Despite frequent renal impairment, advanced neurological disorders and severe respiratory failure, short-term outcome was better than expected when compared with previous reports. Within the limitations of a retrospective registry analysis, our data do not support the notion of a short-term benefit of Ecu in comparison to TPE alone in the treatment of STEC-HUS. A randomized trial comparing BSC, TPE and Ecu seems to be prudent and necessary prior to establishing new treatment guidelines for STEC-HUS.

High–valent copper nitrene intermediates have long been proposed to play a role in copper catalyzed aziridination and amination reactions. However, such intermediates have eluded detection for decades, which prevents the unambiguous assignments of mechanisms. Moreover, the electronic structure of the proposed copper–nitrene intermediates has also been controversially discussed in the literature. These mechanistic questions and controversy have provided tremendous motivation for probing the accessibility and reactivity of CuIII–NR/CuIIN•R species. In this paper we report a breakthrough in this field by trapping a transient copper–tosylnitrene species 3–Sc in presence of scandium triflate. Sufficient stability of 3–Sc at −90 °C enabled its characterization with optical, resonance Raman, nuclear magnetic resonance, and x–ray absorption near edge (XANES) spectroscopies, which helped to establish its electronic structure as CuIIN•Ts (Ts = tosyl group) and not CuIIINTs. 3–Sc can initiate tosyl–amination of cyclohexane, thereby suggesting CuIIN•Ts cores as viable reactants in oxidation catalysis.

Channelrhodopsins (ChR) are light-gated ion channels of green algae that are widely used to probe the function of neuronal cells with light. Most ChRs show a substantial reduction in photocurrents during illumination, a process named "light adaptation". The main objective of this spectroscopic study was to elucidate the molecular processes associated with light-dark adaptation. Here we show by liquid and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy that the retinal chromophore of fully dark-adapted ChR is exclusively in an all-trans configuration. Resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopy, however, revealed that already low light intensities establish a photostationary equilibrium between all-trans,15-anti and 13-cis,15-syn configurations at a ratio of 3:1. The underlying photoreactions involve simultaneous isomerization of the C(13)═C(14) and C(15)═N bonds. Both isomers of this DAapp state may run through photoinduced reaction cycles initiated by photoisomerization of only the C(13)═C(14) bond. RR spectroscopic experiments further demonstrated that photoinduced conversion of the apparent dark-adapted (DAapp) state to the photocycle intermediates P500 and P390 is distinctly more efficient for the all-trans isomer than for the 13-cis isomer, possibly because of different chromophore-water interactions. Our data demonstrating two complementary photocycles of the DAapp isomers are fully consistent with the existence of two conducting states that vary in quantitative relation during light-dark adaptation, as suggested previously by electrical measurements.

Insights in active sites: Hydrogen‐conversion by hydrogenase is mediated by a sophisticated, metal‐containing catalytic center. Resonance Raman spectroscopy is used for the first time in the characterization of the active site of these biocatalysts. An integrated spectroscopic and computational approach gives insights into structural and photochemical properties of the active site of an oxygen‐tolerant [NiFe] hydrogenase.

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