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U Thiele

Publications and source records attributed to U Thiele.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Sliding drops in the diffuse interface model coupled to hydrodynamics.

Using a film thickness evolution equation derived recently combining long-wave approximation and diffuse interface theory [L. M. Pismen and Y. Pomeau, Phys. Rev. E 62, 2480 (2000)] we study one-dimensional surface profiles for a thin film on an inclined plane. We discuss stationary flat film and periodic solutions including their linear stability. Flat sliding drops are identified as universal profiles, whose main properties do not depend on mean film thickness. The flat drops are analyzed in detail, especially how their velocity, advancing and receding dynamic contact angles and plateau thicknesses depend on the inclination of the plane. A study of nonuniversal drops shows the existence of a dynamical wetting transition with hysteresis between droplike solutions and a flat film with small amplitude nonlinear waves.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Film rupture in the diffuse interface model coupled to hydrodynamics.

The process of dewetting of a thin liquid film is usually described using a long-wave approximation yielding a single evolution equation for the film thickness. This equation incorporates an additional pressure term-the disjoining pressure-accounting for the molecular forces. Recently a disjoining pressure was derived coupling hydrodynamics to the diffuse interface model [L. M. Pismen and Y. Pomeau, Phys. Rev. E 62, 2480 (2000)]. Using the resulting evolution equation as a generic example for the evolution of unstable thin films, we examine the thickness ranges for linear instability and metastability for flat films, the families of stationary periodic and localized solutions, and their linear stability. The results are compared to simulations of the nonlinear time evolution. From this we conclude that, within the linearly unstable thickness range, there exists a well defined subrange where finite perturbations are crucial for the time evolution and the resulting structures. In the remainder of the linearly unstable thickness range the resulting structures are controlled by the fastest flat film mode assumed up to now for the entire linearly unstable thickness range. Finally, the implications for other forms of disjoining pressure in dewetting and for spinodal decomposition are discussed.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Dewetting: film rupture by nucleation in the spinodal regime.

Unstable thin liquid films on solid substrates dewet by hole nucleation on defects or by a linear surface instability (spinodal dewetting). A system with destabilizing short-range and stabilizing long-range molecular interactions is investigated. We show that, for a subrange within the linearly unstable film thickness range, nucleation determines the final structure, whereas spinodal dewetting is of negligible influence. The results are also applicable to the spinodal decomposition of binary mixtures.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Optical detection of meteoroidal impacts on the Moon

Impacts of meteoroids on the Moon should cause detectable optical flashes, but the population of objects that are big enough is very low, and hitherto no unambiguous impact flashes have been recorded. The flux of meteoroids associated with the Leonid meteor shower of 18 November 1999 was predicted to produce observable flashes on the night side of the Moon. Here we report the unambiguous detection of five such impact flashes, three of which were seen simultaneously by other observers. We also observed a possible impact flash on 16 July 1999. All of the flashes were of very brief duration (<0.02 s), as expected for high-speed impacts.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2000

Front propagation and pattern formation in anisotropic bistable media

The effects of diffusion anisotropy on pattern formation in bistable media are studied using a FitzHugh-Nagumo reaction-diffusion model. A relation between the normal velocity of a front and its curvature is derived and used to identify distinct spatiotemporal patterns induced by the diffusion anisotropy. In a wide parameter range anisotropy is found to have an ordering effect: initial patterns evolve into stationary or breathing periodic stripes parallel to one of the principal axes. In a different parameter range, anisotropy is found to induce spatiotemporal chaos confined to one space dimension, a state we term "stratified chaos."

Journal Article↗
PubMed1991

Molecular mechanism of inhibition of cysteine proteinases by their protein inhibitors: kinetic studies with natural and recombinant variants of cystatins and stefins.

Natural and recombinant variants of the cysteine proteinase inhibitors chicken cystatin and human stefin B were characterized by determination of their inhibition constants for papain, actinidin and human cathepsins B and H. The individual contributions of the three contact regions to the binding energy of the chicken cystatin-papain complex were calculated as 36% for the N-terminal segment, 51% for the first and 13% for the second hairpin loop. Removal of the N-terminal contact region of chicken cystatin resulted in a 10000-fold lower affinity for papain. In contrast, stefin B remained a tight-binding inhibitor of papain and actinidin without its N-terminal segment. Affinity of stefin B for papain was only slightly affected by exchange of the residue predicted to bind in the S2 subsite of papain. The essential contribution of the first hairpin loop to inhibitor binding was confirmed by the 240-fold lower affinity for papain of a Val48----Asp mutant of stefin B. Inhibition of cathepsin B by stefins A and B is slow-binding. Binding of stefin B, not of stefin A, follows a two-step mechanism involving a slow isomerisation of the enzyme-inhibitor complex.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1989

Mechanism of inhibition of papain by chicken egg white cystatin. Inhibition constants of N-terminally truncated forms and cyanogen bromide fragments of the inhibitor.

N-terminally truncated forms of chicken egg white cystatin and its cyanogen bromide fragments were isolated and assayed for inhibition of papain. Truncated forms beginning with Gly-9 and Ala-10 had a 5000-fold lower affinity for papain than the two isoelectric forms (pI = 6.5 and 5.6) of the full-length inhibitor (Ki = 6 pM and 7 pM) or a truncated form beginning with Leu-7 (Ki = 6 pM), indicating the outstanding importance of one or two residues preceding conserved Gly-9 for binding. A weak inhibition of papain (Ki = 900 nM) was exhibited by the intermediate cyanogen bromide fragment (residues 30-89) containing the chicken cystatin QLVSG variation of the QVVAG segment which is conserved in almost all members of the cystatin superfamily. The obtained affinity data provide independent evidence for the validity of the proposed docking model of a chicken cystatin-papain complex [(1988) EMBO J. 7, 2593-2599].

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1988

The 2.0 A X-ray crystal structure of chicken egg white cystatin and its possible mode of interaction with cysteine proteinases.

The crystal structure of chicken egg white cystatin has been solved by X-ray diffraction methods using the multiple isomorphous replacement technique. Its structure has been refined to a crystallographic R value of 0.19 using X-ray data between 6 and 2.0A. The molecule consists mainly of a straight five-turn alpha-helix, a five-stranded antiparallel beta-pleated sheet which is twisted and wrapped around the alpha-helix and an appending segment of partially alpha-helical geometry. The 'highly conserved' region from Gln53I to Gly57I implicated with binding to cysteine proteinases folds into a tight beta-hairpin loop which on opposite sides is flanked by the amino-terminal segment and by a second hairpin loop made up of the similarly conserved segment Pro103I - Trp104I. These loops and the amino-terminal Gly9I - Ala10I form a wedge-shaped 'edge' which is quite complementary to the 'active site cleft' of papain. Docking experiments suggest a unique model for the interaction of cystatin and papain: according to it both hairpin loops of cystatin make major binding interactions with the highly conserved residues Gly23, Gln19, Trp177 and Ala136 of papain in the neighbourhood of the reactive site Cys25; the amino-terminal segment Gly9I - Ala10I of bound cystatin is directed towards the substrate subsite S2, but in an inappropriate conformation and too far away to be attacked by the reactive site Cys25. As a consequence, the mechanism of the interaction between cysteine proteinases and their cystatin-like inhibitors seems to be fundamentally different from the 'standard mechanism' defined for serine proteinases and most of their protein inhibitors.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Inhibitorily active recombinant human stefin B. Gene synthesis, expression and isolation of an inhibitory active MS-2 pol-stefin B fusion protein and preparation of Des[Met1,2(2)]stefin B.

A synthetic gene coding for the human intracellular cysteine proteinase inhibitor, stefin B, was constructed from 13 chemically synthesized oligonucleotides according to the method of Khorana. The gene was inserted into the plasmid vector pTZ, amplified and sequenced. For expression, a temperature-inducible system producing fusion proteins was used. With the vector pEx31A containing the synthetic cystatin B gene, E. coli strain 537 produced a fusion protein of the N-terminal part of bacteriophage MS-2 polymerase and [Met-2Gly-1]stefin B. Lysates of the induced bacteria were inhibitorily active against papain. The fusion protein was expressed in high yield (about 20% of total E. coli proteins) and mostly deposited as inclusion bodies. The unfolded fusion protein was partially purified in the presence of urea. After refolding, approx. 6% of the protein was inhibitorily active against papain, human cathepsin H and B. Des[Met1,2(2)]stefin B was released by cyanogen bromide cleavage of the fusion protein and identified by N-terminal amino-acid sequence analysis. The non-separated cleavage products were also inhibitorily active after refolding. The estimated inhibition constants for the fusion protein and its cleavage products were similar to those reported for natural stefin B.

Amino Acid Sequence↗