Emerging synthetic approaches for protein-polymer conjugations

Protein-polymer conjugates are important in diverse fields including drug delivery, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. This feature article highlights recent advances in the synthesis and application of protein-polymer conjugates by controlled radical polymerization techniques. Special emphasis on new applications of the materials, particularly in biomedicine, is provided.     

Actinide cyanometallates

Simple salts of the tetracyanoplatinate (TCP) anions with the general formula M[Pt(CN)₄] _x ·H₂O have been described for over 200 years. A major structural feature of these compounds are pseudo one dimensional Pt···Pt interactions between the square planar tetracyanoplatinate anions. These interactions form quasi one-dimensional chains in the solid state and are believed to be the source of their unique spectroscopic and emission properties. The lanthanides offer the ability to tune the Pt···Pt spacing of these pseudo one dimensional chains, predictably by taking advantage of the lanthanide contraction. Here, we describe the emission and structural characteristics of new actinide tetracyanometallates.     

K→π form factors with reduced model dependence

Using partially twisted boundary conditions we compute the K→π semi-leptonic form factors in the range of momentum transfers $0\lesssim q^{2}\leq q^{2}_{\max}=(m_{K}-m_{\pi})^{2}$ in lattice QCD with N _f =2+1 dynamical flavours. In this way we are able to determine $f_{+}^{K\pi}(0)$ without any interpolation in the momentum transfer, thus eliminating one source of systematic error. This study confirms our earlier phenomenological ansatz for the strange quark mass dependence of the scalar form factor. We identify and estimate potentially significant NNLO effects in the chiral expansion that guides the extrapolation of the data to the physical point. Our main result is $f_{+}^{K\pi}(0)=0.9599(34)(^{+31}_{-47})(14)$ , where the first error is statistical, the second error is due to the uncertainties in the chiral extrapolation of the lattice data and the last error is an estimate of potential discretisation effects.     

On the reconstruction of linear codes

For a linear code over GF(q) we consider two kinds of “subcodes” called residuals and punctures. When does the collection of residuals or punctures determine the isomorphism class of the code? We call such a code residually or puncture reconstructible. We investigate these notions of reconstruction and show that, for instance, selfdual binary codes are puncture and residually reconstructible. A result akin to the edge reconstruction of graphs with sufficiently many edges shows that a code whose dimension is small in relation to its length is puncture reconstructible. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 6: 285–291, 1998