Quantitative Bulk and Trace Element X-Ray Mapping Using Multiple Detectors

X-ray mapping using energy dispersive spectroscopy or wavelength dispersive spectroscopy is a very popular characterisation tool for determining the elemental distribution in materials. Furthermore, quantitative X-ray mapping has become a very powerful technique enabling reliable quantitative results that can be an order of magnitude better than traditional analysis. Quantitative X-ray mapping is also far superior to regions of interest X-ray maps where low levels of an element or elemental overlaps are present. The one major drawback with X-ray mapping is the time required to obtain a high resolution X-ray map with good statistics at low levels of concentration. The use of multi-detectors, and just developed dual turret detectors for X-ray mapping, allows improvement in performance at low levels without compromising quantification quality and precision of traces, even in the presence of overlaps. However, for quantitative X-ray mapping to work properly, the characteristics of each detector must be accurately determined so that the final quantification of the individual detectors can be summed. To accomplish this effectively, the full spectrum at each pixel for each energy dispersive detector should be saved. As a final check for consistency between detectors, a technique was developed that involves assigning a different red-green-blue colour for each detector for the same element. By doing this, when we combine the three maps of the same element, we should obtain a grey scale map that indicates total correlation between the three detectors at the most critical final stage of quantification. To reduce contrast noise and further improve the quality of quantitative X-ray mapping images, a filter referred to as a “speckle filter” has been developed that allows the eye to see a more correct elemental concentration relationship.     

Molecular modeling of a putative antagonist binding site on helix III of the β-adrenoceptor

Summary In recent biochemical studies it was demonstrated that residue Asp¹¹³ of the-adrenoceptor (-AR) is an indispensable amino acid for the binding of-AR antagonists. Earlier fluorescence studies showed that a tryptophan-rich region of the-AR is involved in the binding of propranolol, the prototype-AR antagonist. Bearing these two biochemical findings in mind, we explored the-AR part containing Asp¹¹³, for an energetically favorable antagonist binding site. This was done by performing molecular docking studies with the antagonist propranolol and a specific-AR peptide which included, besides Asp¹¹³, two possibly relevant tryptophan residues. In the docking calculations, the propranolol molecule was allowed to vary all its internal torsional angles. The receptor peptide was kept in an-helix conformation, while side chains relevant to ligand binding were flexible to enable optimal adaptations to the ligand's binding conformation. By means of force-field calculations the total energy was minimized, consisting of the intramolecular energies of both ligand and receptor peptide, and the intermolecular energy. We found an antagonist binding site, consisting of amino acids Asp¹¹³ and Trp¹⁰⁹, which enabled energetically favorable interactions with the receptor-binding groups of propranolol. According to these results, binding involves three main interaction points: (i) a reinforced ionic bond; (ii) a hydrogen bond; and (iii) a hydrophobic/charge transfer interaction. The deduced binding site shows a difference in affinity between the levo- and dextrorotatory isomers of propranolol caused by a difference in ability to form a hydrogen bond, which is in conformity with the experimentally observed stereoselectivity. Moreover, it also provides an explanation for the ₁-selectivity ofp-phenyl substituted phenoxypropanolamines like betaxolol. Thep-phenyl substituent of betaxolol was shown to be sterically hindered upon binding to the ₂-AR peptide, whereas this hindrance is very likely to be much less with the ₁-AR peptide. Finally, the proposed antagonist binding site is discussed in the light of some recent biochemical findings and theories.Abbreviations -AR -adrenergic receptor - cDNA complementary DNA - H-bond hydrogen bond - VdW van der Waals - QSAR quantitative structure-activity relationship - ¹²⁵I-pBABC p-(bromoacetamido)benzyl-1-[¹²⁵I]iodocarazol     

Estimation of polarity and fluidity of colloidal interfaces and biosurfaces using rhamnolipid B pyrenacylester as surface-active fluorescent probe

Fluorescent probes are useful to monitor the polarity and fluidity of microenvironments. Therefore, a new amphiphilic fluorescent probe, the pyrenacylester of Rhamnolipid B, was prepared from biosurfactant (Rhamnolipid B) and pyrene. As a result of its surface activity, this probe was expected to be able to penetrate into various kinds of microdomains such as the environments of organic solvents, emulsions, dispersions, surfaces of biomembranes and polymers.     

Capillary column high-performance liquid chromatographic-electrospray ionization triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometric analysis of proteins separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis application to cerebellar protein mapping

A method is presented for the structural characterization of proteins separated by two-dimensional poly-acrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE). The method includes separation of a protein mixture by 2D-PAGE, recovery of proteins from the gel spots revealed by copper staining and analysis of the proteins by triple-stage quadrupole mass spectrometry using an electrospray ionization interface (ESI-TSQMS). Prior to the mass spectrometric analysis, the extracted proteins were passed through a small reversed-phase column (10 × 4.0 mm I.D.) to remove salts and gel-derived contaminants and then introduced into the mass spectrometer through a reversed-phase capillary column with 0.25 mm I.D. Application of the method to the analysis of rat cerebellar proteins suggests that the molecular mass could be accurately determined with sub-picomole amounts of protein samples derived from one or two 2D gels. The method was also useful for peptide mapping and determination of amino acid sequences of proteins micro-prepared from the 2D gel. Because 2D-PAGE has an excellent resolving power in protein separation and because capillary LC-ESI-TSQMS provides structural information with very small amounts of samples, the combined system of 2D-PAGE and capillary LC-ESI-TSQMS described here should allow wide applications to molecular studies of genes and proteins, such as identifications of protein spots on 2D gels, confirmation of gene/protein sequences and analysis of post-translational modification of proteins present naturally in tissue/cell extracts or expressed by recombinant DNA techniques.     

Fixed point properties for nonexpansive representations of topological semigroups

In this paper, we study a fixed point and a nonlinear ergodic properties for an amenable semigroup of nonexpansive mappings on a nonempty subset of a Hilbert space.     

A selection theorem for quasi-lower semicontinuous mappings in hyperconvex spaces

We prove a continuous selection theorem for quasi-lower semicontinuous mappings with values that are closed sub-admissible subsets of a hyperconvex metric space and apply this result to obtain fixed point theorems in these spaces.     

集值映象的图象拓扑与不动点的通有稳定性

本文进一步研究了上半连续集值映象不动点的稳定性问题,在集值映象的图象拓扑的意义下,我们证明了不动点的通有稳定性,也就是说,在Baire分类的意义下,绝大多数的映象具有本质不动点.     

Solving Strategies and Well-Posedness in Linear Semi-Infinite Programming

In this paper we introduce the concept of solving strategy for a linear semi-infinite programming problem, whose index set is arbitrary and whose coefficient functions have no special property at all. In particular, we consider two strategies which either approximately solve or exactly solve the approximating problems, respectively. Our principal aim is to establish a global framework to cope with different concepts of well-posedness spread out in the literature. Any concept of well-posedness should entail different properties of these strategies, even in the case that we are not assuming the boundedness of the optimal set. In the paper we consider three desirable properties, leading to an exhaustive study of them in relation to both strategies. The more significant results are summarized in a table, which allows us to show the double goal of the paper. On the one hand, we characterize the main features of each strategy, in terms of certain stability properties (lower and upper semicontinuity) of the feasible set mapping, optimal value function and optimal set mapping. On the other hand, and associated with some cells of the table, we recognize different notions of Hadamard well-posedness. We also provide an application to the analysis of the Hadamard well-posedness for a linear semi-infinite formulation of the Lagrangian dual of a nonlinear programming problem.     

渐近非扩张型映象不动点具误差的迭代逼近

本文在一致凸Banach空间中给出几个具误差的渐近非扩张型映象的不动点的迭代逼近定理,这些定理改进和扩展了最近一些文献的相关结果,所用的证明方法也不同。     

Generalized type theorems in topological spaces with applications

In this work, some new generalized type theorems for generalized mappings with compactly open values are established in topological spaces without any convexity assumptions. As applications, a Ky Fan type matching theorem, fixed point theorem and coincidence theorem are obtained in topological spaces. These results generalize some known results from the recent literature.