the muscle-like technology would be of enormous advantages for biomedical applications such as medical implants and human assist devices. ionic polymer metal composites (ipmcs) are one kind of biomimetic actuators. an ionic polymer metal composite composed from an ionomer with high ion exchange capacity that packed between two thin metal layers. in the present study we focused on the preparatio...

Modeling metalloproteins often requires classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in order to capture their relevant motions, which in turn necessitates reliable descriptions of the metal centers involved. One of the most successful approaches to date is provided by the "cationic dummy model", where the positive charge of the metal ion is transferred toward dummy particles that are bonded t...

Metal ion transport by DCT1, a member of the natural resistance-associated macrophage protein family, is driven by protons. The stoichiometry of the proton to metal ion is variable, and under optimal transport conditions, more than 10 protons are co-transported with a single metal ion. To understand this phenomenon better, we used site-directed mutagenesis of DCT1 and analyzed the mutants by co...

BACKGROUND Metal ions participate in the three-dimensional folding of RNA and provide active centers in catalytic RNA molecules. The positions of metal ions are known for a few RNA structures determined by X-ray crystallography. In addition to the crystallographically identified sites, solution studies point to many more metal ion binding sites around structured RNAs. Metal ions are also presen...

A lab-made chemiluminescence system with a polymer cell for the dropping mode was used to determine ultra-trace metal ions in hydrofluoric acid (HF) and the standard cleaning solution-1 (SC-1) used in semiconductor manufacturing processes. The cell was made of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) with dimensions of about 10 mm i.d. and 8 mm in height, was cheap, disposable, chemically inert to alkalis...

The gas-phase structures of alkali-metal cationized glutamine are investigated by using both infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) action spectroscopy, utilizing light generated by a free electron laser, and theory. The IRMPD spectra contain many similarities that are most consistent with glutamine adopting nonzwitterionic forms in all ions, but differences in the spectra indicate that ...

Anthrax lethal factor (LF) is a zinc-dependent endopeptidase which, through a process facilitated by protective antigen, translocates to the host cell cytosol in a partially unfolded state. In the current report, the influence of urea and guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl) on LF׳s catalytic function, fold and metal binding was assessed at neutral pH. Both urea and GdnHCl were found to inhibit LF ...

BACKGROUND This paper presents an application of quantitative ion character-activity relationships (QICAR) to estimate associations of human cardiovascular (CV) diseases (CVDs) with a set of metal ion properties commonly observed in ambient air pollutants. QICAR has previously been used to predict ecotoxicity of inorganic metal ions based on ion properties. OBJECTIVES The objective of this wo...

We report on a nanoscale patterning method on Si substrates using selfassembled metal islands and low-energy ion-beam irradiation. The Si nanostructures produced on the Si substrate have a one-to-one correspondence with the self-assembled metal (Ag, Au, Pt) nanoislands initially grown on the substrate. The surface morphology and the structure of the irradiated surface were studied by high-resol...

Background and purpose - Blood metal ion levels can be an indicator for detecting implant failure in metal-on-metal (MoM) hip arthroplasties. Little is known about the effect of bilateral MoM implants on metal ion levels and patient-reported outcomes. We compared unilateral patients and bilateral patients with either an ASR hip resurfacing (HR) or an ASR XL total hip replacement (THR) and inves...