Array of micro-machined mass energy micro-filters for charged particles

An energy filter for charged particles includes a stack of micro-machined wafers including plural apertures passing through the stack of wafers, focusing electrodes bounding charged particle paths through the apertures, an entrance orifice to each of the plural apertures and an exit orifice from each of the plural apertures and apparatus for biasing the focusing electrodes with an electrostatic potential corresponding to an energy pass band of the filter

Soil organic carbon cycling in a long-term agricultural experiment,Switzerland

Soils are one of the largest organic carbon pools and changes in the carbon release from soils has considerable impact on the composition of atmospheric CO2. Alongside the accelerated carbon release from soils by anthro-pogenic warming (Crowther et al., 2016), agricultural use strongly affects soil organic carbon (SOC) (Johnstonet al., 2009). Conversion from conventional to organic farming has been suggested a valuable contribution to sequester SOC providing a great mitigation potential within agricultural practices (Smith et al., 2008).Here we present SOC contents and 14C activity under two different farming practices in the long-termagricultural DOK trial at Therwil, Switzerland (Mäder et al., 2002). In this long-lasting agricultural experiment, we compare biodynamic farming (biodyn), which receives manure and biodynamic preparations, with conventional farming (conmin), which receives only mineral fertilizers. We analyzed functional SOC fractions from both farming practices for SOC concentration and radiocarbon (∆14C) in two soil layers (0-20 cm and 20-50 cm).Three SOC fractions were obtained by density and particle size fractionation: particular organic matter (POM,labile pool), mineral-associated organic matter 20μm (MOM >20μm, labile pool).Our results clearly show higher SOC concentrations for biodyn compared to conmin in all SOC fractions in the upper soil layer (0-20 cm). In the subsoil (20-50 cm) we found a negligible influence of farming practices with depth. High ∆14C values in the POM and >20μm fraction indicated that they are a more labile and fastcycling carbon pool, whereas lower∆14C values in the 20μm fraction, with higher ∆14C values in the biodyn system suggesting greater input of fresh plant material with a faster turnover

Systematic identification of structure-specific protein–protein interactions

The physical interactome of a protein can be altered upon perturbation, modulating cell physiology and contributing to disease. Identifying interactome differences of normal and disease states of proteins could help understand disease mechanisms, but current methods do not pinpoint structure-specific PPIs and interaction interfaces proteome-wide. We used limited proteolysis–mass spectrometry (LiP–MS) to screen for structure-specific PPIs by probing for protease susceptibility changes of proteins in cellular extracts upon treatment with specific structural states of a protein. We first demonstrated that LiP–MS detects well-characterized PPIs, including antibody–target protein interactions and interactions with membrane proteins, and that it pinpoints interfaces, including epitopes. We then applied the approach to study conformation-specific interactors of the Parkinson’s disease hallmark protein alpha-synuclein (aSyn). We identified known interactors of aSyn monomer and amyloid fibrils and provide a resource of novel putative conformation-specific aSyn interactors for validation in further studies. We also used our approach on GDP- and GTP-bound forms of two Rab GTPases, showing detection of differential candidate interactors of conformationally similar proteins. This approach is applicable to screen for structure-specific interactomes of any protein, including posttranslationally modified and unmodified, or metabolite-bound and unbound protein states

Early endonuclease-mediated evasion of RNA sensing ensures efficient coronavirus replication.

Coronaviruses are of veterinary and medical importance and include highly pathogenic zoonotic viruses, such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. They are known to efficiently evade early innate immune responses, manifesting in almost negligible expression of type-I interferons (IFN-I). This evasion strategy suggests an evolutionary conserved viral function that has evolved to prevent RNA-based sensing of infection in vertebrate hosts. Here we show that the coronavirus endonuclease (EndoU) activity is key to prevent early induction of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) host cell responses. Replication of EndoU-deficient coronaviruses is greatly attenuated in vivo and severely restricted in primary cells even during the early phase of the infection. In macrophages we found immediate induction of IFN-I expression and RNase L-mediated breakdown of ribosomal RNA. Accordingly, EndoU-deficient viruses can retain replication only in cells that are deficient in IFN-I expression or sensing, and in cells lacking both RNase L and PKR. Collectively our results demonstrate that the coronavirus EndoU efficiently prevents simultaneous activation of host cell dsRNA sensors, such as Mda5, OAS and PKR. The localization of the EndoU activity at the site of viral RNA synthesis-within the replicase complex-suggests that coronaviruses have evolved a viral RNA decay pathway to evade early innate and intrinsic antiviral host cell responses

Dehydration mechanisms in synthetic Fe-bearing enstatite

In this study, we have investigated the relation between hydrogen extraction and Fe valence states by step-wise heating experiments performed on synthetic orthopyroxene. Samples doped with (57F)e, as well as Fe-57 and Al, were synthesised at 25 kbar and 1400-1150 degrees C, and were subsequently subjected to heating experiments in air or H-2 at 700-1000 degrees C and 1 atmosphere pressure. The change in OH content and Fe valence state was traced by infrared and Mossbauer spectra obtained on the same single crystals after the heat treatments. After heat treatments in air, the infrared spectra for Fe-doped samples show a progressive decrease in band intensities coupled to a corresponding increase in the Fe3+ doublet in Mossbauer spectra, indicating that the dehydration follows the redox reaction OH- + Fe2+ = O2- + Fe3+ + 1/2H(2). However, the sample with the maximum Al-content showed a different behaviour, where the dehydration is coupled to a decrease in Fe2+ contents associated with hematite precipitation, as shown by Mossbauer spectra. For samples annealed in H-2 atmosphere (700-1000 degrees C) a correlation of the decrease of the amount of Fell and the intensity of specific IR bands associated with Fe3+, that decrease faster than other bands, was observed. The results indicate that at least two different dehydration steps are active in dehydration processes in orthopyroxene, i.e. one reaction creating a Fe3+-specific OH-defect and one reaction consuming a Fe3+-specific OH-defect. Both dehydration steps exhibit different kinetic characteristics and the previous observation is confirmed that dehydration kinetics in pyroxenes depends on Fe content. For one sample the spatial distribution of the different OH-defects was mapped using synchrotron FTIR micro-spectroscopy, confirming the different stability of Fe-related and Fe-unrelated OH-defects