The Cell Wall Teichuronic Acid Synthetase (TUAS) Is an Enzyme Complex Located in the Cytoplasmic Membrane of Micrococcus luteus

The cell wall teichuronic acid (TUA) of Micrococcus luteus is a long-chain polysaccharide composed of disaccharide repeating units [-4-β-D-ManNAcAp-(1→6)α-D-Glcp−1-]n, which is covalently anchored to the peptidoglycan on the inner cell wall and extended to the outer surface of the cell envelope. An enzyme complex responsible for the TUA chain biosynthesis was purified and characterized. The 440kDa enzyme complex, named teichuronic acid synthetase (TUAS), is an octomer composed of two kinds of glycosyltransferases, Glucosyltransferase, and ManNAcA-transferase, which is capable of catalyzing the transfer of disaccharide glycosyl residues containing both glucose and the N-acetylmannosaminuronic acid residues. TUAS displays hydrophobic properties and is found primarily associated with the cytoplasmic membrane. The purified TUAS contains carotinoids and lipids. TUAS activity is diminished by phospholipase digestion. We propose that TUAS serves as a multitasking polysaccharide assembling station on the bacterial membrane.National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Public Health Service Grants AI-08295); American Lung Association (RG-107-N

Low-temperature transport through a quantum dot between two superconductor leads

We consider a quantum dot coupled to two BCS superconductors with same gap energies $\Delta$. The transport properties are investigated by means of infinite-$U$ noncrossing approximation. In equilibrium density of states, Kondo effect shows up as two sharp peaks around the gap bounds. Application of a finite voltage bias leads these peaks to split, leaving suppressed peaks near the edges of energy gap of each lead. The clearest signatures of the Kondo effect in transport are three peaks in the nonlinear differential conductance: one around zero bias, another two at biases $\pm 2\Delta$. This result is consistent with recent experiment. We also predict that with decreasing temperature, the differential conductances at biases $\pm 2\Delta$ anomalously increase, while the linear conductance descends.Comment: replaced with revised versio

On positive solutions and the Omega limit set for a class of delay differential equations

This paper studies the positive solutions of a class of delay differential equations with two delays. These equations originate from the modeling of hematopoietic cell populations. We give a sufficient condition on the initial function for $t\leq 0$ such that the solution is positive for all time $t>0$. The condition is "optimal". We also discuss the long time behavior of these positive solutions through a dynamical system on the space of continuous functions. We give a characteristic description of the $\omega$ limit set of this dynamical system, which can provide informations about the long time behavior of positive solutions of the delay differential equation.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Characteristics of events with metric-to-decahectometric type II radio bursts associated with CMEs and flares in relation to SEP events

A gradual solar energetic particle (SEP) event is thought to happen when particles are accelerated at a shock due to a fast coronal mass ejection (CME). To quantify what kind of solar eruptions can result in such SEP events, we have conducted detailed investigations on the characteristics of CMEs, solar flares and m-to-DH wavelength type II radio bursts (herein after m-to-DH type II bursts) for SEP-associated and non-SEP-associated events, observed during the period of 1997-2012. Interestingly, 65% of m-to-DH type II bursts associated with CMEs and flares produced SEP events. The SEP-associated CMEs have higher sky-plane mean speed, projection corrected speed, and sky-plane peak speed than those of non-SEP-associated CMEs respectively by 30%, 39%, and 25%, even though the two sets of CMEs achieved their sky-plane peak speeds at nearly similar heights within LASCO field of view. We found Pearson's correlation coefficients between the speeds of CMEs speeds and logarithmic peak intensity of SEP events are cc = 0.62 and cc = 0.58, respectively. We also found that the SEP-associated CMEs are on average of three times more decelerated (-21.52 m/s2) than the non-SEP-associated CMEs (-5.63 m/s2). The SEP-associated m type II bursts have higher frequency drift rate and associated shock speed than those of the non-SEP-associated events by 70% and 25% respectively. The average formation heights of m and DH type II radio bursts for SEP-associated events are lower than for non-SEP-associated events. 93% of SEP-associated events originate from the western hemisphere and 65% of SEP-associated events are associated with interacting CMEs. The obtained results indicate that, at least for the set of CMEs associated with m-to-DH type II bursts, SEP-associated CMEs are more energetic than those not associated with SEPs, thus suggesting that they are effective particle accelerators.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication by ApS

On invariant sets in Lagrangian graphs

In this exposition, we show that a Hamiltonian is always constant on a compact invariant connected subset which lies in a Lagrangian graph provided that the Hamiltonian and the graph are smooth enough. We also provide some counterexamples for the case that the Hamiltonians are not smooth enough.Comment: 4 page

A simple model of epitaxial growth

A discrete solid-on-solid model of epitaxial growth is introduced which, in a simple manner, takes into account the effect of an Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier at step edges as well as the local relaxation of incoming particles. Furthermore a fast step edge diffusion is included in 2+1 dimensions. The model exhibits the formation of pyramid-like structures with a well-defined constant inclination angle. Two regimes can be distinguished clearly: in an initial phase (I) a definite slope is selected while the number of pyramids remains unchanged. Then a coarsening process (II) is observed which decreases the number of islands according to a power law in time. Simulations support self-affine scaling of the growing surface in both regimes. The roughness exponent is alpha =1 in all cases. For growth in 1+1 dimensions we obtain dynamic exponents z = 2 (I) and z = 3 (II). Simulations for d=2+1 seem to be consistent with z= 2 (I) and z= 2.3 (II) respectively.Comment: 8 pages Latex2e, 4 Postscript figures included, uses packages a4wide,epsfig,psfig,amsfonts,latexsy