Adhesion patterns of commensal and pathogenic Escherichia coli from humans and wild animals on human and porcine epithelial cell lines.

Background: Different strategies of colonization or infection by E. coli result in formation of certain adhesion patterns which help also in classifying intestinal E. coli into pathotypes.

High-fidelity stereochemical memory in a Fe(II)4L4 tetrahedral capsule.

A new class of Fe(II)4L4 capsules, based upon a tritopic trialdehyde subcomponent, is reported. One such capsule was prepared diastereoselectively through the incorporation of a chiral amine residue. This amine was displaced by an achiral one, while maintaining the stereochemistry of the cage framework (99% ee); this cage retained its stereochemistry even after 4 days at 90 °C.

Assembly of surface-confined homochiral helicates: chiral discrimination of DOPA and unidirectional charge transfer.

Surface-confined double-helical polymers are generated by dynamic covalent assembly with preservation of chirality, metal coordination environment, and oxidation state of the precursor complexes. This one-step procedure involves both in solution and solution-to-surface assembly and resulted in chiral interfaces where pairs of ligands are wrapped around arrays of metal ions. In-plane XRD experiments revealed the formation of a highly ordered structure along the substrate surface.

Chemical signals turn on guest binding through structural reconfiguration of triangular helicates.

Be my guest: The function of a system based on self-assembled Zn(II) complexes can be controlled by external chemical stimuli. The complexes are based on a C3 -symmetric ligand that forms a unique triangular triple helicate structure 1. Upon subcomponent substitution, 1 is able to transform into a triangular double helicate 2 which, unlike 1, can encapsulate guests.

Adhesion of human and animal Escherichia coli strains in association with their virulence-associated genes and phylogenetic origins.

Intestinal colonization is influenced by the ability of the bacterium to inhabit a niche, which is based on the expression of colonization factors. Escherichia coli carries a broad range of virulence-associated genes (VAGs) which contribute to intestinal (inVAGs) and extraintestinal (exVAGs) infection. Moreover, initial evidence indicates that inVAGs and exVAGs support intestinal colonization.

Tired and apprehensive: anxiety amplifies the impact of sleep loss on aversive brain anticipation.

Anticipation is an adaptive process, aiding preparatory responses to potentially threatening events. However, excessive anticipatory responding and associated hyper-reactivity in the amygdala and insula are integral to anxiety disorders. Despite the co-occurrence of sleep disruption and anxiety disorders, the impact of sleep loss on affective anticipatory brain mechanisms, and the interaction with anxiety, remains unknown.

Uncertainty and anticipation in anxiety: an integrated neurobiological and psychological perspective.

Uncertainty about a possible future threat disrupts our ability to avoid it or to mitigate its negative impact and thus results in anxiety. Here, we focus the broad literature on the neurobiology of anxiety through the lens of uncertainty. We identify five processes that are essential for adaptive anticipatory responses to future threat uncertainty and propose that alterations in the neural instantiation of these processes result in maladaptive responses to uncertainty in pathological anxiety.

Symmetry breaking in self-assembled M4L6 cage complexes.

Here we describe the phenomenon of symmetry breaking within a series of M4L6 container molecules. These containers were synthesized using planar rigid bis-bidentate ligands based on 2,6-substituted naphthalene, anthracene, or anthraquinone spacers and Fe(II) ions. The planarity of the ligand spacer favors a stereochemical configuration in which each cage contains two metal centers of opposite handedness to the other two, which would ordinarily result in an S4-symmetric, achiral configuration.

Guest binding subtly influences spin crossover in an FeII₄L₄ capsule.

How much should we switch? Two FeII₄L₄ tetrahedral capsules were shown to undergo thermally induced spin crossover (SCO). Guest binding to one of these capsules was observed to affect the thermodynamics of its SCO in solution, leading to different spin transition temperatures between the empty host (blue) and the host-guest complex (red). HS: high spin; LS: low spin.

Generation of a dynamic system of three-dimensional tetrahedral polycatenanes.

: A dynamic combinatorial library of polycatenated tetrahedra was prepared by complexation between a dynamic FeL tetrahedral cage, constructed from ligands containing an electron‐deficient naphthalenediimide core, and an electron‐rich aromatic crown ether, 1,5‐dinaphtho[38]crown‐10. The highest order species in the library is the tetrahedral [7]catenane.[Image: see text]

Quantitative understanding of guest binding enables the design of complex host-guest behavior.

We report a detailed binding study addressing both the thermodynamics and kinetics of binding of a large set of guest molecules with widely varying properties to a water-soluble M4L6 metal-organic host. The effects of different guest properties upon the binding strength and kinetics were elucidated by a systematic analysis of the binding data through principal component analysis, thus allowing structure-property relationships to be determined. These insights enabled us to design more complex encapsulation sequences in which multiple guests that were added simultaneously were bound and released by the host in a time-dependent manner, thus allowing multiple states of the system to be accessed sequentially.

Chain-reaction anion exchange between metal-organic cages.

Differential binding affinities for a set of anions were observed between larger (1) and smaller (2) tetrahedral metal-organic capsules in solution. A chemical network could thus be designed wherein the addition of hexafluorophosphate could cause perchlorate to shift from capsule 2 to capsule 1 and triflimide to be ejected from capsule 1 into solution.

Association between brain structure and phenotypic characteristics in pedophilia.

Studies applying structural neuroimaging to pedophiles are scarce and have shown conflicting results. Although first findings suggested reduced volume of the amygdala, pronounced gray matter decreases in frontal regions were observed in another group of pedophilic offenders. When compared to non-sexual offenders instead of community controls, pedophiles revealed deficiencies in white matter only.

Implementation of a national reference laboratory for Buruli ulcer disease in Togo.

Background: In a previous study PCR analysis of clinical samples from suspected cases of Buruli ulcer disease (BUD) from Togo and external quality assurance (EQA) for local microscopy were conducted at an external reference laboratory in Germany. The relatively poor performance of local microscopy as well as effort and time associated with shipment of PCR samples necessitated the implementation of stringent EQA measures and availability of local laboratory capacity. This study describes the approach to implementation of a national BUD reference laboratory in Togo.

Size-selective encapsulation of hydrophobic guests by self-assembled M4L6 cobalt and nickel cages.

Subtle differences in metal-ligand bond lengths between a series of [M(4)L(6)](4-) tetrahedral cages, where M = Fe(II), Co(II), or Ni(II), were observed to result in substantial differences in affinity for hydrophobic guests in water. Changing the metal ion from iron(II) to cobalt(II) or nickel(II) increases the size of the interior cavity of the cage and allows encapsulation of larger guest molecules. NMR spectroscopy was used to study the recognition properties of the iron(II) and cobalt(II) cages towards small hydrophobic guests in water, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction was used to study the solid-state complexes of the iron(II) and nickel(II) cages.

Five discrete multinuclear metal-organic assemblies from one ligand: deciphering the effects of different templates.

A rigid organic ligand, formed through the subcomponent self-assembly of p-toluidine and 6,6'-diformyl-3,3'-bipyridine, was employed in a systematic investigation into the synergistic and competing effects of metal and anion templation. A range of discrete and polymeric metal-organic complexes were formed, many of which represent structure types that have not previously been observed and whose formation would not be predicted on taking into account solely geometric considerations. These complex structures, capable of binding multiple guests within individual binding pockets, were characterized by NMR, ESI-MS, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

Metal-organic container molecules through subcomponent self-assembly.

A variety of different three-dimensional metal-organic container molecules have recently been prepared using subcomponent self-assembly, which relies upon metal template effects to generate complex structures from simple molecular precursors and metal salts. Many of these structures have well defined internal pockets, allowing guest species to be bound and the chemical reactivity of these guests to be modified. Such host molecules have potential applications ranging from the protection of sensitive chemical species to the separation and purification of substrates as diverse as gases, gold compounds, and fullerenes.

Sexual sadism: current diagnostic vagueness and the benefit of behavioral definitions.

The phenomenon of sexual sadism was first scientifically described by Richard von Krafft-Ebing in 1999 as a sexual preference disorder that focuses on the infliction of suffering, pain, or humiliation to achieve sexual gratification. The present article reviews the historical development of the term sexual sadism, including the current descriptive nosology of psychiatric classification. Despite clear definitions that specify the sexual objects, duration, and distress necessary for a disorder, evidence for the diagnostic reliability for sexual sadism in the forensic domain is mixed.

Upsampling to 400-ms resolution for assessing effective connectivity in functional magnetic resonance imaging data with Granger causality.

Granger causality analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal data allows one to infer the direction and magnitude of influence that brain regions exert on one another. We employed a method for upsampling the time resolution of fMRI data that does not require additional interpolation beyond the interpolation that is regularly used for slice-timing correction. The mathematics for this new method are provided, and simulations demonstrate its viability.

Aqueous self-assembly of an electroluminescent double-helical metallopolymer.

A new type of water-soluble copper-containing polymer has been synthesized using the technique of subcomponent self-assembly. Copper(I)-directed imine bond formation between triethylene glycol functionalized 1,2-phenylenediamine and 2,9-diformylphenanthroline subcomponents resulted in the formation of a chain in which two conjugated helical ligand strands wrap around a linear array of metal ions. Characterization data from a variety of analytical methods are consistent with our formulation of this material.