Description: This paper generalizes a certain geometric locus problem due to A. Dafina.

Description: This article discusses functional and phylogenetic analyses of a conserved regulatory program in the phloem of minor veins. Abstract: The minor-vein phloem of mature leaves is developmentally and physiologically distinct from the phloem in the rest of the vascular system. Phloem loading of transport sugars occurs in the minor veins, and consistent with this, galactinol synthase is expressed in the minor veins of melon (Cucumis melo) as part of the symplastic-loading mechanism that operates in this species. A galactinol synthase promoter from melon drives gene expression in the minor-vein companion cells of both transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and Arabidopsis. Neither of these plants use galactinol in the phloem-loading process, implying that the promoter responds to a minor-vein-specific regulatory cascade that is highly conserved across a broad range of eudicotyledons. Detailed analysis of this promoter by truncation and mutagenesis identified three closely coupled sequences that unambiguously modulate tissue specificity. These sequences cooperate in a combinatorial fashion: two promote expression throughout the vascular system of the plant, whereas the third functions to repress expression in the larger bundles. In a complementary approach, phylogenetic footprinting was used to obtain single-nucleotide resolution of conserved sites in orthologous promoters from diverse members of the Cucurbitaceae. ...

Description: This article discusses three-coordinate Au(I) phosphine complexes. Abstract: DFT calculations were used to optimize the phosphorescent excited state of three-coordinate [Au(PR3)3]+ complexes. The results indicate that the complexes rearrange from their singlet ground-state trigonal planar geometry to a T-shape in the lowest triplet luminescent excited state. The optimized structure of the exciton contradicts the structure predicted based on the AuP bonding properties of the ground-state HOMO and LUMO. The rearrangement to T-shape is a Jahn-Teller distortion because an electron is taken from the degenerate e' (5dxy, 5dx2-y2) orbital upon photoexcitation of the ground-state D3h complex. The calculated UV absorption and visible emission energies are consistent with the experimental data and explain the large Stokes' shifts while such correlations are not possible in optimized models that constrained the exciton to the ground-state trigonal geometry.

Description: In this article, the authors report the effects of microwave irradiation on both unpurified and purified iron-catalyzed high-pressure disproportionation (HiPco)-grown single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) in ultrahigh vacuum. Under microwave irradiation, the authors observe that unpurified HiPco SWNTs quickly reach temperatures of approximately 1850 ºC. As a result, H2, H2O, CO, CO2, and CH4 gases are observed, and the Fe catalyst nanoparticles melt and coalesce into larger crystallites approximately four times their original diameter. In contrast, carbon black and purified HiPco SWNTs heat up to temperatures of 500-650 ºC. The authors propose that the significant heating of unpurified HiPco SWNTs is due to the Fe catalysts.

Description: In this article, the authors study the statistical properties of time distribution of seismicity in California by means of a new method of analysis, the diffusion entropy. The authors find that the distribution of time intervals between a large earthquake (the main shock of a given seismic sequence) and the next one does not obey Poisson statistics, as assumed by the current models. The authors prove that this distribution is an inverse power law with an exponent μ = 2.06 ± 0.01. The authors propose the long-range model, reproducing the main properties of the diffusion entropy and describing the seismic triggering mechanisms induced by large earthquakes.