Unravelling the Time Scale of Conformational Plasticity and Allostery in Glycan Recognition by Human Galectin-1

The interaction of human galectin-1 with a variety of oligosaccharides, from di-(N-acetyllactosamine) to tetra-saccharides (blood B type-II antigen) has been scrutinized by using a combined approach of different NMR experiments, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and isothermal titration calorimetry. Ligand- and receptor-based NMR experiments assisted by computational methods allowed proposing three-dimensional structures for the different complexes, which explained the lack of enthalpy gain when increasing the chemical complexity of the glycan. Interestingly, and independently of the glycan ligand, the entropy term does not oppose the binding event, a rather unusual feature for protein-sugar interactions. CLEANEX-PM and relaxation dispersion experiments revealed that sugar binding affected residues far from the binding site and described significant changes in the dynamics of the protein. In particular, motions in the microsecond-millisecond timescale in residues at the protein dimer interface were identified in the presence of high affinity ligands. The dynamic process was further explored by extensive MD simulations, which provided additional support for the existence of allostery in glycan recognition by human galectin-1.     

SCAP-subalgebras of Lie algebras

A subalgebra H of a finite dimensional Lie algebra L is said to be a SCAP-subalgebra if there is a chief series 0 = L₀ ? L₁ ?... ? L_t = L of L such that for every i = 1, 2,..., t, we have H + L_i = H + L_i-1 or H ∩ L_i = H ∩ L_i-1. This is analogous to the concept of SCAP-subgroup, which has been studied by a number of authors. In this article, we investigate the connection between the structure of a Lie algebra and its SCAP-subalgebras and give some sufficient conditions for a Lie algebra to be solvable or supersolvable.     

Simultaneous effects of magnetic field and space porosity on compressible Maxwell fluid transport induced by a surface acoustic wave in a microchannel

Peristaltic motion induced by a surface acoustic wave of a viscous, compressible and electrically conducting Maxwell fluid in a confined parallel-plane microchannel through a porous medium is investigated in the presence of a constant magnetic field. The slip velocity is considered and the problem is discussed only for the free pumping case. A perturbation technique is employed to analyze the problem in terms of a small amplitude ratio. The phenomenon of a “backward flow” is found to exist in the center and at the boundaries of the channel. In the second order approximation, the net axial velocity is calculated for various values of the fluid parameters. Finally, the effects of the parameters of interest on the mean axial velocity, the reversal flow, and the perturbation function are discussed and shown graphically. We find that in the non-Newtonian regime, there is a possibility of a fluid flow in the direction opposite to the propagation of the traveling wave. This work is the most general model of peristalsis created to date with wide-ranging applications in biological, geophysical and industrial fluid dynamics.     

Infinitely many solutions of a symmetric semilinear elliptic equation on an unbounded domain

We study a semilinear elliptic equation of the form

Influence functions and efficiencies of the canonical correlation and vector estimates based on scatter and shape matrices

In this paper, the influence functions and limiting distributions of the canonical correlations and coefficients based on affine equivariant scatter matrices are developed for elliptically symmetric distributions. General formulas for limiting variances and covariances of the canonical correlations and canonical vectors based on scatter matrices are obtained. Also the use of the so-called shape matrices in canonical analysis is investigated. The scatter and shape matrices based on the affine equivariant Sign Covariance Matrix as well as the Tyler's shape matrix serve as examples. Their finite sample and limiting efficiencies are compared to those of the Minimum Covariance Determinant estimators and S-estimator through theoretical and simulation studies. The theory is illustrated by an example.     

On fractional integro-differential inclusions with state-dependent delay in Banach spaces

In this article we investigate the existence of solutions on a compact interval for the fractional integro-differential inclusions with state-dependent delay in Banach spaces when the delay is infinite. We consider the cases when the multivalued nonlinear term takes convex values as well as nonconvex values.     

On Dedekind Modules

In this article the authors give the relation between a finitely-generated torsionfree Dedekind module M over a domain R and prime submodules of the 𝒪(M)-module M and the ring 𝒪(M). They also prove that M is a finitely-generated torsionfree Dedekind module over a domain R if and only if every semi-maximal submodule of R-module M is invertible.     

An assessment of the impact of construction work on fine particulate matter in the University of Jordan: A PIXE study

Aerosol sampling was carried out prior to and during an active construction work at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan. Elemental characterization for 60 PM_2.5 samples was performed by particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) technique at the LABEC laboratory of INFN in Florence, Italy. Twenty three elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, Sr, Zr, Ba, and Pb) were detected, and their concentrations were assessed during three sampling periods, namely, “No Construction,” “Pouring Concrete,” and “Bleaching.” The results showed higher concentrations of soil-related elements and lower concentrations of anthropogenic-related elements during construction periods compared with their concentrations before construction. Soil-related elements showed very low enrichment factor (EF) and high correlation coefficients during all sampling periods. Anthropogenic-related elements were very much enriched and correlated only during the first sampling period “No Construction.”