A novel hydroperoxyl substituted cembranolide diterpene from marine soft coral Lobophytum crassum

A new cembranolide diterpene with a hydroperoxyl substitution was isolated from the marine soft coral Lobophytum crassum. The structure was elucidated on the basis of chemical and spectral methods.

Haematopoietic lineage cell-specific protein 1 (HS1) promotes actin-related protein (Arp) 2/3 complex-mediated actin polymerization

HS1 (haematopoietic lineage cell-specific gene protein 1), a prominent substrate of intracellular protein tyrosine kinases in haematopoietic cells, is implicated in the immune response to extracellular stimuli and in cell differentiation induced by cytokines. Although HS1 contains a 37-amino acid tandem repeat motif and a C-terminal Src homology 3 domain and is closely related to the cortical-actin-associated protein cortactin, it lacks the fourth repeat that has been shown to be essential for cortactin binding to filamentous actin (F-actin). In this study, we examined the possible role of HS1 in the regulation of the actin cytoskeleton. Immunofluorescent staining demonstrated that HS1 co-localizes in the cytoplasm of cells with actin-related protein (Arp) 2/3 complex, the primary component of the cellular machinery responsible for de novo actin assembly. Furthermore, recombinant HS1 binds directly to Arp2/3 complex with an equilibrium dissociation constant (K-d) of 880 nM. Although HS1 is a modest F-actin-binding protein with a Kd of 400 nM, it increases the rate of the actin assembly mediated by Arp2/3 complex, and promotes the formation of branched actin filaments induced by Arp2/3 complex and a constitutively activated peptide of N-WASP (neural Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein). Our data suggest that HS1, like cortactin, plays an important role in the modulation of actin assembly.

Numerical modeling of water wave interaction with a soft mud bed

A vertical 2-D numerical model is presented for simulating the interaction between water waves and a soft mud bed. Taking into account nonlinear rheology, a semi-empirical rheological model is applied to this water-mud model, reflecting the combined visco-elasto-plastic properties of soft mud under such oscillatory external forces as water waves. In order to increase the resolution of the flow in the neighborhood of both sides of the inter-surface, a logarithmic grid in the vertical direction is employed for numerical treatment. Model verifications are given through comparisons between the calculated and the measured mud mass transport velocities as well as wave height changes.

基于软粘土微观特性的非线性固结理论研究

The land subsidence of soft clay is including natural and man-made content, which leads to the research on the mechanism of land subsidence constituted by two different aspects, which are studied by geological engineers and geologist. The main major research is focused on the effects of engineering. The land subsidence engineering of soil mechanics is caused by the consolidation and compression of soft clay, the content of which is including the micro-structural characteristics, the stress - strain constitutive relation, porous law, and consolidation theory. In this paper, it is discussed the nonlinear consolidation and compression theory of soft clay. The main studies and conclusions of this thesis are as follows. （1）The micro-structure and its stability are closely related to the engineering characters of soft clay. The stiffness and force connection status of micro-structure plays a controlling influence to its stability. （2）Under saturated state, clay particles remain in a non-full contact or non-contact status, so it is needed to modify the Terzaghi effective stress principle. With the discharge of pore water, the effective stress is increasing, and part of weakly bound-water begins flow, while the porosity and permeability are became lower. （3）It exist non-linear flow in soft clay, which is caused by the shear flow situation of weakly bounded-water. In this case, permeability coefficient is a nonlinear function of hydraulic gradient. （4）In the initial consolidation stage of soft clay in the initial stage, the porous flow is mainly caused by the excretion of free water. With the decrease of free water content, combined bonded-water start to supply free water. At the later stage of consolidation, the flow of fluid is mainly consisted by weakly bounded-water. The exchange between bonded-water and free water is played a role, which slows down the consolidation process.

Isospecific polymerization of styrene with modified ziegler-type catalysts

Effects of various kinds of additives as well as aging of the catalyst on the polymerization of styrene catalyzed by TiCl4/MgCl2-AlEt3 system have been studied. Experiments show that in toluene the isotacticity of polystyrene can be up to 83% for aged catalyst, whereas when the catalyst is not aged. non-stereospecific polymer is the main product. When PCl3 is used as an additive, the catalyst system gives high activity and isotacticity. The use of a mixture of AlEt3/H2O (1: 1 mole ratio) as a cocatalyst is also efficient. The catalyst [TiCl4-PCl3/MgCl2-AlEt3/H2O] displays high activity and product isotacticity (94%) with an average molecular weight up to 2 X 10(-6). When Co(acac)(3) is added to to [TiCl4/MgCl2-AlEt3] catalyst after it was aged, the isotacticity can be up to 97%. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.