The development of information storage materials — How microscopy can help?

The response of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) devices depends critically on the film microstructure, with parameters such as layer thickness and interfacial abruptness being crucial. This paper presents results obtained using high resolution electron microscopy (HREM), chemical mapping and atom probe microanalysis. Local variations in the magnetic properties are induced by the microstructure and also when the films are patterned to form small elements. These lead to changes in the magnetization reversal mechanism. Some results of the studies of the magnetization reversal carried out using in situ in Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) magnetizing experiments are also included.     

The electron-impact promoted fragmentation of aurone epoxides

The mass spectra of six aurone epoxides have been rationalized with the aid of high resolution mass spectrometry and metastable ion evidence. These compounds fragment in a well defined manner and mechanisms are proposed for the formation of their characteristic ions. Some similarity was observed between the mass spectra of 6-methoxyaurone epoxide (II), 4-hydroxy-7-methoxy-3-phenylcoumarin (VII) and 7-methoxyflavonol (IX). The possibility that VII and IX are intermediates in the fragmentation of epoxide II is discussed. Thermal rearrangement of aurone epoxide II was shown to yield the corresponding flavonol IX and coumarin VII.     

Two-Dimensional Artin Groups with CAT(0) Dimension Three

We exhibit 3-generator Artin groups which have finite two-dimensional Eilenberg-Mac Lane spaces, but which do not act properly discontinuously by semi-simple isometries on a two-dimensional CAT(0) complex. We prove that infinitely many of these groups are the fundamental groups of compact, non-positively curved 3-complexes. These examples show that the geometric dimension of a CAT(0) group may be strictly less than its CAT(0) dimension.     

Molecular mass analysis of antibodies by on-line SEC-MS

Mass analysis of recombinant protein therapeutics is an important assay for product characterization. Intact mass analysis is used to provide confirmation of proper translation of the DNA sequence and to detect the presence of post-translational modifications such as amino acid processing and glycosylation. We present here a method for the rapid mass analysis of antibodies using a polyhydroxyethyl aspartamide column operated in size-exclusion mode and coupled with ESI-MS. This method allows extremely efficient desalting of proteins under acidic conditions that are optimal for subsequent mass analysis using standard ESI conditions. Furthermore, this technique is significantly faster and more sensitive than rpHPLC methods, typically considered the standard chromatography approach for mass analysis of proteins. This method is flexible and robust, and should prove useful for applications where a combination of speed and sensitivity are required.     

Protein determination using graphene oxide-aptamer modified gold nanoparticles in combination with Tween 80

Recently, graphene oxide (GO) has shown superiority for disease detection arising from its unique physical and chemical properties. However, proteins adsorbed on the surface of GO prevent sensitivity improvement in fluorescence-based detection methods. In this paper, a label-free method based on aptamer modified gold nanoparticles (GNPs) combined with Tween 80 was shown to solve this problem using the detection of thrombin as an example. An aptamer was designed and bound to thrombin by changing its conformation. Tween 80 was used for rapid and reproducible synthesis of stable DNA-functionalized GNPs and prevented the thrombin from nonspecific binding to GO. Thrombin was detected with a limit of 0.68 pM by taking advantage of the efficient cross-linking effect of aptamer-GNPs to GO. The sensor was validated by determining thrombin concentration in human blood serum samples. The results indicate that this method has promising analytical application in medical diagnostic.     

Characterization of a novel modification on IgG2 light chain. Evidence for the presence of O-linked mannosylation

This paper describes the analysis of a novel modification identified on the light chain of a recombinant IgG2 antibody. This modification, a +162 Da adduct, suggestive of a single hexose addition, was observed by mass analysis of the reduced molecule. The modification was located on residue serine 66 of the light chain by investigation with LC-MS peptide mapping, mass spectrometry and N-terminal sequencing techniques. Location of the adduct on serine pointed the investigation toward O-linked glycosylation. Identification of the hexose residue was deduced from its elimination by action of alpha-mannosidase, providing evidence for the presence of an O-mannosylated light chain. This type of modification in the glycosylation profile of antibodies, to our knowledge, has not been reported for human IgG molecules.     

"Tetrahedrality" and the relationship between collective structure and radial distribution functions in liquid water

Molecular dynamics simulations of pure liquid water under ambient conditions using four common empirical water models have been analyzed to determine how well the oxygen-oxygen radial distribution function, g(OO)(r), used as the sole criterion of congruence with experiment, captures variations in the actual anisotropic collective structuring for these models. The largest systematic deviations from tetrahedrality were found to be due to deformations of the angle between the two closet hydrogen bond donor neighbors, but for intrinsic geometric reasons, these were found to contribute less to g(OO)(r) than deformations of the angles between one hydrogen bond donor neighbor and one hydrogen bond acceptor neighbor. Relying exclusively on a qualitative characterization of the second peak in g(OO)(r) seems to overemphasize the differences between the structuring in some of these models.     

Field measurement of nitrate in marine and estuarine waters with a flow analysis system utilizing on-line zinc reduction

A sensitive reagent-injection flow analysis method for the spectrophotometric determination of nitrate in marine, estuarine and fresh water samples is described. The method is based on the reduction of nitrate in a micro column containing zinc granules at pH 6.5. The nitrite formed is reacted with sulfanilamide and N-(1-naphthyl)ethylene diamine (Griess reagent), and the resulting azo compound is quantified spectrophotometrically at 520 nm. Water samples in the range of 3-700 μg L⁻¹ NO₃⁻-N can be processed with a throughput of up to 40 samples per hour, a detection limit of 1.3 μg L⁻¹ and reproducibility of 1.2% RSD (50 μg L⁻¹ NO₃⁻-N, n = 10). The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of nitrate in estuarine waters and the reliability was assessed by the analyses of certified reference materials and recovery experiments. The method is suitable for waters with a wide range of salinities, and was successfully used for more than 3200 underway nitrate measurements aboard SV Pelican1 in the “Two Bays” cruise in January 2010.