Measurement of storage time, estimation of ion number and study of absorption line profile in a Paul trap

Europium (Eu⁺) ions were confined in a Paul trap and detected by non-destructive method. Storage time of Eu⁺ ions achieved in vacuum was improved by orders of magnitude employing buffer gas cooling. The experimentally detected signal was fitted to the ion response signal and the total number of ions trapped was estimated. It is found that the peak signal amplitude as well as the product of FWHM and the peak signal amplitude is proportional to the total number of trapped ions. The trapped ion secular frequency was swept at different rates and its effect on the absorption line profile was studied both experimentally and theoretically.     

Time resolved collapse of a folding protein observed with small angle x-ray scattering

High-intensity, "pink" beam from an undulator was used in conjunction with microfabricated rapid-fluid mixing devices to monitor the early events in protein folding with time resolved small angle x-ray scattering. This Letter describes recent work on the protein bovine beta-lactoglobulin where collapse from an expanded to a compact set of states was directly observed on the millisecond time scale. The role of chain collapse, one of the initial stages of protein folding, is not currently understood. The characterization of transient, compact states is vital in assessing the validity of theories and models of the folding process.     

Dynamics of colloidal particles in ice

We use x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) to probe the dynamics of colloidal particles in polycrystalline ice. During freezing, the dendritic ice morphology and rejection of particles from the ice created regions of high particle density, where some of the colloids were forced into contact and formed disordered aggregates. The particles in these high density regions underwent ballistic motion, with a characteristic velocity that increased with temperature. This ballistic motion is coupled with both stretched and compressed exponential decays of the intensity autocorrelation function. We suggest that this behavior could result from ice grain boundary migration.     

Correction: Dermatan sulfate in tunicate phylogeny: Order-specific sulfation pattern and the effect of [→4IdoA(2-Sulfate)β-1→3GalNAc(4-Sulfate)β-1→] motifs in dermatan sulfate on heparin cofactor II activity

After the publication of the work entitled "Dermatan sulfate in tunicate phylogeny: Order-specific sulfation pattern and the effect of [→4IdoA(2-Sulfate)β-1→3GalNAc(4-Sulfate)β-1→] motifs in dermatan sulfate on heparin cofactor II activity", by Kozlowski et al., BMC Biochemistry 2011, 12:29, we found that the legends to Figures 2 to 5 contain serious mistakes that compromise the comprehension of the work. This correction article contains the correct text of the legends to Figures 2 to 5.     

A high resolution synchrotron x-ray study of the weakly-incommensurate phase of high stage bromine-intercalated graphite

We report the results of a high resolution synchrotron x-ray scattering study of the weakly incommensurate stripe domain phase of high stage bromine-intercalated graphite. The translational order in this system is two-dimensional in nature.) We demonstrate power-law behaviour at five harmonics (G) of the mass density wave, and confirm the scaling of the structure factor withG ². Our results are consistent with recent theories of the two dimensional uniaxial commensurate-incommensurate transition, which are based on an entropically wandering domain wall picture of the incommensurate phase. We demonstrate that, in this system, the domain walls have a width much less than their separation so that significant molecular displacements from the commensurate sites occur within a unit cell. Close to the transition, we observe hysteresis.