Visualization of supersonic screeching jets using a phase conditioned focusing schlieren system

This study describes a technique that combines the benefits of focusing schlieren and phase conditioning. Focusing schlieren blurs and drops contrast of non-critical features whereas phase conditioning emphasizes periodic flow features, and their combination produces unique results. The supersonic jets that we studied produced an intense tone referred to as screech. The measured screech tone signal was used as input to the phase conditioning circuit that adjusted the strobing light source to the vertical synchronization pulse of a CCD camera. The sharp video images obtained by this technique could either be frozen or continuously swept through one period of screech to acquire a slow motion video record of the jet unsteadiness. Two cases were visualized in this study: first, an underexpanded jet from a convergent rectangular nozzle at various fully expanded Mach numbers. Second, a supersonic jet emerging from a convergent-divergent rectangular nozzle at a design Mach number of 1.4, artificially excited by impingement tones. The results of this study illustrate the usefulness of this system in visualizing oscillatory flows.The authors would like to thank Dr. Edward J. Rice for his contributions including the design of the impingement obstacles. The efforts of Brentley C. Nowlin (NASA Lewis), and James E. Little (NYMA Inc.) in the design and construction of the strobe trigger mechanism are highly appreciated. We also thank Janet Ivancic (NASA Lewis Photo Lab) for the image enhancement.     

Parametrizing the lepton mixing matrix in terms of charged lepton corrections

We consider a parametrization of the lepton mixing matrix in which the deviations from maximal atmospheric mixing and vanishing reactor mixing are obtained in terms of small corrections from the charged lepton sector. Relatively large deviations for the reactor mixing angle from zero as indicated by T2K experiment can be obtained in this parametrization. We are able to further reduce the number of complex phases, thus, simplifying the analysis. In addition, we have obtained the sides of unitarity triangles and the vacuum oscillation probabilities in this parametrization. The Jarlskog rephasing invariant measure of CP violation at the leading order has a single phase difference which can be identified as Dirac-type CP violating phase in this parametrization.     

Mode spectra of natural disturbances in a circular jet and the effect of acoustic forcing

A modal spectrum technique was used to study coherent instability modes (both axisymmetric and azimuthal) triggered by naturally occurring disturbances in a circular jet. This technique was applied to a high Reynolds number (400,000) jet for both untripped (transitional) and tripped (turbulent) nozzle exit boundary layers, with both cases having a core turbulence level of 0.15%. The region up to the end of the potential core was dominated by the axisymmetric mode, with the azimuthal modes dominating further downstream. The growth of the azimuthal modes was observed closer to the nozzle exit for the jet with a transitional boundary layer. Whether for locally parallel flow or slowly diverging flow, even at low levels of acoustic forcing, the inviscid linear theory is seen to be inadequate for predicting the amplitude of the forced mode. In contrast, the energy integral approach reasonably predicts the evolution of the forced mode.     

In situ, on-resin synthesis of 8-Br/NH2 adeninyl peptide nucleic acid (PNA) oligomers and complementation studies with DNA

A new, novel and efficient in situ synthesis of 8-aminoadeninyl PNA oligomers from corresponding 8-bromoadeninyl PNA oligomers is reported. The study of hybridisation properties of (8-Br/8-NH₂) PNA oligomers with cDNA reveals substitution-site dependent stabilization of derived triplexes and duplexes.     

A rapid and specific derivatization procedure to identify acyl‐glucuronides by mass spectrometry

A simple procedure is described to identify acyl‐glucuronides by coupled liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry after derivatization to a hydroxamic acid with hydroxylamine. The reaction specificity obviates the need for isolation of the acyl‐glucuronide from an extract. Glucuronides derived from carbamic acids, and alkyl‐ and aromatic amines, are inert to the derivatization reaction conditions, making the hydroxamic acid derivative a fingerprint for acyl‐glucuronides. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Immuno-fluorescence based Vi capsular polysaccharide detection for specific recognition of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi in clinical samples

Typhoid fever is a life threatening bacterial infection that remains a major global health concern. This continued high burden associated with significant morbidity and mortality rate demands specific and rapid detection technique. This work reports a new sandwich type fluorescence immunoassay format using polymyxin B, a cationic receptor molecule, as a binder agent while anti-Vi antibody served as the capturing agent for specifically detecting Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi. Anti-Vi IgG antibody raised against Vi–BSA conjugate revealed affinity of 7.779 nM⁻¹ signifying immunodominancy of O-acetyls groups in Vi polysaccharide. The detection limit of the developed assay was around 10¹ cells mL⁻¹ of Vi expressing Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi with a correlation coefficient (R²) equal to 0.97. Positive response obtained for all the tested serovar Typhi clinical isolates as well as the pathogen spiked blood samples recommended specificity and accuracy of Vi antigen as a biomarker during typhoid fever. The intra- and inter-assay precision with Vi spiked samples were satisfactory revealing coefficient of variance (CV%) with a mean of 4.05% and 5.97% respectively. This may be the novel attempt and constructive report on the fluorescence based detection of Vi antigen of serovar Typhi in the epidemic as well as pandemic outbreaks.     

CHARMM additive all-atom force field for carbohydrate derivatives and its utility in polysaccharide and carbohydrate-protein modeling

Monosaccharide derivatives such as xylose, fucose, N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), N-acetylgalactosamine (GlaNAc), glucuronic acid, iduronic acid, and N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) are important components of eukaryotic glycans. The present work details development of force-field parameters for these monosaccharides and their covalent connections to proteins via O-linkages to serine or threonine sidechains and via N-linkages to asparagine sidechains. The force field development protocol was designed to explicitly yield parameters that are compatible with the existing CHARMM additive force field for proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates, and small molecules. Therefore, when combined with previously developed parameters for pyranose and furanose monosaccharides, for glycosidic linkages between monosaccharides, and for proteins, the present set of parameters enables the molecular simulation of a wide variety of biologically-important molecules such as complex carbohydrates and glycoproteins. Parametrization included fitting to quantum mechanical (QM) geometries and conformational energies of model compounds, as well as to QM pair interaction energies and distances of model compounds with water. Parameters were validated in the context of crystals of relevant monosaccharides, as well NMR and/or x-ray crystallographic data on larger systems including oligomeric hyaluronan, sialyl Lewis X, O- and N-linked glycopeptides, and a lectin:sucrose complex. As the validated parameters are an extension of the CHARMM all-atom additive biomolecular force field, they further broaden the types of heterogeneous systems accessible with a consistently-developed force-field model.     

An examination of density functionals on aldol, Mannich and ��-aminoxylation reaction enthalpy calculations

The reaction enthalpies of aldol, Mannich and ??-aminoxylation reactions were calculated by density functional theory (DFT) using long-range-corrected (LC), hybrid B3LYP and other up-to-date functionals to show why conventional DFT including B3LYP has given poor enthalpies for these reactions. As a result, we found that long-range exchange interactions significantly affect the reaction enthalpies. We therefore proposed that the poor enthalpies of B3LYP are due to its insufficient long-range exchange effect. On the other hand, LC functionals accurately reproduce reaction enthalpies for these reactions. However, we noticed that even LC functionals present poor reaction enthalpies for specific reactions, in which many branches are produced or very small molecules such as methane molecule participate.