A comparative study of CE-SDS,SDS-PAGE,and Simple Western: Influences of sample preparation on molecular weight determination of proteins

The development of capillary electrophoresis, especially CE-SDS devices, has led CE-SDS to become an established tool in a wide range of applications in the analysis of biopharmaceuticals and is increasingly replacing its method of origin, SDS-PAGE. The goal of this study was to evaluate the comparability of molecular weight (MW) determination especially by CE-SDS and SDS-PAGE. For ensuring comparability, model proteins that have little or no posttranslational modifications and an IgG antibody were used. Only a minor influence of sample preparation conditions, including sample buffer, temperature conditions, and different reducing agents on the MW determination were found. In contrast, the selection of the MW marker plays a decisive role in determining the accurate apparent MW of a protein. When using different MW markers, the deviation in MW determination can exceed 10%. Interestingly, CE-SDS and 10% SDS-PAGE hardly differ in their trueness of MW determination. The trueness in relation to the reference MW for each protein was calculated. Although the trueness values for the model proteins considered range between 1.00 and 1.11 using CE-SDS, they range between 0.93 and 1.03 on SDS-PAGE, depending on the experimental conditions chosen.     

Ansa‐Bridged Bis(benzene) Titanium Complexes

Taking advantage of an improved synthesis of [Ti(η⁶‐C₆H₆)₂], we report here the first examples of ansa‐bridged bis(benzene) titanium complexes. Deprotonation of [Ti(η⁶‐C₆H₆)₂] with nBuLi in the presence of N,N,N′,N′′,N′′‐pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (pmdta) leads to the corresponding 1,1′‐dilithio salt [Ti(η⁶‐C₆H₅Li)₂] ? pmdta that enables the preparation of the first one‐ and two‐atom‐bridged complexes by simple salt metathesis. The ansa complexes were fully characterized (NMR spectroscopy, UV/Vis spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and X‐ray crystallography) and further studied electrochemically and computationally. Moreover, [Ti(η⁶‐C₆H₆)₂] is found to react with the Lewis base 1,3‐dimethylimidazole‐2‐ylidene (IMe) to give the bent sandwich complex [Ti(η⁶‐C₆H₆)₂(IMe)].     

On Stability and Strong Convergence for the Spatially Homogeneous Boltzmann Equation for Fermi-Dirac Particles

 The paper considers the stability and strong convergence to equilibrium of solutions to the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for Fermi-Dirac particles. Under a cutoff condition on the collision kernel, we prove a strong stability in L ¹ topology at any finite time interval, and, for hard and Maxwellian potentials, we prove that the solutions converge strongly in L ¹ to equilibrium under a high temperature condition. The basic tools used are moment-production estimates and the strong compactness of the collision gain term. (Accepted 25, October 2002) Published online March 14, 2003 Communicated by P.-L. Lions     

Stability and exponential convergence for the Boltzmann equation

We prove existence, uniqueness and stability for solutions of the nonlinear Boltzmann equation in a periodic box in the case when the initial data are sufficiently close to a spatially homogeneous function. The results are given for a range of spaces, including L ¹, and extend previous results in L for the non-homogeneous equation, as well as the more developed L ^p -theory for the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation.We also give new L -estimates for the spatially homogeneous equation in the case of Maxwellian interactions.     

A comparative study of fluorine substituents for enhanced stability of flexible and ITO‐free high‐performance polymer solar cells

Two low‐band gap polymer series based on benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]dithiophene (BDT) and dithienylbenzothiadiazole, with different numbers of fluorine substituents on the 2,3,1‐benzothiadiazole unit, have been synthesized and explored in a comparative study of the photochemical stability and operational lifetime in flexible large area roll‐coated bulk heterojunction solar cells. The two polymer series have different side chains on the BDT unit, namely 2‐hexyldecyloxy (BDT_HDO) ( P1–P3 ) or 2‐hexyldecylthiophene (BDT_THD) ( P4–P6 ). The photochemical stability clearly shows that the stability enhances along with the number of fluorine atoms incorporated on the polymer backbone. Fabrication of the polymer solar cells based on the materials was carried out in ambient atmosphere on a roll coating/printing machine employing flexible and indium‐tin‐oxide‐free plastic substrates. Solar cells based on the P4–P6 series showed the best performance, reaching efficiencies up to 3.8% for an active area of 1 cm², due to an enhanced current compared to P1–P3 . Lifetime measurements, carried out according to international summit on OPV stability (ISOS), of encapsulated devices reveals an initial fast decay for P1–P6 in the performance followed by a much slower decay rate, still retaining 40–55% of their initial performance after 250 h of testing under ISOS‐L‐1 conditions. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 893–899     

Physicochemical properties of SARS-CoV-2 for drug targeting,virus inactivation and attenuation,vaccine formulation and quality control

The material properties of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its proteins are discussed. We review the viral structure, size, rigidity, lipophilicity, isoelectric point, buoyant density and centrifugation conditions, stability against pH, temperature, UV light, gamma radiation, and susceptibility to various chemical agents including solvents and detergents. Possible inactivation, downstream, and formulation conditions are given including suitable buffers and some first ideas for quality-control methods. This information supports vaccine development and discussion with competent authorities during vaccine approval and is certainly related to drug-targeting strategies and hygienics. Several instructive tables are given, including the pI and grand average of hydropathicity (GRAVY) of SARS-CoV-1 and -2 proteins in comparison. SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 are similar in many regards, so information can often be derived. Both are unusually stable, but sensitive at their lipophilic membranes. However, since seemingly small differences can have strong effects, for example, on immunologically relevant epitope settings, unevaluated knowledge transfer from SARS-CoV-1 to SARS-CoV-2 cannot be advised. Published knowledge regarding downstream processes, formulations and quality assuring methods is, as yet, limited. However, standard approaches employed for other viruses and vaccines seem to be feasible including virus inactivation, centrifugation conditions, and the use of adjuvants.     

Nuclear Forces from Effective Field Theory

Chiral effective field theory allows for a systematic and model-independent derivation of the forces between nucleons in harmony with the symmetries of the quantum chromodynamics. After a brief review on the current status in the development of the chiral nuclear forces I will focus on the role of the ??-resonance contributions in the nuclear dynamics. We find improvement in the convergence of the chiral expansion of the nuclear forces if we explicitly take into account the ??-resonance degrees of freedom. The overall results for two-nucleon forces with and without explicit ??-resonance degrees of freedom are remarkably similar.