Stickstoffmineralisierung aus vegetabilen Düngern in Kombination mit Mischkompost im Ökologischen Landbau

Beim Einsatz von Lupinenschrot zur Kopfdüngung in Tomaten konnte ein positiver Primingeffekt für Stickstoff ermittelt werden. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit sollten die Ursachen und Zusammenhänge für diese zusätzliche Stickstoffmobilisierung aus dem Boden geprüft werden. Es wurden die Düngevarianten Lupinenschrot und Erbsenschrot sowohl mit/ohne Kompost als Grunddüngung im Brutversuch auf Stickstoffmineralisierungsrate und -potential geprüft

Possible signatures of mixed-parity superconductivity in doped polar SrTiO3 films

Superconductors that possess both broken spatial inversion symmetry and spin-orbit interactions exhibit a mix of spin singlet and triplet pairing. Here, we report on measurements of the superconducting properties of electron-doped, strained SrTiO3 films. These films have an enhanced superconducting transition temperature and were previously shown to undergo a transition to a polar phase prior to becoming superconducting. We show that some films show signatures of an unusual superconducting state, such as an in-plane critical field that is higher than both the paramagnetic and orbital pair breaking limits. Moreover, nonreciprocal transport, which reflects the ratio of odd versus even pairing interactions, is observed. Together, these characteristics indicate that these films provide a tunable platform for investigations of unconventional superconductivity

A Hierarchical Approach to Protein Molecular Evolution

Biological diversity has evolved despite the essentially infinite complexity of protein sequence space. We present a hierarchical approach to the efficient searching of this space and quantify the evolutionary potential of our approach with Monte Carlo simulations. These simulations demonstrate that non-homologous juxtaposition of encoded structure is the rate-limiting step in the production of new tertiary protein folds. Non-homologous ``swapping'' of low energy secondary structures increased the binding constant of a simulated protein by $\approx10^7$ relative to base substitution alone. Applications of our approach include the generation of new protein folds and modeling the molecular evolution of disease.Comment: 15 pages. 2 figures. LaTeX styl

Alcohols increase calmodulin affinity for Ca2+ and decrease target affinity for calmodulin

AbstractIt has been proposed that alcohols and anesthetics selectively inhibit proteins containing easily disrupted motifs, e.g., α-helices. In this study, the calcineurin/calmodulin/Ca2+ enzyme system was used to examine the effects of alcohols on calmodulin, a protein with a predominantly α-helical structure. Calcineurin phosphatase activity and Ca2+ binding were monitored as indicators of calmodulin function. Alcohols inhibited enzyme activity in a concentration-dependent manner, with two-, four- and five-carbon n-alcohols exhibiting similar leftward shifts in the inhibition curves for calmodulin-dependent and -independent activities; the former was slightly more sensitive than the latter. Ca2+ binding was measured by flow dialysis as a direct measure of calmodulin function, whereas, with the addition of a binding domain peptide, measured calmodulin–target interactions. Ethanol increased the affinity of calmodulin for Ca2+ in the presence and absence of the peptide, indicating that ethanol stabilizes the Ca2+ bound form of calmodulin. An increase in Ca2+ affinity was detected in a calmodulin binding assay, but the affinity of calmodulin for calcineurin decreased at saturating Ca2+. These data demonstrate that although specific regions within proteins may be more sensitive to alcohols and anesthetics, the presence of α-helices is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of alcohol or anesthetic potency

Decreased Vision and Junctional Scotoma from Pituicytoma

Pituicytomas are rare neoplasms of the sellar region. We report a case of vision loss and a junctional scotoma in a 43-year-old woman caused by compression of the optic chiasm by a pituitary tumor. The morphological and immunohistochemical characteristics of the tumor were consistent with the diagnosis of pituicytoma. The tumor was debulked surgically, and the patient's vision improved