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Abstract  The Copper Creek mining district, southeastern Arizona, contains more than 500 mineralized breccia pipes, buried porphyry-style, copper-bearing stockworks, and distal lead–silver veins. The breccia pipes are hosted by the Copper Creek Granodiorite and the Glory Hole volcanic rocks. The unexposed Mammoth breccia pipe, solely recognized by drilling, has a vertical extent of 800 m and a maximum width of 180 m. The pipe consists of angular clasts of granodiorite cemented by quartz, chalcopyrite, bornite, anhydrite, and calcite. Biotite 40Ar/39Ar dates suggest a minimum age of 61.5 ± 0.7 Ma for the host Copper Creek Granodiorite and 40Ar/39Ar dates on hydrothermal sericite indicate an age of 61.0 ± 0.5 Ma for copper mineralization. Fluid inclusion studies suggest that a supercritical fluid with a salinity of approximately 10 wt.% NaCl equiv. condensed to a dilute aqueous vapor (1–2.8 wt.% NaCl equiv.) and a hypersaline brine (33.4–35.1 wt.% NaCl equiv.). Minimum trapping temperatures are 375°C and trapping depths are estimated at 2 km. Sulfur isotope fractionation of cogenetic anhydrite and chalcopyrite yields a temperature of mineralization of 469 ± 25°C. Calculated oxygen and hydrogen isotope values for fluids in equilibrium with quartz and sericite range from 10.2‰ to 13.4‰ and −60‰ to −39‰, respectively, suggesting that the mineralizing fluid was dominantly magmatic. Evidence from the stable isotope and fluid inclusion analyses suggests that the fluids responsible for Cu mineralization within the Mammoth breccia pipe exsolved from a gray porphyry phase found at the base of the breccia pipe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urease catalyzes the hydrolysis of urea to form ammonia and carbon dioxide. The increase in pH from the urease reaction causes a broad range of deleterious effects. Nanoceria (cerium oxide) possesses unique chemical properties under a redox reaction. This study investigated the synthesis of nanoceria via a hydrothermal method and determined its interaction with urease enzyme. Transmission electron microscopy results showed a cubic-figured nanoceria with a size of ~15 nm. Urease was immobilized on nanoceria through adsorption. The maximum velocity ( Vmax) and Michaelis constant ( Km) of the free urease and urease immobilized on nanoceria decreased after interaction with nanoceria, and the Lineweaver-Burk plot showed an uncompetitive inhibition. The thermodynamic study of the adsorption process showed an endothermic reaction. The interaction changed the secondary and tertiary structures of urease as demonstrated by the circular dichroism study (the decrease in both α- and β-structure percentages). The fluorescence study revealed a change in the tertiary structure. The FTIR for the nanoceria-urease complex showed no changes in the covalent bonds, which indicated the involvement of physical forces in the interaction between urease and nanoceria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]