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This study examined the effect of ice-quenching after degassing on the change in hardness of a Pd-Au-Zn alloy during porcelain firing simulations. By ice-quenching after degassing, the specimens were softened due to homogenization without the need for an additional softening heat treatment. The lowered hardness by ice-quenching after degassing was recovered greatly from the first stage of porcelain firing process by controlling the cooling rate. The increase in hardness during cooling after porcelain firing was attributed to the precipitation of the f.c.t. PdZn phase containing Au, which caused severe lattice strain in the interphase boundary between the precipitates and matrix of the f.c.c. structure. The final hardness was slightly higher in the ice-quenched specimen than in the specimen cooled at stage 0 (the most effective cooling rate for alloy hardening) after degassing. This was attributed to the more active grain interior precipitation during cooling in the ice-quenched specimen after degassing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pearl-spot damsel, Chromis notata, is one of the important fishery species in Korea. While C. notata has been commonly harvested in southern Korea, the increasing number of C. notata in higher latitudes has crucial ecological, economic and evolutionary implications under conditions where the climate is rapidly changing. Here we examined the morphological and genetic characteristics of C. notata to assess patterns of geographical variations among the groups from three different sites. The groups were clearly distinguishable in the analysis of morphological characteristics. On the other hand, the groups were genetically indistinguishable. All individuals fell within a single clade in the neighbor-joining tree but appeared scattered in the haplotype network. Several haplotypes are shared among the sampling sites (Jejudo-Ulleungdo; Hap 9, Wangdolcho-Ulleungdo; Hap 28, Hap 33, Hap 34). Although control region markers did not elucidate the spatial patterns in genetic characteristics, Wangdolcho and Ulleungdo groups appear to exhibit a more robust gene flow between the two groups than with Jejudo group. Integrative approaches such as those combining morphological and genetic analyses minimize potential errors caused by limited perspectives of each analysis and can provide useful information for discovering functional DNA regions attributable to morphological characteristics expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cephalosporin acylase (CA), a member of the N-terminal nucleophile hydrolase family, is activated through sequential primary and secondary autoproteolytic reactions with the release of a pro segment. We have determined crystal structures of four CA mutants. Two mutants are trapped after the primary cleavage, and the other two undergo secondary cleavage slowly. These structures provide a look at pro-segment conformation during activation in N-terminal nucleophile hydrolases. The highly strained helical pro segment of precursor is transformed into a relaxed loop in the intermediates, suggesting that the relaxation of structural constraints drives the primary cleavage reaction. The secondary auto-proteolytic step has been proposed to be intermolecular. However, our analysis provides evidence that CA is processed in two sequential steps of intramolecular autoproteolysis involving two distinct residues in the active site, the first a serine and the second a glutamate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]