34 research outputs found
Structure and orientation of lung surfactant SP-C and L-alpha-dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine in aqueous monolayers
SP-C, a pulmonary surfactant-specific protein, aids the spreading of the main surfactant phospholipid L-alpha-dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) across air/water interfaces, a process that has possible implications for in vivo function. To understand the molecular mechanism of this process, we have used external infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) to determine DPPC acyl chain conformation and orientation as well as SP-C secondary structure and helix tilt angle in mixed DPPC/SP-C monolayers in situ at the air/water interface. The SP-C helix tilt angle changed from approximately 24 degrees to the interface normal in lipid bilayers to approximately 70 degrees in the mixed monolayer films, whereas the acyl chain tilt angle of DPPC decreased from approximately 26 degrees in pure lipid monolayers (comparable to bilayers) to approximately 10 degrees in the mixed monolayer films. The protein acts as a "hydrophobic lever" by maximizing its interactions with the lipid acyl chains while simultaneously permitting the lipids to remain conformationally ordered. In addition to providing a reasonable molecular mechanism for protein-aided spreading of ordered lipids, these measurements constitute the first quantitative determination of SP-C orientation in Langmuir films, a paradigm widely used to simulate processes at the air/alveolar interface
Discrete Breathers
Nonlinear classical Hamiltonian lattices exhibit generic solutions in the
form of discrete breathers. These solutions are time-periodic and (typically
exponentially) localized in space. The lattices exhibit discrete translational
symmetry. Discrete breathers are not confined to certain lattice dimensions.
Necessary ingredients for their occurence are the existence of upper bounds on
the phonon spectrum (of small fluctuations around the groundstate) of the
system as well as the nonlinearity in the differential equations. We will
present existence proofs, formulate necessary existence conditions, and discuss
structural stability of discrete breathers. The following results will be also
discussed: the creation of breathers through tangent bifurcation of band edge
plane waves; dynamical stability; details of the spatial decay; numerical
methods of obtaining breathers; interaction of breathers with phonons and
electrons; movability; influence of the lattice dimension on discrete breather
properties; quantum lattices - quantum breathers. Finally we will formulate a
new conceptual aproach capable of predicting whether discrete breather exist
for a given system or not, without actually solving for the breather. We
discuss potential applications in lattice dynamics of solids (especially
molecular crystals), selective bond excitations in large molecules, dynamical
properties of coupled arrays of Josephson junctions, and localization of
electromagnetic waves in photonic crystals with nonlinear response.Comment: 62 pages, LaTeX, 14 ps figures. Physics Reports, to be published; see
also at http://www.mpipks-dresden.mpg.de/~flach/html/preprints.htm
Beyond Kinetic Relations
We introduce the concept of kinetic equations representing a natural
extension of the more conventional notion of a kinetic relation. Algebraic
kinetic relations, widely used to model dynamics of dislocations, cracks and
phase boundaries, link the instantaneous value of the velocity of a defect with
an instantaneous value of the driving force. The new approach generalizes
kinetic relations by implying a relation between the velocity and the driving
force which is nonlocal in time. To make this relations explicit one needs to
integrate the system of kinetic equations. We illustrate the difference between
kinetic relation and kinetic equations by working out in full detail a
prototypical model of an overdamped defect in a one-dimensional discrete
lattice. We show that the minimal nonlocal kinetic description containing now
an internal time scale is furnished by a system of two ordinary differential
equations coupling the spatial location of defect with another internal
parameter that describes configuration of the core region.Comment: Revised version, 33 pages, 9 figure
Structure and orientation of lung surfactant SP-C and L-alpha-dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine in aqueous monolayers
Infrared reflection-absorption of melittin interaction with phospholipid monolayers at the air/water interface
External reflection FTIR of peptide monolayer films in situ at the air/water interface: experimental design, spectra-structure correlations, and effects of hydrogen-deuterium exchange
Toepassingen van de schildwachtklierprocedure bij mondholtecarcinomen
Bij het mondholtecarcinoom is behoefte aan een betrouwbare diagnostische techniek om klinisch niet direct op te sporen (´occulte´) lymfekliermetastasen te detecteren en zowel onnodige overbehandeling als onderbehandeling van de halslymfeklieren te voorkomen. De eerste onderzoeken tonen een sensitiviteit van 94%. De schildwachtklierprocedure is echter bij mondholtecarcinomen nog geen routinematig onderzoek