Rapid characterization of Bacillus spores targeting species-unique peptides produced with an atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization source

New and improved strategies are eagerly sought for the rapid identification of microorganisms, particularly in mixtures. Mass spectrometry remains a powerful tool for this purpose. Small acid-soluble proteins (SASPs), which are relatively abundant in Bacillus spores, represent potential biomarkers for species characterization. Despite sharing extensive sequence homology, these proteins differ sufficiently in sequence for discrimination between species. This work focuses on the differences in sequence between SASPs from various Bacillus species. Compilation of SASP sequences from protein database searches, followed by in silico trypsin digestion and analysis of the resulting fragments, identified several species-specific peptides that could be targeted for analysis using mass spectrometry. This strategy was tested and found to be successful in the characterization of Bacillus spores both from individual species and in mixtures. Analysis was performed using an ion trap mass spectrometer with an atmospheric pressure MALDI source. This instrumentation offers the advantage of increased speed of analysis and accurate precursor ion selection for tandem mass spectrometric analysis compared with vacuum matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization and time-of-flight instruments. The identification and targeting of species-specific peptides using this type of instrumentation offers a rapid, efficient strategy for the identification of Bacillus spores and can potentially be applied to different microorganisms.     

Novel non-aqueous Fe(III)/Fe(II) redox couple for the catalytic oxidation of hydrogen sulfide to sulfur by air

A series of Fe(III) salts and organic solvents have been screened to develop novel non-aqueous catalysts for the conversion of H2S to sulfur. FeCl3/95% N-methylpyrrolidinone/5% H2O was found to be a most efficient non-aqueous system. The process chemistry, the proposed mechanism of catalytic oxidation of H2S, and the electrochemistry are discussed.     

Smoothness properties of Newtonian potentials in the study of elastic plates

The Hölder continuity and differentiability are investigated of Newtonian potentials arising in the theory of bending of elastic plates with transverse shear deformation. These properties play an essential role in the study by means of boundary integral equation techniques of boundary value problems for the equilibrium and harmonic oscillation states, and in the construction of associated boundary element methods.     

A Subpixel Image Restoration Algorithm

Abstract

In statistical image reconstruction, data are often recorded on a regular grid of squares, known as pixels, and the reconstructed image is defined on the same pixel grid. Thus, the reconstruction of a continuous planar image is piecewise constant on pixels, and boundaries in the image consist of horizontal and vertical edges lying between pixels. This approximation to the true boundary can result in a loss of information that may be quite noticeable for small objects, only a few pixels in size. Increasing the resolution of the sensor may not be a practical alternative. If some prior assumptions are made about the true image, however, reconstruction to a greater accuracy than that of the recording sensor's pixel grid is possible. We adopt a Bayesian approach, incorporating prior information about the true image in a stochastic model that attaches higher probability to images with shorter total edge length. In reconstructions, pixels may be of a single color or split between two colors. The model is illustrated using both real and simulated data.     

Jet substructure as a new Higgs-search channel at the Large Hadron Collider

It is widely considered that, for Higgs boson searches at the CERN Large Hadron Colider, WH and ZH production where the Higgs boson decays to bb are poor search channels due to large backgrounds. We show that at high transverse momenta, employing state-of-the-art jet reconstruction and decomposition techniques, these processes can be recovered as promising search channels for the standard model Higgs boson around 120 GeV in mass.     

Relaxation effects in the quantification of fat using gradient echo imaging

Quantification of fat has been investigated using images acquired from multiple gradient echoes. The evolution of the signal with echo time and flip angle was measured in phantoms of known fat and water composition and in 21 research subjects with fatty liver. Data were compared to different models of the signal equation, in which each model makes different assumptions about the T1 and/or T2* relaxation effects. A range of T1, T2*, fat fraction and number of echoes was investigated to cover situations of relevance to clinical imaging. Results indicate that quantification is most accurate at low flip angles (to minimize T1 effects) with a small number of echoes (to minimize spectral broadening effects). At short echo times, the spectral broadening effects manifest as a short apparent T2 for the fat component.     

Characterisation of sol-gel prepared (HfO2)x(SiO2)1-x (x=0.1, 0.2 and 0.4) by 1H, 13C, 17 O and 29Si MAS NMR, FTIR and TGA

The HfO2-SiO2 system is attracting interest as a possible new dielectric material in semiconductor devices. Knowledge of the location of hafnium within the silica network and the effect hafnium has on the structure will be central to the successful use of this material system in this application. Here, sol-gel techniques have been used to manufacture (HfO2)x(SiO2)1-x samples (x=0.1, 0.2 and 0.4, each heat treated at 250, 500 and 750 degrees C) and these have been characterised by magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR (1H, 13C, 17 O, 29Si), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis. 29Si MAS NMR showed that increasing the hafnia content decreases the connectivity of the silicate network, i.e. increases the range of differently connected SiO4 (Qn) units with more having increased numbers of non-bridging oxygens (i.e. lower n). FTIR and 17 O MAS NMR showed unequivocally that the x=0.4 sample phase-separated at higher temperatures, while in the x=0.1 sample the hafnium was homogeneously mixed into the SiO2 phase without any phase separation.