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Phage therapy could offer a safe and effective alternative to antibiotic treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus that have emerged as a significant threat in hospital and community environment and is attracting growing interest among clinicians. The legislation process of approving the phage therapeutics by pharmaceutical authorities requires rapid analytical techniques for assessment of phage activity. Here, we present a three-step method for on-line monitoring the phage effect on bacterial cells dynamically adhered from microliter volumes of high conductivity matrix onto the inner surface of fused silica capillary with a part etched with supercritical water. Phage K1/420 particles of the Kayvirus genus generated by propagation on the host S. aureus cells together with the uninfected cells were concentrated, separated and detected using capillary electrophoretic methods. The phage interactions with selected S. aureus strains exhibiting differences in phage susceptibility were compared. The method allowed determination of the phage burst size and time of phage latent period in analyzed strains. Apart from enumeration of bacteriophages by the plaque assays, the proposed method is suitable for phage activity testing.

Abstract Atmospheric infrasound of frequencies 0.1–4 Hz observed in Central Europe during convective storms on 9–10 July 2011 from 21:00 to 02:57 UT was analysed. Azimuth of signal arrival followed positions of the convective storms passing over the region of measurements from south-west to north-east. Significant variations in azimuths of signal arrival (up to 105°) occurred periodically between 21:30 and 23:00 UT, at the time of maximum development of convective storms. Sprites (discharges in the mesosphere) seem to be potential sources of these infrasound signals. Stable infrasound arrivals were observed between 02:00 and 02:57 UT from direction where abating convective storms were located.

In this article, factors concerning reintegration and resocialization of offenders into society are summarized. The article defines socialization and resocialization and further concentrates on studies, which define different clasifications of risk and protective factors of reintegration. In the end, the article concentrates on different concepts pertaining to reintegration and resocialization.

In the present article the author points out the fact that no mention of the Cyrillo-Methodian mission to Moravia, generally considered one of the most important Byzantine ecclesiastical missions ever sent abroad, appears in the known Byzantine sources. He explains this omission from the perspective of political interests of Byzantium from which this mission was a failure. Another reason may have been the introduction of the Slavonic vernacular into liturgy, which was not an application of the allegedly common Byzantine missionary practice but a novel initiative of Constantine-Cyril. The author also focuses on the paradox that this revolutionary innovations, which became a target of fierce attacks of Frankish missionaries and provoked a strong opposition from the Latin clergy in Italy was, though temporarily, approvedy by two Roman popes. The latest paradox of the Cyrillo-Methodian mission was that its cultural legacy, while ignored and even disregarded in Byzantium and later abandoned in the country to which the Thessalonian brothers had been sent, proved one of the most effective means of spreading the Byzantine civilization and spirituality among the south and east Slavonic nations.

The utility model deals with a catalyst in the form of solid particles containing activated carbon, on which metal oxides selected from the group of MgO, La2O3, Sm2O3 and CuO are deposited. The catalyst can also be supported on a nanofibrous carrier for fixing in a batch reactor stirrer. The catalyst is intended for the valorization of primary alcohols, especially ethanol and butanol, associated with the condensation of new carbon-carbon bonds to form hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon derivatives with a carbon chain longer than four.

We show that the existence of a homeomorphism between omega(*)(0) and omega(*)(1) entails the existence of a non-trivial autohomeomorphism of omega(*)(0). This answers Problem 441 in [8]. We also discuss the joint consistency of various consequences of omega(*)(0) and omega(*)(1) being homeomorphic.

AbstractWe present here a novel concept for the synthesis of branched N‐acetyllactosamine (LacNAc) glycan structures. Through a combination of sequential enzymatic and chemical reactions of Leloir‐glycosyltransferases, galactose oxidase and reductive amination, we obtained branched glycan oligomers with a variation of LacNAc and/or N′,N′′‐diacetyllactosamine (LacdiNAc) glycan epitopes. Incorporation of a branching point was accomplished by an optimized galactose oxidase protocol rendering the C‐6 aldehyde functionality at the terminal galactose of a LacNAc oligomer. After glycan chain elongation by glycosyltransferases, the C‐6 aldehyde‐containing linear building block was conjugated with amine‐linker functionalized glycans. Methanol and a temperature of 50 °C were found to be optimum conditions for the α‐picoline borane‐catalyzed reductive amination. Chemically branched glycans were obtained in high synthetic yields (≈81%) in preparative batches. Product isolation was accomplished by preparative HPLC with good overall yields (>60%). The structural integrity was proven by ESI‐MS and NMR. The herein synthesized branched LacNAc oligomers feature a variation of Lac(di)NAc epitopes and were confirmed to be potent inhibitors of human galectin‐3 (Gal‐3). The branched decasaccharide with two LacdiNAc‐LacNAc branches ranks among the most potent poly‐LacNAc‐based Gal‐3 inhibitors so far.magnified image

This paper summarizes the status of the COMPASS tokamak, its comprehensive diagnostic equipment and plasma scenarios as a baseline for the future studies. The former COMPASS-D tokamak was in operation at UKAEA Culham, UK in 1992-2002. Later, the device was transferred to the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (IPP AS CR), where it was installed during 2006-2011. Since 2012 the device has been in a full operation with Type-I and Type-III ELMy H-modes as a base scenario. This enables together with the ITER-like plasma shape and flexible NBI heating system (two injectors enabling co- or balanced injection) to perform ITER relevant studies in different parameter range to the other tokamaks (ASDEX-Upgrade, DIII-D, JET) and to contribute to the ITER scallings. In addition to the description of the device, current status and the main diagnostic equipment, the paper focuses on the characterization of the Ohmic as well as NBI-assisted H-modes. Moreover, Edge Localized Modes (ELMs) are categorized based on their frequency dependence on power density flowing across separatrix. The filamentary structure of ELMs is studied and the parallel heat flux in individual filaments is measured by probes on the outer mid-plane and in the divertor. The measurements are supported by observation of ELM and inter-ELM filaments by an ultra-fast camera.

Despite the growing number of reported FeIVO complexes, an unambiguous experimental characterization of their redox properties, such as one-electron reduction potentials, remains a challenging task. To this aim, we describe an efficient and straightforward theoretical protocol for accurate calculations of redox potentials and calibrate the protocol on a set of diverse 37 mononuclear nonheme iron (NHFe) redox couples. It is shown that the methodology, further applied to a set of 10 FeIVO species, not only serves for near-quantitative predictions of reduction potentials, but also is an elegant tool for interpretation of the experimental electrochemical data. The general need for such a computational methodology is illustrated on the prototypical example of the (N4Py)FeIVO complex, whose electrochemistry has been studied for many years and still raises many questions.