Particulate adenylate cyclase preparations from rat uterine smooth muscle had a single class of [3H]guanyl-5'-yl imidodiphosphate ([3H]GMP.P(NH)P)-binding sites with all of the properties of the guanyl nucleotide-requiring enzyme activation sites (N) which couple hormone receptors and catalytic subunits. These sites bound the radioligand in a reversible manner at low temperature (less than 2 de...

Nicotinamidase (Pnc1) is a member of Zn-dependent amidohydrolases that hydrolyzes nicotinamide (NAM) to nicotinic acid (NA), which is a key step in the salvage pathway of NAD(+) biosynthesis. In this paper, the catalytic mechanism of Pnc1 has been investigated by using a combined quantum-mechanical/molecular-mechanical (QM/MM) approach based on the recently obtained crystal structure of Pnc1. T...

There are many areas of application in everyday life where a thin film (from few nanometers to micrometers) conductive or semiconductive oxide substantially modifies the chemical, optical, electrical, thermal, catalytic, mechanical and surface properties substrate it covers [...]

in this study, physical vapor deposition (pvd) ti-cr-n coatings were deposited at two different temperatures100 and 400ºc on hardened and tempered tool steel substrates. the influence of the applied deposition temperature on the physical and mechanical properties of coatings such as roughness, thickness, phase composition, hardness and young’s modulus were evaluated. phase compositions were stu...

In this study, biodegradable kefiran-chitosan-nanocellulose blend films were developed and their physical, mechanical, barrier, thermal and structural properties determined. Results showed that adding nanocellulose had not any significant effect on the thickness, moisture content and water solubility. Also, water vapor permeability, tensile strength and lightness increased and the elongation at...

The construction of three-dimensional graphene aerogels (GAs) is of great importance owing to their outstanding properties for various applications. Up to now, the combination of ultralow weight and super mechanical strength for GA remains a great challenge. Here we demonstrate the fabrication of cellular GAs by a facile, easily controlled and versatile route, i.e. the chemical reduction of gra...

Kif5A is a neuronally-enriched isoform of the Kinesin-1 family of cellular transport motors. 23 separate mutations in the motor domain of Kif5A have been identified in patients with the complicated form of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP). We performed in vitro assays on dimeric recombinant Kif5A with HSP-causing mutations in the Switch I domain, which participates in the coordination and hy...

Positional information along the dorsal-ventral axis of the Drosophila embryo is acquired through a signal transduction pathway which employs a extracellular protease cascade. The sequential activation of serine protease zymogens results in the ventrally localized production of a ligand in the perivitelline space of the embryo. Snake is one of several serine proteases which function in generati...

The hepatitis delta virus (HDV) ribozyme catalyzes a self-cleavage reaction using a combination of nucleobase and metal ion catalysis. Both divalent and monovalent ions can catalyze this reaction, although the rate is slower with monovalent ions alone. Herein, we use quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) free energy simulations to investigate the mechanism of this ribozyme and to eluc...

The emphasis of this review is atomically monodisperse Aun nanoclusters catalysts (n = number of metal atom in cluster) that are ideally composed of an exact number of metal atoms. Aun which range in size from a dozen to a few hundred atoms are particularly promising for nanocatalysis due to their unique core-shell structure and non-metallic electronic properties. Aun nanoclusters catalysts hav...