Solvent Influence on Cellulose 1,4‐β‐Glycosidic Bond Cleavage: A Molecular Dynamics and Metadynamics Study

We explore the influence of two solvents, namely water and the ionic liquid 1‐ethyl‐3‐methylimidazolium acetate (EmimAc), on the conformations of two cellulose models (cellobiose and a chain of 40 glucose units) and the solvent impact on glycosidic bond cleavage by acid hydrolysis by using molecular dynamics and metadynamics simulations. We investigate the rotation around the glycosidic bond and ring puckering, as well as the anomeric effect and hydrogen bonds, in order to gauge the effect on the hydrolysis mechanism. We find that EmimAc eases hydrolysis through stronger solvent–cellulose interactions, which break structural and electronic barriers to hydrolysis. Our results indicate that hydrolysis in cellulose chains should start from the ends and not in the centre of the chain, which is less accessible to solvent.     

The evolution and future of influenza pandemic preparedness

The influenza virus is a global threat to human health causing unpredictable yet recurring pandemics, the last four emerging over the course of a hundred years. As our knowledge of influenza virus evolution, distribution, and transmission has increased, paths to pandemic preparedness have become apparent. In the 1950s, the World Health Organization (WHO) established a global influenza surveillance network that is now composed of institutions in 122 member states. This and other surveillance networks monitor circulating influenza strains in humans and animal reservoirs and are primed to detect influenza strains with pandemic potential. Both the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO have also developed pandemic risk assessment tools that evaluate specific aspects of emerging influenza strains to develop a systematic process of determining research and funding priorities according to the risk of emergence and potential impact. Here, we review the history of influenza pandemic preparedness and the current state of preparedness, and we propose additional measures for improvement. We also comment on the intersection between the influenza pandemic preparedness network and the current SARS-CoV-2 crisis. We must continually evaluate and revise our risk assessment and pandemic preparedness plans and incorporate new information gathered from research and global crises.Subject terms: Influenza virus, Infectious diseases     

Stability of Semiconductor States with Insulating and Contact Boundary Conditions

We prove the existence of global smooth solutions near a given steady state of the hydrodynamic model of the semiconductors in a bounded domain with physical boundary conditions. The steady state and the doping profile are permitted to be of large variation but the initial velocity must be small. Two cases are considered. In the first one the problem is three-dimensional, the boundary conditions are insulating and the steady state velocity vanishes. In the second one, the problem is one-dimensional, the boundary is of contact type and the steady state velocity does not vanish.     

Absence of shocks in an initially dilute collisionless plasma

The Cauchy Problem for the relativistic Vlasov-Maxwell equations is studied in three space dimensions. It is assumed that the initial data satisfy the required constraints and have compact support. If in addition the data have sufficiently smallC ² norm, then a uniqueC ¹ solution to this system is shown to exist on all of spacetime.Research supported in part by NSF DMS 85-20662 and NSF DMS 84-20957     

Study of the reaction238U (α, α′f) atE α=480 MeV

The excitation function of the fission probability P _E E _x) for²³⁸U has been measured in the reaction²³⁸U(α, α′ f) at 480 MeV bombarding energy. The reaction mechanism of this reaction is discussed for excitation energies belowB _nf , the threshold for second chance fission, and aboveB _nf up toE _x =37 MeV. In comparing with results from fission induced by photons and by particle transfer reactions the (α, α′f) reaction gives too low values for the fission probabilityP _f at excitation energies well aboveB _nE . The role of the quasi-elastic knock-out process in this reaction is discussed.     

Ground-state properties of LiV2O4 and Li1-xZnx(V1-yTiy)2O4

We present susceptibility, microwave resistivity, NMR and heat-capacity results for Li_1-xZn_x(V_1-yTi_y)₂O₄ with 0 ? x ? 0.3 and 0 ? y ? 0.3. For all doping levels the susceptibility curves can be fitted with a Curie-Weiss law. The paramagnetic Curie-Weiss temperatures remain negative with an average value close to that of the pure compound Θ≈ - 36 K. Spin-glass anomalies are observed in the susceptibility, heat-capacity and NMR measurements for both type of dopants. From the temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate we found critical-dynamic behavior in the Zn doped compounds at the freezing temperatures. For the Ti-doped samples two successive freezing transitions into disordered low-temperature states can be detected. The temperature dependence of the heat capacity for Zn-doped compounds does not resemble that of canonical spin glasses and only a small fraction of the total vanadium entropy is frozen at the spin-glass transitions. For pure LiV₂O₄ the spin-glass transition is completely suppressed. The temperature dependence of the heat capacity for LiV₂O₄ can be described using a nuclear Schottky contribution and the non-Fermi liquid model, appropriate for a system close to a spin-glass quantum critical point. Finally an ( x / y , T )-phase diagram for the low-doping regime is presented. Received 16 March 2001 and Received in final form 30 October 2001