Classifying Human Haptoglobin Phenotypes on Native‐PAGE Using a Modified Coomassie Brilliant Blue R 250 Staining

There are three types of human Haptoglobin, Hp 1‐1, Hp 2‐1, and Hp 2‐2, each characterized by a distinct combination of the two α chains of the holoprotein. A modified Coomassie Brilliant Blue R 250 (mCBB‐R250) staining method for detecting the phenotypes of human blood haptoglobin molecules is presented. Addition of excess hemoglobin to the sample allowed specific formation of different haptoglobin‐hemoglobin complexes, which, in turn can be separated into distinctive migration pattern on native‐PAGE and stained by CBB‐R250. The typing results are consistent with that using Western blotting. In comparison to the existing methods for haptoglobin typing, our method is comparable in accuracy, and is easier to carry out. The results on typing of 29 plasma samples from Taipei Blood Center were also presented.     

广义单调集值混合变分不等式的一类新算法

首先证明了广义单调集值混合变分不等式等价于一个新的不动点问题，在此基础上提出了解广义集值混合变分不等式及其相关优化问题的迭代算法，并给出了这类新算法的收敛性分析，我们的结果推广和综合了该领域的一些最新结论．     

Detection of Chitinolytic Enzymes in Ipomoea Batatas Leaf Extract by Activity Staining after Gel Electrophoresis

A non‐denatured SDS‐PAGE followed by in‐gel activity staining using embedded glycol chitin as a substrate was used to identify the proteins with chitinolyitc activities from sweet potato leaf extract. At least two chitinase activity zones can be clearly identified on the gel at positions with estimated molecular weights of 54.1～55.6 kDa and 39.6 kDa. Furthermore, our data also indicate that the activity of the larger one can withstand the standard SDS‐PAGE sample preparation. Both of these chitinases, however, are different from that of the previously identified chitinase in sweet potato leaves, which has a molecular weight of 16 kDa. By using an embedded substrate, our method has superior sensitivity in detecting chitinases with higher molecular weights. It is a simple, affordable way and may aid in the future discovery of new chitinases.     

Near-diffraction-limited diode laser arrays by wavelength beam combining

We demonstrate 35 W output peak power with M2 approximately 1.35 in both dimensions from a 100 element, 100 microm pitch slab-coupled optical waveguide laser diode array using wavelength beam combining.     

Reaction‐Based Colorimetric and Ratiometric Fluorescence Sensor for Detection of Cyanide in Aqueous Media

A stilbene‐based compound ( 1 ) has been prepared and was highly selective for the detection of cyanide anion in aqueous media even in the presence of other anions, such as F^?, Cl^?, Br^?, I^?, ClO₄^?, H₂PO₄^?, HSO₄^?, NO₃^?, and CH₃CO₂^?. A noticeable change in the color of the solution, along with a prominent fluorescence enhancement, was observed upon the addition of cyanide. The color change was observed upon the nucleophilic addition of the cyanide anion to the electron‐deficient cyanoacrylate group of 1 . The spectral changes induced by the reaction were analyzed by comparison with two model compounds, such as compound 2 with dimethyl substituents and compound 3 without a cyanoacrylate group. An intramolecular charge‐transfer (ICT) mechanism played a key role in the sensing properties, and the mechanism was supported by DFT/TDDFT calculations.     

Cross-sectional investigation of correlation between hepatic steatosis and IVIM perfusion on MR imaging

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between liver fat fraction (FF) and diffusion parameters derived from the intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) model. Thirty-six subjects with suspected nonalcoholic fatty liver disease underwent diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging with 10 b-values and spoiled gradient recalled echo imaging with six echoes for fat quantification. Correlations were measured between FF, transverse relaxivity (R2), diffusivity (D) and perfusion fraction (f). The primary finding was that no significant correlation was obtained for D vs. FF or f vs. FF. Significant correlations were obtained for D vs. R2 (r=-0.490, P=.002) and f vs. D (r=-0.458, P=.005). The conclusion is that hepatic steatosis does not affect measurement of perfusion or diffusion and therefore is unlikely to confound the use of apparent diffusivity to evaluate hepatic fibrosis.     

Probing the intrachain and interchain effects on the fluorescence behavior of pentiptycene-derived oligo(p-phenyleneethynylene)s

The synthesis, crystal structure, and fluorescence behavior of acetylene-bridged pentiptycene dimer (2), trimer (3), and tetramer (4) are reported. For comparison, a phenylene-pentiptycene-phenylene three-ring system (5) is also investigated. As a result of the unique intrachain pentiptycene-pentiptycene interactions in 3 and 4, their twisted conformers are populated in polar solvents and at low temperatures, and the phenomenon of nonequilibration of excited rotational conformers is observed. Twisting of the pi-conjugated backbones leads to blue-shifted absorption and fluorescence spectra and increased fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes. The fluorescence spectra of 2-4 undergo small red shifts but large intensity variations in the 0-1 vs 0-0 bands on going from solutions to thin solid films, which can be accounted for by the reabsorption effect. However, the reduction in fluorescence quantum yields for 2-4 in films vs solutions is mainly attributed to efficient interchain exciton migration to nonfluorescent energy traps. In contrast, the behavior of nonequilibration of excited rotamers is not observed for 5 in solutions. Compound 5 forms J-type aggregates through terminal phenylene pi-stackings in the solid state, resulting in a new absorption band at 377 nm and large red shifts of the structured fluorescence spectra.     

Design of survivable IP-over-optical networks

In the past years, telecommunications networks have seen an important evolution with the advances in optical technologies and the explosive growth of the Internet. Several optical systems allow a very large transport capacity, and data traffic has dramatically increased. Telecommunications networks are now moving towards a model of high-speed routers interconnected by intelligent optical core networks. Moreover, there is a general consensus that the control plan of the optical networks should utilize IP-based protocols for dynamic provisioning and restoration of lightpaths. The interaction of the IP routers with the optical core networks permits to achieve end-to-end connections, and the lightpaths of the optical networks define the topology of the IP network. This new infrastructure has to be sufficiently survivable, so that network services can be restored in the event of a catastrophic failure. In this paper we consider a multilayer survivable network design problem that may be of practical interest for IP-over-optical neworks. We give an integer programming formulation for this problem and discuss the associated polytope. We describe some valid inequalities and study when these are facet defining. We discuss separation algorithms for these inequalities and introduce some reduction operations. We develop a Branch-and-Cut algorithm based on these results and present extensive computational results.     

Gram-scale synthesis of the A'B'-subunit of angelmicin B

A gram-scale enantiospecific synthesis of the A'B'-subunit of angelmicin B is reported. The synthesis involves a Lewis acid catalyzed contrasteric Diels-Alder reaction and a tandem silyl zincate 1,6-addition/enolate oxidation sequence.     

Generalized Lie derivations on skew elements of prime algebras with involution

We characterize generalized Lie derivations on skew elements of prime algebras A with involution, provided that A does not satisfy polynomial identities of low degree. The analogous result for matrix algebras is also described.