PigmentHunter: A point-and-click application for automated chlorophyll-protein simulations.

Chlorophyll proteins (CPs) are the workhorses of biological photosynthesis, working together to absorb solar energy, transfer it to chemically active reaction centers, and control the charge-separation process that drives its storage as chemical energy. Yet predicting CP optical and electronic properties remains a serious challenge, driven by the computational difficulty of treating large, electronically coupled molecular pigments embedded in a dynamically structured protein environment. To address this challenge, we introduce here an analysis tool called PigmentHunter, which automates the process of preparing CP structures for molecular dynamics (MD), running short MD simulations on the nanoHUB.org science gateway, and then using electrostatic and steric analysis routines to predict optical absorption, fluorescence, and circular dichroism spectra within a Frenkel exciton model. Inter-pigment couplings are evaluated using point-dipole or transition-charge coupling models, while site energies can be estimated using both electrostatic and ring-deformation approaches. The package is built in a Jupyter Notebook environment, with a point-and-click interface that can be used either to manually prepare individual structures or to batch-process many structures at once. We illustrate PigmentHunter's capabilities with example simulations on spectral line shapes in the light harvesting 2 complex, site energies in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson protein, and ring deformation in photosystems I and II.

Temperature dependence of hole growth kinetics in aluminum-phthalocyanine-tetrasulfonate in hyperquenched glassy water.

The temperature (T) dependence of hole growth kinetics (HGK) data that span more than four decades of burn fluence are reported for aluminum-phthalocyanine tetrasulfonate (APT) in fresh and annealed hyperquenched glassy water (HGW) for temperatures between 5 and 20 K. The highly dispersive HGK data are modeled by using the "master" equation based on the two level system (TLS) model described in 2000 by Reinot and Small [J. Chem. Phys. 2000, 113, 10207]. We have demonstrated that thermal line broadening is not enough to account for temperature-dependent HGK for temperatures greater than 10 K. To overcome the discrepancy, the hole growth model must account for thermal hole filling (THF) processes. For the first time, the "master" equation used for HGK simulations is modified to take into account both the temperature dependence of the (single site) absorption spectrum and THF processes, effectively turning off those TLS which do not participate in the hole burning process at higher temperatures. A single set of parameters, some of which were determined directly from the hole spectra, was found to provide satisfactory fits to the HGK data for APT in fresh and annealed HGW for holes burned in the 679.7-676.9 nm range from the high to low energy sides of the Qx absorption band. Furthermore, we propose that HGK modeling at high burn fluences requires that the TLS model be further modified to take into account the existence of extrinsic multiple level systems.

Venous ulceration of the hand secondary to a cimino fistula.

Cimino fistula is an anastomosis created for chronic hemodialysis, between the radial artery and cephalic vein near the wrist. Its complications include thrombosis (most frequent), infection, congestive heart failure, arterial insufficiency, venous hypertension, vascular access neuropathy, and aneurysms. Of these, venous hypertension appears to occur rarely. We report here a case where it resulted in pigmentation, swelling, and ulceration of the middle finger. It was surgically treated, without ligating the arteriovenous fistula, by selective ligation of tributaries from the affected fingers.