The Catholic Church in Southwest Iowa

Review of: The Catholic Church in Southwest Iowa, by Steven M. Avella

Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, A Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America

Review of: "Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America," by Cynthia Carr

The Catholic Church in Southwest Iowa

Review of: "The Catholic Church in Southwest Iowa," by Steven M. Avella

Two novel proteins, TtpB2 and TtpD2, are essential for iron transport in the TonB2 system of Vibrio vulnificus

In gram‐negative bacteria, energy‐dependent active transport of iron‐bound sub‐ strates across the outer membrane is achieved through the TonB systems of proteins. Three TonB systems have been identified in the human pathogen Vibrio vulnificus. The TonB1 system contains three proteins: TonB1, ExbB1, and ExbD1. Both the TonB2 and TonB3 systems have been shown to also contain a fourth protein, TtpC2 and TtpC3, respectively. Here, we report and begin to characterize two additional proteins in the TonB2 and TonB3 systems: TtpB and TtpD. Both TtpB2 and TtpD2 are absolutely required for the function of the TonB2 system in V. vulnificus. However, although both TtpB3 and TtpD3 in the TonB3 system are related to the proteins in the TonB2 system, neither are active in iron transport. All six protein components of the TonB2 system—TonB2, ExbB2, ExbD2, TtpB2, TtpC2, and TtpD2—are essential for the uptake of both endogenously produced iron‐bound siderophores and exog‐ enous siderophores produced from other organisms. Through complementation, we have shown that V. vulnificus is capable of using different TtpD2 proteins from other Vibrio species to bring in multiple siderophores. In contrast, we also demonstrate that TtpB2 must come from V. vulnificus, and not other species within the genus, to complement mutations in the TonB2 system

Hydrogen storage in engineered carbon nanospaces

doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/20/20/204026It is shown how appropriately engineered nanoporous carbons provide materials for reversible hydrogen storage, based on physisorption, with exceptional storage capacities (~80 g H2/kg carbon, ~50 g H2/liter carbon, at 50 bar and 77 K). Nanopores generate high storage capacities (a) by having high surface area to volume ratios, and (b) by hosting deep potential wells through overlapping substrate potentials from opposite pore walls, giving rise to a binding energy nearly twice the binding energy in wide pores. Experimental case studies are presented with surface areas as high as 3100 m2 g−1, in which 40% of all surface sites reside in pores of width ~0.7 nm and binding energy ~9 kJ mol−1, and 60% of sites in pores of width>1.0 nm and binding energy ~5 kJ mol−1. The findings, including the prevalence of just two distinct binding energies, are in excellent agreement with results from molecular dynamics simulations. It is also shown, from statistical mechanical models, that one can experimentally distinguish between the situation in which molecules do (mobile adsorption) and do not (localized adsorption) move parallel to the surface, how such lateral dynamics affects the hydrogen storage capacity, and how the two situations are controlled by the vibrational frequencies of adsorbed hydrogen molecules parallel and perpendicular to the surface: in the samples presented, adsorption is mobile at 293 K, and localized at 77 K. These findings make a strong case for it being possible to significantly increase hydrogen storage capacities in nanoporous carbons by suitable engineering of the nanopore space.This material is based upon work supported in part by the Department of Energy under Award No. DE-FG02-07ER46411. Use of the Advanced Photon Source was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DEAC02-06CH11357. CW and RC gratefully acknowledge the University of Missouri Bioinformatics Consortium for the use of their computational facilities. The authors would like to thank M Frederick Hawthorne, Francisco Rodr´ıguez-Reinoso, Louis Schlapbach, Andreas Z¨uttel, Bogdan Kuchta, Lucyna Firlej, Michael Roth, and Michael Gordon for valuable contributions. Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge helpful contributions by Hiden Isochema Ltd,Warrington, UK

Rescue of DNA damage after constricted migration reveals a mechano-regulated threshold for cell cycle.

Migration through 3D constrictions can cause nuclear rupture and mislocalization of nuclear proteins, but damage to DNA remains uncertain, as does any effect on cell cycle. Here, myosin II inhibition rescues rupture and partially rescues the DNA damage marker γH2AX, but an apparent block in cell cycle appears unaffected. Co-overexpression of multiple DNA repair factors or antioxidant inhibition of break formation also exert partial effects, independently of rupture. Combined treatments completely rescue cell cycle suppression by DNA damage, revealing a sigmoidal dependence of cell cycle on excess DNA damage. Migration through custom-etched pores yields the same damage threshold, with ∼4-µm pores causing intermediate levels of both damage and cell cycle suppression. High curvature imposed rapidly by pores or probes or else by small micronuclei consistently associates nuclear rupture with dilution of stiff lamin-B filaments, loss of repair factors, and entry from cytoplasm of chromatin-binding cGAS (cyclic GMP-AMP synthase). The cell cycle block caused by constricted migration is nonetheless reversible, with a potential for DNA misrepair and genome variation