A Gahnite Occurrence in Carroll County,Georgia

Dark green and brilliantly gemmy, these gahnite crystals make excellent micromount specimens.     

A plastic miniature x-ray emission spectrometer based on the cylindrical von Hamos geometry

We present a short working distance miniature x-ray emission spectrometer (miniXES) based on the cylindrical von Hamos geometry. We describe the general design principles for the spectrometer and detail a specific implementation that covers Kβ and valence level emission from Fe. Large spatial and angular access to the sample region provides compatibility with environmental chambers, microprobe, and pump/probe measurements. The primary spectrometer structure and optic is plastic, printed using a 3-dimensional rapid-prototype machine. The spectrometer is inexpensive to construct and is portable; it can be quickly set up at any focused beamline with a tunable narrow bandwidth monochromator. The sample clearance is over 27 mm, providing compatibility with a variety of environment chambers. An overview is also given of the calibration and data processing procedures, which are implemented by a multiplatform user-friendly software package. Finally, representative measurements are presented. Background levels are below the level of the Kβ(2, 5) valence emission, the weakest diagram line in the system, and photometric analysis of count rates finds that the instrument is performing at the theoretical limit.     

Electrochemically characterizing the ac-dc-ac accelerated test method using embedded electrodes

Embedded sensors were used as an in situ corrosion-sensing device for aircraft and vehicular structures protected by organic coatings. Results are presented where changes associated with standard air force aircraft and army vehicle coatings were monitored by embedded sensors. These coatings consisted of a polyurethane topcoat and an epoxy primer, however are formulated to provide different characteristics. The ac-dc-ac testing method was used to accelerate the degradation of these coatings while being immersed in a NaCl medium. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and electrochemical noise measurement experiments were used to monitor the induced changes. A comparison of the results between coatings subjected to the ac-dc-ac exposure and coatings subjected to only constant immersion in the NaCl medium is presented. The results were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ac-dc-ac method at accelerating the degradation of an organic coating without observably changing the normal mechanism of degradation. The data highlights the different features of the coating systems and tracks them while the coating is being degraded. The aircraft coating was characterized by a high-resistant topcoat that can mask corrosion/primer degradation at the primer/substrate interface whereas the vehicle coating was characterized by a low-resistant topcoat with an effective corrosion inhibiting primer. Details of the ac-dc-ac degradation were evaluated by using an equivalent circuit to help interpret the electrochemical impedance data.     

Effects of substitution of Thr63 by alanine on the structure and function of Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase

A mutant of Lactobacillus casei dihydrofolate reductase hasbeen constructed in which Thr63, a residue which interacts withthe 2'-phosphate group of the bound coenzyme, is replaced byalanine. This substitution does not affect k_cat, but producesan 800-fold increase in the K_m for NADPH, which reflects dissociationof NADPH from the enzyme-NADPH-tetrahydrofolate complex, anda 625-fold increase (corresponding to 3.8 kcal/mol) in the dissociationconstant for the enzyme-NADPH complex. The difference in magnitudeof these effects indicates a small effect of the substitutionon the negative cooperativity between NADPH and tetrahydrofolate.Stopped-flow studies of the kinetics of NADPH binding show thatthe weaker binding arises predominantly from a decrease in theassociation rate constant. NMR spectroscopy was used to comparethe structures of the mutant and wild-type enzymes in solution,in their complexes with methotrexate and with methotrexate andNADPH. This showed that only minimal structural changes resultfrom the mutation; a total of 47 residues were monitored fromtheir resolved ¹H resonances, and of these nine in the binarycomplex and six in the ternary differed in chemical shift betweenmutant and wild-type enzyme. These affected residues are confinedto the immediate vicinity of residue 63. There is a substantialdifference in the ³¹P chemical shift of the 2'-phosphate ofthe bound coenzyme, reflecting the loss of the interaction withthe side chain of Thr63. The only changes in nuclear Overhausereffects (NOEs) observed were decreases in the intensity of NOEsbetween protons of the adenine ring of the bound coenzyme andthe nearby residues Leu62 and Ile102, showing that the substitutionof Thr63 does cause a change in the position or orientationof the adenine ring in its binding site.