Determination of drug binding sites to proteins by electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry: the interaction of cisplatin with transferrin

Cisplatin, cis-[PtCl2(NH3)2], is known to bind to human serum transferrin, but the binding site remains a matter of some debate. Electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry has been used to characterise the interaction of cisplatin with transferrin. The studies indicate that cisplatin initially docks with, and subsequently bonds covalently to, the hydroxyl functional group of threonine 457, with the loss of HCl affording a transferrin-O-PtCl(NH3)2 adduct.     

Trellis Structure and Higher Weights of Extremal Self-Dual Codes

A method for demonstrating and enumerating uniformly efficient (permutation-optimal) trellis decoders for self-dual codes of high minimum distance is developed. Such decoders and corresponding permutations are known for relatively few codes.The task of finding such permutations is shown to be substantially simplifiable in the case of self-dual codes in general, and for self-dual codes of sufficiently high minimum distance it is shown that it is frequently possible to deduce the existence of these permutations directly from the parameters of the code.A new and tighter link between generalized Hamming weights and trellis representations is demonstrated: for some self-dual codes, knowledge of one of the generalized Hamming weights is sufficient to determine the entire optimal state complexity profile.These results are used to characterize the permutation-optimal trellises and generalized Hamming weights for all [32,16,8] binary self-dual codes and for several other codes. The numbers of uniformly efficient permutations for several codes, including the [24,12,8] Golay code and both [24,12,9] ternary self-dual codes, are found.     

Inertial and bias effects in the rotational brownian motion of rodlike molecules in a uniaxial potential

Inertial effects in the rotational brownian motion in space of a rigid dipolar rotator (needle) in a uniaxial potential biased by an external field giving rise to asymmetry are treated via the infinite hierarchy of differential-recurrence relations for the statistical moments (orientational correlation functions) obtained by averaging the Euler-Langevin equation over its realizations in phase space. The solutions of this infinite hierarchy for the dipole correlation function and its characteristic times are obtained using matrix continued fractions showing that the model simultaneously predicts both slow overbarrier (or interwell) relaxation at low frequencies accompanied by intermediate frequency Debye relaxation due to fast near-degenerate motion in the wells of the potential (intrawell relaxation) as well as the high frequency resonance (Poley) absorption due to librations of the dipole moments. It is further shown that the escape rate of a brownian particle from a potential well as extended to the Kramers turnover problem via the depopulation factor yields a close approximation to the longest (overbarrier) relaxation time of the system. For zero and small values of the bias field parameter h, both the dipole moment correlation time and the longest relaxation time have Arrhenius behavior (exponential increase with increasing barrier height). While at values of h in excess of a critical value however far less than that required to achieve nucleation, the Arrhenius behavior of the correlation time disappears.     

Itinerant oscillation with a cosine potential

The equations of motion of the planar itinerant librator are extended to involve a cosine potential rather than a harmonic form for interaction, and are solved numerically to produce the angular velocity autocorrelation function and its Fourier transform (real and imaginary parts). The behaviour of the cosine potential is matched with that of the harmonic potential through these functions and in general conforms more closely to the indication of zero-THz spectroscopy and computer simulation.     

Scanning Kelvin probe imaging of the potential profiles in fixed and dynamic planar LECs

We measure the potential profiles of both dynamic and fixed junction planar light-emitting electrochemical cells (LECs) using Scanning Kelvin Probe Microscopy (SKPM) and compare the results against models of LEC operation. We find that, in conventional dynamic junction LECs formed using lithium trifluoromethanesulfonate (LiTf), poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), and the soluble alkoxy-PPV derivative poly[2-methoxy-5-(3',7'-dimethyl-octyloxy)-p-phenylenevinylene (MDMO-PPV), the majority (>90%) of the potential is dropped near the cathode with little potential drop across either the film or the anode/polymer interface. In contrast, when examining fixed junction LECs where the LiTf is replaced with [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl] trimethylammonium 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethane-sulfonate (METMA/MES), the potential is dropped at both contacts during the initial poling. The potential profile evolves over a period of approximately 60 min under bias to achieve a final profile similar to that obtained in the LiTf systems. In addition to elucidating the differences between conventional dynamic LECs and fixed LECs incorporating cross-linkable ion pair monomers, the results on both systems provide direct evidence for a primarily "p-type" LEC consistent with the emitting junction near the cathode and relatively small electric fields across the bulk of the device for these two material systems.     

Entangled palladium nanoparticles in resin plugs

Palladium nanoparticles were entrapped within resin plugs and used in a range of ligand-free cross-coupling reactions; the convenient modular format of the resin plug enhanced resin handling and allowed the catalysts to be easily recovered and multiply reused.     

Fractional Fokker-Planck equation for anomalous diffusion in a potential: Exact matrix continued fraction solutions

Methods for the exact solution of fractional Fokker-Planck equations for anomalous diffusion in an external potential are discussed using both ordinary and matrix continued fractions, whereby the scalar multi-term recurrence relations generated by such fractional diffusion equations are reduced to three-term matrix ones. The procedure is illustrated by solving various problems concerning the anomalous translational diffusion in both periodic and double-well potentials.     

PASADENA hyperpolarized 13C phospholactate

We demonstrate that potassium 1-(13)C-phosphoenolpyruvate becomes hyperpolarized potassium 1-(13)C-phospholactate with (13)C T(1) = 36 s after molecular hydrogenation by PASADENA (Parahydrogen and Synthesis Allows Dramatically Enhanced Nuclear Alignment). This proof-of-principle study was conducted with a fully protonated molecular precursor. (13)C was polarized to a level of 1%, corresponding to nearly 4000-fold sensitivity enhancement at 3 T. The relevant homo- and heteronuclear spin-spin couplings are reported.