Effects of feed composition,protein denaturation and storage of milk serum protein/lactose powders on lactosylation

During whey powder production, the feed is subjected to several heat treatments which can cause lactosylation of proteins. In this study, lactosylation of whey proteins was evaluated in spray-dried powders before and after storage by varying the native protein fraction as well as the serum protein/lactose ratio in the powders. The lactosylation of native α-lactalbumin and β-lactoglobulin in the powders before storage was not affected to a large extent by the protein denaturation or if the feed had been heat treated in a high or low lactose environment. After storage (relative humidity of 23.5%, 30 °C, 25 days), the kinetic of lactosylation tended to increase with increasing native protein fraction and bulk protein content in the powders. An explanation could be that proteins dissolved in the lactose glassy structure might have a lower reactivity, while proteins present in the protein glassy structure with dissolved lactose may display higher lactosylation reactivity.     

Discovery of GPR183 Agonists Based on an Antagonist Scaffold

The G protein-coupled receptor GPR183/EBI2, which is activated by oxysterols, is a therapeutic target for inflammatory and metabolic diseases where both antagonists and agonists are of potential interest. Using the piperazine diamide core of the known GPR183 antagonist (E)-3-(4-bromophenyl)-1-(4-(4-methoxybenzoyl)piperazin-1-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (NIBR189) as starting point, we identified and sourced 79 structurally related compounds that were commercially available. In vitro screening of this compound collection using a Ca²⁺ mobilization assay resulted in the identification of 10 compounds with agonist properties. To enable establishment of initial structure-activity relationship trends, these were supplemented with five in-house compounds, two of which were also shown to be GPR183 agonists. Taken together, our findings suggest that the agonist activity of this compound series is dictated by the substitution pattern of one of the two distal phenyl rings, which functions as a molecular efficacy-switch.     

Towards a Better Prediction of Cell Settling on Nanostructure Arrays—Simple Means to Complicated Ends

Vertical arrays of nanostructures (NSs) are emerging as promising platforms for probing and manipulating live mammalian cells. The broad range of applications requires different types of interfaces, but cell settling on NS arrays is not yet fully controlled and understood. Cells are both seen to deform completely into NS arrays and to stay suspended like tiny fakirs, which have hitherto been explained with differences in NS spacing or density. Here, a better understanding of this phenomenon is provided by using a model that takes into account the extreme membrane deformation needed for a cell to settle into a NS array. It is shown that, in addition to the NS density, cell settling depends strongly on the dimensions of the single NS, and that the settling can be predicted for a given NS array geometry. The predictive power of the model is confirmed by experiments and good agreement with cases from the literature. Furthermore, the influence of cell‐related parameters is evaluated theoretically and a generic method of tuning cell settling through surface coating is demonstrated experimentally. These findings allow a more rational design of NS arrays for the numerous exciting biological applications where the mode of cell settling is crucial.     

In situ observation of synthesized nanoparticles in ultra-dilute aerosols via X-ray scattering

In-air epitaxy of nanostructures (Aerotaxy) has recently emerged as a viable route for fast, large-scale production. In this study, we use small-angle X-ray scattering to perform direct in-flight characterizations of the first step of this process, i.e., the engineered formation of Au and Pt aerosol nanoparticles by spark generation in a flow of N₂ gas. This represents a particular challenge for characterization because the particle density can be extremely low in controlled production. The particles produced are examined during production at operational pressures close to atmospheric conditions and exhibit a lognormal size distribution ranging from 5–100 nm. The Au and Pt particle production and detection are compared. We observe and characterize the nanoparticles at different stages of synthesis and extract the corresponding dominant physical properties, including the average particle diameter and sphericity, as influenced by particle sintering and the presence of aggregates. We observe highly sorted and sintered spherical Au nanoparticles at ultra-dilute concentrations (< 5 × 10⁵ particles/cm³) corresponding to a volume fraction below 3 × 10^–10, which is orders of magnitude below that of previously measured aerosols. We independently confirm an average particle radius of 25 nm via Guinier and Kratky plot analysis. Our study indicates that with high-intensity synchrotron beams and careful consideration of background removal, size and shape information can be obtained for extremely low particle concentrations with industrially relevant narrow size distributions.

     

The effect of annealing on the elastoplastic and viscoelastic responses of isotactic polypropylene

Observations are reported on isotactic polypropylene (i) in a series of tensile tests with a constant strain rate on specimens annealed for 24 h at various temperatures in the range from 110 to 150 °C, (ii) in two series of creep tests in the subyield region of deformations on samples not subjected to thermal treatment and on specimens annealed at 140 °C, and (iii) in a series of tensile relaxation tests on non-annealed specimens. Constitutive equations are derived for the elastoplastic and non-linear viscoelastic responses of semicrystalline polymers. A polymer is treated as an equivalent transient network of macro-molecules bridged by junctions (physical cross-links, entanglements and lamellar blocks). The network is assumed to be highly heterogeneous, and it is thought of as an ensemble of meso-regions with different activation energies for separation of strands from temporary nodes. The elastoplastic behavior is modelled as sliding of junctions in meso-domains with respect to their reference positions driven by macro-deformation. The viscoelastic response is attributed to detachment of active strands from temporary junctions and attachment of dangling chains to the network. Constitutive equations for isothermal deformations with small strains are derived by using the laws of thermodynamics. Adjustable parameters in the stress–strain relations are found by fitting the experimental data.     

Sequential Decoding of Convolutional Codes for Rayleigh Fading Channels

The performance of sequential decoding of long constraint length convolutional codes is evaluated for Rayleigh fading channels. Sequential decoding is not practical below a certain theoretical signal-to-noise ratio, and these theoretical limits are calculated for a number of modulation methods and code rates. As an example, with BPSK modulation, soft decisions and code rate 1/2, the theoretical signal-to-noise ratio per information bit is 5.7 dB. Above this limit the bit error rate can be made arbitrarily small by increasing the constraint length at no significant complexity cost. Furthermore, it is shown that with carefully chosen quantization steps, 8 level uniform quantization gives a negligible loss also for sequential decoding on a Rayleigh fading channel. Simulation results using 8 level quantization correspond well with the theoretical performance bounds. Also, the performance on a correlated channel with finite interleaving has been obtained. With an interleaver depth of 50×50 and a normalized doppler frequency equal to 0.01 we are only 0.5 dB away from the performance with perfect interleaving. Finally, bit error rate results show this scheme to compete well with Turbo codes.     

Fast internal dynamics in polyelectrolyte gels measured by dynamic light scattering

Summary Dynamic light scattering was used to investigate the dynamics of sodium poly(styrene sulfonate) and fully neutralized poly(acrylic acid) gels as a function of the degree of swelling and weight ratio of cross-linking agent. It was shown that the collective diffusion coefficient increases with increasing degree of swelling and that the diffusion coefficient shows stronger concentration dependence than predicted by scaling arguments. For gel samples measured at the swelling equilibrium, the diffusion coefficient increases with increasing gel concentration for both gel systems.     

Cytokines and other markers of intrathecal immune response in patients with herpes simplex encephalitis

Sequential samples of serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), from 9 patients with herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE), were analyzed for cytokines and soluble cytokine receptors. The response to herpes simplex virus was characterized by a vigorous compartmentalized immune response. The intrathecal response comprised three different phases: an acute stage (first week of illness), characterized by elevated CSF levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and interferon-gamma; an early convalescence stage (weeks 2-6 after onset of disease), associated with peaking levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and late markers of the specific T cell-mediated immune response, soluble IL-2 receptor, and soluble CD8 antigen (sCD8); and finally, a late convalescence stage, lasting months to years and associated with persistently increased levels of sCD8 in particular. These findings show the compartmentalization and kinetics of the inflammatory response in HSE and demonstrate persistence of the intrathecal inflammatory process, which may have implications for antiviral and antiinflammatory therapy.