Biomolecular solid-state NMR spectroscopy at 1200 MHz: the gain in resolution.

Progress in NMR in general and in biomolecular applications in particular is driven by increasing magnetic-field strengths leading to improved resolution and sensitivity of the NMR spectra. Recently, persistent superconducting magnets at a magnetic field strength (magnetic induction) of 28.2 T corresponding to 1200 MHz proton resonance frequency became commercially available.

Fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy of a fluorescent bent-core liquid crystal exhibiting polarization splay modulated (B7) structures and defects.

The B7 phases of bent-core molecules are polarization splay modulated fluid smectics that exhibit an unusually complex variety of exotic macroscopic structures, textures, and defects visible in polarized light microscopy. Herein we describe optical studies of these structures using fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy (FCPM) and depolarized transmission optical microscopy to probe their organization in three dimensions. These experiments utilize recently reported fluorescent bent-core molecules designed to give strong polarized fluorescence.

Organization of the polarization splay modulated smectic liquid crystal phase by topographic confinement.

Recently, the topographic patterning of surfaces by lithography and nanoimprinting has emerged as a new and powerful tool for producing single structural domains of liquid crystals and other soft materials. Here the use of surface topography is extended to the organization of liquid crystals of bent-core molecules, soft materials that, on the one hand, exhibit a rich, exciting, and intensely studied array of novel phases, but that, on the other hand, have proved very difficult to align. Among the most notorious in this regard are the polarization splay modulated (B7) phases, in which the symmetry-required preference for ferroelectric polarization to be locally bouquet-like or "splayed" is expressed.

Rosiglitazone reduces the development and rupture of experimental aortic aneurysms.

Background: Development and rupture of aortic aneurysms involve a combination of complex biological processes. Rosiglitazone, a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma agonist, has been shown to have a broad spectrum of effects in vivo. The hypothesis that rosiglitazone would reduce aneurysm expansion or rupture was tested in the angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced hypercholesterolemic mouse model.