Activation and detection of (Pro)mutagenic chemicals using recombinant strains ofStreptomyces griseus

Two recombinant strains ofStreptomyces griseus have been developed to report on the activation of promutagenic° chemicals. This activation is monitored by reversion of the bacterial test strains to a kana-mycin-resistant phenotype. Strain H69 detects point mutations and was reverted at an increased frequency by acetonitrile, 2-aminoanthracene, 1,2-benzanthracene, benzidine, benzo(a)pyrene, 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benzanthracene, and glycine. The second strain, FS2, detects frame shift mutations and was reverted at an increased frequency by 1,2-benzanthracene, benzidine, and glycine. Compounds such as butylated hydroxytoluene, catechol, chlorobenzene, hydroquinone, potassium chloride, phenol,cis-stilbene,trans-stilbene, and toluene did not elicit positive responses in either strain. In addition, these strains are capable of detecting direct-acting mutagens such asN-methyl-N’-nitrosoguanidine and ICR-191, providing further evidence of their promise for detecting a wider range of mutagens. To our knowledge, this is the first report of bacterial strains capable of activating promutagenic compounds and detecting their mutagenic metabolites without the benefit of an exogenous activation system such as the rodent liver homogenate (S9).     

The first metal complex of p-nitrobenzoxasulfamate. Synthesis, spectral and structural characterization of triaquabis(p-nitrobenzoxasulfamato)copper(II) monohydrate

The local structure of molten LaCl₃ was investigated by X-ray absorption fine structure of the La K-edge. The nearest La³⁺-Cl⁻ distance and coordination number were 2.89±0.01 Å and 7.4±0.5 from the curve fitting of the first peak in the Fourier transform magnitude |FT|. The coordination number larger than 6 suggests that the local structure of molten LaCl₃ is not a simple octahedral coordination (LaCl₆)³⁻, but 7-fold (LaCl₇)⁴⁻ and/or 8-fold (LaCl₈)⁵⁻ complexes. The first La³⁺-La³⁺ distance, of which correlation was observed as a weak second peak in the |FT|, was evaluated to be 4.9 Å. It suggests that the distorted corner-sharing connection of the complex species is predominant in the melt, in contrast with molten YCl₃ in which the edge-sharing connection of the 6-fold (YCl₆)³⁻ mainly exists.     

Lyotropic liquid-crystalline mesophases of [Zn(H2O)6](NO3)2-C12EO10-CTAB-H2O and [Zn(H2O)6](NO3)2-C12EO10-SDS-H2O systems

The mixture of two surfactants (C12EO10-CTAB and C12EO10-SDS) forms lyotropic liquid-crystalline (LLC) mesophases with [Zn(H2O)6](NO3)2 in the presence of a minimum concentration of 1.75 H2O per C12EO10. The metal ion/C12EO10 mole ratio can be increased up to 8.0, which is a record high metal ion density in an LLC mesophase. The metal ion concentration can be increased in the medium by increasing the CTAB/C12EO10 or SDS/C12EO10 mole ratio at the expense of the stability of the LLC mesophase. The structure and some thermal properties of the new mesophase have been investigated using XRD, POM, FTIR, and Raman techniques.     

Scenery reconstruction on finite abelian groups

We consider the question of when a random walk on a finite abelian group with a given step distribution can be used to reconstruct a binary labeling of the elements of the group, up to a shift. Matzinger and Lember (2006) give a sufficient condition for reconstructability on cycles. While, as we show, this condition is not in general necessary, our main result is that it is necessary when the length of the cycle is prime and larger than 5, and the step distribution has only rational probabilities. We extend this result to other abelian groups.     

An application-based characterization of dynamical distance geometry problems

The dynamical distance geometry problem (dynDGP) is the problem of finding a realization in a Euclidean space of a weighted undirected graph G representing an animation by relative distances, so that the distances between realized vertices are as close as possible to the edge weights. In the dynDGP, the vertex set of the graph G is the set product of V, representing certain objects, and T, representing time as a sequence of discrete steps. We suppose moreover that distance information is given together with the priority of every distance value. The dynDGP is a special class of the DGP where the dynamics of the problem comes to play an important role. In this work, we propose an application-based characterization of dynDGP instances, where the main criteria are the presence or absence of a skeletal structure, and the rigidity of such a skeletal structure. Examples of considered applications include: multi-robot coordination, crowd simulations, and human motion retargeting.