Mother of all folding: cold isolated linear alkanes C(n)H(2n+2) prefer an extended all-trans conformation before cohesive forces between the chain ends induce a folded hairpin structure for longer chains. It is shown by Raman spectroscopy at 100-150 K that the folded structure becomes more stable beyond n(C) = 17 or 18 carbon atoms. High-level quantum-chemical calculations yield n(C) = 17 ± 1 a...

Microorganisms can degrade saturated hydrocarbons (alkanes) not only under oxic but also under anoxic conditions. Three denitrifying isolates (strains HxN1, OcN1, HdN1) able to grow under anoxic conditions by coupling alkane oxidation to CO(2) with NO(3) (-) reduction to N(2) were compared with respect to their alkane metabolism. Strains HxN1 and OcN1, which are both Betaproteobacteria, utilize...

BACKGROUND Biosynthesis of alkanes is an attractive way of producing substitutes for petroleum-based alkanes. Acyl-[acyl carrier protein (ACP)] reductase (AAR) is a key enzyme for alkane biosynthesis in cyanobacteria and catalyzes the reduction of fatty acyl-ACP to fatty aldehydes, which are then converted into alkanes/alkenes by aldehyde-deformylating oxygenase (ADO). The amino acid sequences ...

Common experience tells us that a knot significantly weakens the polymer strand in which it is tied, which in turn leads to more facile chain rupture under tensile loading. Using firstprinciples molecular dynamics calculations we describe the dynamical evolution of the radicals that form after chain rupture of a single knotted alkane molecule in their very early stages of life. They are able to...

Hydrocarbon and wax ester components of cuticular lipids of the braconid parasitoid Habrobracon hebetor Say reared at 25 degrees C on larvae of a pyralid moth have been identified by GC-MS and analyzed with respect to adult age, mating status, and diet. The hydrocarbons range in carbon number from C(21) to C(45) and consist of a homologous series of n-alkanes, 11-, 13-, and 15-methyl alkanes, 1...

In this article, we have followed up the relationship between the ability to reactivate acetylcholinesterase inhibited by organophosphorus compounds and the length of linking chain between two 4-hydroxyiminomethylpyridinium rings of acetylcholinesterase reactivators. α,ω-bis(4hydroxyiminomethylpyridinium) alkanes have been used as the tested acetylcholinesterase reactivators. These oximes diffe...

Nikulin has classified all finite abelian groups acting symplectically on a K3 surface and he has shown that the induced action on the K3 lattice U⊕E8(−1) depends only on the group but not on the K3 surface. For all the groups in the list of Nikulin we compute the invariant sublattice and its orthogonal complement by using some special elliptic K3 surfaces.

Short certificateless signatures have come into limelight in recent years. On the one hand, the property of certificateless eliminates the certificate management problem in traditional PKI and the key-escrow problem in some ID-based signature schemes. On the other hand, due to the short signature length, short certificateless signatures can be applied to systems where signatures are typed in by...

With pronounced morphological and phenological diversity, garden roses have always been part of urban plantings. The significance in ornamental utilitarian (edible) horticulture can significantly be amended with novel ecosystem services, by shifting their breeding targets towards more than aesthetic nutritional value. Thus the aim this paper was to investigate possibilities newly bred (within p...