1,720,963 research outputs found
Short Range Order of Hydrocarbon Chains in Fluid Phospholipid Bilayers Studied by X-Ray Diffraction from Highly Oriented Membranes
No full textAbstractWe present a study of the short range ordering of hydrocarbon chains in phospholipid bilayers. The x-ray peak associated with the hydrocarbon chains has been probed by means of reciprocal space mappings. Using 20keV undulator radiation and samples of negligible mosaicity (orientational disorder), the intensity distribution is probed as a function of two coordinates, the momentum transfer parallel and perpendicular to the bilayer, over a wide range and at high resolution. Structural results are obtained concerning the distribution of tilted segments, the correlation length and the radial distribution function of the quasi two-dimensional liquid structure. A comparison is made with published molecular dynamics data (H. Heller, M. Schaefer, and K. Schulten. 1993. J. Phys. Chem. 97:8343–8360) by direct Fourier transformation of the atomic coordinates. The exact prefactor in the relationship between interchain distance and peak position is derived
Conformation of Peptides in Lipid Membranes Studied by X-Ray Grazing Incidence Scattering
No full textAbstractAlthough the antimicrobial, fungal peptide alamethicin has been extensively studied, the conformation of the peptide and the interaction with lipid bilayers as well as the mechanism of channel gating are still not completely clear. As opposed to studies of the crystalline state, the polypeptide structures in the environment of fluid bilayers are difficult to probe. We have investigated the conformation of alamethicin in highly aligned stacks of model lipid membranes by synchrotron-based x-ray scattering. The (wide-angle) scattering distribution has been measured by reciprocal space mappings. A pronounced scattering signal is observed in samples of high molar peptide/lipid ratio which is distinctly different from the scattering distribution of an ideal helix in the transmembrane state. Beyond simple models of ideal helices, the data is analyzed in terms of models based on atomic coordinates from the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank, as well as from published molecular dynamics simulations. The results can be explained by assuming a wide distribution of helix tilt angles with respect to the membrane normal and a partial insertion of the N-terminus into the membrane
Magainin 2 in phospholipid bilayers: peptide orientation and lipid chain ordering studied by X-ray diffraction
No full textAbstractWe present a structural study of biomimetic lipid bilayers interacting with the antimicrobial peptide magainin 2 amide, using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and reciprocal space mapping (RSM) techniques. The short-range order of lipid chains in lecithin is found to be strongly reduced by the peptides. From the scattering intensity of the chain correlation peak, we can quantify the lateral length scale R over which the bilayer structure is affected by peptide binding. The non-local perturbation of the bilayer is discussed in the framework of bilayer elasticity theory
Structure of antimicrobial peptides and lipid membranes probed by interface-sensitive x-ray scattering
No full textAbstractThe conformation and correlations of amphiphilic and antimicrobial peptides and the associated changes of lipid bilayers can be studied in oriented lipid membranes deposited on solid substrates. Here we review recent work on these systems, as studied by modern interface-sensitive X-ray and neutron scattering methods. Density profile, short range order of acyl chains and molecular conformations of peptides and lipids are probed in the fluid state of the bilayer. With an emphasis on technical aspects, we review recent work illustrating the potential of the methods and discuss its potential in the field
Correlation of 4Pi and Electron Microscopy to Study Transport Through Single Golgi Stacks in Living Cells with Super Resolution
No full textGoing Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
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