Artificial Golgi apparatus: globular protein-like dendrimer facilitates fully automated enzymatic glycan synthesis

Despite the growing importance of synthetic glycans as tools for biological studies and drug discovery, a lack of common methods for the routine synthesis remains a major obstacle. We have developed a new method for automated glycan synthesis that employs the enzymatic approach and a dendrimer as an ideal support within the chemical process. Recovery tests using a hollow fiber ultrafiltration module have revealed that monodisperse G6 (MW = 58 kDa) and G7 (MW = 116 kDa) poly(amidoamine) dendrimers exhibit a similar profile to BSA (MW = 66 kDa). Characteristics of the globular protein-like G7 dendrimer with high solubility and low viscosity in water greatly enhanced throughput and efficiency in automated synthesis while random polyacrylamide-based supports entail significant loss during the repetitive reaction/separation step. The present protocol allowed for the fully automated enzymatic synthesis of sialyl Lewis X tetrasaccharide derivatives over a period of 4 days in 16% overall yield from a simple N-acetyl-d-glucosamine linked to an aminooxy-functionalized G7 dendrimer.     

Metabolic profiling of urine and blood plasma in rat models of drug addiction on the basis of morphine,methamphetamine, and cocaine-induced conditioned place preference

The metabolic profiles of urine and blood plasma in drug-addicted rat models based on morphine (MOR), methamphetamine (MA), and cocaine (COC)-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) were investigated. Rewarding effects induced by each drug were assessed by use of the CPP model. A mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolomics approach was applied to urine and plasma of MOR, MA, and COC-addicted rats. In total, 57 metabolites in plasma and 70 metabolites in urine were identified by gas chromatography–MS. The metabolomics approach revealed that amounts of some metabolites, including tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates, significantly changed in the urine of MOR-addicted rats. This result indicated that disruption of energy metabolism is deeply relevant to MOR addiction. In addition, 3-hydroxybutyric acid, l-tryptophan, cystine, and n-propylamine levels were significantly changed in the plasma of MOR-addicted rats. Lactose, spermidine, and stearic acid levels were significantly changed in the urine of MA-addicted rats. Threonine, cystine, and spermidine levels were significantly increased in the plasma of COC-addicted rats. In conclusion, differences in the metabolic profiles were suggestive of different biological states of MOR, MA, and COC addiction; these may be attributed to the different actions of the drugs on the brain reward circuitry and the resulting adaptation. In addition, the results showed possibility of predict the extent of MOR addiction by metabolic profiling. This is the first study to apply metabolomics to CPP models of drug addiction, and we demonstrated that metabolomics can be a multilateral approach to investigating the mechanism of drug addiction.     

A nonlinear signal-based control method and its applications to input identification for nonlinear SIMO problems

The problem of control system design can be conceptualised as identifying an input signal to a plant (the system to be controlled) so that the corresponding output matches that of a pre-defined reference signal. Primarily, this problem is solved via well-known techniques based upon the principle of feedback design, an essential component for ensuring stability and robustness of the controlled system. However, feedforward design techniques also have a large part to play, whereby (in the absence of feedback control and assuming that the plant is stable) a model of the plant dynamics can be used to modify the reference signal so that the resultant feedforward input signal generates a plant output signal that is sufficiently close to the original reference signal.     

On the presence of the S4z-term in Fe(HCOO)2 · 2H2O

The magnetic specific heat of ferrous formate dihydrate is analysed on the basis of a model, $\text{S}{}_{\mathrm{A}}\text{=}\text{1}\text{2}$ and S_B = 2. The experimental result turns out to be well explained by the introduction of a large S⁴_z-term for B site ions.     

Effect of the frustration to the ground state energy and entropy of the spin-glass in the random bond Ising model on the square lattice

The energies and the entropies of the spin-glass state and the paramagnetic state at T = 0 of the random-bond Ising mixture of the ferromagnetic bond (concentration p) and the antiferromagnetic bond (concentration 1 ? p) on the square lattice are calculated by the method of the square approximation in the simple version. A self-consistent relation that the partial trace of the normalized density matrix of the square cluster is equal to that of the vertex ($\text{tr}\text{(}{}_{\mathrm{jkl}}\text{?}\text{?}{}^{\mathrm{(4)}}\text{(i,j,k,l) =}\text{?}\text{?}{}^{\mathrm{(1)}}\text{(i)}$) leads to an integral equation for the distribution function of the effective fields, and it is solved exactly at T = 0. The symmetric solution of the integral equation contains the paramagnetic state and two spin-glass states, SG1 and SG2. The energies and the entropies of these states are obtained as functions of the concentration p. The values of the energies per spin at $\text{p =}\text{1}\text{2}$ are -0.75|E_F|, -0.72746|E_F|, -0.72543|E_F|, and correspond to a minimum, a saddle point, and a maximum, respectively, and the values of the entropies are 0, 0.082886k_B, and 0.054457k_B, respectively. The present results are compared with those of the pair approximation and discussed.     

Homological properties of balanced Cohen-Macaulay algebras

A balanced Cohen-Macaulay algebra is a connected algebra having a balanced dualizing complex in the sense of Yekutieli (1992) for some integer and some graded - bimodule . We study some homological properties of a balanced Cohen-Macaulay algebra. In particular, we will prove the following theorem:
 

As a corollary, we will have the following characterizations of AS Gorenstein algebras and AS regular algebras:
 

     

Widening Synthesis Bottlenecks: Realization of Ultrafast and Continuous‐Flow Synthesis of High‐Silica Zeolite SSZ‐13 for NOx Removal

Characteristics of zeolite formation, such as being kinetically slow and thermodynamically metastable, are the main bottlenecks that obstruct a fast zeolite synthesis. We present an ultrafast route, the first of its kind, to synthesize high‐silica zeolite SSZ‐13 in 10 min, instead of the several days usually required. Fast heating in a tubular reactor helps avoid thermal lag, and the synergistic effect of addition of a SSZ‐13 seed, choice of the proper aluminum source, and employment of high temperature prompted the crystallization. Thanks to the ultra‐short period of synthesis, we established a continuous‐flow preparation of SSZ‐13. The fast‐synthesized SSZ‐13, after copper‐ion exchange, exhibits outstanding performance in the ammonia selective catalytic reduction (NH₃‐SCR) of nitrogen oxides (NO_x), showing it to be a superior catalyst for NO_x removal. Our results indicate that the formation of high‐silica zeolites can be extremely fast if bottlenecks are effectively widened.     

Participation of the surface structure of Pharaonis phoborhodopsin, ppR and its A149S and A149V mutants, consisting of the C-terminal alpha-helix and E-F loop, in the complex-formation with the cognate transducer pHtrII, as revealed by site-directed 13C solid-state NMR

We have recorded 13C solid state NMR spectra of [3-13C]Ala-labeled pharaonis phoborhodopsin (ppR) and its mutants, A149S and A149V, complexed with the cognate transducer pharaonis halobacterial transducer II protein (pHtrII) (1-159), to gain insight into a possible role of their cytoplasmic surface structure including the C-terminal alpha-helix and E-F loop for stabilization of the 2:2 complex, by both cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CP-MAS) and dipolar decoupled (DD)-MAS NMR techniques. We found that 13C CP-MAS NMR spectra of [3-13C]Ala-ppR, A149S and A149V complexed with the transducer pHtrII are very similar, reflecting their conformation and dynamics changes caused by mutual interactions through the transmembrane alpha-helical surfaces. In contrast, their DD-MAS NMR spectral features are quite different between [3-13C]Ala-A149S and A149V in the complexes with pHtrII: 13C DD-MAS NMR spectrum of [3-13C]Ala-A149S complex is rather similar to that of the uncomplexed form, while the corresponding spectral feature of A149V complex is similar to that of ppR complex in the C-terminal tip region. This is because more flexible surface structure detected by the DD-MAS NMR spectra are more directly influenced by the dynamics changes than the CP-MAS NMR. It turned out, therefore, that an altered surface structure of A149S resulted in destabilized complex as viewed from the 13C NMR spectrum of the surface areas, probably because of modified conformation at the corner of the helix E in addition to the change of hydropathy. It is, therefore, concluded that the surface structure of ppR including the C-terminal alpha-helix and the E-F loops is directly involved in the stabilization of the complex through conformational stability of the helix E.