Accurate mass measurement and tandem mass spectrometry of intact globin chains identify the low proportion variant hemoglobin Lepore-Boston-Washington from the blood of a heterozygote

Within a mixture of proteins, minor polymorphic components are difficult to identify using a conventional proteomic approach. Their identification generally requires multi-dimensional separation steps, before or after proteolytic cleavage, followed by sequence analysis of the proteolytic products. In this study, we investigated the potential of tandem mass spectrometry for protein characterization by identifying the delta-beta hybrid human hemoglobin variant Lepore-Boston-Washington using electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Hemoglobin Lepore-Boston-Washington occurs mainly in heterozygotes, where it comprises approximately 10% of the total non-alpha-chains, the dominant non-alpha-chain being the normal beta (approximately 90%). Furthermore, Hemoglobin Lepore-Boston-Washington has an average molecular mass (15,865.23 Da) that is only 2 Da lower than that of the normal beta-chain (15,867.24 Da). Consequently, it cannot be resolved from the normal beta-chain by mass spectrometry. Here we show how Hemoglobin Lepore-Boston-Washington was identified directly from the diluted blood of a heterozygote by analyzing the product ions from the Lepore-Boston-Washington and normal beta-chain ions without prior separation of the individual chains. This study shows the potential of the tandem mass spectrometry for identifying a minor component in an unseparated mixture of proteins.     

基于灰度相关的图像匹配算法的改进

针对目前图像匹配算法中存在的匹配精度不高和匹配速度慢的缺点，对基于灰度相关的2类匹配算法——最小误差法和相关系数法进行了改进。最小误差法采用新的ML距离法，提出动态调整阈值的方法，既保证了匹配精度，又避免了局部噪声的影响；相关系数法对相关系数的计算公式进行了简化，并采用三步搜索策略进行匹配，以达到减少计算量和搜索位置的目的。实验证明：改进后的算法，在保证一定匹配精度的条件下，匹配速度大大提高，能够满足实际应用中的实时性要求。     

Zur quantitativen Auswertung von Mikro-Autoradiogrammen mit dem Densitron

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschāftigt sich mit der Answertung von Autoradiogrammen inhomogen markierter mikroskopischer Strukturen am Densitron. Dazu fertigten wir von herkömmlichen Stripping-Filmen (z. B. ORW O K 106) Mikro-Stufengraukeile an und bestimmten die Schwärzung S_ijeder Stufe photometrisch. Graukeile geeigneten Schwärzungsumfangs dienten dann zur Einstellung der Farbtrigger des Densitrons, so daß sich die bei dieser Einstellung gemessenen Farbflächen F_i des jeweiligen Objektes bestimmten Schwärzungswerten zuordnen ließen.

Als Modellobjekte verwendelen wir erstens Autoradiogramme von ³H-Thymidin-markierten Tumorzellen. Vergleichsmessungen an unterschiedlich lange exponierten, sonst aber identischen Präparaten ergaben eine gute Reproduzierbarkeit der Meßergebnisse. Als zweites Testobjekt dienlen Autoradiogramme einer nur schwach markierten Struktur im Gehirn von Fröschen. Die an diesem Grenzfall erhaltenen Ergebnisse werden mit Meßwerten verglichen, die vom gleichen Objekt mittels Scanning-Photometrie an einem. Mikroskop-Photometer SMP 01 (OPTON, Oberkoches, BRD) gewonnen wurden.     

Adaptive selection of parameters for precise computation of matrix exponential based on padé approximation

讨论了基于Pad\'{e}逼近的矩阵指数精细积分方法中加权系数N 和展开项数q的自适应选择问题. 参数(N,q)的选择直接影响到矩阵指数计算的精度和效 率. 采用矩阵函数逼近理论，研究了参数N和q的增加对精度的影响程度，据此，提出了 参数(N,q)优化组合的递推自适应选择方法. 该方法可以根据矩阵本身的性态选择合适的参 数(N,q),而参数选择的计算量与矩阵指数的计算量相比几乎可以忽略，这对于增强矩阵指 数精细积分方法的适应性和提高计算效率是很有益处的. 算例验证了该方法的正确性和有效性.     

Design and fabrication of a dielectrophoresis-based cell-positioning and cell-culture device for construction of cell networks

In this paper, we describe the design and fabrication of a dielectrophoresis (DEP)-based cell-positioning and cell-culture device for the construction of cell networks. This device enables both individual cell positioning and cell culture. Titanium electrodes were fabricated by deposition. Furthermore, microchambers and microchannels composed of SU-8, which is a negative photoresist, were used to carry out cell culture and enable cell differentiation. Using our device, N1E-115 cells were individually positioned in the microchambers, and the positioning yield was 45%. After positioning, the cells could be continuously cultured in the microchambers. Furthermore, the cells differentiated, and their neurites extended through the microchannels after cultivation for several days. These results indicate that our device greatly increases the prospects for individual cell positioning and can be used to construct cell networks that have several applications in the medical field, for example, in drug screening.     

A new difference scheme with high accuracy and absolute stability for solving convection–diffusion equations

In this paper, we use a semi-discrete and a padé approximation method to propose a new difference scheme for solving convection–diffusion problems. The truncation error of the difference scheme is O(h⁴+τ⁵). It is shown through analysis that the scheme is unconditionally stable. Numerical experiments are conducted to test its high accuracy and to compare it with Crank–Nicolson method.     

Partial integration of frequency allocation within antenna positioning in GSM mobile networks

In this article we propose to partially integrate the antenna positioning (APP) and frequency allocation problems (FAP). The traditional wireless network design process examines these two major issues sequentially in order to avoid the very high complexity associated with the simultaneous resolution of the two problems. The proposed integration involves the introduction of interference protection guarantees within the APP. It is customary to define such guarantees in an intermediate step and to use them as input to FAP, in order to protect against interference in critical areas. The proposed approach consists of selecting these protections while solving the APP, allowing the optimization procedure to exploit the degrees of freedom that this would offer. Results on two real-life problem instances indicate a significant improvement in interference levels and resource utilization.     

An efficient transient Navier–Stokes solver on compact nonuniform space grids

In this paper, we propose an implicit higher-order compact (HOC) finite difference scheme for solving the two-dimensional (2D) unsteady Navier–Stokes (N–S) equations on nonuniform space grids. This temporally second-order accurate scheme which requires no transformation from the physical to the computational plane is at least third-order accurate in space, which has been demonstrated with numerical experiments. It efficiently captures both transient and steady-state solutions of the N–S equations with Dirichlet as well as Neumann boundary conditions. The proposed scheme is likely to be very useful for the computation of transient viscous flows involving free and wall bounded shear layers which invariably contain spatial scale variation. Numerical results are presented and compared with analytical as well as established numerical data. Excellent comparison is obtained in all the cases.     

Fast Face-Recognition Optical Parallel Correlator Using High Accuracy Correlation Filter

We designed and fabricated a fully automatic fast face recognition optical parallel correlator [E. Watanabe and K. Kodate: Appl. Opt. 44 (2005) 5666] based on the VanderLugt principle. The implementation of an as-yet unattained ultra high-speed system was aided by reconfiguring the system to make it suitable for easier parallel processing, as well as by composing a higher accuracy correlation filter and high-speed ferroelectric liquid crystal-spatial light modulator (FLC-SLM). In running trial experiments using this system (dubbed FARCO), we succeeded in acquiring remarkably low error rates of 1.3% for false match rate (FMR) and 2.6% for false non-match rate (FNMR). Given the results of our experiments, the aim of this paper is to examine methods of designing correlation filters and arranging database image arrays for even faster parallel correlation, underlining the issues of calculation technique, quantization bit rate, pixel size and shift from optical axis. The correlation filter has proved its excellent performance and higher precision than classical correlation and joint transform correlator (JTC). Moreover, arrangement of multi-object reference images leads to 10-channel correlation signals, as sharply marked as those of a single channel. This experiment result demonstrates great potential for achieving the process speed of 10000 face/s.     

The Use of Multi-Pass Time-of-Flight Mass Analyzers for Nuclear-Decay Spectroscopy of Mass Identified Nuclei

The masses of ions of some keV can be determined in multi-pass time-of-flight mass analyzers [1,2] with high precision. The mass accuracies thus achieved are sufficient to determine the proton and neutron numbers for most short-lived and stable nuclei [3,5]. Recording α- or γ-radiation of the investigated nuclei in delayed coincidence to the ion arrival, one thus can perform nuclear spectroscopy of selected nuclei. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.