403 research outputs found
Rational design of a (S)-selective-transaminase for asymmetric synthesis of (1S)-1-(1,1′-biphenyl-2-yl)ethanamine
Amine transaminases offer an environmentally sustainable synthesis route for the production of pure chiral amines. However, their catalytic efficiency toward bulky ketone substrates is greatly limited by steric hindrance and therefore presents a great challenge for industrial synthetic applications. We hereby report an example of rational transaminase enzyme design to help alleviate these challenges. Starting from the Vibrio fluvialis amine transaminase that has no detectable catalytic activity toward the bulky aromatic ketone 2-acetylbiphenyl, we employed a rational design strategy combining in silico and in vitro studies to engineer the transaminase enzyme with a minimal number of mutations, achieving an high catalytic activity and high enantioselectivity. We found that, by introducing two mutations W57G/R415A, detectable enzyme activity was achieved. The rationally designed variant, W57F/R88H/V153S/K163F/I259M/R415A/V422A, showed an improvement in reaction rate by more than 1716-fold toward the bulky ketone under study, producing the corresponding enantiomeric pure (S)-amine (enantiomeric excess (ee) value of >99%)
Testing metric-affine f(R)-gravity by relic scalar gravitational waves
We discuss the emergence of scalar gravitational waves in metric-affine
f(R)-gravity. Such a component allows to discriminate between metric and
metric-affine theories The intrinsic meaning of this result is that the
geodesic structure of the theory can be discriminated. We extend the formalism
of cross correlation analysis, including the additional polarization mode, and
calculate the detectable energy density of the spectrum for cosmological relic
gravitons. The possible detection of the signal is discussed against
sensitivities of VIRGO, LIGO and LISA interferometers.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Coupled virus - bacteria interactions and ecosystem function in an engineered microbial system
Viruses are thought to control bacterial abundance, affect community composition and influence ecosystem function in natural environments. Yet their dynamics have seldom been studied in engineered systems, or indeed in any system, for long periods of time. We measured virus abundance in a full-scale activated sludge plant every week for two years. Total bacteria and ammonia oxidising bacteria (AOB) abundances, bacterial community profiles, and a suite of environmental and operational parameters were also monitored. Mixed liquor virus abundance fluctuated over an order of magnitude (3.18 × 108 – 3.41 × 109 virus’s mL-1) and that variation was statistically significantly associated with total bacterial and AOB abundance, community composition, and effluent concentrations of COD and NH4+- N and thus system function. This suggests viruses play a far more important role in the dynamics of activated sludge systems than previously realised and could be one of the key factors controlling bacterial abundance, community structure and functional stability and may cause reactors to fail. These finding are based on statistical associations, not mechanistic models. Nevertheless, viral associations with abiotic factors, such as pH, make physical sense giving credence to these findings and highlighting the role that physical factors play in virus ecology. Further work is needed to identify and quantify specific bacteriophage and their hosts to enable us to develop mechanistic models of the ecology of viruses in wastewater treatment systems. However, since we have shown that viruses can be related to effluent quality and virus quantification is simple and cheap, practitioners would probably benefit from quantifying viruses now
Dark energy from conformal symmetry breaking
The breakdown of conformal symmetry in a conformally invariant scalar-tensor
gravitational model is revisited in the cosmological context. Although the old
scenario of conformal symmetry breaking in cosmology containing scalar field
has already been used in many earlier works, it seems that no special attention
has been paid for the investigation on the possible connection between the
breakdown of conformal symmetry and the existence of dark energy. In this
paper, it is shown that the old scenario of conformal symmetry breaking in
cosmology, if properly interpreted, not only has a potential ability to
describe the origin of dark energy as a symmetry breaking effect, but also may
resolve the coincidence problem.Comment: 11 pages, minor revision, published online in EPJ
Quantitative comparison of single- and two-particle properties in the cuprates
We explore the strong variations of the electronic properties of
copper-oxygen compounds across the doping phase diagram in a quantitative way.
To this end we calculate the electronic Raman response on the basis of results
from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). In the limits of our
approximations we find agreement on the overdoped side and pronounced
discrepancies at lower doping. In contrast to the successful approach for the
transport properties at low energies, the Raman and the ARPES data cannot be
reconciled by adding angle-dependent momentum scattering. We discuss possible
routes towards an explanation of the suppression of spectral weight close to
the points which sets in abruptly close to 21% doping.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Graviton production from extra dimensions
Graviton production due to collapsing extra dimensions is studied. The
momenta lying in the extra dimensions are taken into account. A -dimensional
background is matched to an effectively four-dimensional standard radiation
dominated universe. Using observational constraints on the present
gravitational wave spectrum, a bound on the maximal temperature at the
beginning of the radiation era is derived. This expression depends on the
number of extra dimensions, as well as on the -dimensional Planck mass.
Furthermore, it is found that the extra dimensions have to be large.Comment: LaTeX file, 14 pages, 4 figure
Selectivity and functional diversity in arbuscular mycorrhizas of co-occurring fungi and plants from a temperate deciduous woodland
1 The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi colonizing plants at a woodland site in North Yorkshire (UK) have been characterized from the roots of five plant species (Rubus fruticosus agg. L., Epilobium angustifolium L., Acer pseudoplatanus L., Ajuga reptans L. and Glechoma hederacea L.), and identified using small-subunit rRNA (SSUrRNA) gene amplification and sequencing. 2 Interactions between five plant species from the site and four co-occurring glomalean fungi were investigated in artificial one-to-one AM symbioses. Three of the fungi were isolated from the site; the fourth was a culture genetically similar to a taxon found at the site. Phosphorus uptake and growth responses were compared with non-mycorrhizal controls. 3 Individual fungi colonized each plant with different spatial distribution and intensity. Some did not colonize at all, indicating incompatibility under the conditions used in the experiments. 4 Glomus hoi consistently occupied a large proportion of root systems and outperformed the other fungi, improving P uptake and enhancing the growth of four out of the five plant species. Only G. hoi colonized and increased P uptake in Acer pseudoplatanus, the host plant with which it associates almost exclusively under field conditions. Colonization of all plant species by Scutellospora dipurpurescens was sparse, and beneficial to only one of the host plants (Teucrium scorodonia). Archaeospora trappei and Glomus sp. UY1225 had variable effects on the host plants, conferring a range of P uptake and growth benefits on Lysimachia nummularia and T. scorodonia, increasing P uptake whilst not affecting biomass in Ajuga reptans and Glechoma hederacea, and failing to form mycorrhizas with A. pseudoplatanus. 5 These experimental mycorrhizas show that root colonization, symbiont compatibility and plant performance vary with each fungus-plant combination, even when the plants and fungi naturally co-exist. 6 We provide evidence of physical and functional selectivity in AM. The small number of described AM fungal species (154) has been ascribed to their supposed lack of host specificity, but if the selectivity we have observed is the general rule, then we may predict that many more, probably hard-to-culture glomalean species await discovery, or that members of species as currently perceived may be physiologically or functionally distinct
Cosmic Acceleration in Brans-Dicke Cosmology
We consider Brans-Dicke theory with a self-interacting potential in Einstein
conformal frame. We show that an accelerating expansion is possible in a
spatially flat universe for large values of the Brans-Dicke parameter
consistent with local gravity experiments.Comment: 10 Pages, 3 figures, To appear in General Relativity and Gravitatio
gravity constrained by PPN parameters and stochastic background of gravitational waves
We analyze seven different viable -gravities towards the Solar System
tests and stochastic gravitational waves background. The aim is to achieve
experimental bounds for the theory at local and cosmological scales in order to
select models capable of addressing the accelerating cosmological expansion
without cosmological constant but evading the weak field constraints. Beside
large scale structure and galactic dynamics, these bounds can be considered
complimentary in order to select self-consistent theories of gravity working at
the infrared limit. It is demonstrated that seven viable -gravities under
consideration not only satisfy the local tests, but additionally, pass the
above PPN-and stochastic gravitational waves bounds for large classes of
parameters.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
Enhancement of the upper critical field by nonmagnetic impurities in dirty two-gap superconductors
Quasiclassic Uzadel equations for two-band superconductors in the dirty limit
with the account of both intraband and interband scattering by nonmagnetic
impurities are derived for any anisotropic Fermi surface. From these equations
the Ginzburg-Landau equations, and the critical temperature are obtained.
An equation for the upper critical field, which determines both the temperature
dependence of and the orientational dependence of
as a function of the angle between and the c-axis is
obtained. It is shown that the shape of the curve essentially
depends on the ratio of the intraband electron diffusivities and ,
and can be very different from the standard one-gap dirty limit theory. In
particular, the value can considerably exceed ,
which can have important consequences for applications of . A scaling
relation is proposed which enables one to obtain the angular dependence of
from the equation for at . It is shown
that, depending on the relation between and , the ratio of the upper
critical field for and can both increase and decrease as the temperature decreases. Implications
of the obtained results for are discussed
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