Resolving Sphingolipid Isomers Using Cryogenic Infrared Spectroscopy

1‐Deoxysphingolipids are a recently described class of sphingolipids that have been shown to be associated with several disease states including diabetic and hereditary neuropathy. The identification and characterization of 1‐deoxysphingolipids and their metabolites is therefore highly important. However, exact structure determination requires a combination of sophisticated analytical techniques due to the presence of various isomers, such as ketone/alkenol isomers, carbon–carbon double‐bond (C=C) isomers and hydroxylation regioisomers. Here we demonstrate that cryogenic gas‐phase infrared (IR) spectroscopy of ionized 1‐deoxysphingolipids enables the identification and differentiation of isomers by their unique spectroscopic fingerprints. In particular, C=C bond positions and stereochemical configurations can be distinguished by specific interactions between the charged amine and the double bond. The results demonstrate the power of gas‐phase IR spectroscopy to overcome the challenge of isomer resolution in conventional mass spectrometry and pave the way for deeper analysis of the lipidome.     

Charge‐Induced Unzipping of Isolated Proteins to a Defined Secondary Structure

Here we present a combined experimental and theoretical study on the secondary structure of isolated proteins as a function of charge state. In infrared spectra of the proteins ubiquitin and cytochrome c, amide I (C=O stretch) and amide II (N–H bend) bands can be found at positions that are typical for condensed‐phase proteins. For high charge states a new band appears, substantially red‐shifted from the amide II band observed at lower charge states. The observations are interpreted in terms of Coulomb‐driven transitions in secondary structures from mostly helical to extended C₅‐type hydrogen‐bonded structures. Support for this interpretation comes from simple energy considerations as well as from quantum chemical calculations on model peptides. This transition in secondary structure is most likely universal for isolated proteins that occur in mass spectrometric experiments.     

光纤光栅力传感器的无源温漂补偿技术

将一光纤光栅沿轴向粘贴于两重叠等腰三角形悬臂梁的交界处进行力传感。理论和实验均证实该无源装置具有自动补偿布拉格波长温漂效应的功能。０￣０．３４Ｎ力范围内,实验表明其传感灵敏度ｎｍ／Ｎ。     

利用调谐滤波技术的光纤光栅复用传感器

采用光纤光栅悬臂梁线性调谐技术 ,提出了利用调谐滤波技术对光纤光栅复用传感信号进行检测的方案 ,在分析其基本工作原理的基础上 ,实验研究了其波分复用传感特性 ,传感测量的结果与光谱分析仪直接测量的结果基本一致。传感器的波长分辨率主要取决于系统的最小可探测光功率 ,由于采用了高灵敏度的光电测量系统 ,传感测量的波长分辨率可达 0 .0 0 5nm ,应变分辨率可达 5.7× 10 - 6 。     

Variational inequalities on weakly compact sets

In this paper, we derive an existence result for generalized variational inequalities associated with multivalued mappings on weakly compact sets under a continuity assumption which is much weaker than the regular complete continuity. As an application, we prove the existence of exceptional families of elements for such mappings on closed convex cones in reflexive Banach spaces when the corresponding complementarity problems have no solutions.     

Raman spectra of crystalline iron perchlorate hexahydrate

Raman studies of crystalline iron perchlorate hexahydrate (Fe(ClO₄)₂·6H₂O) in the region of lattice and anion internal modes were carried out in the temperature range 80–385 K. The temperature‐dependent Raman results are consistent with those from previous works, showing that two phase transitions occur around 336 and 245 K. The transition at 336 K may be considered as an order–disorder transformation, while the one at 245 K is associated with the configurational disorder of the tetrahedron of the perchlorate ions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Observation of a new DsJ meson in B+-->D0D0K+ decays

We report the observation of a new DsJ meson produced in B+-->D0DsJ-->D0D0K+. This state has a mass of M=2708+/-9(-10)(+11) MeV/c2, a width Gamma=108+/-23(-31)(+36) MeV/c2 and a 1- spin-parity. The statistical significance of this observation is 8.4 sigma. The results are based on an analysis of 449 x 10(6) BB events collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider.     

Observation of thermal-induced optical guiding and bistability in a mid-IR continuous-wave, singly resonant optical parametric oscillator

We report the observation of thermal-induced optical guiding and bistability in a mid-IR cw, singly resonant optical parametric oscillator (SRO) at approximately 3.2 microm. The SRO employs a MgO:PPLN crystal as the gain medium and a 1-nm-linewidth Yb-fiber laser at 1.064 microm as the pump source. As soon as the pump power reaches the thermal guiding threshold at 16.5 W, the SRO shows a step increase in the parametric efficiency by a factor of 2.5. At 25 W pump power, the SRO generated 5.3 and 1.2 W at 1.58 and 3.23 microm, respectively, with single-longitudinal-mode performance for the 3.23 microm radiation.