walk. To do this we first provide a new proof for and generalize a result by Win on the existence of a k‐tree, a spanning tree with every vertex of degree at most k. We also provide new examples of tough graphs with no k‐walk for k ≥ 2. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 33:125–137, 2000     

Colorability of Planar Graphs with Isolated Nontriangular Faces

By a hole graph we mean a 2-connected planar graph where no two nontriangular faces have a vertex in common. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a hole graph to be 3-colorable.Acknowledgments. This paper was prepared in framework of the exchange program between the Austrian and Slovak Academies of Sciences. The third author was active at Department of Mathematics, Vanderbilt University and Fakulta prírodných vied, ilinská univerzita v iline.Mathematics Subject Classification (1991): 05C15     

The orientable genus of some joins of complete graphs with large edgeless graphs

In an earlier paper the authors showed that with one exception the nonorientable genus of the graph with m≥n−1, the join of a complete graph with a large edgeless graph, is the same as the nonorientable genus of the spanning subgraph . The orientable genus problem for with m≥n−1 seems to be more difficult, but in this paper we find the orientable genus of some of these graphs. In particular, we determine the genus of when n is even and m≥n, the genus of when n=2^p+2 for p≥3 and m≥n−1, and the genus of when n=2^p+1 for p≥3 and m≥n+1. In all of these cases the genus is the same as the genus of K_m,n, namely ⌈(m−2)(n−2)/4⌉.     

Bidegreed graphs are edge reconstructible

An edge-deleted subgraph of a graph G is a subgraph obtained from G by the deletion of an edge. The Edge Reconstruction Conjecture asserts that every simple finite graph with four or more edges is determined uniquely, up to isomorphism, by its collection of edge-deleted subgraphs. A class of graphs is said to be edge reconstructible if there is no graph in the class with four or more edges that is not edge reconstructible. This paper proves that bidegreed graphs (graphs whose vertices all have one of two possible degrees) are edge reconstructible. The results are then generalized to show that all graphs that do not have three consecutive integers in their degree sequence are also edge reconstructible.