Regulation of phosphorylase kinase by low concentrations of Ca ions upon muscle contraction: the connection between metabolism and muscle contraction and the connection between muscle physiology and Ca-dependent signal transduction

It had long been one of the crucial questions in muscle physiology how glycogenolysis is regulated in connection with muscle contraction, when we found the answer to this question in the last half of the 1960s. By that time, the two principal currents of muscle physiology, namely, the metabolic flow starting from glycogen and the mechanisms of muscle contraction, had already been clarified at the molecular level thanks to our senior researchers. Thus, the final question we had to answer was how to connect these two currents. We found that low concentrations of Ca ions (10−7–10−4 M) released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum for the regulation of muscle contraction simultaneously reversibly activate phosphorylase kinase, the enzyme regulating glycogenolysis. Moreover, we found that adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cyclic AMP), which is already known to activate muscle phosphorylase kinase, is not effective in the absence of such concentrations of Ca ions. Thus, cyclic AMP is not effective by itself alone and only modifies the activation process in the presence of Ca ions (at that time, cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase had not yet been identified). After a while, it turned out that our works have not only provided the solution to the above problem on muscle physiology, but have also been considered as the first report of Ca-dependent protein phosphorylation, which is one of the central problems in current cell biology. Phosphorylase kinase is the first protein kinase to phosphorylate a protein resulting in the change in the function of the phosphorylated protein, as shown by Krebs and Fischer. Our works further showed that this protein kinase is regulated in a Ca-dependent manner. Accordingly, our works introduced the concept of low concentrations of Ca ions, which were first identified as the regulatory substance of muscle contraction, to the vast field of Ca biology including signal transduction

JOSEFINA DE LA TORRE MILLARES Y BERNARDO DE LA TORRE BARCELÓ EN LAS CANTERAS [Material gráfico]

Copia digital. Madrid : Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. Subdirección General de Coordinación Bibliotecaria, 201

Measurement of the gamma ray background in the Davis Cavern at the Sanford Underground Research Facility

Deep underground environments are ideal for low background searches due to the attenuation of cosmic rays by passage through the earth. However, they are affected by backgrounds from γ-rays emitted by 40K and the 238U and 232Th decay chains in the surrounding rock. The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment will search for dark matter particle interactions with a liquid xenon TPC located within the Davis campus at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, South Dakota, at the 4,850-foot level. In order to characterise the cavern background, in-situ γ-ray measurements were taken with a sodium iodide detector in various locations and with lead shielding. The integral count rates (0--3300~keV) varied from 596~Hz to 1355~Hz for unshielded measurements, corresponding to a total flux in the cavern of 1.9±0.4~γ cm−2s−1. The resulting activity in the walls of the cavern can be characterised as 220±60~Bq/kg of 40K, 29±15~Bq/kg of 238U, and 13±3~Bq/kg of 232Th

Pembina Cardium CO2 Monitoring Project, Alberta, Canada—Geochemical interpretation of produced fluid compositions

AbstractA CO2 monitoring pilot was initiated at the Penn West Energy Trust CO2 EOR operations within the Cardium formation of the Pembina Field. The Penn West Pembina-Cardium CO2 EOR Monitoring research program focused on well integrity, local/ regional geology and hydrology, extensive monitoring of CO2 and short and long predictive modeling.The geochemical modelling program of the Penn West Monitoring Project quantified the chemical reactions that occur between the gas -oil-water-rock within the reservoir prior to, during, and following CO2 injection.An equilibrium speciation geochemical model was used to examine the field produced water compositions. Many of the produced waters are undersaturated with respect to calcite. This is most easily explained when mixtures of waters of quite different chemical compositions are produced from a single producing well. This observation has important implications for the interpretation of produced water compositions and demonstrates that flow within the reservoir must be understood to fully interpret the chemistry signatures. A reaction mass transfer model was used to evaluate the chemical processes in the reservoir (short and long term) and to evaluate the thermodyn amic data base. It established that the dominant reaction controlling the short term water composition was ion exchange reactions, coupled with calcite dissolution and CO2 transfer from the oil phase. It was also used as a predictive tool to estimate them ineralogical reactions which will ultimately be responsible for the long term trapping of the injected CO2. GEM-GHG was used to calculate the chemical processes occurring during the various phases of hydrocarbon recovery, including the predicted evolution of produced water compositions, and th e results compared to field measurements. Discrepancies between the modeled and the measured field data can be used to refine the model, improving our understanding of chemical processes in the reservoir. The geochemic al models allow an assessment of the amount of CO2 trapping in each of the major units in the reservoir. There are large uncertainties in the absolute value of the amounts, but they allow a direct comparison between trapping mechanisms and a direct comparison between the trapping in each reservoir unit.This work represents a first study to demonstrate the potential of using geochemical sampling and measurements and integrating them with reservoir models for secondary and tertiary oil recovery