Fast folding of RNA pseudoknots initiated by laser temperature-jump

RNA pseudoknots are examples of minimal structural motifs in RNA with tertiary interactions that stabilize the structures of many ribozymes. They also play an essential role in a variety of biological functions that are modulated by their structure, stability, and dynamics. Therefore, understanding the global principles that determine the thermodynamics and folding pathways of RNA pseudoknots is an important problem in biology, both for elucidating the folding mechanisms of larger ribozymes as well as addressing issues of possible kinetic control of the biological functions of pseudoknots. We report on the folding/unfolding kinetics of a hairpin-type pseudoknot obtained with microsecond time-resolution in response to a laser temperature-jump perturbation. The kinetics are monitored using UV absorbance as well as fluorescence of extrinsically attached labels as spectroscopic probes of the transiently populated RNA conformations. We measure folding times of 1-6 ms at 37 °C, which are at least 100-fold faster than previous observations of very slow folding pseudoknots that were trapped in misfolded conformations. The measured relaxation times are remarkably similar to predictions of a computational study by Thirumalai and co-workers (Cho, S. S.; Pincus, D.L.; Thirumalai, D. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2009, 106, 17349-17354). Thus, these studies provide the first observation of a fast-folding pseudoknot and present a benchmark against which computational models can be refined.     

Green synthesis of biogenic metal nanoparticles by terrestrial and aquatic phototrophic and heterotrophic eukaryotes and biocompatible agents

The size, shape and controlled dispersity of nanoparticles play a vital role in determining the physical, chemical, optical and electronic properties attributing its applications in environmental, biotechnological and biomedical fields. Various physical and chemical processes have been exploited in the synthesis of several inorganic metal nanoparticles by wet and dry approaches viz., ultraviolet irradiation, aerosol technologies, lithography, laser ablation, ultrasonic fields, and photochemical reduction techniques. However, these methodologies remain expensive and involve the use of hazardous chemicals. Therefore, there is a growing concern for the development of alternative environment friendly and sustainable methods. Increasing awareness towards green chemistry and biological processes has led to a necessity to develop simple, cost-effective and eco-friendly procedures. Phototrophic eukaryotes such as plants, algae, and diatoms and heterotrophic human cell lines and some biocompatible agents have been reported to synthesize greener nanoparticles like cobalt, copper, silver, gold, bimetallic alloys, silica, palladium, platinum, iridium, magnetite and quantum dots. Owing to the diversity and sustainability, the use of phototrophic and heterotrophic eukaryotes and biocompatible agents for the synthesis of nanomaterials is yet to be fully explored. This review describes the recent advancements in the green synthesis and applications of metal nanoparticles by plants, aquatic autotrophs, human cell lines, biocompatible agents and biomolecules.     

X‐ray speckle visibility spectroscopy in the single‐photon limit

The technique of speckle visibility spectroscopy has been employed for the measurement of dynamics using coherent X‐ray scattering. It is shown that the X‐ray contrast within a single exposure can be related to the relaxation time of the intermediate scattering function, and this methodology is applied to the diffusion of 72 nm‐radius latex spheres in glycerol. Data were collected with exposure times as short as 2 ms by employing a resonant shutter. The weak scattering present for short exposures necessitated an analysis formalism based on the spatial correlation function of individual photon charge droplets on an area detector, rather than the usual methods employed for intensity correlations. It is demonstrated that this method gives good agreement between theory and experiment and thus holds promise for extending area‐detector‐based coherent scattering methods to the study of faster dynamics than previously obtainable.     

Synthesis of Fluorinated Graphene Oxide and its Amphiphobic Properties

The richly functionalized basal plane bonded to polar organic moieties makes graphene oxide (GO) innately hydrophilic. Here, a methodology to synthesize fluorinated graphene oxide by oxidizing the basal plane of fluorinated graphite, allowing for tunable hydrophobicity of GO, is reported. Fluorine exists as tertiary alkyl fluorides covalently bonded to graphitic carbons, and using magic‐angle spinning (MAS) ¹³C NMR as a primary tool chemical structures for the two types of synthesized fluorinated graphene oxides (FGOs) with significantly different fluorine contents are proposed. The low surface energy of the C–F bond drastically affects GO's wetting behavior, leading to amphiphobicity in its highly fluorinated form. Ease of solution processing enables the fabrication of inks that are spray‐painted on various porous/non‐porous substrates. These coatings maintain amphiphobicity for solvents with surface tensions down to 59 dyn/cm, thus bypassing existing lithographic means to create similar surfaces. The approach towards fluorinating GO and fabricating graphene‐based surfaces with tunable wettability opens the path towards unique, accessible, carbon‐based amphiphobic coatings.     

345 GHZ PROTOTYPE SIS MIXER WITH INTEGRATED MMIC LNA

We report on heterodyne measurements at submillimeter wavelengths using a receiver with a Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer device and a Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit (MMIC) cryogenic low noise amplifier (LNA) module integrated into the same block. The mixer characterization presented in this work demonstrates the feasibility of operating a MMIC LNA in close proximity to the SIS device without penalty in mixer performance due to heating effects. Verification of this functionality is crucial for the ongoing development of SuperCam, a 64-pixel focal plane array receiver consisting of eight, 1 × 8 integrated mixer/LNA modules. The test setup included a mixer block modified to accept a MMIC amplifier. Our tests show that the LNA can be operated over a broad range of V_drain voltages from 0.40–1.40 V, corresponding to dissipative powers of 2.6–29 mW. We observe no significant effect on the measured uncorrected receiver noise temperatures in the 345 GHz band.     

Rest frames for tachyons and photons

A formalism is developed which admits particles faster than light and reference frames faster than light and as fast as light. It is fully consistent with the physical principles of special relativity. The necessity of introducing imaginary quantities does not arise. It does not encounter any difficulties with the principle of causality if it is reasonably interpreted.Dedicated to Prof. E. C. G. Sudarshan, in honor of his receipt of the Padmabushan Award.