Investigation of the Application of a New Method of Extraction Intensification of Pectin Substances From a Beet Pulp

The aim of research is studying a new method for intensifying extraction of pectin substances during acid extraction of pectin-containing raw materials. The description of the experimental setup and the procedure for processing the results of the investigation of the application of a new method for intensifying the beet pulp extraction are described. The results of experimental studies on the application of a new combined mixing element for intensifying the extraction of pectin-containing raw materials (beet pulp) and its effect on quantitative and qualitative output characteristics are presented. Mathematical models are constructed on the basis of regression equations of the full factorial experiment with the use of a new method of intensifying the extraction process to select input technological parameters for the extraction of pectin substances from pectin-containing raw materials. The rational operating parameters of the process of extraction of pectin substances with the use of a new combinable stirring element are determined. Such working parameters are: the process duration is 1 ... 1.1, the temperature of the working medium is 60 ... 70 ºС, and the hydromodule is 8 ... 10. The research results can be used to study other technological parameters of the extraction process of pectin substances, as well as to develop a technological line for the production of pectin products

Giga-Hertz quantized charge pumping in bottom gate defined InAs nanowire quantum dots

Semiconducting nanowires (NWs) are a versatile, highly tunable material platform at the heart of many new developments in nanoscale and quantum physics. Here, we demonstrate charge pumping, i.e., the controlled transport of individual electrons through an InAs NW quantum dot (QD) device at frequencies up to $1.3\,$GHz. The QD is induced electrostatically in the NW by a series of local bottom gates in a state of the art device geometry. A periodic modulation of a single gate is enough to obtain a dc current proportional to the frequency of the modulation. The dc bias, the modulation amplitude and the gate voltages on the local gates can be used to control the number of charges conveyed per cycle. Charge pumping in InAs NWs is relevant not only in metrology as a current standard, but also opens up the opportunity to investigate a variety of exotic states of matter, e.g. Majorana modes, by single electron spectroscopy and correlation experiments.Comment: 21 page

Assessment of protein-protein interfaces in cryo-EM derived assemblies

Structures of macromolecular assemblies derived from cryo-EM maps often contain errors that become more abundant with decreasing resolution. Despite efforts in the cryo-EM community to develop metrics for map and atomistic model validation, thus far, no specific scoring metrics have been applied systematically to assess the interface between the assembly subunits. Here, we comprehensively assessed protein–protein interfaces in macromolecular assemblies derived by cryo-EM. To this end, we developed Protein Interface-score (PI-score), a density-independent machine learning-based metric, trained using the features of protein–protein interfaces in crystal structures. We evaluated 5873 interfaces in 1053 PDB-deposited cryo-EM models (including SARS-CoV-2 complexes), as well as the models submitted to CASP13 cryo-EM targets and the EM model challenge. We further inspected the interfaces associated with low-scores and found that some of those, especially in intermediate-to-low resolution (worse than 4 Å) structures, were not captured by density-based assessment scores. A combined score incorporating PI-score and fit-to-density score showed discriminatory power, allowing our method to provide a powerful complementary assessment tool for the ever-increasing number of complexes solved by cryo-EM

Advanced X-ray diffractive optics

X-ray microscopy greatly bene�ts from the advances in x-ray optics. At the Paul Scherrer Institut, developments in x-ray di�ractive optics include the manufacture and optimization of Fresnel zone plates (FZPs) and di�ractive optical elements for both soft and hard x-ray regimes. In particular, we demonstrate here a novel method for the production of ultra-high resolution FZPs. This technique is based on the deposition of a zone plate material (iridium) onto the sidewalls of a prepatterned template structure (silicon) by atomic layer deposition. This approach overcomes the limitations due to electron-beam writing of dense patterns in FZP fabrication and provides a clear route to push the resolution into sub-10 nm regime. A FZP fabricated by this method was used to resolve test structures with 12 nm lines and spaces at the scanning transmission x-ray microscope of the PolLux beamline of the Swiss Light Source at 1.2 keV photon energy