Multifractal analysis of stress time series during ultrathin lubricant film melting

Melting of an ultrathin lubricant film confined between two atomically flat surfaces is we studied using the rheological model for viscoelastic matter approximation. Phase diagram with domains, corresponding to sliding, dry, and two types of $stick-slip$ friction regimes has been built taking into account additive noises of stress, strain, and temperature of the lubricant. The stress time series have been obtained for all regimes of friction using the Stratonovich interpretation. It has been shown that self-similar regime of lubricant melting is observed when intensity of temperature noise is much larger than intensities of strain and stress noises. This regime is defined by homogenous distribution, at which characteristic stress scale is absent. We study stress time series obtained for all friction regimes using multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis. It has been shown that multifractality of these series is caused by different correlations that are present in the system and also by a power-law distribution. Since the power-law distribution is related to small stresses, this case corresponds to self-similar solid-like lubricant.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, 41 reference

Metabolic Engineering of Cofactor F420 Production in Mycobacterium smegmatis

Cofactor F420 is a unique electron carrier in a number of microorganisms including Archaea and Mycobacteria. It has been shown that F420 has a direct and important role in archaeal energy metabolism whereas the role of F420 in mycobacterial metabolism has only begun to be uncovered in the last few years. It has been suggested that cofactor F420 has a role in the pathogenesis of M. tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis. In the absence of a commercial source for F420, M. smegmatis has previously been used to provide this cofactor for studies of the F420-dependent proteins from mycobacterial species. Three proteins have been shown to be involved in the F420 biosynthesis in Mycobacteria and three other proteins have been demonstrated to be involved in F420 metabolism. Here we report the over-expression of all of these proteins in M. smegmatis and testing of their importance for F420 production. The results indicate that co–expression of the F420 biosynthetic proteins can give rise to a much higher F420 production level. This was achieved by designing and preparing a new T7 promoter–based co-expression shuttle vector. A combination of co–expression of the F420 biosynthetic proteins and fine-tuning of the culture media has enabled us to achieve F420 production levels of up to 10 times higher compared with the wild type M. smegmatis strain. The high levels of the F420 produced in this study provide a suitable source of this cofactor for studies of F420-dependent proteins from other microorganisms and for possible biotechnological applications

Combined immunodeficiency develops with age in immunodeficiency-centromeric instability-facial anomalies syndrome 2 (ICF2)

The autosomal recessive immunodeficiency-centromeric instability-facial anomalies syndrome (ICF) is characterized by immunodeficiency, developmental delay, and facial anomalies. ICF2, caused by biallelic ZBTB24 gene mutations, is acknowledged primarily as an isolated B-cell defect. Here, we extend the phenotype spectrum by describing, in particular, for the first time the development of a combined immune defect throughout the disease course as well as putative autoimmune phenomena such as granulomatous hepatitis and nephritis. We also demonstrate impaired cell-proliferation and increased cell death of immune and non-immune cells as well as data suggesting a chromosome separation defect in addition to the known chromosome condensation defect

Rheology: theory and applications

Rheolog