Hydrogen bonding in potassium hydrogen maleate and some simple derivatives studied by inelastic neutron scattering spectroscopy

Inelastic neutron scattering spectra (300–2500 cm^?1) of KH(CHCO₂)₂, KD(CHCO₂)₂, KH(CDCO₂)₂ and KH(CHCO₂ · CClCO₂) have been obtained and the vibrations of the hydrogen bond, with the exception of ν₂(OHO), assigned. This is the first assignment of these vibrations in a centrosymmetric intramolecularly hydrogen bonded complex. ν_as(OHO) was found to be heavily mixed and to give rise to a strong doublet in the INS spectra.     

Light-induced oxygen generation in aqueous dispersion of In2O3 particles and determination of their conduction band position

Ultra-pure In₂O₃ powder has a band gap of 2.5 ± 0.2 eV as derived from reflectance spectroscope. The conduction band position of these partic     

Pathogen detection using engineered bacteriophages

Bacteriophages, or phages, are bacterial viruses that can infect a broad or narrow range of host organisms. Knowing the host range of a phage allows it to be exploited in targeting various pathogens. Applying phages for the identification of microorganisms related to food and waterborne pathogens and pathogens of clinical significance to humans and animals has a long history, and there has to some extent been a recent revival in these applications as phages have become more extensively integrated into novel detection, identification, and monitoring technologies. Biotechnological and genetic engineering strategies applied to phages are responsible for some of these new methods, but even natural unmodified phages are widely applicable when paired with appropriate innovative detector platforms. This review highlights the use of phages as pathogen detector interfaces to provide the reader with an up-to-date inventory of phage-based biodetection strategies.     

Rotational state dependence of CO/Pt(111) sticking probabilities

Calculations are presented which determine sticking probabilities for CO on a Pt(111) crystal as a function of the rotational excitation of the incident molecule. We generally find the rotational state dependence to be negligible except for J values corresponding to the high-energy tail of the thermal distribution, a result is attributable to the strong orientational dependence of the molecule-surface potential.     

Bacteriophage-amplified bioluminescent sensing of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis> O157:H7

Escherichia coli O157:H7 remains a continuous public health threat, appearing in meats, water, fruit juices, milk, cheese, and vegetables, where its ingestion at concentrations of perhaps as low as 10 to 100 organisms can result in potent toxin exposure and severe damage to the lining of the intestine. Abdominal pain and diarrhea develop, which in the very young or elderly can progress towards hemolytic uremic syndrome and kidney failure. To assist in the detection of E. coli O157:H7, a recombinant bacteriophage reporter was developed that uses quorum sensing (luxI/luxR) signaling and luxCDABE-based bioluminescent bioreporter sensing to specifically and autonomously respond to O157:H7 serotype E. coli. The bacteriophage reporter, derived from phage PP01, was tested in artificially contaminated foodstuffs including apple juice, tap water, ground beef, and spinach leaf rinsates. In apple juice, detection of E. coli O157:H7 at original inoculums of 1 CFU mL⁻¹ occurred within approximately 16 h after a 6-h pre-incubation, detection of 1 CFU mL⁻¹ in tap water occurred within approximately 6.5 h after a 6-h pre-incubation, and detection in spinach leaf rinsates using a real-time Xenogen IVIS imaging system resulted in detection of 1 CFU mL⁻¹ within approximately 4 h after a 2-h pre-incubation. Detection in ground beef was not successful, however, presumably due to the natural occurrence of quorum sensing autoinducer (N-3-(oxohexanoyl)-l-homoserine lactone; OHHL), which generated false-positive bioreporter signals in the ground beef samples.     

Analytic analysis of irregular discrete universes

In this work we investigate the dynamics of cosmological models with spherical topology containing up to 600 Schwarzschild black holes arranged in an irregular manner. We solve the field equations by tessellating the 3-sphere into eight identical cells, each having a single edge which is shared by all cells. The shared edge is enforced to be locally rotationally symmetric, thereby allowing for solving the dynamics to high accuracy along this edge. Each cell will then carry an identical (up to parity) configuration which can however have an arbitrarily random distribution. The dynamics of such models is compared to that of previous works on regularly distributed black holes as well as with the standard isotropic dust models of the FLRW type. The irregular models are shown to have richer dynamics than that of the regular models. The randomization of the distribution of the black holes is done both without bias and also with a certain clustering bias. The geometry of the initial configuration of our models is shown to be qualitatively different from the regular case in the way it approaches the isotropic model.     

Oligomeric rods of alkyl- and hydridogallium imides

Reaction of [RGa(NMe(2))(2)](2), where R = Me, Et, Bu, and Hx, with ammonia at 150 degrees C in an autoclave produced insoluble white powders formulated as oligomers of [RGaNH](n). The analogous reaction between NH(3) and MeGa[N(SiMe(3))(2)](2) at low temperature (<25 degrees C) formed an isolable intermediate, [MeGa(mu-NH(2))N(SiMe(3))(2)](2), that was characterized using single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction of the oligomers were consistent with a rodlike structure comprised of six-membered, [RGaNH](3) rings stacked perpendicular to the long axis of the rod. The method of synthesis, formula, and diffraction results suggested a structural similarity between the alkyl, [RGaNH](n)(), and the previously reported hydride, [HGaNH](n). The structural and electronic properties of rods having the general formula H(3)[(HXYH)(3)](n)H(3) (XY = GaN, GeC; n = 1-9) were investigated using density functional theory. Atomic electronegativity differences between the group 13/15 and 14/14 systems were found to play important roles in the geometrical structures of the two rods and also caused significant differences in the electronic structures. Energetically, it was found to be increasingly favorable to add additional cyclotrigallazane rings to the GaN rods, while for the GeC rods, there was a roughly constant energy cost associated with each additional ring. The electric dipole moments of the GaN rods increased substantially with length; in the GeC rods, charge separation occurred to a much smaller extent and had a polarization opposite to that found in GaN. In addition, increased dipole moments correlated with smaller electronic excitation energies, as predicted by time-dependent density functional theory. All of the powders exhibited luminescence in the visible spectrum at room temperature. Structure observed in the photoluminescence spectra of [HGaNH](n) and [MeGaNH](n) was interpreted as arising from rods of different length.     

A New Class of Aluminum Cations Based upon Tetradentate (N(2)O(2)) Chelating Ligands

Herein are described the synthesis and characterization of the complexes of formula LAlR (where R = Cl and L = Salen (1), SalenCl (2), Acen (3) and where R = Me and L = Salen (4), SalenCl (5), Acen (6); Salen = N,N'-ethylenebis((2-hydroxyphenyl)methylimine), SalenCl = N,N'-ethylenebis((2-hydroxy-5-chlorophenyl)methylimine), Acen = N,N'-ethylenebis((2-hydroxyphenyl)-1-ethylimine)). The LAlCl derivatives dissolve in water and MeOH to yield the cationic complexes [LAl(H(2)O)(2)](+)Cl(-) (L = Salen (7), SalenCl (8), Acen (9)) and [LAl(MeOH)(2)](+)Cl(-) (L = Salen (10), SalenCl (11), Acen (12)), respectively. An alternative preparation of the cationic species involves the reaction of the LAlCl derivative with NaBPh(4). This leads to complexes of formula [LAl(MeOH)(2)](+)BPh(4)(-) (L = Salen (13), SalenCl (14), Acen (15)). Complexes 4-6 can be reacted with either MeOH or 4-chloro-3,5-dimethylphenol (Ph') to form complexes of general formula LAlOR (R = Me, L = Salen (16), SalenCl (17), Acen (18); R = Ph', L = Salen (19), SalenCl (20), Acen (21)). All of the compounds were characterized by IR, melting points, elemental analyses, and, when soluble, NMR. Additionally, the crystal structures of 7, 13, 15, and 18 were obtained.     

Halide Effects in the Formation of Four-Coordinate, Cationic Aluminum

This work was conducted as part of a broad-based effort to determine the factors that affect cation formation for organometallic aluminum complexes. In this study the adduct species R(2)AlX.NH(2)(t)Bu (R, X: Me, F (1); Me, Cl (2); Et, Cl (3); Me, Br (4)) and cationic complexes [R(2)Al(NH(2)(t)Bu)(2)]X (R, X: Me, Br (5); Et, Br (6); Me, I (7)) were examined. These complexes demonstrate that the reaction of R(2)AlX with excess NH(2)(t)Bu produces cationic complexes only when X = Br or I. All of the compounds were characterized by melting points, (1)H NMR, IR, elemental analyses, and, in some cases, X-ray crystallography. X-ray data: 2, triclinic, P&onemacr;, a = 6.277(3) ?, b = 8.990(3) ?, c = 10.393(3) ?, alpha = 71.97(1) degrees, beta = 80.25(3) degrees, gamma = 81.97(3) degrees, V = 547.0(4) ?(3), Z = 2, 1032 reflections with F > 4.0 sigma(F), R = 0.0520; 5, monoclinic, P2(1)/c, a = 9.099(1) ?, b = 10.292(1) ?, c = 17.255(2) ?, beta = 104.81(1) degrees, V = 1562.1(3) ?(3), Z = 4, 1464 reflections with F > 4.0 sigmaF, R = 0.0387; 6, monoclinic, P2(1)/c, a = 14.122(2) ?, b = 13.539(2) ?, c = 21.089(2) ?, beta = 107.73(1) degrees, V = 3841.2(9) ?(3), Z = 4, 781 reflections with F > 5.0 sigmaF, R = 0.0873; 7, monoclinic, P2(1)/n, a = 9.071(1) ?, b = 10.529(1) ?, c = 17.714(2) ?, beta = 103.67(1) degrees, V = 1644.0(3) ?(3), Z = 4, 1723 reflections with F > 4.0 sigmaF, R = 0.0451.