scholarly journals X-ray spectral diagnostics of the local environment of zinc in the arachidic acid layers

2021 ◽  
Vol 2103 (1) ◽  
pp. 012171
Author(s):  
M A Kremennaya ◽  
V Yu Lysenko ◽  
N N Novikova ◽  
S N Yakunin ◽  
A V Rogachev ◽  
...  

Abstract The article describes the behaviour of the Zn ions in aqueous subphase in presence of arachidic acid films at the air/liquid interface first studied by XANES spectroscopy in the fluorescent mode under total external reflection conditions. Fingerprint analysis of experimental spectra was carried out to determine the local structure of zinc ions in arachidic acid. It showed that zinc is surrounded by oxygen atoms, which may correspond to the interaction of zinc ions with polar groups of arachidic acid.

Author(s):  
K. H. Downing ◽  
S. G. Wolf ◽  
E. Nogales

Microtubules are involved in a host of critical cell activities, many of which involve transport of organelles through the cell. Different sets of microtubules appear to form during the cell cycle for different functions. Knowledge of the structure of tubulin will be necessary in order to understand the various functional mechanisms of microtubule assemble, disassembly, and interaction with other molecules, but tubulin has so far resisted crystallization for x-ray diffraction studies. Fortuitously, in the presence of zinc ions, tubulin also forms two-dimensional, crystalline sheets that are ideally suited for study by electron microscopy. We have refined procedures for forming the sheets and preparing them for EM, and have been able to obtain high-resolution structural data that sheds light on the formation and stabilization of microtubules, and even the interaction with a therapeutic drug.Tubulin sheets had been extensively studied in negative stain, demonstrating that the same protofilament structure was formed in the sheets and microtubules. For high resolution studies, we have found that the sheets embedded in either glucose or tannin diffract to around 3 Å.


2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (1) ◽  
pp. 310-318
Author(s):  
Roberto De Propris ◽  
Michael J West ◽  
Felipe Andrade-Santos ◽  
Cinthia Ragone-Figueroa ◽  
Elena Rasia ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We explore the persistence of the alignment of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) with their local environment. We find that a significant fraction of BCGs do not coincide with the centroid of the X-ray gas distribution and/or show peculiar velocities (they are not at rest with respect to the cluster mean). Despite this, we find that BCGs are generally aligned with the cluster mass distribution even when they have significant offsets from the X-ray centre and significant peculiar velocities. The large offsets are not consistent with simple theoretical models. To account for these observations BCGs must undergo mergers preferentially along their major axis, the main infall direction. Such BCGs may be oscillating within the cluster potential after having been displaced by mergers or collisions, or the dark matter halo itself may not yet be relaxed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cen Li ◽  
Hongxia Yang ◽  
Yuzhi Du ◽  
Yuancan Xiao ◽  
Zhandui ◽  
...  

Zuotai(gTso thal) is one of the famous drugs containing mercury in Tibetan medicine. However, little is known about the chemical substance basis of its pharmacodynamics and the intrinsic link of different samples sources so far. Given this, energy dispersive spectrometry of X-ray (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to assay the elements, micromorphology, and phase composition of nineZuotaisamples from different regions, respectively; the XRD fingerprint features ofZuotaiwere analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis. EDX result shows thatZuotaicontains Hg, S, O, Fe, Al, Cu, and other elements. SEM and AFM observations suggest thatZuotaiis a kind of ancient nanodrug. Its particles are mainly in the range of 100–800 nm, which commonly further aggregate into 1–30 μm loosely amorphous particles. XRD test shows thatβ-HgS, S8, andα-HgS are its main phase compositions. XRD fingerprint analysis indicates that the similarity degrees of nine samples are very high, and the results of multivariate statistical analysis are broadly consistent with sample sources. The present research has revealed the physicochemical characteristics ofZuotai, and it would play a positive role in interpreting this mysterious Tibetan drug.


1960 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1149-1169 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kunitz

Purified chicken intestinal alkaline phosphatase is active at pH 8 to 9, but becomes rapidly inactivated with change of pH to 6 or less. Also, a solution of the inactivated enzyme at pH 4.5 rapidly regains its activity at pH 8. In the range of pH 6 to 8 a solution of purified alkaline phosphatase consists of a mixture of active and inactive enzyme in equilibrium with each other. The rate of inactivation at lower pH and of reactivation at higher pH increases with increase in temperature. Also, the activity at equilibrium in the range of pH 6 to 8 increases with temperature so that a solution equilibrated at higher temperature loses part of its activity on cooling, and vice versa, a rise in temperature shifts the equilibrium toward higher activity. The kinetics of inactivation of the enzyme at lower pH and the reactivation at higher pH is that of a unimolecular reaction. The thermodynamic values for the heat and entropy of the reversible inactivation and reactivation of the enzyme are considerably lower than those observed for the reversible denaturation of proteins. The inactivated enzyme at pH 4 to 6 is rapidly reactivated on addition of Zn ions even at pH 4 to 6. However, zinc ions are unable to replace magnesium ions as cocatalysts for the enzymatic hydrolysis of organic phosphates by alkaline phosphatase.


Author(s):  
Gundula F Starkulla ◽  
Elisabeth Kapatsina ◽  
Angelika Baro ◽  
Frank Giesselmann ◽  
Stefan Tussetschläger ◽  
...  

Based on 5-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2-octylpyrimidine 8, 5-phenylpyrimidine derivatives 3–7, 9 with different spacer chain lengths (C2 up to C6) and different terminal polar groups (Br, Cl, N3, OH, CN) were synthesized by etherification and nucleophilic substitution. The mesomorphic behaviour of these compounds was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarizing optical microscopy (POM) and X-ray diffraction (WAXS and SAXS) and revealed smectic A mesophases for bromides, chlorides and azides 3, 4 and 6. For these compounds a maximum phase width was observed for the C5 spacer regardless of the terminal group, whereas the hydroxy- and cyano-substituted derivatives 5 and 7, respectively, were non mesomorphic and showed only melting transitions.


2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 793-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Watanabe ◽  
A. Y. Ramos ◽  
M. C. M. Alves ◽  
H. Tolentino ◽  
O. L. Alves ◽  
...  

The local environment of titanium in glasses of the system TiO2–BaO–ZnO–B2O3 was studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy. In all glasses, for TiO2 content varying from 35 to 49 mol%, the titanium atoms are mainly fourfold coordinated network formers. For the glass with the highest titanium content, about 20% of the titanium enters into a sixfold environment, indicating the presence of precrystalline nuclei. These nuclei are responsible for the decrease of the optical performance of the glass above threshold titanium content, prior to any observable crystallization.


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