Reconstituting ring-rafts in bud-mimicking topography of model membranes.

During vesicular trafficking and release of enveloped viruses, the budding and fission processes dynamically remodel the donor cell membrane in a protein- or a lipid-mediated manner. In all cases, in addition to the generation or relief of the curvature stress, the buds recruit specific lipids and proteins from the donor membrane through restricted diffusion for the development of a ring-type raft domain of closed topology. Here, by reconstituting the bud topography in a model membrane, we demonstrate the preferential localization of cholesterol- and sphingomyelin-enriched microdomains in the collar band of the bud-neck interfaced with the donor membrane. The geometrical approach to the recapitulation of the dynamic membrane reorganization, resulting from the local radii of curvatures from nanometre-to-micrometre scales, offers important clues for understanding the active roles of the bud topography in the sorting and migration machinery of key signalling proteins involved in membrane budding

Biosynthesis of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (P(HB-co-HHx)) from butyrate using engineered Ralstonia eutropha

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a promising family of bio-based polymers, are considered to be alternatives to traditional petroleum-based plastics. Copolymers like poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (P(HB-co-HHx)) have been shown to exhibit favorable physical and mechanical properties, due to decreased crystallinity resulting from the presence of medium-chain-length 3-hydroxyhexanoate (3HHx) monomers. In this study, we produced P(HB-co-HHx) using engineered Ralstonia eutropha strains containing deletions of the acetoacetyl-CoA reductase (phaB) genes and replacing the native PHA synthase with phaC2 from Rhodococcus aetherivorans I24 and by using butyrate, a short-chain organic acid, as the carbon source. Although the wild-type R. eutropha did not produce P(HB-co-HHx) when grown on mixed acids or on butyrate as the sole carbon source, we are able to produce polymer containing up to 40 wt% 3HHx monomer with the aforementioned engineered R. eutropha strains using various concentrations of just butyrate as the sole carbon source. This is the first report for the production of P(HB-co-HHx) copolymer in R. eutropha using butyrate.Korea Polar Research Institute. Polar Academic Program (PAP, PD13010)Korea (South). Rural Development Administration (Project No. 010205022014

Synergistic growth of nickel and platinum nanoparticles via exsolution and surface reaction

Funding; EPSRC for a Critical Mass project EP/R023522/1 and Electron Microscopy provision EP/R023751/1, EP/L017008/1.Bimetallic catalysts combining precious and earth-abundant metals in well designed nanoparticle architectures can enable cost efficient and stable heterogeneous catalysis. Here, we present an interaction-driven in-situ approach to engineer finely dispersed Ni decorated Pt nanoparticles (1-6 nm) on perovskite nanofibres via reduction at high temperatures (600-800oC). Deposition of Pt (0.5 wt%) enhances the reducibility of the perovskite support and promotes the nucleation of Ni cations via metal-support interaction, thereafter the Ni species react with Pt forming alloy nanoparticles, with the combined processes yielding smaller nanoparticles that either of the contributing processes. Tuneable uniform Pt-Ni nanoparticles are produced on the perovskite surface, yielding reactivity and stability surpassing 1 wt.% Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalysts for CO oxidation. This approach heralds the possibility of in-situ fabrication of supported bimetallic nanoparticles with engineered compositional distributions and performance.Peer reviewe

Properties of Central Caustics in Planetary Microlensing

To maximize the number of planet detections, current microlensing follow-up observations are focusing on high-magnification events which have a higher chance of being perturbed by central caustics. In this paper, we investigate the properties of central caustics and the perturbations induced by them. We derive analytic expressions of the location, size, and shape of the central caustic as a function of the star-planet separation, $s$, and the planet/star mass ratio, $q$, under the planetary perturbative approximation and compare the results with those based on numerical computations. While it has been known that the size of the planetary caustic is \propto \sqrt{q}, we find from this work that the dependence of the size of the central caustic on $q$ is linear, i.e., \propto q, implying that the central caustic shrinks much more rapidly with the decrease of $q$ compared to the planetary caustic. The central-caustic size depends also on the star-planet separation. If the size of the caustic is defined as the separation between the two cusps on the star-planet axis (horizontal width), we find that the dependence of the central-caustic size on the separation is \propto (s+1/s). While the size of the central caustic depends both on $s$ and q, its shape defined as the vertical/horizontal width ratio, R_c, is solely dependent on the planetary separation and we derive an analytic relation between R_c and s. Due to the smaller size of the central caustic combined with much more rapid decrease of its size with the decrease of q, the effect of finite source size on the perturbation induced by the central caustic is much more severe than the effect on the perturbation induced by the planetary caustic. Abridged.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, ApJ accepte

Phase Transition in the Two-Dimensional Gauge Glass

The two-dimensional XY gauge glass, which describes disordered superconducting grains in strong magnetic fields, is investigated, with regard to the possibility of a glass transition. We compute the glass susceptibility and the correlation function of the system via extensive numerical simulations and perform the finite-size scaling analysis. This gives strong evidence for a finite-temperature transition, which is expected to be of a novel type.Comment: 5pages, 3 figures, revtex, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Numerical renormalization group study of the symmetric Anderson-Holstein model: phonon and electron spectral functions

We study the symmetric Anderson-Holstein (AH) model at zero temperature with Wilson's numerical renormalization group (NRG) technique to study the interplay between the electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions. An improved method for calculating the phonon propagator using the NRG technique is presented, which turns out to be more accurate and reliable than the previous works in that it calculates the phonon renormalization explicitly and satisfies the boson sum rule better. The method is applied to calculate the renormalized phonon propagators along with the electron propagators as the onsite Coulomb repulsion $U$ and electron-phonon coupling constant $g$ are varied. As $g$ is increased, the phonon mode is successively renormalized, and for $g \gtrsim g_{co}$ crosses over to the regime where the mode splits into two components, one of which approaches back to the bare frequency and the other develops into a soft mode. The initial renormalization of the phonon mode, as $g$ is increased from 0, depends on $U$ and the hybridization $\Delta$; it gets softened (hardened) for $U \gtrsim (\lesssim) U_s (\Delta)$. Correlated with the emergence of the soft mode is the central peak of the electron spectral function severely suppressed. These NRG calculations will be compared with the standard Green's function results for the weak coupling regime to understand the phonon renormalization and soft mode.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Current Status of Trace Metal Pollution in Soils Affected by Industrial Activities

There is a growing public concern over the potential accumulation of heavy metals in soil, owing to rapid industrial development. In an effort to describe the status of the pollutions of soil by industrial activities, relevant data sets reported by many studies were surveyed and reviewed. The results of our analysis indicate that soils were polluted most significantly by metals such as lead, zinc, copper, and cadmium. If the dominant species are evaluated by the highest mean concentration observed for different industry types, the results were grouped into Pb, Zn, Ni, Cu, Fe, and As in smelting and metal production industries, Mn and Cd in the textile industry, and Cr in the leather industry. In most cases, metal levels in the studied areas were found to exceed the common regulation guideline levels enforced by many countries. The geoaccumulation index (Igeo), calculated to estimate the enrichment of metal concentrations in soil, showed that the level of metal pollution in most surveyed areas is significant, especially for Pb and Cd. It is thus important to keep systematic and continuous monitoring of heavy metals and their derivatives to manage and suppress such pollution

Socially-mediated arousal and contagion within domestic chick broods

Emotional contagion – an underpinning valenced feature of empathy – is made up of simpler, potentially dissociable social processes which can include socially-mediated arousal and behavioural/physiological contagion. Previous studies of emotional contagion have often conflated these processes rather than examining their independent contribution to empathic response. We measured socially-mediated arousal and contagion in 9-week old domestic chicks (n = 19 broods), who were unrelated but raised together from hatching. Pairs of observer chicks were exposed to two conditions in a counterbalanced order: air puff to conspecifics (AP) (during which an air puff was applied to three conspecifics at 30 s intervals) and control with noise of air puff (C) (during which the air puff was directed away from the apparatus at 30 s intervals). Behaviour and surface eye temperature of subjects and observers were measured throughout a 10-min pre-treatment and 10-min treatment period. Subjects and observers responded to AP with increased freezing, and reduced preening and ground pecking. Subjects and observers also showed reduced surface eye temperature - indicative of stress-induced hyperthermia. Subject-Observer behaviour was highly correlated within broods during both C and AP conditions, but with higher overall synchrony during AP. We demonstrate the co-occurrence of socially-mediated behavioural and physiological arousal and contagion; component features of emotional contagion

Intracisternal administration of NR2 subunit antagonists attenuates the nociceptive behavior and p-p38 MAPK expression produced by compression of the trigeminal nerve root

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We investigated the role of the central NMDA receptor NR2 subunits in the modulation of nociceptive behavior and p-p38 MAPK expression in a rat model with compression of the trigeminal nerve root. To address this possibility, changes in air-puff thresholds and pin-prick scores were determined following an intracisternal administration of NR2 subunit antagonists. We also examined effects of NR2 subunit antagonists on the p-p38 MAPK expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Experiments were carried out using male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing (200-230 g). Compression of the trigeminal nerve root was performed under pentobarbital sodium (40 mg/kg) anesthesia. Compression of the trigeminal nerve root produced distinct nociceptive behavior such as mechanical allodynia and hyperalgesia. Intracisternal administration of 10 or 20 μg of D-AP5 significantly increased the air-puff threshold and decreased the pin-prick scores in a dose-dependent manner. The intracisternal administration of PPPA (1, 10 μg), or PPDA (5, 10 μg) increased the air-puff threshold and decreased the pin-prick scores ipsilateral as well as contralateral to the compression of the trigeminal root. Compression of the trigeminal nerve root upregulated the expression of p-p38 MAPK in the ipsilateral medullary dorsal horn which was diminished by D-AP5, PPPA, PPDA, but not Ro25-6981.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings suggest that central NMDA receptor NR2 subunits play an important role in the central processing of trigeminal neuralgia-like nociception in rats with compression of the trigeminal nerve root. Our data further indicate that the targeted blockade of NR2 subunits is a potentially important new treatments strategy for trigeminal neuralgia-like nociception.</p