A parallel bundle of transmembrane (TM) alpha-helices surrounding a central pore is present in several classes of ion channel, including the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). We have modeled...Full Text Available
AbstractStudies performed to identify early events of ovarian cancer and to establish molecular markers to support early detection and development of chemopreventive regimens have been...Full Text Available
We develop a theory of Smectic A - Smectic C phase transition with anomalously weak smectic layer contraction. We construct a phenomenological description of this transition by generalizing the Chen-Lubensky model. Using a mean-field molecularmodel, we demonstrate that a relatively simple interaction potential suffices to describe the transition. The theoretical results are in excellent agreement with experimental data.
Advances in molecular technologies challenge the different concepts of causality in biology, epidemiology and multistage mathematical models. The lack of integration of the different aspects of causality...Full Text Available
Transgenic mouse models have contributed considerably to our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which androgens control spermatogenesis. Cell-selective ablation of the androgen...Full Text Available
Predicted by stochastic models and observed experimentally in a number of isomerization reactions, viscosity-induced solvent effects manifest themselves in a significant departure of the reaction rates from the values expected on the basis of transition state theory. These effects are well understood within the framework of stochastic models; however, the predictive power of such models is limited by the fact that their parameters are not readily available. Experiment and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can provide such information and can serve as the testing grounds for various stochastic models. In real solvents, a change in viscosity is inevitably associated with variation of at least one of the three factors - temperature, pressure, or solvent identity, resulting in different solv...
Molecular imaging represents a modern research area that allows the in vivo study of molecular biological process kinetics using appropriate probes and visualization methods. This methodology may be defined- apart from the contrast media injection - as non-abrasive. In order to reach an in vivo molecular process imaging as accurate as possible the effects of the used probes on the biological should not be too large. The contrast media as important part of the molecular imaging can significantly contribute to the understanding of molecular processes and to the development of tailored diagnostics and therapy. Since more than 15 years PTB is developing optic imaging systems that may be used for fluorescence based visualization of tissue phantoms, small animal models and the localization of tumors and their predecessors, and for the early recognition of inflammatory ...
We investigate the radiative decays of the {phi}-meson to the scalar mesons a{sub 0}(980) and f{sub 0}(980). We demonstrate that, contrary to earlier claims, these decays should be of the same order of magnitude for a molecular state and for a compact state and, therefore, the available experimental information is consistent with both a molecular as well as a compact structure of the scalars. Thus, the radiative decays of the {phi}-meson into scalars establish a sizable K anti K component of the scalar mesons, but do not allow to discriminate between molecules and compact states. (orig.)
Abstract The electrochemical properties of a perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) membrane are estimated using a combination of molecular dynamics simulation and statistical thermodynamic model. We obtain all parameters in an ionic conductivity model from an atomistic simulation and remove all adjusted model parameters. From a microscopic point of view, the hydrated PFSA membrane shows micro-phase segregation which separated into hydrophilic and hydrophobic phases. Our present work originates with this phenomenon and we treat this phase segregation as if it is a continuous phase for each of which the proton (H+) is transported inside the PFSA membrane/solvent (water and alcohols) mixture. The chemical potential for a given system is estimated using a molecular simulation technique to predict the ...
Abstract Localized regions of enhanced emission from HCO+, NH3 and other species near Herbig-Haro objects (HHOs) have been interpreted as arising in a photochemistry stimulated by the HHO radiation on high-density quiescent clumps in molecular clouds. Static models of this process have been successful in accounting for the variety of molecular species arising ahead of the jet; however, recent observations show that the enhanced molecular emission is widespread along the jet as well as ahead. Hence, a realistic model must take into account the movement of the radiation field past the clump. It was previously unclear as to whether the short interaction time between the clump and the HHO in a moving source model would allow molecules such as HCO+ to reach high enough levels, and to survive fo...
Some aspects of molecular mechanisms common to radiation and chemical carcinogenesis are discussed, particularly the DNA damage done by these agents. Emphasis is placed on epidemiological considerations and on dose-response models used in risk assessment to extrapolate from experimental data obtained at high doses to the effects from long-term, low-level exposures. 3 references, 6 figures. (ACR)
We use a novel normal mode analysis of an elastic network model drawn from configurations generated during microsecond all-atom molecular dynamics simulations to analyze the mechanism of auto-inhibition...Full Text Available
A statistical treatment has been applied to interpret the experimental data on the Xe M-shell vacancy production in slow 1.05 MeV Xe-Xe collisions and is shown to give better agreement with experiment than that of the molecular-orbital models.
BackgroundThe zebrafish is recognized as a versatile cancer and drug screening model. However, it is not known whether the estrogen-responsive genes and signaling pathways that are...Full Text Available
Molecular chaperones protect cells from the deleterious effects of protein misfolding and aggregation. Neurotoxicity of amyloid-beta (Aβ) aggregates and their deposition in senile plaques are...Full Text Available
BackgroundMolecular docking methods are commonly used for predicting binding modes and energies of ligands to proteins. For accurate complex geometry and binding energy estimation,...Full Text Available
Significant research has been devoted to predicting diagnosis, prognosis, and response to treatment using high-throughput assays. Rapid translation into clinical results hinges upon efficient access...Full Text Available
Several possibilities of the use of molecularmodels in quantum-chemical investigations of the structure of defect centers on the surfaces of oxides on nontransition elements have been illustrated. There has been a special discussion of the assumption of the local nature of the chemical interactions in these systems, which underlies such an approach, and of the consequent laws governing the formation of their lattices in the example cases of zeolites, kaolinites, and comparable boron- and aluminum-containing oxides. A quantum-chemical interpretation of the body of experimental data from investigations of the dehydroxylation of H forms of zeolites has been given. The structure of the Lewis acid centers formed as a result, and their chemisorption properties, have been discussed.
By comparison of standard entropies theoretically calculated and determined from gas-chromatographic data for 40 halo-aliphatic and halo-aromatic compounds 8 organic iodine compounds among them, adsorbed on graphitized thermal carbon black it was found that in all the cases the molecularmodel of ideal two-dimensional gas is a sufficiently good approximation. It was shown that for a number of systems the agreement can be improved if the vibrations of the center of molecular mass relative to the surface are taken into account
This paper shows how molecular theory paves the way for accelerated aging tests of safety-related equipment in nuclear power plants, as required by NRC qualification programs. Arrhenius' model, based on an equation, provides useful information regarding the extent of molecular change as a function of time and temperature. Critical to determining the aging characteristics and qualified life of organic materials is the activation energy concept, which is derived from information gathered when the molecular reaction of the material is documented over the entire life cycle. In accelerated-aging applications, the importance of the model lies in characterizing the chemical related reactions of materials. The problem with the Arrhenius approach is that, in generating a testing period of reasonable duration, a rather high test temperature must be selected which may lead to an added and ...
In mammals and insects, paracellular blood barriers isolate the nervous system from the rest of the animal. Glia and accessory cells of the nervous system use pumps, channels, cotransporters, and exchangers collectively to maintain the extracellular ion environment and osmotic balance in the nervous system. At present, the molecular mechanisms that regulate this process remain unclear. In humans, loss of extracellular ion and volume regulation in the nervous system poses serious health threats. Drosophila is a model genetic organism with a proven track record for uncovering molecular mechanisms relevant to human health and disease. Here, we review what is known about extracellular ion and volume regulation in larval abdominal nerves, present some new data about the impact of neural activity on the extracellular environment, and relate the findings to mammalian systems. Homologies have been found at the level of morphology, ...
substrate). Within each group of simulations, three lubricant film thicknesses are studied to examine the effect of varying lubricant thickness. Statistical data are collected from each simulation and presented in this work. Via these data, together with the evolution, of atomic and molecular configurations, a very detailed picture of the properties of this thin film interface is presented. In particular, we conclude that perfluoropolyether lubricant forms distinct molecular layers when confined between two substrates, the rate of heat generation under shearing conditions typical of those in a head-disk interface is insufficient for thermal mechanisms to result directly in lubricant degradation, and mechanical stresses attained in the head-disk interface are unlikely to result in any significant degree of lubricant degradation. This thesis examines the tribology of a head-disk interface in an operating hard disk drive via non-equilibrium ...
The antisymmetric many-body trial state which describes a system of interacting fermions is parametrized in terms of localized wave packets. The equations of motion are derived from the time-dependent quantum variational principle. The resulting fermionic molecular dynamics (FMD) equations include a wide range of semi-quantal to classical physics extending from deformed Hartree-Fock theory to newtonian molecular dynamics. Conservation laws are discussed in connection with the choice of the trial state. The model is applied to heavy-ion collisions with which its basic features are illustrated. The results show a great variety of phenomena including deeply inelastic collisions, fusion, incomplete fusion, fragmentation, neck emission, promptly emitted nucleons and evaporation. ((orig.)).
A formalism for the dynamical treatment of the molecular orbitals of valence nucleons in nucleus-nucleus collisions is developed with the use of the coupled-reaction-channel (CRC) method. The Coriolis coupling effects as well as the finite mass effects of the nucleon are taken into account in this model, of rotating molecular orbitals, RMO. First, the validity of the concept is examined from the viewpoint of the multi-step processes in a standard CRC calculation for systems containing two identical [core] nuclei. The calculations show strong CRC effects particularly in the case where the mixing of different l-parity orbitals - called hybridization in atomic physics - occurs. Then, the RMO representation for active nucleons is applied to the same systems and compared to the CRC results. Its validity is investigated with respect to the radial motion (adiabaticity) and the rotation of the molecular axis ...
We study the evolution of the cold gas content of galaxies by splitting the interstellar medium into its atomic and molecular hydrogen components, using the galaxy formation model GALFORM in the LCDM framework. We calculate the molecular-to-atomic hydrogen mass ratio, H2/HI, in each galaxy using two different approaches; the pressure-based empirical relation of Blitz & Rosolowsky and the theoretical model of Krumholz, McKeee & Tumlinson, and apply them to consistently calculate the star formation rates of galaxies. We find that the model based on the Blitz & Rosolowsky law predicts an HI mass function, CO(1-0) luminosity function, correlations between the H2/HI ratio and stellar and cold gas mass, and infrared-CO luminosity relation in good agreement with local and high redshift observations. The HI mass function evolves weakly with redshift, with the number density of ...
Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on various metal, semiconductor or insulator substrates can be easily modified with specific functional groups of interest and have promising applications in surface wetting (hydrophobic/hydrophilic modification), tribology, corrosion protection, sensor electrodes modification, molecular and biomolecular recognition, protein adsorption, cell adhesion, and molecular- or organic-electronic device fabrications. In this paper, we highlight recent progress in the development of SAMs on solid substrates as well as their practical applications, with particular emphasis on the characterization of self-assembled aromatic thiol monolayers with different functional groups on Au(1 1 1) using synchrotron-based photoemission spectroscopy and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure measurements. The SAM-related molecular orientation, electronic structures, and chemical bonding are presented. Using ...
It is the intention of this paper to point to some of the problems due to molecular motion and to suggest a few solutions to those problems. A few examples will be presented of model systems which demonstrate the effects of motion on the NMR spectroscopy and a very qualitative example of severe spectral distortion in fulvic acids will be shown. In the following discussions we will use concepts derived from the oft repeated thermodynamic picture shown in figure 1. When dealing with a homogeneous, pure compound this picture is sufficient but in a heterogeneous mixture, it is likely that there will be different compounds and different domains all with slightly different versions of figure 1 with poor thermodynamic contact between them. Thus optimal conditions for cross polarization in one domain may be totally inappropriate for another. 59 refs., 10 figs.
Motivated by recent experiments on KIF1A, a representative member of single-headed kinesin motor proteins family, we develop a theoretical model of intra-cellular transport by mutually interacting molecular motors. The model explicitly accounts not only for the hydrolysis of ATP, but also for the ratchet mechanism which is believed to drive each individual KIF1A motor. We study the model by a combination of analytical and numerical techniques. A remarkable feature of this model is that all the parameters in it can be completely evaluated from experimental data. Our results in the dilute limit are in excellent quantitative agreement with the empirical data from single molecule experiments. In the high density regime the predictions of the model also agree qualitatively with the corresponding experimental observations. We derive a phase diagram that shows the ...
Proteins are polymers of amino acids. These macromolecules are synthesized by intracellular machines called {\\it ribosome}. Although, traditionally, the experimental investigation of protein synthesis has been an active area of research in molecular cell biology, important quantitative models of this phenomenon have been reported mostly in the research journals devoted to statistical physics and related interdisciplinary topics. From the perspective of a physicist, protein synthesis is a phenomenon of {\\it classical transport of interacting ribosomes on a messenger RNA (mRNA) template} that dictates the sequence of the amino acids on the protein. Here we bring this frontier area of contemporary research into the classroom by appropriate simplification of the models and methods. In particular, we develope a simple toy model and analyze it by some elementary techniques of non-equilibrium statistical ...
We present sensitive high angular resolution (0.''57-0.''78) SO, SO_2, CO, C_2H_5OH, HC_3N, and HCOCH_2OH line observations at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths of the young O-type protostar W51 North made with the Submillimeter Array. We report the presence of a large (about 8000 AU) and hot molecular circumstellar disk around this object, which connects the inner dusty disk with the molecular ring or toroid reported recently and confirms the existence of a single bipolar outflow emanating from this object. The molecular emission from the large disk is observed in layers with the transitions characterized by high excitation temperatures in their lower energy states (up to 1512 K) being concentrated closer to the central massive protostar. The molecular emission from those transitions with low or moderate excitation temperatures is found in the outermost parts of the disk and exhibits an inner ...
Radial distribution functions of liquid sodium and caesium at 100"0C have been calculated by the method of molecular dynamics with interionic pair potentials derived from Heine-Abarenkov-Shaw type model potential. The results were found to be in good agreement with recent experimental data. (Auth.).
With collaboration between chemistry, X-ray crystallography, and molecularmodeling, we designed and synthesized a series of novel piperazine sulfonamide BACE1 inhibitors. Iterative exploration of the non-prime side and S2prime sub-pocket of the enzyme culminated in identification of an analog that potently lowers peripheral Ab40 in transgenic mice with a single subcutaneous dose.
In order to better understand the molecular mechanisms of human hair growth control and to test hair growth-modulatory drugs, appropriate in vitro models are required. Here, we report the long-term...Full Text Available
Dynamical models are presented that start with interstellar gas in an initial diffuse state and consider their gravitational collapse and the formation of dense cores. Frozen-in tangled magnetic fields are included to mimic forces that might oppose gravitational contraction and whose effectiveness may increase with increasing core densities. Results suggest the possibility that dense cloud cores may be dynamically evolving ephemeral objects, such that their lifespan at a given core density decreases as that density increases. 66 refs.
Cordycepin has been shown to interfere with a myriad of molecular processes from RNA elongation to kinase activity, and prevents numerous inflammatory processes in animal models. Here we show in a mouse...Full Text Available
We review the development and application of kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to investigate defect and dopant diffusion in ion implanted silicon. In these type of Monte Carlo models, defects and dopants are treated at the atomic scale, and move according to reaction rates given as input principles. These input parameters can be obtained from first principles calculations and/or empirical molecular dynamics simulations, or can be extracted from fits to experimental data. Time and length scales differing several orders of magnitude can be followed with this method, allowing for direct comparison with experiments. The different approaches are explained and some results presented.
The primary objective is to perform a fundamental study of filtration of nanoparticles, and to obtain filtration knowledge necessary to design particle collection devices/systems for nanoparticle processing and for preventing nanoparticle emissions into the environment. The research covered a wide area relevant to nanoparticle filtration, under these main topics: (1) nanoparticle filtration and molecular dynamics simulation, (2) nanoparticle virtual impactor, (3) particle transport under low pressure, and (4) development of a high-throughput nanoparticle generator. A number of novel tools and numerical models have been developed under the DOE support.
The indirect conversion of coal to liquid hydrocarbons via steam gasification followed by synthesis gas (CO/H/sub 2/) chemistry has been the subject of intensive study for a number of decades. A key technological challenge facing researchers in this area is control over the product distribution during the hydrocarbon synthesis step. In the case of iron Fischer-Tropsch catalysts, it has been known that the addition of alkali to the metal catalyst has a significant impact on the product distribution. Iron catalysts treated with alkali produce less methane more alkenes and higher molecular weight products. In spite of numerous investigations, the details of this promotional effect are not understood on a molecular level. To explore the role of alkali in the surface chemistry of iron catalysts, the authors have carried out a combined surface science and catalytic kinetic study of a model iron catalyst with and without surface ...
Million-atom molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations are performed to study the structure, mechanical properties, and dynamic fracture in nanophase Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}. The authors find that intercluster regions are highly disordered: 50% of Si atoms in intercluster regions are three-fold coordinated. Elastic moduli of nanophase Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} as a function of grain size and porosity are well described by a multiphase model for heterogeneous materials. The study of fracture in the nanophase Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} reveals that the system can sustain an order-of-magnitude larger external load than crystalline Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}. This is due to branching and pinning of the crack front by nanoscale microstructures.
Synthesis of protein molecules in a cell are carried out by ribosomes. A ribosome can be regarded as a molecular motor which utilizes the input chemical energy to move on a messenger RNA (mRNA) track that also serves as a template for the polymerization of the corresponding protein. The forward movement, however, is characterized by an alternating sequence of translocation and pause. Using a quantitative model, which captures the mechanochemical cycle of an individual ribosome, we derive an {\\it exact} analytical expression for the distribution of its dwell times at the successive positions on the mRNA track. Inverse of the average dwell time satisfies a ``Michaelis-Menten-like'' equation and is consistent with the general formula for the average velocity of a molecular motor with an unbranched mechano-chemical cycle. Extending this formula appropriately, we also derive the exact force-velocity relation for a ribosome. ...
...the School, the research group structure was recently revised and now comprises the following teams: Drug Design and Analysis Pharmaceutics Pharmacy Practice and Policy Pharmacological and Biomedical Science The current structure was designed to take into account the future development of research in the academic area. The ...Discovery, MolecularModelling, Pharmacology and Molecular Biology) and international recognition (Biological Sciences), which have now been re-organised into the Drug Design and Analysis and Pharmacological and Biomedical Sciences teams. The reorganisation also aimed to improve the research reputation of the other teams. The improvements in ... Email to a friend Print Within this area Drug design and analysis Pharmaceutics Pharmacy practice and policy Pharmacological and biomedical sciences Projects Publications Staff Considering a course? Research Degrees Course Finder Order a Prospectus Subject ...
Organic/metal interface properties are of high interest for the application of molecular (sub)monolayers to modify surface properties. They are applied for, e.g., molecular electronics, chemical sensing, or the tuning of injection barriers in organic electronic devices. We present a joint theoretical and experimental study of F{sub 4}TCNQ adsorbed on Cu(111). The electronic and structural properties were determined by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and X-ray standing wave (XSW) measurements. To better understand the complex process of binding, we modelled the system using density-functional theory. We find forward-donation from the lone pairs of the molecule into metallic states and back-donation from the metal into the LUMO of the molecule. The data on Cu(111) are compared to F4TCNQ on Au(111) and Ag(111) as well as to investigations of pyrenetetraone on various coinage metals.
An all-atom polarizable chloroform (CHCl{sub 3}) potential model has been developed using the classical molecular dynamics techniques. This potential is shown to reproduce reasonably well the structural, dynamical, and thermodynamic properties of bulk liquid CHCl{sub 3} at various temperatures and pressures. With this potential, we carried out computer simulations to investigate the CHCl{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O liquid/liquid interface. Detailed structural and electrical properties at the interface will be analyzed via the density profile, radial distribution functions, molecular orientation, hydrogen bonding, and the z-dependent dipole distributions. Comparison will also be made to the results of the CCl{sub 4}-H{sub 2}O liquid/liquid interface.
We report the first band structure calculations of the quasi-one-dimensional [MnTPP][TCNE] compounds (TPP?=?meso-tetraphenylporphyrinato, TCNE?=?tetracyanoethylene), based on Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods, in order to interpret the magnetic ordering in these prototypic systems. We compare and contrast the results of broken-symmetry DFT calculations for extended systems, with periodic boundary conditions, and for finite systems, magnetic dimers modeling the actual molecular magnets. By varying systematically the main angles, we are able to determine the geometry dependence of the exchange interaction. Structure?properties correlations in these charge-transfer salts reveal the determinant role of the Mn-(N?C)TCNE bond angle on the strength of the ferrimagnetic coupling between the ...
The magnetic three spin-1/2 model for nanometer-scale molecular cluster V15 is analyzed with the emphasis on the origin of the mixing of different spin levels in the resonance fields that is generally important for the problem of single molecular magnets. The zero-field splitting in the ground quadruplet (two Formula Not Shown levels) is shown to depend mainly on the normal component of AS exchange meanwhile the zero-field splitting in the excited Formula Not Shown multiplet is a second order effect with respect to in-plane components of AS exchange. The normal component of the AS exchange is shown to lead to the exact crossing of the magnetic sublevels at the arbitrary direction of the field. The positions of two crossing/anticrossing points in the ground manifold depend mainly on the iso...
Measurements of absolute differential cross sections for H"+-H_2 direct, single-, and double-charge-transfer scattering at 0.5, 1.5, and 5.0 keV are reported at laboratory scattering angles less than 1 degree with an angular resolution of approximately 0.02 degree. The cross sections exhibit deep interference oscillations in single-charge-transfer scattering, but no such oscillations are present in direct and double-charge-transfer scattering. Theoretical cross sections derived using the diatoms-in-molecules method to describe the molecular states in a semiclassical molecular-orbital three-state close-coupling model within a semiclassical framework agree satisfactorily with the experimental results.
The buoyancy driven convective flow fields are steady circulatory flows which were made between surfaces maintained at two fixed temperatures. They are ubiquitous in nature and play an important role in many engineering applications. Especially, in last decades, natural convection in a close loop or cavity becomes the main issue in the molecular biology for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Application of a natural convection can reduce the costs and efforts remarkably. This paper focuses on the sensitivity study of turbulence analysis using CFD for a natural convection in a closed rectangular cavity. Using commercial CFD code, FLUENT, various turbulent models were applied to the turbulent flow. Results from each CFD model will be compared each other in the viewpoints of flow characteristics. This work will suggest the best turbulent model of CFD for analyzing turbulent flows of the natural ...
The buoyancy driven convective flow fields are steady circulatory flows which were made between surfaces maintained at two fixed temperatures. They are ubiquitous in nature and play an important role in many engineering applications. Especially, in last decades, natural convection in a close loop or cavity becomes the main issue in the molecular biology for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Application of a natural convection can reduce the costs and efforts remarkably. This paper focuses on the sensitivity study of turbulence analysis using CFD for a natural convection in a closed rectangular cavity. Using commercial CFD code, FLUENT, various turbulent models were applied to the turbulent flow. Results from each CFD model will be compared each other in the viewpoints of flow characteristics. This work will suggest the best turbulent model of CFD for analyzing turbulent flows of the natural ...
Abstract The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is one of the richest biodiversity hotspots of the world. Paleoclimatic models have predicted two large stability regions in its northern and central parts, whereas southern regions might have suffered strong instability during Pleistocene glaciations. Molecular phylogeographic and endemism studies show, nevertheless, contradictory results: although some results validate these predictions, other data suggest that paleoclimatic models fail to predict stable rainforest areas in the south. Most studies, however, have surveyed species with relatively high dispersal rates whereas taxa with lower dispersion capabilities should be better predictors of habitat stability. Here, we have used two land planarian species as model organisms to analyse the patterns ...
Genetics, Genomics, and Molecular Biology USGS scientists develop and integrate new genetic and molecular techniques into systematic analyses to describe individuals and populations of fish .....
'The objective of this project is to provide a means to optimize ligand architecture for f-block metal recognition. The authors strategy builds on an innovative and successful molecularmodeling approach in developing polyether ligand design criteria for the alkali and alkaline earth cations. The hypothesis underlying this proposal is that differences in metal ion binding with multidentate ligands bearing the same number and type of donor groups are primarily attributable to intramolecular steric factors. They propose quantifying these steric factors through the application of molecular mechanics models. The research involves close integration of theoretical and experimental chemistry. The experimental work entails synthesizing novel ligands and experimentally determining structures and binding constants for metal ion complexation by series of ligands in which architecture is systematically ...
In this work, a comprehensive model including heat transfer, fluid flow and solidification was used to evaluate the performance of a novel delivery system for a single-belt steel casting process. This near-net-shape casting, although still in development, is one of the most promising routes for casting of low-carbon steel in large scale. This paper focuses on the performance of a low-Re {kappa}-{epsilon} model that was employed to simulate the three-dimensional turbulent flows fully-coupled with heat transfer and macroscopic solidification. Simulations were run for the intended conditions of caster operation, and the results obtained with the {kappa}-{epsilon} were compared with the results obtained with an ad hoc viscosity model, where the molecular viscosity was boosted 100 times, uniformly throughout the computational domain. A semi-analytical solution was employed for validating the ...
To establish the phylogeographic relationships in rabies viruses in Brazil, we studied a dataset retrieved from GenBank consisting of 71 genetic sequences from the coding region of the N gene of rabies viruses isolated in dogs over a period of 22?years. The Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo method available in the BEAST package was used with the GTR+G+?4 evolutionary model in conjunction with the relaxed uncorrelated lognormal molecular clock model and an exponential growth tree prior. A discrete phylogeographic diffusion model was also analyzed using a standard continuous-time Markov chain viewed with Google Earth to provide a spatial projection of the diffusion of genetic lineages based on their phylogeographic relationships. The topology of the time and substitution phylogenetic trees a...
The interaction of the herbicide paraquat dichloride (P Q, substrate) with p-tert-butylcalix arenas (L, receptor) was investigated in both the solution and solid states. The isolated paraquat calixarene complexes were characterised by UV-visible, 1H NMR, ESI-Ms, Luminescence and IR spectroscopies and elemental analysis. The stoichiometry of complexes 1 and 2 was 1:1 (1 herbicide: 1 calixarene) and both revealed a biexponential luminescence decay with lifetimes depending on the size and the conformational particularity of the calixarenes. Molecularmodelling suggested that both calixarenes interact with the herbicide through cation-? interaction. P Q in included in the p-tert butylcalix a rene cavity, a situation favoured by its pinched conformation in polar solvent while it is partially included in the p-tert butylcalix a rene cavity because of its in-out cone conformation. The theoretical results, in particular using Mopac procedures, were in ...
Single-crystal neutron diffraction has been used to observe the interactions between deuterated ethanol (CD3CD2OH) and lysozyme in triclinic crystals of hen egg white lysozyme soaked in 25% (v/v) ethanol solutions. A total of 6047 observed reflections to a resolution of 2 A were used, and 13 possible ethanol sites were identified. The three highest occupied sites are close to locations for bromoethanol found in an earlier study by Yonath et al. [Yonath, A., Podjarny, A., Honig, B., Traub, W., Sielecki, A., Herzberg, O., and Moult, J. (1978) Biophys. Struct. Mech. 4, 27-36]. Structure refinements including a model for the flat solvent lead to a final crystallographic agreement factor of 0.097. Comparison with earlier neutron studies on triclinic lysozyme showed that neither the molecular structure nor the thermal motions were affected significantly by the ethanol. A detailed analysis of the ethanol-lysozyme contacts showed 61% of these to be ...
While dealing with molecular systems, it is highly advantageous to work with a basis set which has definite total spin and also belongs to a definite irreducible representation of its symmetry (point) group. But unfortunately, there hadn't been any general simple technique to deal with the problem, especially when molecule possesses non-Abelian point group symmetry. In a previous paper \\cite{sahoo}, we presented a general technique which is a hybrid method based on Valence Bond basis and the basis of z-component of the total spin. The technique is applicable to all types of point groups and is easy to implement on computer. We illustrated the power of the method by applying it to a molecular magnetic system. Here we extend the method to electronic systems and demonstrate this extended technique by applying it to a model icosahedral half-filled electronic system (12 sites). Reasons we took this model ...
The resolution of X-ray diffraction microscopy is limited by the maximum dose that can be delivered prior to sample damage. In the proposed Serial Crystallography method, the damage problem is addressed by distributing the total dose over many identical hydrated macromolecules running continuously in a single-file train across a continuous X-ray beam, and resolution is then limited only by the available molecular and X-ray fluxes and molecular alignment. Orientation of the diffracting molecules is achieved by laser alignment. We evaluate the incident X-ray fluence (energy/area) required to obtain a given resolution from (1) an analytical model, giving the count rate at the maximum scattering angle for a model protein, (2) explicit simulation of diffraction patterns for a GroEL-GroES protein complex, and (3) the frequency cut off of the transfer function following iterative solution of the phase problem, ...
A simple analytical/numerical model has been developed for computing the evolution, over periods of up to a few hours, of the current and temperature profile in the upper layer of the ocean. The model is based upon conservation laws for heat and momentum, and employs an eddy diffusion parameterisation which is dependent on both the wind speed and the wind stress applied at the sea surface. Other parameters such as the bulk-skin surface temperature difference and CO$_2$ flux are determined by application of the Molecular Oceanic Boundary Layer Model (MOBLAM) of Schluessel and Soloviev. A similar model, for the current profile only, predicts a temporary increase in wave breaking intensity and decrease in wave height under conditions where the wind speed increases suddenly, such as, for example, during gusts and squalls. The model results are compared with ...
The finite-volume based commercial CFD-code Fluent was used to simulate the reacting flow in a heavy fuel oil fired laboratory furnace. Both the standard {kappa}-{epsilon} turbulence model and the Reynolds stress model (RSM) were tested. The combustion model was based on the conserved scalar (mixture fraction) and prescribed probability density function approach. The heavy fuel oil droplet trajectories were predicted by solving the momentum equations for the droplets using the Lagrangian treatment. The soot distribution in the furnace was calculated by solving a transport equation for the soot mass fraction. Simple expressions for the soot formation and oxidation rates were employed. The radiation heat transfer equation was solved using the finite volume method. The formation of thermal NO from molecular nitrogen was modeled according to the extended Zeldovich mechanism. Fuel-based ...
Reactive sticking coefficients (RSCs) were measured for silane and disilane on polycrystalline silicon for a wide range of temperature and flux (pressure) conditions. The data were obtained from deposition-rate measurements using molecular beam scattering and a very low-pressure cold-wall reactor. The RSCs have nonlinear Arrhenius temperature dependencies and decrease with increasing flux at low (710 /sup 0/C) temperatures. Several simple models are proposed to explain these observations. The results are compared with previous studies of the SiH/sub 4//Si(s) reaction and low-pressure chemical vapor deposition-rate measurements.
The solvation properties of a chlorine ion in small water clusters are investigated using state-of-the-art statistical mechanics. The simulations employ the polarizable water model developed recently by Dang [J. Chem. Phys. [bold 97], 2659 (1992)]. The ion--water interaction potentials are defined such that the successive binding energies for the ionic clusters, and the solvation enthalpy, bulk vertical binding energy, and structural properties of the aqueous solution agree with the best available results obtained from experiments. Simulated vertical electron binding energies of the ionic clusters Cl[sup [minus
Recent developments in the analysis of Mira atmosphere, the determination of the pulsation mode, the problem of mass loss, and the evolution of the Mira variables are covered. Model atmospheres for Mira variables, including the opacities of the molecules expected in very late M-type atmospheres are discussed. The pulsation constant for Omicron Ceti is evaluated using T(eff) = 2900 + or - 200 K, and it is concluded that Miras are fundamental mode pulsators. The importance of molecular opacity to the driving of mass loss is evaluated, and it is pointed out that the radiation pressure on molecules is not a major factor in driving mass loss from Mira. Mass loss is considered as a factor in the calculations of the periods for Mira variables. 30 refs.
This paper is concerned with the determination of a unique scaling parameter in complex scaling analysis and with accurate calculation of dynamics resonances. In the preceding paper we have presented a theoretical analysis and provided a formalism for dynamical resonance calculations. In this paper we present accurate numerical results for two non-trivial dynamical processes, namely, models of diatomic molecular predissociation and of barrier potential scattering for resonances. The results presented in this paper confirm our theoretical analysis, remove a theoretical ambiguity on determination of the complex scaling parameter, and provide an improved understanding for dynamical resonance calculations in rigged Hilbert space.
Ion-photon and ion-Auger-electron coincidence measurements have been performed to study the impact parameter dependence of Xe M-shell excitation in 1.05 MeV Xe/sup 3 +/-Xe collisions. The experimental results are found to be consistent with the prediction of the molecular orbital model of atomic collisions. The average fluorescence yield for the Xe M shell is found to be strongly dependent on the impact parameter. This is ascribed to the production of highly charged Xe ions in close collisions.
Reactive Magnetron Sputtering is a complex process and huge efforts are made addressing the understanding of its fundamental phenomena and the simulation of the deposition process by e.g. Particle in Cell/Monte Carlo (PIC/MC). One of the most uncertain parameters in this reactive sputtering process is the incorporation coefficient of the reactive gas in the growing layer, i.e. the real-time sticking coefficient during deposition. In this work, mass spectrometry is used to deliver more insights on this complex matter. Earlier, a method was developed to determine the incorporation coefficient of the reactive gas molecules in the growing metal film, using mass spectrometry combined with thin film analysis techniques (electron probe microanalysis and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy). This method delivers a global, realistic incorporation coefficient which can be used in models for the reactive sputtering process. In this work, new insights have been added to the ...
The adsorption equilibria of Kr, Xe and N{sub 2}, which are constituents of the off-gas from nuclear reprocessing processes, on representative adsorbents (Molecular Sieve 5A (MS5A) and activated charcoal) were studied. Adsorption experiments were conducted in the temperature range of 77 to 323 K using a packed bed column. The adsorption isotherms for the activated charcoal adsorbent were successfully correlated by the vacancy solution model. The adsorption isotherms for the MS5A adsorbent were properly correlated by the Langmuir model and the vacancy solution model. The adsorption experiments for the binary component systems (Kr-Xe, Kr-N{sub 2} systems) were also performed, and the results suggest that the coexistence of Xe greatly inhibits the adsorption of Kr. The coexistence of large amounts of N{sub 2} was also found to inhibit the adsorption of Kr. The experimental results for the adsorption ...
A complete macromolecule modeling package must be able to solve the simplest structure prediction problems. Despite recent successes in high resolution structure modeling and design, the Rosetta software suite fares poorly on deceptively small protein and RNA puzzles, some as small as four residues. To illustrate these problems, this manuscript presents extensive Rosetta results for four well-defined test cases: the 20-residue mini-protein Trp cage, an even smaller disulfide-stabilized conotoxin, the reactive loop of a serine protease inhibitor, and a UUCG RNA tetraloop. In contrast to previous Rosetta studies, several lines of evidence indicate that conformational sampling is not the major bottleneck in modeling these small systems. Instead, approximations and omissions in the Rosetta all-atom energy function currently preclude discriminating experimentally observed conformations from de novo models at ...
In this study, the thermodynamic stability of the grain boundaries and the grain growth of nanocrystalline Palladium (Pd) at various temperatures were investigated. For this purpose, the Gibbs free energy curves of grain boundaries were plotted in terms of the excess volume by the use of the equation of state (EOS) and Song's thermodynamic models. The results showed that, according to the prediction of these models, the nanocrystalline growth in metals was stopped at the grain sizes less than the critical grain size. Also, the results of the temperature variations and its effect on the Gibbs free energy curves showed that by the increase of the temperature, the possibility for the stoppage of grain growth is facilitated and the critical grain size is increased. To investigate the validity ...
The effect of sodium on the partial oxidation of methane over MoO{sub 3}-SiO{sub 2} in the presence of molecular oxygen has been investigated. As in the sodium-free case, the major products are formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and water. Kinetic analysis indicates that methane is directly oxidized to formaldehyde and carbon dioxide. Formaldehyde is oxidized to carbon monoxide, which is itself further oxidized, providing an alternative route to carbon dioxide. The kinetic model shows that sodium poisons the direct oxidation of methane to formaldehyde and carbon dioxide, but promotes the oxidation of formaldehyde and carbon monoxide. Model predictions of rates and selectivities are in good agreement with the experimental data. A mechanism that explains both the poisoning and promotion effects of sodium on MoO{sub 3}-SiO{sub 2} is proposed.
The authors consider the dynamics of interacting elastic disks in the plane. This is an experimentally realizable two-dimensional model of dry granular flow where the stresses can be visualized using the photoelastic effect. As the elastic disks move in a vacuum, they interact through collisions with each other and with the surrounding geometry. Because of the finite propagation speed of deformations inside each grain it can be difficult to capture computationally even simple experiments involving just a few interacting grains. The goal of this project is to improve our ability to simulate dense granular flow in complex geometry. They begin this process by reviewing some past work, how they can improve upon previous work. the focus of this project is on capturing the elastic dynamics of each grain in an approximate, computationally tractable, model that can be coupled to a molecular dynamics scheme.
A detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanism is developed to describe incineration of the chemical warfare nerve agent sarin (GB), based on commonly used principles of bond additivity and hierarchical reaction mechanisms. The mechanism is based on previous kinetic models of organophosphorus compounds such as TMP, DMMP and DIMP that are often used as surrogates to predict incineration of GB. Kinetic models of the three surrogates and GB are then used to predict their consumption in a perfectly stirred reactor fueled by natural gas to simulate incineration of these chemicals. Computed results indicate that DIMP is the only one of these surrogates that adequately describes combustion of GB under comparable conditions. The kinetic pathways responsible for these differences in reactivity are identified and discussed. The most important reaction in GB and DIMP that makes them more reactive than TMP or DMMP is found to be a six-center ...
Molecular cluster predictions for electronic energy levels, wave functions, momentum densities, and Compton profiles of VO and VO_2 are examined within the Hartree-Fock-Slater model. VO_6 clusters are treated in O/subh/, D_4/subh/, and D_2/subh/ symmetry to obtain quantitative relations between distortion parameters and level shifts and splittings. Effects of the crystal environment are taken into account by a potential field. Results for VO are consistent with the augmented plane-wave band calculation of Mattheiss and x-ray emission data; the VO_2 levels are in good agreement with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data. A sizable anisotropy is predicted for the Compton profile of VO and VO_2.
Abstract We performed hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the formation and evolution of protostars and circumstellar discs from the pre-stellar cloud. As the initial state, we adopted the molecular cloud core with two non-dimensional parameters representing the thermal and rotational energies. With these parameters, we derived 17 models and calculated the cloud evolution--104 yr-after the protostar formation. We found that early evolution of the star-disc system can be qualitatively classified into four modes: the massive-disc, early-fragmentation, late-fragmentation, and protostar-dominant modes. In the -massive-disc mode-, to which the majority of models belong, the disc mass is greater than the protostellar mass for over 104 yr and no fragmentation occurs in the circumstellar dis...
Background: We consider cells as biological systems that process information by means of molecular codes. Many studies analyze cellular information processing exclusively in syntactic terms (e.g., by measuring Shannon entropy of sets of macromolecules), and abstract completely from semantic aspects that are related to the meaning of molecular information. Methods: This mini-review focusses on semantic aspects of molecular information, particularly on codes that organize the semantic dimension of molecular information. First, a general conceptual framework for describing molecular information is proposed. Second, some examples of molecular codes are presented. Third, a mathematical approach that makes the identification of molecular codes in reaction networks possible, is developed. Results...
Colorectal carcinoma is a highly prevalent and common cause of cancer in Taiwan. There is still no available cure for this malignant disease. To address this issue, we applied the multimodality of molecular imaging to explore the efficacy of diagnostic and therapeutic nanoradiopharmaceuticals in an animal model of human colorectal adenocarcinoma [colorectal cancer (CRC)] that stably expresses luciferase (luc) as a reporter. In this study, an in vivo therapeutic efficacy evaluation of dual-nanoliposome (100 nm in diameter) encaged vinorelbine (VNB) and "1"1"1In-oxine on HT-29/luc mouse xenografts was carried out. HT-29/luc tumor cells were transplanted subcutaneously into male SCID mice. Multimodality of molecular imaging approaches including bioluminescence imaging (BLI), gamma scintigraphy, whole-body autoradiography (WBAR) and in vivo tumor growth tracing, histopathology and biochemistry/hematology analyses were applied ...
Projected scenarios for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository include significant periods of time when high relative humidity atmospheres will be present, thus the reaction processes of interest will include those known to occur under these conditions. The ideal natural analog for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository would consist of natural borosilicate glasses exposed to expected repository conditions for thousands of years; however, the prospects for identifying such an analog are remote, but an important caveat for using natural analog studies is to relate the reaction processes in the analog to those in the system of interest, rather than a strict comparison of the glass compositions. In lieu of this, identifying natural glasses that have reacted via reaction processes expected in the repository is the most attractive option. The goal of this study is to quantify molecular water diffusion in the natural analogs obsidian and tektites. Results from this study ...
Based on techniques of organic solvent extraction and a thermal model experiments of coal-related hydrocarbon, the variation of coal structure and the character of deformed coal-related hydrocarbons were studied when the coal seam at Piagdingshan mine, China was modified by tectonic stress. The results show that the extraction ratio by n-hexane and benzene from the deformed coal approaches that form normal coal, but the extraction ratio by chloroform from the deformed coal is two times more than that from normal coal. The deformed coal has higher solvable low-molecular weight compounds than normal coal. The intermolecular force of deformed coal is relatively small. The deformed coal has low strength and high adsorption capacity, and these determine the outbreak of coal-gas outburst. The extraction yields by chloroform can be taken as an index of forecast risks of coal-gas outburst. The potentially of generating hydrocarbon from the deformed ...
A number of systems which can elucidate physics beyond the standard model are investigated. The production of axions by a network of cosmic strings in the early universe is calculated. This allows an upper bound to be placed on the axion decay constant, and provides the preferred Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking scale for axions to make up the dark matter of the universe. Models of neutrino mass arising from strong interactions are investigated. These models possess a massless up quark, thereby solving the strong CP problem. A systematic analysis of the contributions to time reversal violating atomic and molecular electric dipole moments is presented. Specific contributions from the supersymmetric standard model are calculated. The contributions arising from the QCD vacuum angle are also discussed. Prospects for detecting the axion by its long range coherent force are related to ...
A number of systems which can elucidate physics beyond the standard model are investigated. The production of axions by a network of cosmic strings in the early universe is calculated. This allows an upper bound to be placed on the axion decay constant, and provides the preferred Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking scale for axions to make up the dark matter of the universe. Models of neutrino mass arising from strong interactions are investigated. These models possess a massless up quark, thereby solving the strong CP problem. A systematic analysis of the contributions to time reversal violating atomic and molecular electric dipole moments is presented. Specific contributions from the supersymmetric standard model are calculated. The contributions arising from the QCD vacuum angle are also discussed. Prospects for detecting the axion by its long range coherent force are related to ...
The use of n-alkanethiolate self-assembled monolayers on gold has blossomed in the past few years. These systems have functioned as models for common interfaces. Thiolate monolayers are ideal because they are easily modified before or after deposition. The works contained within this dissertation include interfacial characterization (inbred reflection absorption spectroscopy, ellipsometry, contact angle, scanning probe microscopy, and heterogeneous electron-transfer kinetics) and various modeling scenarios. The results of these characterizations present ground-breaking insights into the structure, function, and reproducible preparation of these monolayers. Surprisingly, three interfacial properties (electron-transfer, contact angle, and ellipsometry) were discovered to depend directly on the odd-even character of the monolayer components. Molecularmodeling was utilized to investigate adlayer ...
An overview is provided of an evolving atomistic and kinetic model of semiconductor growth that unifies the main features of strain relaxation in low and high lattice misfit heteroepitaxy. The model reveals a kinetic pathway for dislocation formation during growth with little or no energy cost at low misfits, thus providing a way out of the longstanding dilemma of too high dislocation nucleation energies predicted by classical theories of the equilibrium behavior of a fixed number of particles at low misfits. The essential kinetic process underlying the model are identified on the basis of comparison of the predictions of kinetic Monte-Carlo simulations of growth with real-time or in-situ data obtained in such experiments as reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and scanning probe microscopy (SPM). Relative significance of these atomistic kinetic processes is shown to naturally lead to strain relaxation via ...
The collapse and fragmentation of initially prolate and oblate, magnetic molecular clouds is calculated in three dimensions with a gravitational, radiative hydrodynamics code. The code includes magnetic field effects in an approximate manner: magnetic pressure, tension, braking, and ambipolar diffusion are all modeled. The parameters varied for both the initially prolate and oblate clouds are the initial degree of central concentration of the radial density profile, the initial angular velocity, and the efficiency of magnetic braking (represented by a factor f _m_b = 10"-"4 or 10"-"3). The oblate cores all collapse to form rings that might be susceptible to fragmentation into multiple systems. The outcome of the collapse of the prolate cores depends strongly on the initial density profile. Prolate cores with central densities 20 times higher than their boundary densities collapse and fragment into binary or quadruple systems, whereas cores with ...
The progress of laboratory studies on the removal of NO/sub x/ and SO/sub 2/ with zeolite molecular sieves is reported. The trademark of these zeolite molecular sieves is Zeolon. (LK)
Accumulation of molecular damage and increased molecular heterogeneity are hallmarks of cellular aging. Mild stress-induced hormesis can be an effective way for reducing the accumulation of molecular...Full Text Available
Functionalizing of single molecules on surfaces has manifested great potential for bottom-up construction of complex devices on a molecular scale. We discuss the growth mechanism for the initial layers...Full Text Available
Endothelial dysfunction is involved in radiation responses in many normal tissues, including intestine. Endothelium-directed interventions ameliorate intestinal radiation injury (radiation enteropathy) in animal models, and anecdotal reports also suggest a beneficial effect of heparin. This study assessed low molecular weight heparin as an intestinal radiation response modifier. Rats underwent localized small bowel irradiation. Groups of rats were treated with saline, nadroparin (3 mg/kg/d), or a non-anticoagulant heparin (SR80258, 3 mg/kg/d), from 3 days before to 2 weeks after irradiation. The intestinal radiation response was assessed 2 weeks and 6 weeks after irradiation using quantitative histology; morphometry, and cellular and molecular end-points. Compared to vehicle-treated controls, nadroparin significantly exacerbated structural radiation injury, neutrophil infiltration, and TGFbeta and collagen I ...
Adjuvant-induced arthritis in rats is a chronic inflammatory disease, widely as an animal model for rheumatoid arthritis. In our study the effect of various fractions of dialyzable leukocyte extract (DLE): DLE I-molecular weight below 10 kDa (commercial preparation), DLE II-molecular weight below 5 kDa (suppressor fraction), DLE III-molecular weight 5-10 kDa on rat adjuvant-induced arthritis was studied. The adjuvant arthritic (AA) rats were treated with DLE fractions i.p. in solutions containing an active substance isolated from 12.5 x 10{sup 6} and 6.25 x 10{sup 6} leukocytes from day 1 (adjuvant injected) through day 18, every second day (total 9 times). Various markers in inflammation, immune function and joint destruction were evaluated: hind paw volume, serum hyaluronic acid, serum albumin and biopterin in urine. All these markers showed a significant improvement after using fraction DLE II in ...
The dynamic mechanical properties and molecular weight distribution of two experimental polymer bonded explosives, X-0287 and X-0298, maintained at 23, 60, and 74/sup 0/C for 3 years were examined. X-0287 is 97% 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetraazacyclooctane explosive, 1.8% Kraton G-1650, and 1.2% B/sup 2/ was 170. X-0298 is 97.4% explosive, 1.4% Kraton G-1650, and 1.2% Cenco Hi-vac oil. The relaxation associated with the Kraton rubber block glass transition is observed in both X-0287 and X-0298. In the unaged X-0298 it occurs at -59/sup 0/C and in the aged explosive at 50/sup 0/C. This is caused by migration of the oil plasticizer out of the explosive. In X-0287 the Kraton rubber block T/sub g/ is weak and broad due to the presence of the wax plasticizer. X-0287 has a second broad relaxation associated with the melting of the wax from 10 to 65/sup 0/C. The molecular weight of the Kraton binder decreased with increasing accelerated aging ...
Woolfolk, C. A. (University of Washington, Seattle). Reduction of inorganic compounds with molecular hydrogen by Micrococcus lactilyticus. II. Stoichiometry with inorganic...Full Text Available
NSF-NIST Interaction in Chemistry, Materials Research, Molecular Biosciences, Bioengineering, and ... Laboratory (CSTL). Materials research is centralized in the Materials Science and Engineering ...
With the improvements accomplished during the past 15 years in detection techniques and instrumentation and with the opening of space exploration, molecular spectroscopy has become a very efficient way to probe planetary atmospheres.
The Molecular Genetics and Carcinogenesis Section conducts studies using human epithelial cells to assess: activation of proto-oncogenes by chemical and physical carcinogens; inactivation and dysregulation of tumor suppressor genes by chemical and physical
Recent molecular characterizations of Cryptosporidium parasites make it possible to differentiate the human-pathogenic Cryptosporidium parasites from those that do...Full Text Available
BackgroundMany molecules of interest are flexible and undergo significant shape deformation as part of their function, but most existing methods of molecular shape comparison (MSC)...Full Text Available
In this paper we study different effects of excited molecules on swarm parameters, electron energy distribution functions and gas discharge modeling. First we discuss a possible experiment in parahydrogen to resolve the discrepancy in hydrogen vibrational excitation cross section data. Negative differential conductivity (NDC) is a kinetic phenomenon which manifests itself in a particular dependence of the drift velocity on E=N and it is affected by superelastic collisions with excited states. A complete kinetic scheme for argon required to model excited state densities in gas discharges is also described. These results are used to explain experiments in capacitively and inductively coupled RF plasmas used for processing. The paper illustrates the application of atomic and molecular collision data, swarm data and the theoretical techniques in modeling of gas discharges with large abundances of excited ...
Combustion of extremely fuel-rich ({phi}=4) methane/air mixtures at elevated pressures is investigated as a potential means to generate molecular hydrogen by non-catalytic partial oxidation. This system is investigated both computationally and experimentally. The computations use a perfectly-stirred reactor model and an explicit methane cool-flame mechanism to investigate the effects of reactor parameters on reaction time and product composition. Under adiabatic conditions, such mixtures are predicted to autoignite at low temperatures {approx}700 K for pressures exceeding 8.5 atm. Above 15 atm, conversion to products is complete in roughly 1 s. The dependence of reaction time and hydrogen yield is investigated as a function of inlet temperature, system pressure, and flame equivalence ratio. Actual product yields are measured in a tube reactor facility, and many of the predictions of the model, including long relaxation ...
Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been used to explore the nanometer-scale structure of Nafion, the widely used fuel cell membrane, and its composites. We have shown that solid-state NMR can characterize chemical structure and composition, domain size and morphology, internuclear distances, molecular dynamics, etc. The newly-developed water channel model of Nafion has been confirmed, and important characteristic length-scales established. Nafion-based organic and inorganic composites with special properties have also been characterized and their structures elucidated. The morphology of Nafion varies with hydration level, and is reflected in the changes in surface-to-volume (S/V) ratio of the polymer obtained by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The S/V ratios of different Nafion models have been evaluated numerically. It has been found that only the water channel model gives the ...
Biosorption of the heavy metal ion Cd{sup 2+} by protonated nonliving brown alga Sargassum fluitans biomass was accompanied by the release of hydrogen protons from the biomass. The uptake of cadmium and the release of proton matched each other throughout the biosorption process. The end-point titration methodology was used to maintain the constant pH 4.0 for developing the dynamic sorption rate. The sorption isotherm could be well represented by the Langmuir sorption model. A mass transfer model assuming the intraparticle diffusion in a one-dimensional thin plate as a controlling step was developed to describe the overall biosorption rate of cadmium ions in flat seaweed biomass particles. The overall biosorption mathematical model equations were solved numerically yielding the effective diffusion coefficient D{sub e} about 3.5 {times} 10{sup {minus}6} cm{sup 2}/s. This value matches that obtained for the desorption process ...
Abstract We present the first numerical,-N-body, hydrodynamical, chemical simulations of cosmic structure formation in the framework of non-Gaussian models. We study the impact of primordial non-Gaussianities on early chemistry (e-, H, H+, H-, He, He+, He++, H2, H+2, D, D+, HD, HeH+), molecular and atomic gas cooling, star formation, metal (C, O, Si, Fe, Mg, S) enrichment, Population-III (popIII) and Population-II-I (popII) transition and on the evolution of -visible- objects. We find that non-Gaussianities can have some consequences on baryonic structure formation at very early epochs, but the subsequent evolution at later times washes out any difference among the various models. When assuming reasonable values for primordial non-Gaussian perturbations, it turns out that they are responsi...
The object of this research is to study reactivity at superthermal collision energies using a fast neutral beam that is generated by photodetachment. Systems scheduled for initial study include basic oxygen-hydrogen reactions. Unfortunately, we can not yet report realization of this goal, but during this funding period we have made advances that are anticipated to lead to successful measurements during the next year. The parameters described below refer to the model system O + H{sub 2} {yields} OH + H. The basic design involves the collision of fast neutrals, created by photodetachment of the corresponding negative molecular ion, with a stable reactant gas in a collision cell. Products are detected by ionization and mass analysis. We are equipped to study rotational effects on reactivity by comparing results for rotational levels J = 0 and 1 of H{sub 2}. Highlights during the funding period are given in this report.
Russian field surgery with its long history and distinctive characteristics has accumulated great experience in the long-time practice of warfare. Chinese field surgery was established and developed on the basis of studying from the Russian model, which opened up new areas of traffic medicine, molecular traumatology and assessment of biological effects on weapon destruction and carried out in-depth research on wound ballistics, blast injury, burns and combined injury etc. through decades of construction with continuous development and innovation, and a series of major achievements have been made in these fields. By making comparative study on the historical evolution, structure system, characteristics of campaigns and development of society between Chinese and Russian field surgery, it can be found that there are great gaps between them and we should strengthen the research for more rapid development. PMID:20510098
The T cell receptor is a fundamental mediator of the adaptive immune responses, since TR ab on T cells recognize foreign structures (peptides derived from processed antigens) bound to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on APC cells. In the present study, we report the cloning of six TRB chains cDNA sequences from gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata), a fish of high economical impact in South Mediterranean aquaculture. The V-BETA domains have the canonical features of known teleost and mammalian TR V-BETA domains and have been divided in four different subgroups. A multiple alignment of the six sea bream TRB chains with other known TRB sequences was assembled and showed the conservation of the four cysteine residues involved in disulphide bonds and of some amino acids with an importan...
SummaryBackground Intracellular transport via processive kinesin, dynein, and myosin molecular motors plays an important role in maintaining cell structure and function. In many cases, cargoes move distances longer than expected for single motors; there is significant evidence that this increased travel is in part due to multiple motors working together to move the cargoes. Although we understand single motors experimentally and theoretically, our understanding of multiple motors working together is less developed. Results We theoretically investigate how multiple kinesin motors function. Our model includes stochastic fluctuations of each motor as it proceeds through its enzymatic cycle. Motors dynamically influence each other and function in the presence of thermal noise and viscosity. We...
The point at which the common final pathway for induction of cancer by chemical carcinogens and ionizing radiation has not been identified. Although common molecular targets are suggested by recent findings about the role of oncogenes, the mechanism by which the deposition of radiation energy and the formation of adducts or other DNA lesions induced by chemicals affects the changes in the relevant targets may be quite different. The damage to DNA that plays no part in the transformation events, but that influences the stability of the genome, and therefore, the probability of subsequent changes that influence tumorigenesis may be more readily induced by some agents than others. Similarly, the degree of cytotoxic effects that disrupt tissue integrity and increase the probability of expression of initiated cells may be dependent on the type of carcinogen. Also, evidence was presented that repair of the initial lesions could be demonstrated after exposure to low-LET ...
A study of elliptical flow is carried out for different mass asymmetries of colliding nuclei using the reactions of Formula Not Shown ( Formula Not Shown ), Formula Not Shown ( Formula Not Shown ) and Formula Not Shown ( Formula Not Shown ). The present reactions are simulated at incident energies between 50 and 250 MeV/nucleon within the framework of isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics model. For the present analysis, total mass of colliding pairs is kept fixed and mass asymmetry is varied between 0.3 and 0.7. The elliptical flow shows a transition from in-plane to out-of-plane in the mid rapidity region with incident energy. The transition energy is found to increase with the mass asymmetry for light charged particles. A good agreement is obtained with experimental measurements.
Selected applications of novel techniques in Agricultural Biotechnology, Health Food formulations and Medical Biotechnology are being reviewed with the aim of unraveling future developments and policy changes that are likely to open new markets for Biotechnology and prevent the shrinking or closing of existing ones. Amongst the selected novel techniques with applications in both Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology are: immobilized bacterial cells and enzymes, microencapsulation and liposome production, genetic manipulation of microorganisms, development of novel vaccines from plants, epigenomics of mammalian cells and organisms, and biocomputational tools for molecularmodeling related to disease and Bioinformatics. Both fundamental and applied aspects of the emerging new techniques are being discussed in relation to their anticipated, marked impact on future markets and present policy changes that are needed for success in either ...
Toadlets of the genus Brachycephalus are endemic to the Atlantic rainforests of southeastern and southern Brazil. The 14 species currently described have snout-vent lengths less than 18mm and are thought to have evolved through miniaturization: an evolutionary process leading to an extremely small adult body size. Here, we present the first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis for Brachycephalus, using a multilocus approach based on two nuclear (Rag-1 and Tyr) and three mitochondrial (Cyt b, 12S, and 16S rRNA) gene regions. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using a partitioned Bayesian analysis of concatenated sequences and the hierarchical Bayesian method (BEST) that estimates species trees based on the multispecies coalescent model. Individual gene trees showed conflict and also va...
Certain allelochemicals of the marine dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense cause lysis of a broad spectrum of target protist cells but the lytic mechanism is poorly defined. We first hypothesized that membrane sterols serve as molecular targets of these lytic compounds, and that differences in sterol composition among donor and target cells may cause insensitivity of Alexandrium and sensitivity of targets to lytic compounds. We investigated Ca^2^+ influx after application of lytic fractions to a model cell line PC12 derived from a pheochromocytoma of the rat adrenal medulla to establish how the lytic compounds affect ion flux associated with lysis of target membranes. The lytic compounds increased permeability of the cell membrane for Ca^2^+ ions even during blockade of Ca^2^+ channels wit...
Lebers hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), the most frequent mitochondrial disorder, is mostly due to three mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations in respiratory chain complex I subunit genes: 3460/ND1, 11778/ND4 and 14484/ND6. Despite considerable clinical evidences, a genetic modifying role of the mtDNA haplogroup background in the clinical expression of LHON remains experimentally unproven. We investigated the effect of mtDNA haplogroups on the assembly of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes in transmitochondrial hybrids (cybrids) harboring the three common LHON mutations. The steady-state levels of respiratory chain complexes appeared normal in mutant cybrids. However, an accumulation of low molecular weight subcomplexes suggested a complex I assembly/stability defect, which was ...
Protein motions on all timescales faster than molecular tumbling are encoded in the spectral density. The dissection of complex protein dynamics is typically performed using relaxation rates determined at high and ultra-high field. Here we expand this range of the spectral density to low fields through field cycling using the nucleocapsid protein of the SARS coronavirus as a model system. The field-cycling approach enables site-specific measurements of R{sub 1} at low fields with the sensitivity and resolution of a high-field magnet. These data, together with high-field relaxation and heteronuclear NOE, provide evidence for correlated rigid-body motions of the entire {beta}-hairpin, and corresponding motions of adjacent loops with a time constant of 0.8 ns (mesodynamics). MD simulations substantiate these findings and provide direct verification of the time scale and collective nature of these motions.
The kinetic rate constants for the cracking, isomerization, and disproportionation of n-heptane over a CrHNaY (32% chromium exchanged) zeolite catalyst at 400, 450, and 470/sup 0/C have been calculated. The interaction of n-heptane with a model Lewis acid such as BF/sub 3/ and progress along the reaction coordinate have been studied by means of molecular orbital calculations. From the kinetic results, i.e., activation energies and frequency factors, and the theoretical calculations, it can be concluded that the controlling step in these reactions is not the formation of the carbonium ion, but the subsequent transformation of this carbonium ion. In addition, the theoretical calculations show that the attack of a Lewis acid is more likely to occur on a carbon atom than on a C-H bond.
Abstract We use Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics to simulate the formation of a massive (106-M-) stellar cluster system formed from the gravitational collapse of a turbulent molecular cloud. We investigate the hierarchical clustering properties of our model system and we study the influence of the photoionizing radiation produced by the system's multiple O-type stars on the evolution of the protocluster. We find that dense gas near the ionizing sources prevents the radiation from eroding the filaments in which most of the star formation occurs and that instead, ionized gas fills pre-existing voids and bubbles originally created by the turbulent velocity field.
A practical hands-on course encompassing enzyme purification, biochemical characterization, and crystallization that completed the course work of 350 second-year bachelor students enrolled in molecular biology/biochemistry was given at the Universite Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg (France). The experimental part of the practical dealt entirely with the model protein lysozyme isolated from hen egg-white. It was designed as a research project to give students the possibility to practice biochemical methods such as chromatography, electrophoresis, and spectrophotometry. It also included enzyme activity assay and protein crystal growth that are usually taught in master-level courses. The organization of the practical work and the related experimental procedures are described and discussed.
Cluster calculations of the electronic structure and charge distribution in V_3Si have been performed using two different molecular orbital methods: a semiempirical LCAO and the MS X#alpha# model. The results are compared with X-ray emission spectra and band structure calculations. An analysis of the calculated electronic distribution reveals a charge transfer from Si-atoms to V-atoms, the additional charge on a V-atom being 0.6e (LCAO) and 0.4e (MS X#alpha# method). The results are in good agreement with experiment, which indicates that the cluster approach is adequate for the description of charge distributions and spectra characteristics of the A-15 compounds. (author).
The evolution of these new ion-exchange resins hinges upon an understanding of the chemistry of actinide metal complexes as they exist in solution and when interacting with the cationic sites. Molecularmodeling of electrostatic interactions between the metal complex and the cationic substrate is used to help visualize uptake mechanisms and, eventually, to predict optimized coordination sites. Thus, these new materials integrate the fields of ion-specific chelation and ion-exchange technology. Synthesized resins contain cationic sites designed to facilitate the uptake of plutonium nitrato complexes from high-nitrate solutions, and they exhibit distribution coefficients that are up to 10 times higher than those observed for commercial resins. Additionally, some new resins show surprisingly large Kd`s for anionic complexes of Am(III) and U(VI).
A galactose-specific seed lectin was purified from the legume Spatholobus parviflorus and crystallized using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion technique. Thecrystals belonged to space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a = 60.998, b=60.792, c = 78.179-, = 101.32, = 91.38, = 104.32. X-ray diffraction data were collected under cryoconditions (100-K) to a resolution of 2.04- using a MAR image-plate detector system mounted on a rotating-anode X-ray (Cu-K) generator. Molecular replacement using legume-lectin coordinates as a search model gave a tetrameric structure.
The earthworm gut provides ideal in situ conditions for ingested heterotrophic soil bacteria capable of anaerobiosis. High amounts of mucus- and plant-derived saccharides such as glucose are abundant in the earthworm alimentary canal, and high concentrations of molecular hydrogen (H2) and organic acids in the alimentary canal are indicative of ongoing fermentations. Thus, the central objective of this study was to resolve potential links between fermentations and active fermenters in gut content of the anecic earthworm Lumbricus terrestris by 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA)-based stable isotope probing, with [13C]glucose as a model substrate. Glucose consumption in anoxic gut content microcosms was rapid and yielded soluble organic compounds (acetate, butyrate, formate, lactate, propionate, succi...
Although computer simulation has played a central role in the study of nucleation and growth since the earliest molecular dynamics simulations almost 50 years ago, confusion surrounding the effect of finite size on such simulations have limited their applicability. Modeling solidification in molten tantalum on the BlueGene/L computer, we report here on the first atomistic simulation of solidification that verifies independence from finite size effects during the entire nucleation and growth process, up to the onset of coarsening. We show that finite size scaling theory explains the observed maximal grain sizes for systems up to about 8,000,000 atoms. For larger simulations, a cross-over from finite size scaling to more physical size-independent behavior is observed.
We present results of multiple-time-scale simulations of 5, 10 and 15 keV low temperature ion implantation of arsenic on silicon (100), followed by high temperature anneals. The simulations start with a molecular dynamics (MD) calculation of the primary state of damage after 10ps. The results are then coupled to a kinetic Monte Carlo (MC) simulation of bulk defect diffusion and clustering. Dose accumulation is achieved considering that at low temperatures the damage produced in the lattice is stable. After the desired dose is accumulated, the system is annealed at 800 degrees C for several seconds. The results provide information on the evolution for the damage microstructure over macroscopic length and time scales and affords direct comparison to experimental results. We discuss the database of inputs to the MC model and how it affects the diffusion process.
We review our recent work on an atomistic approach to the development of predictive process simulation tools. First principles methods, molecular dynamics simulations, and experimental results are used to construct a database of defect and dopant energetics in Si. This is used as input for kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. C and B trapping of the Si self- interstitial is shown to help explain the enormous disparity in its measured diffusivity. Excellent agreement is found between experiments and simulations of transient enhanced diffusion following 20-80 keV B implants into Si, and with those of 50 keV Si implants into complex B-doped structures. Our simulations predict novel behavior of the time evolution of the electrically active B fraction during annealing.
The atomic mechanism of a glass-to-liquid transition in a monatomic Lennard-Jones (LJ) glass was studied using the molecular dynamics (MD) method. Glassy models were heated up from low temperature at two different heating rates and a glass-to-liquid transition found to occur at the higher heating rate. The temperature dependence of the potential energy, mean-squared-displacements (MSD) of the atoms and the self-intermediate scattering function indicate clearly that a glass transition occurs in the system. The atomic mechanism of the glass-to-liquid transition was investigated by analyzing the spatio-temporal arrangement of liquid-like atoms in the system upon heating. Liquid-like atoms were detected using the Lindemann-melting-like criterion. Upon heating, liquid-like atoms occur at temper...
Background The purpose of this study was (a) to evaluate the association between cigarette smoking and the prevalence of distal colorectal polyps and adenocarcinoma and (b) to analyse genetic alterations representing different molecular pathways of the colorectal carcinogenesis. Methods A total of 623 asymptomatic male (mean age: 53 years; 50?65) car factory workers were included. Information on smoking habits and other lifestyle factors were collected followed by a 60 cm colonoscopy. APC and KRAS mutations and microsatellite status were determined in colorectal lesions (colorectal carcinoma (CRC), hyperplastic (HP) and adenomatous polyps (AP)). Data were analysed using unconditional multiple logistic regression models. Results Smokers had a higher prevalence of AP (OR 2.1; 95% CI 1.2?3.6;...
A variable gene delivery system has been developed based on conjugating chitosan to biotin through a functionalized poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) spacer, which can be used to further bind different molecules on the outer layer of a polymer/DNA complex by streptavidin (SA)-biotin linkage. In this study, TAT-conjugated SA was used as the model molecule to prove the conjugation function of the prepared complex. In addition, low-molecular-weight poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) was added into the polymer/DNA complex to increase the transfection efficiency. The results of the luciferase assay show that the transfection efficiency of the prepared complex was significantly correlated with the amount of PEI and was further enhanced when TAT was conjugated to the complex by SA-biotin linkage. Considered to have negligible cytotoxic effects, the variable gene delivery complex prepared in this study would be of considerable potential as carriers for in vitro ...
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents a major health problem as it afflicts an increasing number of patients worldwide. Albeit most of the risk factors for HCC are known, this is a deadly syndrome with a life expectancy at the time of diagnosis of less than 1?year. Definition of the molecular principles governing the neoplastic transformation of the liver is an urgent need to facilitate the clinical management of patients, based on innovative methods to detect the disease in its early stages and on more efficient therapies. In the present study, we have combined the analysis of a murine model and human samples of HCC to identify genes differentially expressed early in the process of hepatocarcinogenesis, using a microarray-based approach. Expression of 190 genes was impaired in murine ...
...Correction Discussion Editorial Letter Opinion Review Short Note Technical Note Special Issue all A Systematic Development Method for Rational Drug Design Advances in Molecular Electronic Structure Calculations Algorithms and Molecular Sciences Antimicrobial Agents Application of Density Functional Theory Applications of Density Functional Theory Applications of Molecular Dynamics Atoms in Molecules ...
The wavefunction of a particle extends into the classically forbidden barrier region of the potential energy surface. The consequence of this partial delocalisation is the phenomenon of quantum tunnelling, an effect which enables a particle to penetrate a potential barrier of magnitude greater than the energy of the particle. The tunnelling probability is an exponential function of the particle mass. The effect is therefore an important contribution to the behaviour of light atoms, in particular the proton. The hydrogen bond has long been appreciated to be an essential component of many biological and chemical systems, and the proton transfer reaction in the hydrogen bond is fundamental to many of these processes. The proton behaviour in the hydrogen bonds of benzoic acid, acetylacetone and calix-4-arene has been studied. A variety of techniques, both experimental and computational, were adopted for the study of the three hydrogen bonded systems. The complementary spectroscopic ...
Detailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanisms are developed for combustion of all nine isomers of heptane (C{sub 7}H{sub 16}), and these mechanisms are tested by simulating autoignition of each isomer under rapid compression machine conditions. The reaction mechanisms focus on the manner in which the molecular structure of each isomer determines the rates and product distributions of possible classes of reactions. The reaction pathways emphasize the importance of alkylperoxy radical isomerizations and addition reactions of molecular oxygen to alkyl and hydroperoxyalkyl radicals. A new reaction group has been added to past models, in which hydroperoxyalkyl radicals that originated with abstraction of an H atom from a tertiary site in the parent heptane molecule are assigned new reaction sequences involving additional internal H atom abstractions not previously allowed. This process accelerates autoignition in fuels with ...
BackgroundDespite an ever-improving understanding of the molecular biology of cancer, the treatment of most cancers has not changed dramatically in the past three decades and drugs that do not discriminate between tumor cells and normal tissues remain the mainstays of anticancer therapy. Since Hsp90 is typically involved in cell proliferation and survival, this is thought to play a key role in cancer, and Hsp90 has attracted considerable interest in recent years as a potential therapeutic target.MethodsWe focused on the interaction of Hsp90 with its cofactor protein p60/Hop, and engineered a cell-permeable peptidomimetic, termed "hybrid Antp-TPR peptide", modeled on the binding interface between the molecular chaperone Hsp90 and the TPR2A domain of Hop.ResultsIt was demonstrated that this designed hybrid Antp-TPR peptide inhibited the interaction of Hsp90 with the TPR2A domain, inducing cell death of breast, pancreatic, ...
Organic materials released from energy-related activities could affect human health and the environment. To better assess possible impacts, we developed a model to predict the fate of spills or discharges of pollutants into flowing or static bodies of fresh water. A computer code, Aquatic Pathways Model (APM), was written to implement the model. The computer programs use compartmental analysis to simulate aquatic ecosystems. The APM estimates the concentrations of chemicals in fish tissue, water and sediment, and is therefore useful for assessing exposure to humans through aquatic pathways. The APM will consider any aquatic pathway for which the user has transport data. Additionally, APM will estimate transport rates from physical and chemical properties of chemicals between several key compartments. The major pathways considered are biodegradation, fish and sediment uptake, photolysis, and evaporation. The ...
In this paper, we studied vapor-liquid equilibria (VLE) and adsorption of ethylene on graphitized thermal carbon black and in slit pores whose walls are composed of graphene layers. Simple models of a one-center Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential and a two-center united atom (UA)-LJ potential are investigated to study the impact of the choice of potential models in the description of VLE and adsorption behavior. Here, we used a Monte Carlo simulation method with grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) and Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo ensembles. The one-center potential model cannot describe adequately the VLE over the practical range of temperature from the triple point to the critical point. On the other hand, the two-center potential model (Wick et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2000, 104, 8008-8016) performs well in the description of VLE (saturated vapor and liquid densities and vapor pressure) over the wide range of ...
A new kinetic model for a more accurate and detailed fitting of the experimental data is proposed. The model is based on the remote control mechanism (RCM). The RCM assumes that some oxides (called `donors`) are able to activate molecular oxygen transforming it to very active mobile species (spillover oxygen (O{sub OS})). O{sub OS} migrates onto the surface of the other oxide (called `acceptor`) where it creates and/or regenerates the active sites during the reaction. The model contains tow terms, one considering the creation of selective sites and the other the catalytic reaction at each site. The model has been tested in the selective oxidation of propene into acrolein (T=380, 400, 420 C; oxygen and propene partial pressures between 38 and 152 Torr). Catalysts were prepared as pure MoO{sub 3} (acceptor) and their mechanical mixtures with {alpha}-Sb{sub 2}O{sub 4} (donor) in ...
Benchmark calculations of differential neutron yields were made for intranuclear cascade evaporation (INCE) codes HETC/KFA1 and HIC, and a quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) code. The INCE model showed fairly well productibility of the data. The QMD generally gave better results than the INCE model. At lower energies, the QMD gave overprediction to the measured data, but the relative variation of the data was very well reproduced by the method. Neutron production cross sections were systematically estimated at 337 MeV/u for combinations of several projectiles and targets. Using the obtained cross sections, analytical expressions for cross sections of equilibrium and nonequilibrium neutron productions previously proposed at lower energy range through the analysis of experimental data, were extended to the higher energy. The extended expressions well reproduced the systematic behaviors of the cross sections for the variation of ...
The surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of piperidine in silver colloid solution, on roughened silver electrode and on roughened silver electrode modified with silver nanoparticles were studied, and the high-quality SERS spectra of piperidine on roughened silver electrode modified with silver nanoparticles were obtained for the first time. Surface selection rules derived from the EM enhancement model were employed to deduce piperidine orientations on the different surfaces. On the basis of this, two models of piperidine adsorbed on the surface of the silver nanoparticles were built, and DFT-B3PW91/LanL2dz was applied to calculate the Raman frequencies. It proves that, at higher potential values, the piperidine is perpendicularly standing on the roughened silver electrode surface though its lone-electron pair, but in silver colloid solution and on the silver nanoparticles modified silver electrode the piperidine ...
A computer model of cryogenic system for storing solid antimatter is used to explore the radiative cooling-power requirements for long-term antimatter storage. If vacuum-chamber pressures as low as 10 to -18th power torr can be reached, and the rest of the large set of assumptions is valid, milligram quantities of solid antimatter could be stored indefinitely at 1.5 K using cooling powers of less than a microwatt. Many of the assumptions made are problematic and need verification, as they could potentially change the results greatly. The system modeled is a sphere of solid anti-parahydrogen at 1.5 K or below levitated in a spherical cryogenic vacuum chamber. The free matter gas in the chamber is assumed to be molecular hydrogen, and sublimation of both matter and antimatter is assumed to be negligible. The antihydrogen is assumed to be in thermal equilibrium, although annihilation-energy deposition is localized and ...
Previous work has shown the Orion Bar to be an interface between ionized and molecular gas, viewed roughly edge on, which is excited by the light from the Trapezium cluster. Much of the emission from any star-forming region will originate from such interfaces, so the Bar serves as a foundation test of any emission model. Here we combine X-ray, optical, IR and radio data sets to derive emission spectra along the transition from H+ to H0 to H2 regions. We then reproduce the spectra of these layers with a simulation that simultaneously accounts for the detailed microphysics of the gas, the grains, and molecules, especially H2 and CO. The magnetic field, observed to be the dominant pressure in another region of the Orion Nebula, is treated as a free parameter, along with the density of cosmic rays. Our model successfully accounts for the optical, IR and radio observations across the Bar by including a significant magnetic ...
The diffusion of ion beam injected self-interstitials (I) and their interaction with impurities in crystalline Si has been investigated and modeled. In particular, the I-substitutional carbon (C) interactions have been studied, using a molecular-beam-epitaxy grown Si{sub 1-y}C{sub y} layer interposed between the shallow I-source and a deeper B-spike (marker for I-concentration). Substitutional C atoms are shown to trap I's, to be removed from their substitutional sites, and to form stable precipitates into the C-rich region. The I-trapping mechanism was quantitatively studied by a simulation code. The reactions causing trapping and deactivation are described. In addition, the boron markers approach was extended to the two dimensional (2D) diffusion. High resolution scanning capacitance microscopy was used for quantitative measurements of the 2D boron transient enhanced diffusion induced on a boron delta array by the I's ion ...
The diffusion of ion beam injected self-interstitials (I) and their interaction with impurities in crystalline Si has been investigated and modeled. In particular, the I-substitutional carbon (C) interactions have been studied, using a molecular-beam-epitaxy grown Si_1_-_yC_y layer interposed between the shallow I-source and a deeper B-spike (marker for I-concentration). Substitutional C atoms are shown to trap I's, to be removed from their substitutional sites, and to form stable precipitates into the C-rich region. The I-trapping mechanism was quantitatively studied by a simulation code. The reactions causing trapping and deactivation are described. In addition, the boron markers approach was extended to the two dimensional (2D) diffusion. High resolution scanning capacitance microscopy was used for quantitative measurements of the 2D boron transient enhanced diffusion induced on a boron delta array by the I's ion beam injected through a ...
Lethal yellow (A{sup y}) is a mutation at the mouse agouti locus in chromosome 2 that causes a number of dominant pleiotropic effects, including a completely yellow coat color, obesity, an insulin-resistant type II diabetic condition, and an increased propensity to develop a variety of spontaneous and induced tumors. Additionally, homozygosity for A{sup y} results in preimplantation lethality, which terminates development by the blastocyst stage. The A{sup y} mutation is the result of a 170-kb deletion that removes all but the promoter and noncoding first exon of another gene called Raly, which lies in the same transcriptional orientation as agouti and maps 280 kb proximal to the 3{prime} end of the agouti gene. The authors present a model for the structure of the A{sub y} allele that can explain the dominant pleiotropic effects associated with this mutation, as well as the recessive lethality, which is unrelated to the agouti gene.
This study addresses the modeling of transdermal diffusion of drugs, to better understand the permeation of molecules through the skin, and especially the stratum corneum, which forms the main permeation barrier of the skin. In transdermal delivery of systemic drugs, the drugs diffuse from a patch placed on the skin through the epidermis to the underlying blood vessels. The epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin and can be further divided into the stratum corneum (SC) and the viable epidermis layers. The SC consists of keratinous cells (corneocytes) embedded in the lipid multi-bilayers of the intercellular space. It is widely accepted that the barrier properties of the skin mostly arises from the ordered structure of the lipid bilayers. The diffusion path, at least for lipophilic molecules, seems to be mainly through the lipid bilayers. Despite the advantages of transdermal drug delivery compared to other drug delivery routes such as oral dosing and ...
Several short-lived, high-energy beta emitters are being proposed as the radionuclide components for molecular-targeted potential cancer therapeutic agents. The laboratory mice used to determine the efficacy of these new agents have organs that are relatively small compared to the ranges of these high-energy particles. The dosimetry model developed by Hui et al. was extended to provide realistic beta-dose estimates for organs in mice that received therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals containing 90Y, 188Re, 166Ho, 149Pm, 64Cu, and 177 Lu. Major organs in this model included the liver, spleen, kidneys, lungs, heart, stomach, small and large bowel, thyroid, pancreas, bone, marrow, carcass, and a 0.025-g tumor. The study as reported in this paper verifies their results for 90Y and extends them by using their organ geometry factors combined with newly calculated organ self-absorbed fractions from PEREGRINE and MCNP. PEREGRINE and ...
A 3-D hydrodynamic dispersion model for tracer transport is developed and implemented into the TOUGH2 EOS3 (T2R3D) module. The model formulation incorporates a full dispersion tensor, based on a 3-D velocity field with a 3-D, irregular grid in a heterogeneous geological system. Two different weighting schemes are proposed for spatial average of 3-D velocity fields and concentration gradients to evaluate the mass flux by dispersion and diffusion of a tracer or a radionuclide. This new module of the TOUGH2 code is designed to simulate processes of tracer/radionuclide transport using an irregular, 3-D integral finite difference grid in non-isothermal, three-dimensional, multiphase, porous/fractured subsurface systems. The numerical method for this transport module is based on the integral finite difference scheme, as in the TOUGH2 code. The major assumptions of the tracer transport module are: (a) a tracer or a radionuclide is present and ...
When liquids are confined in nano-scopic dimensions, their properties differ from the corresponding bulk liquid, due to their reduced dimensionality and surface effects. Phase transition temperatures and pressures are often shifted from the bulk values and new phases can appear due to the strong interactions of the molecules with the confining walls. We have studied the structural and dynamical properties of aromatic liquids such as benzene, toluene, and ortho-terphenyl confined in nano-porous materials, MCM-41 and SBA-15, synthesized and characterized in our laboratory. A non-trivial dependence of the glass transition temperature, T{sub g}, on the pore size and surface treatment of nano-porous materials is confirmed and interpreted as resulting from a competition between the fluid-wall and fluid-fluid intermolecular interactions. An increase of T{sub g} is observed for small pore sizes and attractive surface while T{sub g} decreases for non attractive surface, whatever the pore size. ...
In view of the findings that several Kunitz-type protein inhibitors suppress tumor invasion and metastasis, the aim of the present study is to explore whether Bungarus multicinctus protease inhibitor-like protein-2 (PILP-2) and PILP-3 exhibit anti-tumor activity. Although approximately 28% of amino acid substitutions occurred between PILP-2 and PILP-3, molecularmodeling suggested that PILP-2 and PILP-3 shared similar folded structures. Unlike PILP-2, PILP-3 showed a notable activity in abolishing migration and invasion of human neuroblastoma SK-N-SH cells. The ability of PILP-3 to inhibit matrix metalloprotease-2 (MMP-2) activity was higher than that of PILP-2. Pull-down assay revealed protein-protein interaction between PILP-3 and MMP-2. In contrast to mutation on N-terminal region, replacement of amino acids at C-terminus attenuated notably the ability of PILP-3 to inhibit cell invasion, cell migration and MMP-2 activity as well as the ...
Two electroactive polymeric arylene bisimides, namely poly[(4,7,10-trioxatrideca-1,13-diyl)-(1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic bisimide-N,N'-diyl)] and its perylene analogue - poly[(4,7,10-trioxatrideca-1,13-diyl)-(3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic bisimide-N,N'-diyl)] have been synthesized and studied by cyclic voltammetry, UV-vis-NIR as well as Raman spectroeletrochemistry. Contrary to low molecular weight arylene bisimides, which show a clear two electron, double-step electrochemical reduction (neutral form to radical anion and from radical anion to dianion), in the synthesized polymers multielectron transfers are observed, accompanied with a strong electrochromic effect. However, as probed by cyclic voltammetry, their first reduction step is retarded and covers a wider potential range. We attribute this effect to macromolecular nature of the compounds being reduced and their structural inhomogeneity caused by ?-stacking induced nanoaggregation of bisimide ...
The composition of the lower mantle can be investigated by examining densities and seismic velocities of compositional models as functions of depth. In order to do this, it is necessary to know the volumes and thermoelastic properties of the compositional constituents under lower mantle conditions. We determined the thermal equation of state (EoS) of MgSiO3 perovskite using the non-empirical VIB interatomic potential with molecular dynamics simulations at pressures and temperatures of the lower mantle. We fit our P-V-T results to a thermal EoS of the form P(V,T) = P0(V,T0) + Delta Pth(T), where T0 = 300 K and P0 is the isothermal Universal EoS. The thermal pressure Delta Pth can be represented by a linear relationship Delta Pth = a + b T. We find V0 = 165.40 A^3, KT0 = 273 GPa, K'T0 = 3.86, a = -1.99 GPa, and b = 0.00664 GPa/K for pressures of 0-140 GPa and temperatures of 300-3000 K. By fixing V0 to the experimentally determined value of ...
The optical, electromagnetic and mechanical properties of thin films (TFs) are directly correlated to their morphology at the nanoscale. This, in concert with the fact that new deposition techniques are enabling the growth of thin films with very complex morphologies, there is an increasing interest in model-based simulation (MBS) for the design of engineering structures (including nanostructures), and increasing computer speeds are beginning to make MBS an effective design tool capable of bridging the nanoscale with the continuum scale, has made it increasingly important to understand how the nanostructure of a thin film impacts its properties at all length scales. The authors have developed the capability to determine the mechanical properties of thin films with amorphous nanostructure by combining molecular dynamics, i.e., position of particles (e.g., atoms or molecules) and their interatomic potential(s), with continuum mechanics ...
Nuclear magnetic resonance is a powerful technique that can be used in a wide range of applications, such as the structural characterization of high molecular weight molecules, conformational studies on enzymes in solution, enzyme-substrate or DNA-protein interactions, monitoring of cell metabolism in vivo, and for diagnostic purposes, employing spectroscopic and imaging techniques. This course was organized in order to introduce the participants to the fundamentals of NMR spectroscopy, and offer practical advice on performing NMR experiments on cell systems, cell and tissue extracts and animal models. The main implications regarding human experiments were also discussed. Finally the quantification of information and the interpretation of data were considered with regard to the main nuclei observed. [Italiano] La risonanza magnetica nucleare e` una delle tecniche spettroscopiche che meglio risponde all`ampio spettro di condizioni imposto dalla ...
The process of mouse skin tumor formation is subdivided into three operational stages. These stages include initiation, promotion and progression. Ionizing radiation has been found to be a weak initiating agent in the production of malignant squamous cell carcinomas, a complete carcinogen and an agent effective in causing tumor progression. Four skin tumor histologies have been seen with ionizing radiation: benign papillomas, squamous (SCC) and basal (BCC) cell carcinomas and fibrosarcomas. Distinct non-ras transforming genes have been detected in radiation initiated SCCs. A benign papilloma cell line (308) was used as a model system to study ionizing radiation induced progression. A variant 308 cell line (308 10 Gy 5) derived by irradiation of the parental 308 cell has been characterized. The 308 10 Gy 5 cells unlike the parental 308 cells from malignant tumors in athymic nude mice upon subcutaneous injection. The variant 308 10 Gy 5 cells unlike the parental ...
HEMATOLOGICAL MALIGNANCIES IN HUMANS TYPICALLY INVOLVE TWO TYPES OF GENETIC CHANGES: those that promote hematopoietic cell proliferation and survival (often the result of activation of tyrosine kinases) and those that impair hematopoietic cell differentiation (often the result of changes in transcription factors). The multi-stage erythroleukemia induced in mice by Friend spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV) is an excellent animal model for studying the molecular basis for both of these changes. Significant progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis for the multi-stage erythroleukemia induced by Friend SFFV. In the first stage of leukemia, the envelope protein encoded by SFFV interacts with and activates the erythropoietin (Epo) receptor and the receptor tyrosine kinase sf-Stk in erythroid cells, causing their Epo-independent proliferation, differentiation and survival. In the second stage, SFFV integration ...
Large rigid-body domain movements are critical to GroEL-mediated protein folding, especially apical domain elevation and twist associated with the formation of a folding chamber upon binding ATP and co-chaperonin GroES. Here, we have modeled the anisotropic displacements of GroEL domains from various crystallized states, unliganded GroEL, ATP?S-bound, ADP-AlFx/GroES-bound, and ADP/GroES bound, using translation-libration-screw (TLS) analysis. Remarkably, the TLS results show that the inherent motions of unliganded GroEL, a polypeptide-accepting state, are biased along the transition pathway that leads to the folding-active state. In the ADP-AlFx/GroES-bound folding-active state the dynamic modes of the apical domains become reoriented and coupled to the motions of bound GroES. The ADP/GroES complex exhibits these same motions, but they are increased in magnitude, potentially reflecting the decreased stability of the complex after nucleotide hydrolysis. Our results ...
The goal of the present work was to develop a new synthetic nanosystem for gene delivery. For this purpose, we chose two polysaccharides, hyaluronic acid (HA) and chitosan (CS), as the main components of the nanocarrier. Nanoparticles with different hyaluronate:chitosan (HA:CS) mass ratios (0.5:1 and 1:1) and different polymer molecular weights (hyaluronate 170 (HA) or <10 kDa (HAO) and chitosan 125 (CS) or 10-12 (CSO) kDa) could be obtained using an ionic crosslinking method. These nanoparticles were loaded with pDNA and characterized for their size, zeta potential and pDNA association efficiency. Moreover, their toxicity and ability to transfect the model plasmid pEGFP-C1 were evaluated in the cell line HEK 293, as well as their intracellular fate. The results showed that HA:CS nanoparticles have a small size in the range of 110-230 nm, a positive zeta potential of +10 to +32 mV and a very high pDNA association efficiency of 87-99% ...
The Hyperion project was developed to determine an algorithm for assessing the risk of hydrate plug formation in the pipeline transport oil-water-gas mixtures at low temperatures. The project is a collaboration between physicists, chemists and engineers within the petroleum industry. This paper provided an overview of the project and outlined results obtained as the project entered its third and final year. The main objective of the project has been to understand the inherent mitigation effects of some oils on gas hydrate formation as well as to develop methods of predicting the risk of hydrate plugging. To date, the project has extracted and studied natural inhibiting components (NICs) in oils. Molecularmodelling techniques have been used to study hydrate and fluid interfaces in order to estimate the driving force of agglomeration and growth through mechanical surface stress and measurement of surface wave fluctuations. A scheme is also being ...
A crucial step in human breast cancer progression is the acquisition of invasiveness. There is a distinct lack of human cell culture models to study the transition from pre-invasive to invasive phenotype as it may occur 'spontaneously' in vivo. To delineate molecular alterations important for this transition, we isolated human breast epithelial cell lines that showed partial loss of tissue polarity in three-dimensional reconstituted-basement membrane cultures. These cells remained non-invasive; however, unlike their non-malignant counterparts, they exhibited a high propensity to acquire invasiveness through basement membrane in culture. The genomic aberrations and gene expression profiles of the cells in this model showed a high degree of similarity to primary breast tumor profiles. The xenograft tumors formed by the cell lines in three different microenvironments in nude mice displayed metaplastic ...
Molecular Misreading (MM) is the inaccurate conversion of genomic information into aberrant proteins. For example, when RNA polymerase II transcribes a GAGAG motif it synthesizes at low frequency RNA...Full Text Available
Earlier we have shown that exogenous expression of HIPPI, a molecular partner of Huntingtin interacting protein HIP-1, induces apoptosis and increases expression of caspases-1, -8 and -10 in HeLa and...Full Text Available
AbstractWe combined atomistic molecular-dynamics simulations with quantum-mechanical calculations to investigate the sequence dependence of the stretching behavior of duplex DNA. Our...Full Text Available
Solid molecular orthohydrogen exhibits orientational order at low temperatures. The orthohydrogen molecules, which are quadrupoles, order in the Pa3 structure. We have simulated this ordering, and explored the behaviour under dilution by spherical parahydrogen molecules.
In this study we compared the molecular signalling elicited by rexinoids, selective retinoid X receptor (RXR)-activators, in several organs (i.e. liver, kidney,...Full Text Available
A new gadolinium chelating NIR fluorescent molecular probe increases T1 relaxivity of water protons, facilitating combined optical and magnetic resonance imaging.
This article describes the molecular cloning and expression of a hemolysin gene from a serotype 1 strain of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae. The hemolysin was a thermolabile protein with an apparent...Full Text Available
The overall objective of this project was to use molecular genetics to develop strains of bacteria with enhanced ability to remove sulfur from coal, and to obtain data that will allow the performance and economics of a coal biodesulfurization process to be predicted. (VC)
Combined QM(PM3)/MM molecular dynamics simulations together with QM(DFT)/MM optimizations for key configurations have been performed to elucidate the enzymatic catalysis mechanism on the detoxification...Full Text Available
A detailed molecular characterization of nuclear mRNA export will require an in vitro system, allowing a biochemical reconstitution of transport. To this end, an mRNA export assay has...Full Text Available
Molecular life science is one of the fastest-growing fields of scientific and technical innovation, and biotechnology has profound effects on many aspects of daily life—often with deep, ethical...Full Text Available
MWo = average molecular weight of fuel est. 105 g/mole for gasoline est. 165 g/mole for Jet fuel est. 230 g/mole for diesel fuel MWX = molecular weight of selected chemical...
One of the central questions of molecular biology is the discovery of the semantics of DNA. This discovery relies in a critical way on a variety of expensive computations. In order to solve these computations, both parallel computers and special-purpose hardware play a major role.
The molecular diversity of the gene encoding the outer membrane protein A (OmpA) of Haemophilus parasuis has been unclear. In this study, the structural characteristics, sequence types,...Full Text Available
BackgroundHealth risk from exposure of perfluorochemicals (PFCs) to wildlife and human has been a subject of great interest for understanding their molecular mechanism of toxicity....Full Text Available
Alpha-hemoglobin-stabilizing protein (AHSP) is an erythroid-specific protein that acts as a molecular chaperone for the free α chains of hemoglobin. Evidence strongly suggests...Full Text Available
The batchwise preparation of molecular sieves for methanol conversion shows some inconsistency in catalytic stability. This is a result mainly of the change of SiO/SUB/2/Al/SUB/2O/SUB/3 in ion exchange to an H-type sieve. The dealumination during ion exchange depends upon crystal size and structural factors, which can be characterised by the cyclohexane adsorption of the raw molecular sieve. A high SiO/SUB/2/Al/SUB/2O/SUB/3 H-molecular sieve can be prepared from a molecular sieve of high adsorption capacity, this leading to a catalyst of higher stability. (4 refs.)
Despite their simplicity, diatomic molecules of first row elements can exhibit very complex phase diagrams. Determination of the phase diagrams can be further complicated by the existence of hysteretic molecular phases that can be observed over large regions of coexistence. Here we present evidence for a previously unreported molecular phase of nitrogen existing at room temperature at least over the range of 33-74 GPa. Our measurements show that sample history may have a significant impact on the thermodynamic states accessed by the molecular nitrogen solid and, by extension, also on the established phase diagram.
Most of the investigations have a theoretical sustenance based on molecular simulation. The area of application of molecular simulation is very wide, in the Materials Technology Department assigned to the Applied Sciences Management have been treated problems about metallic nano structures, glasses, interfaces, and molecules, to sustain and to explain some of the experimental results. Energy calculations are carried out to determine minimum energy structures, for later on to carry out calculations of some of their properties; as well as the images simulation of Electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. (Author)
The elucidation on the metabolic products of the {sup 99}mTc-antibody conjugates may provide insights and approaches that would reduce the undesirable deposition of radioactive species in normal tissue. In this investigation, the radiolabeled species in blood, urine, bile and extracts of liver and kidney obtained at different times after the injection of a model antibody, {sup 99}mTc, into mice were analyzed with various chromatographic methods. Ninety-nine to 100% of the radioactivity in serum was associated with intact Mab 170. The radioactivity in liver homogenate extract was strictly protein-bound to either intact Mab or low molecular weight species (LMW). In kidney extracts, the majority of the radioactivity was protein bound {sup 99}mTc, with less than 8% of the activity being non- protein bound . Multiple {sup 99}mTc -containing protein and non-protein species were found in urine and bile. Evidence supporting the presence of {sup ...
Here we present evidence that in water/acetonitrile solvent detailed structural and dynamic information can be obtained for important proteins that are naturally present as oligomers under native conditions. An NMR-derived human insulin monomer structure in H{sub 2}O/CD{sub 3}CN, 65/35 vol%, pH 3.6 is presented and compared with the available X-ray structure of a monomer that forms part of a hexamer (Acta Crystallogr. 2003 Sec. D59, 474) and with NMR structures in water and organic cosolvent. Detailed analysis using PFGSE NMR, temperature-dependent NMR, dilution experiments and CSI proves that the structure is monomeric in the concentration and temperature ranges 0.1-3 mM and 10-30 deg. C, respectively. The presence of long-range interstrand NOEs, as found in the crystal structure of the monomer, provides the evidence for conservation of the tertiary structure. Starting from structures calculated by the program CYANA, two different molecular dynamics simulated ...
The structure and vibrational properties of high voltage cathode materials, namely LiNi{sub 1-y}CO{sub y}VO{sub 4} solid solution with (0{<=}y{<=}1), have been studied using X-ray diffraction, Raman scattering and FTIR measurements. Rietveld refinements show that LiNi{sub 1-y}Co{sub y}VO{sub 4} vanadates belong to the inverse spinel structure with Fd3m(O{sup 7}{sub h}) space group. Analysis of Raman spectra has been carried out in the molecular approximation using a local environment model including VO{sub 4} tetrahedra, (Ni, Co)O{sub 6} and LiO{sub 6} octahedra as vibrational local units. (orig.)
A class-V myosin, myosin V, one of 18 known classes of actin-based motor proteins, plays a role in transporting organelles within a cell. Unlike myosin-II, which functions as an assembly in the thick filaments of muscle, myosin V is a two-headed processive motor protein, which functions as a single molecule: myosin V performs many consecutive steps before it detaches from an actin filament accompanied by catalytic cycles of ATP (adenosine 5'-triphosphate) ase. The mechanism of such chemomechanical steps is explained by a 'Hand-over-hand model' in which two heads of myosin V alternately repeat single-headed and double-headed bindings with an actin filament. To investigate the binding state of myosin V at several key nucleotide states during ATP hydrolysis, we measured the mechanical properties of a single myosin V - actin complex by applying an external load with optical trap.
In this paper, molecular quantum computation is numerically studied with the quantum search algorithm (Grover's algorithm) by means of optimal control simulation. Qubits are implemented in the vibronic states of I_2, while gate operations are realized by optimally designed laser pulses. The methodological aspects of the simulation are discussed in detail. We show that the algorithm for solving a gate pulse-design problem has the same mathematical form as a state-to-state control problem in the density matrix formalism, which provides monotonically convergent algorithms as an alternative to the Krotov method. The sequential irradiation of separately designed gate pulses leads to the population distribution predicted by Grover's algorithm. The computational accuracy is reduced by the imperfect quality of the pulse design and by the electronic decoherence processes that are modeled by the non-Markovian master equation. However, as long as we focus ...
The surface coverage of amorphous silica gels used in the synthesis of silica polyamine composites has been investigated by 29Si NMR. By diluting the polyamine anchor silane, chloropropyl trichlorosilane, with methyl trichlorosilane it was found that surface coverage could be markedly improved for a range of amine polymers after grafting to the silica surface. The commensurate decrease in the number of anchor points and increase in the number of free amines results in an increase in metal capacity and/or an improvement in capture kinetics. Solid state CPMAS-13C NMR has been employed to investigate the structure and metal ion binding of a series of these composite materials. It is reported that the highly branched polymer, poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) exhibits much broader 13C NMR resonances than the linear polymers poly(allylamine) (PAA) and poly(vinylamine) (PVA). These results are understood in terms of the low energy conformations calculated from molecular ...
Skin sensitization is the most commonly reported occupational illness, causing much suffering to a wide range of people. Identification and labeling of environmental allergens is urgently required to protect people from skin sensitization. The guinea pig maximization test (GPMT) and murine local lymph node assay (LLNA) are the two most important in vivo models for identification of skin sensitizers. In order to reduce the number of animal tests, quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) are strongly encouraged in the assessment of skin sensitization of chemicals. This paper has investigated the skin sensitization potential of 162 compounds with LLNA results and 92 compounds with GPMT results using a support vector machine. A particle swarm optimization algorithm was implemented for feature selection from a large number of molecular descriptors calculated by Dragon. For the LLNA data set, the classification accuracies are 95.37% and ...
The phenomenology of wire chamber aging is discussed and fundamentals of proportional counters are presented. Free-radical polymerization and plasma polymerization are discussed. The chemistry of wire aging is reviewed. Similarities between wire chamber plasma (>1 atm dc-discharge) and low-pressure rf-discharge plasmas, which have been more widely studied, are suggested. Construction and use of a system to allow study of the plasma reactions occurring in wire chambers is reported. A proportional tube irradiated by an {sup 55}Fe source is used as a model wire chamber. Condensable species in the proportional tube effluent are concentrated in a cryotrap and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Several different wire chamber gases (methane, argon/methane, ethane, argon/ethane, propane, argon/isobutane) are tested and their reaction products qualitatively identified. For all gases tested except those containing methane, use of hygroscopic filters to ...
A class II atomistic force field with Lennard-Jones 6-9 nonbond interactions is used to investigate equations of state (EOS) for important high explosive detonation products N{sub 2} and H{sub 2}O in the temperature range 700-2500 K and pressure range 0.1-10 GPa. A standard 6th order parameter-mixing scheme is then employed to study a 2:1 (molar) H{sub 2}O:N{sub 2} mixture, to investigate in particular the possibility of phase-separation under detonation conditions. The simulations demonstrate several important results, including: (1) the accuracy of computed EOS for both N{sub 2} and H{sub 2}O over the entire range of temperature and pressure considered; (2) accurate mixing-demixing phase boundary as compared to experimental data; and (3) the departure of mixing free energy from that predicted by ideal mixing law. The results provide comparison and guidance to state-of-the-art chemical kinetic models.
A tertiary structure of recombinant A22^G-B31^K-B32^R-human insulin monomer (insulin GKR) has been characterized by ^1H, ^1^3C NMR at natural isotopic abundance using NOESY, TOCSY, ^1H/^1^3C-GHSQC, and ^1H/^1^3C-GHSQC-TOCSY spectra. Translational diffusion studies indicate the monomer structure in water/acetonitrile (65/35vol.%). CSI analysis confirms existence of secondary structure motifs present in human insulin standard (HIS). Both techniques allow to establish that in this solvent recombinant insulin GKR exists as a monomer. Starting from structures calculated by the program CYANA, two different refinement protocols used molecular dynamics simulated annealing with the program AMBER; in vacuum (AMBER_VC), and including a generalized Born solvent model (AMBER_GB). From these calculation...
This thesis consists of five chapters, each of which is a self-contained unit. The first chapter overviews methods for electronic-structure calculations. Chapter 2 introduces a new method to generate a rapidly converging configuration expansion. The approach iteratively combines (1) a least-squares fitting of a configuration expansion to a many-body wave function with (2) a transfer-matrix method for projecting out the ground state. Results are shown to be equivalent to multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock. Results from test calculations are given for a simple finite difference model of the helium atom. In Chapter 3 the use of the finite-element method in electronic structure calculations is discussed. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss developments in Monte Carlo methods based on Hubbard-Stratonovich transformations. Chapter 4 introduces a canonical ensemble formulation of the method, which is more appropriate than the usual grand canonical formulation for electronic structure. ...
Glypican-3 (GPC3), a membrane-bound heparan sulfate proteoglycan, is found to be overexpressed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the possible role of GPC3 in the development of HCC. In this study, RNA interference (RNAi) with a GPC3 small hairpin RNA (GPC3 shRNA) was used to identify the effects of GPC3 on the regulation of malignant behaviors of HCC. MHCC97-H, a highly metastatic human HCC cell line in which GPC3 mRNA and protein levels were detected as the highest among the 4 HCC cell lines assessed in this study, and was thus selected as a cell model for in vitro and in vivo experiments. The results showed that down-regulation of GPC3 can significantly inhibit the proliferative and invasive ability of MHCC97-H. Compared with the parental HCC cells, GPC3-silenced cells exhibited attenuated capacities in developing tumors in nude mice, while the growth of tumor xenografts derived from these cells dramatically ...
The inelastic energy losses for single collisions of Xe"+ ions with Xe targets have been measured for incident ion energies from 0.3 to 1.2 MeV and for scattering angles from 3"0 to 20"0. The energy losses were found to range from 1 to 11 keV with distinct steps at distances of closest approach of 0.22 and 0.12 A. By comparing these data with earlier ionization data by the same authors these steps are shown to be caused by M-shell excitation. Other excitations observed in the ionization data may be attributed to N-shell excitation. The distances of closest approach at which these excitations occur agree well with calculations by Eichler and Wille and co-workers, giving further evidence of the usefulness of Fano and Lichten's one-electron molecularmodel and these calculations.
Iron undergoes a polymorphic phase transformation from alpha phase (bcc) to the epsilon phase (hcp) when compressed to stresses exceeding 13 CPa. Bccause the epsilon phase is denser than the alpha phase, a single shock wave is unstable and breaks up into an elastic wave, a plastic wave, and a phase transition wave. Examination of this structured wave coupled with various phase transformation models has been used to indirectly examine the transition kinetics. Recently, multimillion atom simulations (molecular dynamics) have been used to examine the shock-induced transition in single crystal iron illustrating an orientation dependence of the transition stress, mechanisms, and kinetics. The objective of the current work was to perform plate impact experiments to examine the shock-response of polycrystalline and single crystal iron with nanosecond resolution for impact stresses spanning the {alpha} - {epsilon} transition. The current data reveal an ...
In the development of the specific mathematical modeling for heavy and ultra heavy petroleum fractions in a molecular distiller is very important the definition of physical and chemical parameters as density and specific heat of the mixture, the enthalpy of vaporization, among others, since they are used in the energy balance. Information on these properties and their variation with temperature are found in the open literature for mixture with few components (simple mixtures). However, for multicomponent solutions consisting of complex mixtures such as oil and its heavy and ultraheavy fractions, available data are few, or are limited to low temperatures. The specific heat is an important property in the energy balance. This property can be measured by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), which gives results with great sensitivity and accuracy. This paper presents the variation of specific heat with the temperature of ultra-heavy oil ...
A Langmuir film is a molecularly thin film on the surface of a fluid; we study the evolution of a Langmuir film with two co-existing fluid phases driven by an inter-phase line tension and damped by the viscous drag of the underlying subfluid. Experimentally, we study an 8CB Langmuir film via digitally-imaged Brewster Angle Microscopy (BAM) in a four-roll mill setup which applies a transient strain and images the response. When a compact domain is stretched by the imposed strain, it first assumes a bola shape with two tear-drop shaped reservoirs connected by a thin tether which then slowly relaxes to a circular domain which minimizes the interfacial energy of the system. We process the digital images of the experiment to extract the domain shapes. We then use one of these shapes as an initial condition for the numerical solution of a boundary-integral model of the underlying hydrodynamics and compare the subsequent images of the experiment to ...
The functioning of even a simple system is much more complicated than the sum of its genes, proteins and metabolites. A premise of systems biology is that molecular profiling will lead to the discovery and characterization of important disease pathways. However, as multiple levels of effector pathway regulation appear to be the norm rather than the exception, a significant challenge presented by high-throughput genomics and proteomics technologies is to extract the biological implications of complex data. Thus, integration of heterogeneous types of data generated from diverse global technology platforms represents the first challenge in developing the necessary foundational databases needed for predictive modeling of cell and tissue responses. Given the apparent difficulty in defining the correspondence between gene expression and protein abundance measured in several systems to date, how do we make sense of these data and design the next ...
To improve organic electronic applications, knowledge about microscopic mechanisms determining the charge carrier mobilities is pivotal. 9,10-Diphenylanthracene (DPA) has been identified as model system to study those correlations due to its high electron and hole mobilities at room temperature and its complex structural phase behaviour. We demonstrate our temperature dependent Time-Of-Flight data on single crystals grown by vapor phase transport (VPT) and by Bridgman growth technique. Both preparation techniques revealed crystals of different morphologies resulting in significant variations of the related bipolar mobilities. As a key result, the charge carrier mobility of {proportional_to}1 cm{sup 2}/Vs at room temperature along the (111)-direction of Bridgman crystals exceeds that along the (001)-direction of VPT grown crystals by about one order of magnitude. The observed differences in the mobility data are discussed in the context of the microscopic ...
Ex situ and in situ fuel cell degradation of a sPAEK membrane were investigated. Post-mortem analyses of the aged membrane and of the degradation products eluted in water were carried out by NMR, IR, SEC and EDX. Ex situ agings were performed in a low concentration H{sub 2}O{sub 2} solution (0.07%) without any metallic catalyst. We exemplify that ex situ accelerated aging tests in such hydrogen peroxide solution are relevant to the chemical degradation in fuel cell. We have shown that a 500 h fuel cell test at moderate temperature (60 C) induces significant modifications on the macromolecules such as a 40% molecular weight reduction. Degradation appears heterogeneous and limited to the cathode side. The model compound approach developed in the previous article (Perrot et al.) has allowed the identification of the aging path in fuel cell. Phenolic and carboxylic acid chain ends have been identified as the main products resulting from polymer ...
The deactivation rate of a resid hydrotreating catalyst is determined by a complex set of factors involving both chemical and physical changes in the catalyst structure. The various chemical changes that are associated with resid conversion involve thermal and catalytic steps of relatively large molecular weight species with the overall rates significantly affected by mass transfer limitations. The deposition of coke and the variation in the effective promoter level by the accumulation of metals deposited from the resid are the principal factors governing deactivation. The relative importance of mass transfer restrictions on activity and catalyst deactivation can be observed in studies where the average pore diameter of the catalyst has been varied. Several models have been proposed to characterize the deactivation of resid hydroprocessing catalysts. In this paper, the authors discuss some accelerated aging tests with a relatively large pore ...
Scheme of theoretical method of molecular configuration definition for small organic molecules in solution has been presented. The method bases on measurements of nuclear Overhauser effects for proton-proton interactions and molecular mechanics calculations. 3 refs, 1 fig.
It is anticipated that early in the next century manned missions into outer space will occur, with a mission to Mars scheduled between 2015 and 2020. However, before such missions can be undertaken, a realistic estimation of the potential risks to the flight crews is required. One of the uncertainties remaining in this risk estimation is that posed by the effects of exposure to the radiation environment of outer space. Although the composition of this environment is fairly well understood, the biological effects arising from exposure to it are not. The reasons for this are three-fold: (1) A small but highly significant component of the radiation spectrum in outer space consists of highly charged, high energy (HZE) particles which are not routinely experienced on earth, and for which there are insufficient data on biological effects; (2) Most studies on the biological effects of radiation to date have been high-dose, high dose-rate, whereas in space, with the exception of solar particle ...
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for separating high molecular weight molecules from low molecular weight molecules. More specifically, the invention relates to the use of microdialysis for removal of the salt (low molecular weight molecules) from a nucleotide sample (high molecular weight molecules) for ESI-MS analysis. The dialysis or separation performance of the present invention is improved by (1) increasing dialysis temperature thereby increasing desalting efficiency and improving spectrum quality; (2) adding piperidine and imidazole to the dialysis buffer solution and reducing charge states and further increasing detection sensitivity for DNA; (3) using low concentrations of dialysis buffer and shifting the DNA negative ions to higher charge states, producing a nearly 10-fold increase in detection sensitivity and a slightly decreased desalting efficiency, or (4) ...
The quality of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of proteins depends critically on the biomolecular force field that is used. Such force fields are defined by force-field parameter sets, which are generally determined and improved through calibration of properties of small molecules against experimental or theoretical data. By application to large molecules such as proteins, a new force-field parameter set can be validated. We report two 3.5 ns molecular dynamics simulations of hen egg white lysozyme in water applying the widely used GROMOS force-field parameter set 43A1 and a new set 45A3. The two MD ensembles are evaluated against NMR spectroscopic data NOE atom-atom distance bounds, {sup 3}J{sub NH{alpha}} and {sup 3}J{sub {alpha}}{sub {beta}} coupling constants, and {sup 1}5N relaxation data. It is shown that the two sets reproduce structural properties about equally well. The 45A3 ensemble fulfills the atom-atom distance bounds derived ...
There is very little known about the long-term evolution of the MHC and MHC-like molecules. This is because both the theory (the evolutionary questions and models) and the practice (the animals systems, functional assays and reagents to identify and characterize these molecules) have been difficult to develop. There is no molecular evidence yet to decide whether vertebrate immune systems (and particularly the MHC molecules) are evolutionarily related to invertebrate allorecognition systems, and the functional evidence can be interpreted either way. Even among the vertebrates, there is great heterogeneity in the quality and quantity of the immune response. The functional evidence for T-lymphocyte function in jawless and cartilagenous fish is poor, while the bony fish seem to have many characteristics of a mammalian immune system. The organization and sequence of fish Ig genes also indicate that important events in the evolution of the immune ...
The herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (HSV1-TK) reporter system is being used to directly and indirectly monitor therapeutic gene expression, immune cell trafficking and protein-protein interactions in various living animals. However, the issues of HSV1-TK enzyme stability in living cells and whether this reporter system is optimal for dynamic studies of gene expression events in genetic imaging have not be addressed. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the application of this reporter system in dynamic studies of transcriptional gene regulation. To achieve this purpose, we established two tetracycline-inducible murine sarcoma cell lines, tetracycline-turn-off HSV1-tk-expressing cell line (NG4TL4/tet-off-HSV1-tk) and tetracycline-turn-off Luc-expressing cell line (NG4TL4/tet-off-Luc), to create an artificially regulated gene expression model in vitro. The dynamic transcriptional events mediating a series of doxycycline (Dox) inductions were ...
Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 is a model environmental organism that possesses diverse respiratory capacities, including the ability to reduce soluble Cr(VI) to sparingly soluble, less toxic Cr(III). Effective bioremediation of Cr-contaminated sites requires knowledge of the molecular mechanisms and regulation of heavy metal resistance and biotransformation by dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria. Towards this goal, our ERSP-funded work is focused on the identification and functional analysis of genes/proteins comprising the response pathways for chromate detoxification and/or reduction. Previous transcriptomic profiling and whole-cell proteomic analyses implicated the involvement of a functionally undefined DNA-binding response regulator (SO2426) and a putative azoreductase (SO3585) in the chromate stress response of MR-1. Here we describe a detailed functional analysis of SO2426 and SO3585 in order to begin to understand the role of these ...
We present the first 3.8 {micro}m image of the dusty ring surrounding the young binary system GG Tau, obtained with the W. M. Keck II 10m telescope's adaptive optics system. THis is the longest wavelength at which the ring has been detected in scattered light so far, allowing a multi-wavelength analysis of the scattering proiperties of the dust grains present in this protoplanetary disk in combination with previous, shorter wavelengths, HST images. We find that the scattering phase function of the dust grains in the disk is only weakly dependent on the wavelength. This is inconsistent with dust models inferred from observations of the interstellar medium or dense molecular clouds. In particular, the strongly forward-throwing scattering phase function observed at 3.8 {micro}m implies a significant increase in the population of large ({approx}> 1 {micro}m) grains, which provides direct evidence for grain growth in the ring. ...
Singlet oxygen generators are multiphase flow chemical reactors used to generate energetic oxygen to be used as a fuel for chemical oxygen iodine lasers. In this paper, a theoretical model of the generator is presented along with its solutions over ranges of parameter space and oxygen maximizing optimizations. The singlet oxygen generator (SOG) is a low-pressure, multiphase flow chemical reactor that is used to produce molecular oxygen in an electronically excited state, i.e. singlet delta oxygen. The primary product of the reactor, the energetic oxygen, is used in a stage immediately succeeding the SOG to dissociate and energize iodine. The gas mixture including the iodine is accelerated to a supersonic speed and lased. Thus the SOG is the fuel generator for the chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL). The COIL has important application for both military purposes--it was developed by the US Air Force in the 1970s--and, as the infrared beam is ...
We present high-quality X-ray scattering experiments on pure water taken over a temperature range of 2 to 77 C using a synchrotron beam line at the advanced light source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The ALS X-ray scattering intensities are qualitatively different in trend of maximum intensity over this temperature range compared to older X-ray experiments. While the common procedure is to report both the intensity curve and radial distribution function(s), the proper extraction of the real-space pair correlation functions from the experimental scattering is very difficult due to uncertainty introduced in the experimental corrections, the proper weighting of OO, OH, and HH contributions, and numerical problems of Fourier transforming truncated data in Q-space. Instead, we consider the direct calculation of X-ray scattering spectra using electron densities derived from density functional theory based on real-space configurations generated with classical water ...
In this work the diffusion of ion-beam-injected self-interstitials (Is) and their interaction with impurities in crystalline Si are presented. In particular, the I penetration into a molecular beam epitaxy grown Si structure was studied by means of diffusion effects induced on B spikes, analyzed by a developed simulation code. Trapping effects at sample-surface and bulk are evidenced and modeled. The B marker approach was extended to the two-dimensional (2D) I-diffusion occurring as a consequence of ion implantation through a sub-micron dimension patterned oxide mask. I-source size effects on the I penetration have been found and modeled, quantitatively describing the 2D I-diffusion. The I-substitutional carbon interactions have been also studied, showing the C ability to effectively retain Is. The I-trapping mechanism was quantitatively studied by the simulation code, showing that one I is able to deactivate about two C ...
A new dirhenium(I) complex fac-[{Re(CO)3(4,7-dinonadecyl-1,10-phenanthro -line)}2 (4,4'-bipyridyl)] (trifluoromethanesulfonate)2 (denoted as D-Re(I) ) is assembled in MCM-41 and SBA-15 type mesoporous silica support. The emission peaks of D-Re(I) in D-Re(I)/MCM-41 and D-Re(I)/SBA-15 are observed at 522 and 517 nm, respectively. Their long excited lifetimes, which are of the order of microseconds, indicate the presence of phosphorescence emission arising from the metal to ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) transition. The luminescence intensities of D-Re(I)/MCM-41 and D-Re(I)/SBA-15 decrease remarkably with increase in the oxygen concentration, meaning that they can be used as optical oxygen sensing materials based on luminescence quenching. The ratios I0/I100 of D-Re(I)/MCM-41 and D-Re(I)/SBA-15 are estimated to be 5.6 and 20.1, respectively. The obtained Stern-Volmer oxygen quenching plots of the mesoporous sensing materials could be fitted well to the two-site Demas ...
Since 1988, the Expertise group of Molecular and Cellular Biology (MCB) is an important partner in the development of the Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELiSSA). The MELiSSA was designed to allow a small crew to survive on an Antarctic, lunar or Mars outpost, and is a joint research project currently fostered by the European Space Agency, ESA. The MELiSSA functions through a series of five interconnected compartments, of which four are microbial bioreactors and was engineered to degrade organic waste, regenerate the outpost's atmosphere and water, and provide the crew with an additional vegetarian diet. The bioreactor of the third compartment provides the edible cyanobacteria and plants of the fourth compartment with nitrate instead of ammonium as a source of nitrogen. The two bacteria responsible for the biological transformation of ammonium to nitrate (nitrification) are Nitrosomonas europaea and Nitrobacter winogradskyi. Since all ...
We report the arcsecond resolution SMA observations of the $^{12}$CO (2-1) transition in the massive cluster forming region G10.6-0.4. In these observations, the high velocity $^{12}$CO emission is resolved into individual outflow systems, which have a typical size scale of a few arcseconds. These molecular outflows are energetic, and are interacting with the ambient molecular gas. By inspecting the shock signatures traced by CH$_{3}$OH, SiO, and HCN emissions, we suggest that abundant star formation activities are distributed over the entire 0.5 pc scale dense molecular envelope. The star formation efficiency over one global free-fall timescale (of the 0.5 pc molecular envelope, $\\sim$10$^{5}$ years) is about a few percent. The total energy feedback of these high velocity outflows is higher than 10$^{47}$ erg, which is comparable to the total kinetic energy in the rotational motion of the dense ...
We describe a class of organic molecular magnets based on zwitterionic molecules (betaine derivatives) possessing donor, p bridge, and acceptor groups. Using extensive electronic structure calculations we show the electronic ground-state in these systems is magnetic. In addition, we show that the large energy differences computed for the various magnetic states indicate a high Neel temperature. The quantum mechanical nature of the magnetic properties originates from the conjugated p bridge (only p electrons) in cooperation with the molecular donor-acceptor character. The exchange interactions between electron spin are strong, local, and independent on the length of the p bridge.
The thermodynamic characteristics of adsorption of iodobenzene, 2-iodothiophene, and 1- and 2-iodoadamantanes on the surface of graphitized thermal carbon black were determined experimentally. The influence of the special features of the molecular structure of the adsorbates on the thermodynamic characteristics of adsorption was studied. The atom-atom approximation of the semiempirical molecular-statistical theory of adsorption was used to calculate the thermodynamic characteristics of adsorption of the adsorbates using the newly determined potential function parameters of pair intermolecular interaction (?(r)) of I with C atoms of the basal graphite face. For the example of isostructural monohalogenated benzenes, thiophenes, and adamantanes, a comparative analysis of the contributions of ...
The first candidate rotavirus vaccine was a live attenuated oral vaccine made by the classical empirical method of serial passage of virus in tissue culture cells. Current tetravalent vaccine candidates that are in the final stages of efficacy testing in the United States were made by genetic reassortment. This article briefly highlights how advances in the basic understanding of the molecular biology of rotaviruses have facilitated vaccine development. New approaches for second-generation vaccines and improvements in vaccine efficacy based on further exploitation of the tools and knowledge of rotavirus molecular biology and pathogenesis are discussed. PMID:8752289
Ultraviolet photoelectron spectra were measured for vanadyl phthalocyanine (VOPc) ultrathin films prepared on graphite to study effects of the molecular orientation and the electric dipole layer on the organic electronic states. VOPc has a permanent electric dipole perpendicular to the molecular plane, hence a well-defined electric dipole layer could be intentionally prepared by using the oriented monolayer. The observed binding-energy difference of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) bands between the oriented monolayer and the double layer was found to agree with the vacuum level shift, leading to a conclusion that the molecular energy level with respect to the substrate Fermi level is changed when the molecule is in the electric dipole layer.
The receptor-associated protein (RAP) is a molecular chaperone that binds tightly to certain newly synthesized LDL receptor family members in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and facilitates their delivery...Full Text Available
The molecular structure, chemical properties, and biological function of the xyloglucan polysaccharide isolated from cell walls of suspension-cultured sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus)...Full Text Available
For a process intimately connected to an immense range of physiological processes, the molecular understanding of macroautophagy remains far from complete. Recent large-scale studies, including...Full Text Available
ConspectusSelf-assembly allows for the preparation of highly complex molecular and supramolecular systems from relatively simple starting materials. Typically, self-assembled...Full Text Available
BackgroundOrthology analysis is an important part of data analysis in many areas of bioinformatics such as comparative genomics and molecular phylogenetics. The ever-increasing flood...Full Text Available
The use of Funtumia latex and nitrobenzene as molecular weight depressants for natural rubber was studied. Portions of a given sample of natural rubber latex were treated with these materials, and this provided a means of ascertaining the amount of Funtumia latex in a blend with natural rubber that could produce a lowering of the molecular weight equivalent to that from known concentrations of nitrobenzene in natural rubber latex. The molecular weight of the products decreased to an equilibrium value after 10 h of reaction with nitrobenzene. The calculations revealed that a 27.9% substitution of natural rubber latex (300 mL) with Funtumia rubber latex achieved the same result as nitrobenzene in the same polymer at concentrations of 0.5-2.0 wt % of the dry rubber content of the latex after ...
Orphan G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are receptors lacking endogenous ligands. Found by molecular biological analyses, they became the roots of reverse pharmacology, in which receptors are attempted...Full Text Available
A new method of the synthesis of high molecular polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) is developed with the use of Irganox 1010, tris(nonylphenyl) phosphite and hypophosphite as stabilizers and boron nitride or boron oxide as a catalyst is proposed.
Comparative Molecular Genetic Monitoring of Myxoviruses Circulating in Populations of Seals Phoca Caspia and Phoca Sibirica in Northern Caspian Region and Lake Baikal
... Here we will summarize the synthesis, structure activity relationships , and molecular sites of action of mGluR5 PAMs. We will also review preclinical studies ...
These proceedings collect papers on the subject of lymphokines. Topics include: DNA-cloning of mouse and human lymphokine genes, inteferons, interleukins, gene expression, tumor necrosis factors, and recombinant DNA.
Cellular actions of thyroid hormone may be initiated within the cell nucleus, at the plasma membrane, in cytoplasm, and at the mitochondrion. Thyroid hormone nuclear receptors (TRs) mediate the biological...Full Text Available
BackgroundMolecular genetic studies of Bombyx mori have led to profound advances in our understanding of the regulation of development. Bombyx mori brain,...Full Text Available
We investigate the magnetic braking of the core of an axisymmetric cloud whose rotation axis is parallel to the mean direction of the magnetic field. (author).
The Liver Carcinogenesis Section uses the modern technologies of molecular biology, cell biology, protein chemistry and genetics to investigate the biochemical and genetic pathways involved in human liver cancer.
To establish a relationship between the molecular structure of polycarboxylates and their growth-retarding influence on barium sulfate, seeded-suspension-growth experiments were performed at various inhibitor concentrations and pH values. Two types of polycarboxylates with a molecular structure based on their polyacrylic or maleic acid were studied. The molecular structure of these compounds were varied by particle substitution with monomers containing hydroxyl, amide, and sulfonic acid, as well as hydrophobic groups. Hydrophobic groups are detrimental to good inhibitor performance, whereas the introduction of OH, NH {sub 2}, or SO {sub 3} H groups presents opportunities to enhance the inhibitor effectiveness. The sequence in performance of the compounds on barium sulfate was compared with the sequence formerly obtained for calcium sulfate dihydrate.
The nitric oxide molecule is being studied in order to understand the energetics and chemistry of initiation and detonation in liquid NO at the molecular level. An overview is presented of the work being done. (DLC)
Advances in modern neuroscience require the identification of principles that connect different levels of experimental analysis, from molecular mechanisms to explanations of cellular functions,...Full Text Available
We investigate the chemical and observational implications of repetitive transient dense core formation in molecular clouds. We allow a transient density fluctuation to form and disperse over a period of 1 Myr, tracing its chemical evolution. We then allow the same gas immediately to undergo further such formation and dispersion cycles. The chemistry of the dense gas in subsequent cycles is similar to that of the first, and a limit cycle is reached quickly (2 - 3 cycles). Enhancement of hydrocarbon abundances during a specific period of evolution is the strongest indicator of previous dynamical history. The molecular content of the diffuse background gas in the molecular cloud is expected to be strongly enhanced by the core formation and dispersion process. Such enhancement may remain for as long as 0.5 Myr. The frequency of repetitive core formation should strongly determine the level of background ...
The biosynthesis of insect juvenile hormone (JH) and its neuroendocrine control are attractive targets for chemical control of insect pests and vectors of disease. To facilitate the molecular...Full Text Available
Mutations in the Drosophila gene drop-dead (drd) result in early adult lethality and neurodegeneration, but the molecular identity of the drd...Full Text Available
Aggregatibacter (Actinobacillus) actinomycetemcomitans is a facultative anaerobic gram-negative bacterium associated with severe forms of periodontitis. A leukotoxin, which belongs...Full Text Available
Physiological bone remodeling is a highly coordinated process responsible for bone resorption and formation and is necessary to repair damaged bone and to maintain mineral homeostasis. In addition to...Full Text Available
The inhibitor action of unbranched polyamines on corrosion of low-carbon steel in 0.5 M sulfuric acid is studied through potentiostatic polarization curves. It is shown that the inhibitor efficiency I depends on the polyamine concentration and molecular structure. The quantum-mechanical calculations of molecular properties are accomplished through the MNDO method. Correlation between the measured I and physicochemical properties of the polyamine inhibitors in protonized and nonprotonized form is found with application of the general perturbation theory
...) Abstract: Fluorescence microscopic imaging is widely used in biomedical research to study molecular and cellular processes in cell culture or tissue samples. This is motivated by the high inherent sensitivity of fluorescence techniques, the spatial resolution that compares favorably with cellular dimensions, the stability of the fluorescent labels used and the sophisticated strategies that have been developed for selectively labeling target molecules. More recently, two and ...
Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-{gamma} (PPAR{gamma}) regulates metabolic homeostasis and adipocyte differentiation, and it is activated by oxidized and nitrated fatty acids. Here we report the crystal structure of the PPAR{gamma} ligand binding domain bound to nitrated linoleic acid, a potent endogenous ligand of PPAR{gamma}. Structural and functional studies of receptor-ligand interactions reveal the molecular basis of PPAR{gamma} discrimination of various naturally occurring fatty acid derivatives.
Chapter 5, describes some of the most important molecular methods used in the study of chromosome structure and function. The methods discussed include fragmentation of DNA, cloning, flow cytometry and chromosome sorting, is situ hybridization, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs). 18 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab.
Molecular dynamics computer simulations of a dense nanocrystalline Nickel sample are performed on the parallel Cray T3 (EPFL-Lausanne). The sample contains 50 grains with an average size of 3 nm. By perturbing the relaxed configuration elastic and plastic properties are studied. (author) 1 fig., 1 ref.
The objective of this project is the development of a new class of metalloporphyrin materials used as catalsyts for use in fuel cell applications. The metalloporphyrins are excellent candidates for use as catalysts at both the anode and cathode. The catalysts reduce oxygen in 1 M potassium hydroxide, as well as in 2 M sulfuric acid. Covalent attachment to carbon supports is being investigated. The computer-aided molecular design is an iterative process, in which experimental results feed back into the design of future catalysts.
Stabilized silver particles comprise particles comprising silver, a short-chain capping agent adsorbed on the particles, and a long-chain capping agent adsorbed on the particles. The short-chain capping agent is a first anionic polyelectrolyte having a molecular weight (Mw) of at most 10,000, and the long-chain capping agent is a second anionic polyelectrolyte having a molecular weight (Mw) of at least 25,000. The stabilized silver particles have a solid loading of metallic silver of at least 50 wt %.
Most chemical reactions in industry and biology are catalytic and play a role at some stage of the processing of about 80% of the goods manufactured in the U.S., yet catalysis is a neglected subject in chemical education. This book integrates the fragmentary treatment accorded the topic until now. It covers, in a unified way, catalysis in solutions, by enzymes, in synthetic polymers within the molecular scale cages of zeolites and other molecular sieves, and on surfaces of inorganic solids. The central ideas are chemical; and principles are illustrated by emphasizing industrial reactions and catalysts.
In ab initio molecular dynamics, whenever information about the potential energy surface is needed for integrating the equations of motion, it is computed 'on the fly' using electronic structure calculations. For Born-Oppenheimer methods, the electronic structure calculations are converged, whereas in the extended Lagrangian approach the electronic structure is propagated along with the nuclei. Some recent advances for both approaches are discussed.
The Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on 2004 Gordon Research Conference on Reversible Associations in Structure & Molecular Biology was held at Four Points Sheraton, CA, 1/25-30/2004. The Conference was well attended with 82 participants (attendees list attached). The attendees represented the spectrum of endeavor in this field coming from academia, industry, and government laboratories, both U.S. and foreign scientists, senior researchers, young investigators, and students.
We have used the SINFONI integral field spectrograph to map the near-infrared K-band emission lines of molecular and ionised hydrogen in the central regions of two cool core galaxy clusters, Abell 2597 and Sersic 159-03. Gas is detected out to 20 kpc from the nuclei of the brightest cluster galaxies and found to be distributed in clumps and filaments around it. The ionised and molecular gas phases trace each other closely in extent and dynamical state. Both gas phases show signs of interaction with the active nucleus. Within the nuclear regions the kinetic luminosity of this gas is found to be somewhat smaller than the current radio luminosity. Outside the nuclear region the gas has a low velocity dispersion and shows smooth velocity gradients. There is no strong correlation between the intensity of the molecular and ionised gas emission and either the radio or X-ray emission. The molecular gas in Abell ...
BackgroundBiodiesel or ethanol derived from lipids or starch produced by microalgae may overcome many of the sustainability challenges previously ascribed to petroleum-based fuels and first generation plant-based biofuels. The paucity of microalgae genome sequences, however, limits gene-based biofuel feedstock optimization studies. Here we describe the sequencing and de novo transcriptome assembly for the non-model microalgae species, Dunaliella tertiolecta, and identify pathways and genes of importance related to biofuel production.ResultsNext generation DNA pyrosequencing technology applied to D. tertiolecta transcripts produced 1,363,336 high quality reads with an average length of 400 bases. Following quality and size trimming, ~ 45% of the high quality reads were assembled into 33,307 isotigs with a 31-fold coverage and 376,482 singletons. Assembled sequences and singletons were subjected to BLAST similarity searches and annotated with Gene Ontology (GO) and ...
In this paper we discuss the results of thermoluminescence (TL) studies carried out on freshly quenched crystals of KBr doped with {approx} 50 ppm of Eu{sup 2+} ions which were X-irradiated at room temperature. The TL glow curve of this phosphor material consists of three glow peaks at 355, 376 and 398 K whose intensities increased as a function of X-irradiation time. The TL glow peaks were analyzed by the total curve-fitting method in order to obtain the characteristic parameters; activation energy, pre-exponential factor and kinetic order. The spectral character of the emission recorded during thermoluminescence was found to be the same for all glow peaks and consists of a broad band centered at {approx} 420 nm. It is proposed that the model of the TL process most consistent with our experimental results is one in which the Eu{sup 2+} impurity acts as an electron trap during the irradiation process and that the radiation induced center (partner of an center) and ...
In this paper we discuss the results of thermoluminescence (TL) studies carried out on freshly quenched crystals of KBr doped with #approx# 50 ppm of Eu"2"+ ions which were X-irradiated at room temperature. The TL glow curve of this phosphor material consists of three glow peaks at 355, 376 and 398 K whose intensities increased as a function of X-irradiation time. The TL glow peaks were analyzed by the total curve-fitting method in order to obtain the characteristic parameters; activation energy, pre-exponential factor and kinetic order. The spectral character of the emission recorded during thermoluminescence was found to be the same for all glow peaks and consists of a broad band centered at #approx# 420 nm. It is proposed that the model of the TL process most consistent with our experimental results is one in which the Eu"2"+ impurity acts as an electron trap during the irradiation process and that the radiation induced center (partner of an center) and the V_k ...
The entrapment of proteins using the sol-gel route provides a means to retain its native properties and artificially reproduce the molecular crowding and confinement experienced by proteins in the cell allowing investigation of the physico-chemical and structural properties of biomolecules at the biotic/abiotic interface. The biomolecules are spatially separated and 'caged' in the gel structure but solutes can freely permeate the matrix. Thus, properties such as the folding of ensembles of individual molecules can be examined in the absence of aggregation effects that can occur in solution studies. Green fluorescent protein from Aequorea coerulescens was used as a model protein to examine the unfolding/re-folding properties of protein in silica gels. The recombinant protein was isolated and purified from Escherichia coli extracts by cell lysis, three-phase partitioning, dialysis, and anion exchange chromatography. The purity ...
We report on the effect of potato maltodextrins with variable dextrose equivalent (Paselli SA-2, SA-6 and SA-10) on the surface behavior at the air-water interface of the mixture: legumin+small-molecule surfactant. Distinct in nature small-molecule surfactants (model: sodium salt of capric acid, Na-caprate; and commercially important: a citric acid ester of monoglyceride, CITREM) have been under our consideration. The role of the structure of both of the maltodextrins and the small-molecule surfactants in the effect studied has been elucidated by measurements in a bulk aqueous medium of the enthalpy of their interaction from mixing calorimetry, value of weight average molecular weight of the maltodextrins and the thermodynamics of the pair maltodextrin-solvent and maltodextrin-protein interactions from laser static light scattering. The combined data of mixing calorimetry and light scattering suggest some complex formation between the ...
Si/Pd-based contact schemes based on the solid phase regrowth (SPR) principle have been developed to form low resistance ohmic contacts to n type Al{sub 0.5}In{sub 0.5}P and Ga{sub 0.5}In{sub 0.5}P lattice matched to GaAs grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy (GSMBE). Lowest contact resistivities of {approximately} 6 {times} 10{sup {minus}6} {Omega}-cm{sup 2} and {approximately} 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}5} {Omega}-cm{sup 2} have been obtained on Al{sub 0.5}In{sub 0.5}P and Ga{sub 0.5}In{sub 0.5}P respectively (both doped to {approximately} 2 {times} 10{sup 18} cm{sup {minus}3}). In this article, the electrical properties and the ohmic contact formation model of the Si/Pd-based contacts to n-Al{sub 0.5}In{sub 0.5}P and n-Ga{sub 0.5}In{sub 0.5}P are presented.
In situ assembly states of rat adipocyte glucose transport protein in plasma membrane (PM) and in microsomal pool (MM) were assessed by measuring target size (TS) of D glucose-sensitive, cytochalasin B binding activity. High energy radiation inactivated the binding in both PM and MM by reducing the total capacity of the binding (B/sub T/) without affecting the dissociation constant (K/sub D/). The reduction in B/sub T/ as a function of radiation dose was analyzed based on classical target theory, from which TS was calculated. TS in the PM of insulin-treated adipocytes was 58 KDa. TS in the MM of noninsulin-treated and insulin-treated adipocytes were 112 and 109 KDa, respectively. With MM, however, inactivation data showed anomalously low radiation sensitivities at low radiation doses showing a shoulder in the semilog plots, which may be due to an interaction with a radiation sensitive inhibitor. With these results, they propose the following model: Adipocyte ...
Quantitative digital imaging, using planar laser light scattering techniques is being developed for the analysis of turbulent and reacting flows. Quantitative image data, implying both a direct relation to flowfield variables as well as sufficient signal and spatial dynamic range, can be readily processed to yield two-dimensional distributions of flowfield scalars and in turn two-dimensional images of gradients and turbulence scales. Much of the development of imaging techniques to date has concentrated on understanding the requisite molecular spectroscopy and collision dynamics to be able to determine how flowfield variable information is encoded into the measured signal. From this standpoint the image is seen as a collection of single point measurements. The present effort aims at realizing necessary improvements in signal and spatial dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratio and spatial resolution in the imaging system as well as developing excitation/detection ...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are combustion products of organic materials, mixtures of which contain multiple known and probable human carcinogens. PAHs occur in indoor and outdoor air, as well as in char-broiled meats and fish. Human exposure to PAHs occurs by inhalation, ingestion and topical absorption, and subsequently formed metabolites are either rendered hydrophilic and excreted, or bioactivated and bound to cellular macromolecules. The formation of PAH-DNA adducts (DNA binding products), considered a necessary step in PAH-initiated carcinogenesis, has been widely studied in experimental models and has been documented in human tissues. This review describes immunohistochemistry (IHC) studies, which reveal localization of PAH-DNA adducts in human tissues, and semi-quantify PAH-DNA adduct levels using the Automated Cellular Imaging System (ACIS). These studies have shown that PAH-DNA adducts concentrate in: basal and supra-basal epithelium of the ...
Patients suffering from depression frequently display hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) resulting in elevated cortisol levels. One main symptom of this condition is anhedonia. There is evidence that exercise training can be used as a rehabilitative intervention in the treatment of depressive disorders. In this scenario, the aim of the present study was to assess the effect of an aerobic exercise training protocol on the depressive-like behavior, anhedonia, induced by repeated dexamethasone administration. The study was carried out on adult male Wistar rats randomly divided into four groups: the "control group" (C), "exercise group" (E), "dexamethasone group" (D) and the "dexamethasone plus exercise group" (DE). The exercise training consisted of swimming (1 h/d, 5 d/wk) for 3 weeks, with an overload of 5% of the rat body weight. Every day rats were injected with either dexamethasone (D/DE) or saline solution (C/E). Proper positive controls, using ...
We have developed a kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulator that links atomic migration and binding energies determined primarily from first principles calculations to macroscopic phenomena and laboratory time scales. Input for the kMC simulation is obtained from a combination of ab initio planewave pseudopotential calculations, molecular dynamics simulations, and experimental data. The simulator is validated against an extensive series of experimental studies of the diffusion of B spikes in self-implanted Si. The implant energy, dose, and dose rate, as well as the detailed thermal history of the sample, are included. Good agreement is obtained with the experimental data for temperatures between 750 and 950 C and times from 15 to 255 s. At 1050o C we predict too little diffusion after 105 s compared to experiment: apparently, some mechanism which is not adequately represented by our model becomes important at this temperature. Below 1050o C, the ...
Efforts to assess and quantify deleterious effects from toxicants concentrate mainly on single agents whereas real world environmental and occupational exposures to natural and anthropogenic agents entail quite often the concomitant presence of several toxicants. For occupational important exposure situations, combined exposures to physical and chemical agents such as radon and smoking or asbestos and smoking, respectively, were shown to produce over-additive effects at exposure levels typical for earlier workplaces. Already the elucidation of possible health risks from a single agents, its dependence on exposure level, exposure rates, age at exposure and its expression in time is a complex endeavour. Therefore in the past and the present the main emphasis in radiation protection, toxicology, and public health is on the study and assessment of single toxicants. The existing data base on combined effect is rudimentary, mainly descriptive and rarely covers exposure ranges large enough to ...
Abstract High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), a damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) molecules, favors tissue regeneration via recruitment and activation of leukocytes and stem cells. Here we demonstrate, in a model of acute sterile muscle injury, that regeneration is accompanied by active reactive oxygen species (ROS) production counterbalanced and overcome by the generation of antioxidant moieties. Mitochondria are initially responsible for ROS formation. However, they undergo rapid disruption with almost complete disappearance. Twenty-four hours after injury, we observed a strong induction of MURF1 and atrogin-1 ubiquitin ligases, key signals in activation of the proteasome system and induction of muscle atrophy. At later time points, ROS generation is maintained by nonmitochondrial sources. The antioxidant response occurs in both regenerating fibers and leukocytes that express high levels of free thiols and antioxidant enzymes, such as ...
In this paper, the effects of surface mediation on the adsorption isotherm and isosteric heat of adsorption on a graphite surface were investigated, as the surface mediation is known to affect the intermolecular interaction of adsorbed molecules close to the surface. Kim and Steele (Phys. Rev. B 45 (11) (1992) 6226-6233) and others have assumed that the surface mediation is confined only to the first layer. This will be tested in this paper with a combined experimental and Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulation of adsorption of argon on graphitized thermal carbon black (GTCB) over a range of temperatures (77-95.25K). By matching the simulation results against the experimental data, we have found that the surface mediation is extended up to the fourth layer, rather than only the first as suggested by Kim and Steele, and the extent of this mediation is reduced with distance from the surface. This reinforces the important role of surface on the intermolecular interaction. With ...
Findings indicate an urgent need to establish a monitoring program for persistent organic pollutants in water and sediment. - Marine culture is thriving in China and represents a major component of the regional economy in coastal zones, yet the environmental quality of many of those areas has never been studied. This paper attempts to investigate the quality status of Daya Bay, a key aquaculture area in China. The levels of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined in water and sediment samples of the bay. The total concentrations of 16 PAHs varied from 4228 to 29325 ng l"-"1 in water, and from 115 to 1134 ng g"-"1 dry weight in sediments. In comparison to many other marine systems studied, the PAH levels in Daya Bay waters were relatively high, and at six sites they were sufficiently high (>10 #mu#g l"-"1) to cause acute toxicity. The PAH composition pattern in sediments suggest dominance by medium to high molecular weight compounds, and the ...
The aim for deterministic control of the interactions between macroions in aqueous media has motivated widespread experimental and theoretical work. Although it has been well established that like-charged macromolecules can aggregate under the influence of oppositely charged condensing agents, the specific conditions for the stability of such aggregates can only be determined empirically. We examine these conditions, which involve an interplay of electrostatic and osmotic effects, by using a well defined model system composed of F-actin, an anionic rod-like polyelectrolyte, and lysozyme, a cationic globular protein with a charge that can be genetically modified. The structure and stability of actin-lysozyme complexes for different lysozyme charge mutants and salt concentrations are examined by using synchrotron x-ray scattering and molecular dynamics simulations. We provide evidence that supports a structural transition from columnar ...
Combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy (CRC) is actually one important way of research in oncology. Theoretical advantages are: (1) Spatial cooperation; (2) Additivity, which is only obtained if the toxicity of each modality are different; (3) Supra-additivity, which needs a rigorous in vitro definition; the only way to prove it is to make an isobologram analysis. This model has however, some limitations: qualitative variable could not be used, results could be different, depending on the cell line and isoeffect chosen...In fact, a supra-additivity was only demonstrated for cis platinum and etoposide. Interactions mechanisms were: (1) at the molecular level, creation of new lesions or inhibition of radiation lesions repair; (2) At the cellular level, either cytokinetic cooperation with S-phase dependent drugs, or synchronization for the drugs which blocked the cells in M-phase; (3) At the tissular level, reoxygenation, cycle ...
Progress reports are presented for the following two areas: catalytic cracking studies with water-wet silica-alumina catalysts; and Fischer-Tropsch reactor studies where similarities and differences between fixed bed and slurry type reactors are investigated and further experiments conducted to measure mass transfer coefficients and reaction kinetics which are to be used in a model slurry reactor. The following are some of the conclusions. (1) The premise that the presence of liquid water might increase catalytic cracking activity was found to be invalid. It was demonstrated that cracking can occur at previously unobserved low temperatures (though at low conversions) and that an anomaly exists in that one of the catalysts tested shows an entirely different cracking behavior and probably follows a different cracking mechanism. (2) the diameter of a fixed-bed Fischer-Tropsch reactor critically affected the resistance of the reactor to plugging caused by the build up ...
A Task Group of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) has finished a report Biological Effects after Prenatal Irradiation (Embryo and Fetus) which has been approved by the Main Commission and Will be Published. Some new important scientific data shall be discussed in this contribution. During the preimplantation period lethality of the mammalian embryo is the dominating radiation effect. However, in mouse strains with genetic predispositions it has been shown that also malformations can be caused. This effect is genetically determined and its mechanisms is different from the induction of malformations during major organogenesis. Radiation exposures during this prenatal period leads ato an increase of genomic instability of cells in the normal appearing fetuses. These radiation effects can be transmitted to the next generation. A renewed analysis of individuals with severe mental retardation after exposures during the 8th to 15th week post conception in ...
There are five tasks within this project on thermally stable coal-based jet fuels. Progress on each of the tasks is described. Task 1, Investigation of the quantitative degradation chemistry of fuels, has 5 subtasks which are described: Literature review on thermal stability of jet fuels; Pyrolytic and catalytic reactions of potential endothermic fuels: cis- and trans-decalin; Use of site specific {sup 13}C-labeling to examine the thermal stressing of 1-phenylhexane: A case study for the determination of reaction kinetics in complex fuel mixtures versus model compound studies; Estimation of critical temperatures of jet fuels; and Surface effects on deposit formation in a flow reactor system. Under Task 2, Investigation of incipient deposition, the subtask reported is Uncertainty analysis on growth and deposition of particles during heating of coal-derived aviation gas turbine fuels; under Task 3, Characterization of solid gums, sediments, and carbonaceous deposits, ...
In this thesis, increased hemicellulose retention during kraft pulping has been studied. The work has been divided into three parts: i) Development of an accessible and reliable method for determination of carbohydrate composition of kraft pulps ii) Investigation of the composition and molecular mass distributions of the carbohydrates in kraft pulps with increased hemicellulose content iii) Investigation of the effect of increased hemicellulose content on the sheet properties of kraft pulps with increased hemicellulose content. A method for carbohydrate determination was developed. In this method, enzymes are used to hydrolyse the pulp into monosaccharides. A relatively mild acid hydrolysis is performed prior to detection on an HPLC with an RI-detector. The pulp is not derivatized and no pre-treatment (mechanical or chemical) is needed to determine the carbohydrate composition using the method developed here. Peak deconvolution software is used to improve the ...
The analysis of oceanographic lidar systems measurements is often carried out with semi-empirical methods, since there is only a rough understanding of the effects of many environmental variables. The development of techniques for interpreting the accuracy of lidar measurements is needed to evaluate the effects of various environmental situations, as well as of different experimental geometric configurations and boundary conditions. A Monte Carlo simulation model represents a tool that is particularly well suited for answering these important questions. The PREMAR-2F Monte Carlo code has been developed taking into account the main molecular and non-molecular components of the marine environment. The laser radiation interaction processes of diffusion, re-emission, refraction and absorption are treated. In particular are considered: the Rayleigh elastic scattering, produced by atoms and molecules with small dimensions with ...
A series of novel triazolinones were synthesized and their structures were characterized by 1H NMR, elemental analysis and single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The herbicidal activities were evaluated against Echinochloa crusgalli (L.) Beauv., Digitaria adscendens, Brassica napus and Amaranthus retroflexus. The herbicidal activity data indicated that the title compounds had higher activities with substituted benzyl group moieties than with other groups such as sulfonyl, alkyl, etc. To further investigate the structure-activity relationship, comparative molecular field analysis was performed on the basis of herbicidal activity data. Both the steric and electronic field distributions of comparative molecular field analysis are in good agreement in this work. The results showed that a b...
Globodera rostochiensis and Globodera pallida are parasitic root cyst nematodes of potato (PCN), which significantly reduce yield and quality. The genetics and available molecular markers should make resistance to nematodes an excellent candidate for marker assisted selection. The study presents results of testing the suitability of known molecular markers for detection of resistance in a set of cultivars. We revealed some inconsistencies in genealogical data of the cultivars and showed inconsistent usefulness in detecting resistant cultivars. The marker TG689 was identified in almost all cultivars resistant to G. rostochiensis and together with other markers was used for verifying the resistance in a group of breeding lines. The marker TG689 was the most effective. However, the efficiency...
The first year of this effort was focussed on the following broad objectives: (1) Analyze the molecular types present in shale oil (as a function of molecular weight distribution); (2) Determine the behavior of these molecular types in liquid-liquid extraction; (3) Develop the analytical tools needed to systematize the process development; (4) Survey the markets to assure that these have high value uses for the types found in shale oil; (5) Explore selective process means for extracting/converting shale oil components into concentrates of potentially marketable components; (6) Compile overview of the venture development strategy and begin implementation of that strategy. Each of these tasks has been completed in sufficient detail that we can now focus on filling in the knowledge gaps evident from the overview.
This contribution is an informal essay based on a talk delivered at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) in Minneapolis, under the summer program in molecular biology, July 18-22, 1994. I exclude many technical details, which can be found elsewhere, and instead focus on the basic ideas of molecular dynamics simulations, with the goal of conveying to students and non-specialists the key concepts of the theory and practice of large-scale simulations. Following a description of the basic idea in molecular dynamics, I discuss some of the practical details involved in simulations of large biological molecules, the numerical timestep problem, and approaches to this problem based on implicit-integration techniques. I end with a perspective of open challenges in the field and directions for future research. 79 refs., 6 figs., 1 tab.
Abstract The air-water interface presents several interesting features, namely a) a molecularly flat environment, b) a boundary region between two phases with different dielectric constants, c) permits or promotes dynamic interactions within the interface region, and d) a point of interaction between hydrophobic compounds and aqueous molecules. Accordingly, Langmuir monolayers at the air-water interface have several unique characteristics and properties, which require investigation. In this review-type personal account, typical examples of molecular recognition and molecular patterning at air-water interfaces are first introduced, followed by descriptions of specific and unusual properties of monolayers on water. In addition, two examples of our own results concerning Langmuir monolayers a...
This paper reviews the molecular biology of the renin-angiotensin system. The renin gene structure is analyzed in detail, including an examination of the putative regulatory regions. The combined action of these regulatory sequences would result in the complex, tissue-specific expression and regulation observed in vivo. The expression of the tissue renin-angiotensin systems, which may have important physiological functions, is also described. In addition, the pathway of renin biosynthesis and secretion is reviewed. This includes speculation on the fate of circulating prorenin and the physiological role of multiple renin forms and secretory pathways. The molecular approaches described in this paper have greatly advanced our knowledge of the biology of the renin-angiotensin system. Future studies using these and other approaches should provide further insight into this complex system.
The interfaces between metal electrodes and electroactive organic materials are important for the performance of organic electronic devices. One way of optimizing the anode/organic interface is the insertion of a (sub-)monolayer of molecular acceptors. Here we present an UPS study of new electron acceptor molecules deposited on Au(111), Cu(111) and Ag(111). This study intends to improve the understanding of how the interactions of specific electron withdrawing groups with metal surfaces are correlated with observed modifications of interfacial electron density distribution, work function change ({delta}{phi}), and the energy level alignment. We find that {delta}{phi}, which is the difference between the work function ({phi}) of the clean metal surface and {phi} after formation of a molecular monolayer, is a monotonic function of initial {phi} of the metal. Two different slopes were observed for acceptors with cyano and those with keto or nitro ...
The results of following the oxidative degradation of a plastic-bonded explosive (PBX 9501) are reported. Into over 1100 sealed containers were placed samples of PBX 9501 and combinations of its components and aged at relatively low temperatures to induce oxidative degradation of the samples. One of the components of the explosive is a poly(ester urethane) polymer and the oxidative degradation of the samples were following by measuring the molecular weight change of the polymer by gel permeation chromatography (coupled with both differential refractive index and multiangle laser light scattering detectors). Multiple temperatures between 40 and 64 degreeC were used to accelerate the aging of the samples. Interesting induction period behavior, along with both molecular weight increasing (cro...
High molecular weight products of the ozonolysis reaction of particle-phase 9-octadecenoic acid (oleic acid) have been studied by photoelectron resonance capture ionization (PERCI) mass spectrometry (MS). Oleic acid particles ( Formula Not Shown , Formula Not Shown ) were reacted with ozone (1.8x10-4atm) in a flow reactor at reaction times of 8 and 23s. Particles were sampled on-line with a differentially pumped particle inlet and chemically analyzed by PERCI-MS. PERCI is a soft ionization method that permits the direct measurement of relatively high molecular weight compounds, facilitating molecular identification. In addition to cyclic oxygenates, such as secondary ozonides and geminal diperoxides that were reported previously, we demonstrate the formation of polymers at the particle sur...
The thermodynamic characteristics of adsorption of iodobenzene, 2-iodothiophene, and 1- and 2-iodoadamantanes on the surface of graphitized thermal carbon black were determined experimentally. The influence of the special features of the molecular structure of the adsorbates on the thermodynamic characteristics of adsorption was studied. The atom-atom approximation of the semiempirical molecular-statistical theory of adsorption was used to calculate the thermodynamic characteristics of adsorption of the adsorbates using the newly determined potential function parameters of pair intermolecular interaction (?( r)) of I with C atoms of the basal graphite face. For the example of isostructural monohalogenated benzenes, thiophenes, and adamantanes, a comparative analysis of the contributions of the F, Cl, Br, and I atoms to the thermodynamic characteristics of adsorption was performed for the nonspecific adsorption of these compounds on a plane ...
Orientational constraints obtained from solid state NMR experiments on anisotropic samples are used here in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for determining the structure and dynamics of several different membrane-bound molecules. The new MD technique is based on the inclusion of orientation dependent pseudo-forces in the COSMOS-NMR force field. These forces drive molecular rotations and re-orientations in the simulation, such that the motional time-averages of the tensorial NMR properties approach the experimentally measured parameters. The orientational-constraint-driven MD simulations are universally applicable to all NMR interaction tensors, such as chemical shifts, dipolar couplings and quadrupolar interactions. The strategy does not depend on the initial choice of coordinates, and...
Hydrogen molecule adsorption on the (0001) surface of double hexagonal closed packed americium has been studied in detail within the framework of density functional theory. Weak molecular hydrogen adsorptions were observed. The most stable configuration corresponded to a Hor2 approach molecular adsorption at the one-fold top site where the molecule's approach is perpendicular to a lattice vector. Adsorption energies and adsorption geometries for different adsorption sites will be discussed. The change in work functions, magnetic moments, partial charges inside muffin-tins, difference charge density distributions and density of states for the bare Am slab and the Am slab after adsorption of the hydrogen molecule will be discussed. Reaction barrier for the dissociation of hydrogen molecule will be presented. The implications of adsorption on Am 5f electron localization-delocalization will be summarized.
A brief overview if provided of selected reports presented at the International Symposium on Molecular Mechanisms of Radiation- and Chemical Carcinogen-Induced Cell Transformation held at Mackinac Island, Michigan on September 19-23, 1993.
An atom-by-atom understanding of life processes is emerging from a flurry of experiments fueled by synchrotron sources and DNA technology. {copyright} 1995 {ital American} {ital Institute} {ital of} {ital Physics}.
Exercise promotes weight loss and improves insulin sensitivity. However, the molecular mechanisms mediating its beneficial effects are not fully understood. Obesity correlates with increased production...Full Text Available
This patent describes a process for the conversion of low molecular weight alkanes to higher molecular weight hydrocarbons. It comprises: contacting the low molecular weight alkanes, at an elevated temperature, with oxygen and a catalyst of the formula Zn{sub a}A{sub b}M{sub c}M'{sub d}O{sub x} wherein A is Li, Na, K, or mixtures thereof; M is Al, Ga, Cr, La, Y, Sc, V, Nb, Ta, Cu or mixtures thereof; M' is Cs, Rb, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Sm, Pb, Mn, Sb, P, Sn, Bi, Ti, Zr, Hf, or mixtures thereof; a if from about 1 to about 20; b is from about 0.1 to about 20; c is from about 0 to about 5 d is from about 0 to about 20, and x is a number needed to fulfill the valence requirements of the other elements; provided that at least one c and d is a t least 0.1; and when M' is Sn, c must be at least 0.1.
SummaryBrown fat is specialized in energy expenditure, a process that is principally controlled by the transcriptional co-activator PGC-1α. Here we describe a molecular...Full Text Available
The ability to enter a hypometabolic state upon restriction of caloric intake is pivotal for animal survival: balancing the energy budget in endotherms can be a real struggle when food is not...Full Text Available
Angiokeratoma corporis diffusum with glycopeptiduria is a recently recognized inborn error of glycoprotein catabolism resulting from the deficient activity of human alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidase (E.C....Full Text Available
PurposeTo date there remains no effective therapy for metastatic melanoma and at the molecular level disease progression remains poorly understood. Recent work by...Full Text Available
The trematode Fasciola hepatica (Fa.he.) is a common parasite of human and livestock. The hemoglobin (Hb) of Fa.he., a potential immunogen, was chosen for characterization...Full Text Available
BackgroundDuring the last ten years, major advances have been made in characterizing and understanding the evolution of mitochondrial DNA, the most popular marker of molecular biodiversity....Full Text Available
Surface glandular trichomes distributed throughout the aerial parts of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) produce and store monoterpene, sesquiterpene, and phenylpropene volatiles. Three...Full Text Available
One membrane oxygen enricher (Oxygen Enrichment Company OE-4E) and four molecular sieve (MS) concentrators (Mountain Medical Econo2, De Vilbiss MINI DeVO2, Cryogenic Roomate III, and Mountain Medical...Full Text Available
In this study, free electron laser (FEL) with selective wavelength was used to induce structure changes of biomolecules, which were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy. For understanding of the interactions between FEL and biomolecules as well as biological tissues, the biomolecules investigated are ATP, ADP, AMP, t-RNA, D-ribose and the complex of SmCl_3-D-ribose. Their FTIR spectra before and after irradiation of FEL show molecular structure variations of the samples after irradiation of FEL, especially the rearrangement of their hydrogen bond networks. Along with the various irradiation wavelengths, irradiation time and molecular structures, the changes after irradiation are different for these molecules. In the FTIR spectra after irradiation, the phenomenon that the bands split into several peaks indicates the existence of several structures, conformations and configurations, which may be prompted by multiple photons process induced by FEL. ...
Disorders of mitochondrial fat metabolism lead to sudden death in infants and children. Although survival is possible, the underlying molecular mechanisms which enable this outcome have not yet been...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe molecular mechanisms of variations in individual longevity are not well understood, even though longevity can be increased substantially by means of diverse experimental...Full Text Available
BackgroundSpindle cell carcinoma (SpCC) is a rare microscopic type of cancer of the mouth and oropharynx. Although SpCC is thought to arise from squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), it...Full Text Available
Purified beta-toxin from Clostridium perfringens type C was found to be a single polypeptide chain protein with a molecular weight of approximately 30,000. The toxin was heat labile, with 75% of its...Full Text Available
The effects of selected ligands on the structure of the truncated heavy-chain chemomechanical motor domains of Drosophila ncd and human kinesin were compared using the technique of transient electric...Full Text Available
Exposure of albumin to Cu(II) (10-100 microM) and ascorbate (0.1-2 mM) results in extensive molecular modifications, indicated by decreased fluorescence and chain breaks. The rate of utilization of...Full Text Available
The goal of ultrasonic molecular imaging is the detection of targeted contrast agents bound to receptors on endothelial cells. We propose imaging methods that can distinguish adherent microbubbles...Full Text Available
PurposeA prolonged seizure, status epileptics (SE), is a potent stimulus for increased neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Molecular mechanisms...Full Text Available
Hibernators are unique among mammals in their ability to survive extended periods of time with core body temperatures near freezing and with dramatically reduced heart, respiratory, and metabolic rates...Full Text Available
Schindler disease is a recently recognized infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy resulting from the deficient activity of the lysosomal hydrolase, alpha-N-acetylgalctosaminidase (alpha-GalNAc). The recent...Full Text Available
The intracellular bioavailability of lead (Pb) at low dosage levels in major target organs such as the kidney and brain appears to be largely determined by complexation with a group of low molecular...Full Text Available
The increasing demand for molecular diagnostics in clinical microbiology laboratories necessitates automated sample processing. In the present study, we evaluated the performance of the MagNA Pure LC...Full Text Available
Nucleic acids are molecules of choice for both established and emerging nanoscale technologies. These technologies benefit from large functional densities of ‘DNA processing elements’...Full Text Available
The fauna of ancient lakes frequently contains taxa with highly derived morphologies that resulted from in situ radiation of lacustrine lineages with high antiquity. We employed a molecular...Full Text Available
Emphasis was put on the comparative quantitative structure-activity approaches to the exploration of action mechanisms of structurally different classes of compounds showing the same type of activity...Full Text Available
In a process for separating insoluble red mud from Bayer process streams the improvement is described which comprises contacting and mixing a Bayer process stream with a tertiary polyamine having a molecular weight of at least about 10,000 in an amount effective to reduce the iron content thereof.
We describe the characteristics of the rapidly rotating molecular disk in the nucleus of the mildly active galaxy NGC4258. The morphology and kinematics of the disk are delineated by the point-like...Full Text Available
Protein modifications such as phosphorylation are often studied by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis since the perturbation in the protein’s pI value is readily detected by this method....Full Text Available
Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis and the PCR assay were used in combination with dilution plating on a semiselective medium to detect and enumerate propagules of Trichoderma...Full Text Available
Ion-channels can be activated (gated) by a variety of stimuli including chemicals, voltage, mechanical force or temperature. Whereas molecular mechanisms of ion-channel gating by chemicals and...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe phylogenetic relationships among the holoparasites of Rafflesiales have remained enigmatic for over a century. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies using the mitochondrial...Full Text Available
Toxicogenomics provides the ability to examine in greater detail the underlying molecular events that precede and accompany toxicity, thus allowing prediction of adverse events at much earlier...Full Text Available
Current drug treatments for post-menopausal osteoporosis cannot eliminate bone fractures, possibly because the mechanisms responsible for bone loss are not fully understood. Although research within...Full Text Available
To delineate the mechanisms of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) pathogenesis, four full-length BLV clones, 1, 8, 9, and 13, derived from the transformed cell line FLK-BLV and a clone construct, pBLV913,...Full Text Available
The clotting activity of Staphylococcus aureus strain 104 was purified 46,000-fold, but absolute purity was not achieved. Carbohydrate content of the purified material was not more than 5%. Elution...Full Text Available
Aminopeptidase II, one of the two major aminopeptidases in the giant alga Chara australis, was partially purified. Its molecular weight was estimated to be about 80,000 by gel permeation...Full Text Available
Patients with pancreatic cancer normally present with advanced disease that is lethal and notoriously difficult to treat. Survival has not improved dramatically, despite routine use of chemotherapy...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe objective of this study was to gain insight into the molecular mechanism of induced cell death (apoptosis) by PYRROLO [1,2-b][1,2,5]BENZOTHIADIAZEPINES...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe exploitation of information extraction (IE), a technology aiming to provide instances of structured representations from free-form text, has been rapidly growing within...Full Text Available
Ever since the pre-molecular era, the birth of new genes with novel functions has been considered to be a major contributor to adaptive evolutionary innovation. Here, I review the origin and evolution...Full Text Available
BackgroundGene promoters can be in various epigenetic states and undergo interactions with many molecules in a highly transient, probabilistic and combinatorial way, resulting in...Full Text Available
Voxel-based prescriptions of deliberately non-uniform dose distributions based on molecular imaging, so-called dose painting or theragnostic radiation therapy, require specification of a transformation...Full Text Available
Mutant strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae which lack functional Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD-1) do not grow aerobically unless supplemented with methionine. The molecular basis of this...Full Text Available
Electrophoretic analysis of protein variation at the coagulation F13B locus has previously revealed three alleles, with alleles 1, 2, and 3 each being at high frequency in European,...Full Text Available
... Highly-Functional Materials" was launched in JFY1996 under the New Materials field. This project was ... Bio-mimetic materials" (1) Advanced stimuli responsive materials (2) Harmonized molecular materials ...
In our quest for novel genes required for the development of the embryonic peripheral nervous system (PNS), we have performed three genetic screens using MAb 22C10 as a marker of terminally differentiated...Full Text Available
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a common feature of AIDS. Approximately 30-40% of these tumors exhibit clinical features suggestive of endemic Burkitt lymphoma: they are aggressive malignancies that occur in association with Epstein-Barr virus infection, they arise in the setting of immunosuppression, and they carry t(8;14) translocations without detectable rearrangement of the MYC oncogene. To understand the molecular basis of these parallels, the authors analyzed a case of Epstein-Barr-positive AIDS-associated undifferentiated lymphoma. Southern blots show that the tumor exhibits immunoglobulin joining segment rearrangement but no rearrangement of the MYC oncogene. Cloning of the rearranged joining segment allowed the isolation of recombinant clones encompassing the translocation breakpoint, and sequencing of the translocation junction disclosed that the breakpoint is situated 7 base pairs from the chromosome 14 site involved in a previously described endemic Burkitt ...
Microorganisms in the environment can often adapt to use xenobiotic chemicals as novel growth and energy substrates. Specialized enzyme systems and metabolic pathways for the degradation of man-made...Full Text Available
A 42% (70 of 167 isolates) incidence of resistance to 20 micrograms of trimethoprim per ml was found among clinical isolates of coagulase-negative staphylococci from two hospitals. A specific trimethoprim...Full Text Available
Seventy-nine Mycobacterium bovis isolates recovered from Mexican and Texas cattle were categorized into 16 and 25 distinct types on the basis of IS6110 and direct-repeat fingerprint patterns, respectively....Full Text Available
The sequence-dependent structural variability and conformational dynamics of DNA play pivotal roles in many biological milieus, such as in the site-specific binding of transcription factors to target...Full Text Available
BackgroundNematoda diverged from other animals between 600–1,200 million years ago and has become one of the most diverse animal phyla on earth. Most nematodes are free-living...Full Text Available
The X-ray crystallographic structural determinations of synthetic estrogens and antiestrogens provide reliable information on the global minimum energy conformation of these molecules or a local minimum...Full Text Available
Two bacteriolytic enzymes secreted by Achromobacter lyticus M497-1 were purified and identified as being very similar (considering their amino acid composition and N-terminal sequence) to alpha- and...Full Text Available
BackgroundIsopentenyl diphosphate (IPP), a common biosynthetic precursor to the labdane diterpene forskolin, has been biosynthesised via a non-mevalonate pathway. Geranylgeranyl...Full Text Available
BackgroundHepatitis A virus (HAV) strains detected in environmental and clinical samples were analysed to characterize the genotypes of HAV circulating in Greece. Fifty (50) sewage...Full Text Available
The walleye dermal sarcoma is a mesenchymal tumor which seasonally affects up to 27% of adult walleye fish (Stizostedion vitreum). It arises multicentrically in the dermis, in which its development...Full Text Available
The fungus Cryptococcus neoformans is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with impaired CD4+ T cell function, particularly those with AIDS. To identify...Full Text Available
The entire genome of rabies virus vaccine strain Flury-LEP-C, a Chinese variant of the rabies virus vaccine strain Flury-LEP, was sequenced. The overall length of the genome of Flury-LEP-C strain was...Full Text Available
Aluminium (Al3+) toxicity is the primary factor limiting crop production on acidic soils worldwide. In addition to an application of lime for soil amelioration, Al3+ resistant plant varieties have been deployed to raise productivity on such hostile soils. This has been possible due to the exploita...
Flavone and isoflavone phytoestrogens are plant chemicals and are known to be competitive inhibitors of cytochrome P450 aromatase with respect to the androgen substrate. Aromatase is the enzyme that...Full Text Available
The Far UpStream Element (FUSE) regulatory system promotes a peak in the concentration of c-Myc during cell cycle. First, the FBP transcriptional activator binds to the FUSE DNA element upstream...Full Text Available
An antiserum was raised in a rabbit against highly purified human liver dihydropteridine reductase (EC 1.6.99.7). Dihydropteridine reductase from human liver, in human cultured fibroblasts and in continuous...Full Text Available
Borrelia burgdorferi is the causative agent of Lyme disease, a tick-borne spirochetosis with a worldwide prevalence. To assist the categorization and typing of fresh isolates from global foci, we have...Full Text Available
AimsThe aims of the study were to study the effect of pre-operative treatment on the expression of tumour-related proteins and to correlate the expression of these...Full Text Available
CTX-M-25 is a novel extended-spectrum β-lactamase isolated from a single Canadian Escherichia coli isolate. Susceptibility testing demonstrated that this enzyme confers resistance...Full Text Available
The sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) ribosomal DNA (rDNA) domain data obtained by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis with 18S rDNA and fingerprinting (M13) for clinical...Full Text Available
Cytoadherence or sequestration is essential for the pathogenesis of the most virulent human malaria species, Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum). Similar to leukocyte-endothelium...Full Text Available
Vocal learning is a critical behavioral substrate for spoken human language. It is a rare trait found in three distantly related groups of birds-songbirds, hummingbirds, and parrots. These avian groups...Full Text Available
Genes of the S100 fused-type protein (SFTP) family are clustered within the epidermal differentiation complex and encode essential components that maintain epithelial homeostasis and barrier functions....Full Text Available
Bartonella species are being recognized as important bacterial human and canine pathogens, and are associated with multiple arthropod vectors. Bartonella DNA extracted...Full Text Available
Purpose:Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains are commonly classified as hospital-acquired (HA) or community-acquired (CA). Typical HA-MRSA...Full Text Available
Escherichia coli strains producing extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) are a major problem in many different hospitals worldwide, causing outbreaks as well as sporadic infections....Full Text Available
Pyrethroid insecticides have been extensively used in China and worldwide for public health pest control. Accurate resistance monitoring is essential to guide the rational use of insecticides and resistance...Full Text Available
The Dot/Icm-translocated Ankyrin B (AnkB) F-box effector of Legionella pneumophila is essential for intra-vacuolar proliferation and functions as a platform for the docking of polyubiquitinated...Full Text Available
Aluminium (Al) toxicity, affecting around half of the world¿s arable land, severely hinders the ability of crop plants to utilize moisture and nutrients by restricting root growth and function. Among the cultivated cereals, rye is the most Al-tolerant and represents an important potential source of ...
Centrioles are intriguing cylindrical organelles composed of triplet microtubules. Proteomic data suggest that a large number of proteins besides tubulin are necessary for the formation and maintenance...Full Text Available
Methylosulfonomonas methylovora M2 is an unusual gram-negative methylotrophic bacterium that can grow on methanesulfonic acid (MSA) as the sole source of carbon and energy. Oxidation...Full Text Available
Isolates of the most commonly observed salmonella serovars in Norwegian fish feed factories from 1998 to 2000 (Salmonella enterica serovar Agona, S. enterica...Full Text Available
A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) procedure suitable for the simultaneous determination of the molecular size and concentration of macromolecular hyaluronate and proteoglycans in synovial...Full Text Available
The methanogenic community in hydrothermally active sediments of Guaymas Basin (Gulf of California, Mexico) was analyzed by PCR amplification, cloning, and sequencing of methyl coenzyme M reductase...Full Text Available
The exposure of cells to several metal ions stabilizes HIF-1α protein. However, the molecular mechanisms are not completely understood. They may involve inhibition of hydroxylation by either...Full Text Available
IntroductionNormal and neoplastic breast tissues are comprised of heterogeneous populations of epithelial cells exhibiting various degrees of maturation and differentiation. While...Full Text Available
The identification of predictive biomarkers is at the core of modern toxicology. So far, a number of approaches have been proposed. These rely on statistical inference of toxicity response from either...Full Text Available
Despite the demonstrated clinical efficacy of CD20 monoclonal antibody (mAb) for lymphoma therapy, the in vivo mechanisms of tumor depletion remain controversial and variable. To identify the molecular...Full Text Available
Antibodies of the IgM type present in rabbit anti-epiglycanin antiserum were purified by (NH4)2SO4 precipitation and by ion-exchange, affinity and gel-filtration chromatography. After papain treatment...Full Text Available
We investigate the possibility of producing the $\\omega\\phi$ threshold enhancement recently observed in the $J\\psi\\to\\gamma X(1812),~X(1812)\\to\\omega\\phi$ at BES by assuming the X(1812) to be a candidate of $(K^{*}\\bar K^{*0})$ molecular state. We evaluate the decay rate of $X(1812)\\to\\eta\\eta', \\eta\\eta, \\omega\\phi, K^+K^-, \\rho^+\\rho^-$, $\\omega\\omega, K^{*+}K^{*-}$ and $\\pi^+\\pi^-$ based on the X(1812) to be a candidate of $(\\ksks)$ molecule. It turns out the X(1812) dominantly decays into $\\eta\\eta'$ and $\\eta\\eta$. These channels are suggested to be the laboratory to test the molecular scenario in experiment. We also evaluate the branching fraction $Br(X\\to\\omega\\phi)\\simeq 4.60%$. However, the X(1812) has small branching fractions to decay into other $VV$ or $PP$ final states, from which it seems to be consistent with the experimental observation. In the molecular scenario, the X(1812) ...
The soluble subcellular fraction of a chlB mutant contains an inactive precursor form of the molybdoenzyme nitrate reductase, which can be activated by the addition to the soluble fraction of protein...Full Text Available
The physicochemical nature of a silicoaluminophosphate with the faujasite structure has been studied. The molecular sieve framework contains a homogeneous distribution of silicon, aluminum, and phosphorus and is negatively charged. Combustion in air of the charge-compensating organic cations produces hydroxyl groups which exhibit Broensted acidity.
BackgroundThe Gene Ontology (GO) is a well known controlled vocabulary describing the biological process, molecular function and cellular...Full Text Available
There is increasing consensus that the uterotrophic estrogenicity assay should be coupled with other morphometric or molecular end points that might enhance its sensitivity. We have previously shown...Full Text Available
Insulin resistance in skeletal muscle is a key phenotype associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) for which the molecular mediators remain unclear. We therefore conducted an expression analysis of human...Full Text Available
Methylation of the arginine residues of histones by methyltransferases has important consequences for chromatin structure and gene regulation; however, the molecular mechanism(s) of methyltransferase...Full Text Available
Calorie restriction (CR) induces a metabolic shift towards mitochondrial respiration; however, molecular mechanisms underlying CR remain unclear. Recent studies suggest that CR-induced mitochondrial...Full Text Available
A nodulation plasmid, pRtr-514a, of molecular size 180 megadaltons (Mdal) was identified in Rhizobium trifolii strain NZP514. This plasmid was absent in both spontaneous and heat-cured Nod- derivatives...Full Text Available
BACKGROUND: Mitochondrial changes have been described in muscle tissue in acquired hypothyroidism. Among the molecular mechanisms by which thyroid hormones regulate expression of nuclear genes encoding...Full Text Available
Heat shock proteins (Hsp) are a family of stress-inducible molecular chaperones that play multiple roles in a wide variety of animals. However, the roles of Hsps in parasitic nematodes remain largely...Full Text Available
High-resolution near-infrared and far-infrared observations are presented of the southeastern molecular cloud fragment in the IC 5146 dark cloud. These observations rule out earlier suggestions for the formation of massive stars in this fragment.
Deficient wound healing in diabetic patients is very frequent, but the cellular and molecular causes are poorly defined. In this study, we evaluate the hypothesis that high glucose concentrations inhibit...Full Text Available
BackgroundCucumber, Cucumis sativus L. is an important vegetable crop worldwide. Until very recently, cucumber genetic and genomic resources, especially molecular...Full Text Available
Stargardt-like macular degeneration (STGD3) is an early onset, autosomal dominant macular degeneration. STGD3 is characterized by a progressive pathology, the loss of central vision, atrophy...Full Text Available
Exteriorized phosphatidylserine (PS) residues in apoptotic cells trigger rapid phagocytosis by macrophage scavenger receptor pathways. Mimicking apoptosis with liposomes containing PS may represent...Full Text Available
The binding of amphiphilic molecules to lipid bilayers is followed by 19F NMR using chemical shift and line shape differences between the solution and membrane-tethered states of...Full Text Available
BackgroundCichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika exhibit remarkable diversity in their feeding habits. Among them, seven species in the genus Perissodus are known for...Full Text Available
Larvae of an anhydrobiotic insect, Polypedilum vanderplanki, accumulate very large amounts of trehalose as a compatible solute on desiccation, but the molecular mechanisms underlying...Full Text Available
The programming of cellular networks to achieve new biological functions depends on the development of genetic tools that link the presence of a molecular signal to gene-regulatory activity. Recently,...Full Text Available
A 48-hour course of intravenous unfractionated heparin (UFH) is the standard of treatment in conjunction with fibrin-specific thrombolysis in ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). In recent trials,...Full Text Available
A two-channel optical system has been developed to provide spatially resolved simultaneous imaging of singlet molecular oxygen (1O2) phosphorescence and photosensitizer (PS) fluorescence...Full Text Available
One of the most pervasive ideas regarding the causes of aging is that longevity is constrained in large measure by damage to macromolecules. An increasing body of cellular and molecular data, generated...Full Text Available
While pleiotropic adaptive mutations are thought to be central for evolution, little is known on the downstream molecular effects allowing adaptation to complex ecologically relevant environments. Here...Full Text Available
New experiences can trigger changes in gene expression in the brain. To understand this phenomenon better, we studied zebra finches hearing playbacks of birdsong. Earlier research had shown that initial...Full Text Available
Molecular genetic analysis of Borrelia burgdorferi, the cause of Lyme disease, has been hampered by the absence of any means of efficient generation, identification, and complementation...Full Text Available
Recently developed molecular methods have made it possible to characterize mixed microflora in their entirety, including the substantial numbers of bacteria which do not grow on artificial culture media....Full Text Available
Many epidemiological evidences have proven the association between smoking and periodontal disease. The causality can be further established by linking findings of traditional epidemiological studies...Full Text Available
Self-renewal of spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) is the foundation for maintenance of spermatogenesis throughout life in males and for continuation of a species. The molecular mechanism underlying stem...Full Text Available
A simulation is developed that qualitatively describes the small-zone-gel-filtration behaviour of a reversibly associating protein. The results reflect the dependence of the apparent molecular weight...Full Text Available
Cyteogenetic maps of sorghum chromosomes 3-7, 9, and 10 were constructed on the basis of the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of ~ ... regions of heterchromatin were delimited for all 10 sorghum chrom...
Fast and efficient high-throughput techniques are essential for the molecular diagnosis of highly heterogeneous hereditary diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP). We had previously approached RP...Full Text Available
BackgroundOncidium spp. produce commercially important orchid cut flowers. However, they are amenable to intergeneric and inter-specific crossing making phylogenetic...Full Text Available
BackgroundInterest in lycopene metabolism and regulation is growing rapidly because accumulative studies have suggested an important role for lycopene in human health promotion....Full Text Available
BackgroundPrimary hepatocytes are the best resource for in vitro studies directed at understanding hepatic processes at the cellular and molecular levels, necessary...Full Text Available
There is growing epidemiological and molecular evidence that ABO blood group affects host susceptibility to severe Plasmodium falciparum infection. The high frequency of common...Full Text Available
Endometrial carcinoma is the most commonly diagnosed gynaecological cancer in developed countries. Although the molecular genetics of this disease has been in the focus of many research laboratories...Full Text Available
In situ hybridization, a powerful tool for the molecular cytogeneticist, can be used to physically map repetitive, low-copy, and unique DNA sequences in plant chromosomes. With the availability of a...Full Text Available
Different tombusviruses were able to support the replication of either homologous or heterologous defective interfering (DI) RNAs, and those infected plants usually developed typical attenuated symptoms....Full Text Available
Molecular analysis of the amo gene cluster in Nitrosococcus oceani revealed that it consists of five genes, instead of the three known genes, amoCAB....Full Text Available
Tail plates obtained from T4D amber mutants were examined with respect to sedimentation behavior, subunit molecular weights, amino acid composition, isoelectric points, and morphology. Intact plates...Full Text Available
Designer cellulosomes are precision-engineered multienzyme complexes in which the molecular architecture and enzyme content are exquisitely controlled. This system was used to examine enzyme cooperation...Full Text Available
Cd36 is a small-molecular-weight integral membrane protein expressed in a diverse, but select, range of cell types. It has an equally diverse range of ligands and physiological functions, which has...Full Text Available
The results of experimental measurements and theoretical simulations of circular dichroism in the angular distribution (CDAD) of photoemission from atomic core levels of each of the enantiomers of a chiral molecule, alanine, adsorbed on Cu(1 1 0) are presented. Measurements in, and out of, substrate mirror planes allow one to distinguish the CDAD due to the chirality of the sample from that due to a chiral experimental geometry. For these studies of oriented chiral molecules, the CDAD is seen not only in photoemission from the molecular chiral centre, but also from other atoms which have chiral geometries as a result of the adsorption. The magnitude of the CDAD due to the sample chirality differs for different adsorption phases of alanine, and for different emission angles and energies, but is generally small compared with CDAD out of the substrate mirror planes which is largely unrelated to the molecular chirality. While similar measurements ...
Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) studies of the glassy states of as-received and hydrated lysozyme, hemoglobin, and myoglobin powders, with water contents of < or = 0.25, < or...Full Text Available
A nationwide survey of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) production among Enterobacteriaceae, carried out in 2003, showed that CTX-M-type enzymes have achieved a sizeable...Full Text Available
Two additional hyperfine components of the interstellar radical C3H were detected. In addition, methanol was discovered in interstellar clouds. The abundance of HCCN and various chemical isomers in molecular clouds was investigated.
The evolution of sex remains a hotly debated topic in evolutionary biology. In particular, studying the origins of the molecular mechanisms underlying sexual reproduction and gametogenesis (its fundamental...Full Text Available
The extracellular domain of human fibroblast growth factor receptor (XC-FGF-R) was expressed in Escherichia coli. The protein was purified to homogeneity and the interaction with basic fibroblast growth...Full Text Available
The complete RNA genome of the avian nephritis virus (ANV) associated with acute nephritis in chickens has been molecularly cloned and sequenced. Excluding the poly(A) tail, the genome comprises 6,927...Full Text Available
Ozone (O3) is an oxidant gas that can directly induce lung injury. Knowledge of the initial molecular events of the acute O3 response would be useful in developing biomarkers of...Full Text Available
SummaryThe prevalence of paralogous enzymes implies that novel catalytic functions can evolve on preexisting protein scaffolds. The weak secondary activities of proteins, which...Full Text Available
A general procedure for stabilization of O2-labile enzymes exploiting "salting out" of oxygen from the microenvironment in the molecular layers immediately adjacent to charged surfaces of polyionic...Full Text Available
BackgroundA panel of 37 rabies virus isolates were collected and studied, originating mainly from the northern and central regions of Namibia, between 1980 and 2003.ResultsThese...Full Text Available
ObjectiveThe goal of the study was to investigate the genetic and molecular basis of a novel syndrome of marked hyperglucagonemia and pancreatic α cell hyperplasia...Full Text Available
Leaf senescence is a developmentally programmed degeneration process, which is fine tuned by a complex regulatory network for plant fitness. However, molecular regulation of leaf senescence is poorly...Full Text Available
Traditional approaches to the study of hormones and cognition have been primarily observational or correlational in nature. Because this work does not permit causal relationships to be identified,...Full Text Available
Autophagic adapters including p62/SQSTM1 recognize polyubiquitinated autophagic targets such as toxic protein aggregates. Recently reporting in Molecular Cell, Filimonenko et al. provide evidence...Full Text Available
The decline in immune function with aging, known as immunosenescence, has been implicated in evolutionarily diverse species, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are not understood. During aging...Full Text Available
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary malignancy of the liver, which is closely related to hepatitis C and cirrhosis. The molecular mechanisms underlying the hepatocarcinogenesis induced by HCV...Full Text Available
Although studied for many years the nature of the light scalar mesons remains controversial. Here we shall present a method, applicable for s-wave states located close to a threshold, that allows one to quantify the molecular part of a given state. When applied to the f{sub 0}(980) a dominance of the molecular component is found. In the second part, we show that requirements of field-theoretic consistency and chiral symmetry, when applied to the scattering of light pseudo-scalars, naturally lead to the appearance of dynamical poles in the scalar sector. A program is proposed on how to further investigate experimentally the mixing between these dynamical states and possible genuine quark states. (orig.)
In the last two years, rapid progress has been made in the energy conversion efficiencies of GaAs solar cells fabricated from molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) material. The efficiencies of cells fabricated from MBE material are now comparable with those fabricated from metal-organic chemical vapor deposition material, even for cells of dimension 2 cmx4 cm. This paper reviews the progress in MBE cell efficiencies. Also discussed is the role oval defects play in GaAs diode and solar cell performance. (orig.).
Abstract Over the last decade, the environmental sciences have witnessed an incredible movement towards the utilization of high-throughput molecular tools that are capable of detecting simultaneous changes of hundreds, and even thousands, of molecules and molecular components after exposure of organisms to different environmental stressors. These techniques have received a great deal of attention because they not only offer the potential to unravel novel mechanisms of physiological and toxic action but are also amenable to the discovery of biomarkers of exposure and effects. In this article, we review the state of knowledge of one of these tools in ecotoxicological research: proteomics. We summarize the state of proteomics research in fish, and follow with studies conducted with aquatic in...
By treatment with beta or gamma rays, PTFE waste is converted to high-grade PTFE fine powder. High-molecular weight PTFE is degraded to low-molecular weight PTFE. Due to this the density, the degree of crystallinity, and the melt flow index are increased, which enhances the brittleness of the material. Irradiation of PTFE thus facilitates milling and makes the material pourable and free-flowing. Milled PTFE fine powder, lie PTFE plastic, combines temperature resistance, weather fastness, and chemical stability with good slip behaviour and antiadhesive properties. Areas of application for fine powder include additives for plastics, printing inks, nonstick coatings, and antifriction lacquers. (orig.).
The results of an investigation on the production of Group IIA atomic and molecular negative ion beams formed in a cesium-sputter negative ion source are presented. The sputtering material was formed by pressing pellets of stoichiometric mixtures of the Group IIA element carbonates and 10% copper powder. Negative ions of several alkaline-earth elements and their oxides have been observed. Beam intensities as high as 180 pA have been observed for Sr{sup -}and 20 nA for SrO{sup -}. (orig.).
The results of an investigation on the production of Group IIA atomic and molecular negative ion beams formed in a cesium-sputter negative ion source are presented. The sputtering material was formed by pressing pellets of stoichiometric mixtures of the Group IIA element carbonates and 10% copper powder. Negative ions of several alkaline-earth elements and their oxides have been observed. Beam intensities as high as 180 pA have been observed for Sr"-and 20 nA for SrO"-. (orig.).
To expand the information base on molecular accessibility in solvent swelled coal, Argonne Premium Coal Samples (APCS) were swelled in polar, basic solvents before and after moisture loss and upon air oxidation. So far studies have been reported on the changes in pore size distribution as a function of temperature when polar basic swelling solvents are used. Additional studies employing EPR spin probe techniques performed on the breaking up of the hydrogen bonding between bedding planes were later confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging at Argonne National Lab and the University of Illinois.
The increasing environmental concern and promotion of ''green processes'' are forcing the substitution of traditional acid and base homogeneous catalysts by solid ones. Among these heterogeneous catalysts, zeolites and zeotypes can be considered as real ''green'' catalysts, due to their benign nature from an environmental point of view. The importance of these inorganic molecular sieves within the field of heterogeneous catalysis relies not only on their microporous structure and the related shape selectivity, but also on the flexibility of their chemical composition. Modification of the zeolite framework composition results in materials with acidic, basic or redox properties, whereas multifunctional catalysts can be obtained by introducing metals by ion exchange or impregnation procedures...
Those materials that can be extracted from pine or oak by ether, ethanol, methyl methacrylate (MMA), or benzene--alcohol all act as inhibitors in the #gamma# polymerization of MMA--wood composites. It was found that preirradiation of either the wood or of the wood--monomer combination reduces or eliminates the inhibitory effect. The most practical industrial solution to this problem is to increase the dose, thereby achieving high molecular polymer in the composite. However, the presence of a maximum in the molecular weight--dose curves means that each wood--monomer pair may have a different optimum dose.
By gas-source molecular-beam epitaxy, we obtained a device-quality GaInP epitaxial layer lattice matched to (100)-GaAs substrates, with a photoluminescence efficiency comparable to that of a crystal grown by liquid-phase epitaxy. A GaInP/AlInP double heterostructure laser with a GaInP active layer was fabricated, and pulsed lasing operation was achieved at room temperature for, we believe, the first time.
Olive mill effluent (OMW) is an example of a wastewaters containing high concentrations of recalcitrant and toxic compounds which are polyphenolics of different molecular weight. It causes disposal problems because they contain powerful pollutants. Treatment and detoxification of phenolic fraction extracted from olive mill wastewaters as well as a synthetic phenolic mixture was investigated by electro-Fenton method. Results shows that this method is highly efficient in polymerising low molecular mass phenolics and removing a large amount of recalcitrant polyphenolic compounds. This treatment decreased 78% of the toxicity which sustained a good anaerobic post-treatment. (orig.)
Dunaliella salina cells were pulse-labeled for 2 min with (/sup 14/C)palmitic acid, (/sup 14/C)oleic acid, or (/sup 14/C)lauric acid in order to trace the pathway of galactolipid biosynthesis and desaturation. Through the use of high performance liquid chromatography it was possible to follow the movement of radioactivity through many individual molecular species of monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) and digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG) for periods of 24 h and, in some cases, as much as 120 h. Analysis of the fatty acid fluxes permitted us to refine current views regarding biosynthesis of the predominantly prokaryotic galactolipids. The initial D. salina MGDG molecular species, containing paired oleate and palmitate (18:1/16:0), can follow two metabolic routes. If the palmitoyl chain is desaturated to 16:1, the resulting 18:1/16:1 MGDG is subject to rapid further desaturation to varying degrees, and a part of these products is subsequently ...
Radiation inactivation and sedimentation equilibrium analysis were used to determine the functional and physical size of the chicken hepatic membrane receptor that binds N-acetylglucosamine-terminated glycoproteins. Purified plasma membranes from chicken liver were irradiated with high energy electrons and assayed for 125I-agalactoorosomucoid binding. Increasing the dose of ionizing radiation resulted in a monoexponential decay in binding activity due to a progressive loss of binding sites. The molecular mass of the chicken lectin, determined in situ by target analysis, was 69,000 +/- 9,000 Da. When the same irradiated membranes were solubilized in Brij 58 and assayed, the binding protein exhibited a target size of 62,000 +/- 4,000 Da; in Triton X-100, the functional size of the receptor was 85,000 +/- 10,000 Da. Sedimentation equilibrium measurements of the purified binding protein yielded a lower limit molecular weight of 79,000 +/- 7,000. ...
The authors present the results of an investigation of the effect of gamma radiation on the properties of low-molecular moulded polymethyl methacrylates (molecular weight distribution, physico-mechanical properties, resistance to the effects of aqueous media and physiological solution) in the form of copolymers of methyl methacrylate with methyl acrylate (MA) or butyl acrylate (BA) with the brand names Dacryl-4B, Dacryl-2M and Dacryl-4M (4% BA; 2 and 4% MA respectively) having a molecular weight of around 10"5. For comparison, block polymethyl methacrylate with a molecular weight of 3 x 10"6 was used. The results of experiments on the ageing of unirradiated and irradiated specimens in a heated store-room (t = 10 - 20"0C) and at high temperatures (90"0C) are also given. It is shown that irradiation with doses of 2.5 - 20 Mrad leads to radiolysis of the above copolymers, accompanied by destructive ...
The authors present the results of an investigation of the effect of gamma radiation on the properties of low-molecular moulded polymethyl methacrylates (molecular weight distribution, physicomechanical properties, resistance to the effects of aqueous media and physiological solution) in the form of copolymers of methyl methacrylate with methyl (MA) or butyl acrylate (BA) with the brand names Dacryl-4B, Dacryl-2M and Dacryl-4M (4% BA; 2 and 4% MA respectively) having a molecular weight of around 10"5. For comparison, block polymethyl methacrylate with a molecular weight of 3 x 10"6 was used. The results of experiments on the ageing of unirradiated and irradiated specimens in a heated store-room (t = 10 - 20"0C) and at high temperatures (90"0C) are also given. It is shown that irradiation with doses of 2.5-20 Mrad leads to radiolysis of the above copolymers, accompanied by destructive processes. Evidence ...
Breast cancer progression is characterized by inappropriate cell growth. Normal cells cease growth after a limited number of cell divisions--a process called cellular senescence-while tumor cells may acquire the ability to proliferate indefinitely (immortality). Inappropriate expression of specific oncogenes in a key cellular signaling pathway (Ras, Raf) can promote tumorigenicity in immortal cells, while causing finite lifespan cells to undergo a rapid senescence-like arrest. We have studied when in the course of transformation of cultured human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC), the response to overexpressed oncogenic Raf changes from being tumor-suppressive to tumor enhancing, and what are the molecular underpinnings of this response. Our data indicate: (1) HMEC acquire the ability to maintain growth in the presence of oncogenic Raf not simply as a consequence of overcoming senescence, but as a result of a newly discovered step in the process of immortal ...
This was a university-based research project in support of distributed reforming production technologies for hydrogen. Our objective was to examine the steam reforming of bio-ethanol and other related bio-derived liquids over non-precious metal catalyst systems to enable small-scale distributed hydrogen production technologies from renewable sources. The study targeted development of a catalytic system that does not rely on precious metals and that can be active in the 350-550 C temperature range, with high selectivity and high stability. To this end, we adopted a multi-prong research strategy, that included catalyst formulation and synthesis, detailed catalyst characterization, reaction kinetics and reaction engineering, molecularmodeling and economic analysis studies. Our approach was an iterative one, where the knowledge gained in one aspect of the study was utilized to modify and fine-tune catalyst development. The research addressed many ...
The Cox proportional hazards model is the most widely used model for survival analysis because of its simplicity. The fundamental assumption in this model is the proportionality of the hazard function....Full Text Available
The mathematical apparatus of quantum-mechanical angular momentum (re)coupling, developed originally to describe spectroscopic phenomena in atomic, molecular, optical and nuclear physics, is embedded in modern algebraic settings which emphasize the underlying combinatorial aspects. SU(2) recoupling theory, involving Wigner's 3nj symbols, as well as the related problems of their calculations, general properties, asymptotic limits for large entries, nowadays plays a prominent role also in quantum gravity and quantum computing applications. We refer to the ingredients of this theory-and of its extension to other Lie and quantum groups-by using the collective term of 'spin networks'. Recent progress is recorded about the already established connections with the mathematical theory of discrete orthogonal polynomials (the so-called Askey scheme), providing powerful tools based on asymptotic expansions, which correspond on the physical side to ...
We describe a new apparatus that combines pulsed laser excitation in a molecular beam with surface-science methods for preparation of clean single-crystal surfaces and detection of adsorbates to enable state-selected studies of gas-surface reaction dynamics. Reactant molecules are prepared in specific vibrationally excited states via overtone pumping using tunable, narrow-band laser radiation. The collision-free environment of the molecular beam prevents relaxation of the prepared molecules before impact on the target surface and enables complete control over the collision energy and incidence angle. Chemisorption products are detected after a given deposition time by Auger electron spectroscopy. To achieve sufficient beam flux of state-selected reactant molecules for product detection by standard surface-science techniques, we use a high-intensity, short-pulse molecular-beam source matched to the low duty cycle of the ...
An attempt to gain an understanding of the formation mechanism of these 'soot-like' materials has been made by means of tracing the changes in the molecular-mass distribution and molecular structure of the NMP-extractable materials from an injectant coal as well as its partially gasified chars and its pyrolytic tars. Variations in the SEC chromatograms provide clues about changes in the apparent molecular-mass distributions of these NMP extracts. Results suggest that the build-up of 'soot-like' materials follows from the secondary reactions of tars evolved from the injectant coal. The likely secondary-reaction pathways have been probed by collating structural information on these NMP extracts. The time-resolved 13-16 and 22-25 min elution fractions from the SEC column have been characterized using UV fluorescence (UV F) spectroscopy. Greater concentrations of larger aromatic ring systems ...
Institutional and organizational models ... Review individual centre institutional and organizational models in the light of the tasks to be performed by
We study a variant of the Penner-Distler-Vafa model, proposed as a c = 1 quantum gravity: quenched' matrix model with logarithmic potential. The model is exactly soluble, and exhibits a two-cut branching as observed in multicritical unitary matrix models and multicut Hermitian matrix models. Using analytic continuation of the power in the conventional polynomial potential, we also show that both the Penner-Distler-Vafa model and our quenched' matrix model satisfy Virasoro algebra constraints.
The role of natural enemies in the regulation of populations is one of the major questions facing population ecologists. Simplification have led to two theoretical ways of incorporating the role of natural enemies in single ecological models: diffusion models and patch-type models. The predictions of the models are different because of the way variability is incorporated. Three equations are presented for diffusion models and one for patch models. Since the two types of models apply at different combinations of spatial and temporal scales, the right model(s) to choose for a particular study requires careful assessment. A continuing dialogue between experimentalists and theoreticians will lead to a better understanding of natural systems such as those that occur in biological control.
We have developed a transportable container based direct detection Doppler lidar based on the double-edge molecular technique. The pulsed solid state system was built at the University of Geneva. It was used to make range resolved measurements of the atmospheric wind field as part of the VALID campaign at the Observatoire de Haute Provence in Provence, France in July 1999. Comparison of our lidar wind measurements, which were analyzed without knowledge of the results of rawinsonde measurements made under the supervision of ESA, show good agreement with these rawinsondes. These are the first Doppler lidar field measurements made with an eyesafe direct detection molecular-based system at 355 nm and serve as a demonstrator for future spaceborne direct detection wind systems such as the Atmospheric Dynamics mission. Winds are an important contributor to sea surface temperature measurements made with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) ...