Hydrolysis of oligosaccharides by polyelectrolytes

The hydrolysis of maltotriose, maltose, cellobiose and gentiobiose, at a concentration of 1% (w/v), have been investigated in 0.20 N sulphuric acid and 0.2 N polystyrene sulphonic acid. The apparent rate constants determined by high pressure liquid chromatography are compared and their dependence on temperature is given. The thermodynamic parameters of reaction with both acids are deduced. The catalytic effect of the polyacid, expressed by the ratio of the rate constants at a given temperature, is discussed in terms of the condensation of the counterions.     

Heritability of Stroop and flanker performance in 12-year old children

Background  

There is great interest in appropriate phenotypes that serve as indicator of genetically transmitted frontal (dys)function, such as ADHD. Here we investigate the ability to deal with response conflict, and we ask to what extent performance variation on response interference tasks is caused by genetic variation. We tested a large sample of 12-year old monozygotic and dizygotic twins on two well-known and closely related response interference tasks; the color Stroop task and the Eriksen flanker task. Using structural equation modelling we assessed the heritability of several performance indices derived from those tasks.     

The contribution of high frequencies to human brain activity underlying horizontal localization of natural spatial sounds

Background  

In the field of auditory neuroscience, much research has focused on the neural processes underlying human sound localization. A recent magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigated localization-related brain activity by measuring the N1m event-related response originating in the auditory cortex. It was found that the dynamic range of the right-hemispheric N1m response, defined as the mean difference in response magnitude between contralateral and ipsilateral stimulation, reflects cortical activity related to the discrimination of horizontal sound direction. Interestingly, the results also suggested that the presence of realistic spectral information within horizontally located spatial sounds resulted in a larger right-hemispheric N1m dynamic range. Spectral cues being predominant at high frequencies, the present study further investigated the issue by removing frequencies from the spatial stimuli with low-pass filtering. This resulted in a stepwise elimination of direction-specific spectral information. Interaural time and level differences were kept constant. The original, unfiltered stimuli were broadband noise signals presented from five frontal horizontal directions and binaurally recorded for eight human subjects with miniature microphones placed in each subject's ear canals. Stimuli were presented to the subjects during MEG registration and in a behavioral listening experiment.     

A (1→4)-β-D-Glucuronan Excreted by a Mutant of the Rhizobium Meliloti M5N1 Strain

Abstract

A mutant of the R. meliloti M5N1 strain has been selected. This strain, R. meliloti M5N1 CS (NCIMB 40472), excretes an extracellular material composed of 2-O-Ac-β-GlcpA, 3-O-Ac-β-GlcpA, 2,3-di-O-Ac-β-GlcpA and three species of β-GlcpA residues 1→4 linked. For the culture conditions used, the weight average molecular weight of the polymer varied in the range of 6 × 10⁴ < Mw < 4 × 10⁵. High molecular weight glucuronate forms thermoreversible gels at 5 g L^?l. In the presence of divalent cation such as Ca²⁺ or trivalent cations such as Cr³⁺ or Fe^{3 +}, cross linking of the polymer occurs. This polysaccharide is the first exocellular (1→4)-β-D-glucuronan produced by a R. meliloti strain.     

Surface decoration: Localization of crystallites along the steps

The interest of decorating surfaces by metallic particles is to point out defects and in particular, steps. However, the precise localization of these particles is not known. It is shown here, by statistical measurements, that gold and palladium nuclei settle in the upper part of diatomic and monoatomic steps of (100) KCl. This unexpected localization is interpreted by the consideration of the elastic strain field, induced in the substrate by an in-contact crystallite. A crystallite placed near to the lower part of a step finds itself in a repulsive situation. When localized in the upper part, an attractive force counterbalanced by the line tension of the step exists. It is understood that decorating crystallites moving along the steps do not leave them, as it has been revealed by measurements and observations.