Three-dimensional structure of Saccharomyces cerevisiae inorganic pyrophosphatase complexed with cobalt and phosphate ions

Crystals of Saccharomyces cerevisiae inorganic pyrophosphatase suitable for X-ray diffraction study were grown by cocrystallization of the enzyme with cobalt chloride and imidodiphosphate. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a metal-dependent enzyme which catalyzes hydrolysis of inorganic pyrophosphate to orthophosphate. The three-dimensional structure of this enzyme was solved by the molecular-replacement method and refined at 1.8 Å resolution to an R factor of 19.5%. Cobalt and phosphate ions were revealed in the active centers of both identical subunits (A and B) of the pyrophosphatase molecule. In subunit B, a water molecule was found between two cobalt ions. It is believed that this water molecule acts as an attacking nucleophile in the enzymatic cleavage of the pyrophosphate bond. It was demonstrated that cobalt ions and a phosphate group occupy only part of the potential binding sites (two chemically identical and crystallographically independent subunits have different binding sites). The arrangement of ligands and the structure of the nucleophile-binding site are discussed in relation to the mechanism of action of the enzyme and the nature of the metal activator.     

Krylov subspaces and the analytic grade

Typical behaviour of the solution of a linear system of equations obtained iteratively by Krylov methods can be characterized by three stages. Initially the residual diminishes steadily; this is followed by stagnation and finally rapid convergence near the algebraic grade. This study examines this behaviour in terms of the concepts of approximately invariant subspace and what we have called the analytic grade of a Krylov sequence. It is shown how the small Ritz values play a vital role in the convergence and how this knowledge helps in the construction of an effective preconditioner. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Digital Sums and Divide-and-Conquer Recurrences: Fourier Expansions and Absolute Convergence

We propose means for computing the Fourier expansions of periodic functions appearing in higher moments of the sum-of-digits function and in the solutions of some divide-and-conquer recurrences. The expansions are shown to be absolutely convergent. We also give a new approach to efficiently compute numerically the coefficients involved to high precision.     

Thinking and Turing's test

The questions raised by A. M. Turing in his paper on thought and machines are discussed. Human thought is considered in turn as a concept of normal language usage, as a basic concept of psychology, and as the basis of intellectual activity. It is concluded that neither of these notions of thought identifies something specific that a human being can or cannot do. The imitation game proposed by Turing for deciding whether a machine can think is found to result from an arbitrary empoverishment of the channel of communication between the interrogator and the item under investigation. Turing's notions of thinking are shown to lead to logical difficulties. An alternative view of consciousness, that would place it beyond the reach of any finite test, is finally discussed.     

Photoproduction of jets and heavy flavors at future polarized ep-colliders

We study photoproduction of jets and heavy flavors in a polarized collider mode of HERA and in polarized ep collisions at √S ≈ GeV. We examine the sensitivity of the cross sections and their asymmetries to the proton’s polarized gluon distribution and to the completely unknown parton distributions of longitudinally polarized photons.     

The accurate dimensional measurements within small internal structures

This paper shows that the dimension of internal structure of a component can be measured remotely to a resolution better than 5 μm by use of the combination of high resolution optical microscopy and image processing.A specialised high resolution, long working distance and diffraction limited lens was used to image within the component. A series of digital images were made to map spatially the interior of the component. An edge detector was then used to localise the specific location of features in order that an accurate internal measurement could be made. A visualisation of the internal surface finish was also achieved.     

New Classes of Toda Soliton Solutions

We provide a detailed investigation of limits of N–soliton solutions of the Toda lattice as N tends to infinity. Our principal results yield new classes of Toda solutions including, in particular, new kinds of soliton–like (i.e., reflectionless) solutions. As a byproduct we solve an inverse spectral problem for one–dimensional Jacobi operators and explicitly construct tri–diagonal matrices that yield a purely absolutely continuous spectrum in (-1,1) and give rise to an eigenvalue spectrum that includes any prescribed countable and bounded subset of . Received: 16 October 1995/Accepted: 23 July 1996     

The gas dynamics of current-limiting devices during immobility time

The aim of this paper is to extend our knowledge about the gas-dynamic processes in arcs during immobility time. For this purpose, the conservation equations in a magnetohydrodynamic approximation were coupled with the thermochemical and Maxwell equations. Special features arc the introduction of dissociation and ionization of nitrogen and oxygen, and the simultaneous calculation of the distributions of current density and magnetic induction in the arc. Numerical calculations were performed with a reduced two-dimensional (2-D) time-dependent model. Results of the calculations were compared with measurements. The development in time of the measured and calculated are voltage and arc chamber pressure show very good agreement. The pumping effect of the double vortex in the arc region was confirmed by optical measurements. It is concluded that the three-layer model is a good representation for the main physical features during the immobility time, and that the presence of highly conducting gas in the downstream region of the arc is essential for its downstream movement