Properties of a recombinant β-glucosidase from polycentric anaerobic fungus Orpinomyces PC-2 and its application for cellulose hydrolysis

A β-glucosidase (BglA, EC 3.2.1.21) gene from the polycentric anaerobic fungus Orpinomyces PC-2 was cloned and sequenced. The enzyme containing 657 amino acid residues was homologous to certain animal, plant, and bacterial β-glucosidases but lacked significant similarity to those from aerobic fungi. Neither cellulose- nor protein-binding domains were found in BglA. When expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the enzyme was secreted in two forms with masses of about 110 kDa and also found in two forms associated with the yeast cells. K _m and V _max values of the secreted BglA were 0.762 mM and 8.20 μmol/(min·mg), respectively, with p-nitrophenyl-β-d-glucopyranoside (pNPG) as the substrate and 0.310 mM and 6.45 μmol/(min·mg), respectively, for the hydrolysis of cellobiose. Glucose competitively inhibited the hydrolysis of pNPG with a K _i of 3.6 mM. β-Glucosidase significantly enhanced the conversion of cellulosic materials into glucose by Trichoderma reesei cellulase preparations, demonstrating its potential for use in biofuel and feedstock chemical production. Names are necessary to report factually on available data; however, the USDA neither guarantees nor warrants the standard of the product, and the use of the name by USDA implies no approval of the product to the exclusion of others that may be suitable.     

Metal‐Free Catalyst for the Chemoselective Methylation of Amines Using Carbon Dioxide as a Carbon Source

N‐methylation of amines is an important step in the synthesis of many pharmaceuticals and has been widely applied in the preparation of other key intermediates and chemicals. Therefore, the development of efficient methylation methods has attracted considerable attention. In this respect, carbon dioxide is an attractive C₁ building block because it is an abundant, renewable, and nontoxic carbon source. Consequently, we developed a highly chemoselective, metal‐free catalytic system that operates under ambient conditions for the N‐methylation of amines.     

Identified particle production in p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions at RHIC

Measurements of identified particle production with the PHENIX experiment at RHIC have reached a mature state, where a multitude of nuclear systems at different colliding energies have been studied. The discovery configurations of $\sqrt {s_{NN} } = 130$ and 200 GeV Au+Au collisions have now been supplemented by additional Au+Au and Cu+Cu configurations at various energies, along with baseline p+p and d+Au runs at $\sqrt {s_{NN} } = 130$ GeV. In this work we present a systematic study of the Cronin effect in d+Au collisions and recent results from p+p collisions. We then proceed to make a critical comparison of pion, kaon and proton production in heavy ion and baseline systems, and discuss the observed nuclear effects on hadron production.     

Electrical and microscopic characterization of ZnO films on p-SiC substrates

ZnO/p- SiC heterojunctions were fabricated by thermal evaporation from ZnO high quality powder (99.99%) onto 4H and 6H p-SiC polytypes. We find that, despite the low cost technique employed for the deposition of the ZnO film, the devices exhibited breakdown voltages in excess of 100 V, high rectification ratio (forward to reverse current ratio, I_F/I_R) and low leakage current, respectively, 2×10⁵ and 4.5×10⁻⁷ A/cm² (for the 4H p-SiC based device) and 5×10⁴ and 5×10⁻⁷ A/cm² (for the 6H p-SiC based device). The current-voltage (I×V) characteristics were also measured at the nanometer scale by means of conductive atomic force microscopy. A simple Schottky diode model and conductance divided by current versus conductance plots (G/I×G plots) was used to analyze device characteristics. This analysis shows that, when probing at the nanometric scale, fluctuations of the effective barrier height and/or surface states across individual grains or grain boundaries cause deviations from linear G/I×G plots. These fluctuations are smeared out when probing at the macroscale and thus it becomes possible to obtain linear plots and extract diode parameters.     

Electrical detection of coherent nuclear spin oscillations in phosphorus-doped silicon using pulsed ENDOR

We demonstrate the electrical detection of pulsed X-band electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) in phosphorus-doped silicon at 5 K. A pulse sequence analogous to Davies ENDOR in conventional electron spin resonance is used to measure the nuclear spin transition frequencies of the (31)P nuclear spins, where the (31)P electron spins are detected electrically via spin-dependent transitions through Si/SiO(2) interface states, thus not relying on a polarization of the electron spin system. In addition, the electrical detection of coherent nuclear spin oscillations is shown, demonstrating the feasibility to electrically read out the spin states of possible nuclear spin qubits.     

Non-Existence of Black Hole Solutions¶for a Spherically Symmetric, Static Einstein–Dirac–Maxwell System

We consider for j=?, … a spherically symmetric, static system of (2j+1) Dirac particles, each having total angular momentum j. The Dirac particles interact via a classical gravitational and electromagnetic field. The Einstein–Dirac–Maxwell equations for this system are derived. It is shown that, under weak regularity conditions on the form of the horizon, the only black hole solutions of the EDM equations are the Reissner–Nordstr?m solutions. In other words, the spinors must vanish identically. Applied to the gravitational collapse of a “cloud” of spin-?-particles to a black hole, our result indicates that the Dirac particles must eventually disappear inside the event horizon. Received: 2 November 1998 / Accepted: 23 February 1999     

Catalytic Generation and Chemoselective Transfer of Nucleophilic Hydrides from Dihydrogen

Copper(I)–N-heterocyclic-carbene (NHC) complexes enabled the catalytic generation of nucleophilic hydrides from dihydrogen (H₂) and their subsequent transfer to allylic chlorides. The highly chemoselective catalyst displayed no concomitant hydrogenation reactivity; in fact, the terminal double bond formed in the hydride transfer remained intact. Switching to deuterium gas (D₂) allowed for regioselective monodeuteration with excellent isotope incorporation.