The Madras High Court has refused to grant bail to one of the accused in the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) recruitment scam pertaining

The State’s IMR has been on the decreasing trend.

With confusion prevailing over opening of shops, the district administration has issued clarification and released list of shops that can be opened an

Brazil, the hardest-hit Latin American country in the coronavirus pandemic, has surpassed 10,000 deaths, according to figures released Saturday by th

Search and rescue operations are still under way, incident escalated to a Level II emergency

Troops disengaged after dialogue and interaction at local level, Army sources said

A video on the opening of liquor shops after the easing of the COVID-19 lockdown in India

More private hospitals in the city are trying to acquire the advanced GeneXpert point-of-care testing system that can detect coronavirus in 45 minutes or less. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had earlier approved the use of this US-grown rapid molecular diagnostic technology to detect Covid-19.

A cop performed the final rites of a stranger who died of a cardiac stroke. The family members of Pramod Khare (42), a bachelor, are settled in Delhi, Kolkata, Dubai and South Africa could not make it due to the lockdown. The funeral was live-streamed for them.

At a time when governments are struggling to reach out to some tribal hamlets located deep inside the forest, like the Chenchus of Nallamalla forest, have made personal protective equipment such as face masks from leaves of teak and sal trees. They are also not stepping out from their hamlets, except to collect forest produce once or twice a week.

Petrol sales were down 60.43 per cent to 9,73,000 tonnes in April

This will reduce crowding at the market at Mattuthavani

This is the Indian Navy’s first massive evacuation exercise during the Covid-19 lockdown

Further details are awaited.

Maharashtra has the highest number of cases with around 20,228 positive cases of infection and 779 deaths.

Many of them sustained minor injuries in the clash near Naku La in the Sikkim sector along the Sino-Indo border on Saturday

Five days after nearly 5,500 cases of liquor seized by police went missing in Sonipat, Haryana Police on Saturday raided the Chandigarh hideout of the godown owner's husband and seized Rs 97 lakh, a Range Rover car, two pistols and a three mobile phones.

Beamline 8A (BL 8A) is an undulator-based soft X-ray beamline at Pohang Accelerator Laboratory. This beamline is aimed at high-resolution ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AP-XPS), soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (soft-XAS) and scanning photoemission microscopy (SPEM) experiments. BL 8A has two branches, 8A1 SPEM and 8A2 AP-XPS, that share a plane undulator, the first mirror (M1) and the monochromator. The photon beam is switched between the two branches by changing the refocusing mirrors after the monochromator. The acceptance angle of M1 is kept glancing at 1.2°, and Pt is coated onto the mirrors to achieve high reflectance, which ensures a wide photon energy range (100–2000 eV) with high resolution at a photon flux of ∼1013 photons s−1. In this article, the main properties and performance of the beamline are reported, together with selected experiments performed on the new beamline and experimental system.

Did the quake shake you? Earth tremor felt in Shropshire  shropshirestar.com

Houses 'rattled' as minor earthquakes shake Shropshire  BBC News

Earth's North Magnetic Pole Keeps Drifting towards Siberia, Latest World Magnetic Model Shows | Geophysics, Geoscience  Sci-News.com

The bacterial type VI secretion system (T6SS) secretes many toxic effectors to gain advantage in interbacterial competition and for eukaryotic host infection. The cognate immunity proteins of these effectors protect bacteria from their own effectors. PldB is a T6SS trans-kingdom effector in Pseudomonas aeruginosa that can infect both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Three proteins, PA5086, PA5087 and PA5088, are employed to suppress the toxicity of PldB-family proteins. The structures of PA5087 and PA5088 have previously been reported, but the identification of further distinctions between these immunity proteins is needed. Here, the crystal structure of PA5086 is reported at 1.90 Å resolution. A structural comparison of the three PldB immunity proteins showed vast divergences in their electrostatic potential surfaces. This interesting phenomenon provides an explanation of the stockpiling mechanism of T6SS immunity proteins.

The transmembrane intracellular lectin ER–Golgi intermediate compartment protein 53 (ERGIC-53) and the soluble EF-hand multiple coagulation factor deficiency protein 2 (MCFD2) form a complex that functions as a cargo receptor, trafficking various glycoproteins between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the Golgi apparatus. It has been demonstrated that the carbohydrate-recognition domain (CRD) of ERGIC-53 (ERGIC-53CRD) interacts with N-linked glycans on cargo glycoproteins, whereas MCFD2 recognizes polypeptide segments of cargo glycoproteins. Crystal structures of ERGIC-53CRD complexed with MCFD2 and mannosyl oligosaccharides have revealed protein–protein and protein–sugar binding modes. In contrast, the polypeptide-recognition mechanism of MCFD2 remains largely unknown. Here, a 1.60 Å resolution crystal structure of the ERGIC-53CRD–MCFD2 complex is reported, along with three other crystal forms. Comparison of these structures with those previously reported reveal that MCFD2, but not ERGIC-53–CRD, exhibits significant conformational plasticity that may be relevant to its accommodation of various polypeptide ligands.

Factor for inversion stimulation (Fis) is a versatile bacterial nucleoid-associated protein that can directly bind and bend DNA to influence DNA topology. It also plays crucial roles in regulating bacterial virulence factors and in optimizing bacterial adaptation to various environments. Fis from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA4853, referred to as PaFis) has recently been found to be required for virulence by regulating the expression of type III secretion system (T3SS) genes. PaFis can specifically bind to the promoter region of exsA, which functions as a T3SS master regulator, to regulate its expression and plays an essential role in transcription elongation from exsB to exsA. Here, the crystal structure of PaFis, which is composed of a four-helix bundle and forms a homodimer, is reported. PaFis shows remarkable structural similarities to the well studied Escherichia coli Fis (EcFis), including an N-terminal flexible loop and a C-terminal helix–turn–helix (HTH) motif. However, the critical residues for Hin-catalyzed DNA inversion in the N-terminal loop of EcFis are not conserved in PaFis and further studies are required to investigate its exact role. A gel-electrophoresis mobility-shift assay showed that PaFis can efficiently bind to the promoter region of exsA. Structure-based mutagenesis revealed that several conserved basic residues in the HTH motif play essential roles in DNA binding. These structural and biochemical studies may help in understanding the role of PaFis in the regulation of T3SS expression and in virulence.

Solution structure of β-amylase 2 from Arabidopsis thaliana shows the role of the conserved N-terminus in enzyme tetramer formation.

The concept of statistical signal detection by controlling the false-discovery rate (FDR) to aid the atomic model interpretation of cryo-EM density maps is reviewed. The recommended usage of the FDR software tool is presented together with its successful integration into the CCP-EM suite.

The title compound (systematic name: bis­{2-[4-(acet­yloxy)-1H-indol-3-yl]ethan-1-aminium} but-2-enedioate), 2C14H19N2O2+·C4H2O42−, has a single protonated psilacetin cation and one half of a fumarate dianion in the asymmetric unit. There are N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds between the ammonium H atoms and the fumarate O atoms, as well as N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds between the indole H atoms and the fumarate O atoms. The hydrogen bonds hold the ions together in infinite one-dimensional chains along [111].

The solid-state structures of the salts of two substituted tryptamines, namely N-isopropyl-N-methyl­tryptaminium (MiPT) fumarate {systematic name: [2-(1H-indol-3-yl)eth­yl](meth­yl)propan-2-yl­aza­nium 3-carb­oxy­prop-2-enoate}, C14H21N2+·C4H3O4−, and 4-hy­droxy-N-isopropyl-N-methyl­tryptaminium (4-HO-MiPT) fumarate monohydrate {systematic name: [2-(4-hy­droxy-1H-indol-3-yl)eth­yl](meth­yl)propan-2-yl­aza­nium 3-carb­oxy­prop-2-enoate monohydrate}, C14H21N2O+·C4H3O4−·H2O, are reported. Both salts possess a proton­ated tryptammonium cation and a 3-carb­oxy­acrylate (hydrogen fumarate) anion in the asymmetric unit; the 4-HO-MiPT structure also contains a water mol­ecule of crystallization. Both cations feature disorder of the side chain over two orientations, in a 0.630 (3):0.370 (3) ratio for MiPT and a 0.775 (5):0.225 (5) ratio for 4-HO-MiPT. In both extended structures, N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds generate infinite two-dimensional networks.

A new pseudopolymorph of dodeca­chloro­penta­silane, namely a benzene monosolvate, Si5Cl12·C6H6, is described. There are two half mol­ecules of each kind in the asymmetric unit. Both Si5Cl12 mol­ecules are completed by crystallographic twofold symmetry. One of the benzene mol­ecules is located on a twofold rotation axis with two C—H groups located on this rotation axis. The second benzene mol­ecule has all atoms on a general position: it is disordered over two equally occupied orientations. No directional inter­actions beyond normal van der Waals contacts occur in the crystal.

The solid-state structures of the naturally occurring psychoactive tryptamine norpsilocin {4-hy­droxy-N-methyl­tryptamine (4-HO-NMT); systematic name: 3-[2-(methyl­amino)­eth­yl]-1H-indol-4-ol}, C11H14N2O, and its fumarate salt (4-hy­droxy-N-methyl­tryptammonium fumarate; systematic name: bis­{[2-(4-hy­droxy-1H-indol-3-yl)eth­yl]methyl­aza­nium} but-2-enedioate), C11H15N2O+·0.5C4H2O42−, are reported. The freebase of 4-HO-NMT has a single mol­ecule in the asymmetric unit joined together by N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds in a two-dimensional network parallel to the (100) plane. The ethyl­amine arm of the tryptamine is modeled as a two-component disorder with a 0.895 (3) to 0.105 (3) occupancy ratio. The fumarate salt of 4-HO-NMT crystallizes with a tryptammonium cation and one half of a fumarate dianion in the asymmetric unit. The ions are joined together by N—H⋯O and O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds to form a three-dimensional framework, as well as π–π stacking between the six-membered rings of inversion-related indoles (symmetry operation: 2 − x, 1 − y, 2 – z).

Model building into experimental maps is a key element of structural biology, but can be both time consuming and error prone for low-resolution maps. Here we present Namdinator, an easy-to-use tool that enables the user to run a molecular dynamics flexible fitting simulation followed by real-space refinement in an automated manner through a pipeline system. Namdinator will modify an atomic model to fit within cryo-EM or crystallography density maps, and can be used advantageously for both the initial fitting of models, and for a geometrical optimization step to correct outliers, clashes and other model problems. We have benchmarked Namdinator against 39 deposited cryo-EM models and maps, and observe model improvements in 34 of these cases (87%). Clashes between atoms were reduced, and the model-to-map fit and overall model geometry were improved, in several cases substantially. We show that Namdinator is able to model large-scale conformational changes compared to the starting model. Namdinator is a fast and easy tool for structural model builders at all skill levels. Namdinator is available as a web service (https://namdinator.au.dk), or it can be run locally as a command-line tool.

Functional materials are of critical importance to electronic and smart devices. A deep understanding of the structure–property relationship is essential for designing new materials. In this work, instead of utilizing conventional atomic coordinates, a symmetry-mode approach is successfully used to conduct structure refinement of the neutron powder diffraction data of (1−x)AgNbO3–xLiTaO3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.09) ceramics. This provides rich structural information that not only clarifies the controversial symmetry assigned to pure AgNbO3 but also explains well the detailed structural evolution of (1−x)AgNbO3–xLiTaO3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.09) ceramics, and builds a comprehensive and straightforward relationship between structural distortion and electrical properties. It is concluded that there are four relatively large-amplitude major modes that dominate the distorted Pmc21 structure of pure AgNbO3, namely a Λ3 antiferroelectric mode, a T4+ a−a−c0 octahedral tilting mode, an H2 a0a0c+/a0a0c− octahedral tilting mode and a Γ4− ferroelectric mode. The H2 and Λ3 modes become progressively inactive with increasing x and their destabilization is the driving force behind the composition-driven phase transition between the Pmc21 and R3c phases. This structural variation is consistent with the trend observed in the measured temperature-dependent dielectric properties and polarization–electric field (P-E) hysteresis loops. The mode crystallography applied in this study provides a strategy for optimizing related properties by tuning the amplitudes of the corresponding modes in these novel AgNbO3-based (anti)ferroelectric materials.

In this article, a method is presented to estimate a new local quality measure for 3D cryoEM maps that adopts the form of a `local resolution' type of information. The algorithm (DeepRes) is based on deep-learning 3D feature detection. DeepRes is fully automatic and parameter-free, and avoids the issues of most current methods, such as their insensitivity to enhancements owing to B-factor sharpening (unless the 3D mask is changed), among others, which is an issue that has been virtually neglected in the cryoEM field until now. In this way, DeepRes can be applied to any map, detecting subtle changes in local quality after applying enhancement processes such as isotropic filters or substantially more complex procedures, such as model-based local sharpening, non-model-based methods or denoising, that may be very difficult to follow using current methods. It performs as a human observer expects. The comparison with traditional local resolution indicators is also addressed.

Confidence maps provide complementary information for interpreting cryo-EM densities as they indicate statistical significance with respect to background noise. They can be thresholded by specifying the expected false-discovery rate (FDR), and the displayed volume shows the parts of the map that have the corresponding level of significance. Here, the basic statistical concepts of confidence maps are reviewed and practical guidance is provided for their interpretation and usage inside the CCP-EM suite. Limitations of the approach are discussed and extensions towards other error criteria such as the family-wise error rate are presented. The observed map features can be rendered at a common isosurface threshold, which is particularly beneficial for the interpretation of weak and noisy densities. In the current article, a practical guide is provided to the recommended usage of confidence maps.