A Remarkable Fluorescence Quenching Based Amplification in ATP Detection through Signal Transduction in Self-Assembled Multivalent Aggregates

Signal transduction is essential for the survival of living organisms, because it allows them to respond to the changes in external environments. In artificial systems, signal transduction has been exploited for the highly sensitive detection of analytes. Herein, a remarkable signal transduction, upon ATP binding, in the multivalent fibrillar nanoaggregates of anthracene conjugated imidazolium receptors is reported. The aggregates of one particular amphiphilic receptor sensed ATP in high pm concentrations with one ATP molecule essentially quenching the emission of thousands of receptors. A cooperative merging of the multivalent binding and signal transduction led to this superquenching and translated to an outstanding enhancement of more than a millionfold in the sensitivity of ATP detection by the nanoaggregates; in comparison to the “molecular” imidazolium receptors. Furthermore, an exceptional selectivity to ATP over other nucleotides was demonstrated.     

Structural Investigation of Hybrid Peptide Foldamers Composed of α-Dipeptide Equivalent β-Oxy-δ5-amino Acids

Due to their equivalent lengths, δ-amino acids can serve as surrogates of α-dipeptides. However, δ-amino acids with proteinogenic side chains have not been well studied because of synthetic difficulties and because of their insolubility in organic solvents. Recently we reported the spontaneous supramolecular gelation of δ-peptides composed of β(O)-δ⁵-amino acids. Here, we report the incorporation of β(O)-δ⁵-amino acids as guests into the host α-helix, α,γ-hybrid peptide 12-helix and their single-crystal conformations. In addition, we studied the solution conformations of hybrid peptides composed of 1:1 alternating α and β(O)-δ⁵-amino acids. In contrast to the control α-helix structures, the crystal structure of peptides with β(O)-δ⁵-amino acids exhibit α-helical conformations consisting of both 13- and 10-membered H-bonds. The α,δ-hybrid peptide adopted mixed 13/11-helix conformation in solution with alternating H-bond directionality. Crystal-structure analysis revealed that the α,γ⁴-hybrid peptide accommodated the guest β(O)-δ⁵-amino acid without significant deviation to the overall helix folding. The results reported here emphasize that β(O)-δ⁵-amino acids with proteinogenic side chains can be accommodated into regular α-helix or 12-helix as guests without much deviation of the overall helix folding of the peptides.     

Ligand-Enabled [3+2] Annulation of Aromatic Acids with Maleimides by C(sp3)−H and C(sp2)−H Bond Activation

A palladium-catalyzed [3+2] annulation of substituted benzoic acids with maleimides leading to tricyclic heterocyclic molecules having a free carboxylic group in a high atom- and step-economical manner is described. The reaction proceeds via a dual C−H bond activation such as C(sp³)−H at the benzylic position and C(sp²)−H bond activation at the meta position of substituted aromatics. An external ligand (MPAA) is crucial for the success of present protocol. Further, the decarboxylation and esterification of the free carboxylic acid group of observed products were carried out.     

Effect of sol–gel-based silica buffer layer on the formation of NaA zeolite membrane

The support substrates were modified with sol?Cgel-based silica coating as intermediate buffer layer followed by NaA zeolite seed (prepared hydrothermally at 85?°C for 3?h) coating with 2?wt% aqueous dispersion. The secondary crystallization of NaA zeolite in the silica-seed-coated supports was carried out hydrothermally through crystal growth process at 65?°C for 4 and 8?h (single-stage each), (6?+?4) and (6?+?6)?h (double-stage each), and (6?+?4?+?2) and (6?+?4?+?4)?h (triple-stage each). The crystallization behaviours of the prepared NaA membranes were studied by X-ray diffraction, and the microstructures of the same films were observed by field emission scanning electron microscope. The efficiency of the membranes was tested with gas permeation study. The double-stage secondary crystallization at 65?°C for (6?+?4)?h showed highly interlocked NaA grains in the membrane and it rendered the permeance values of 3.7?×?10^?8?mol?m^?2?s^?1?Pa^?1 and 15.9?×?10^?8 for single gas, nitrogen (N₂) and hydrogen (H₂) respectively with the ideal selectivity of 4.3.     

Profiling the binding motif between Be and Mg in the ground state via a single-reference coupled cluster method

We present a study on the performance of our iterative triples correction for the coupled cluster singles and doubles excitations (CCSDT-1a+d) method for computation of potential energy surface (PES), spectroscopic constants, and vibrational spectrum for the ground state (X¹Σ⁺) BeMg, where the ostensible inadequacy of the CCSD and CCSD(T) methods is quite expected. We compare our results with those obtained using state-of-the-art multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) investigations reported earlier by Kerkines and Nicolaides. Our estimated dissociation energy (417.37 cm^?1), equilibrium distance (3.285 Å), and vibrational frequency (82.32 cm^?1) are in good agreement with recent results of advanced MRCI calculations for X¹Σ⁺ BeMg PES, which exhibits a shallow well of 469.4 cm^?1 with a minimum at 3.241 Å and a harmonic vibrational frequency of 85.7 cm^?1. Very weakly bound nature of X¹Σ⁺ BeMg is clearly reflected from these values. In accord with MRCI studies, a comparison of BeMg with iso-valence weakly bound ground-state species, Be₂ and Mg₂, suggests that its characteristics do not exhibit any resemblance to Be₂ rather, it shows a close kinship to Mg₂. The agreement of our derived vibrational levels with those obtained via the high-level MRCI calculations is very encouraging reflecting the potential of the suitably modified single-reference coupled cluster (SRCC) method, CCSDT-1a+d as a tool for the study of multireference van der Waals systems.     

Optical Packet Switch Architectures: A Comparative Analysis for Bursty Traffic and Optical Cost

Abstract

In this article, we present the comparative analysis of various optical packet switch architectures. The comparison is done on the basis of bursty traffic arrival and the optical cost of various optical components used to build that switch. The architectures chosen for the analysis were previously proposed by us and their performance was evaluated only for the uniform random traffic arrival. Hence, this article can be considered as the cumulative and effective extension of the previous works. The computer simulations are performed to obtain the packet loss probability and average delay in presence of bursty traffic.     

Poisson convergence of eigenvalues of circulant type matrices

We consider the point processes based on the eigenvalues of the reverse circulant, symmetric circulant and k-circulant matrices with i.i.d. entries and show that they converge to a Poisson random measures in vague topology. The joint convergence of upper ordered eigenvalues and their spacings follow from this. We extend these results partially to the situation where the entries are come from a two sided moving average process.