Macrophage Immunomodulation Through New Polymers that Recapitulate Functional Effects of Itaconate as a Power House of Innate Immunity

Itaconate (ITA) is an emerging powerhouse of innate immunity with therapeutic potential that is limited in its ability to be administered in a soluble form. A library of polyester materials that incorporate ITA into polymer backbones resulting in materials with inherent immunoregulatory behavior is developed. Harnessing hydrolytic degradation release from polyester backbones, ITA polymers result in the mechanism specific immunoregulatory properties on macrophage polarization in vitro. In a functional assay, the polymer-released ITA inhibits bacterial growth on acetate. Translation to an in vivo model of biomaterial associated inflammation, intraperitoneal injection of ITA polymers demonstrate a rapid resolution of inflammation in comparison to a control polymer silicone, demonstrating the value of sustained biomimetic presentation of ITA.     

Java technology comes to real-time applications

The Java language provides many benefits to application developers, including memory access safety, platform portability, and very high levels of productivity. However, some of the very Java language features that bring these benefits, such as the garbage collector, have also made it difficult or impossible to create applications with bounded response time characteristics. Implementations of the real-time specification for Java (RTSJ) are now available that have proven to be capable of supporting all aspects of real-time systems. This paper discusses the principal concepts underlying the RTSJ, use of the RTSJ's features in real-time applications, the most critical considerations that must be addressed by RTSJ-compliant Java virtual machine implementers, and two example RTSJ-compliant application designs that can fully utilize the RTSJ to portably support their performance requirements.     

Cooperative Strategies for Solving the Bicriteria Sparse Multiple Knapsack Problem

For hard optimization problems, it is difficult to design heuristic algorithms which exhibit uniformly superior performance for all problem instances. As a result it becomes necessary to tailor the algorithms based on the problem instance. In this paper, we introduce the use of a cooperative problem solving team of heuristics that evolves algorithms for a given problem instance. The efficacy of this method is examined by solving six difficult instances of a bicriteria sparse multiple knapsack problem. Results indicate that such tailored algorithms uniformly improve solutions as compared to using predesigned heuristic algorithms.     

Development of electrophoretic conditions for the characterization of protein glycoforms by capillary electrophoresis—electrospray mass spectrometry

A capillary electrophoresis (CE) method using acidic buffers and capillaries coated with Polybrene, a cationic polymer has been developed for the separation of glycoproteins and glycopeptides. Electrophoretic conditions have been optimized to provide resolution of individual glycoforms observed for different glycoprotein preparations. These conditions were found to be entirely compatible with the operation of electrospray mass spectrometry (ESMS), which facilitated the assignments of possible carbohydrate compositions of glycopeptides arising from digests of glycoproteins. By using operating conditions enhancing the formation of oxonium fragment ions prior to mass spectral analysis, selective identification of glycopeptides was achieved for complex samples such as those from proteolytic digests or chemical cleavages. Examples of applications are presented for ribonuclease B, ovalbumin, horseradish peroxidase, and a lectin from Erithrina corallodendron using both CE-ESMS and CE with ultraviolet detection (CE-UV).     

Chlorine nitrate photolysis by a new technique: very low pressure photolysis

Very low pressure photolysis (VLPØ) of chlorine nitrate was performed in a quartz Knudsen cell. The light source was a 2500 W high-pressure xenon lamp, and a modulated molecular-beam mass spectrometer was used to monitor the concentration of ClONO₂ and photolysis products. Because of the low pressures used (? 10^?3 torr) and the short residence time in the cell (≈1 s), secondary reactions were unimportant and the primary products could be directly identified. The primary photolysis products (λ ≈ 2700 Å) are atomic chlorine and NO₃ free radical. Chlorine atoms were identified both by the appearance of Cl₂ (wall recombination product; the walls were not poisoned) and by HCl produced when C₂H₆ was added to the cell. Nitrate free radical was directly identified as a mass peak at m/e = 62, as well as by chemical titration with nitric oxide: NO₃ + NO → 2NO₂. It was verified by direct tests that the peak at m/e = 62 did not arise from possible HNO₃ contamination or from N₂O₅, a possible secondary product. This titration reaction was used to measure quantitatively a lower limit to the primary quantum yield, φ ? 0.5 ± 0.3. This represents a lower limit because of the unknown extent of the secondary photolysis of NO₃ under our conditions. We believe this to be the first observation using mass spectrometry of the NO₃ free radical. The quantum yield for atomic chlorine is φ = 1.0 ± 0.2. N₂O was used to test for O(¹D) according to the reaction, O(¹D) + N₂O → products; none was observed. Triplet oxygen, O(³P) was observed to the extent of ≈ 10% by the reaction O(³P) + NO₂ → NO + O₂, but this yield can also be due to the photolysis of NO₃ free radical produced in the primary step. We conclude that the predominant reaction pathway is

.     

Calculation of angular dependence of photoemission for the Al(100) + O system using a simple molecular orbital cluster model

The angular dependence of photoemission from oxygen chemisorbed on the (100) face of aluminum is calculated using a molecular cluster model. The cluster contains five aluminum atoms with one oxygen atom located in the four-fold site; two A1O distances are considered. The calculations employed the Xα scattered wave formalism and are the first results to be obtained for a chemisorption problem in which both initial and final states are based on a cluster model.     

Darstellung und schwingungsspektroskopische Untersuchung von [H3B?Se?Se?BH3]2− und [H3B-μ2-Se(B2H5)]− Kristallstruktur und theoretische Untersuchung der Molekülstruktur von [H3B-μ2-Se(B2H5)]−

Synthesis and Vibrational Spectroscopic Investigation of [H₃B? Se? Se? BH₃]^2? and [H₃B-μ₂-Se(B₂H₅)]^? Crystal Structure and Theoretical Investigation of the Molecular Structure of [H₃B-μ₂-Se(B₂H₅)]^? M₂[H₃B? Se? Se? BH₃] 1 is produced by the reaction between elemental selenium and MBH₄ (1 : 1) in triglyme (diglyme), under dehydrogenation. 1 reacts with an excess of B₂H₆ to give M[H₃B-μ₂-Se(B₂H₅)] 2 which is also formed in the reaction of THF · BH₃ with 1 . These reactions proceed under cleavage of the Se? Se bond and hydrogen evolution. [(C₆H₅)₄]Br reacts with Na · 2 to form [(C₆H₅)₄P] · 2 which crystallizes in the tetragonal space group I4 (Nr. 82). An X-ray structure determination failed because of disordering of the cation and anion. ¹¹B, ⁷⁷Se NMR shifts and ¹J(¹¹B¹H) coupling constants as well as IR- and Raman spectroscopic investigations convey further structural information. Structural data of 2 have been calculated by SCF methods. The anion of 2 may be viewed either as an adduct of Se with B₃H₈^?, or as a bridge substituted selena derivative of B₂H₆.