Combustion of Coal Using Chemical Looping Oxygen Carriers

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A Unified Model of the GABA(A) Receptor Comprising Agonist and Benzodiazepine Binding Sites

We present a full-length α(1)β(2)γ(2) GABA receptor model optimized for agonists and benzodiazepine (BZD) allosteric modulators. We propose binding hypotheses for the agonists GABA, muscimol and THIP and for the allosteric modulator diazepam (DZP). The receptor model is primarily based on the glutamate-gated chloride channel (GluCl) from C. elegans and includes additional structural information from the prokaryotic ligand-gated ion channel ELIC in a few regions. Available mutational data of the binding sites are well explained by the model and the proposed ligand binding poses. We suggest a GABA binding mode similar to the binding mode of glutamate in the GluCl X-ray structure. Key interactions are predicted with residues α(1)R66, β(2)T202, α(1)T129, β(2)E155, β(2)Y205 and the backbone of β(2)S156. Muscimol is predicted to bind similarly, however, with minor differences rationalized with quantum mechanical energy calculations. Muscimol key interactions are predicted to be α(1)R66, β(2)T202, α(1)T129, β(2)E155, β(2)Y205 and β(2)F200. Furthermore, we argue that a water molecule could mediate further interactions between muscimol and the backbone of β(2)S156 and β(2)Y157. DZP is predicted to bind with interactions comparable to those of the agonists in the orthosteric site. The carbonyl group of DZP is predicted to interact with two threonines α(1)T206 and γ(2)T142, similar to the acidic moiety of GABA. The chlorine atom of DZP is placed near the important α(1)H101 and the N-methyl group near α(1)Y159, α(1)T206, and α(1)Y209. We present a binding mode of DZP in which the pending phenyl moiety of DZP is buried in the binding pocket and thus shielded from solvent exposure. Our full length GABA(A) receptor is made available as Model S1

TE/TM field solver for particle beam simulations without numerical Cherenkov radiation

The Yee finite-difference time domain method (FDTD) is commonly used in wake field and particle-in-cell simulations. However, in accelerator modeling the high energy particles can travel in vacuum faster than their own radiation. This effect is commonly referred to as numerical Cherenkov radiation and is a consequence of numerical grid dispersion. Several numerical approaches are proposed to reduce the dispersion for all angles and for a given frequency range, that justifies itself for domains big in all three directions. On the contrary, in accelerator modeling the transverse dimensions and transverse beam velocity are small, but it is extremely important to eliminate the dispersion error in the well-defined direction of the beam motion for all frequencies. In this paper we propose a new two-level economical conservative scheme for electromagnetic field calculations in three dimensions. The scheme does not have dispersion in the longitudinal direction and is staircase-free (second order convergent). Unlike the FDTD method, it is based on a “transversal-electric/transversal-magnetic” (TE/TM)-like splitting of the field components in time. The scheme assures energy and charge conservation. Additionally, the usage of damping terms allows suppressing high frequency noise generated due to the transverse dispersion and the current fluctuations. The dispersion relation of the damping scheme is analyzed. As numerical examples show, the new scheme is much more accurate on the long-time scale than the conventional FDTD approach

Dietary Sutherlandia and Elderberry Mitigate Cerebral Ischemia-Induced Neuronal Damage and Attenuate p47phox and Phospho-ERK1/2 Expression in Microglial Cells

Sutherlandia ( Sutherlandia frutescens ) and elderberry ( Sambucus spp.) are used to promote health and for treatment of a number of ailments. Although studies with cultured cells have demonstrated antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties of these botanicals, little is known about their ability to mitigate brain injury. In this study, C57BL/6 J male mice were fed AIN93G diets without or with Sutherlandia or American elderberry for 2 months prior to a 30-min global cerebral ischemia induced by occlusion of the bilateral common carotid arteries (BCCAs), followed by reperfusion for 3 days. Accelerating rotarod assessment at 24 h after BCCA occlusion showed amelioration of sensorimotor impairment in the mice fed the supplemented diets as compared with the ischemic mice fed the control diet. Quantitative digital pathology assessment of brain slides stained with cresyl violet at 3 days after ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) revealed significant reduction in neuronal cell death in both dietary groups. Immunohistochemical staining for ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule-1 demonstrated pronounced activation of microglia in the hippocampus and striatum in the ischemic brains 3 days after I/R, and microglial activation was significantly reduced in animals fed supplemented diets. Mitigation of microglial activation by the supplements was further supported by the decrease in expression of p47phox, a cytosolic subunit of NADPH oxidase, and phospho-ERK1/2, a mitogen-activated protein kinase known to mediate a number of cytoplasmic processes including oxidative stress and neuroinflammatory responses. These results demonstrate neuroprotective effect of Sutherlandia and American elderberry botanicals against oxidative and inflammatory responses to cerebral I/R