Low molecular weight oligo-β-hydroxybutyric acids and 3-hydroxy-N-phenethyl-butyramide – new products from microorganisms

Summary A new group of low-molecular weight channel-forming oligo(hydroxybutyric acids) (cPHBs, 1 with n = 8–30; main component MW ≈ 1300 dalton) was isolated from microorganisms of different origin. Inclusion bodies were electron-microscopically visible in cells in the state of autolysis, not in cells in the exponential phase of growth. cPHB and high-molecular poly(l3-hydroxybutyric acid) (sPHB) is cleaved by phenylethylamine and forms the corresponding monomeric hydroxybutyramide and – under drastic conditions, the crotylamide. One of these compounds, the 3-hydroxy-N-phenethyl-butyramide (5), was isolated as a new natural product now. Received: 28 March 2002/Revised version: 26 July 2002/ Accepted: 26 July 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Marine Bakterien, XVII. XVI: R.P. Maskey, R.N. Asolkar, E. Helmke, and H. Laatsch, Chalcomycin B, a new antibiotic from a marine Streptomyces sp. B7064. J. Antibiot., submitted 2002 Correspondence to Hartmut Laatsch, e-mail: hlaatsc@gwdg.de, Fax: +49-551-399660     

Diffractive optical isolator made of high-efficiency dielectric gratings only

The working principle of an optical isolator made of two corrugated dielectric gratings is introduced. One grating acts as a polarizer, and the other acts as a quarter-wave plate used in conical incidence converting linearly polarized light into circularly polarized light. Global maxima of diffraction efficiency for surface-corrugated gratings with binary, sinusoidal, and pyramidal ridge shapes with dependence on the material index are identified. Regarding technological feasibility for use in the visible wavelength range, high-frequency gratings with a binary shape were realized. With these gratings, an extinction ratio of more than 40 dB for the polarizer is theoretically possible, and more than 20 dB was experimentally achieved. A good correlation between theoretically calculated efficiencies and birefringences based on rigorous methods and the experimental results is demonstrated.     

Modeling and querying moving objects in networks

Moving objects databases have become an important research issue in recent years. For modeling and querying moving objects, there exists a comprehensive framework of abstract data types to describe objects moving freely in the 2D plane, providing data types such as moving point or moving region. However, in many applications people or vehicles move along transportation networks. It makes a lot of sense to model the network explicitly and to describe movements relative to the network rather than unconstrained space, because then it is much easier to formulate in queries relationships between moving objects and the network. Moreover, such models can be better supported in indexing and query processing. In this paper, we extend the ADT approach by modeling networks explicitly and providing data types for static and moving network positions and regions. In a highway network, example entities corresponding to these data types are motels, construction areas, cars, and traffic jams. The network model is not too simplistic; it allows one to distinguish simple roads and divided highways and to describe the possible traversals of junctions precisely. The new types and operations are integrated seamlessly into the ADT framework to achieve a relatively simple, consistent and powerful overall model and query language for constrained and unconstrained movement.     

The effect of small time-delays on the closed-loop stability of boundary control systems

It has been observed that for many stable feedback systems, the introduction of arbitrarily small time-delays into the loop causes instability. In this paper we present a systematic treatment of this phenomenon for a large class of boundary control systems which allows for in-span control. Our approach is based on a combination of input-output methods and modal analysis. We give a number of sufficient conditions for robustness/nonrobustness of closed-loop input-output stability with respect to delays. Our framework includes a large class of ill-posed systems, i.e., systems whose open-loop transfer function is unbounded on any right half-plane. We then analyze the relationship between the poles of the transfer function and the exponential modes of the underlying boundary-value problem to derive internal stability properties from external ones.This work was supported by the British Council/DAAD (ARC project 464), by the Human Capital and Mobility programme (Project number CHRX-CT93-0402), by the National Science Foundation (Grant DMS-9206986) and by NATO (Grant CRG 950179).     

Bildung von oxydischen Einschlüssen in halbberuhigtem Stahl

Untersuchung von 20-t-Blöcken mit unterschiedlichen Aluminiumzugaben für die Feindesoxydation während der Erstarrung in der Kokille. Oberflächenfehler von halbberuhigtem Stahl. Bildung von oxydischen Einschlüssen dicht unter der Blockoberfläche und im Blockinnern. Maßnahmen zur Beeinflussung der Einschlußausbildung.     

Beobachtungen zur Oberflächenveränderung durch-Erosion und Kavitation

Observations of the effect on surfaces of “erosion and cavitation” With the cavitation of material due to liquids, the meterial is damaged by blowholes. In addition, observations on highgloss polished pure metals, tested in H. Schröter's and O. Walchner's flow apparatus with weir and counter-weir, occasionally showed damage caused by small particles of solids entrained by the liquid. In order to simulate mechanical damage by small particles, steel shot of different edge lengths was entrained with the liquid so as to bit the surface of the specimen. The results were lines of sliding in the case of Armco iron and mechanical twinning in the case of zine. An energy comparison is then carried out between the entrained solid particles and the blowhole. Solid particles with a maximum energy content theoretically equal to the minimum energy content of a blowhole are able to cause a plastic deformation of the surfaces of materials within minute zones, whilst blowholes with equal energy content obviously do not cause any mechanical damage. This indicates the need, with metallographic investigations into initial damage by flow cavitation, to ensure adequate filtering of the test medium so as to preclude the possibility of sand erosion.     

Electron-beam treatment of aromatic hydrocarbons that can be air-stripped from contaminated groundwater. 2. Gas-phase studies

The electron-beam (EB) degradation of volatile aromatics (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes: BTEX) in groundwater strip gas, which in the present work has been modeled by the introduction of the desired aromatic(s) to a stream of air or another gas, such as oxygen, is initiated essentially by the addition of *OH radicals to the aromatic ring, giving rise to hydroxycyclohexadienyl radicals, which form the corresponding peroxyl radicals upon addition of oxygen. As studied in some detail with benzene as a BTEX representative, various reactions of these lead to numerous oxidation products in a cascade of reactions, including the decomposition of products under the prevailing conditions of high turnover of the initial aromatic. Importantly, hydroxycyclohexadienylperoxyl radical formation is partly reversible, and the reactions of the hydroxycyclohexadienyl radicals, which thus have a significant presence in these systems, must therefore also be taken into consideration. In the gas phase, in contrast to the aqueous phase (see Part 1), the reactions of the hydroxycyclohexadienyl radicals lead to oligomeric products that appear to contribute, in addition to ionic clusters, to nucleation for the aerosols observed. Various nitrated products, among them nitrophenols, are observed when air is used for the stripping. However, these studies did not clear the pilot plant stage, since BTEX degradation using a bioreactor carried out in parallel was so successful that the EB technology was judged to be noncompetitive. As for the latter, expensive equipment consisting of a stripper, the EB machine, and an aerosol precipitator would be required. The condensed aerosols are biorefractory and would require further treatment for detoxification.     

Epidemiological investigation on chronic copper toxicity to children exposed via the public drinking water supply

Copper in drinking water has been associated with Non-Indian Childhood Cirrhosis (NICC), a form of early childhood liver cirrhosis. This epidemiological study examines the exposition of infants to increased copper concentrations through drinking water from public water supplies in Berlin, Germany, and if this dietary copper intake can cause liver damage in early childhood. In total, water samples from 2944 households with infants were tested for copper. Mean copper concentrations in the two different types of collected composite samples were 0.44 and 0.56 mg/l, respectively. Families having a copper concentration at or above 0.8 mg/l in one or both of the composite samples (29.9% of all sampled households) and a defined minimum ingestion of tap water of their infant were recommended to undergo a paediatric examination. Nearly every of the 541 recommended infants were examined by a local paediatrician and of these 183 received a blood serum analysis, too. None of the infants had clear signs of a liver disease although a few serum parameters lay outside the accompanying reference range and abdominal ultrasound imaging gave slightly unusual results in five cases. Additionally, no signs of a negative health effect could be found in the statistical analysis of the serum parameters GOT, GPT, GGT, total bilirubin, serum copper, or ceruloplasmin in relation to estimated daily and total copper intakes of the infants from tap water. No dose relation of serum parameters and estimated copper intakes could be established. From the results of the study, no confirmed indication of a liver malfunction in infants whose food had been prepared using tap water with an elevated copper concentration could be found and, therefore, no indication of a hazard due to copper pipes connected to public water supplies could be detected.     

Theoretical calculations and performance results of a PZT thin film actuator

High piezoelectric coupling coefficients of PZT-based material systems can be employed for actuator functions in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) offering displacements and forces which outperform standard solutions. This paper presents simulation, fabrication, and development results of a stress-compensated, PZT-coated cantilever concept in which a silicon bulk micromachining process is used in combination with a chemical solution deposition (CSD) technique. Due to an analytical approach and a finite element method (FEM) simulation for a tip displacement of 10 /spl mu/m, the actuator was designed with a cantilever length of 300 /spl mu/m to 1000 /spl mu/m. Special attention was given to the Zr/Ti ratio of the PZT thin films to obtain a high piezoelectric coefficient. For first characterizations X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), hysteresis-, current-voltage I(V)and capacitance-voltage C(V)-measurements were carried out.