Differential analysis of phosphorylated proteins in resting and thrombin-stimulated human platelets

Blood platelets are important components of haemostasis. After their activation they cause healing of wounds by forming plugs and initiate repair processes. One important event in regulating this activation is the phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of multiple proteins on various tyrosine, serine and threonine residues. To understand the exact molecular mechanisms in platelet activation it is essential to identify proteins involved in the signalling pathways and to localise and characterise their phosphorylation sites. After treatment with ³²P and separation by 2D-PAGE using different pI ranges, phosphorylated platelet proteins were detected by autoradiography. Phosphotyrosine-containing proteins were assigned by immunoblotting with an anti-phosphotyrosine antibody. Another approach for the identification of phosphorylated proteins was immunoprecipitation of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins using an anti-phosphotyrosine antibody. Protein spots/bands of interest were excised from the gel, digested with trypsin and analysed by MALDI-TOF-MS and nano-LC-ESI-MS/MS, respectively. Several phosphorylated proteins could be identified and the localisation of some in vivo phosphorylation sites was possible.Abbreviations DTT 1,4-dithiothreitol - HCCA -cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid - PMSF phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride - PSD post source decay - TFA trifluoroacetic acid - TOF time-of-flight     

Special Moufang sets, their root groups and their {micro}-maps

We prove Timmesfeld's conjecture that special abstract rankone groups are quasisimple. We give two characterizations ofthe root groups in special Moufang sets: a normal subgroup ofthe point stabilizer is a root group if it is either regular,or nilpotent and transitive. We prove that if a root group ofa special Moufang set contains an involution, then it is ofexponent 2. We also show that the root groups are abelian ifand only if the so-called µ-maps are involutions.     

AuPt core–shell nanocatalysts with bulk Pt activity

In the presented work, the evaluation of an unsupported AuPt core–shell catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction is introduced. Applying only basic chemicals in an upscalable synthesis route, it is demonstrated that uniform, flat, and complete Pt layers around a spherical Au core are obtained. The electrocatalytic measurements show that the surface area specific activity of the AuPt core–shell catalyst towards the important oxygen reduction reaction equals the one of polycrystalline bulk Pt. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the unfavorable particle size effect of Pt nanoparticles could be by-passed for a nanoscale catalyst.     

Efficient high-power frequency doubling of distributed Bragg reflector tapered laser radiation in a periodically poled MgO-doped lithium niobate planar waveguide

We report on efficient single-pass, high-power second-harmonic generation in a periodically poled MgO-doped LiNbO3 planar waveguide using a distributed Bragg reflector tapered diode laser as a pump source. A coupling efficiency into the planar waveguide of 73% was realized, and 1.07 W of visible laser light at 532 nm was generated. Corresponding optical and electro-optical conversion efficiencies of 26% and 8.4%, respectively, were achieved. Good agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical predictions was observed.     

On self-majorizing elements in Archimedean vector lattices

A finite element in an Archimedean vector lattice is called self-majorizing if its modulus is a majorant. Such elements exist in many vector lattices and naturally occur in different contexts. They are also known as semi-order units as the modulus of a self-majorizing element is an order unit in the band generated by the element. In this paper the properties of self-majorizing elements are studied systematically, and the relations between the sets of finite, totally finite and self-majorizing elements of a vector lattice are provided. In a Banach lattice an element \(\varphi \) is self-majorizing , if and only if the ideal and the band both generated by \(\varphi \) coincide.