Study of molecular interactions between lipids and proteins using dynamic surface tension measurements: a review

Molecular interactions between small molecules and proteins, such as binding of lipids to proteins, are of fundamental importance in various biological processes. A recently-developed method based on dynamic surface tension measurement is efficient and versatile in detecting such molecular interactions: Axisymmetric Drop Shape Analysis (ADSA) provides a tool for measuring the surface tension (γ) response to surface area changes. Through the analysis of the γ response pattern, surface competitive adsorption between small organic molecules and protein molecules can be detected. Surface squeeze-out of small molecules by proteins can also be observed. Molecular binding of lipids to proteins manifests itself in a modification of the γ response which is not compatible with a simple superposition of the two individual patterns. The specific binding can be studied in terms of dose effects and specificity.     

The development of an integrated platform to identify breast cancer glycoproteome changes in human serum

Protein glycosylation represents one of the major post-translational modifications and can have significant effects on protein function. Moreover, changes in the carbohydrate structure are increasingly being recognized as an important modification associated with cancer etiology. In this report, we describe the development of a proteomics approach to identify breast cancer related changes in either concentration and/or the carbohydrate structures of glycoprotein(s) present in blood samples. Diseased and healthy serum samples were processed by an optimized sample preparation protocol using multiple lectin affinity chromatography (M-LAC) that partitions serum proteins based on glycan characteristics. Subsequently, three separate procedures, 1D SDS-PAGE, isoelectric focusing and an antibody microarray, were applied to identify potential candidate markers for future study. The combination of these three platforms is illustrated in this report with the analysis of control and cancer glycoproteomic fractions. Firstly, a molecular weight based separation of glycoproteins by 1D SDS-PAGE was performed, followed by protein, glycoprotein staining, lectin blotting and LC–MS analysis. To refine or confirm the list of interesting glycoproteins, isoelectric focusing (targeting sialic acid changes) and an antibody microarray (used to detect neutral glycan shifts) were selected as the orthogonal methods. As a result, several glycoproteins including alpha-1B-glycoprotein, complement C3, alpha-1-antitrypsin and transferrin were identified as potential candidates for further study.     

The analysis of process gases: a review

 A general review of key issues involved in the analysis of process gases is presented. The reasons for such measurements – which include safety, quality, environmental and economic factors are considered. The technical issues arising from these measurements are dependent upon a variety of factors, including the overall sampling system, the type of analytical instrumentation, methods of data collection and the specified calibration protocols. The use of gas calibration cylinders as transfer standards is detailed and issues of stability and traceability to reference material discussed. Received: 1 March 2000 / Accepted: 31 March 2000     

SPH分析中的齿轮建模方法研究

对利用光滑粒子动力学(SPH-Smoothed Particle Hydrodynanlics)方法进行轮齿动态力学数值分析中的齿轮建模方法进行了研究.确定了齿轮齿根过渡曲线以及其他部分的参数方程,并根据所确定的参数方程建立了三维齿轮离散粒子模型的数学模型.编制了划分齿轮整体及局部离散粒子的SPH前处理程序.并对划分后齿轮离散粒子与齿轮理论轮廓之间进行了误差分析.分析结果表明,利用此办法可正确划分齿轮的SPH离散化粒子,是一种较好的前处理方法.     

Set Partition Complexes

The Hom complexes were introduced by Lovász to study topological obstructions to graph colorings. The vertices of Hom(G,K _n ) are the n-colorings of the graph G, and a graph coloring is a partition of the vertex set into independent sets. Replacing the independence condition with any hereditary condition defines a set partition complex. We show how coloring questions arising from, for example, Ramsey theory can be formulated with set partition complexes. It was conjectured by Babson and Kozlov, and proved by Čukić and Kozlov, that Hom(G,K _n ) is (n−d−2)-connected, where d is the maximal degree of a vertex of G. We generalize this to set partition complexes.     

Quantitative and selective analysis of lactose by capillary electrophoresis

Summary A CE method has been validated for the analysis of batches of lactose used as a pharmaceutical raw material. This method was shown to be selective for lactose and was found to be quantitative. The separation was achieved due to on-capillary chelation of the lactose with borate ion. The resulting complex was detected at 195nm. An internal standard is employed to improve injection precision and detector linearity. A system peak occurred in the separation and was systematically investigated to show that it was not sample related. The method was validated and successfully submitted to regulatory authorities and is now in routine use in a number of our quality control laboratories.     

Uncertainty calculations in the certification of reference materials

To serve as a measurement standard, a (certified) reference material must be stable. For this purpose, the material should undergo stability testing after it has been prepared. This paper looks at the statistical aspects of stability testing. Essentially, these studies can be described with analysis of variance statistics, including variant regression analysis. The latter is used in practice for both trend analysis and for the development of expressions for extrapolations. Extrapolation of stability data is briefly touched upon, as far as the combined standard uncertainty of the reference material is concerned. There are different options to validate the extrapolations made from initial stability studies, and some of them might influence the uncertainty of the reference material and/or the shelf-life. The latter is the more commonly observed consequence of what is called ’stability monitoring’. Received: 6 October 2000 Accepted: 4 December 2000     

A major index for matchings and set partitions

We introduce a statistic pmaj(P) for partitions of [n], and show that it is equidistributed with cr₂, the number of 2-crossings, over all partitions of [n] with given sets of minimal block elements and maximal block elements. This generalizes the classical result of equidistribution for the permutation statistics inv and maj.     

A facility location and installation of resources model for level of repair analysis

The Level of Repair Analysis – LORA – is an analytic methodology aimed at determining: (i) the optimal location of facilities that compose a maintenance structure; (ii) the quantity of required resources in each facility; and (iii) the best repair policies, i.e., rules that determine if a given component should be discarded or repaired, and where those actions should take place. This work presents a mixed-integer programming model for LORA that is more comprehensive than others in the literature, being suitable to many practical situations. The model was applied to 15 substantial real world problems, and considering distinct maintenance policies to some of them, resulted in 22 different solutions, all of which could be achieved by a commercial Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) solver in reasonable times.