Rubredoxin Variant Folds without Iron

Pyroccocus furiosus rubredoxin (PFRD), like most studied hyperthermophilic proteins, does not undergo reversible folding. The irreversibility of folding is thought to involve PFRD’s iron-binding site. Here we report a PFRD variant (PFRD-XC4) whose iron binding site was redesigned to eliminate iron binding using a computational design algorithm. PFRD-XC4 folds without iron and exhibits reversible folding with a melting temperature of 82 °C, a thermodynamic stability of 3.2 kcal mol^(-1) at 1 °C, and NMR chemical shifts similar to that of the wild-type protein. This variant should provide a tractable model system for studying the thermodynamic origins of protein hyperthermostability

Separated spin-up and spin-down evolution of degenerated electrons in two dimensional systems: Dispersion of longitudinal collective excitations in plane and nanotube geometry

Applying the separated spin evolution quantum hydrodynamics to two-dimensional electron gas in plane samples and nanotubes located in external magnetic fields we find new kind of wave in electron gas, which is called the spin-electron acoustic wave. Separate spin-up electrons and spin-down electrons evolution reveals in replacement of the Langmuir wave by the couple of hybrid waves. One of two hybrid waves is the modified Langmuir wave. Another hybrid wave is the spin-electron acoustic wave. We study dispersion of these waves in two dimensional structures of electrons. We also consider dependence of dispersion properties on spin polarisation of electrons in external magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Black holes and non-relativistic quantum systems

We describe black holes in d+3 dimensions, whose thermodynamic properties correspond to those of a scale invariant non-relativistic d+1 dimensional quantum system with dynamical exponent z=2. The gravitational model involves a massive abelian vector field and a scalar field, in addition to the metric. The energy per particle in the dual theory is $|\mu| d/(d+2)$, exactly as in a non-interacting Fermi gas, while the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density is $\hbar/4\pi$.Comment: 8 pages; v2: discussion modifie

Impact of Quantum Phase Transitions on Excited Level Dynamics

The influence of quantum phase transitions on the evolution of excited levels in the critical parameter region is discussed. The analysis is performed for 1D and 2D systems with first- and second-order ground-state transitions. Examples include the cusp and nuclear collective Hamiltonians.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure