3,537 research outputs found
Cell-wall polysaccharides play an important role in decay resistance of Sphagnum and actively depressed decomposition in vitro
Sphagnum-dominated peatlands head the list of ecosystems with the largest known reservoirs of organic carbon (C). The bulk of this C is stored in decomposition-resistant litter of one bryophyte genus: Sphagnum. Understanding how Sphagnum litter chemistry controls C mineralization is essential for understanding potential interactions between environmental changes and C mineralization in peatlands. We aimed to separate the effects of phenolics from structural polysaccharides on decay of Sphagnum. Wemeasured aerobic microbial respiration of different moss litter types in a lab. We used chemical treatments to step-wise remove the chemical compounds thought to be important in decay-resistance in three taxonomically distant moss genera. We also focused on the effect of Sphagnum-specific cell-wall pectin-like polysaccharides (sphagnan) on C and N mineralization. Removing polymeric lignin-like phenolics had only negligible effects on C mineralization of Sphagnum litter, but increased mineralization of two other bryophyte genera, suggesting a minor role of these phenolics in decay resistance of Sphagnum but a major role of cell-wall polysaccharides. Carboxyl groups of pectin-like polysaccharides represented a C-source in non-Sphagnum litters but resisted decay in Sphagnum. Finally, isolated sphagnan did not serve as C-source but inhibited C and N mineralization instead, reminiscent of the effects reported for phenolics in other ecosystems. Our results emphasize the role of polysaccharides in resistance to, and active inhibition of, microbial mineralization in Sphagnum-dominated litter. As the polysaccharides displayed decay-inhibiting properties hitherto associated with phenolics (lignin, polyphenols), it raises the question if polysaccharide- dominated litter also shares similar environmental controls on decomposition, such as temperature or nutrient and water availabilit
Absence of long-range diffusion of OmpA in E. coli is not caused by its peptidoglycan binding domain.
BACKGROUND: It is widely believed that integral outer membrane (OM) proteins in bacteria are able to diffuse laterally in the OM. However, stable, immobile proteins have been identified in the OM of Escherichia coli. In explaining the observations, a hypothesized interaction of the immobilized OM proteins with the underlying peptidoglycan (PG) cell wall played a prominent role. RESULTS: OmpA is an abundant outer membrane protein in E. coli containing a PG-binding domain. We use FRAP to investigate whether OmpA is able to diffuse laterally over long-range (> ~100Â nm) distances in the OM. First, we show that OmpA, containing a PG binding domain, does not exhibit long-range lateral diffusion in the OM. Then, to test whether PG interaction was required for this immobilization, we genetically removed the PG binding domain and repeated the FRAP experiment. To our surprise, this did not increase the mobility of the protein in the OM. CONCLUSIONS: OmpA exhibits an absence of long-range (> ~100Â nm) diffusion in the OM that is not caused by its PG binding domain. Therefore, other mechanisms are needed to explain this observation, such as the presence of physical barriers in the OM, or strong interactions with other elements in the cell envelope
Completeness of the cubic and quartic H\'enon-Heiles Hamiltonians
The quartic H\'enon-Heiles Hamiltonian passes the Painlev\'e test for
only four sets of values of the constants. Only one of these, identical to the
traveling wave reduction of the Manakov system, has been explicitly integrated
(Wojciechowski, 1985), while the three others are not yet integrated in the
generic case . We integrate them by building
a birational transformation to two fourth order first degree equations in the
classification (Cosgrove, 2000) of such polynomial equations which possess the
Painlev\'e property. This transformation involves the stationary reduction of
various partial differential equations (PDEs). The result is the same as for
the three cubic H\'enon-Heiles Hamiltonians, namely, in all four quartic cases,
a general solution which is meromorphic and hyperelliptic with genus two. As a
consequence, no additional autonomous term can be added to either the cubic or
the quartic Hamiltonians without destroying the Painlev\'e integrability
(completeness property).Comment: 10 pages, To appear, Theor.Math.Phys. Gallipoli, 34 June--3 July 200
Model order reduction for nonlinear problems in circuit simulation
Electrical circuits usually contain nonlinear components. Hence we are interested in MOR methods that can be applied to a system of nonlinear Differential-Algebraic Equations (DAEs). In particular we consider the TPWL (Trajectory PieceWise Linear) and POD (Proper Orthogonal Decomposition) methods. While the first one fully exploits linearity, the last method needs modifications to become efficient in evaluation. We describe a particular technique based on Missing Point Estimatio
On reductions of some KdV-type systems and their link to the quartic He'non-Heiles Hamiltonian
A few 2+1-dimensional equations belonging to the KP and modified KP
hierarchies are shown to be sufficient to provide a unified picture of all the
integrable cases of the cubic and quartic H\'enon-Heiles Hamiltonians.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, NATO ARW, 15-19 september 2002, Elb
Model order reduction for nonlinear problems in circuit simulation
Electrical circuits usually contain nonlinear components. Hence we are interested in MOR methods that can be applied to a system of nonlinear Differential-Algebraic Equations (DAEs). In particular we consider the TPWL (Trajectory PieceWise Linear) and POD (Proper Orthogonal Decomposition) methods. While the first one fully exploits linearity, the last method needs modifications to become efficient in evaluation. We describe a particular technique based on Missing Point Estimatio
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