7,381 research outputs found
The role of the jaw subdomain of peptidoglycan glycosyltransferases for lipid II polymerization
Bacterial peptidoglycan glycosyltransferases (PGT) catalyse the essential polymerization of lipid II into linear glycan chains required for peptidoglycan biosynthesis. The PGT domain is composed of a large head subdomain and a smaller jaw subdomain and can be potently inhibited by the antibiotic moenomycin A (MoeA). We present an X-ray structure of the MoeA-bound Staphylococcus aureus monofunctional PGT enzyme, revealing electron density for a second MoeA bound to the jaw subdomain as well as the PGT donor site. Isothermal titration calorimetry confirms two drug-binding sites with markedly different affinities and positive cooperativity. Hydrophobic cluster analysis suggests that the membrane-interacting surface of the jaw subdomain has structural and physicochemical properties similar to amphipathic cationic α-helical antimicrobial peptides for lipid II recognition and binding. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations of the drug-free and -bound forms of the enzyme demonstrate the importance of the jaw subdomain movement for lipid II selection and polymerization process and provide molecular-level insights into the mechanism of peptidoglycan biosynthesis by PGTs
Microextensive Chaos of a Spatially Extended System
By analyzing chaotic states of the one-dimensional Kuramoto-Sivashinsky
equation for system sizes L in the range 79 <= L <= 93, we show that the
Lyapunov fractal dimension D scales microextensively, increasing linearly with
L even for increments Delta{L} that are small compared to the average cell size
of 9 and to various correlation lengths. This suggests that a spatially
homogeneous chaotic system does not have to increase its size by some
characteristic amount to increase its dynamical complexity, nor is the increase
in dimension related to the increase in the number of linearly unstable modes.Comment: 5 pages including 4 figures. Submitted to PR
The Sloan Lens ACS Survey. VII. Elliptical Galaxy Scaling Laws from Direct Observational Mass Measurements
We use a sample of 53 massive early-type strong gravitational lens galaxies
with well-measured redshifts (ranging from z=0.06 to 0.36) and stellar velocity
dispersions (between 175 and 400 km/s) from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) Survey
to derive numerous empirical scaling relations. The ratio between central
stellar velocity dispersion and isothermal lens-model velocity dispersion is
nearly unity within errors. The SLACS lenses define a fundamental plane (FP)
that is consistent with the FP of the general population of early-type
galaxies. We measure the relationship between strong-lensing mass M_lens within
one-half effective radius (R_e/2) and the dimensional mass variable M_dim =
G^-1 sigma_e2^2 R_e/2 to be log_10 [M_lens/10^11 M_Sun] = (1.03 +/- 0.04)
log_10 [M_dim/10^11 M_Sun] + (0.54 +/- 0.02) (where sigma_e2 is the projected
stellar velocity dispersion within R_e/2). The near-unity slope indicates that
the mass-dynamical structure of massive elliptical galaxies is independent of
mass, and that the "tilt" of the SLACS FP is due entirely to variation in total
(luminous plus dark) mass-to-light ratio with mass. Our results imply that
dynamical masses serve as a good proxies for true masses in massive elliptical
galaxies. Regarding the SLACS lenses as a homologous population, we find that
the average enclosed 2D mass profile goes as log_10 [M(<R)/M_dim] = (1.10 +/-
0.09) log_10 [R/R_e] + (0.85 +/- 0.03), consistent with an isothermal (flat
rotation curve) model when de-projected into 3D. This measurement is
inconsistent with the slope of the average projected aperture luminosity
profile at a confidence level greater than 99.9%, implying a minimum
dark-matter fraction of f_DM = 0.38 +/- 0.07 within one effective radius.
(abridged)Comment: 13 pages emulateapj; accepted for publication in the Ap
Tunable magnetic exchange interactions in manganese-doped inverted core/shell ZnSe/CdSe nanocrystals
Magnetic doping of semiconductor nanostructures is actively pursued for
applications in magnetic memory and spin-based electronics. Central to these
efforts is a drive to control the interaction strength between carriers
(electrons and holes) and the embedded magnetic atoms. In this respect,
colloidal nanocrystal heterostructures provide great flexibility via
growth-controlled `engineering' of electron and hole wavefunctions within
individual nanocrystals. Here we demonstrate a widely tunable magnetic sp-d
exchange interaction between electron-hole excitations (excitons) and
paramagnetic manganese ions using `inverted' core-shell nanocrystals composed
of Mn-doped ZnSe cores overcoated with undoped shells of narrower-gap CdSe.
Magnetic circular dichroism studies reveal giant Zeeman spin splittings of the
band-edge exciton that, surprisingly, are tunable in both magnitude and sign.
Effective exciton g-factors are controllably tuned from -200 to +30 solely by
increasing the CdSe shell thickness, demonstrating that strong quantum
confinement and wavefunction engineering in heterostructured nanocrystal
materials can be utilized to manipulate carrier-Mn wavefunction overlap and the
sp-d exchange parameters themselves.Comment: To appear in Nature Materials; 18 pages, 4 figures + Supp. Inf
The Ensemble Photometric Variability of ~25000 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Using a sample of over 25000 spectroscopically confirmed quasars from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we show how quasar variability in the rest frame
optical/UV regime depends upon rest frame time lag, luminosity, rest
wavelength, redshift, the presence of radio and X-ray emission, and the
presence of broad absorption line systems. The time dependence of variability
(the structure function) is well-fit by a single power law on timescales from
days to years. There is an anti-correlation of variability amplitude with rest
wavelength, and quasars are systematically bluer when brighter at all
redshifts. There is a strong anti-correlation of variability with quasar
luminosity. There is also a significant positive correlation of variability
amplitude with redshift, indicating evolution of the quasar population or the
variability mechanism. We parameterize all of these relationships. Quasars with
RASS X-ray detections are significantly more variable (at optical/UV
wavelengths) than those without, and radio loud quasars are marginally more
variable than their radio weak counterparts. We find no significant difference
in the variability of quasars with and without broad absorption line troughs.
Models involving multiple discrete events or gravitational microlensing are
unlikely by themselves to account for the data. So-called accretion disk
instability models are promising, but more quantitative predictions are needed.Comment: 41 pages, 21 figures, AASTeX, Accepted for publication in Ap
An evaluation of Minor Groove Binders as anti-lung cancer therapeutics
A series of 47 structurally diverse MGBs, derived from the natural product distamycin, was evaluated for anti-lung cancer activity by screening against the melanoma cancer cell line B16-F10. Five compounds have been found to possess significant activity, more so than a standard therapy, Gemcitabine. Moreover, one compound has been found to have an activity around 70-fold that of Gemcitabine and has a favourable selectivity index of greater than 125. Furthermore, initial studies have revealed this compound to be metabolically stable and thus it represents a lead for further optimisation towards a novel treatment for lung cance
Anti-TNF therapies and pregnancy: outcome of 130 pregnancies in the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register
The Caltech Millimeter Wave Interferometer
The Caltech Millimeter-Wave Interferometer has recently begun observations at a wavelength of 2.6 mm. We describe the instrument and some of the first results from it
Early-type galaxies in the SDSS. I. The sample
A sample of nearly 9000 early-type galaxies, in the redshift range 0.01 < z <
0.3, was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using morphological and
spectral criteria. This paper describes how the sample was selected, presents
examples of images and seeing corrected fits to the observed surface brightness
profiles, describes our method for estimating K-corrections, and shows that the
SDSS spectra are of sufficiently high quality to measure velocity dispersions
accurately. It also provides catalogs of the measured photometric and
spectroscopic parameters. In related papers, these data are used to study how
early-type galaxy observables, including luminosity, effective radius, surface
brightness, color, and velocity dispersion, are correlated with one another.Comment: 63 pages, 21 figures. Accepted by AJ (scheduled for April 2003). This
paper is part I of a revised version of astro-ph/0110344. The full version of
Tables 2 and 3, i.e. the tables listing the photometric and spectroscopic
parameters of ~ 9000 galaxies, are available at
http://astrophysics.phys.cmu.edu/~bernardi/SDSS/Etypes/TABLE
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