Rare decay B→XsννˉB \to X_{s} \nu \bar \nu in the two-Higgs-doublet model of type-III

In this paper, we calculated the new physics contribution to theoretically very clean rare decay $B\to X_{s} \nu \bar{\nu}$ in the general two-Higgs-doublet model (model III). Within the considered parameter space, we found that (a) the new physics contribution can provide one to two orders of enhancement to the branching ratio \calb(B\to X_s \nu \bar{\nu}) and can saturate the experimental bound on \calb(B \to X_s \nu \bar{\nu}) in some regions of the parameter space; (b) besides the CLEO data of $B \to X_s \gamma$, the ALEPH upper limit on \calb (B \to X_s \nu \bar{\nu}) also lead to further constraint on the size of the Yukawa coupling $\lambda_{tt}$: $\lambda_{tt}< 6.4$ for $\lambda_{bb}=2.7$ and \mhp=200 GeV.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures in eps and 1 in ps, Latex fil

Isohexide and sorbitol-derived, enzymatically synthesized renewable polyesters with enhanced Tg

Sugar-based polyesters derived from sorbitol and isohexides were obtained via solvent-free enzymatic catalysis. Pendant hydroxyl groups, coming from the sorbitol units, were present along the polyester backbone, whereas the two isohexides, namely, isomannide and isoidide dimethyl ester monomers, were selected to introduce rigidity into the polyester chains. The feasibility of incorporating isomannide as a diol compared to the isoidide dimethyl ester as acyl-donor via lipase-catalyzed polycondensation was investigated. The presence of bicyclic units resulted in enhanced Tg with respect to the parent sorbitol-containing polyester lacking isohexides. The different capability of the two isohexides to boost the thermal properties confirmed the more flexible character provided by the isoidide diester derivative. Solvent-borne coatings were prepared by cross-linking the sugar-based polyester polyols with polyisocyanates. The increased rigidity of the obtained sugar-based polyester polyols led to an enhancement in hardness of the resulting coatings.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Fully bio-based aromatic–aliphatic copolyesters: poly(butylene furandicarboxylate-co-succinate)s obtained by ring opening polymerization

Poly(butylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate-co-succinate) copolyesters (coPBFxSy) have been synthesized by ring opening polymerization (ROP). Cyclic butylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate and butylene succinate oligomer mixtures, to be used as monomers for ROP, were prepared by high dilution condensation and enzymatic cyclization reactions, respectively. Two different catalytic systems, tin dioctanoate and supported Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB), were used for polymerization. Thus two series of copolyesters covering the whole range of compositions were prepared and their properties comparatively examined. In both cases, random copolyesters with compositions close to those used in their respective feeds were obtained. The influence of composition on reaction kinetics with respect to time and temperature was evaluated for the two series. Chemically catalyzed ROP rendered copolyesters with Mw in the ~50 000–65 000 g mol-1 range, whereas values between 15 000 and 45 000 g mol-1 were attained when the ROP reaction was assisted by CALB. The thermal behavior of coPBFxSy obtained by ROP was similar to that reported for such copolymers prepared by melt polycondensation. They all start to decompose above 300 °C and display melting enthalpy and temperatures that decrease with copolymerization, attaining minimum values when the comonomer contents are approximate to balance. On the contrary, the glass-transition temperature increased almost linearly with the content of butylene furandicarboxylate units, covering the whole range of values between those of the two parent homopolyesters. Small deviations in thermal properties observed between the two series could be attributed to their differences in molecular weights. Hydrolytic and enzymatic degradation studies revealed that coPBFxSy became more degradable with increasing content of succinic units, whereas the homopolyester PBF remained practically unaffected when incubated under similar conditions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The effect of alcohol on the performance of lipase-immobilized enzymatic membrane reactor for esterification of (R,S)-ketoprofen

The effect of alcohols on the performance of lipase-immobilized enzymatic membrane reactor (EMR) for enantioselective esterification of (R,S)-ketoprofen has been studied. In this work, mixed solvent medium was used and the (R)-ketoprofen was reacted with the different alcohols in the presence of immobilized lipase B from Candida antartica, leaving the target product (S)-ketoprofen in its unreacted form. The alcohols involved in the reactions were ethanol, butanol, heptanol and 2-ethoxyethanol. The chain length of alcohol was found to significantly affect the performance of the esterification in EMR. Through the alcohols screening, the esterification reaction using ethanol in EMR showed higher initial rate, conversion, enzyme enantioselectivity, enantiomeric excess of substrate (ees) and enantiomeric excess of product (eep). However the results with butanol showed less inhibition effect on a wider range of temperatur

Cutting Edge : Failure of Antigen-Specific CD4+ T Cell Recruitment to the Kidney during Systemic Candidiasis

Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Acknowledgments We thank E. Bolton and H. Bagavant for reagents and advice. We also acknowledge the staff of the Medical Research Facility at the University of Aberdeen for care of the animals used in this study. This work was supported by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Kramer--Neugebauer Transformation for Einstein--Maxwell--Dilaton--Axion Theory

The Kramer--Neugebauer--like transformation is constructed for the stationary axisymmetric D=4 Einstein--Maxwell--dilaton--axion system. This transformation directly maps the dualized sigma--model equations of the theory into the nondualized ones. Also the new chiral $4 \times 4$ matrix representation of the problem is presented.Comment: 13 pages, RevTex, no figure

A Computational Methodology to Screen Activities of Enzyme Variants

We present a fast computational method to efficiently screen enzyme activity. In the presented method, the effect of mutations on the barrier height of an enzyme-catalysed reaction can be computed within 24 hours on roughly 10 processors. The methodology is based on the PM6 and MOZYME methods as implemented in MOPAC2009, and is tested on the first step of the amide hydrolysis reaction catalyzed by Candida Antarctica lipase B (CalB) enzyme. The barrier heights are estimated using adiabatic mapping and are shown to give barrier heights to within 3kcal/mol of B3LYP/6-31G(d)//RHF/3-21G results for a small model system. Relatively strict convergence criteria (0.5kcal/(mol{\AA})), long NDDO cutoff distances within the MOZYME method (15{\AA}) and single point evaluations using conventional PM6 are needed for reliable results. The generation of mutant structure and subsequent setup of the semiempirical calculations are automated so that the effect on barrier heights can be estimated for hundreds of mutants in a matter of weeks using high performance computing

Lipase catalysed kinetic resolution of racemic 1,2-diols containing a chiral quaternary center

Optically active 1,2-diols are valuable buildings blocks in organic synthesis. In the present paper, a set of racemic 1,2-diols with an ester functional group are prepared, starting from -ketoesters in a three-step procedure with moderate yields. The racemic 1,2-diols, containing a chiral quaternary center in their structure, are subjected to selective acylation in order to perform their kinetic resolution catalysed by a set of commercially available lipases. Under optimized reaction conditions, good conversions and enantioselectivities are achieved by using the lipase PSL-C from Pseudomonas cepacia in tert-butyl methyl ether. This biocatalyst could be reused up to five times without losing its properties.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (contract RYC-2012-10014 for G.d.G., Grants CTQ2016-76908-C2-1-P and CTQ2016-76908-C2-2-P)European FEDER FundsJunta de Andalucía (Grant 2012/FQM 10787

Parallelizing RRT on distributed-memory architectures

This paper addresses the problem of improving the performance of the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm by parallelizing it. For scalability reasons we do so on a distributed-memory architecture, using the message-passing paradigm. We present three parallel versions of RRT along with the technicalities involved in their implementation. We also evaluate the algorithms and study how they behave on different motion planning problems

Spectral Efficient and Energy Aware Clustering in Cellular Networks

The current and envisaged increase of cellular traffic poses new challenges to Mobile Network Operators (MNO), who must densify their Radio Access Networks (RAN) while maintaining low Capital Expenditure and Operational Expenditure to ensure long-term sustainability. In this context, this paper analyses optimal clustering solutions based on Device-to-Device (D2D) communications to mitigate partially or completely the need for MNOs to carry out extremely dense RAN deployments. Specifically, a low complexity algorithm that enables the creation of spectral efficient clusters among users from different cells, denoted as enhanced Clustering Optimization for Resources' Efficiency (eCORE) is presented. Due to the imbalance between uplink and downlink traffic, a complementary algorithm, known as Clustering algorithm for Load Balancing (CaLB), is also proposed to create non-spectral efficient clusters when they result in a capacity increase. Finally, in order to alleviate the energy overconsumption suffered by cluster heads, the Clustering Energy Efficient algorithm (CEEa) is also designed to manage the trade-off between the capacity enhancement and the early battery drain of some users. Results show that the proposed algorithms increase the network capacity and outperform existing solutions, while, at the same time, CEEa is able to handle the cluster heads energy overconsumption