Orthopedic implant failure is mainly attributed to the poor bonding of the implant to bone tissue. An effective approach to minimize the implant failure would be modifying the surface of the implant. Strontium (Sr) can stimulate the proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts and reduce the activity of osteoclasts. In this study, a titanium (Ti) surface was successively functionalized by c...

Autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS) is a neurological disease with mutations in SACS, encoding sacsin, a multidomain protein of 4,579 amino acids. The large size of SACS and its translated protein has hindered biochemical analysis of ARSACS, and how mutant sacsins lead to disease remains largely unknown. Three repeated sequences, called sacsin repeating region (SR...

The binding properties of metal ions to a pectic polysaccharide, rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II), from plant cell walls were analyzed by size-exclusion HPLC/ICP-MS. The dimeric RG-II borate complex (dRG-II-B) from sugar beet and red wine contained 0.8 - 1.1 mol/mol of B, 0.8 - 1.1 mol/mol of Ca, 0.1 - 0.3 mol/mol of Sr, and 0.03 - 0.07 mol/mol of Ba. The treatment of dRG-II-B with Sr2+, Ba2+, Pb2...

Precision measurements with ultracold molecules require development of robust and sensitive techniques to produce and interrogate the molecules. With this goal, we theoretically analyze factors that affect frequency measurements between rovibrational levels of the Sr2 molecule in the electronic ground state. This measurement can be used to constrain the possible time variation of the proton-ele...

Layered 5d transition iridium oxides, Sr2(Ir,Rh)O4, are described as unconventional Mott insulators with strong spin-orbit coupling. The undoped compound, Sr2IrO4, is a nearly ideal two-dimensional pseudospin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet, similarly to the insulating parent compound of high-temperature superconducting copper oxides. Using polarized neutron diffraction, we here report a hidden ...

Calcium (Ca2+) is a major structural plant nutrient whose low mobility in the phloem causes deleterious nutritional disorders non-transpiring organs. Since strontium (Sr2+) and Ca2+ share many chemical properties, Sr2+ frequently used as tracer to study cycles ecosystems. However, level of agreement between distribution pattern plants debatable, several studies have reported toxic effects Sr2+....

Controlled synthesis and compositional modification of Li-rich layered oxides (LLOs), Li1.2Mn0.54Co0.13Ni0.13O2, are considered as potential strategies to achieve high structural stability/reversibility suppressed voltage/capacity fading for realizing stable cycle life performance in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In this study, the effect strontium (Sr2+) doping Li1.2–2xSrxMn0.54Co0.13Ni0.13O2 ...

After the arrival of a presynaptic nerve impulse at an excitatory synapse in hippocampal neurons, the rate of neurotransmitter release increases rapidly and then returns to low levels with a biphasic decay. The two kinetically distinct components are differentially affected when Sr2+ is substituted for Ca2+ ions. Our findings are comparable to those of the classical studies for the frog neuromu...

SR2 is a solar powered autonomous planetary rover designed and built at the University of Oklahoma in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems. This robot was created to explore the feasibility of long autonomous traverses through Marslike terrain – traverses in excess of a kilometer a day requiring no more than a single communications between the robot and mission control. This is a subs...

Understanding the water oxidation mechanism in Photosystem II (PSII) stimulates design of biomimetic artificial systems that can convert solar energy into hydrogen fuel efficiently. The Sr2+-substituted PSII is active but slower than with native Ca2+ containing as an oxygen evolving catalyst. Here, we use Density Functional Theory (DFT) to compare energetics S2 S3 transition Mn4O5Ca2+ and Mn4O5...