Boron‐Containing Probes for Non‐optical High‐Resolution Imaging of Biological Samples

Boron has been employed in materials science as a marker for imaging specific structures by electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) or secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). It has a strong potential in biological analyses as well; however, the specific coupling of a sufficient number of boron atoms to a biological structure has proven challenging. Herein, we synthesize tags containing closo‐1,2‐dicarbadodecaborane, coupled to soluble peptides, which were integrated in specific proteins by click chemistry in mammalian cells and were also coupled to nanobodies for use in immunocytochemistry experiments. The tags were fully functional in biological samples, as demonstrated by nanoSIMS imaging of cell cultures. The boron signal revealed the protein of interest, while other SIMS channels were used for imaging different positive ions, such as the cellular metal ions. This allows, for the first time, the simultaneous imaging of such ions with a protein of interest and will enable new biological applications in the SIMS field.     

The AR-property for Roberts' example of a compact convex set with no extreme points Part 2: Application to the example

In this second part of our paper, we apply the result of Part 1 to show that the compact convex set with no extreme points, constructed by Roberts (1977), is an AR.

     

Detailed Structural Characterization of Sphingolipids via 193 nm Ultraviolet Photodissociation and Ultra High Resolution Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Sphingolipids serve not only as components of cellular membranes but also as bioactive mediators of numerous cellular functions. As the biological activities of these lipids are dependent on their structures, and due to the limitations of conventional ion activation methods employed during tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), there is a recognized need for the development of improved structure-specific methods for their comprehensive identification and characterization. Here, positive-ionization mode 193 nm ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD)-MS/MS has been implemented for the detailed structural characterization of lipid species from a range of sphingolipid classes introduced to the mass spectrometer via electrospray ionization as their lithiated or protonated adducts. These include sphingosine d18:1(4E), dihydrosphingosine (sphinganine) d18:0, sphingadiene d18:2(4E,11Z), the isomeric sphingolipids ceramide d18:1(4E)/18:0 and dihydroceramide d18:0/18:1(9Z), ceramide-1-phosphate d18:1(4Z)/16:0, sphingomyelin d18:1(4E)/18:1(9Z) the glycosphingolipids galactosyl ceramide d18:1(4E)/24:1(15Z) and lactosyl ceramide d18:1(4E)/24:0, and several endogenous lipids present within a porcine brain total lipid extract. In addition to the product ions formed by higher energy collision dissociation (HCD), UVPD is shown to yield a series of novel structurally diagnostic product ions resulting from cleavage of both sphingosine carbon–carbon and acyl chain carbon–carbon double bonds for direct localization of site(s) of unsaturation, as well as via diagnostic cleavages of the sphingosine backbone and N–C amide bond linkages. With activation timescales and dissociation efficiencies similar to those found in conventional MS/MS strategies, this approach is therefore a promising new tool in the arsenal of ion activation techniques toward providing complete structural elucidation in automated, high-throughput lipid analysis workflows.

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Graphical Abstract ?

     

The Heighway Dragon Revisited

We prove that the Heighway dragon is a countable union of closed geometrically similar disk-like planar sets which intersect each other in a linear order: any two of them intersect at no more than one cut point and for any three disks there exist at least two with an empty intersection. Consequently, the interior of the Heighway dragon is a countable union of disjoint open disk-like planar sets. We determine all the cut points of the dragon and show that each disk-like subset between two cut points is a graph self-similar set defined by a graph-directed iterated function system consisting of four seed sets. Our results describe a fairly complete picture of the topological and geometric structure of the Heighway dragon.     

The shear modulus of the human vocal fold in a transverse direction

The aim of this study was to measure the shear modulus of the vocal fold in a human hemilarynx, such that the data can be related to direction of applied stress and anatomical context. Dynamic spring rate data were collected using a modified linear skin rheometer using human hemilarynges, and converted to estimated shear modulus via application of a simple shear model. The measurement probe was attached to the epithelial layer of the vocal fold cover using suction. A sinusoidal force of 3g was applied to the epithelium, and the resultant displacement logged at a rate of 1kHz. Force measurement accuracy was 20microg and position measurement accuracy was 4microm. The force was applied in a transverse direction at the midmembranous point between the vocal process and the anterior commissure. The shear modulus of the three female vocal folds ranged from 814 to 1232Pa. The shear modulus of the three male vocal folds ranged from 1021 to 1796Pa. These data demonstrate that it is possible to obtain estimates for the shear modulus of the vocal fold while preserving anatomical context. The modulus values reported here are higher than those reported using parallel plate rheometry. This is to be expected as the tissue is attached to surrounding structures, and is under natural tension.     

Ground state rotational energies of C3v quasi-spherical top molecules: Applications to 16OPF3 and PH3

Rotational spectra of the quasi-spherical symmetric molecules, ¹⁶OPF₃ and PH₃, are analyzed with all the data currently available. In both cases the current formulation that uses rotational contact transformations to completely diagonalize the ground state energy matrix appears to be inadequate, due to the smallness of the quantity |;A₀ ? B₀|. This quantity represents only 5% of A₀ or B₀ in the case of OPF₃ and 11% in the case of PH₃. Thus, both analyses require the resonance terms in ΔK = ±3 and/or ΔK = ±6 to be taken into account through diagonalization of the energy matrix. The ground state parameters as well as the ground state energies are given for both molecules.     

The intensity-dependent dielectric function of an exciton system

The nonlinear dielectric function of a direct band gap semiconductor is calculated using non-equilibrium Green's function technique. The interaction between the semiconductor and the intense radiation field is assumed to occur via excitons. As an example we calculate the polariton dispersion relation and the intensity-dependent changes of refraction index for GaAs.The author would like to thank Prof. Nguyen Van Hieu for projecting the problem and helpful discussions.     

Conditions for Permanence and Ergodicity of Certain SIR Epidemic Models

In this paper, we study sufficient conditions for the permanence and ergodicity of a stochastic susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) epidemic model with Beddington-DeAngelis incidence rate in both of non-degenerate and degenerate cases. The conditions obtained in fact are close to the necessary one. We also characterize the support of the invariant probability measure and prove the convergence in total variation norm of the transition probability to the invariant measure. Some of numerical examples are given to illustrate our results.