Multiple-locus variable number tandem repeats analysis for genetic fingerprinting of pathogenic bacteria

DNA fingerprinting has attracted considerable interest as means for identifying, tracing and preventing the dissemination of infectious agents. Various methods have been developed for typing of pathogenic bacteria, which differ in discriminative power, reproducibility and ease of interpretation. During recent years a typing method, which uses the information provided by whole genome sequencing of bacterial species, has gained increased attention. Short sequence repeat (SSR) motifs are known to undergo frequent variation in the number of repeated units through cellular mechanisms most commonly active during chromosome replication. A class of SSRs, named variable number of tandem repeats (VNTRs), has proven to be a suitable target for assessing genetic polymorphisms within bacterial species. This review attempts to give an overview of bacterial agents where VNTR-based typing, or multiple-locus variant-repeat analysis (MLVA) has been developed for typing purposes, together with addressing advantages and drawbacks associated with the use of tandem repeated DNA motifs as targets for bacterial typing and identification.     

A genetic algorithm for the automated generation of small organic molecules: Drug design using an evolutionary algorithm

Rational drug design involves finding solutions to large combinatorial problems for which an exhaustive search is impractical. Genetic algorithms provide a novel tool for the investigation of such problems. These are a class of algorithms that mimic some of the major characteristics of Darwinian evolution. LEA has been designed in order to conceive novel small organic molecules which satisfy quantitative structure-activity relationship based rules (fitness). The fitness consists of a sum of constraints that are range properties. The algorithm takes an initial set of fragments and iteratively improves them by means of crossover and mutation operators that are related to those involved in Darwinian evolution. The basis of the algorithm, its implementation and parameterization, are described together with an application in de novo molecular design of new retinoids. The results may be promising for chemical synthesis and show that this tool may find extensive applications in de novo drug design projects.     

基于近红外光谱的维生素C片无损鉴别分析

基于近红外光谱技术与化学计量学方法,建立了一种国内外不同品牌维生素C片的无损鉴别方法。采集了国内外8个品牌的维生素C片共计40个样本的近红外光谱数据,比较了完整样品以及粉末样品的近红外光谱,采用连续小波变换技术消除背景干扰和基线漂移,基于标准偏差与相对标准偏差的变量筛选方法筛选出具有代表性的波数点,结合主成分分析方法对国内外不同品牌维生素C片进行鉴别分析。结果表明:原始光谱存在着明显的背景干扰和基线漂移现象,且粉末样品的重现性要优于完整样品;单纯使用原始光谱无法辨别来自不同品牌的维生素C片;连续小波变换可以有效消除背景干扰,提高模型鉴别能力;完整样品的鉴别准确率优于粉末样品,说明国内外不同品牌维生素C片主要成分基本一致,可能是辅剂和工艺上存在细微差异。通过结合近红外光谱分析技术与化学计量学方法,可实现对国产以及进口不同品牌维生素C片的鉴别分析。     

Application of recombinant phage display antibody system in study of Codakia orbicularis gill proteins

We used the recombinant phage display antibody system (RPAS) to obtain chimeric single-chain fragment variable (ScFv) antibodies to gill proteins of the white clam Codakia orbicularis (Linné, 1758). After three rounds of selection on immunotubes loaded with total gill protein extract, recombinant phages exhibiting antibodies to gill proteins were isolated and tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Clones exhibiting a high affinity for the mollusk proteins were selected for production of soluble ScFv antibodies, which were purified for subsequent analysis. ScFv antibodies exhibited a reaction specific for a protein whose molecular mass was about 15,000 Daltons and that was detected by the antigen capture technique followed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blotting.     

Bonferroni-type inequalities; Chebyshev-type inequalities for the distributions on [0, n]

An elementary majorant-minorant method to construct the most stringent Bonferroni-type inequalities is presented. These are essentially Chebyshev-type inequalities for discrete probability distributions on the set {0, 1,..., n}, where n is the number of concerned events, and polynomials with specific properties on the set lead to the inequalities. All the known results are proved easily by this method. Further, the inequalities in terms of all the lower moments are completely solved by the method. As examples, the most stringent new inequalities of degrees three and four are obtained. Simpler expressions of Mrgritescu's inequality (1987, Stud. Cerc. Mat., 39, 246–251), improving Galambos' inequality, are given.     

A theory of adsorption kinetics with time delay and its application to overshoot and oscillation in the surface tension of gelatin solution

A theory of adsorption kinetics with time delay [Ohshima et al. (1992) Colloid Polym. Sci. 270:707] is developed and applied to the surface tension of a polymer solution. It is found that the general appearance of the overshoot and oscillation in the time course of the surface tension of aqueous gelatin solution observed by Sato and Ueberreiter [(1979) Makromol. Chem. 180:829, 1107; (1979) Polym. Prepr. Am. Chem. Soc. Div. Polym. Chem. 20:907) can be explained by the present theory.     

具无限时滞的非自治捕食者-食饵系统的持久性

本文采用新的方法研究了具无限时滞的非自治、非卷积的捕食者－食饵系统的持久性问题，得到了新的、有趣的结果。本文的结果包含已知的结果作为特例．     

Further studies on stability analysis of nonlinear Roesser-type two-dimensional systems

This paper is concerned with further relaxations of the stability analysis of nonlinear Roesser-type two-dimensional （2D） systems in the Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy form. To achieve the goal, a novel slack matrix variable technique, which is homogenous polynomially parameter-dependent on the normalized fuzzy weighting functions with arbitrary degree, is developed and the algebraic properties of the normalized fuzzy weighting functions are collected into a set of augmented matrices. Consequently, more information about the normalized fuzzy weighting functions is involved and the relaxation quality of the stability analysis is significantly improved. Moreover, the obtained result is formulated in the form of linear matrix inequalities, which can be easily solved via standard numerical software. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed result.     

Effect of atmospheric parameters on fine particulate concentration in suburban Shanghai

A study was conducted on the effect of atmospheric parameters,including temperature,wind speed,and relative humidity,on fine particulate mass concentrations measured in Jiading District of Shanghai,China, during the period from January 2009 to January 2010.A sensitivity analysis was applied to investigate the interaction between atmospheric parameters and particulate mass concentration.The experiment revealed that the concentration of particulates increased with particle size from 0.1 to 1.0μm,and decreased with the increase of particle size from 1.0 to 2.5μm.The effects of atmospheric parameters on fine mass concentrations were significantly particle size-dependent.The PM_1.0-2.5 may come from the size increase of smaller particulates after moisture absorption.And the variation of concentrations of PM_0.1-1.0 was mainly attributed to the accumulation of PM_0.1.The ventilation index and dilution index were calculated on the basis of data collected in December 2009.A correlation analysis indicated that there was a significant relation between these two indexes and the particulate concentration by examining the three particle size ranges,0.0-0.1,0.1-1.0,and 1.0-2.5μm.The Spearman correlation coefficients that related the ventilation index to the concentration for the three particle size ranges were -0.45,-0.56 and -0.47, respectively,while the coefficients that related the dilution index to the concentration were -0.36,-0.42 and -0.45,respectively.