Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti–Nb–Fe–Zr alloys with high strength and low elastic modulus

Zr was added to Ti–Nb–Fe alloys to develop low elastic modulus and high strength β-Ti alloys for biomedical applications. Ingots of Ti–12Nb–2Fe–(2, 4, 6, 8, 10)Zr (at.%) were prepared by arc melting and then subjected to homogenization, cold rolling, and solution treatments. The phases and microstructures of the alloys were analyzed by optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy. The mechanical properties were measured by tensile tests. The results indicate that Zr and Fe cause a remarkable solid-solution strengthening effect on the alloys; thus, all the alloys show yield and ultimate tensile strengths higher than 510 MPa and 730 MPa, respectively. Zr plays a weak role in the deformation mechanism. Further, twinning occurs in all the deformed alloys and is beneficial to both strength and plasticity. Ti–12Nb–2Fe–(8, 10)Zr alloys with metastable β phases show low elastic modulus, high tensile strength, and good plasticity and are suitable candidate materials for biomedical implants.LI Q., HUANG Q., LI J.j., et al. Microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti–Nb–Fe–Zr alloys with high strength and low elastic modulus. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 32, 2, 503. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1003-6326(22)65811-4

Construction of a Holliday Junction in Small Circular DNA Molecules for Stable Motifs and Twoâ Dimensional Lattices

Design rules for DNA nanotechnology have been mostly learnt from using linear singleâ stranded (ss) DNA as the source material. For example, the core structure of a typical DAO (double crossover, antiparallel, odd halfâ turns) tile for assembling 2D lattices is constructed from only two linear ssâ oligonucleotide scaffold strands, similar to two ropes making a square knot. Herein, a new type of coupled DAO (cDAO) tile and 2D lattices of small circular ssâ oligonucleotides as scaffold strands and linear ssâ oligonucleotides as staple strands are reported. A cDAO tile of cDAOâ c64nt (c64nt: circular 64 nucleotides), shaped as a solid parallelogram, is constructed with a Holliday junction (HJ) at the center and two HJs at both poles of a c64nt; similarly, cDAOâ c84nt, shaped as a crossed quadrilateral composed of two congruent triangles, is formed with a HJ at the center and four threeâ way junctions at the corners of a c84nt. Perfect 2D lattices were assembled from cDAO tiles: infinite nanostructures of nanoribbons, nanotubes, and nanorings, and finite nanostructures. The structural relationship between the visible lattices imaged by AFM and the corresponding invisible secondary and tertiary molecular structures of HJs, inclination angle of hydrogen bonds against the doubleâ helix axis, and the chirality of the tile can be interpreted very well. This work could shed new light on DNA nanotechnology with unique circular tiles.Bending the rules: The design of DNA motifs and lattices has mostly been investigated by using linear singleâ stranded DNA molecules as source materials. New coupled DAO (double crossover, antiparallel, odd halfâ turns) motifs and lattices have been constructed from small circular DNA molecules as scaffolds.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144626/1/cbic201800122.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144626/2/cbic201800122_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144626/3/cbic201800122-sup-0001-misc_information.pd

Impact of an extruded nucleotide on cleavage activity and dynamic catalytic core conformation of the hepatitis delta virus ribozyme

The self-cleaving hepatitis delta virus (HDV) ribozyme is essential for the replication of HDV, a liver disease causing pathogen in humans. The catalytically critical nucleotide C75 of the ribozyme is buttressed by a trefoil turn pivoting around an extruded G76. In all available crystal structures, the conformation of G76 is restricted by stacking with G76 of a neighboring molecule. To test whether this crystal contact introduces a structural perturbation into the catalytic core, we have analyzed ∼200 ns of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In the absence of crystal packing, the simulated G76 fluctuates between several conformations, including one wherein G76 establishes a perpendicular base quadruplet in the major groove of the adjacent P1 stem. Second-site mutagenesis experiments suggest that the identity of the nucleotide in position 76 (N76) indeed contributes to the catalytic activity of a trans-acting HDV ribozyme through its capacity for hydrogen bonding with P1. By contrast, in the cis-cleaving genomic ribozyme the functional relevance of N76 is less pronounced and not correlated with the P1 sequence. Terbium(III) footprinting and additional MD show that the activity differences between N76 mutants of this ribozyme are related instead to changes in average conformation and modified cross-correlations in the trefoil turn. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 85: 392–406, 2007. This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The “Published Online” date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at [email protected] Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/55986/1/20693_ftp.pd

Cation-dependent cleavage of the duplex form of the subtype-B HIV-1 RNA dimerization initiation site

The crystal structure of subtype-B HIV-1 genomic RNA Dimerization Initiation Site duplex revealed chain cleavage at a specific position resulting in 3′-phosphate and 5′-hydroxyl termini. A crystallographic analysis showed that Ba2+, Mn2+, Co2+ and Zn2+ bind specifically on a guanine base close to the cleaved position. The crystal structures also point to a necessary conformational change to induce an ‘in-line’ geometry at the cleavage site. In solution, divalent cations increased the rate of cleavage with pH/pKa compensation, indicating that a cation-bound hydroxide anion is responsible for the cleavage. We propose a ‘Trojan horse’ mechanism, possibly of general interest, wherein a doubly charged cation hosted near the cleavage site as a ‘harmless’ species is further transformed in situ into an ‘aggressive’ species carrying a hydroxide anion

Improved Measurements of Partial Rate Asymmetry in B -> h h Decays

We report improved measurements of the partial rate asymmetry (Acp) in B -> h h decays with 140fb^-1 of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider. Here h stands for a charged or neutral pion or kaon and in total five decay modes are included: K-+ pi+-, K0s pi-+, K-+ pi0, pi-+ pi0 and K0s pi0. The flavor of the last decay mode is determined from the accompanying B meson. Using a data sample 4.7 times larger than that of our previous measurement, we find Acp(K-+ pi+-) -0.088+-0.035+-0.013, 2.4 sigma from zero. Results for other decay modes are also presented.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Evidence for B- -> tau- nu_bar with a Semileptonic Tagging Method

We present a measurement of the decay B- -> tau- nu_bar using a data sample containing 657 million BB_bar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. A sample of BB_bar pairs are tagged by reconstructing one B meson decaying semileptonically. We detect the B- -> tau- nu_bar candidate in the recoil. We obtain a signal with a significance of 3.6 standard deviations including systematic uncertainties, and measure the branching fraction to be Br(B- -> tau- nu_bar) = [1.54+0.38-0.37(stat)+0.29-0.31(syst)]*10^-4. This result confirms the evidence for B- -> tau- nu_bar obtained in a previous Belle measurement that used a hadronic B tagging method.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, corrected references, to appear in PRD-R

Search for CP violation in the decay B0->D*+-D-+

We report a search for CP-violating asymmetry in B0 -> D*+- D-+ decays. The analysis employs two methods of B0 reconstruction: full and partial. In the full reconstruction method all daughter particles of the B0 are required to be detected; the partial reconstruction technique requires a fully reconstructed D- and only a slow pion from the D*+ -> D0 pi_slow+ decay. From a fit to the distribution of the time interval corresponding to the distance between two B meson decay points we calculate the CP-violating parameters and find the significance of nonzero CP asymmetry to be 2.7 standard deviations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The Impact of Yangtze River Discharge, Ocean Currents and Historical Events on the Biogeographic Pattern of Cellana toreuma along the China Coast

Aim: Genetic data were used to measure the phylogeographic distribution of the limpet, Cellana toreuma along the China coast in order to acsertain impacts of historic events, ocean currents and especially freshwater discharge from the Yangtze River on the connectivity of intertidal species with limited larval dispersal capability. Methodology/Principal Findings: Genetic variation in 15 populations of C. toreuma (n = 418), ranging from the Yellow Sea (YS), East China Sea (ECS) and South China Sea (SCS), were determined from partial mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. Genetic diversity and divergence based on haplotype frequencies were analyzed using CONTRIB, and AMOVA was used to examine genetic population structure. Historic demographic expansions were evaluated from both neutrality tests and mismatch distribution tests. Among the 30 haplotypes identified, a dominant haplotype No. 1 (H1) existed in all the populations, and a relatively abundant private haplotype (H2) in YS. Pairwise F-ST values between YS and the other two groups were relatively high and the percentage of variation among groups was 10.9%. Conclusions: The high nucleotide and gene diversity in the YS, with large pairwise genetic distances and relatively high percentages of variation among groups, suggests that this group was relatively isolated from ECS and SCS. This is likely driven by historic events, ocean currents, and demographic expansion. We propose that freshwater discharge from the Yangtze River, which may act as physical barrier limiting the southward dispersal of larvae from northern populations, is especially important in determining the separation of the YS group from the rest of the Chinese populations of C. toreuma.Natural Science Foundation for National Natural Science Foundation of China [41076083]; Distinguished Young Scholars of Fujian Province, China [2011J06017]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [201012028

Search for astronomical neutrinos from blazar TXS 0506+056 in super-kamiokande

We report a search for astronomical neutrinos in the energy region from several GeV to TeV in the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+056 using the Super-Kamiokande detector following the detection of a 100 TeV neutrinos from the same location by the IceCube collaboration. Using Super-Kamiokande neutrino data across several data samples observed from 1996 April to 2018 February we have searched for both a total excess above known backgrounds across the entire period as well as localized excesses on smaller timescales in that interval. No significant excess nor significant variation in the observed event rate are found in the blazar direction. Upper limits are placed on the electron- and muon-neutrino fluxes at the 90% confidence level as 6.0 × 10−7 and 4.5 × 10−7–9.3 × 10−10 [erg cm−2 s−1], respectively