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The guanidine hydrochloride-induced denaturation of Pseudomonas cepacia lipase (PCL) was studied at pH 7 by monitoring the changes in the fluorescence and circular dichroism of the enzyme. The denaturation was irreversible as a whole, and the addition of Ca2+ ions decreased the velocity of the denaturation. The denaturation process was well explained consistently by a two-step mechanism, as follows: [see equation in text] where N is the native state of PCL, D(I) an intermediate denatured-state which can be refolded into the native state, and D(F) the final denatured-state that can not be renatured. Ethanol (10%) increased the denaturation velocity by decreasing the refolding step, D(I) + Ca2+ --> N x Ca2+, which would be caused by the stabilization of D(I) by ethanol.

Abstract Cup-stacked carbon nanotubes (CSCNT) with different surface properties were used for the non-aqueous Li–O 2 battery cathodes, and then examined at high magnification to understand how the discharge products were deposited on the cathode. As-prepared CSCNT based cathode had many reactive edges consisting of truncated conical graphene layers. After discharge, discharge products with average particle size 50 nm covered a nanotube, resulting in a layer-like texture. On the other hand, a heat-treated CSCNT based cathode was composed of edges terminated by graphitization of several graphene layers. After discharge, the size of the products was almost the same but the products were agglomerated, forming a bulky morphology. It was, thus, found that the carbon surface structure was closely related with the morphology of the cathode deposits after discharge. First principles calculations also indicated that no terminated edges acted as preferential active sites in adsorbing and storing the reaction species. It was, therefore, concluded that the active edges of the carbon surface were indispensable for controlling the morphology of cathode deposits and improving the battery performance.

Etude theorique de l'influence de la couche de vapeur surmontant du sodium liquide sur la vitesse de combustion du sodium dans un bassin

The ATLAS Inner Detector is a composite tracking system consisting of silicon pixels, silicon strips and straw tubes in a 2 T magnetic field. Its installation was completed in August 2008 and the detector took part in data- taking with single LHC beams and cosmic rays. The initial detector operation, hardware commissioning and in-situ calibrations are described. Tracking performance has been measured with 7.6 million cosmic-ray events, collected using a tracking trigger and reconstructed with modular pattern-recognition and fitting software. The intrinsic hit efficiency and tracking trigger efficiencies are close to 100%. Lorentz angle measurements for both electrons and holes, specific energy-loss calibration and transition radiation turn-on measurements have been performed. Different alignment techniques have been used to reconstruct the detector geometry. After the initial alignment, a transverse impact parameter resolution of 22.1+/-0.9 ��m and a relative momentum resolution ��p/p = (4.83+/-0.16) \times 10-4 GeV-1 \times pT have been measured for high momentum tracks. 34 pages, 25 figures