High frequency limit of the Transport Cross Section and boundedness of the Total Cross Section in scattering by an obstacle with impedance boundary conditions

The scalar scattering of the plane wave by a strictly convex obstacle with impedance boundary conditions is considered. The uniform boundedness of the Total Cross Section for all values of frequencies is proved. The high frequency limit of the Transport Cross Section is founded and presented as a classical functional of the variational theory

Spectral properties of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator for exterior Helmholtz problem and its applications to scattering theory

We prove that the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator (DtN) has no spectrum in the lower half of the complex plane. We find several application of this fact in scattering by obstacles with impedance boundary conditions. In particular, we find an upper bound for the gradient of the scattering amplitude and for the total cross section. We justify numerical approximations by providing bounds on difference between theoretical and approximated solutions without using any a priory unknown constants

Invisibility in billiards

The question of invisibility for bodies with mirror surface is studied in the framework of geometrical optics. We construct bodies that are invisible/have zero resistance in two mutually orthogonal directions, and prove that there do not exist bodies which are invisible/have zero resistance in all possible directions of incidence

Structural insights into thrombolytic activity of destabilase from medicinal leech

Destabilase from the medical leech Hirudo medicinalis belongs to the family of i-type lysozymes. It has two different enzymatic activities: microbial cell walls destruction (muramidase activity), and dissolution of the stabilized fibrin (isopeptidase activity). Both activities are known to be inhibited by sodium chloride at near physiological concentrations, but the structural basis remains unknown. Here we present two crystal structures of destabilase, including a 1.1 Å-resolution structure in complex with sodium ion. Our structures reveal the location of sodium ion between Glu34/Asp46 residues, which were previously recognized as a glycosidase active site. While sodium coordination with these amino acids may explain inhibition of the muramidase activity, its influence on previously suggested Ser49/Lys58 isopeptidase activity dyad is unclear. We revise the Ser49/Lys58 hypothesis and compare sequences of i-type lysozymes with confirmed destabilase activity. We suggest that the general base for the isopeptidase activity is His112 rather than Lys58. pKa calculations of these amino acids, assessed through the 1 μs molecular dynamics simulation, confirm the hypothesis. Our findings highlight the ambiguity of destabilase catalytic residues identification and build foundations for further research of structure–activity relationship of isopeptidase activity as well as structure-based protein design for potential anticoagulant drug development.</p

ПРОЕКТНО-КОНТЕКСТНОЕ ОБРАЗОВАНИЕ В РЕАЛИЗАЦИИ МНОГОУРОВНЕВОЙ ПОДГОТОВКИ ЭКОНОМИСТОВ

The dynamics of modern society and the growth of innovative economy needs lead to shortening of graduates’ periods of adaptation to professional activity, growing of their mobility, competitiveness, and make the professional education face new tasks.Authors discuss the problem of multilevel economic education organization, aimed at elimination of the gap between employers requirements and assignable educational services. The necessity of development of projectcontextual education technology is being proved. It creates an opportunity of competence approach realization. In the article Financial University’s experience is showed to develop and introduce the educational standard „Economics” in the practice of training personnel for innovative economy. This experience defi nes the opportunity of designing the educational process according to „weighting coeffi cient” of particular competences importance and systematic unity of higher education levels. Динамичность современного общества, рост потребностей инновационной экономики обусловливают сокращение сроков адаптации выпускников вузов к профессиональной деятельности, повышение их мобильности, конкурентоспособности и ставят перед профессиональным образованием новые задачи. Авторами обсуждается проблема организации многоуровневого экономического образования, направленного на устранение разрыва между требованиями работодателей и предоставляемыми образовательными услугами. Обоснована необходимость разработки технологии проектно-контекстного обучения, создающей возможность содержательной реализации компетентностного подхода.Представленный в статье опыт Финансового университета при Правительстве РФ по разработке и внедрению Образовательного стандарта высшего образования по направлению «Экономика» в практику подготовки кадров для инновационной экономики определяет возможность проектирования образовательного процесса в соответствии с «весовым коэффициентом» важности отдельных компетенций и системном единстве уровней высшего образования.

Fluorescent Discrimination between Traces of Chemical Warfare Agents and Their Mimics

An array of fluorogenic probes is able to discriminate between nerve agents, sarin, soman, tabun, VX and their mimics, in water or organic solvent, by qualitative fluorescence patterns and quantitative multivariate analysis, thus making the system suitable for the inthe- field detection of traces of chemical warfare agents as well as to differentiate between the real nerve agents and other related compounds.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain (Project CTQ2012- 31611), Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura y Fondo Social Europeo (Project BU246A12-1), the European Commission, Seventh Framework Programme (Project SNIFFER FP7-SEC-2012-312411) and the Swedish Ministry of Defence (no. A403913

Identification of a mitotic recombination hotspot on chromosome III of the asexual fungus Aspergillus niger and its possible correlation elevated basal transcription

Genetic recombination is an important tool in strain breeding in many organisms. We studied the possibilities of mitotic recombination in strain breeding of the asexual fungus Aspergillus niger. By identifying genes that complemented mapped auxotrophic mutations, the physical map was compared to the genetic map of chromosome III using the genome sequence. In a program to construct a chromosome III-specific marker strain by selecting mitotic crossing-over in diploids, a mitotic recombination hotspot was identified. Analysis of the mitotic recombination hotspot revealed some physical features, elevated basal transcription and a possible correlation with purine stretches

Characterization of the binding sites of the anticancer ruthenium(III) complexes KP1019 and KP1339 on human serum albumin via competition studies

Indazolium trans-[tetrachloridobis(1H-indazole)ruthenate(III)] (KP1019) and its Na+ analogue (KP1339) are two of the most prominent non-platinum antitumor metal complexes currently undergoing clinical trials. After intravenous administration, they are known to bind to human serum albumin (HSA) in a noncovalent manner. To elucidate their HSA binding sites, displacement reactions with the established site markers warfarin and dansylglycine as well as bilirubin were monitored by spectrofluorimetry, ultrafiltration-UV-vis spectrophotometry, and/or capillary zone electrophoresis. Conditional stability constants for the binding of KP1019 and KP1339 to sites I and II of HSA were determined, indicating that both Ru(III) compounds bind to both sites with moderately strong affinity (log K (1)' = 5.3-5.8). No preference for either binding site was found, and similar results were obtained for both metal complexes, demonstrating low influence of the counter ion on the binding event

Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) Mapping Reveals a Role for Unstudied Genes in Aspergillus Virulence

Infections caused by the fungus Aspergillus are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised populations. To identify genes required for virulence that could be used as targets for novel treatments, we mapped quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting virulence in the progeny of a cross between two strains of A. nidulans (FGSC strains A4 and A91). We genotyped 61 progeny at 739 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) spread throughout the genome, and constructed a linkage map that was largely consistent with the genomic sequence, with the exception of one potential inversion of ∼527 kb on Chromosome V. The estimated genome size was 3705 cM and the average intermarker spacing was 5.0 cM. The average ratio of physical distance to genetic distance was 8.1 kb/cM, which is similar to previous estimates, and variation in recombination rate was significantly positively correlated with GC content, a pattern seen in other taxa. To map QTL affecting virulence, we measured the ability of each progeny strain to kill model hosts, larvae of the wax moth Galleria mellonella. We detected three QTL affecting in vivo virulence that were distinct from QTL affecting in vitro growth, and mapped the virulence QTL to regions containing 7–24 genes, excluding genes with no sequence variation between the parental strains and genes with only synonymous SNPs. None of the genes in our QTL target regions have been previously associated with virulence in Aspergillus, and almost half of these genes are currently annotated as “hypothetical”. This study is the first to map QTL affecting the virulence of a fungal pathogen in an animal host, and our results illustrate the power of this approach to identify a short list of unknown genes for further investigation