High pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry for minimization of ganglioside fragmentation

Transiently elevating pressure in a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry (MALDI-FTMS) source into the 1-10 mbar range during ionization decreases the metastable fragmentation of gangliosides. This allows detection of the molecular ion species without loss of the highly labile sialic acid residues. In these experiments, gangliosides with up to five sialic acids were ionized by MALDI and detected with the FTMS. In each case, when the high pressure collisional cooling was used, the singly charged molecular ion was the base peak in the spectra, both in the positive and negative ion modes, and minimal metastable fragmentation was observed. This result is promising, as the previously developed TLC separation methods can be coupled to MALDI-FTMS.     

The thermochemistry of group 15 tetrachloride anions

Bond strengths for a series of Group 15 tetrachloride anions ACl4 (A = P, As, Sb, and Bi) have been determined by measuring thresholds for collision-induced dissociation of the anions in a flowing afterglow-tandem mass spectrometer. The central atoms in these systems have ten electrons, which violates the octet rule: the bond dissociation energies for ACl4- help to clarify the effect of the central atom on hypervalent bond strengths. The 0 K bond energies in kJ mol(-1) are D(Cl3A-CL-) = 90 +/- 7,115 +/- 7,161 +/- 8, and 154 +/- 15, respectively. Computational results using the B3LYP/LANL2DZpd level of theory are higher than the experimental bond energies. Calculations give a geometry for BiCl4 that is essentially tetrahedral rather than the see-saw observed for the other tetrachlorides. NBO calculations predict that the phosphorus and arsenic systems have 3C-4E bonds, while the antimony and bismuth systems are more ionic.     

Characterization of zinc hydroxynitrates by diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy--structural modifications during thermal treatment

Four zinc hydroxynitrates are known, but only the Infrared spectrum of Zn5(OH)8(NO3)2.2H2O is reported in the literature. Here, we report the IR spectra of the other three zinc hydroxynitrates, namely Zn(OH)(NO3).H2O, Zn3(OH)4(NO3)2 and Zn5(OH)8(NO3)2. The positions of the bands of the nitrate groups between 1000 and 1600 cm(-1) are discussed in relation to the structure of these compounds. The modifications of these IR spectra with temperature are consistent with previous studies on the thermal decomposition of these compounds.     

Image quality and diagnostic performance of silicone-specific breast MRI

Purpose

To compare the image quality of three techniques and diagnostic performance in detecting implant rupture.

Materials and Methods

The study included 161 implants for the evaluation of image quality, composed of water-saturated short TI inversion recovery (herein called “water-sat STIR”), three-point Dixon techniques (herein called “Dixon”), and short TI inversion recovery fast spin-echo with iterative decomposition of silicone and water using least-squares approximation (herein called “STIR IDEAL”) and included 41 implants for the evaluation of diagnostic performance in detecting rupture, composed of water-sat STIR and STIR IDEAL.Six image quality categories were evaluated and three classifications were used: normal implant, possible rupture, and definite rupture.

Results

Statistically significant differences were noted for the image quality categories (p < 0.001). STIR IDEAL was superior or equal to water-sat STIR in all image quality categories except artifact effects and superior to Dixon in all categories. Water-sat STIR performed the poorest for water suppression uniformity.The sensitivity and specificity in detecting implant rupture of STIR-IDEAL were 81.8 % and 77.8 % and the difference between two techniques was not statistically significant.

Conclusion

STIR-IDEAL is a useful silicone-specific imaging technique demonstrating more robust water suppression and equivalent diagnostic accuracy for detecting implant rupture, than water-sat STIR, at the cost of longer scan time and an increase in minor motion artifacts.     

Reciprocal Response of Human Oral Epithelial Cells to Internalized Silica Nanoparticles

Silica nanoparticles (SiO₂ NPs) are one of the most widely used engineered nanoparticles and can been found in a wide range of consumer products. Despite their massive global production scale, little is known about their potential effects in the context of unintended exposure or ingestion. Using TR146 cells as an in vitro model of the human oral buccal mucosa, the uptake, spatial intracellular distribution, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, inflammatory response, and cytotoxic effects of commercial SiO₂ NPs are examined. SiO₂ NPs are shown to dock and cross the cellular membrane barrier in a dose–time‐dependent manner. Confocal sectioning reveals translocation of SiO₂ NPs into the cell nucleus after 12 h of exposure. A concentration threshold of more than 500 × 10^?6 m is observed, above which SiO₂ NPs are shown to exert significant oxidative stress with concomitant upregulation of inflammatory genes IL6 and TNFA. Further analysis of the p53 pathway and a series of apoptotic and cell cycle biomarkers reveals intracellular accumulation of SiO₂ NPs exert marginal nanotoxicity. Collectively, this study provides important information regarding the uptake, intracellular distribution, and potential adverse cellular effects of SiO₂ NPs commonly found in consumer products in the human oral epithelium.     

Patterns in stock market movements tested as random number generators

This paper shows that tests of Random Number Generators (RNGs) may be used to test the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). It uses the Overlapping Serial Test (OST), a standard test in RNG research, to detect anomalous patterns in the distribution of sequences of stock market movements up and down. Our results show that most stock markets exhibit idiosyncratic recurrent patterns, contrary to the efficient market hypothesis; also that OST detects a different kind of non-randomness to standard econometric long- and short-memory tests. Exposure of these anomalies should contribute to making markets more efficient.     

On the Enumeration of Non-Crossing Pairings of Well-Balanced Binary Strings

A non-crossing pairing on a binary string pairs ones and zeroes such that the arcs representing the pairings are non-crossing. A binary string is well-balanced if it is of the form ${1^{a_1} 0^{a_1}1^{a_2} 0^{a_2} . . .1^{a_r} 0^{a_r}}$ . In this paper we establish connections between non-crossing pairings of well-balanced binary strings and various lattice paths in plane. We show that for well-balanced binary strings with a ₁ ≤ a ₂ ≤  . . . ≤  a _r , the number of non-crossing pairings is equal to the number of lattice paths on the plane with certain right boundary, and hence can be enumerated by differential Goncarov polynomials. For the regular binary strings S =  (1 ^k 0 ^k ) ⁿ , the number of non-crossing pairings is given by the (k + 1)-Catalan numbers. We present a simple bijective proof for this case.     

Three-Selmer groups for elliptic curves with 3-torsion

We consider a specific family of elliptic curves with rational 3-torsion subgroup. We arithmetically define 3-Selmer groups through isogeny and 3-descent maps, then associate the image of the 3-descent maps to solutions of homogeneous cubic polynomials affiliated with the elliptic curve E and an isogenous curve E′. Thanks to the work of Cohen and Pazuki, we have solubility conditions for the homogeneous polynomials. Using these conditions, we give a graphical approach to computing the size of 3-Selmer groups. Finally, we translate the conditions on graphs into a question concerning ranks of matrices and give an upper bound for the rank of the elliptic curve E by calculating the size of the Selmer groups.