Semisynthesis of Functional Glycosylphosphatidylinositol‐Anchored Proteins

Glypiation is a common posttranslational modification of eukaryotic proteins involving the attachment of a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) glycolipid. GPIs contain a conserved phosphoglycan that is modified in a cell‐ and tissue‐specific manner. GPI complexity suggests roles in biological processes and effects on the attached protein, but the difficulties to get homogeneous material have hindered studies. We disclose a one‐pot intein‐mediated ligation (OPL) to obtain GPI‐anchored proteins. The strategy enables the glypiation of folded and denatured proteins with a natural linkage to the glycolipid. Using the strategy, glypiated eGFP, Thy1, and the Plasmodium berghei protein MSP1₁₉ were prepared. Glypiation did not alter the structure of eGFP and MSP1₁₉ proteins in solution, but it induced a strong pro‐inflammatory response in vitro. The strategy provides access to glypiated proteins to elucidate the activity of this modification and for use as vaccine candidates against parasitic infections.     

Photoluminescence and atomic force microscopy studies on pre- and post-irradiated ruby with Fe3+ ion

Photoluminescence spectra measured for pristine ruby and its two irradiated samples with Fe³⁺ ion show R₁, R₂, N lines and a broad band. Decrease in intensities of these features is observed with irradiation of Fe³⁺ ion in ruby. Progressive structural changes and modifications on surface of irradiated rubies with Fe³⁺ ion have been observed by atomic force microscopy. Decrease in intensities is discussed in terms of pair formation.     

Performance analysis of an integrated scheme in optical burst switching high-speed networks

A new integrated scheme based on resource-reservation and adaptive network flow routing to alleviate contention in optical burst switching networks is proposed. The objective of the proposed scheme is to reduce the overall burst loss in the network and at the same time to avoid the packet out-of-sequence arrival problem. Simulations are carried out to assess the feasibility of the proposed scheme. Its performance is compared with that of contention resolution schemes based on conventional routing. Through extensive simulations, it is shown that the proposed scheme not only provides significantly better burst loss performance than the basic equal proportion and hop-length based traffic routing algorithms, but also is void of any packet re-orderings.     

A novel optical burst switching architecture for high speed networks

A novel optical burst switching （OBS） high speed network architecture has been proposed. To verify its feasibility and evaluate its performance, just-enough-time （JET） signaling has been considered as a high performance protocol. In the proposed architecture, to avoid burst losses, firstly, a short-prior- confirmation-packet （SPCP） is sent over the control channel that simulates the events that the actual packet will experience. Once SPCP detects a drop at any of the intermediate nodes, the actual packet is not sent but the process repeats. In order to increase network utilization, cost effectiveness and to overcome some limitations of conventional OBS, inherent codes （e.g., orthogonal optical codes （OOC））, which are codified only in intensity, has been used. Through simulations, it shows that a decrease in burst loss probability, cost effectiveness and a gain in processing time are obtained when optical label processing is used as compared with electronic processing.     

SU(2) instantons with boundary jumps and spin tunneling in magnetic molecules

Coherent state path integrals are shown in general to contain instantons with jumps at the boundaries, i.e., boundary points lying outside classical phase space. Inclusion of these instantons is shown to resolve the "missing quench paradox" in the magnetic molecule Fe8, i.e., the fact that the tunneling between the ground Zeeman states of this molecule is quenched at only four magnetic field values, instead of the ten that would be expected from the topological Berry phase between interfering instantons. An approximate formula is found for the location of the four remaining quenches.     

Mössbauer Study of Oxygenated Iron-Phthalocyanines,a Precursor of Magnetic Storage Material

⁵⁷Fe transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry were used to study - and -polymorphs of iron phthalocyanines (FePc) to get information about their oxygenation in connection with controlled pyrolysis of flat layered phthalocyanines initiated by radicals at relatively low temperatures, to form acicular carbide particles encaged in carbon. Mössbauer spectroscopy and XRD revealed that the oxygenation of both - and -polymorphs of FePc was successfully achieved. New Mössbauer spectral components (doublets) appeared upon the oxygenation in both and FePc. This can be attributed to iron microenvironments containing oxygen between the layers of iron phthalocyanines.     

Symmetrization of matrix technique in a finite element context

A finite element Galerkin-based formulation of the mass conservation and momentum equations can require, if convective type terms are retained in the coefficient matrix, a non-symmetric solver. The resulting increase in core storage for efficient utilization of CPU time can be considerable. The current paper advocates a simple symmetrization of matrix technique, at element level which results in a considerable reduction in core requirement. The increase in CPU time required when solving linear systems of equations is considerable. However, for nonlinear systems the penalty can be negligible.     

The polarography of oximes: I. 9,10-Phenanthraquinone monoxime

Polarography of 9,10-phenanthraquinone monoxime has been carried out in buffers (pH 3.50 to 13.40) of constant ionic strength 0.5 M in 40% alcoholic solutions at 35 ± 0.5 °C. The oxime group underwent diffusion-controlled reduction (4e) over the whole pH range studied. The number of electrons involved in the reduction was found coulometrically as well as by incorporating the value of the diffusion coefficient, obtained by using a McBain-Dawson cell, into the Ilkovic equation. Controlled potential electrolyses and uv spectroscopic methods were used to identify the products. Koutecky's method was used to compute the kinetic parameters (αn_aand ?log k_f,h^o) for the reduction of the oxime group and reduction mechanisms are proposed.