An enzyme-initiated Smiles rearrangement enables the development of an assay of MshB, the GlcNAc-Ins deacetylase of mycothiol biosynthesis

MshB is the N-acetyl-1-D-myo-inosityl-2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranoside (GlcNAc-Ins) deacetylase active as one of the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of mycothiol (MSH), a protective low molecular weight thiol present only in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other actinomycetes. In this study, structural analogues of GlcNAc-Ins in which the inosityl moiety is replaced by a chromophore were synthesized and evaluated as alternate substrates of MshB, with the goal of identifying a compound that would be useful in high-throughput assays of the enzyme. In an unexpected and surprising finding one of the GlcNAc-Ins analogues is shown to undergo a Smiles rearrangement upon MshB-mediated deacetylation, uncovering a free thiol group. We demonstrate that this chemistry can be exploited for the development of the first continuous assay of MshB activity based on the detection of thiol formation by DTNB (Ellman's reagent); such an assay should be ideally suited for the identification of MshB inhibitors by means of high-throughput screens in microplates.     

Bi—shadowing of Infinite Trajectories for Difference Equations in Banach Spaces

It is shown that infinite trajectories of difference equations with Lipschitz semi— hyperbolic mappings in a Banach space are bi—shadowing with respect to a class of compact mappings and also with respect to —locally —condensing mappings, where is the Hausdorff measure of noncompactness     

Electromagnetic characteristics of Hilbert curve-based metamaterials

As the typical building blocks of metamaterials, the cut wire and the split ring resonator have been extensively studied in recent years. Besides them, the space-filling curve-based metamaterials are receiving great attentions because of their intrinsic subwavelength and multi-bands characteristics. In this work, we have investigated experimentally and numerically the electromagnetic characteristics of such Hilbert curve metamaterial in the microwave frequency regime and found a deeply subwavelength magnetic resonance supported by the fractal pattern and featuring the wavelength-to-size ratio more than 20. The subwavelength electromagnetic properties of the Hilbert curve will be beneficial to realize high-performance metamaterials.     

Surface modifications of materials by repetitive laser pulses

Laser-induced modifications on platinum (Pt) and silicon (Si) are compared by considering the development of various features on the irradiated surface. The experiments were carried out both in air and under vacuum. The interaction of 50 pulses of 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser with both targets in air resulted in non-linear phenomena. The periphery of the irradiated spot on the Pt surface exhibits wave-like patterns with a featureless central portion. A non-uniform distribution of cones of different sizes is also observed on the irradiated surface. In the case of silicon, the laser-induced periodic surface structures along with the formation of micro-column, rectangular blocks and grid are prominently observed features. However, when both the targets were irradiated with the same number of shots under vacuum (～10^?3 Torr), the surface morphologies of both the targets exhibited the hydrodynamic sputtering but with more explosive expulsion in Pt when compared with silicon. In platinum, there is a periodic variation in the distance between adjacent cones formed in various ablated zones. The Gaussian beam mode TEM₀₀ provided the evidences for melt pool formation in silicon when irradiated under vacuum. Additionally, we observed other mechanisms including splashing, sputtering, burning, re-solidification and redeposition on the surface of irradiated targets.     

Light source design using Kagome-lattice hollow core photonic crystal fibers

Supercontinuum (SC) light source is designed using high pressure Xe-filled hollow core Kagome-lattice photonic crystal fiber. Using finite element method with perfectly matched layer, SC spectra in normal chromatic dispersion region have been generated using picosecond optical pulses from relatively less expensive laser sources.     

A Tensor Product Factorization for Certain Tilting Modules

Let G be a semisimple, simply connected linear algebraic group over an algebraically closed field k of characteristic p > 0. In a recent article [6 Doty , S. R. ( 2009 ). Factoring tilting modules for algebraic groups . Journal of Lie Theory 19 ( 3 ): 531 – 535 .[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]], Doty introduces the notion of r-minuscule weight and exhibits a tensor product factorization of a corresponding tilting module under the assumption p ≥ 2h ? 2, where h is the Coxeter number. We remove this restriction and consider some variations involving the more general notion of (p, r)-minuscule weights.     

Mode of Action and Design Rules for Additives That Modulate Crystal Nucleation

Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the key factors that determine the ability of an additive to modulate crystal nucleation are the strength of its interaction with the solute, its disruptive ability (which may be based on steric, entropic, or energetic effects), and interfacial properties, along with its ability to serve as a template for nucleation (see snapshot of an emerging nucleus with a single‐particle additive: black spheres).

     

Unsteady magnetohydrodynamic Hartmann–Couette flow and heat transfer in a Darcian channel with Hall current,ionslip, viscous and Joule heating effects: Network numerical solutions

A theoretical study of unsteady magnetohydrodynamic viscous Hartmann–Couette laminar flow and heat transfer in a Darcian porous medium intercalated between parallel plates, under a constant pressure gradient is presented. Viscous dissipation, Joule heating, Hall current and ionslip current effects are included as is lateral mass flux at both plates. The dimensionless conservation equations for the primary (x¹-direction), secondary (z¹-direction) momentum and also energy conservation equation are derived and solved using a computational technique known as Network Simulation Methodology (NSM). Velocity distributions (u¹, w¹) and temperature distribution (T¹) at the channel centre (y¹ = 0) over time (t¹) are studied graphically for the effects of Darcy number (Da), Hartmann number (Ha), transpiration (N_t), Hall current parameter (Be), ionslip parameter (Bi), pressure gradient parameter (dP/dx¹) with Prandtl number prescribed at 7.0 (electrically conducting water), Eckert number held constant at 0.25 (heat convection from the plates to the fluid) and Reynolds number (Re) fixed at 5.0 (for Re < 10, Darcian model is generally valid). Increasing Darcy number causes an increase in temperature, T¹; values are however significantly reduced for the higher Hartmann number case (Ha = 10). For the case of low transpiration (i.e. N_t = 1 which corresponds to weak suction at the upper plate and weak injection at the lower plate), both primary velocity (u¹) and secondary velocity (w¹) are increased with a rise in Darcy number (owing to a simultaneous decrease in Darcian porous drag); temperature T¹ is also increased considerably with increasing Da. However, for stronger transpiration (N_t = 10), magnitudes of u¹, w¹ and T¹ are significantly reduced and also significant overshoots are detected prior to the establishment of steady state flow. With increasing Hall current parameter, Be, (for the purely fluid regime i.e. Da → ∞), primary velocity is considerably increased, whereas secondary velocity is reduced; temperatures are decreased in the early stages of flow but effectively increased in the steady state with increasing Be. With strong Darcian drag present (Da = 0.01 i.e. very low permeability), magnitudes of u¹, w¹ and T¹ are considerably reduced and temperatures are found to be reduced for all t¹, with increasing Hall current effect (Be). Increasing ionslip current parameter (Bi) increases primary velocity (u¹), decreases secondary velocity (w¹) and also temperature (T¹) for all time (t¹), in the infinite permeability case (Da → ∞). For weakly Darcian flow, ionslip parameter (Bi) has a much reduced effect on the velocity distributions. Temperature, T¹ is strongly increased with a rise in pressure gradient parameter, dP¹/dx¹, as is primary velocity (u¹); however, secondary velocity (w¹) is reduced. The present study has applications in hybrid magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) energy generators, materials processing, geophysical hydromagnetics, etc.     

Numerical simulation of flow of a micropolar fluid between a porous disk and a non-porous disk

Two dimensional steady, laminar and incompressible motion of a micropolar fluid between an impermeable disk and a permeable disk is considered to investigate the influence of the Reynolds number and the micropolar structure on the flow characteristics. The main flow stream is superimposed by constant injection velocity at the porous disk. An extension of Von Karman’s similarity transformations is applied to reduce governing partial differential equations (PDEs) to a set of non-linear coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs) in dimensionless form. An algorithm based on finite difference method is employed to solve these ODEs and Richardson’s extrapolation is used to obtain higher order accuracy. The numerical results reflect the expected physical behavior of the flow phenomenon under consideration. The study indicates that the magnitude of shear stress increases strictly and indefinitely at the impermeable disk while it decreases steadily at the permeable disk, by increasing the injection velocity. Moreover, the micropolar fluids reduce the skin friction as compared to the Newtonian fluids. The magnitude of microrotation increases with increasing the magnitude of R and the micropolar parameters. The present results are in excellent comparison with the available literature results.