Two new simple iridoids from the ant-plant Myrmecodia tuberosa and their antimicrobial effects

Six iridoid derivatives (1–6), including two new compounds myrmecodoides A and B (1 and 2), were isolated from the ant-plant Myrmecodia tuberosa. Their structures were determined on the basis of spectroscopic data (¹H and ¹³C NMR, HSQC, HMBC, ¹H-¹H COSY, NOESY and HR-ESI-MS) and by comparison with the literature values. Among isolates, 3 and 4 exhibit weak antibacterial effect against Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus with MIC value of 100.0 μg/mL.     

Long-Time Stability of Multi-Dimensional Noncharacteristic Viscous Boundary Layers

We establish long-time stability of multi-dimensional noncharacteristic boundary layers of a class of hyperbolic–parabolic systems including the compressible Navier–Stokes equations with inflow [outflow] boundary conditions, under the assumption of strong spectral, or uniform Evans, stability. Evans stability has been verified for small-amplitude layers by Guès, Métivier, Williams, and Zumbrun. For large-amplitude layers, it may be efficiently checked numerically, as done in the one-dimensional case by Costanzino, Humpherys, Nguyen, and Zumbrun.     

Multi-dimensional stability of planar Lax shocks in hyperbolic–elliptic coupled systems

We study nonlinear time-asymptotic stability of small-amplitude planar Lax shocks in a model consisting of a system of multi-dimensional conservation laws coupled with an elliptic system. Such a model can be found in context of dynamics of a gas in presence of radiation. Our main result asserts that the standard uniform Evans stability condition implies nonlinear stability. The main analysis is based on the earlier developments by Zumbrun for multi-dimensional viscous shock waves and by Lattanzio–Mascia–Nguyen–Plaza–Zumbrun for one-dimensional radiative shock profiles.     

On the origin of the unusual behavior in the stretching of single-stranded DNA

Force-extension curves (FECs), which quantify the response of a variety of biomolecules subject to mechanical force (f), are often quantitatively fit using worm-like chain (WLC) or freely jointed chain (FJC) models. These models predict that the chain extension, x, normalized by the contour length increases linearly at small f and at high forces scale as x ~ (1 - f(-α)), where α = 0.5 for WLC and unity for FJC. In contrast, experiments on single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) show that over a range of f and ionic concentration, x scales as x ~ ln f, which cannot be explained using WLC or FJC models. Using theory and simulations we show that this unusual behavior in FEC in ssDNA is due to sequence-independent polyelectrolyte effects. We show that the x ~ ln f arises because in the absence of force the tangent correlation function, quantifying chain persistence, decays algebraically on length scales on the order of the Debye length. Our theory, which is most appropriate for monovalent salts, quantitatively fits the experimental data and further predicts that such a regime is not discernible in double-stranded DNA.     

Ill-Posedness of the Hydrostatic Euler and Singular Vlasov Equations

In this paper, we develop an abstract framework to establish ill-posedness, in the sense of Hadamard, for some nonlocal PDEs displaying unbounded unstable spectra. We apply this to prove the ill-posedness for the hydrostatic Euler equations as well as for the kinetic incompressible Euler equations and the Vlasov–Dirac–Benney system.     

Microstructure and Red Luminescence of ZnO Nanoparticles/Nanofibers Synthesized by Electrospinning Followed by Thermal Annealing

Journal of Applied Spectroscopy - This paper reports the red visible luminescence of ZnO nanofibers synthesized by electrospinning followed by thermal annealing. The ZnO nanofibers were prepared by...