Intrahelical side chain interactions in α-helices: poor correlation between energetics and frequency

AbstractPolypeptide sequences in proteins may increase their tendency to adopt helical conformations in several ways. One is the recruiting of amino acid residues with high helical propensity. Another is the appropriate distribution of residues along the helix to establish stabilising side chain interactions. The first strategy is known to be followed by natural proteins because amino acids with high helical propensity are more frequent in α-helices. If proteins also followed the second strategy, stabilising amino acid pairs should be more frequent than others. To test this possibility we compared empirical energies of side chain interactions in α-helices with statistical energies calculated from a data base of proteins with low homology. We find some correlation between the stability afforded by the pairs and their relative abundance in α-helices but the realisation of energetic preferences into statistical preferences is very low. This indicates that natural α-helices do not regularly use intrahelical side chain interactions to increase their stability

Fatiga y rendimiento en la velocidad y salto

El presente trabajo expone una comparación entre dos tipos de actividades fatigantes (pliometría y multisaltos) y su relación de dependencia con el rendimiento en la velocidad y la capacidad de salto, acciones propias de numerosas actividades deportivas. Para ello se utilizó un único grupo control de 11 sujetos universitarios que pasó por dos sesiones, separadas temporalmente una semana. En la primera sesión se utilizó como ejercicio de prefatiga los multisaltos, mientras que en la segunda sesión, la pliometría. Se realizó un análisis estadístico descriptivo, un análisis de contraste, t-Student y ANOVA, y un análisis de correlación de Pearson. Los resultados demostraron de forma significativa que se obtuvieron mejores registros en la capacidad de salto durante la sesión en la que se realizaron previamente ejercicios de pliometría, y en la velocidad durante la sesión de multisaltos

Lifelong learning online tutoring methodology approach

Este documento muestra la forma de gestionar uno de los principales elementos de calidad en cualquier iniciativa de e-learning, es decir, la tutoría en línea. El artículo presenta las principales técnicas, métodos y la calidad de los temas clave relacionados con el trabajo docente para el desarrollo de cursos de aprendizaje de calidad, es decir, la tutoría en línea.This paper is presented to show how to manage one of the mainquality items in any e-learning initiative, that is to say, online tutoring. In fact,the success or deception of the learning activity depends, to a great extent, onthe right planning of tutorial activity. In this paper we will show the main skills,methods and quality items related to the key teaching work for developingquality learning courses, i.e. tutoring online

Highly efficient Cu2O@CuxFeyO4 nanohybrid catalyst for the degradation of emerging pollutants

Cu2O@CuxFeyO4 nanohybrids (NHs) have been electrosynthesized by a simple and environmentally safe method to be used as catalysts for tetracycline degradation. NHs shown an average diameter of 14(5) nm and exhibit high crystallinity with spherical morphology. XPS results demonstrate a cuprite-enriched surface; meanwhile, the inner layer is composed by a nonstoichiometric copper spinel structure. The degradation has been monitored by UV–Visible spectroscopy, TOC analysis, and HPLC. The electrochemical characterization demonstrates the synergetic effect of Fe3+/Fe2+ and Cu2+/Cu+ coupling to enhance the activation of persulfate. This effect results in a greater degradation efficiency of NHs than other catalysts, namely, CuxOy, Fe3O4, and a mixture of both and Cu2O. It has been found that a previous adsorption stage before degradation does not improve the elimination of the pollutant and its length in time, with a TOC reduction of 72.6 % in 2 h. Conversely, conducting the oxidative process in a direct step resulted in a more rapid and efficient process, 82.3 % of reduction in 1 h. Through this method, the catalyst reutilization resulting in a decrease of 50 % in TOC degradation from the third use, while the TCY concentration degraded remains almost constant. This reduced catalytic activity with use might be a consequence of 1) the absence of the single Cu-oxide layer due to the leaching of mainly Cu ions but also Fe ions during the degradation tests, and, 2) the passivation of the outermost layer, mainly covered by C–O species and OH groups, which hinders access to active catalyst sitesThis research was funded by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid-Spain) under the Multiannual Agreement with Universidad Autonoma ´ de Madrid in the line of action encouraging youth research doctors, in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation) (SI1-PJI-2019-00366) and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under project PID2021- 123431OB-I00. FJP acknowledges financial support from Grant PID2021-126169OB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/5011000110 33 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. The authors would like to acknowledge to L. Gutierrez and the Advanced Microscopy Laboratory (INA-Universidad de Zaragoza) for access to their instrumentation and expertis

Charge analysis in (RE)CrO4 scheelites by combined Raman spectroscopy and computer simulations

The quest for structure-property relationships in scheelite-type (RE)CrO4 compounds (where RE is a rare earth element) is a difficult task due to the number of exceptions found in RE empirical trends and the uncommon Cr(V) oxidation state. In this work, we experimentally and computationally analyse how the stretching vibrational frequencies ν1(Ag) and ν3(Eg) associated with the [CrO4] tetrahedral units evolve in the (RE)CrO4 crystal family (RE ¼ Nd, Gd, Dy, Ho, and Lu). Since previously reported Cr–O distances and volume changes along with the RE series are not sufficiently accurate to explain the monotonic decrease observed for the ν1(Ag) and ν3(Eg) frequencies, a deeper analysis was performed involving the well-known fact that the bond strength (force constant) decreases as the interatomic distance increases. Our results demonstrates that structural and spectroscopic parameters can be reconciled with classical solid state chemistry ideas when charge effects are considered. This analysis provides a new method for predicting chromium oxidation states from Raman spectroscopy that can be generalised to the study of other crystal families

Identification of hot-spot residues in protein-protein interactions by computational docking

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The study of protein-protein interactions is becoming increasingly important for biotechnological and therapeutic reasons. We can define two major areas therein: the structural prediction of protein-protein binding mode, and the identification of the relevant residues for the interaction (so called 'hot-spots'). These hot-spot residues have high interest since they are considered one of the possible ways of disrupting a protein-protein interaction. Unfortunately, large-scale experimental measurement of residue contribution to the binding energy, based on alanine-scanning experiments, is costly and thus data is fairly limited. Recent computational approaches for hot-spot prediction have been reported, but they usually require the structure of the complex.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have applied here normalized interface propensity (<it>NIP</it>) values derived from rigid-body docking with electrostatics and desolvation scoring for the prediction of interaction hot-spots. This parameter identifies hot-spot residues on interacting proteins with predictive rates that are comparable to other existing methods (up to 80% positive predictive value), and the advantage of not requiring any prior structural knowledge of the complex.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The <it>NIP </it>values derived from rigid-body docking can reliably identify a number of hot-spot residues whose contribution to the interaction arises from electrostatics and desolvation effects. Our method can propose residues to guide experiments in complexes of biological or therapeutic interest, even in cases with no available 3D structure of the complex.</p

Pion Cloud Contribution to K+ Nucleus Scattering

A careful reanalysis is done of the contribution to $K^{+}$ nucleus scattering from the interaction of the kaon with the virtual pion cloud. The usual approximations made in the evaluation of the related kaon selfenergy are shown to fail badly. We also find new interaction mechanisms which provide appreciable corrections to the kaon selfenergy. Some of these contribute to the imaginary part below pion creation threshold. The inclusion of these new mechanisms in the inelastic part of the optical potential produces a significant improvement in the differential and total $K^{+}$ nuclear cross sections. Uncertainties remain in the dispersive part of the optical potential.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figures (not all of them included, please request them), report UG-DFM-2/9

Coherent pion production in neutrino nucleus collision in the 1 GeV region

We calculate cross sections for coherent pion production in nuclei induced by neutrinos and antineutrinos of the electron and muon type. The analogies and differences between this process and the related ones of coherent pion production induced by photons, or the (p,n) and $(^3 He, t)$ reactions are discussed. The process is one of the several ones occurring for intermediate energy neutrinos, to be considered when detecting atmospheric neutrinos. For this purpose the results shown here can be easily extrapolated to other energies and other nuclei.Comment: 13 pages, LaTex, 8 post-script figures available at [email protected]