Two-dimensional order in β-sheet peptide monolayers

Amphiphilic peptides comprising alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic amino acid residues were designed to form super-secondary structures composed of self-assembled β-strands as monolayers at the air−water interface. Insights provided by in situ grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD), surface pressure vs area isotherms, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy allow structural characterization of the assembled nanostructures and rational correlation with the peptide sequence. Peptides seven to seventeen amino acids in length were found to form crystalline arrays with coherence lengths in the range of 100 to 1000 Å. Two-dimensional registry of the self-assembled peptides was induced by placement of proline residues at the peptide termini. The films were found to intercalate ordered arrays of ions between juxtaposed β-sheet ribbons to generate peptide−ion composite phases

Biochemistry of malaria parasite infected red blood cells by X-ray microscopy

Red blood cells infected by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum are correlatively imaged by tomography using soft X-rays as well as by scanning hard nano-X-ray beam to obtain fluorescence maps of various elements such as S and Fe. In this way one can deduce the amount of Fe bound either in hemoglobin or in hemozoin crystals in the digestive vacuole of the malaria parasite as well as determine the hemoglobin concentrations in the cytosols of the red blood cell and of the parasite. Fluorescence map of K shows that in the parasite's schizont stage the K concentration in the red blood cell cytosol is diminished by a factor of seven relative to a pristine red blood cell but the total amount of K in the infected red blood cell is the same as in the pristine red blood cell

N-(4-Chloro-2-methyl­phen­yl)maleamic acid

In the mol­ecular structure of the title compound, C11H10ClNO3, the conformation of the N—H bond in the amide segment is syn to the ortho-methyl group in the phenyl ring. The C=O and O—H bonds of the acid group are in the relatively rare anti position with respect to each other. This is an obvious consequence of the hydrogen bond donated to the amide carbonyl group. The central oxobutenoic acid core C(=O)—C=C—C—OH is twisted by 31.65 (6)° out of the plane of the 4-chloro-2-methyl­phenyl ring. An intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond occurs. In the crystal, N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into infinite chains running along the a axis

Ovarian cancer in younger vs older women: a population-based analysis

To compare the clinico-pathologic prognostic factors and survival of younger vs older women diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer. Demographic, clinico-pathologic, treatment, and surgery information were obtained from patients with ovarian cancer from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program from 1988 to 2001 and analysed using Kaplan–Meier estimates. Of 28 165 patients, 400 were <30 years (very young), 11 601 were 30–60 (young), and 16 164 were >60 (older) years of age. Of the very young, young, and older patients, 261 (65.3%), 4664 (40.2%), and 3643 (22.5%) had stage I–II disease, respectively (P<0.001). Across all stages, very young women had a significant survival advantage over the young and older groups with 5-year disease-specific survival estimates at 78.8% vs 58.8 and 35.3%, respectively (P<0.001). This survival difference between the age groups persists even after adjusting for race, stage, grade, and surgical treatment. Reproductive age (16–40 years) women with stage I–II epithelial ovarian cancer who received uterine-sparing procedures had similar survivals compared to those who underwent standard surgery (93.3% vs 91.5%, P=0.26). Younger women with epithelial ovarian cancer have a survival advantage compared to older patients

N-(2-Methyl­phen­yl)maleamic acid

In the title compound, C11H11NO3, the conformation of the N—H bond is anti to the C=O bond in the amide segment, while it is syn to the ortho-methyl group in the phenyl ring. In the maleamic acid unit, the amide C=O bond is anti to the adjacent C—H bond, while the carboxyl C=O bond is syn to the adjacent C—H bond. The C=O and O—H bonds of the acid group are in the relatively rare anti position to each other. This is an obvious consequence of the intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond donated to the amide carbonyl group. The ortho-substituted phenyl ring makes a dihedral angle of 12.7 (1)° with the mean plane of the maleamic acid unit. In the crystal structure, inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into zigzag chains parallel to [001]. These chains are further linked into sheet by weak π–π inter­actions [centroid–centroid distance = 3.425 (2) Å]

N-(2-Chloro-4-nitro­phen­yl)maleamic acid monohydrate

The title compound, C10H7ClN2O5·H2O, crystallizes with a half-mol­ecule each of N-(2-chloro-4-nitro­phen­yl)maleamic acid (located on a mirror plane) and water (located on a twofold rotation axis) in the asymmetric unit. The main mol­ecule is planar by symmetry and its conformation is stabilized by an intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond. In the crystal, N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into a three-dimensional network

N-(4-Meth­oxy­phen­yl)maleamic acid

In the title compound, C11H11NO4, the asymmetric unit contains two unique mol­ecules, both of which are almost planar, with r.m.s. deviations of 0.047 and 0.059 Å. The dihedral angles between the benzene ring and the plane of maleamic acid unit are 3.43 (5) and 5.79 (3)° in the two mol­ecules. The mol­ecular structures are stabilized by a short intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond within each maleamic acid unit. In the crystal, inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into zigzag chains extending along [10]. Weak intermolecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds also exist

Evolution of opinions on social networks in the presence of competing committed groups

Public opinion is often affected by the presence of committed groups of individuals dedicated to competing points of view. Using a model of pairwise social influence, we study how the presence of such groups within social networks affects the outcome and the speed of evolution of the overall opinion on the network. Earlier work indicated that a single committed group within a dense social network can cause the entire network to quickly adopt the group's opinion (in times scaling logarithmically with the network size), so long as the committed group constitutes more than about 10% of the population (with the findings being qualitatively similar for sparse networks as well). Here we study the more general case of opinion evolution when two groups committed to distinct, competing opinions $A$ and $B$, and constituting fractions $p_A$ and $p_B$ of the total population respectively, are present in the network. We show for stylized social networks (including Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graphs and Barab\'asi-Albert scale-free networks) that the phase diagram of this system in parameter space $(p_A,p_B)$ consists of two regions, one where two stable steady-states coexist, and the remaining where only a single stable steady-state exists. These two regions are separated by two fold-bifurcation (spinodal) lines which meet tangentially and terminate at a cusp (critical point). We provide further insights to the phase diagram and to the nature of the underlying phase transitions by investigating the model on infinite (mean-field limit), finite complete graphs and finite sparse networks. For the latter case, we also derive the scaling exponent associated with the exponential growth of switching times as a function of the distance from the critical point.Comment: 23 pages: 15 pages + 7 figures (main text), 8 pages + 1 figure + 1 table (supplementary info