103 research outputs found
Atomic resolution structure of serine protease proteinase K at ambient temperature
Atomic resolution structures (beyond 1.20 ?) at ambient temperature, which is usually hampered by the radiation damage in synchrotron X-ray crystallography (SRX), will add to our understanding of the structure-function relationships of enzymes. Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) has attracted surging interest by providing a route to bypass such challenges. Yet the progress on atomic resolution analysis with SFX has been rather slow. In this report, we describe the 1.20 ? resolution structure of proteinase K using 13 keV photon energy. Hydrogen atoms, water molecules, and a number of alternative side-chain conformations have been resolved. The increase in the value of B-factor in SFX suggests that the residues and water molecules adjacent to active sites were flexible and exhibited dynamic motions at specific substrate-recognition sites. ? 2017 The Author(s).114Ysciescopu
Hydroxyethyl cellulose matrix applied to serial crystallography
Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) allows structures of proteins to be determined at room temperature with minimal radiation damage. A highly viscous matrix acts as a crystal carrier for serial sample loading at a low flow rate that enables the determination of the structure, while requiring consumption of less than 1 mg of the sample. However, a reliable and versatile carrier matrix for a wide variety of protein samples is still elusive. Here we introduce a hydroxyethyl cellulose-matrix carrier, to determine the structure of three proteins. The de novo structure determination of proteinase K from single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) by utilizing the anomalous signal of the praseodymium atom was demonstrated using 3,000 diffraction images. ? 2017 The Author(s).113Ysciescopu
Oil-free hyaluronic acid matrix for serial femtosecond crystallography
The grease matrix was originally introduced as a microcrystal-carrier for serial femtosecond crystallography and has been expanded to applications for various types of proteins, including membrane proteins. However, the grease-based matrix has limited application for oil-sensitive proteins. Here we introduce a grease-free, water-based hyaluronic acid matrix. Applications for proteinase K and lysozyme proteins were able to produce electron density maps at 2.3-angstrom resolution.open111011sciescopu
Spin-polarized Tunneling in Hybrid Metal-Semiconductor Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
We demonstrate efficient spin-polarized tunneling between a ferromagnetic
metal and a ferromagnetic semiconductor with highly mismatched conductivities.
This is indicated by a large tunneling magnetoresistance (up to 30%) at low
temperatures in epitaxial magnetic tunnel junctions composed of a ferromagnetic
metal (MnAs) and a ferromagnetic semiconductor (GaMnAs) separated by a
nonmagnetic semiconductor (AlAs). Analysis of the current-voltage
characteristics yields detailed information about the asymmetric tunnel
barrier. The low temperature conductance-voltage characteristics show a zero
bias anomaly and a V^1/2 dependence of the conductance, indicating a
correlation gap in the density of states of GaMnAs. These experiments suggest
that MnAs/AlAs heterostructures offer well characterized tunnel junctions for
high efficiency spin injection into GaAs.Comment: 14 pages, submitted to Phys. Rev.
The Hyper Suprime-Cam SSP Survey: Overview and Survey Design
Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a wide-field imaging camera on the prime focus of
the 8.2m Subaru telescope on the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii. A team of
scientists from Japan, Taiwan and Princeton University is using HSC to carry
out a 300-night multi-band imaging survey of the high-latitude sky. The survey
includes three layers: the Wide layer will cover 1400 deg in five broad
bands (), with a point-source depth of . The
Deep layer covers a total of 26~deg in four fields, going roughly a
magnitude fainter, while the UltraDeep layer goes almost a magnitude fainter
still in two pointings of HSC (a total of 3.5 deg). Here we describe the
instrument, the science goals of the survey, and the survey strategy and data
processing. This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue of the
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, which includes a large
number of technical and scientific papers describing results from the early
phases of this survey.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables. Corrected for a typo in the
coordinates of HSC-Wide spring equatorial field in Table
Measurement of Time-Dependent CP-Violating Asymmetries in B0 --> phi Ks0, K+ K- Ks0, and eta' Ks0 Decays
We present an improved measurement of CP-violation parameters in B0 --> phi
Ks0, K+ K- Ks0, and eta' Ks0 decays based on a 140 fb-1 data sample collected
at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB
energy-asymmetric e+e- collider. One neutral B meson is fully reconstructed in
one of the specified decay channels, and the flavor of the accompanying B meson
is identified from its decay products. CP-violation parameters for each of the
three modes are obtained from the asymmetries in the distributions of the
proper-time intervals between the two B decays. We find that the observed CP
asymmetry in the B0 --> phi Ks0 decay differs from the standard model (SM)
expectation by 3.5 standard deviations, while the other cases are consistent
with the SM.Comment: 10 pages, 4 postscript figures, submitted to Physical Review Letters,
also contributed to the XXI International Symposium on Lepton and Photon
Interactions at High Energies, Aug 11-16, 2003, Fermilab, Illinois US
Observation of Large CP Violation and Evidence for Direct CP Violation in B0-->pi+pi- Decays
We report the first observation of CP-violating asymmetries in B0 --> pi+pi-
decays based on a 140 fb-1 data sample collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance
with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. We
reconstruct one neutral B meson as a B0 --> pi+pi- CP eigenstate and identify
the flavor of the accompanying B meson from its decay products. We apply an
unbinned maximum likelihood fit to the distribution of the time intervals
between the two B meson decay points. The fit yields the CP-violating asymmetry
amplitudes Apipi = +0.58+/-0.15(stat)+/-0.07(syst) and Spipi =
-1.00+/-0.21(stat)+/-0.07(syst). We rule out the CP-conserving case,
Apipi=Spipi=0, at a level of 5.2 standard deviations. We also find evidence for
direct CP violation with a significance at or greater than 3.2 standard
deviations for any Spipi value.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Measurements of the resonance properties
We report measurements of the properties of the and
resonances produced in continuum annihilation near
. The analysis is based on an data sample collected %at and 60 MeV below the
resonance with with the Belle detector at KEKB. We determine the masses to be
and . We observe the radiative decay mode
and the dipion decay mode , and determine their branching fractions. No corresponding
decays are observed for the state. These results are consistent
with the spin-parity assignments of for the and for
the .Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures; Added content, updated and paper submitted to PR
Evidence for B0->pi0pi0
We report evidence for the decay B0->pi0pi0. The analysis is based on a data
sample of 152million BBbar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4s) resonance with
the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- storage ring. We find
25.6+9.3/-8.4(stat)+1.6/-1.4(syst) B0->pi0pi0 signal events with a significance
of 3.4 standard deviations. We measure the branching fraction to be
(1.7+-0.6(stat)+-0.2(syst))*10^{-6}.Comment: Submitted to PR
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