Hydrophobic adsorption and covalent immobilization of Candida antarctica lipase B on mixed-function-grafted silica gel supports for continuous-flow biotransformations

Adsorption onto solid supports has proven to be an easy and effective way to improve the mechanical and catalytic properties of lipases. Covalent binding of lipases onto the support surface enhances the active lifetime of the immobilized biocatalysts. Our study indicates that mesoporous silica gels grafted with various functions are ideal supports for both adsorptive and covalent binding for lipase B from Candida antarctica (CaLB). Adsorption of CaLB on phenyl-functionalized silica gels improved in particular its specific activity, whereas adsorption on aminoalkyl-modified silica gels enabling covalent binding with the proper reagents resulted in only moderate specific activity. In addition, adsorption on silica gels modified by mixtures of phenyl- and aminoalkyl silanes significantly increased the productivity of CaLB. Furthermore, CaLB adsorbed onto a phenyl/aminoalkyl-modified surface and then treated with glutardialdehyde (GDA) as cross-linking agent provided a biocatalyst of enhanced durability. Adsorbed and cross-linked CaLB was resistant to detergent washing that would otherwise physically deactivate adsorbed CaLB preparations. The catalytic properties of our best immobilized CaLB variants, including temperature-dependent behavior were compared between 0 and 70 C with those of two commercial CaLB biocatalysts in the continuous-flow kinetic resolutions of racemic 1-phenylethanol rac-1a and 1-phenylethanamine rac-1b. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Parallel Tempering: Theory, Applications, and New Perspectives

We review the history of the parallel tempering simulation method. From its origins in data analysis, the parallel tempering method has become a standard workhorse of physiochemical simulations. We discuss the theory behind the method and its various generalizations. We mention a selected set of the many applications that have become possible with the introduction of parallel tempering and we suggest several promising avenues for future research.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure

Bilateral femoral neck fractures due to transient osteoporosis of pregnancy: a case report

We describe a case of bilateral femoral neck fractures secondary to transient osteoporosis of pregnancy, which were diagnosed after delivery due to the desire to avoid ionising radiation. These fractures were presumed to be secondary to transient osteoporosis of pregnancy and were treated successfully with internal fixation despite delayed presentation. We discuss the role of MRI in the evaluation of hip pain in pregnancy

Prevalence and Risk Factors of Porcine Cysticercosis in Angónia District, Mozambique

Taenia solium is an important zoonosis in many developing countries. Cysticercosis poses a serious public health risk and incurs sizeable economic losses to pig production. Because data on the epidemiology of porcine cysticercosis in Mozambique are scarce, the present study was conducted to determine the prevalence and risk factors for porcine cysticercosis. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in 11 villages in Angónia district, Tete province in northwestern Mozambique. Between September and November, 2007, a total of 661 pigs were tested serologically and examined by tongue inspection. Serum samples were tested for the presence of circulating parasite antigen using a monoclonal antibody-based sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Ag-ELISA). In addition, a questionnaire survey to collect information on pig production, occurrence and transmission of porcine cysticercosis, risk factors and awareness of porcine cysticercosis was conducted in the selected households from which pigs were sampled. Two hundred thirty-one samples (34.9%) were found positive by the Ag-ELISA, while by tongue inspection on the same animals cysticerci were detected in 84 pigs (12.7%). Increasing age (OR = 1.63; 95% CI = 1.13–2.37) and free-range pig husbandry system (OR = 3.81; 95% CI = 2.08–7.06) were important risk factors for porcine cysticercosis in the district. The present findings indicate that porcine cysticercosis is endemic in the region, and that increasing pig age and pig husbandry practices contribute significantly to porcine cysticercosis transmission. Further epidemiological studies on the prevalence and transmission of porcine cysticercosis in rural communities in Mozambique are needed to enable collection of more baseline data and implementation of effective control strategies within the country

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Trace Elements and Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotopes in Organisms from a Tropical Coastal Lagoon

Trace elements (Fe, Mn, Al, Zn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Cd, Hg, and As) and stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) were analyzed in sediments, invertebrates, and fishes from a tropical coastal lagoon influenced by iron ore mining and processing activities to assess the differences in trace element accumulation patterns among species and to investigate relations with trophic levels of the organisms involved. Overall significant negative relations between trophic level (given by 15N) and trace element concentrations in gastropods and crustaceans showed differences in internal controls of trace element accumulation among the species of different trophic positions, leading to trace element dilution. Generally, no significant relation between δ15N and trace element concentrations was observed among fish species, probably due to omnivory in a number of species as well as fast growth. Trace element accumulation was observed in the fish tissues, with higher levels of most trace elements found in liver compared with muscle and gill. Levels of Fe, Mn, Al, and Hg in invertebrates, and Fe and Cu in fish livers, were comparable with levels in organisms and tissues from other contaminated areas. Trace element levels in fish muscle were below the international safety baseline standards for human consumption

Characterization of the natural variation in Arabidopsis thaliana metabolome by the analysis of metabolic distance

Metabolite fingerprinting is widely used to unravel the chemical characteristics of biological samples. Multivariate data analysis and other statistical tools are subsequently used to analyze and visualize the plasticity of the metabolome and/or the relationship between those samples. However, there are limitations to these approaches for example because of the multi-dimensionality of the data that makes interpretation of the data obtained from untargeted analysis almost impossible for an average human being. These limitations make the biological information that is of prime importance in untargeted studies be partially exploited. Even in the case of full exploitation, current methods for relationship elucidation focus mainly on between groups variation and differences. Therefore, a measure that is capable of exploiting both between- and within-group biological variation would be of great value. Here, we examined the natural variation in the metabolome of nine Arabidopsis thaliana accessions grown under various environmental conditions and established a measure for the metabolic distance between accessions and across environments. This data analysis approach shows that there is just a minor correlation between genetic and metabolic diversity of the nine accessions. On the other hand, it delivers so far in Arabidopsis unexplored chemical information and is shown to be biologically relevant for resistance studies

Examination of the Effect of N‐terminal Diproline and Charged Side Chains on the Stabilization of Helical Conformation in Alanine–based Short Peptides: A Molecular Dynamics Study

The effect of N‐terminal diproline segment and charged side chains on the stabilization of helical conformation in alanine‐based short peptides are examined using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The cationic peptides, Ac–Pro1–Pro2–Ala3–Lys4–Ala5–Lys6–Ala7–Lys8–Ala9–NH2 (Ia) and Ac–DPro1–Pro2–Ala3–Lys4–Ala5–Lys6–Ala7–Lys8–Ala9–NH2 (IIa) are examined for the role of lysine side chains on the inducement of helical conformation in alanine‐based short peptides. To examine the influence of lysine and glutamic acid in the i, i + 4 arrangement on the stabilization of helical conformation, cationic peptides, Ia and IIa, are modified as ion‐pair peptides, Ac–Pro1–Pro2–Glu3–Glu4–Ala5–Ala6–Lys7–Lys8–Ala9–NH2 (Ib) and Ac–DPro1–Pro2–Glu3–Glu4–Ala5–Ala6–Lys7–Lys8–Ala9–NH2 (IIb), respectively. MD simulations manifest enhanced occupancies in the α basin of ϕ, ψ space for ion‐pair peptides as compare to cationic peptides. The radial distribution function (RDF) analysis highlight that large side chain substituents of lysine and glutamic acid assist in helix formation by blocking water molecules from solvating backbone CO and NH groups.N‐terminal diproline of homochiral structure, LPro–LPro, and large side chain substituents of lysine and glutamic acid residues in the i, i + 4 arrangement stabilize the helical conformation in alanine‐based nonapeptide, Ac–Pro1–Pro2–Glu3–Glu4–Ala5–Ala6–Lys7–Lys8–Ala9–NH2 (Ib), as observed in the second most‐populated microstate, m2, during molecular dynamics in explicit‐water.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135318/1/slct201601381-sup-0001-misc_information.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135318/2/slct201601381_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135318/3/slct201601381.pd

A deletion and a duplication in distal 22q11.2 deletion syndrome region. Clinical implications and review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Individuals affected with DiGeorge and Velocardiofacial syndromes present with both phenotypic diversity and variable expressivity. The most frequent clinical features include conotruncal congenital heart defects, velopharyngeal insufficiency, hypocalcemia and a characteristic craniofacial dysmorphism. The etiology in most patients is a 3 Mb recurrent deletion in region 22q11.2. However, cases of infrequent deletions and duplications with different sizes and locations have also been reported, generally with a milder, slightly different phenotype for duplications but with no clear genotype-phenotype correlation to date.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We present a 7 month-old male patient with surgically corrected ASD and multiple VSDs, and dysmorphic facial features not clearly suggestive of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, and a newborn male infant with cleft lip and palate and upslanting palpebral fissures. Karyotype, FISH, MLPA, microsatellite markers segregation studies and SNP genotyping by array-CGH were performed in both patients and parents.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Karyotype and FISH with probe N25 were normal for both patients. MLPA analysis detected a partial <it>de novo </it>1.1 Mb deletion in one patient and a novel partial familial 0.4 Mb duplication in the other. Both of these alterations were located at a distal position within the commonly deleted region in 22q11.2. These rearrangements were confirmed and accurately characterized by microsatellite marker segregation studies and SNP array genotyping.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The phenotypic diversity found for deletions and duplications supports a lack of genotype-phenotype correlation in the vicinity of the LCRC-LCRD interval of the 22q11.2 chromosomal region, whereas the high presence of duplications in normal individuals supports their role as polymorphisms. We suggest that any hypothetical correlation between the clinical phenotype and the size and location of these alterations may be masked by other genetic and/or epigenetic modifying factors.</p

Dijet Resonance Search with Weak Supervision Using root S=13 TeV pp Collisions in the ATLAS Detector

This Letter describes a search for narrowly resonant new physics using a machine-learning anomaly detection procedure that does not rely on signal simulations for developing the analysis selection. Weakly supervised learning is used to train classifiers directly on data to enhance potential signals. The targeted topology is dijet events and the features used for machine learning are the masses of the two jets. The resulting analysis is essentially a three-dimensional search A → BC, for mA ∼ OðTeVÞ, mB; mC ∼ Oð100 GeVÞ and B, C are reconstructed as large-radius jets, without paying a penalty associated with a large trials factor in the scan of the masses of the two jets. The full run 2 ffiffi s p ¼ 13 TeV pp collision dataset of 139 fb−1 recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used for the search. There is no significant evidence of a localized excess in the dijet invariant mass spectrum between 1.8 and 8.2 TeV. Cross-section limits for narrow-width A, B, and C particles vary with mA, mB, and mC. For example, when mA ¼ 3 TeV and mB ≳ 200 GeV, a production cross section between 1 and 5 fb is excluded at 95% confidence level, depending on mC. For certain masses, these limits are up to 10 times more sensitive than those obtained by the inclusive dijet search. These results are complementary to the dedicated searches for the case that B and C are standard model boson