Phenomena Affecting the Equilibrium of Al(III) and Zn(II) Extraction with Winsor II Microemulsions

The extraction of Al(III) and Zn(II) from an aqueous solution with two water-in-oil microemulsions, one containing di(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (DEHPA), was investigated to aid the understanding of the role of the extractant and the metal specific characteristics in the mechanism of microemulsion extraction. The extraction of Al with the DEHPA microemulsion increased by a factor of about 10 with respect to that in the conventional DEHPA system, whereas the extraction of Zn was lower than that in the single DEHPA system. Extraction with the DEHPA-free microemulsion was very low, showing that metal ion solubilization was not important in the mechanism of microemulsion extraction. It is proposed that the effect of the mixed microemulsion on the metal distribution coefficient is the result of the balance between a decrease in the complexation reaction yield due to the interaction between butanol and DEHPA, and the adsorption of the metal complex at the macro- and microinterfaces. The former leads to a decrease in Zn(II) extraction and the latter to Al(III) extraction synergism. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Lepton flavour violating heavy Higgs decays within the and their detection at the LHC

Within the νMSSM, a Minimal Supersymmetric neutrino See-saw Model, Lepton Flavour Violating Higgs couplings are strongly enhanced at large tanβ (30), which can lead to BR(H⁰/A⁰→τμ)O(10⁻⁴), for M_H⁰/A⁰160 GeV. Enhancements on the production of Higgs bosons, through the gluon fusion mechanism, gg→H⁰/A⁰, and the associated production channel , whose rates grow with tanβ, as well as the mass degeneracy that occurs between the H⁰ and A⁰ states in this regime, also contribute to further the possibilities to detect a heavy Higgs signal into τμ pairs. We show that the separation of τμ Higgs events from the background at the upcoming CERN Large Hadron Collider could be done for Higgs masses up to about 600 GeV for 300 fb⁻¹ of luminosity, for large tanβ values. However, even with as little as 10 fb⁻¹ one can probe H⁰/A⁰ masses up to 400 GeV or so, if tanβ=60. Altogether, these processes then provide a new Higgs discovery mode as well as an independent test of flavour physics.     

机械泵驱动两相回路的实时动态模型分析

在航空航天领域,为了加速系统设计及测试进度,通常需要进行半实物实时仿真,即控制器用实物,受控对象采用数学模型。本文开发出了基于Matlab/Simulink的两相传热模块,并用其搭建了某机械泵驱动两相回路的实时动态模型。通过与实验的对比,验证了模型的可靠性,表明该模型满足实时要求,可以在下一步用于半实物仿真。     

Role of the azinomycin naphthoate and central amide in sequence-dependent DNA alkylation and cytotoxicity of epoxide-bearing substructures

Studies report a strong correlation between duplex DNA alkylation and in vitro cytotoxicity for a series of azinomycin partial structures 2-6 bearing the biologically relevant epoxide. Compounds lacking the naphthoate ester (e.g., 5 and 6) were poorly reactive toward DNA and were biologically inactive, as were compounds bearing the naphthoate but lacking the terminal carboxamide (e.g., 2). Compounds were evaluated for cytotoxicity against two breast cancer cell lines. [structure: see text]     

Soft supersymmetry breaking, scalar top-charm mixing and Higgs signatures

The squark mass-matrix from the soft supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking sector contains a rich flavor-mixing structure that allows O(1) mixings among top- and charm-squarks while being consistent with all the existing theoretical and experimental bounds. We formulate a minimal flavor-changing-neutral current scheme in which the squark mixings arise from the non-diagonal scalar trilinear interactions. This feature can be realized in a class of new models with a horizontal U(1)_H symmetry which generates realistic quark-mass matrices and provides a solution to the SUSY μ-problem. Finally, without using the mass-insertion approximation, we analyze SUSY radiative corrections to the H^±bc and h⁰tc couplings, and show that these couplings can reveal exciting new discovery channels for the Higgs boson signals at the Tevatron and the LHC.     

Study of Cd2+ complexation by the glutathione fragments Cys-Gly (CG) and gamma-Glu-Cys (gamma-EC) by differential pulse polarography

A differential pulse polarographic study of the Cd2+/gamma-Glu-Cys and Cd2+/Cys-Gly systems assisted by the alternating least-squares multivariate curve resolution (MCR-ALS) method was carried out to obtain a better understanding of the different metal affinities of the complexation sites on glutathione (GSH). The simultaneous analysis of the titration of peptide with metal and of metal with peptide allowed the resolution of the Cd2+/Cys-Gly system, whereas in the analysis of the Cd2+/gamma-Glu-Cys system the analysis of a single titration experiment was sufficient. The analysis of the shape of the resulting pure voltammograms and concentration profiles of the resolved components suggested the presence of two different types of bound Cd2+ in the two systems considered, that could be attributed to Cd2+ bound to one or two sulfur atoms to form complexes of stoichiometry 1:1 and 1:2. respectively.     

Algebraic study of chiral anomalies?

The algebraic structure of chiral anomalies ismade globally valid on non-trivial bundles by the introduction of a fixed background connection. Some of the techniques used in the study of the anomaly are improved or generalized, including a systematic way of generating towers of ??descent equations??.     

The <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mycobacterium tuberculosis</Emphasis> Rv2540c DNA sequence encodes a bifunctional chorismate synthase

Background

The emergence of multi- and extensively-drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains has created an urgent need for new agents to treat tuberculosis (TB). The enzymes of shikimate pathway are attractive targets to the development of antitubercular agents because it is essential for M. tuberculosis and is absent from humans. Chorismate synthase (CS) is the seventh enzyme of this route and catalyzes the NADH- and FMN-dependent synthesis of chorismate, a precursor of aromatic amino acids, naphthoquinones, menaquinones, and mycobactins. Although the M. tuberculosis Rv2540c (aroF) sequence has been annotated to encode a chorismate synthase, there has been no report on its correct assignment and functional characterization of its protein product.

Results

In the present work, we describe DNA amplification of aroF-encoded CS from M. tuberculosis (Mt CS), molecular cloning, protein expression, and purification to homogeneity. N-terminal amino acid sequencing, mass spectrometry and gel filtration chromatography were employed to determine identity, subunit molecular weight and oligomeric state in solution of homogeneous recombinant Mt CS. The bifunctionality of Mt CS was determined by measurements of both chorismate synthase and NADH:FMN oxidoreductase activities. The flavin reductase activity was characterized, showing the existence of a complex between FMN_ox and Mt CS. FMN_ox and NADH equilibrium binding was measured. Primary deuterium, solvent and multiple kinetic isotope effects are described and suggest distinct steps for hydride and proton transfers, with the former being more rate-limiting.

Conclusion

This is the first report showing that a bacterial CS is bifunctional. Primary deuterium kinetic isotope effects show that C₄-proS hydrogen is being transferred during the reduction of FMN_ox by NADH and that hydride transfer contributes significantly to the rate-limiting step of FMN reduction reaction. Solvent kinetic isotope effects and proton inventory results indicate that proton transfer from solvent partially limits the rate of FMN reduction and that a single proton transfer gives rise to the observed solvent isotope effect. Multiple isotope effects suggest a stepwise mechanism for the reduction of FMN_ox. The results on enzyme kinetics described here provide evidence for the mode of action of Mt CS and should thus pave the way for the rational design of antitubercular agents.