A new kinetic model of enzymatic catalysis is proposed, which postulates that enzyme solutions are equilibrium systems of oligomers differing in the number of subunits and in the mode of their assembly. It is suggested that the catalytic and regulatory sites of allosteric enzymes are of composite nature and appear as a result of subunits joining. Two possible joining modes are postulated at each oligomerization step. Catalytic site may arise on oligomer formed only by one of these modes. Effector acts by fastening together components of certain oligomeric form and increases the life time of this form. It leads to a shift of oligomer equilibrium and increases a proportion of effector-binding oligomers. Effectors-activators bind the oligomers carrying composite catalytic sites and effectors-inhibitors bind the oligomers, which do not carry active catalytic sites. Thus, catalytic activity control in such system is explained by effector-induced changes of a catalytic sites number, but not of a catalytic site activity caused by changes of subunit's tertiary structure. The postulates of the model do not contradict available experimental data and lead to a new type of general rate equation, which allows to describe and understand the specific kinetic behavior of allosteric enzymes as well as Michaelis type enzymes. All known rate equations of allosteric The equation was tested by modeling the kinetics of human erythrocyte phosphofructokinase. It enabled to reproduce quantitatively the 66 kinetic curves experimentally obtained for this enzyme under different reaction conditions.

In a series of the experiments at different time-of-flight spectrometers of heavy ions we have observed manifestations of a new at least ternary decay channel of low excited heavy nuclei. Due to specific features of the effect, it was called collinear cluster tri-partition (CCT). The experimental results obtained initiated a number of theoretical articles dedicated to different aspects of the CCT. We compare theoretical predictions with our experimental data, only partially published so far. The model of one of the most populated CCT modes that gives rise to the so called "Ni-bump" is discussed. Detection of the 68-72Ni fission fragments with a kinetic energy E<25 MeV at the mass-separator Lohengrin is proposed for an independent experimental verification of the CCT.Comment: 16 pages, 14 figure

The receptive fields of the sensorimotor cortex neurons identified by electrocutaneous stimulation were modified by microelectrophoretically applied picrotoxin which is known to reduce inhibition. a relatively short application of picrotoxin (90 nA during 3-6 min) markedly increased the size of the neuronal receptive fields in the sensorimotor cortex. Control application of glutamate showed that additional depolarization did not affect receptive fields of the spontaneously active units. Our results together with other work in this field further support the hypothesis that inhibitory processes play a major role in forming functional properties of the cerebral cortex neurons.