A measurement of the evolution of Interatomic Coulombic Decay in the time domain

During the last 15 years a novel decay mechanism of excited atoms has been discovered and investigated. This so called ''Interatomic Coulombic Decay'' (ICD) involves the chemical environment of the electronically excited atom: the excitation energy is transferred (in many cases over long distances) to a neighbor of the initially excited particle usually ionizing that neighbor. It turned out that ICD is a very common decay route in nature as it occurs across van-der-Waals and hydrogen bonds. The time evolution of ICD is predicted to be highly complex, as its efficiency strongly depends on the distance of the atoms involved and this distance typically changes during the decay. Here we present the first direct measurement of the temporal evolution of ICD using a novel experimental approach.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Interatomic-Coulombic-decay-induced recapture of photoelectrons in helium dimers

We investigate the onset of photoionization shakeup induced interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) in He2 at the He+*(n = 2) threshold by detecting two He+ ions in coincidence. We find this threshold to be shifted towards higher energies compared to the same threshold in the monomer. The shifted onset of ion pairs created by ICD is attributed to a recapture of the threshold photoelectron after the emission of the faster ICD electron.Comment: 5 Pages, 2 Figure

Vibrationally Resolved Decay Width of Interatomic Coulombic Decay in HeNe

We investigate the ionization of HeNe from below the He 1s3p excitation to the He ionization threshold. We observe HeNe$^+$ ions with an enhancement by more than a factor of 60 when the He side couples resonantly to the radiation field. These ions are an experimental proof of a two-center resonant photoionization mechanism predicted by Najjari et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 153002 (2010)]. Furthermore, our data provide electronic and vibrational state resolved decay widths of interatomic Coulombic decay (ICD) in HeNe dimers. We find that the ICD lifetime strongly increases with increasing vibrational state.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Peripheral Nα\alpha Scattering: A Tool For Identifying The Two Pion Exchange Component Of The NN Potential

We study elastic N$\alpha$ scattering and produce a quantitative correlation between the range of the effective potential and the energy of the system. This allows the identification of the waves and energies for which the scattering may be said to be peripheral. We then show that the corresponding phase shifts are sensitive to the tail of the NN potential, which is due to the exchange of two pions. However, the present uncertainties in the experimental phase shifts prevent the use of N$\alpha$ scattering to discriminate the existing models for the NN interaction.Comment: 19 pages, 6 PostScript figures, RevTeX, to be appear in Phys. Rev.

Generator Coordinate Truncations

We investigate the accuracy of several schemes to calculate ground-state correlation energies using the generator coordinate technique. Our test-bed for the study is the $sd$ interacting boson model, equivalent to a 6-level Lipkin-type model. We find that the simplified projection of a triaxial generator coordinate state using the $S_3$ subgroup of the rotation group is not very accurate in the parameter space of the Hamiltonian of interest. On the other hand, a full rotational projection of an axial generator coordinate state gives remarkable accuracy. We also discuss the validity of the simplified treatment using the extended Gaussian overlap approximation (top-GOA), and show that it works reasonably well when the number of boson is four or larger.Comment: 19 pages, 6 eps figure

High-Resolution Structures and Orientations of Antimicrobial Peptides Piscidin 1 and Piscidin 3 in Fluid Bilayers Reveal Tilting, Kinking, and Bilayer Immersion

While antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been widely investigated as potential therapeutics, high-resolution structures obtained under biologically relevant conditions are lacking. Here, the high-resolution structures of the homologous 22-residue long AMPs piscidin 1 (p1) and piscidin 3 (p3) are determined in fluid-phase 3:1 phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylglycerol (PC/PG) and 1:1 phosphatidylethanolamine/phosphatidylglycerol (PE/PG) bilayers to identify molecular features important for membrane destabilization in bacterial cell membrane mimics. Structural refinement of 1H–15N dipolar couplings and 15N chemical shifts measured by oriented sample solid-state NMR and all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations provide structural and orientational information of high precision and accuracy about these interfacially bound α-helical peptides. The tilt of the helical axis, τ, is between 83° and 93° with respect to the bilayer normal for all systems and analysis methods. The average azimuthal rotation, ρ, is 235°, which results in burial of hydrophobic residues in the bilayer. The refined NMR and MD structures reveal a slight kink at G13 that delineates two helical segments characterized by a small difference in their τ angles (<10°) and significant difference in their ρ angles (∼25°). Remarkably, the kink, at the end of a G(X)4G motif highly conserved among members of the piscidin family, allows p1 and p3 to adopt ρ angles that maximize their hydrophobic moments. Two structural features differentiate the more potent p1 from p3: p1 has a larger ρ angle and less N-terminal fraying. The peptides have comparable depths of insertion in PC/PG, but p3 is 1.2 Å more deeply inserted than p1 in PE/PG. In contrast to the ideal α-helical structures typically assumed in mechanistic models of AMPs, p1 and p3 adopt disrupted α-helical backbones that correct for differences in the amphipathicity of their N- and C-ends, and their centers of mass lie ∼1.2–3.6 Å below the plane defined by the C2 atoms of the lipid acyl chains

Paternal mtDNA and Maleness Are Co-Inherited but Not Causally Linked in Mytilid Mussels

BACKGROUND: In marine mussels of the genus Mytilus there are two mitochondrial genomes. One is transmitted through the female parent, which is the normal transmission route in animals, and the other is transmitted through the male parent which is an unusual phenomenon. In males the germ cell line is dominated by the paternal mitochondrial genome and the somatic cell line by the maternal. Research to date has not allowed a clear answer to the question of whether inheritance of the paternal genome is causally related to maleness. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we present results from hybrid crosses, from triploid mussels and from observations of sperm mitochondria in fertilized eggs which clearly show that maleness and presence of the paternal mitochondrial genome can be decoupled. These same results show that the female mussel has exclusive control of whether her progeny will inherit the mitochondrial genome of the male parent. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings are important in our efforts to understand the mechanistic basis of this unusual mode of mitochondrial DNA inheritance that is common among bivalves

Alpha scattering and capture reactions in the A = 7 system at low energies

Differential cross sections for $^3$He-$\alpha$ scattering were measured in the energy range up to 3 MeV. These data together with other available experimental results for $^3$He $+ \alpha$ and $^3$H $+ \alpha$ scattering were analyzed in the framework of the optical model using double-folded potentials. The optical potentials obtained were used to calculate the astrophysical S-factors of the capture reactions $^3$He$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Be and $^3$H$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Li, and the branching ratios for the transitions into the two final $^7$Be and $^7$Li bound states, respectively. For $^3$He$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Be excellent agreement between calculated and experimental data is obtained. For $^3$H$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Li a $S(0)$ value has been found which is a factor of about 1.5 larger than the adopted value. For both capture reactions a similar branching ratio of $R = \sigma(\gamma_1)/\sigma(\gamma_0) \approx 0.43$ has been obtained.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.C, 34 pages, figures available from one of the authors, LaTeX with RevTeX, IK-TUW-Preprint 930540

Pericentrosomal targeting of Rab6 secretory vesicles by Bicaudal-D-related protein 1 (BICDR-1) regulates neuritogenesis

Membrane and secretory trafficking are essential for proper neuronal development. However, the molecular mechanisms that organize secretory trafficking are poorly understood. Here, we identify Bicaudal-D-related protein 1 (BICDR-1) as an effector of the small GTPase Rab6 and key component of the molecular machinery that controls secretory vesicle transport in developing neurons. BICDR-1 interacts with kinesin motor Kif1C, the dynein/dynactin retrograde motor complex, regulates the pericentrosomal localization of Rab6-positive secretory vesicles and is required for neural development in zebrafish. BICDR-1 expression is high during early neuronal development and strongly declines during neurite outgrowth. In young neurons, BICDR-1 accumulates Rab6 secretory vesicles around the centrosome, restricts anterograde secretory transport and inhibits neuritogenesis. Later during development, BICDR-1 expression is strongly reduced, which permits anterograde secretory transport required for neurite outgrowth. These results indicate an important role for BICDR-1 as temporal regulator of secretory trafficking during the early phase of neuronal differentiation

Fine mapping of the 9q31 Hirschsprung’s disease locus

Hirschsprung’s disease (HSCR) is a congenital disorder characterised by the absence of ganglia along variable lengths of the intestine. The RET gene is the major HSCR gene. Reduced penetrance of RET mutations and phenotypic variability suggest the involvement of additional modifying genes in the disease. A RET-dependent modifier locus was mapped to 9q31 in families bearing no coding sequence (CDS) RET mutations. Yet, the 9q31 causative locus is to be identified. To fine-map the 9q31 region, we genotyped 301 tag-SNPs spanning 7 Mb on 137 HSCR Dutch trios. This revealed two HSCR-associated regions that were further investigated in 173 Chinese HSCR patients and 436 controls using the genotype data obtained from a genome-wide association study recently conducted. Within one of the two identified regions SVEP1 SNPs were found associated with Dutch HSCR patients in the absence of RET mutations. This ratifies the reported linkage to the 9q31 region in HSCR families with no RET CDS mutations. However, this finding could not be replicated. In Chinese, HSCR was found associated with IKBKAP. In contrast, this association was stronger in patients carrying RET CDS mutations with p = 5.10 × 10−6 [OR = 3.32 (1.99, 5.59)] after replication. The HSCR-association found for IKBKAP in Chinese suggests population specificity and implies that RET mutation carriers may have an additional risk. Our finding is supported by the role of IKBKAP in the development of the nervous system