Acceptive Immunity: The Role of Fucosylated Glycans in Human Host–Microbiome Interactions

The growth in the number of chronic non-communicable diseases in the second half of the past century and in the first two decades of the new century is largely due to the disruption of the relationship between the human body and its symbiotic microbiota, and not pathogens. The interaction of the human immune system with symbionts is not accompanied by inflammation, but is a physiological norm. This is achieved via microbiota control by the immune system through a complex balance of pro-inflammatory and suppressive responses, and only a disturbance of this balance can trigger pathophysiological mechanisms. This review discusses the establishment of homeostatic relationships during immune system development and intestinal bacterial colonization through the interaction of milk glycans, mucins, and secretory immunoglobulins. In particular, the role of fucose and fucosylated glycans in the mechanism of interactions between host epithelial and immune cells is discussed.     

Dynamic transitions from smooth to rough to twinning in dislocation motion

The motion of dislocations in response to stress dictates the mechanical behaviour of materials. However, it is not yet possible to directly observe dislocation motion experimentally at the atomic level. Here, we present the first observations of the long-hypothesized kink-pair mechanism in action using atomistic simulations of dislocation motion in iron. In a striking deviation from the classical picture, dislocation motion at high strain rates becomes rough, resulting in spontaneous self-pinning and production of large quantities of debris. Then, at still higher strain rates, the dislocation stops abruptly and emits a twin plate that immediately takes over as the dominant mode of plastic deformation. These observations challenge the applicability of the Peierls threshold concept to the three-dimensional motion of screw dislocations at high strain rates, and suggest a new interpretation of plastic strength and microstructure of shocked metals.     

Electrochemical properties and dissolution of URu<Subscript>3</Subscript> in nitric acid solutions

The electrochemical properties of URu₃ intermetallic compound (IMC) in 0.5–8 M HNO₃ solutions were studied by linear voltammetry and galvanostatic electrolysis. In 0.5–2 M HNO₃, URu₃ occurs in the passive state at potentials lower than +1.3 V (here and hereinafter, vs. SHE), and in 4–8 M HNO₃, an anodic oxidation peak is observed at potentials from +1.0 to +1.2 V. This process, however, leads to IMC passivation and not to its dissolution. At potentials higher than +1.4 V, URu₃ passes into the transpassive state and starts to actively dissolve. The principal possibility of electrochemical dissolution of IMC at potentials exceeding the transpassivation potential was demonstrated by galvanostatic electrolysis. The rate of uranium leaching during electrolysis depends to a greater extent on the current density than on the HNO₃ concentration and reaches 35 mg cm^–2 h^–1 in 6 M HNO₃ at a current density of 182 mA cm^–2.     

Schwarz lemma for driving point impedance functions and its circuit applications

In this paper, a boundary version of the Schwarz lemma is investigated for driving point impedance functions and its circuit applications. It is known that driving point impedance function, Z(s) = 1 + c_p(s − 1)^p + c_{p + 1}(s − 1)^{p + 1} + ..., p > 1, is an analytic function defined on the right half of the s-plane. Two theorems are presented using the modulus of the derivative of driving point impedance function, |Z′(0)|, by assuming the Z(s) function is also analytic at the boundary point s = 0 on the imaginary axis with . In the obtained inequalities, the value of the function at s = 1 and the derivatives with different orders have been used. Finally, the sharpness of the inequalities obtained in the presented theorems is proved. Simple LC circuits are obtained using the obtained driving point impedance functions.     

A Technique for Diagnosis of the Resistance of Conductive Rail Track Joints

Russian Electrical Engineering - This study proposes a technique of remotely determining the resistance of conductive joints as components of a complex system of train traffic control with the help...     

Chimeric ribonuclease as a source of human adapter protein for targeted drug delivery

Assembled modular complexes for targeted drug delivery can bebased on strong non-covalent interactions between a cargo modulecontaining an adapter protein and a docking tag fused to a targetingprotein. We have recently constructed a completely humanizedadapter/docking tag system based on interactions between 15amino acid (Hu-tag) and 110 amino acid (HuS) fragments of humanribonuclease I (RNase I). Although recombinant HuS can be expressedand refolded into a functionally active form, the purificationprocedure is cumbersome and expensive, and more importantly,it yields a significant proportion of improperly folded proteins.Here we describe engineering, high-yield expression, and purificationof a chimeric bovine/human RNase (BH-RNase) comprising 1–29N-terminal amino acids of bovine ribonuclease A and 30–127amino acids of human RNase I. Unlike RNase I, the chimeric BH-RNasecan be cleaved by either subtilisin or proteinase K betweenA20 and S21, providing a functionally active HuS. The HuS obtainedfrom chimeric BH-RNase differs from wild-type HuS by an N24Tsubstitution; therefore, we have reverted this substitutionby mutating N24 to T24 in BH-RNase. This BH-RNase mutant canalso be cleaved by subtilisin or proteinase K yielding wild-typeHuS. The affinity of HuS obtained from BH-RNase to Hu-tag isapproximately five times higher than that for recombinant HuS,reflecting a higher percentage of properly folded proteins. Received June 9, 2003; revised August 4, 2003; accepted August 28, 2003.     

The effect of recycling number on the mechanical,chemical, thermal,and rheological properties of PBT/PC/ABS ternary blends: With and without glass‐fiber

The recycling possibilities of poly(butylene terephthalate)/polycarbonate/acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (PBT/PC/ABS) ternary blend with and without glass‐fiber content were investigated using repeated injection molding process. In this study, PBT/PC/ABS ternary blends were reprocessed at five times and the results were presented after each recycling process. The recycling possibility of PBT/PC/ABS ternary blend was evaluated by measuring the mechanical, chemical, thermal, and rheological properties. Mechanical properties were determined by the tensile strength, yield strength, strain at break, elastic modulus, impact strength, flexural strength, and flexural modulus. Chemical and thermal properties were evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. Rheological properties of the ternary blends were studied by melt flow index measurement. From the results, it was found that mechanical properties of recycled composites were better than virgin PBT/PC/ABS ternary blends. POLYM. COMPOS., 35:2074–2084, 2014. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers