Crystallization of Arthrobacter sp. strain 1C N-(1-D-carboxyethyl)-L-norvaline dehydrogenase and its complex with NAD+

The novel NAD+-linked opine dehydrogenase from a soil isolate Arthrobacter sp. strain 1C belongs to an enzyme superfamily whose members exhibit quite diverse substrate specificites. Crystals of this opine dehydrogenase, obtained in the presence or absence of co-factor and substrates, have been shown to diffract to beyond 1.8 ? resolution. X-ray precession photographs have established that the crystals belong to space group P21212, with cell parameters a = 104.9, b = 80.0, c = 45.5 ? and a single subunit in the asymmetric unit. The elucidation of the three-dimensional structure of this enzyme will provide a structural framework for this novel class of dehydrogenases to enable a comparison to be made with other enzyme families and also as the basis for mutagenesis experiments directed towards the production of natural and synthetic opine-type compounds containing two chiral centres.     

Integral resource capacity planning for inpatient care services based on bed census predictions by hour

The design and operations of inpatient care facilities are typically largely historically shaped. A better match with the changing environment is often possible, and even inevitable due to the pressure on hospital budgets. Effectively organizing inpatient care requires simultaneous consideration of several interrelated planning issues. Also, coordination with upstream departments like the operating theatre and the emergency department is much-needed. We present a generic analytical approach to predict bed census on nursing wards by hour, as a function of the Master Surgical Schedule and arrival patterns of emergency patients. Along these predictions, insight is gained on the impact of strategic (ie, case mix, care unit size, care unit partitioning), tactical (ie, allocation of operating room time, misplacement rules), and operational decisions (ie, time of admission/discharge). The method is used in the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam as a decision-support tool in a complete redesign of the inpatient care operations.     

The Anderson-Darling test of fit for the power-law distribution from left-censored samples

Maximum likelihood estimation and a test of fit based on the Anderson-Darling statistic are presented for the case of the power-law distribution when the parameters are estimated from a left-censored sample. Expressions for the maximum likelihood estimators and tables of asymptotic percentage points for the A² statistic are given. The technique is illustrated for data from the Dow Jones Industrial Average index, an example of high theoretical and practical importance in Econophysics, Finance, Physics, Biology and, in general, in other related sciences such as Complexity Sciences.     

Assessing symmetry of financial returns series

Testing symmetry of a probability distribution is a common question arising from applications in several fields. Particularly, in the study of observables used in the analysis of stock market index variations, the question of symmetry has not been fully investigated by means of statistical procedures. In this work a distribution-free test statistic T_n for testing symmetry, derived by Einmahl and McKeague, based on the empirical likelihood approach, is used to address the study of symmetry of financial returns. The asymptotic points of the test statistic T_n are also calculated and a procedure for assessing symmetry for the analysis of the returns of stock market indices is presented.