Molecular physiology of carbamoylation under extreme conditions: what can we learn from extreme thermophilic microorganisms?

The importance of protein-protein interactions in the physiology of extreme thermophiles was investigated by analyzing the enzymes involved in biosynthetic carbamoylation in Thermus ZO5 and by comparing the results obtained with already available or as yet unpublished information concerning other thermophilic eu- and archaebacteria such as Thermotoga, Sulfolobus, and Pyrococcus. Salient observations were that (i) the highly thermolabile and reactive carbamoylphosphate molecule appears to be protected from thermodegradation by channelling towards the synthesis of citrulline and carbamoylaspartate, respectively precursors of arginine and the pyrimidines; (ii) Thermus ornithine carbamoyltransferase is clearly a thermophilic enzyme, intrinsically thermostable and showing a biphasic Arrhenius plot, whereas aspartate carbamoyltransferase is inherently unstable and is stabilized by its association with dihydroorotase, another enzyme encoded by the Thermus pyrimidine operon. Possible implications of these results are discussed.     

辐射取向环形磁体在磁场中所受磁场力的计算

高均匀性辐射取向环形磁体广泛应用于航空、航天等领域,但其强烈的各向异性的热膨胀性质以及在充磁过程中受到的磁场力均可能导致开裂现象的发生。为了防止辐射取向环形磁体在饱和充磁后因受磁场力的作用而开裂,对磁场力的大小进行了分析和计算。结果表明,辐射取向环形磁体在磁场方向受到一个向外的张力,在充磁过程中,由于圆环的封闭性,这个张力将导致磁体在充磁后裂开;张力F的大小可用公式F=πB2h(R2-R1)/μ进行计算,式中,B为磁感应强度,h为磁环高度,R1和R2分别为磁环内外半径,μ为磁导率。     

Materials science under extreme conditions of pressure and strain rate

Solid-state dynamics experiments at very high pressures and strain rates are becoming possible with high-power laser facilities, albeit over brief intervals of time and spatially small scales. To achieve extreme pressures in the solid state requires that the sample be kept cool, with T _sample<T _melt. To this end, a shockless, plasma-piston “drive” has been developed on the Omega laser, and a staged shock drive was demonstrated on the Nova laser. To characterize the drive, velocity interferometer measurements allow the high pressures of 10 to 200 GPa (0.1 to 2 Mbar) and strain rates of 10⁶ to 10⁸ s⁻¹ to be determined. Solid-state strength in the sample is inferred at these high pressures using the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability as a “diagnostic.” Lattice response and phase can be inferred for single-crystal samples from time-resolved X-ray diffraction. Temperature and compression in polycrystalline samples can be deduced from extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) measurements. Deformation mechanisms and residual melt depth can be identified by examining recovered samples. We will briefly review this new area of laser-based materials-dynamics research, then present a path forward for carrying these solid-state experiments to much higher pressures, P>10³ GPa (10 Mbar), on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This article is based on an invited presentation given in the symposium “Dynamic Deformation: Constitutive Modeling, Grain Size, and Other Effects: In Honor of Prof. Ronald W. Armstrong,” March 2–6, 2003, at the 2003 TMS/ASM Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, under the auspices of the TMS/ASM Joint Mechanical Behavior of Materials Committee.