Automorphisms and weighted values

The notion of automorphism is an essential tool to capture the meaning of any mathematical structure. We apply this idea to cooperative games and obtain two interesting characterizations of the automorphisms of such a game: the one, in the complete case, as the permutations of players which preserve the (classical) Shapley value; the other, for the general case, as the permutations preservingall weighted Shapley values.Carreras' research supported by project UPV 036321-HA186/92 of the Basque Country University. Owen's research supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant DMS-9116416. This collaboration was made possible by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, which sponsored Owen's visit to Terrassa.     

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Several Dephosphonated Analogues of CMP‐Neu5Ac as Inhibitors of GM3‐Synthase

Previous studies demonstrated that reducing the GM3 content in myoblasts increased the cell resistance to hypoxic stress, suggesting that a pharmacological inhibition of the GM3 synthesis could be instrumental for the development of new treatments for ischemic diseases. Herein, the synthesis of several dephosphonated CMP‐Neu5Ac congeners and their anti ‐ GM3‐synthase activity is reported. Biological activity testes revealed that some inhibitors almost completely blocked the GM3‐synthase activity in vitro and reduced the GM3 content in living embryonic kidney 293A cells, eventually activating the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) signaling cascade.     

Synthesis of Periphery‐Decorated and Core‐Initiated Borane Polyanionic Macromolecules

A new class of globular polybranched macromolecules that contain multiple anionic metallacarborane clusters at the o‐carborane periphery is reported. The water soluble high boron rich containing molecules could be of interest for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) as well as for drug delivery. The reinforced electrostatic noncovalent interactions between anionic polyethylene glycol cobaltabisdicarbollide (PEG‐COSAN) branches and the ammonium cation have been shown using ESI‐MS.     

Generalizing the ENO-DB2<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis> transform using the inverse wavelet transform

The essentially non-oscillatory (ENO)-wavelet transform developed by Chan and Zhou (SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 40(4), 1369–1404, 2002) is based on a combination of the Daubechies-2p wavelet transform and the ENO technique. It uses extrapolation methods to compute the scaling coefficients without differencing function values across jumps and obtains a multiresolution framework (essentially) free of edge artifacts. In this work, we present a different way to compute the ENO-DB2p wavelet transform of Chan and Zhou which allows us to simplify the process and easily generalize it to other families of orthonormal wavelets.     

Development and validation of a GC-MS method for rapid determination of galanthamine in Leucojum aestivum and Narcissus ssp.: a metabolomic approach

Galanthamine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor marketed as a hydrobromide salt for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, is obtained from some Amaryllidaceae plants. A new method was developed and validated for its quantification by GC-MS in different plant sources: bulbs and leaves from Narcissus confusus; bulbs from N. pseudonarcissus cv. Carlton; and leaves and in vitro cultures from L. aestivum. Samples (50 mg) were extracted with methanol (1 mL) for 2 h, then aliquots of the extracts were silylated and analyzed by GC-MS. The calibration line was linear over a range of 15-800 μg galanthamine/sample, ensuring an analysis of samples with a content of 0.03-1.54% analyte referred to dry weight. The recovery was generally more than 95%. Good inter- and intra assay precision was observed (RSD < 3%). Principal component analysis of GC-MS chromatograms allowed discrimination of the plant raw material with respect to species, organs and geographical regions. The analytical method developed in this study proved to be simple, sensitive and far more informative than the routine analytical methods (GC, HPLC, CE and NMR), so it may be useful for quality control of plant raw materials in the pharmaceutical industry.     

Cloning, Sequencing, and Identification Using Proteomic Tools of a Protease from Bromelia hieronymi Mez

Fruits of Bromelia hieronymi, a tropical South American plant, possess a high content of peptidases with potential biotechnological uses. Total RNA was extracted from unripe fruits and peptidase cDNA was obtained by 3'RACE-PCR. The consensus sequence of the cysteine peptidase cDNA contained 875 bp, the 690 first ones codifying for a hypothetical polypeptide chain of the mature peptidase, named Bh-CP1 (molecular mass 24.773 kDa, pI 8.6, extinction molar coefficient 58,705 M(-1) cm(-1)). Bh-CP1 sequence shows a high percentage of identity with those of other cysteine plant proteases. The presence of highly preserved residues is observed, like those forming the catalytic site (Gln19, Cys25, His159, and Asn175, papain numbering), as well as other six Cys residues, involved in the formation of disulfide bounds. Molecular modeling results suggest the enzyme belongs to the α?+?β class of proteins, with two disulfide bridges (Cys23-Cys63 and Cys57-Cys96) in the α domain, while the β domain is stabilized by another disulfide bridge (Cys153-Cys203). Additionally, peptide mass fingerprints (PMFs) of the three peptidases previously isolated from B. hieronymi fruits (namely hieronymain I, II, and III) were performed and compared with the theoretical fingerprint of PMF of Bh-CP1, showing a partial matching between the in silico-translated protein and hieronymain II.     

Strict core fuzzy logics and quasi-witnessed models

In this paper we prove strong completeness of axiomatic extensions of first-order strict core fuzzy logics with the so-called quasi-witnessed axioms with respect to quasi-witnessed models. As a consequence we obtain strong completeness of Product Predicate Logic with respect to quasi-witnessed models, already proven by M.C. Laskowski and S. Malekpour in [19]. Finally we study similar problems for expansions with ??, define ??-quasi-witnessed axioms and prove that any axiomatic extension of a first-order strict core fuzzy logic, expanded with ??, and ??-quasi-witnessed axioms are complete with respect to ??-quasi-witnessed models.     

High proton conduction in a chiral ferromagnetic metal-organic quartz-like framework

A complex-as-ligand strategy to get a multifunctional molecular material led to a metal-organic framework with the formula (NH(4))(4)[MnCr(2)(ox)(6)]·4H(2)O. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction revealed that the anionic bimetallic coordination network adopts a chiral three-dimensional quartz-like architecture. It hosts ammonium cations and water molecules in functionalized channels. In addition to ferromagnetic ordering below T(C) = 3.0 K related to the host network, the material exhibits a very high proton conductivity of 1.1 × 10(-3) S cm(-1) at room temperature due to the guest molecules.