Effect of buffer on heparin binding and sensing in competitive aqueous media

Although buffer-specific effects on molecular recognition are known in biological science, they remain rare in supramolecular chemistry. The binding between a cationic dye, Mallard Blue (MalB), and polyanionic heparin in aqueous NaCl (150 mM) is studied in three commonly-used buffers (Tris-HCl, HEPES, Phosphate, each 10 mM). Although MalB has a very similar UV-Vis spectrum in each buffer, the sensory response towards heparin was different in each case. This can be ascribed to differences in the complex formed. In Tris-HCl which has the least competitive chloride counter-anions, MalB exhibits a hypsochromic shift of 25 nm, assigned to strong binding and aggregation of the dye on heparin. In more competitive HEPES, containing a sulfonate anion, there is weaker binding and less aggregation of MalB along the heparin; the hypsochromic shift is only 15 nm. In phosphate buffer, MalB can interact quite strongly with buffer phosphate anions; although heparin binding is still observed, the hypsochromic shift associated with dye aggregation is only 5 nm. As such, specific buffer interactions with the MalB-heparin complex mediate host-guest binding and sensing. Buffer choice must be made carefully in studies of molecular recognition – we would caution against using phosphate and sulfonate containing buffers when studying electrostatic binding

Whole-Field Measurements of Turbulent Flows for the Study of Aero-Optical Effects

Planar laser-Rayleigh scattering has been employed to simultaneously image the index-of-refraction field of a turbulent jet of ethylene into nitrogen and the optical degradation of a laser sheet caused by this turbulent-flow field. The optical degradation occurs in t he turbulent-jet region and manifests itself as phase-front tilts that result in a measurable spatial amplitude modulation (streaks) in the emerging pulsed-laser sheet. The experiments were conducted at elevated pressure, increasing the index-of-refract ion gradient s and improving the signal-to-noise ratio over measurements conducted at atmospheric pressure. The high index-of-refraction gradients in these experiments placed the optical far field within the field of view and allowed us to capture caustic formation in the distorted emerging laser sheet, simulating the aero-optics effects expected at large distances from the smaller index-of-refract ion fluctuations one would more typically encounter

Unconventional Gravitational Excitation of a Schwarzschild Black Hole

Besides the well-known quasinormal modes, the gravitational spectrum of a Schwarzschild black hole also has a continuum part on the negative imaginary frequency axis. The latter is studied numerically for quadrupole waves. The results show unexpected striking behavior near the algebraically special frequency $\Omega=-4i$. This reveals a pair of unconventional damped modes very near $\Omega$, confirmed analytically.Comment: REVTeX4, 4pp, 6 EPS figure files. N.B.: "Alec" is my first, and "Maassen van den Brink" my family name. v2: better pole placement in Fig. 1. v3: fixed Refs. [9,20]. v4: added context on "area quantum" research; trimmed one Fig.; textual clarification

KORELATI I PREVALENCIJA DEPRESIJE KOD OSOBA SMJEŠTENIH U KINESKIM DOMOVIMA ZA STARIJE OSOBE: IMPLIKACIJE ZA USLUGE I INTERVENCIJE

Due to paucity of research on prevalence of depression in Chinese elderly people residing in nursing homes, the present study investigated a set of predictors at personal, physical, social and psychosocial levels among 187 elderly residents in Hong Kong. The results show that 17.6% of the participants reported a manifest level of depression (GDS≥ 8). Financial strain and physical functioning impairment significantly augmented the likelihood of depression; however, strong support networks at residential settings as well as high self-esteem reduce the likelihood of this mental morbidity. Implications for services and intervention policies as well as further research are briefly discussed.Zbog nedostatka istraživanja o raširenosti depresije kod starijih osoba smještenih u kineskim domovima za starije osobe, ova studija istražuje niz prediktora depresije na osobnoj, fizičkoj. socijalnoj i psihosocijalnoj razini među 187 starijih korisnika u Hong Kongu. Rezultati pokazuju da je 17,6% sudionika iskazalo manifestnu razinu depresije (GDS≥ 8). Financijski pritisci i smanjena fizička pokretljivost značajno povećavaju mogućnost depresije. Snažna mreža podrške u rezidencijalnom smještaju kao i visoko samopoštovanje umanjuju mogućnost ovog mentalnog poremećaja. Implikacije za usluge i intervencije kao i za daljnja istraživanja su ukratko prikazani

KORELATI I PREVALENCIJA DEPRESIJE KOD OSOBA SMJEŠTENIH U KINESKIM DOMOVIMA ZA STARIJE OSOBE: IMPLIKACIJE ZA USLUGE I INTERVENCIJE

Due to paucity of research on prevalence of depression in Chinese elderly people residing in nursing homes, the present study investigated a set of predictors at personal, physical, social and psychosocial levels among 187 elderly residents in Hong Kong. The results show that 17.6% of the participants reported a manifest level of depression (GDS≥ 8). Financial strain and physical functioning impairment significantly augmented the likelihood of depression; however, strong support networks at residential settings as well as high self-esteem reduce the likelihood of this mental morbidity. Implications for services and intervention policies as well as further research are briefly discussed.Zbog nedostatka istraživanja o raširenosti depresije kod starijih osoba smještenih u kineskim domovima za starije osobe, ova studija istražuje niz prediktora depresije na osobnoj, fizičkoj. socijalnoj i psihosocijalnoj razini među 187 starijih korisnika u Hong Kongu. Rezultati pokazuju da je 17,6% sudionika iskazalo manifestnu razinu depresije (GDS≥ 8). Financijski pritisci i smanjena fizička pokretljivost značajno povećavaju mogućnost depresije. Snažna mreža podrške u rezidencijalnom smještaju kao i visoko samopoštovanje umanjuju mogućnost ovog mentalnog poremećaja. Implikacije za usluge i intervencije kao i za daljnja istraživanja su ukratko prikazani

A Systematic Framework to Derive N-glycan Biosynthesis Process and the Automated Construction of Glycosylation Networks

published_or_final_versio

Wave Propagation in Gravitational Systems: Late Time Behavior

It is well-known that the dominant late time behavior of waves propagating on a Schwarzschild spacetime is a power-law tail; tails for other spacetimes have also been studied. This paper presents a systematic treatment of the tail phenomenon for a broad class of models via a Green's function formalism and establishes the following. (i) The tail is governed by a cut of the frequency Green's function $\tilde G(\omega)$ along the $-$~Im~$\omega$ axis, generalizing the Schwarzschild result. (ii) The $\omega$ dependence of the cut is determined by the asymptotic but not the local structure of space. In particular it is independent of the presence of a horizon, and has the same form for the case of a star as well. (iii) Depending on the spatial asymptotics, the late time decay is not necessarily a power law in time. The Schwarzschild case with a power-law tail is exceptional among the class of the potentials having a logarithmic spatial dependence. (iv) Both the amplitude and the time dependence of the tail for a broad class of models are obtained analytically. (v) The analytical results are in perfect agreement with numerical calculations

A blockchain-IoT platform for the smart pallet pooling management

Pallet management as a backbone of logistics and supply chain activities is essential to supply chain parties, while a number of regulations, standards and operational constraints are considered in daily operations. In recent years, pallet pooling has been unconventionally advocated to manage pallets in a closed-loop system to enhance the sustainability and operational effectiveness, but pitfalls in terms of service reliability, quality compliance and pallet limitation when using a single service provider may occur. Therefore, this study incorporates a decentralisation mechanism into the pallet management to formulate a technological eco-system for pallet pooling, namely Pallet as a Service (PalletaaS), raised by the foundation of consortium blockchain and Internet of things (IoT). Consortium blockchain is regarded as the blockchain 3.0 to facilitate more industrial applications, except cryptocurrency, and the synergy of integrating a consortium blockchain and IoT is thus investigated. The corresponding layered architecture is proposed to structure the system deployment in the industry, in which the location-inventory-routing problem for pallet pooling is formulated. To demonstrate the values of this study, a case analysis to illustrate the human–computer interaction and pallet pooling operations is conducted. Overall, this study standardises the decentralised pallet management in the closed-loop mechanism, resulting in a constructive impact to sustainable development in the logistics industry