Coherent diffraction of single Rice Dwarf virus particles using hard X-rays at the Linac Coherent Light Source

Single particle diffractive imaging data from Rice Dwarf Virus (RDV) were recorded using the Coherent X-ray Imaging (CXI) instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). RDV was chosen as it is a wellcharacterized model system, useful for proof-of-principle experiments, system optimization and algorithm development. RDV, an icosahedral virus of about 70 nm in diameter, was aerosolized and injected into the approximately 0.1 mu m diameter focused hard X-ray beam at the CXI instrument of LCLS. Diffraction patterns from RDV with signal to 5.9 angstrom ngstrom were recorded. The diffraction data are available through the Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank (CXIDB) as a resource for algorithm development, the contents of which are described here.11Ysciescopu

Design requirements of tools supporting reflection on design impact

\u3cp\u3eDesigning for experience requires designers to pay attention to reflection on design impact. However, industrial design students are observed to have difficulty in demonstrating the impact of their design concepts due to insufficient thinking and reflection on design impact. There is a lack in the literature on both reflections on design impact and the tool support. The existing tools for general reflection purpose seem not to work well for this specific purpose. In response to the calls for designing for reflection, this paper presents two exploratory studies and the design requirements of tools for reflection on design impact. The purpose aims to facilitate design students for their reflection on design impact through developing appropriate tools. The design requirements could be generally used as guidelines or reference for future work of developing tools for reflection on design impact.\u3c/p\u3

Lipidic cubic phase injector facilitates membrane protein serial femtosecond crystallography

Lipidic cubic phase (LCP) crystallization has proven successful for high-resolution structure determination of challenging membrane proteins. Here we present a technique for extruding gel-like LCP with embedded membrane protein microcrystals, providing a continuously renewed source of material for serial femtosecond crystallography. Data collected from sub-10-μm-sized crystals produced with less than 0.5 mg of purified protein yield structural insights regarding cyclopamine binding to the Smoothened receptor

Organismal responses to deteriorating water quality during the historic 2020 red tide off Southern California

In April and May of 2020, a large phytoplankton bloom composed primarily of the dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedra reached historic levels in geographic expanse, duration, and density along the coast of southern California, United States, and Baja California Norte, Mexico. Here, we report the water quality parameters of dissolved oxygen and pH over the course of the red tide, as measured by multiple sensors deployed in various locations along San Diego County, and document the extent of mass organism mortality using field surveys and community science observations. We found that dissolved oxygen and pH corresponded with bloom dynamics, with extreme hypoxic and hyperoxic conditions occurring at multiple locations along the coast, most notably within select estuaries where dissolved oxygen reached 0 mg L−1 and hypoxia occurred for up to 254 consecutive hours, as well as along the inner shelf of the open coast where dissolved oxygen dropped as low as 0.05 mg L−1. Similarly, pH ranged widely (6.90–8.79) across the bloom over both space and time, largely corresponding with dissolved oxygen level. Extreme changes in dissolved oxygen and pH, in addition to changes to other water parameters that affect organismal health, ultimately led to documented mortalities of thousands of demersal and benthic fishes and invertebrates (primarily within estuarine and inner-shelf environments), and long-term surveys within one lagoon showed protracted changes to benthic infaunal density and species composition. In addition to field observations, we also quantified water quality parameters and organism mortalities from four local aquarium facilities, with varying levels of filtration and artificial oxygenation, and documented the morphological changes in the gills of captive-held Pacific sardine in response to the red tide. We show that multiple factors contributed to organismal stress, with hypoxia likely being the most widespread, but not the only, cause of mortality

Peptide inhibitors of viral assembly: A novel route to broad-spectrum antivirals

10.1021/ci200467sJournal of Chemical Information and Modeling523770-776JCIS