issue contents

Journal logoJOURNAL OF
SYNCHROTRON
RADIATION
ISSN: 1600-5775

May 2011 issue

Includes papers presented at the Sixth International Workshop on X-ray Radiation Damage to Biological Crystalline Samples

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA, 11-13 March 2010

Highlighted illustration

Cover illustration: Upper panel: X-ray dose-dependent preferential reduction of a nitrate ion in the vicinity of the Cys6-Cys127 disulfide bond of chicken egg-white lysozyme (see De la Mora, Carmichael and Garman, pages 346-357). Lower panel: electron dose-dependent snapshots of a radiation damage series consisting of successive cryo-electron microscopy images of individual molecules of extracellular hemoglobin (see Karuppasamy, Nejadasl, Vulovic, Koster and Ravelli, pages 398-412). These pieces of research, among others, were presented at the 6th International Workshop on X-ray Radiation Damage to Biological Crystalline Samples (RD6) that took place on 11-13 March 2010 at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource in California, USA.

facility information


radiation damage


J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 313-317
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511013859
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An introductory overview of the special issue papers on radiation damage in this issue..

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 318-328
doi: 10.1107/S090904951100968X
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Observations of the dose-rate effect in continuous X-ray diffraction data acquisition at room temperature are presented.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 329-337
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511007631
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In a protein crystal an increase in the atomic B-factor after radiation exposure at 160 K correlates with the proximity to solvent channels.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 338-345
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511005504
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The energy dependence of specific radiation damage to sulfur sites in tetragonal HEWL lysozyme is studied.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 346-357
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511007163
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Sodium nitrate, an electron scavenger, is shown to be an effective agent in reducing the rate of global radiation damage with increasing dose, and to be even more effective in quenching specific structural damage in native HEWL crystals at 100 K.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 358-366
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511006315
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The instrumentation and methods available for collecting almost simultaneous single-crystal electronic absorption correlated with X-ray diffraction data at NSLS beamline X26-C are reviewed, as well as a very brief outline of its Raman spectroscopy capability.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 367-373
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511004250
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Data on the rapid reduction of haem proteins in the X-ray beam at synchrotron sources are presented. The use of single-crystal spectroscopy to detect these changes and their implication for diffraction data collection from oxidized species is also discussed.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 374-380
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511004092
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Successful examples of ultraviolet radiation-damage-induced phasing with anomalous scattering from selenomethionine protein crystals have been demonstrated.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 381-386
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511002251
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A novel automatic procedure to determine the sensitivity of macromolecular crystals to radiation damage is presented. The information extracted from this procedure can be directly used for optimal planning of data collection or/and beamline calibration.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 387-397
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511008235
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A retrospective analysis of radiation damage behaviour in a statistically significant number of real-life datasets is presented, in order to gauge the importance of the complications not yet measured or rigorously evaluated in current experiments, and the challenges that remain before radiation damage can be considered a problem solved in practice.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 398-412
doi: 10.1107/S090904951100820X
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The effects of dose and dose-rate were investigated for single-particle cryo-electron microscopy using stroboscopic data collection. A dose-rate effect was observed favoring lower flux densities.

research papers


J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 413-417
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511003190
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Three-dimensional reciprocal-space maps of a single SiGe island around the Si(004) Bragg peak are recorded using an energy-tuning technique with a microfocused X-ray beam with compound refractive lenses as focusing optics.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 418-426
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511002949
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Angle-resolved XANES at the potassium K-edge and single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments are combined to characterize structural distortions and compositional disorder of micas. Full-multiple-scattering XANES analysis is presented and limitations of the muffin-tin potential in layered systems are discussed.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 427-435
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511006005
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An intensity normalization technique is proposed to suppress ring artefacts of varying strength. The method was applied to an elongated sample in a monochromatic beam and to a sample with highly attenuated parts in a white beam.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 436-441
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511004031
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The transverse distribution of an electron beam in a storage ring can be reconstructed by using a phase-retrieval algorithm.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 442-446
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511002366
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The efficiencies of several Fresnel zone plates, that were fabricated using a direct-write method with high-energy electrons, were measured over a wide range of photon energies.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 447-455
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511005802
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A new instrument for synchronous in situ investigations by infrared and X-ray absorption spectroscopies was designed and built at the Synchrotron Catalysis Consortium, NSLS, Brookhaven National Laboratory. It combines two complementary methods, DRIFTS and XAFS, for solving electronic, structural and kinetic problems for a wide range of catalysts, reactive conditions and time scales.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 456-463
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511006017

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 464-474
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511002640
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Techniques are described for X-ray diffraction combining micrometer-scale spatial resolution with microsecond-scale temporal resolution for studying rapid localized irreversible transformations in materials.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 475-480
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511006984
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X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy has been used to accurately characterize sparse calcium-containing crystals in human OA cartilage.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 481-491
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511004511
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A prototype device capable of splitting an X-ray pulse into two adjustable fractions, delaying one of them with the aim of performing split pulse X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy and pump–probe type studies was designed and manufactured. Time delays up to 2.95 ns have been demonstrated. The achieved contrast values of 56% indicate a feasibility of performing coherence-based experiments with the delay line.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 492-496
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511001828
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New improvements related to the fabrication of spherical bent analyzers for 1 meV energy-resolution inelastic X-ray scattering spectroscopy are presented.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 497-505
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511009071
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High-energy X-rays were used to capture powder diffraction profiles over a half-section of a polycrystalline alumina parallelepiped sample under an increasing uniaxial compressive load. The data was converted to strain and results were used for stress mapping of the sample.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 506-514
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511005796
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Clinkering reactions and processes have been established for belite sulfoaluminate cements by high-energy synchrotron powder diffraction at high temperatures.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 515-521
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511008624
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A quantitative analysis and computer modelling of the surface science beamline station D09 at the SESAME synchrotron radiation facility are presented.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 522-526
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511009083
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X-ray collimation as a novel application of diffractive–refractive optics was studied theoretically and experimentally. A set-up with two crystals in a dispersive arrangement successfully demonstrated X-ray collimation in the energy range 6.3–18.8 keV.

short communications


J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 527-529
doi: 10.1107/S090904951100344X
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Use of Soller slits to remove back-fluorescence from the reference foil helps provide more accurate transmission X-ray absorption spectra of weak samples.

J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 530-533
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511002627
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Based on variations observed in successive Se XAFS scans of a coal-derived fly-ash, 15–20% of the selenite in the fly-ash is estimated to have oxidized to selenate as a result of exposure to synchrotron radiation for 2 h.

current events


J. Synchrotron Rad. (2011). 18, 534-536
doi: 10.1107/S0909049511012805
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