Correlating Glycoforms of DC-SIGN with Stability Using a Combination of Enzymatic Digestion and Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry

The immune scavenger protein DC-SIGN interacts with glycosylated proteins and has a putative role in facilitating viral infection. How these recognition events take place with different viruses is not clear and the effects of glycosylation on the folding and stability of DC-SIGN have not been reported. Herein, we report the development and application of a mass-spectrometry-based approach to both uncover and characterise the effects of O-glycans on the stability of DC-SIGN. We first quantify the Core 1 and 2 O-glycan structures on the carbohydrate recognition and extracellular domains of the protein using sequential exoglycosidase sequencing. Using ion mobility mass spectrometry, we show how specific O-glycans, and/or single monosaccharide substitutions, alter both the overall collision cross section and the gas-phase stability of the DC-SIGN isoforms. We find that rather than the mass or length of glycoprotein modifications, the stability of DC-SIGN is better correlated with the number of glycosylation sites.     

Anisotropic charge carrier transport of optoelectronic functional selenium-containing organic semiconductor materials

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) materials are currently under intense investigation because of their potential applications such as organic field-effect transistors, organic photovoltaic devices, and organic light-emitting diodes. Inspired by the selenization strategy can promote anisotropic charge carrier migration, and selenium-containing compounds have been proved to be promising materials as OSCs both for hole and electron transfer. Herein, we now explore the anisotropic transport properties of the series of selenium-containing compounds. For the compound containing Se Se bond, the Se Se bond will break when attaching an electron, thus those compounds cannot act as n-type OSCs. About the different isomer compounds with conjugated structure, the charge transfer will be affected by the stacking of the conjugated structures. The analysis of chemical structure and charge transfer property indicates that Se-containing materials are promising high-performance OSCs and might be used as p-type, n-type, or ambipolar OSCs. Furthermore, the symmetry of the selenium-containing OSCs will affect the type of OSCs. In addition, there is no direct relationship between the R groups with their performance, whether it or not as p-type OSCs or n-types. This work demonstrates the relationship between the optoelectronic function and structure of selenium-containing OSCs materials and hence paves the way to design and improve optoelectronic function of OSCs materials.     

High Na+ Mobility in rGO Wrapped High Aspect Ratio 1D SbSe Nano Structure Renders Better Electrochemical Na+ Battery Performance

We chose to understand the cyclic instability and rate instability issues in the promising class of Na⁺ conversion and alloying anodes with Sb₂Se₃ as a typical example. We employ a synthetic strategy that ensures efficient rGO (reduced graphene oxide) wrapping over Sb₂Se₃ material. By utilization of the minimum weight of additive (5 wt.% of rGO), we achieved a commendable performance with a reversible capacity of 550 mAh g⁻¹ at a specific current of 100 mA g⁻¹ and an impressive rate performance with 100 % capacity retention after high current cycling involving a 2 Ag⁻¹ intermediate current step. The electrochemical galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) has been employed for the first time to draw a rationale between the enhanced performance and the increased mobility in the rGO wrapped composite (Sb₂Se₃-rGO) compared to bare Sb₂Se₃. GITT analysis reveals higher Na⁺ diffusion coefficients (approx. 30 fold higher) in the case of Sb₂Se₃-rGO as compared to bare Sb₂Se₃ throughout the operating voltage window. For Sb₂Se₃-rGO the diffusion coefficients in the range of 8.0×10⁻¹⁵ cm² s⁻¹ to 2.2×10⁻¹² cm² s⁻¹ were observed, while in case of bare Sb₂Se₃ the diffusion coefficients in the range of 1.6×10⁻¹⁵ cm² s⁻¹ to 9.4×10⁻¹⁵ cm² s⁻¹ were observed.     

Self-Assembly of DNA and RNA Building Blocks Explored by Nitrogen-14 NMR Crystallography: Structure and Dynamics

The isotopic enrichment of nucleic acids with nitrogen-15 is often carried out by solid-phase synthesis of oligonucleotides using phosphoramidite precursors that are synthetically demanding and expensive. These synthetic challenges, combined with the overlap of chemical shifts, explain the lag of nitrogen-15 NMR studies of nucleic acids behind those of proteins. For the structural characterization of DNA and RNA-related systems, new NMR methods that exploit the naturally occurring 99.9 % abundant nitrogen-14 isotope are therefore highly desirable. In this study, we have investigated nitrogen-14 spectra of self-assembled quartets based on the nucleobase guanine in the solid state by means of magic-angle spinning NMR spectroscopy. The network of dipolar proton–nitrogen couplings between neighboring stacked purine units is probed by 2D spectra based on ¹H→¹⁴N→¹H double cross-polarization. Interplane dipolar contacts are identified between the stacked G quartets. The assignment is supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the anisotropic chemical shifts and quadrupolar parameters. The experimental spectra are fully consistent with internuclear distances obtained in silico. Averaging of chemical shifts due to internal motions can be interpreted by semiempirical calculations. This method can easily be extended to synthetic G quartets based on nucleobase or nucleoside analogs and potentially to oligonucleotides.     

Finite Difference Method for Reaction-Diffusion Equation with Nonlocal Boundary Conditions

In this paper, we present a numerical approach to a class of nonlinear reaction-diffusion equations with nonlocal Robin type boundary conditions by finite difference methods. A second-order accurate difference scheme is derived by the method of reduction of order. Moreover, we prove that the scheme is uniquely solvable and convergent with the convergence rate of order two in a discrete L2-norm. A simple numerical example is given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.     

向列相液晶中强非局域空间光孤子的实验观察

通过实验对向列相液晶中的非局域空间光孤子的传输进行了研究。理论上基于非线性的液晶孤子传输方程,采用高斯形式的试探解,得到了孤子传输的解析解,以及对液晶中的非局域孤子和Snyder等提出的强非局域孤子模型的结果进行了比较。实验上,观察了空间光孤子在向列相液晶中的传输,找到了不同束宽下空间光孤子的临界功率。比如束宽为2μm时临界功率为2.0mW。观察了向列相液晶中空间光孤子的弛豫过程,并注意到液晶分子的响应时间长达几秒钟,液晶中的孤子形成速度较慢。     

拟线性双曲组一类非局部混合初-边值问题的半整体C1解

在研究拟线性弦振动方程带第三类边值问题的精确边界能控性时,出现了拟线性双曲组一类非局部混合初-边值问题.论文先证明该类非局部混合问题局部C1解的存在惟一性,并考察其存在高度的性质,进而利用一致先验估计证明半整体C1解的存在惟一性,并以此为基础研究相应问题的精确边界能控性,最后为便于应用,将论文的结论写成了可化约方程组的情形.     

Existence and Approximate Controllability of Solutions for an Impulsive Evolution Equation with Nonlocal Conditions in Banach Space

In this article, we study the existence of mild solutions and approximate controllability for non-autonomous impulsive evolution equations with nonlocal conditions in Banach space. The existence of mild solutions and some conditions for approximate controllability of these non-autonomous impulsive evolution equations are given by using the Krasnoselskii''s fixed point theorem, the theory of evolution family and the resolvent operator. In particular,the impulsive functions are supposed to be continuous and the nonlocal item is divided into Lipschitz continuous and completely bounded. An example is given as an application of the results.     

玻色化方法在超对称可积系统的应用

利用玻色化方法可以避免超对称可积系统中反对易费米场带来的计算困难. 本文以N=1超对称mKdVB系统为例, 利用玻色化方法, 将其转化为只有玻色场的耦合系统. 应用标准的WTC方法, 证明了该耦合系统具有Painlevé性质. 运用Painlevé截断方法, 可以得到玻色化后超对称mKdVB系统的非局域对称. 为了求解与非局域对称相关的Lie第一性原理, 引入新的场将玻色化后系统拓展为更大的系统. 通过引入新的场, 该非局域对称局域化为Lie点对称. 因此, 可以利用Lie点对称约化方法研究拓展后的系统, 得到超对称mKdVB系统的孤子与其他孤波相互作用解.     

迁移管的电场强度对真空紫外电离-离子迁移谱仪性能的影响

离子迁移管是离子迁移谱仪的核心部分,它用来产生均匀的电场,以使不同迁移率的离子进行分离。本研究以丙酮为例,详细研究了本课题组所研制的真空紫外电离源-离子迁移谱仪中迁移管的电场参数对离子的灵敏度和分辨率的影响,发现电压的增大灵敏度增大,但是分辨率存在一个最佳的电压,这些结果可用于迁移谱的优化设计。