Low Temperature Ground States and Field-Induced Phase Transitions in α-(BEDT-TTF)_2-MHg(XCN)_4 (M=K, Tl, Rb, NH_4; X=S, Se) (Research in High Magnetic Fields)

There have been observed in a series of isostructural α-(BEDT-TTF)_2MHg(XCN)_4\u27s a variety of ground states such as spin-density-wave metallic state (M=K, Tl, Rb; X=S), superconducting one (M=NH_4; X=S), and simple metallic one (M=K, Tl; X=Se). Current status of these researches is outlined, including the magnetic field effects on the first group which appear in high fields more than 20T at low temperatures

Highly Strengthened Superconducting Magnet for a 40 T Compact Hybrid Magnet(Magnet Technology)

A 16 T outer superconducting magnet for a 40 T compact hybrid magnet is investigated. A highly strengthened superconducting magnet with a 360 mm room temperature bore can be made using newly developed (Nb, Ti)_3Sn wires with Cu-Al_2O_3 reinforcing stabilizer. The coil weight is outstandingly reduced by as much as 70 %

Water-Cooled Magnet for a 40T Compact Hybrid Magnet(Magnet Technology)

A water-cooled poly Bitter magnet for a new compact hybrid magnet was designed under the fully utilization of the electric power source of 8 MW and the cooling systems installed in the High Field Laboratory for Superconducting Materials, Tohoku University. Supposing copper-silver plates with high yield strength are used, a poly Bitter magnet can be designed. The magnet consists of four axial water-cooled Bitter coils which are electrically connected in series and all of cooling water flows from the bottom tc upper side of coils. The designed poly Bitter magnet will produce 24 T in the room temperature bore of 14 mm and can provide 40 T as a hybrid magnet with backup field of 16 T by the combined superconducting magne

A Reduction-Based Sensor for Acrolein Conjugates with the Inexpensive Nitrobenzene as an Alternative to Monoclonal Antibody

© 2016 The Author(s).Acrolein, a highly toxic α, β-unsaturated aldehyde, has been a longstanding key biomarker associated with a range of disorders related to oxidative stresses. One of the most promising methods for detecting acrolein involves the use of antibodies that can recognize the acrolein-lysine conjugate, 3-formyl-3, 4-dehydropiperidines (FDP), within oxidatively stressed cells and tissues from various disease states. We have uncovered here that FDP could reduce nitroarenes in high yields at 100 °C in the presence of excess CaCl 2 as a Lewis acid promoter. This unique transformation allowed for the development of a de novo method for detecting levels of FDPs generated from proteins in urine or blood serum samples. Thus we successfully converted a non-fluorescent and inexpensive 4-nitrophthalonitrile probe to the corresponding fluorescent aniline, thereby constituting the concept of fluorescent switching. Its sensitivity level (0.84 nmol/mL) is more than that of ELISA assays (3.13 nmol/mL) and is already equally reliable and reproducible at this early stage of development. More importantly, this method is cost effective and simple to operate, requiring only mixing of samples with a kit solution. Our method thus possesses potential as a future alternative to the more costly and operatively encumbered conventional antibody-based methods

Molecular basis for bacterial peptidoglycan recognition by LysM domains.

Carbohydrate recognition is essential for growth, cell adhesion and signalling in all living organisms. A highly conserved carbohydrate binding module, LysM, is found in proteins from viruses, bacteria, fungi, plants and mammals. LysM modules recognize polysaccharides containing N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) residues including peptidoglycan, an essential component of the bacterial cell wall. However, the molecular mechanism underpinning LysM-peptidoglycan interactions remains unclear. Here we describe the molecular basis for peptidoglycan recognition by a multimodular LysM domain from AtlA, an autolysin involved in cell division in the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Enterococcus faecalis. We explore the contribution of individual modules to the binding, identify the peptidoglycan motif recognized, determine the structures of free and bound modules and reveal the residues involved in binding. Our results suggest that peptide stems modulate LysM binding to peptidoglycan. Using these results, we reveal how the LysM module recognizes the GlcNAc-X-GlcNAc motif present in polysaccharides across kingdoms

The comparative anatomy of the folds, fossae, and adhesions around the duodenojejunal flexure in mammals

Background: Anatomical knowledge of the duodenojejunal flexure is necessary for abdominal surgeries, and also important for physiologic studies about the duodenum. But little is known about the anatomy of this region in mammals. Here, we examined comparative anatomy to understand the anatomical formation of the duodenojejunal flexure in mammals. Materials and methods: The areas around the duonenojejunal flexure were ob­served in mouse, rat, dog, pig, and human, and the anatomical structures around the duodenojejunal junction in the animals were compared with those in human. Results: The superior and inferior duodenal folds, and the superior and inferior duodenal fossae were identified in all examined humans. In pig, the structures were not clearly identified because the duodenum strongly adhered to the retroperitoneum and to the mesocolon. In mouse, rat, and dog, only the plica duodenocolica, which is regarded as the animal counterpart of the superior duo­denal fold in human, was identified, and other folds or fossae were not observed, probably because the duodenum was not fixed to the parietal peritoneum in those animals. Transection of the plica duodenocolica could return the normally rotated intestine back to the state of non-rotation in rat. Conclusions: This study showed the anatomical similarities and dissimilarities of the duodenojejunal flexure among the mammals. Anatomical knowledge of the area is useful for duodenal and pancreatic surgeries, and for animal studies about the duodenum. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 2: 286–292

Shortest vector from lattice sieving: A few dimensions for free

Asymptotically, the best known algorithms for solving the Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) in a lattice of dimension n are sieve algorithms, which have heuristic complexity estimates ranging from (4/3)n+o(n) down to (3/2)n/2+o(n) when Locality Sensitive Hashing techniques are used. Sieve algorithms are however outperformed by pruned enumeration algorithms in practice by several orders of magnitude, despite the larger super-exponential asymptotical complexity 2Θ(n log n) of the latter. In this work, we show a concrete improvement of sieve-type algorithms. Precisely, we show that a few calls to the sieve algorithm in lattices of dimension less than n - d solves SVP in dimension n, where d = Θ(n/ log n). Although our improvement is only sub-exponential, its practical effect in relevant dimensions is quite significant. We implemented it over a simple sieve algorithm with (4/3)n+o(n) complexity, and it outperforms the best sieve algorithms from the literature by a factor of 10 in dimensions 7080. It performs less than an order of magnitude slower than pruned enumeration in the same range. By design, this improvement can also be applied to most other variants of sieve algorithms, including LSH sieve algorithms and tuple-sieve algorithms. In this light, we may expect sieve-techniques to outperform pruned enumeration in practice in the near future

Lipopolysaccharide from Gut-Associated Lymphoid-Tissue-Resident Alcaligenes faecalis: Complete Structure Determination and Chemical Synthesis of Its Lipid A

Alcaligenes faecalis is the predominant Gram-negative bacterium inhabiting gut-associated lymphoid tissues, Peyer's patches. We previously reported that an A. faecalis lipopolysaccharide (LPS) acted as a weak agonist for Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/myeloid differentiation factor-2 (MD-2) receptor as well as a potent inducer of IgA without excessive inflammation, thus suggesting that A. faecalis LPS might be used as a safe adjuvant. In this study, we characterized the structure of both the lipooligosaccharide (LOS) and LPS from A. faecalis. We synthesized three lipid A molecules with different degrees of acylation by an efficient route involving the simultaneous introduction of 1- and 4′-phosphates. Hexaacylated A. faecalis lipid A showed moderate agonistic activity towards TLR4-mediated signaling and the ability to elicit a discrete interleukin-6 release in human cell lines and mice. It was thus found to be the active principle of the LOS/LPS and a promising vaccine adjuvant candidate