Alpha-1-antitrypsin as novel substrate for Spl proteases - implications for virulence.

Background: The serine protease like (Spl) proteases of are a family of six proteases whose function and impact on virulence are poorly understood. Here we propose alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT), an important immunomodulatory serine protease inhibitor as target of SplD, E and F. AAT is an acute phase protein, interacting with many proteases and crucial for prevention of excess tissue damage by neutrophil elastase during the innate immune response to infections.

Formally Zerovalent Bis(arene) Germylene Complexes of Zirconium and Hafnium.

Tetrachlorides of zirconium and hafnium form adducts (2, 3) with an intramolecular germylene phosphine Lewis pair. Two electron reduction treating the adducts with [NacnacMg] gives the low-valent metal complexes (4, 5) featuring η-Trip coordination at the Zr(II) and Hf(II) metal atom. Reduction of the M(II)-complexes gives the zerovalent metal complexes of zirconium (6) and hafnium (7), which have been structurally characterized.

In search of freezability predictors for feline spermatozoa - osmotic challenge tests and markers of sperm membrane structure.

Semen cryopreservation is a crucial part of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) in animals, and recently it is gaining more and more attention among cat breeders. Even if fresh semen quality is good, sometimes spermatozoa do not survive freezing. The freezability prediction was widely studied in many species, but not in the domestic cat.

Enzymes for production of whey protein hydrolysates and other value-added products.

Whey is a byproduct of dairy industries, the aqueous portion which separates from cheese during the coagulation of milk. It represents approximately 85-95% of milk's volume and retains much of its nutrients, including functional proteins and peptides, lipids, lactose, minerals, and vitamins. Due to its composition, mainly proteins and lactose, it can be considered a raw material for value-added products.

A Systematic Study of Nonionic Di- and Multiborane Catalysts for the Oligomerization and Polymerization of Epoxides.

Borane catalysis has emerged as a powerful technology in epoxide polymerization. Still, the structure-activity correlations for these catalysts are not fully understood to date, especially regarding compounds with nonionic backbones. Thus, in this work, 13 different borane catalysts of this respective type are described and investigated for their epoxide oligomerization and polymerization performance, using propylene oxide (PO), 1-butylene oxide (BO) and allyl glycidyl ether (AGE) as monomers.