Circular dichroism and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of pennisetin from pearl millet

The conformation and stability of pearl millet prolamin (pennisetin) were examined by using circular dichroism and C-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The far UV spectrum of pennisetin in 70% (v/v) aqueous ethanol showed the presence of predominant alpha-helical structure and its occurrence in the alpha + beta class of protein. The far and near UV spectra of pennisetin in ethanol: trifluoroethanol also supported this observation. However pennisetin showed the presence of some helical structure in 8 M urea which is known to be a highly unordered structure forming solvent. A decrease in alpha helical content of native pennisetin was observed with rise in temperature from 5-75-degrees-C and this effect of temperature was found to be reversible. A C-13 NMR spectrum of pennisetin in 70% ethanol suggested a high degree of molecular mobility in ethanol. Comparison of the cross polarization spectrum with the single pulse excitation spectrum suggested pennisetin to be a heterogeneous protein.

Spatial distribution of oil in groundnut and sunflower seeds by nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

The nuclear magnetic resonance imaging technique has been used to obtain images of different transverse and vertical sections in groundnut and sunflower seeds. Separate images have been obtained for oil and water components in the seeds. The spatial distribution of oil and water inside the seed has been obtained from the detailed analysis of the images. In the immature groundnut seeds obtained commercially, complementary oil and water distributions have been observed. Attempts have been made to explain these results.

Developments in quantum information processing by nuclear magnetic resonance: Use of quadrupolar and dipolar couplings

Use of dipolar and quadrupolar couplings for quantum information processing (QIP) by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is described. In these cases, instead of the individual spins being qubits, the 2(n) energy levels of the spin-system can be treated as an n-qubit system. It is demonstrated that QIP in such systems can be carried out using transition-selective pulses, in (CHCN)-C-3, (CH3CN)-C-13, Li-7 (I = 3/2) and Cs-133 (I = 7/2), oriented in liquid crystals yielding 2 and 3 qubit systems. Creation of pseudopure states, implementation of logic gates and arithmetic operations (half-adder and subtractor) have been carried out in these systems using transition-selective pulses.

Experimental implementation of quantumUlam’s problem in a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum information processor

The Ulam’s problem is a two person game in which one of the player tries to search, in minimum queries, a number thought by the other player. Classically the problem scales polynomially with the size of the number. The quantum version of the Ulam’s problem has a query complexity that is independent of the dimension of the search space. The experimental implementation of the quantum Ulam’s problem in a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Information Processor with 3 quantum bits is reported here.

Superparamagnetic behaviour and T-1, T-2 relaxivity of ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles for magnetic resonance imaging

In the present study, ZnFe2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by the chemical co-precipitation followed by calcinations at 473 and 673K for 4h. Particle sizes obtained were 4 and 6nm for the calcination temperatures of 473 and 673K, respectively. To study the origin of system's low temperature spin dynamic behaviour, temperature dependence of susceptibility was investigated as a function of particle size and frequency. Slight increase in the grain size from 4nm at 473K to 6nm at 673K has led to a peak shift of temperature dependence of susceptibility measured at a constant frequency of 400Hz. Temperature dependence of at different frequencies also resulted in peak shift. Relaxation time dependence of peak temperature obeys a power law, which provides the fitting parameters within the range of superparamagnetic nature of the particles. Further, dependence of relaxation time and peak temperature obeys VogelFulcher law rather than NeelBrown equation demonstrating that the particles follow the behaviour of superparamagnetism of slightly interacting system. Spinlattice, T-1 and spinspin, T-2 relaxivity of proton of the water molecule in the presence of chitosan-coated superparamagnetic ZnFe2O4 nanoparticle yields the values of 0.002 and 0.360s(1)perppm.

Solution nuclear magnetic resonance structure of the GATase subunit and structural Basis of the interaction between GATase and ATPPase subunits in a two-subunit-type GMPS from methanocaldococcus jannaschii

The solution structure of the monomeric glutamine amidotransferase (GATase) subunit of the Methanocaldococcus janaschii (Mj) guanosine monophosphate synthetase (GMPS) has been determined using high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance methods. Gel filtration chromatography and N-15 backbone relaxation studies have shown that the Mj GATase subunit is present in solution as a 21 kDa (188-residue) monomer. The ensemble of 20 lowest-energy structures showed root-mean-square deviations of 0.35 +/- 0.06 angstrom for backbone atoms and 0.8 +/- 0.06 angstrom for all heavy atoms. Furthermore, 99.4% of the backbone dihedral angles are present in the allowed region of the Ramachandran map, indicating the stereochemical quality of the structure. The core of the tertiary structure of the GATase is composed of a seven-stranded mixed beta-sheet that is fenced by five alpha-helices. The Mj GATase is similar in structure to the Pyrococcus horikoshi (Ph) GATase subunit. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shift perturbations and changes in line width were monitored to identify residues on GATase that were responsible for interaction with magnesium and the ATPPase subunit, respectively. These interaction studies showed that a common surface exists for the metal ion binding as well as for the protein-protein interaction. The dissociation constant for the GATase-Mg2+ interaction has been found to be similar to 1 mM, which implies that interaction is very weak and falls in the fast chemical exchange regime. The GATase-ATPPase interaction, on the other hand, falls in the intermediate chemical exchange regime on the NMR time scale. The implication of this interaction in terms of the regulation of the GATase activity of holo GMPS is discussed.

Synthesis, Characterization, and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Study of Chitosan-Coated Mn1-xZnxFe2O4 Nanocrystals

Ultra-fine crystallites of Mn1-xZnxFe2O4 series (0 <= x <= 1) were synthesized through wet chemical co- precipitation method followed by calcination at 200 degrees C for 4 hours. Formation of ferrites was confirmed by X-ray diffraction, TEM selected area diffraction (SAD) and Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectroscopy (FTIR). Nanocrystallites of different compositions in the series were coated with biocompatible chitosan in order to investigate their possible application as contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Chitosan coating examined by FTIR, revealed a strong bonding of chitosan molecules to the surface of the ferrite nanocrystallites. Spin-spin, tau(2) relaxivities of nuclear spins of hydrogen protons of the solutions for different ferrites were measured from concentration dependence of relaxation time by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). All the compositions of Mn1-xZnxFe2O4 series possess higher values of tau(2) relaxivity thus making them suitable as contrast agents for tau(2) weighted imaging by MRI.

Co-registration of speech production datasets from electromagnetic articulography and real-time magnetic resonance imaging

This paper describes a spatio-temporal registration approach for speech articulation data obtained from electromagnetic articulography (EMA) and real-time Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rtMRI). This is motivated by the potential for combining the complementary advantages of both types of data. The registration method is validated on EMA and rtMRI datasets obtained at different times, but using the same stimuli. The aligned corpus offers the advantages of high temporal resolution (from EMA) and a complete mid-sagittal view (from rtMRI). The co-registration also yields optimum placement of EMA sensors as articulatory landmarks on the magnetic resonance images, thus providing richer spatio-temporal information about articulatory dynamics. (C) 2014 Acoustical Society of America

Real-time magnetic resonance imaging and electromagnetic articulography database for speech production research (TC)

USC-TIMIT is an extensive database of multimodal speech production data, developed to complement existing resources available to the speech research community and with the intention of being continuously refined and augmented. The database currently includes real-time magnetic resonance imaging data from five male and five female speakers of American English. Electromagnetic articulography data have also been presently collected from four of these speakers. The two modalities were recorded in two independent sessions while the subjects produced the same 460 sentence corpus used previously in the MOCHA-TIMIT database. In both cases the audio signal was recorded and synchronized with the articulatory data. The database and companion software are freely available to the research community. (C) 2014 Acoustical Society of America.

The interaction of N-trifluoroacetylgalactosamine and its derivatives with winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) basic agglutinin reveals differential mechanism of their recognition: a fluorine-19 nuclear magnetic resonance study

Here, we show the binding results of a leguminosae lectin, winged bean basic agglutinin (WBA I) to N-trifluoroacetylgalactosamine (NTFAGalN), methyl-alpha-N-trifluoroacetylgalactosamine (Me alpha NTFAGalN) and methyl-beta-tifluoroacetylgalactosamine (Me beta NTFAGalN) using (19) F NMR spectroscopy. No chemical shift difference between the free and bound states for NTFAGalN and Me beta NTFAGalN, and 0.01-ppm chemical shift change for Me alpha NTFAGalN, demonstrate that the Me alpha NTFAGalN has a sufficiently long residence time on the protein binding site as compared to Me beta NTFAGalN and the free anomers of NTFAGalN. The sugar anomers were found in slow exchange with the binding site of agglutinin. Consequently, we obtained their binding parameters to the protein using line shape analyses. Aforementioned analyses of the activation parameters for the interactions of these saccharides indicate that the binding of alpha and beta anomers of NTFAGalN and Me alpha NTFAGalN is controlled enthalpically, while that of Me beta NTFAGalN is controlled entropically. This asserts the sterically constrained nature of the interaction of the Me beta NTFAGalN with WBA I. These studies thus highlight a significant role of the conformation of the monosaccharide ligands for their recognition by WBA I.