77 research outputs found
Plant RuBisCo assembly in E. coli with five chloroplast chaperones including BSD2
Plant RuBisCo, a complex of eight large and eight small subunits, catalyzes the fixation of CO2 in photosynthesis. The low catalytic efficiency of RuBisCo provides strong motivation to reengineer the enzyme with the goal of increasing crop yields. However, genetic manipulation has been hampered by the failure to express plant RuBisCo in a bacterial host. We achieved the functional expression of Arabidopsis thaliana RuBisCo in Escherichia coli by coexpressing multiple chloroplast chaperones. These include the chaperonins Cpn60/Cpn20, RuBisCo accumulation factors 1 and 2, RbcX, and bundle-sheath defective-2 (BSD2). Our structural and functional analysis revealed the role of BSD2 in stabilizing an end-state assembly intermediate of eight RuBisCo large subunits until the small subunits become available. The ability to produce plant RuBisCo recombinantly will facilitate efforts to improve the enzyme through mutagenesis
Millimeter and sub-millimeter atmospheric performance at Dome C combining radiosoundings and ATM synthetic spectra
The reliability of astronomical observations at millimeter and sub-millimeter
wavelengths closely depends on a low vertical content of water vapor as well as
on high atmospheric emission stability. Although Concordia station at Dome C
(Antarctica) enjoys good observing conditions in this atmospheric spectral
windows, as shown by preliminary site-testing campaigns at different bands and
in, not always, time overlapped periods, a dedicated instrument able to
continuously determine atmospheric performance for a wide spectral range is not
yet planned. In the absence of such measurements, in this paper we suggest a
semi-empirical approach to perform an analysis of atmospheric transmission and
emission at Dome C to compare the performance for 7 photometric bands ranging
from 100 GHz to 2 THz. Radiosoundings data provided by the Routine
Meteorological Observations (RMO) Research Project at Concordia station are
corrected by temperature and humidity errors and dry biases and then employed
to feed ATM (Atmospheric Transmission at Microwaves) code to generate synthetic
spectra in the wide spectral range from 100 GHz to 2 THz. To quantify the
atmospheric contribution in millimeter and sub-millimeter observations we are
considering several photometric bands in which atmospheric quantities are
integrated. The observational capabilities of this site at all the selected
spectral bands are analyzed considering monthly averaged transmissions joined
to the corresponding fluctuations. Transmission and pwv statistics at Dome C
derived by our semi-empirical approach are consistent with previous works. It
is evident the decreasing of the performance at high frequencies. We propose to
introduce a new parameter to compare the quality of a site at different
spectral bands, in terms of high transmission and emission stability, the Site
Photometric Quality Factor.Comment: accepted to MNRAS with minor revision
A Search for Propylene Oxide and Glycine in Sagittarius B2 (LMH) and Orion
We have used the Mopra Telescope to search for glycine and the simple chiral
molecule propylene oxide in the Sgr B2 (LMH) and Orion KL, in the 3-mm band. We
have not detected either species, but have been able to put sensitive upper
limits on the abundances of both molecules. The 3-sigma upper limits derived
for glycine conformer I are 3.7 x 10^{14} cm^{-2} in both Orion-KL and Sgr B2
(LMH), comparable to the reported detections of conformer I by Kuan et al.
However, as our values are 3-sigma upper limits rather than detections we
conclude that this weighs against confirming the detection of Kuan et al. We
find upper limits for the glycine II column density of 7.7 x 10^{12} cm^{-2} in
both Orion-KL and Sgr B2 (LMH), in agreement with the results of Combes et al.
The results presented here show that glycine conformer II is not present in the
extended gas at the levels detected by Kuan et al. for conformer I. Our ATCA
results (Jones et al.) have ruled out the detection of glycine (both conformers
I and II) in the compact hot core of the LMH at the levels reported, so we
conclude that it is unlikely that Kuan et al. have detected glycine in either
Sgr B2 or Orion-KL. We find upper limits for propylene oxide abundance of 3.0 x
10^{14} cm^{-2} in Orion-KL and 6.7 x 10^{14} cm^{-2} in Sgr B2 (LMH). We have
detected fourteen features in Sgr B2 and four features in Orion-KL which have
not previously been reported in the ISM, but have not be able to plausibly
assign these transitions to any carrier.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by MNRAS 12th January 200
2mm observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud at 5' resolution
We report on new millimetric continuum observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) made from the Italian Base in Antarctica with a 2.6 metre diameter telescope. The telescope scanned two strips at constant declinations -69deg and -69.16deg across the entire source with an angular resolution of 5 arcminutes. The comparison of the mm wavelength observations with radio, CO and FIR measurements suggests that most of the observed mm emission is thermal and can be associated with very cold dust present in the molecular clouds of this Galaxy. The dust properties inferred from these observations are briefly discussed
Site testing for submillimetre astronomy at Dome C, Antarctica
Over the past few years a major effort has been put into the exploration of
potential sites for the deployment of submillimetre astronomical facilities.
Amongst the most important sites are Dome C and Dome A on the Antarctic
Plateau, and the Chajnantor area in Chile. In this context, we report on
measurements of the sky opacity at 200 um over a period of three years at the
French-Italian station, Concordia, at Dome C, Antarctica. We also present some
solutions to the challenges of operating in the harsh polar environ- ment. Dome
C offers exceptional conditions in terms of absolute atmospheric transmission
and stability for submillimetre astron- omy. Over the austral winter the PWV
exhibits long periods during which it is stable and at a very low level (0.1 to
0.3 mm). Higher values (0.2 to 0.8 mm) of PWV are observed during the short
summer period. Based on observations over three years, a transmission of around
50% at 350 um is achieved for 75% of the time. The 200-um window opens with a
typical transmission of 10% to 15% for 25% of the time. Dome C is one of the
best accessible sites on Earth for submillimetre astronomy. Observations at 350
or 450 {\mu}m are possible all year round, and the 200-um window opens long
enough and with a sufficient transparency to be useful. Although the polar
environment severely constrains hardware design, a permanent observatory with
appropriate technical capabilities is feasible. Because of the very good
astronomical conditions, high angular resolution and time series (multi-year)
observations at Dome C with a medium size single dish telescope would enable
unique studies to be conducted, some of which are not otherwise feasible even
from space
Equilibrium configurations of two charged masses in General Relativity
An asymptotically flat static solution of Einstein-Maxwell equations which
describes the field of two non-extreme Reissner - Nordstr\"om sources in
equilibrium is presented. It is expressed in terms of physical parameters of
the sources (their masses, charges and separating distance). Very simple
analytical forms were found for the solution as well as for the equilibrium
condition which guarantees the absence of any struts on the symmetry axis. This
condition shows that the equilibrium is not possible for two black holes or for
two naked singularities. However, in the case when one of the sources is a
black hole and another one is a naked singularity, the equilibrium is possible
at some distance separating the sources. It is interesting that for
appropriately chosen parameters even a Schwarzschild black hole together with a
naked singularity can be "suspended" freely in the superposition of their
fields.Comment: 4 pages; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
A CH3CN and HCO+ survey towards southern methanol masers associated with star formation
We present the initial results of a 3-mm spectral line survey towards 83
methanol maser selected massive star-forming regions. Here we report
observations of the J=5-4 and 6-5 rotational transitions of methyl cyanide
(CH3CN) and the J=1-0 transition of HCO+and H13CO+.
CH3CN emission is detected in 58 sources (70 %) of our sample). We estimate
the temperature and column density for 37 of these using the rotational diagram
method. The temperatures we derive range from 28-166 K, and are lower than
previously reported temperatures, derived from higher J transitions. We find
that CH3CN is brighter and more commonly detected towards ultra-compact HII
(UCHII) regions than towards isolated maser sources. Detection of CH3CN towards
isolated maser sources strongly suggests that these objects are internally
heated and that CH3CN is excited prior to the UCHII phase of massive
star-formation.
HCO+ is detected towards 82 sources (99 % of our sample), many of which
exhibit asymmetric line profiles compared to H13CO+. Skewed profiles are
indicative of inward or outward motions, however, we find approximately equal
numbers of red and blue-skewed profiles among all classes. Column densities are
derived from an analysis of the HCO+ and H13CO+ line profiles.
80 sources have mid-infrared counterparts: 68 seen in emission and 12 seen in
absorption as `dark clouds'. Seven of the twelve dark clouds exhibit asymmetric
HCO+ profiles, six of which are skewed to the blue, indicating infalling
motions. CH3CN is also common in dark clouds, where it has a 90 % detection
rate.Comment: 29 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. For
associated online figures please see
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~crp/papers/cpurcell_2005_online.pd
Detecting the B-mode Polarisation of the CMB with Clover
We describe the objectives, design and predicted performance of Clover, which
is a ground-based experiment to measure the faint ``B-mode'' polarisation
pattern in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). To achieve this goal, clover
will make polarimetric observations of approximately 1000 deg^2 of the sky in
spectral bands centred on 97, 150 and 225 GHz. The observations will be made
with a two-mirror compact range antenna fed by profiled corrugated horns. The
telescope beam sizes for each band are 7.5, 5.5 and 5.5 arcmin, respectively.
The polarisation of the sky will be measured with a rotating half-wave plate
and stationary analyser, which will be an orthomode transducer. The sky
coverage combined with the angular resolution will allow us to measure the
angular power spectra between 20 < l < 1000. Each frequency band will employ
192 single polarisation, photon noise limited TES bolometers cooled to 100 mK.
The background-limited sensitivity of these detector arrays will allow us to
constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio to 0.026 at 3sigma, assuming any polarised
foreground signals can be subtracted with minimal degradation to the 150 GHz
sensitivity. Systematic errors will be mitigated by modulating the polarisation
of the sky signals with the rotating half-wave plate, fast azimuth scans and
periodic telescope rotations about its boresight. The three spectral bands will
be divided into two separate but nearly identical instruments - one for 97 GHz
and another for 150 and 225 GHz. The two instruments will be sited on identical
three-axis mounts in the Atacama Desert in Chile near Pampa la Bola.
Observations are expected to begin in late 2009.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the XXXXIIIrd
Rencontres de Moriond "Cosmology". Figure 1 update
Development of a Smart LED Lighting System: Rapid Prototyping Scenario
The goal of this work is the development of a LED driver system for industrial and domestic use , which integrates an AC-DC PFC interleaved boost converter, a resonant DC-DC LLC high efficiency converter, a low-level LED control and a fault detection component. Efficient energy use and harmonics reduction are the main goals to be achieved. AC-DC power stage has been designed to operate in interleaved mode and several control techniques have been tested to increase performances; a linear control has been implemented for the resonant converter; low-level LED control includes a fault detection capabilities. The approaches of simulation and rapid prototyping have been deeply exploited in this work to make faster design and test phases for each individual functional block and to minimize errors. The behaviour of the LED control component has been also compared with a real prototype
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