General Synthesis and Physicochemical Characterisation of a Series of Peptide‐Mimic Lysine‐Based Amino‐Functionalised Lipids

A series of novel malonic acid diamides (second generation) with two long hydrophobic alkyl chains and an alkaline polar head group was synthesised and characterised as a new class of amino‐functionalised lipids. These peptide‐mimic lipids are suitable for polynucleotide transfer. The lipids bear a novel backbone consisting of a lysine unit and a malonic acid unit. Six different head‐group structures, which vary in size and number of amino groups that can be protonated, were attached to the backbone structure. Furthermore, different alkyl chains were used to build the lipophilic part (namely tetradecyl, hexadecyl, and oleyl). Phase transitions of the new compounds in aqueous dispersions at pH 10 were analysed and discussed in terms of head group and alkyl chain variations. The shape and size of the formed aggregates of selected lipid dispersions were investigated by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy.     

New Process Simulation Procedure for High-Rate Plasma Jet Machining

Surface figuring using chemically reactive plasma jet machining (PJM) is a promising non-conventional technology for deterministic ultra-precision machining of optical components. Based on chemical reactions between plasma generated radicals and the surface atoms this technology is capable to fabricate complex shaped free form surfaces. Since the material removal rate during PJM depends strongly on the surface temperature which itself is influenced by the jet heat flux to the surface, the arising nonlinear effects on the etch result have to be regarded. Conventionally applied dwell time calculation algorithms do not consider those effects leading to significant machining errors in some cases. In order to improve the machining procedure with respect to deterministic material removal yielding predictable results a process simulation model has been developed. This model considers spatio-temporal variations of surface temperature and temperature dependent material removal and is able to predict the final workpiece topography after machining.     

Polaronic origin of the isotope effect on the London penetration depth in high-temperature superconducting oxides

Direct measurements of the in-plane London penetration depth λ _L have recently been performed on high-temperature superconducting copper oxides by a new low-energy muon spin rotation technique. The results show that λ _L is isotope dependent, evidencing unconventional electron–phonon interactions as its source. The data are interpreted here in terms of polaronic effects on the single-particle energies, which leads to level shifts and exponential band narrowing. Good agreement with the experimental data is obtained.     

Double-knife EDGE problems with elastic/plastic type screens

A problem of diffraction of a wave by a pair of semi-infinite screens is considered. The screens are lined with two different wave bearing materials that can support surface waves. This type of problem arises in the propagation and, scattering of acoustic and electromagnetic waves by surface wave guides. To be specific, we shall couch our problem in terms of acoustics. These diffraction problems for two parallel wave bearing screens lead to boundary value problems which are governed by the Helmholtz equation, and some specific third kind boundary conditions. Such problems are shown to be well-posed for finite energy space solutions. Their representation is given by means of the canonical factorization of a non-rational matrix function.This work was supported by DFG grant KO 634/32-1     

Human neuronal stargazin-like proteins, γ2, γ3 and γ4; an investigation of their specific localization in human brain and their influence on CaV2.1 voltage-dependent calcium channels expressed in Xenopus oocytes.

Background  

Stargazin (γ₂) and the closely related γ₃, and γ₄ transmembrane proteins are part of a family of proteins that may act as both neuronal voltage-dependent calcium channel (VDCC) γ subunits and transmembrane α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazoleproponinc (AMPA) receptor regulatory proteins (TARPs). In this investigation, we examined the distribution patterns of the stargazin-like proteins γ₂, γ₃, and γ₄ in the human central nervous system (CNS). In addition, we investigated whether human γ₂ or γ₄ could modulate the electrophysiological properties of a neuronal VDCC complex transiently expressed in Xenopus oocytes.     

Interaction of atomic hydrogen with the graphite single-crystal surface

The reaction of atomic hydrogen (or atomic deuterium) with highly orientated pyrolytic graphite surfaces has been studied by means of thermal desorption spectroscopy. In some cases atomic deuterium instead of atomic hydrogen, was used solely to assign the desorbed masses unambiguously to the different hydrocarbons. The desorption of D₂ and fourteen hydrocarbons was observed. D₂ desorbed at higher temperatures than the CH-(CD) compounds, the desorption spectra of the hydrocarbons contained two peaks. The dependence of the desorption spectra of several hydrocarbons on the heating rate, the atomic hydrogen exposure and the composition of the desorption products was investigated in detail. The kinetic parameters of the desorption process were determined for CH, C₂H₂, and CD₄. The spectra showed that there must be a first order desorption process for all the hydrocarbons, the values for the activation energy and the frequency factor were the same within experimental errors. The results were discussed by means of a simple model.     

On toric h-vectors of centrally symmetric polytopes

We prove tight lower bounds for the coefficients of the toric h-vector of an arbitrary centrally symmetric polytope generalizing previous results due to R. Stanley and the author using toric varieties. Our proof here is based on the theory of combinatorial intersection cohomology for normal fans of polytopes developed by G. Barthel, J.-P. Brasselet, K. Fieseler and L. Kaup, and independently by P. Bressler and V. Lunts. This theory is also valid for nonrational polytopes when there is no standard correspondence with toric varieties. In this way we can establish our bounds for centrally symmetric polytopes even without requiring them to be rational. Received: 24 March 2004