BioMAX the first macromolecular crystallography beamline at MAX IV Laboratory

BioMAX is the first macromolecular crystallography beamline at the MAX IV Laboratory 3 GeV storage ring, which is the first operational multi bend achromat storage ring. Due to the low emittance storage ring, BioMAX has a parallel, high intensity X ray beam, even when focused down to 20 mm 5 mm using the bendable focusing mirrors. The beam is tunable in the energy range 5 25 keV using the in vacuum undulator and the horizontally deflecting doublecrystal monochromator. BioMAX is equipped with an MD3 diffractometer, an ISARA high capacity sample changer and an EIGER 16M hybrid pixel detector. Data collection at BioMAX is controlled using the newly developed MXCuBE3 graphical user interface, and sample tracking is handled by ISPyB. The computing infrastructure includes data storage and processing both at MAX IV and the Lund University supercomputing center LUNARC. With state of the art instrumentation, a high degree of automation, a user friendly control system interface and remote operation, BioMAX provides an excellent facility for most macromolecular crystallography experiments. Serial crystallography using either a high viscosity extruder injector or the MD3 as a fixedtarget scanner is already implemented. The serial crystallography activities at MAX IV Laboratory will be further developed at the microfocus beamline MicroMAX, when it comes into operation in 2022. MicroMAX will have a 1 mm x 1 mm beam focus and a flux up to 10 15 photons s 1 with main applications in serial crystallography, room temperature structure determinations and time resolved experiment

Mineral composition of drinking water and daily uptake

Conductivity in mS/m or S/cm gives a rough idea of the amount of dissolved ions in water. Distilled water and reverse osmosis–treated water have extremely low conductivity, while the conductivity of water from sandstone is higher and that of water from limestone (hard water) even higher. Thus, the variation of the contribution of minerals from drinking water is large. A Swedish study on well waters, bottled waters, and municipal waters showed that the contribution to the daily intake of minerals from water varied from zero to well over 100 %

Mineral composition of drinking water and daily uptake

Conductivity gives a rough idea of the amount of dissolved ions in water (mS/m) or (µS/cm). Distilled water is <1 µS/cm, Reverse Osmosis treated 1-10 µS/cm, water from some sorts of sandstone or from granite (soft water) 5-15 µS/cm, and water from limestone (hard water) 20-200 µS/cm. Thus, the variation of the contribution of minerals from drinking water is large. A Swedish study on well waters, bottled waters and municipal waters showed the following contributions to the daily intake (2 L consumption): Ca 0-72%, Mg 0-69%, Na 0-65%, Cu 0-250%, Fe 0-46%, without considering that minerals in water generally are more readily absorbed in the intestines than minerals from food. Some springs and bottled waters with elevated concentrations of especially Ca, Mg and HCO3 may be regarded medical waters and used by people suffering from acidosis and subsequent diseases

Age-related impairments of mobility associated with cobalt and other heavy metals: Data from NHANES 1999-2004

Exposure to heavy metals promotes oxidative stress and damage to cellular components, and may accelerate age-related disease and disability. Physical mobility is a validated biomarker of age-related disability and is predictive of hospitalization and mortality. Our study examined associations between selected heavy metals and impaired lower limb mobility in a representative older human population. Data for 1615 adults aged =60 yr from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999 to 2004 were used to identify associations between urinary concentrations of 10 metals with self-reported and measured significant walking impairments. Models were adjusted for confounding factors, including smoking. In models adjusted for age, gender, and ethnicity, elevated levels of cadmium, cobalt, and uranium were associated with impairment of the ability to walk a quarter mile. In fully adjusted models, cobalt was the only metal that remained associated: the odds ratio (OR) for reporting walking problems with a 1-unit increase in logged cobalt concentration (µg/L) was 1.43 (95% CI 1.12 to 1.84). Cobalt was also the only metal associated with a significant increased measured time to walk a 20-ft course. In analyses of disease categories to explain the mobility finding, cobalt was associated with physician diagnosed arthritis (1-unit increase OR = 1.22 (95% CI 1.00 to 1.49). Low-level cobalt exposure, assessed through urinary concentrations of this essential heavy metal, may be a risk factor for age-related physical impairments. Independent replication is needed to confirm this association. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC