1,720,957 research outputs found

    Characterization of the Sr2+- and Cd2+-Substituted Oxygen-Evolving Complex of Photosystem II by Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics Calculations

    No full text
    The Mn4CaO5 cluster in the oxygen-evolving complex is the catalytic core of the Photosystem II (PSII) enzyme, responsible for the water splitting reaction in oxygenic photosynthesis. The role of the redox-inactive ion in the cluster has not yet been fully clarified, although several experimental data are available on Ca2+-depleted and Ca2+-substituted PSII complexes, indicating Sr2+-substituted PSII as the only modification that preserves oxygen evolution. In this work, we investigated the structural and electronic properties of the PSII catalytic core with Ca2+ replaced with Sr2+ and Cd2+ in the S2 state of the Kok-Joliot cycle by means of density functional theory and ab initio molecular dynamics based on a quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics approach. Our calculations do not reveal significant differences between the substituted and wild-type systems in terms of geometries, thermodynamics, and kinetics of two previously identified intermediate states along the S2 to S3 transition, namely, the open cubane S2A and closed cubane S2B conformers. Conversely, our calculations show different pKa values for the water molecule bound to the three investigated heterocations. Specifically, for Cd-substituted PSII, the pKa value is 5.3 units smaller than the respective value in wild type Ca-PSII. On the basis of our results, we conclude that, assuming all the cations sharing the same binding site, the induced difference in the acidity of the binding pocket might influence the hydrogen bonding network and the redox levels to prevent the further evolution of the cycle toward the S3 state. © 2015 American Chemical Society

    Molecular vibrations of Oxygen‐Evolving Complex and its synthetic mimic

    No full text
    Bio‐inspired catalysis for artificial photosynthesis has been widely studied for decades, in particular, with the purpose of using bio‐disposable and non‐toxic metals as building blocks. The characterisation of such catalysts has been achieved by using different kinds of spectroscopic methods, from X‐ray crystallography to NMR spectroscopy. An artificial Mn4CaO4 cubane cluster with dangling Mn4 was synthesised in 2015 [Zhang et al. Science 2015, 348, 690–693]; this cluster showed many structural similarities to that of the natural oxygen‐evolving complex. An accurate structural and spectroscopic comparison between the natural and artificial systems is highly relevant to understand the catalytic mechanism. Among data from different techniques, the differential FTIR spectra (Sn+1−Sn) of photosystem II are still lacking a complete interpretation. The availability of IR data of the artificial cluster offers a unique opportunity to assign absolute absorption spectra on a well‐defined and easier to interpret analogous moiety. The present work aims to investigate the novel inorganic compound as a model system for an oxygen‐evolving complex through measurement of its spectroscopic properties. The experimental results are compared with calculations by using a variety of theoretical methods (normal mode analysis, effective normal mode analysis) in the S1 state. We underline the similarities and the differences in the computational spectra based on atomistic models of Mn4CaO5 and Mn4CaO4 complexes

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

    Full text link
    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

    Full text link
    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

    Full text link
    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

    Full text link
    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

    No full text
    Nao informado

    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

    No full text
    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
    corecore