TY - JOUR A1 - Prestel, Andreas A1 - Möller, Heiko Michael T1 - Spatio-temporal control of cellular uptake achieved by photoswitchable cell-penetrating peptides JF - Chemical communications : ChemComm N2 - The selective uptake of compounds into specific cells of interest is a major objective in cell biology and drug delivery. By incorporation of a novel, thermostable azobenzene moiety we generated peptides that can be switched optically between an inactive state and an active, cell-penetrating state with excellent spatio-temporal control. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C5CC06848G SN - 1364-548X IS - 52 SP - 701 EP - 704 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klier, Dennis Tobias A1 - Kumke, Michael Uwe T1 - Analysing the effect of the crystal structure on upconversion luminescence in Yb3+,Er3+-co-doped NaYF4 nanomaterials JF - Journal of materials chemistry C ; Materials for optical and electronic devices N2 - NaYF4:Yb:Er nanoparticles (UCNP) were synthesized under mild experimental conditions to obtain a pure cubic lattice. Upon annealing at different temperatures up to Tan = 700 °C phase transitions to the hexagonal phase and back to the cubic phase were induced. The UCNP materials obtained for different Tan were characterized with respect to the lattice phase using standard XRD and Raman spectroscopy as well as steady state and time resolved upconversion luminescence. The standard techniques showed that for the annealing temperature range 300 °C < Tan < 600 °C the hexagonal lattice phase was dominant. For Tan < 300 °C hardly any change in the lattice phase could be deduced, whereas for Tan > 600 °C a back transfer to the α-phase was observed. Complementarily, the luminescence upconversion properties of the annealed UCNP materials were characterized in steady state and time resolved luminescence measurements. Distinct differences in the upconversion luminescence intensity, the spectral intensity distribution and the luminescence decay kinetics were found for the cubic and hexagonal lattice phases, respectively, corroborating the results of the standard analytical techniques used. In laser power dependent measurements of the upconversion luminescence intensity it was found that the green (G1, G2) and red (R) emission of Er3+ showed different effects of Tan on the number of required photons reflecting the differences in the population routes of different energy levels involved. Furthermore, the intensity ratio of Gfull/R is highly effected by the laser power only when the β-phase is present, whereas the G1/G2 intensity ratio is only slightly effected regardless of the crystal phase. Moreover, based on different upconversion luminescence kinetics characteristics of the cubic and hexagonal phase time-resolved area normalized emission spectra (TRANES) proved to be a very sensitive tool to monitor the phase transition between cubic and hexagonal phases. Based on the TRANES analysis it was possible to resolve the lattice phase transition in more detail for 200 °C < Tan < 300 °C, which was not possible with the standard techniques. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C5TC02218E SN - 2050-7526 SN - 2050-7534 IS - 3 SP - 11228 EP - 11238 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klier, Dennis Tobias A1 - Kumke, Michael Uwe T1 - Upconversion NaYF4:Yb:Er nanoparticles co-doped with Gd3+ and Nd3+ for thermometry on the nanoscale JF - RSC Advances : an international journal to further the chemical sciences N2 - In the present work, the upconversion luminescence properties of oleic acid capped NaYF4:Gd3+:Yb3+:Er3+ upconversion nanoparticles (UCNP) with pure β crystal phase and Nd3+ ions as an additional sensitizer were studied in the temperature range of 288 K < T < 328 K. The results of this study showed that the complex interplay of different mechanisms and effects, causing the special temperature behavior of the UCNP can be developed into thermometry on the nanoscale, e.g. to be applied in biological systems on a cellular level. The performance was improved by the use of Nd3+ as an additional dopant utilizing the cascade sensitization mechanism in tri-doped UCNP. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C5RA11502G SN - 2046-2069 IS - 5 SP - 67149 EP - 67156 PB - RSC Publishing CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - de Carvalho, Sidney J. A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. T1 - Inverted critical adsorption of polyelectrolytes in confinement JF - Soft matter N2 - What are the fundamental laws for the adsorption of charged polymers onto oppositely charged surfaces, for convex, planar, and concave geometries? This question is at the heart of surface coating applications, various complex formation phenomena, as well as in the context of cellular and viral biophysics. It has been a long-standing challenge in theoretical polymer physics; for realistic systems the quantitative understanding is however often achievable only by computer simulations. In this study, we present the findings of such extensive Monte-Carlo in silico experiments for polymer–surface adsorption in confined domains. We study the inverted critical adsorption of finite-length polyelectrolytes in three fundamental geometries: planar slit, cylindrical pore, and spherical cavity. The scaling relations extracted from simulations for the critical surface charge density sc—defining the adsorption–desorption transition—are in excellent agreement with our analytical calculations based on the ground-state analysis of the Edwards equation. In particular, we confirm the magnitude and scaling of sc for the concave interfaces versus the Debye screening length 1/k and the extent of confinement a for these three interfaces for small ka values. For large ka the critical adsorption condition approaches the known planar limit. The transition between the two regimes takes place when the radius of surface curvature or half of the slit thickness a is of the order of 1/k. We also rationalize how sc(k) dependence gets modified for semi-flexible versus flexible chains under external confinement. We examine the implications of the chain length for critical adsorption—the effect often hard to tackle theoretically—putting an emphasis on polymers inside attractive spherical cavities. The applications of our findings to some biological systems are discussed, for instance the adsorption of nucleic acids onto the inner surfaces of cylindrical and spherical viral capsids. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C5SM00635J SN - 1744-6848 SN - 1744-683X IS - 11 SP - 4430 EP - 4443 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hentrich, Doreen A1 - Junginger, Mathias A1 - Bruns, Michael A1 - Börner, Hans Gerhard A1 - Brandt, Jessica A1 - Brezesinski, Gerald A1 - Taubert, Andreas T1 - Interface-controlled calcium phosphate mineralization BT - effect of oligo(aspartic acid)-rich interfaces JF - CrystEngComm N2 - The phase behavior of an amphiphilic block copolymer based on a poly(aspartic acid) hydrophilic block and a poly(n-butyl acrylate) hydrophobic block was investigated at the air–water and air–buffer interface. The polymer forms stable monomolecular films on both subphases. At low pH, the isotherms exhibit a plateau. Compression–expansion experiments and infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy suggest that the plateau is likely due to the formation of polymer bi- or multilayers. At high pH the films remain intact upon compression and no multilayer formation is observed. Furthermore, the mineralization of calcium phosphate beneath the monolayer was studied at different pH. The pH of the subphase and thus the polymer charge strongly affects the phase behavior of the film and the mineral formation. After 4 h of mineralization at low pH, atomic force microscopy shows smooth mineral films with a low roughness. With increasing pH the mineral films become inhomogeneous and the roughness increases. Transmission electron microscopy confirms this: at low pH a few small but uniform particles form whereas particles grown at higher pH are larger and highly agglomerated. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirm the formation of calcium phosphate. The levels of mineralization are higher in samples grown at high pH. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C4CE02274B SN - 1466-8033 IS - 17 SP - 6901 EP - 6913 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jann, Werner A1 - Reichard, Christoph ED - Wollmann, Hellmut T1 - Best practice in central government modernization BT - in memoriam Frieder Naschold 1940 - 1999 JF - RIEP : Revista internacional de estudos politicos JF - International journal of political studies Y1 - 2001 SN - 1516-5973 VL - 2001 IS - Special 9 SP - 93 EP - 111 PB - NUSEG CY - Rio de Janeiro ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Banerjee, Shiladitya A1 - Stüker, Tony A1 - Saalfrank, Peter T1 - Vibrationally resolved optical spectra of modified diamondoids obtained from time-dependent correlation function methods JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : PCCP ; a journal of European chemical societies N2 - Optical properties of modified diamondoids have been studied theoretically using vibrationally resolved electronic absorption, emission and resonance Raman spectra. A time-dependent correlation function approach has been used for electronic two-state models, comprising a ground state (g) and a bright, excited state (e), the latter determined from linear-response, time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). The harmonic and Condon approximations were adopted. In most cases origin shifts, frequency alteration and Duschinsky rotation in excited states were considered. For other cases where no excited state geometry optimization and normal mode analysis were possible or desired, a short-time approximation was used. The optical properties and spectra have been computed for (i) a set of recently synthesized sp2/sp3 hybrid species with C[double bond, length as m-dash]C double-bond connected saturated diamondoid subunits, (ii) functionalized (mostly by thiol or thione groups) diamondoids and (iii) urotropine and other C-substituted diamondoids. The ultimate goal is to tailor optical and electronic features of diamondoids by electronic blending, functionalization and substitution, based on a molecular-level understanding of the ongoing photophysics. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C5CP02615F SN - 1463-9084 SN - 1463-9076 VL - 17 IS - 29 SP - 19656 EP - 19669 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Kliegl, Reinhold T1 - The eye-voice span during reading aloud JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Although eye movements during reading are modulated by cognitive processing demands, they also reflect visual sampling of the input, and possibly preparation of output for speech or the inner voice. By simultaneously recording eye movements and the voice during reading aloud, we obtained an output measure that constrains the length of time spent on cognitive processing. Here we investigate the dynamics of the eye-voice span (EVS), the distance between eye and voice. We show that the EVS is regulated immediately during fixation of a word by either increasing fixation duration or programming a regressive eye movement against the reading direction. EVS size at the beginning of a fixation was positively correlated with the likelihood of regressions and refixations. Regression probability was further increased if the EVS was still large at the end of a fixation: if adjustment of fixation duration did not sufficiently reduce the EVS during a fixation, then a regression rather than a refixation followed with high probability. We further show that the EVS can help understand cognitive influences on fixation duration during reading: in mixed model analyses, the EVS was a stronger predictor of fixation durations than either word frequency or word length. The EVS modulated the influence of several other predictors on single fixation durations (SFDs). For example, word-N frequency effects were larger with a large EVS, especially when word N-1 frequency was low. Finally, a comparison of SFDs during oral and silent reading showed that reading is governed by similar principles in both reading modes, although EVS maintenance and articulatory processing also cause some differences. In summary, the EVS is regulated by adjusting fixation duration and/or by programming a regressive eye movement when the EVS gets too large. Overall, the EVS appears to be directly related to updating of the working memory buffer during reading. KW - reading KW - eye movements KW - eye-voice span KW - synchronization KW - working memory updating KW - psychologinguistics Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01432 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 6 IS - 1432 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lamanna, Francesco A1 - Kirschbaum, Frank A1 - Waurick, Isabelle A1 - Dieterich, Christoph A1 - Tiedemann, Ralph T1 - Cross-tissue and cross-species analysis of gene expression in skeletal muscle and electric organ of African weakly-electric fish (Teleostei; Mormyridae) JF - BMC Genomics N2 - Background African weakly-electric fishes of the family Mormyridae are able to produce and perceive weak electric signals (typically less than one volt in amplitude) owing to the presence of a specialized, muscle-derived electric organ (EO) in their tail region. Such electric signals, also known as Electric Organ Discharges (EODs), are used for objects/prey localization, for the identification of conspecifics, and in social and reproductive behaviour. This feature might have promoted the adaptive radiation of this family by acting as an effective pre-zygotic isolation mechanism. Despite the physiological and evolutionary importance of this trait, the investigation of the genetic basis of its function and modification has so far remained limited. In this study, we aim at: i) identifying constitutive differences in terms of gene expression between electric organ and skeletal muscle (SM) in two mormyrid species of the genus Campylomormyrus: C. compressirostris and C. tshokwe, and ii) exploring cross-specific patterns of gene expression within the two tissues among C. compressirostris, C. tshokwe, and the outgroup species Gnathonemus petersii. Results Twelve paired-end (100 bp) strand-specific RNA-seq Illumina libraries were sequenced, producing circa 330 M quality-filtered short read pairs. The obtained reads were assembled de novo into four reference transcriptomes. In silico cross-tissue DE-analysis allowed us to identify 271 shared differentially expressed genes between EO and SM in C. compressirostris and C.tshokwe. Many of these genes correspond to myogenic factors, ion channels and pumps, and genes involved in several metabolic pathways. Cross-species analysis has revealed that the electric organ transcriptome is more variable in terms of gene expression levels across species than the skeletal muscle transcriptome. Conclusions The data obtained indicate that: i) the loss of contractile activity and the decoupling of the excitation-contraction processes are reflected by the down-regulation of the corresponding genes in the electric organ’s transcriptome; ii) the metabolic activity of the EO might be specialized towards the production and turn-over of membrane structures; iii) several ion channels are highly expressed in the EO in order to increase excitability; iv) several myogenic factors might be down-regulated by transcription repressors in the EO. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-015-1858-9 SN - 1471-2164 VL - 16 IS - 668 PB - Biomed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pulkkinen, Otto A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Variance-corrected Michaelis-Menten equation predicts transient rates of single-enzyme reactions and response times in bacterial gene-regulation JF - Scientific reports N2 - Many chemical reactions in biological cells occur at very low concentrations of constituent molecules. Thus, transcriptional gene-regulation is often controlled by poorly expressed transcription-factors, such as E.coli lac repressor with few tens of copies. Here we study the effects of inherent concentration fluctuations of substrate-molecules on the seminal Michaelis-Menten scheme of biochemical reactions. We present a universal correction to the Michaelis-Menten equation for the reaction-rates. The relevance and validity of this correction for enzymatic reactions and intracellular gene-regulation is demonstrated. Our analytical theory and simulation results confirm that the proposed variance-corrected Michaelis-Menten equation predicts the rate of reactions with remarkable accuracy even in the presence of large non-equilibrium concentration fluctuations. The major advantage of our approach is that it involves only the mean and variance of the substrate-molecule concentration. Our theory is therefore accessible to experiments and not specific to the exact source of the concentration fluctuations. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/srep17820 SN - 2045-2322 IS - 5 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER -