Injection lasers based on AlGaAsSb/GaSb and InGaAsSb/GaSb heterostructures

The isoperiodic heterostructures AIGaAsSb/GaSb and InGaAsSb/GaSb and injection lasers based on them are investigated. It is shown that in the heterostructures of the first type it is possible to obtain very low threshold currents at room temperature at wavelengths 1.72–1.78 m. Analysis of the experimental data and interpolation characteristics show that considerable optical confinement in the investigated heterostructures of the first type. Estimates show that the minimum threshold current in heterolasers for the spectral range 1.75–1.78 m is approximately 1 kA/cm². An investigation of the InGaAsSb/GaSb heterostructures shows that a case unusual for heterostructures of III-V compounds is realized in them when the material indicated has a smaller refractive index than the wideband layers. The antiwaveguide anomaly may be useful for the development of laser structures of new types.Translated from Trudy Ordena Lenina Fizicheskogo Instituta im. P. N. Lebedeva, Vol. 141, pp. 46–61, 1983.     

Encapsulating streptomycin within a small 40-mer RNA

We describe a 2.9 A X-ray structure of a complex between the aminocyclitol antibiotic streptomycin and an in vitro selected RNA aptamer, solved using the anomalous diffraction properties of Ba cations. The RNA aptamer, which contains two asymmetric internal loops, adopts a distinct cation-stabilized fold involving a series of S-shaped backbone turns anchored by canonical and noncanonical pairs and triples. The streptomycin streptose ring is encapsulated by stacked arrays of bases from both loops at the elbow of the L-shaped RNA architecture. Specificity is defined by direct hydrogen bonds between all streptose functional groups and base edges that line the inner walls of the cylindrical binding pocket. By contrast, the majority of intermolecular interactions involve contacts to backbone phosphates in the published structure of streptomycin bound to the 16S rRNA.     

Field- and phage-induced dipolar couplings in a homodimeric DNA quadruplex: relative orientation of G.(C-A) triad and G-tetrad motifs and direct determination of C2 symmetry axis orientation.

We present a new NMR procedure for determining the three-dimensional fold of C2-symmetric nucleic acid homodimers that relies on long-range orientational constraints derived from the measurement of two independent sets of residual dipolar couplings under two alignment conditions. The application is demonstrated on an (15)N/(13)C-enriched deoxyoligonucleotide sequence, d(G-G-G-T-T-C-A-G-G), shown previously to dimerize into a quadruplex in solution and form a pair of G.(C-A) triads and G-G-G-G tetrads (G-tetrad) motifs. One-bond (1)H-(15)N ((1)D(NH)) and (1)H-(13)C ((1)D(CH)) residual dipolar couplings have been measured between nuclei in the bases of these motifs using bacteriophage as an ordering medium, and under direct magnetic field alignment (800 MHz). By combining the two dipolar data sets in an order matrix analysis, the orientation of the G.(C-A) triad relative to the G-tetrad within a contiguous monomeric unit can directly be determined, even in the presence of interstrand/intrastrand NOE ambiguity. We further demonstrate that the orientation of the C2-axis of molecular symmetry in the homodimer relative to the G.(C-A) triad and G-tetrad motifs can unambiguously be determined using the two sets of independent dipolar coupling measurements. The three-dimensional fold of the homodimer determined using this procedure is very regular and in excellent agreement with a previously determined high-resolution NOE-based NMR structure, where interstrand/intrastrand NOEs were treated as ambiguous and where noncrystallographic symmetry constraints were implicitly imposed during the structure calculation.     

PRESENTATIONS: FROM KAC-MOODY GROUPS TO PROFINITE AND BACK

We go back and forth between, on the one hand, presentations of arithmetic and Kac-Moody groups and, on the other hand, presentations of profinite groups, deducing along the way new results on both.     

Measurement of the ϕ → π0 e + e − decay probability

The measurement of the ? → π⁰ e ⁺ e ^? conversion decay probability on the SND detector at the VEPP-2M e ⁺ e ^? collider gave the value Br(? → π ⁰ e ⁺ e ^?) = (1.01 ± 0.28 ± 0.29) × 10^?5.