Efficiency and inefficiency in the operation of the Bureau of Power and Light of Los Angeles, California

In work of this nature it is advisable to state definitely the problem attempted in order that the reader may have a clear understanding of the object of the work undertaken. The problem involved is to determine the efficiency and inefficiency in the operation of the Bureau of Power and Light of Los Angeles, California, as it exists at the present time. This will be more on the order of a government investigation than a purely engineering thesis. An engineering thesis consists or reports based on experiments and tests, etc., while the present undertaking will consist of investigation of the facts concerning the organization, operation and conduct of the business of the Bureau of Power and Light. The facts presented were obtained from several sources: (1) the writer's knowledge of the business; (2) books written on municipal ownership; (3) reports published by the Bureau, and (4) personal interviews with men connected with the organization. I have endeavored to draw conclusions from the facts thus obtained, as to the present status of the Bureau of Power and Light.

DNA-mediated charge transport signaling within the cell

DNA possesses the curious ability to conduct charge longitudinally through the π-stacked base pairs that reside within the interior of the double helix. The rate of charge transport (CT) through DNA has a shallow distance dependence. DNA CT can occur over at least 34 nm, a very long molecular distance. Lastly, DNA CT is exquisitely sensitive to disruptions, such as DNA damage, that affect the dynamics of base-pair stacking. Many DNA repair and DNA-processing enzymes are being found to contain 4Fe-4S clusters. These co-factors have been found in glycosylases, helicases, helicase-nucleases, and even enzymes such as DNA polymerase, RNA polymerase, and primase across the phylogeny. The role of these clusters in these enzymes has remained elusive. Generally, iron-sulfur clusters serve redox roles in nature since, formally, the cluster can exist in multiple oxidation states that can be accessed within a biological context. Taken together, these facts were used as a foundation for the hypothesis that DNA-binding proteins with 4Fe-4S clusters utilize DNA-mediated CT as a means to signal one another to scan the genome as a first step in locating the subtle damage that occurs within a sea of undamaged bases within cells.

Herein we describe a role for 4Fe-4S clusters in DNA-mediated charge transport signaling among EndoIII, MutY, and DinG, which are from distinct repair pathways in E. coli. The DinG helicase is an ATP-dependent helicase that contains a 4Fe-4S cluster. To study the DNA-bound redox properties of DinG, DNA-modified electrochemistry was used to show that the 4Fe-4S cluster of DNA-bound DinG is redox-active at cellular potentials, and shares the 80 mV vs. NHE redox potential of EndoIII and MutY. ATP hydrolysis by DinG increases the DNA-mediated redox signal observed electrochemically, likely reflecting better coupling of the 4Fe-4S cluster to DNA while DinG unwinds DNA, which could have interesting biological implications. Atomic force microscopy experiments demonstrate that DinG and EndoIII cooperate at long range using DNA charge transport to redistribute to regions of DNA damage. Genetics experiments, moreover, reveal that this DNA-mediated signaling among proteins also occurs within the cell and, remarkably, is required for cellular viability under conditions of stress. Knocking out DinG in CC104 cells leads to a decrease in MutY activity that is rescued by EndoIII D138A, but not EndoIII Y82A. DinG, thus, appears to help MutY find its substrate using DNA-mediated CT, but do MutY or EndoIII aid DinG in a similar way? The InvA strain of bacteria was used to observe DinG activity, since DinG activity is required within InvA to maintain normal growth. Silencing the gene encoding EndoIII in InvA results in a significant growth defect that is rescued by the overexpression of RNAseH, a protein that dismantles the substrate of DinG, R-loops. This establishes signaling between DinG and EndoIII. Furthermore, rescue of this growth defect by the expression of EndoIII D138A, the catalytically inactive but CT-proficient mutant of EndoIII, is also observed, but expression of EndoIII Y82A, which is CT-deficient but enzymatically active, does not rescue growth. These results provide strong evidence that DinG and EndoIII utilize DNA-mediated signaling to process DNA damage. This work thus expands the scope of DNA-mediated signaling within the cell, as it indicates that DNA-mediated signaling facilitates the activities of DNA repair enzymes across the genome, even for proteins from distinct repair pathways.

In separate work presented here, it is shown that the UvrC protein from E. coli contains a hitherto undiscovered 4Fe-4S cluster. A broad shoulder at 410 nm, characteristic of 4Fe-4S clusters, is observed in the UV-visible absorbance spectrum of UvrC. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy of UvrC incubated with sodium dithionite, reveals a spectrum with the signature features of a reduced, [4Fe-4S]+1, cluster. DNA-modified electrodes were used to show that UvrC has the same DNA-bound redox potential, of ~80 mV vs. NHE, as EndoIII, DinG, and MutY. Again, this means that these proteins are capable of performing inter-protein electron transfer reactions. Does UvrC use DNA-mediated signaling to facilitate the repair of its substrates?

UvrC is part of the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway in E. coli and is the protein within the pathway that performs the chemistry required to repair bulky DNA lesions, such as cyclopyrimidine dimers, that form as a product of UV irradiation. We tested if UvrC utilizes DNA-mediated signaling to facilitate the efficient repair of UV-induced DNA damage products by helping UvrC locate DNA damage. The UV sensitivity of E. coli cells lacking DinG, a putative signaling partner of UvrC, was examined. Knocking out DinG in E. coli leads to a sensitivity of the cells to UV irradiation. A 5-10 fold reduction in the amount of cells that survive after irradiation with 90 J/m2 of UV light is observed. This is consistent with the hypothesis that UvrC and DinG are signaling partners, but is this signaling due to DNA-mediated CT? Complementing the knockout cells with EndoIII D138A, which can also serve as a DNA CT signaling partner, rescues cells lacking DinG from UV irradiation, while complementing the cells with EndoIII Y82A shows no rescue of viability. These results indicate that there is cross-talk between the NER pathway and DinG via DNA-mediated signaling. Perhaps more importantly, this work also establishes that DinG, EndoIII, MutY, and UvrC comprise a signaling network that seems to be unified by the ability of these proteins to perform long range DNA-mediated CT signaling via their 4Fe-4S clusters.

Conversão do metanol em olefinas catalisada por zeólitas com diferentes características ácidas e estruturais

A reação de transformação de metanol em olefinas leves foi investigada sobre as peneiras moleculares HZSM-5, HFER, SAPO-34 e HMCM-22. A caracterização físico-química das amostras foi realizada através das técnicas de FRX, DRX, fisissorção de nitrogênio, MEV, espectrometria no IV com adsorção de piridina e TPD de NH3. O desempenho catalítico das mesmas foi comparado em condições de isoconversão inicial de 755%. Verificou-se que as características ácidas e estruturais exerceram forte influência sobre o desempenho catalítico quanto à atividade, estabilidade e seletividade aos produtos da reação. A amostra mais estável foi a HZSM-5 que apresentou maior densidade de sítios fortes e uma estrutura porosa que permite uma circulação tridimensional das moléculas. Já a menos estável, SAPO-34, apresentou a menor concentração de sítios ácidos fortes dentre os materiais estudados e uma estrutura com cavidades com aberturas estreitas (4Å) que oferecem restrições ao acesso dos reagentes aos sítios ácidos do catalisador. Quanto à seletividade a olefinas, a primeira foi mais seletiva a propeno e a segunda, a eteno. A ferrierita não se mostrou seletiva às olefinas leves tendo apresentado, no entanto, comportamento promissor quanto a formação de DME a partir do metanol. Já a HMCM-22 foi seletiva às olefinas leves e aos hidrocarbonetos com 4, 5 e 6 ou mais átomos de carbono. A influência da temperatura no desempenho catalítico foi investigada variando-se a temperatura de reação (300, 400 e 500C). Verificou-se que para a HZSM-5 e HMCM-22, perda da atividade catalítica foi intensificada a partir de 400C. Quanto à seletividade a olefinas leves, apenas a SAPO-34 não se mostrou sensível a variações na temperatura, efeito este que foi nitidamente observado nos outros três catalisadores: um aumento na temperatura promoveu um aumento na seletividade a olefinas leves no caso da HZSM-5 e da HMCM-22 e queda nesse valor para a HFER

Improvement of sensitivity and refractive-index changes in LiNbO3 : Ce : Cu crystals with UV light

A nonvolatile recording scheme is proposed using LiNbO3:Ce:Cu crystals and modulated UV light to record gratings simultaneously in two centres and using red light to bleach the grating in the shallow centre to realize persistent photorefractive holographic storage. Compared with the normal UV-sensitized nonvolatile holographic system, the amplitude of refractive-index changes is greatly increased and the recording sensitivity is significantly enhanced by recording with UV light in the LiNbO3:Ce:Cu crystals. Based on jointly solving the two-centre material equations and the coupled-wave equations, temporal evolutions of the photorefractive grating and the diffraction effciency are effectively described and numerically analysed. Roles of doping levels and recording-beam intensity are discussed in detail. Theoretical results confirm and predict experimental results.

Optimizations for the uniformity of the non-volatile volume grating in doubly doped LiNbO3 crystals

The formation of the non-uniformity of the non-volatile volume grating in doubly doped LiNbO3 crystals is studied in detail. We find that the non-uniformity of the grating is mainly caused by strong ultraviolet light absorption, and the average saturation space-charge field is small and the diffraction efficiency is low as a result of the non-uniformity of the grating. In order to optimize the uniformity of the grating, we propose the recording scheme by using two sensitizing beams simultaneously from the two opposite sides of the crystals. Theoretical simulations and experimental verifications are performed. Results show that the well uniformed grating with high diffraction efficiency can be obtained by using this optimization scheme. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sensitivity improvement by UV-light recording in LiNbO3 : Ce : Cu crystals

Modulated UV light is used to increase the sensitivity of the two-centre holographic recording. Inherent mechanisms of nonvolatile holographic recording in oxidized and reduced crystals are numerically analysed based on solving the two-centre material equations modilied for UV-Iight recording. Experiments verification is performed with an oxidized crystal and a reduced crystal, and the role of UV intensity on the sensitivity is presented.

Refractive-index change and sensitivity improvement in holographic recording in LiNbO3:Ce:Cu crystals with green light

Nonvolatile holographic recording is performed with green light in LiNbO3:Ce:Cu crystals. The refractive-index change and the recording sensitivity are times better than those obtained by recording with red light, and higher optical fixing efficiency is obtained. Correspondingly, theoretical investigations are given.

I. A study of the dynamics of triplet excitons in molecular crystals. II. An investigation of delayed light emission from Chlorella pyrenoidosa

I. PREAMBLE AND SCOPE

Brief introductory remarks, together with a definition of the scope of the material discussed in the thesis, are given.

II. A STUDY OF THE DYNAMICS OF TRIPLET EXCITONS IN MOLECULAR CRYSTALS

Phosphorescence spectra of pure crystalline naphthalene at room temperature and at 77˚ K are presented. The lifetime of the lowest triplet ³B_1u state of the crystal is determined from measurements of the time-dependence of the phosphorescence decay after termination of the excitation light. The fact that this lifetime is considerably shorter in the pure crystal at room temperature than in isotopic mixed crystals at 4.2˚ K is discussed, with special importance being attached to the mobility of triplet excitons in the pure crystal.

Excitation spectra of the delayed fluorescence and phosphorescence from crystalline naphthalene and anthracene are also presented. The equation governing the time- and spatial-dependence of the triplet exciton concentration in the crystal is discussed, along with several approximate equations obtained from the general equation under certain simplifying assumptions. The influence of triplet exciton diffusion on the observed excitation spectra and the possibility of using the latter to investigate the former is also considered. Calculations of the delayed fluorescence and phosphorescence excitation spectra of crystalline naphthalene are described.

A search for absorption of additional light quanta by triplet excitons in naphthalene and anthracene crystals failed to produce any evidence for the phenomenon. This apparent absence of triplet-triplet absorption in pure crystals is attributed to a low steady-state triplet concentration, due to processes like triplet-triplet annihilation, resulting in an absorption too weak to be detected with the apparatus used in the experiments. A comparison of triplet-triplet absorption by naphthalene in a glass at 77˚ K with that by naphthalene-h₈ in naphthalene-d₈ at 4.2˚ K is given. A broad absorption in the isotopic mixed crystal triplet-triplet spectrum has been tentatively interpreted in terms of coupling between the guest ³B_1u state and the conduction band and charge-transfer states of the host crystal.

III. AN INVESTIGATION OF DELAYED LIGHT EMISSION FROM Chlorella Pyrenoidosa

An apparatus capable of measuring emission lifetimes in the range 5 X 10^-9 sec to 6 X 10^-3 sec is described in detail. A cw argon ion laser beam, interrupted periodically by means of an electro-optic shutter, serves as the excitation source. Rapid sampling techniques coupled with signal averaging and digital data acquisition comprise the sensitive detection and readout portion of the apparatus. The capabilities of the equipment are adequately demonstrated by the results of a determination of the fluorescence lifetime of 5, 6, 11, 12-tetraphenyl-naphthacene in benzene solution at room temperature. Details of numerical methods used in the final data reduction are also described.

The results of preliminary measurements of delayed light emission from Chlorella Pyrenoidosa in the range 10^-3 sec to 1 sec are presented. Effects on the emission of an inhibitor and of variations in the excitation light intensity have been investigated. Kinetic analysis of the emission decay curves obtained under these various experimental conditions indicate that in the millisecond-to-second time interval the decay is adequately described by the sum of two first-order decay processes. The values of the time constants of these processes appear to be sensitive both to added inhibitor and to excitation light intensity.

Radiobiological and biochemical investigations of polyoma virus-cell interactions

The cytolytic interaction of Polyoma virus with mouse embryo cells has been studied by radiobiological methods known to distinguish temperate from virulent bacteriophage. No evidence for "temperate" properties of Polyoma was found. During the course of these studies, it was observed that the curve of inactivation of Polyoma virus by ultraviolet light had two components - a more sensitive one at low doses, and a less sensitive one at higher doses. Virus which survives a low dose has an eclipse period similar to that of unirradiated virus, while virus surviving higher doses shows a significantly longer eclipse period. If Puromycin is present during the early part of the eclipse period, the survival curve becomes a single exponential with the sensitivity of the less sensitive component. These results suggest a repair mechanism in mouse cells which operates more effectively if virus development is delayed.

A comparison of the rates of inactivation of the cytolytic and transforming abilities of Polyoma by ultraviolet light, X-rays, nitrous acid treatment, or the decay of incorporated P³², showed that the transforming ability has a target size roughly 60% of that of the plaque-forming ability. It is thus concluded that only a fraction of the viral genes are necessary for causing transformation.

The appearance of virus-specific RNA in productively infected mouse kidney cells has been followed by means of hybridization between pulse-labelled RNA from the infected cells and the purified virus DNA. The results show a sharp increase in the amount of virus-specific RNA around the time of virus DNA synthesis. The presence of a small amount of virus-specific RNA in virus-free transformed cells has also been shown. This result offers strong evidence for the persistence of at least part of the viral genome in transformed cells.

A theory of strong and weak scintillations with applications to astrophysics

The propagation of waves in an extended, irregular medium is studied under the "quasi-optics" and the "Markov random process" approximations. Under these assumptions, a Fokker-Planck equation satisfied by the characteristic functional of the random wave field is derived. A complete set of the moment equations with different transverse coordinates and different wavenumbers is then obtained from the characteristic functional. The derivation does not require Gaussian statistics of the random medium and the result can be applied to the time-dependent problem. We then solve the moment equations for the phase correlation function, angular broadening, temporal pulse smearing, intensity correlation function, and the probability distribution of the random waves. The necessary and sufficient conditions for strong scintillation are also given.

We also consider the problem of diffraction of waves by a random, phase-changing screen. The intensity correlation function is solved in the whole Fresnel diffraction region and the temporal pulse broadening function is derived rigorously from the wave equation.

The method of smooth perturbations is applied to interplanetary scintillations. We formulate and calculate the effects of the solar-wind velocity fluctuations on the observed intensity power spectrum and on the ratio of the observed "pattern" velocity and the true velocity of the solar wind in the three-dimensional spherical model. The r.m.s. solar-wind velocity fluctuations are found to be ~200 km/sec in the region about 20 solar radii from the Sun.

We then interpret the observed interstellar scintillation data using the theories derived under the Markov approximation, which are also valid for the strong scintillation. We find that the Kolmogorov power-law spectrum with an outer scale of 10 to 100 pc fits the scintillation data and that the ambient averaged electron density in the interstellar medium is about 0.025 cm^-3. It is also found that there exists a region of strong electron density fluctuation with thickness ~10 pc and mean electron density ~7 cm^-3 between the PSR 0833-45 pulsar and the earth.

Criação de mesoporos em zeólitas ZSM-5, mordenita e ferrierita e análise de seu efeito na reação de hidroisomerização do n-heptano

As zeólitas têm recebido grande atenção acadêmica e industrial devido às suas características ácidas e estruturais. A estrutura da zeólita pode ser utilizada para conduzir uma reação catalítica na direção do produto desejado, evitando assim reações paralelas. Porém, essa mesma estrutura cria restrições difusivas com relação ao acesso aos sítios ativos no interior dos microporos. Neste trabalho foram estudados dois métodos de criação de mesoporos (térmico e básico) com o intuito de modificar a acessibilidade aos sítios catalíticos das zeólitas. A reação de hidroisomerização do n-heptano foi selecionada para avaliar as zeólitas após a criação de mesoporosidade. O tratamento térmico (via calcinação em temperaturas elevadas) foi utilizado para as zeólitas do tipo ZSM-5, Mordenita e Ferrierita, tendo sido observado um aumento pouco significativo na mesoporosidade. Este tratamento promoveu, porém, uma significativa desaluminização das amostras, acompanhada da formação de quantidades importantes de espécies de Al extra-rede (ALER), o que se refletiu num bloqueio parcial dos mesoporos gerados e dos microporos preexistentes, e na redução na densidade de sítios ácidos das amostras. A ampliação da escala do tratamento térmico (aumento da quantidade tratada de 2 g para 30 g) não se mostrou reprodutível, gerando menos mesoporos do que o observado no preparo em pequena escala. O tratamento básico (via dessilicação por meio de NaOH), ao contrário do anterior, promoveu a formação de mesoporos gerando menos quantidade de ALER e se mostrou mais reprodutível quando da ampliação da escala. O desempenho dos catalisadores Pt/Al2O3+zeólita na reação de hidroisomerização do n-heptano foi influenciado pela densidade de sítios ácidos fortes e pela estrutura porosa da zeólita. Com relação ao efeito dos tratamentos térmico e básico sobre o desempenho dos catalisadores à base de ZSM-5, os resultados mostraram que o comportamento do catalisador submetido ao tratamento básico (Pt/Al2O3+BZSM-5/85-2) foi similar ao do tratado termicamente (Pt/Al2O3+TZSM-5/1000-2) com relação à distribuição de produtos na reação de hidroisomerização do n-heptano, particularmente com relação aos produtos leves e aos isômeros monorramificados. No entanto, a presença mais significativa de mesoporos na zeólita após tratamento básico (BZSM-5/85-2), se refletiu num leve favorecimento à formação dos isômeros birramificados

Role of absorption in grating erasure

In this paper, we have investigated the grating erasure of a reduced LiNbO3:Fe crystal with different erasing wavelengths. The overall hologram evolution in the process of grating erasure is nonexponential due to strong absorption which is contrary to the mono-exponential law. The hologram in the rear part of the crystal can persist for a long time in the grating erasure due to weak erasing light intensity by strong absorption, which can enlarge the erasure time constant. From the erasure experiments, the global absorption ad 5 can be taken as the optimum absorption to acquire a good trade-off between the sensitivity and hologram strength in the crystal. (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Effect of wavelength of sensitizing light on holographic storage properties in LiNbO3 : Fe : Ni crystal

By sensitizing with 514 nm green light, 488 nm blue light and 390 nm ultraviolet light, respectively, recording with 633 nm red light, effect of wavelength of sensitizing light on holographic storage properties in LiNbO3:Fe:Ni crystal is investigated in detail. It is shown that by shortening the wavelength of sensitizing light gradually, nonvolatile holographic recording properties of oxidized LiNbO3:Fe:Ni crystal is optimized gradually, 390 nm ultraviolet light is the best as the sensitizing light. Considering the absorption of sensitizing light, to obtain the best performance in two-center holographic recording we must choose a sensitizing wavelength that is long enough to prevent unwanted absorptions (band-to-band, etc.) and short enough to result in efficient sensitization from the deep traps. So in practice a trade-off is always needed. Explanation is presented theoretically. (c) 2005 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.