Molecular architecture of softwood revealed by solid-state NMR

Economically important softwood from conifers is mainly composed of the polysaccharides cellulose, galactoglucomannan and xylan, and the phenolic polymer, lignin. The interactions between these polymers lead to wood mechanical strength and must be overcome in biorefining. Here, we use 13C multidimensional solid-state NMR to analyse the polymer interactions in never-dried cell walls of the softwood, spruce. In contrast to some earlier softwood cell wall models, most of the xylan binds to cellulose in the two-fold screw conformation. Moreover, galactoglucomannan alters its conformation by intimately binding to the surface of cellulose microfibrils in a semi-crystalline fashion. Some galactoglucomannan and xylan bind to the same cellulose microfibrils, and lignin is associated with both of these cellulose-bound polysaccharides. We propose a model of softwood molecular architecture which explains the origin of the different cellulose environments observed in the NMR experiments. Our model will assist strategies for improving wood usage in a sustainable bioeconomy

The performance document: assimilations of gesture and genre

Artist or activist actions and performances often take place just once and are intended to be experienced live. These actions are recorded and disseminated through photography and video taken from a range of perspectives, from paid-up and pre-briefed “professional” photographers or videographers through to spontaneously taken images by audience members or passers-by. Inevitably “documentation” is never neutral and these records are infused with the stylistic intervention and conventions of the photographer in question. Within our conversation, we locate the performance document as the site of a potential two-way assimilation of gesture and stylistic attributes of diverse photographic conventions. In our co-writing, we track parallel analyses of photographs taken by commercial photographer Françoise Masson of the 1970s actions of artist Gina Pane and the utilization of photographs within the contemporary lens-based practice of Dinu Li, in which gesture and conventions are assimilated and move fluidly backwards and forwards between political propaganda, film, documentary, and domestic photography

An Efficient Rank Based Approach for Closest String and Closest Substring

This paper aims to present a new genetic approach that uses rank distance for solving two known NP-hard problems, and to compare rank distance with other distance measures for strings. The two NP-hard problems we are trying to solve are closest string and closest substring. For each problem we build a genetic algorithm and we describe the genetic operations involved. Both genetic algorithms use a fitness function based on rank distance. We compare our algorithms with other genetic algorithms that use different distance measures, such as Hamming distance or Levenshtein distance, on real DNA sequences. Our experiments show that the genetic algorithms based on rank distance have the best results

40 Gbit/s silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) phase modulator

A 40 Gbit/s electro-optic modulator is demonstrated. The modulator is based on a slotted silicon waveguide filled with an organic material. The silicon organic hybrid (SOH) approach allows combining highly nonlinear electro-optic organic materials with CMOS-compatible silicon photonics technology

Light localization induced enhancement of third order nonlinearities in a GaAs photonic crystal waveguide

Nonlinear propagation experiments in GaAs photonic crystal waveguides (PCW) were performed, which exhibit a large enhancement of third order nonlinearities, due to light propagation in a slow mode regime, such as two-photon absorption (TPA), optical Kerr effect and refractive index changes due to TPA generated free-carriers. A theoretical model has been established that shows very good quantitative agreement with experimental data and demonstrates the important role that group velocity plays. These observations give a strong insight into the use of PCWs for optical switching devices.Comment: 6 page

Children's International Polyposis (CHIP) study : a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of celecoxib in children with familial adenomatous polyposis

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of celecoxib versus placebo in the prevention and treatment of colorectal polyposis in children with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). Methods: In this Phase III, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial patients aged 10-17 years with FAP were randomized to celecoxib (16 mg/kg/day) or placebo for up to 5 years. Patients underwent annual assessments, including colonoscopies, to detect the time from randomization to the earliest occurrence of >= 20 polyps (> 2 mm in size) or colorectal malignancy. The study was terminated early due to low rate of observed endpoints combined with a lower than expected enrollment rate. Descriptive results are provided. Results: Of 106 randomized patients, 55 were treated with celecoxib (mean age 12.6 years; 52.7% female) and 51 were given placebo (mean age 12.2 years; 54.9% female). Disease progression (>= 20 polyps, > 2 mm in size) was observed in seven (12.7%) and 13 (25.5%) patients, respectively. The median time to disease progression was 2.1 years in the celecoxib group and 1.1 years for placebo. No patient developed colorectal cancer. The rate of adverse events (AEs) was similar in both groups (75.5% and 72.9%, respectively). Three patients in the celecoxib group (none in the placebo group) experienced serious AEs. Conclusion: In children with FAP, celecoxib was a well-tolerated treatment that was associated with a lower rate of colorectal polyposis and a longer time to disease progression compared with placebo. Due to the low rate of observed endpoints, the long-term impact of these results could not be ascertained

ICRPfinder: a fast pattern design algorithm for coding sequences and its application in finding potential restriction enzyme recognition sites

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Restriction enzymes can produce easily definable segments from DNA sequences by using a variety of cut patterns. There are, however, no software tools that can aid in gene building -- that is, modifying wild-type DNA sequences to express the same wild-type amino acid sequences but with enhanced codons, specific cut sites, unique post-translational modifications, and other engineered-in components for recombinant applications. A fast DNA pattern design algorithm, ICRPfinder, is provided in this paper and applied to find or create potential recognition sites in target coding sequences.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ICRPfinder is applied to find or create restriction enzyme recognition sites by introducing silent mutations. The algorithm is shown capable of mapping existing cut-sites but importantly it also can generate specified new unique cut-sites within a specified region that are guaranteed not to be present elsewhere in the DNA sequence.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>ICRPfinder is a powerful tool for finding or creating specific DNA patterns in a given target coding sequence. ICRPfinder finds or creates patterns, which can include restriction enzyme recognition sites, without changing the translated protein sequence. ICRPfinder is a browser-based JavaScript application and it can run on any platform, in on-line or off-line mode.</p