SOS–A sample ordering system for delivering “assay-ready” compound plates for drug screening

Many bottlenecks in drug discovery have been addressed with the advent of new assay and instrument technologies. However, storing and processing chemical compounds for screening remains a challenge for many drug discovery laboratories. Although automated storage and retrieval systems are commercially available for medium to large collections of chemical samples, these samples are usually stored at a central site and are not readily accessible to satellite research labs.Drug discovery relies on the rapid testing of new chemical compounds in relevant biological assays. Therefore, newly synthesized compounds must be readily available in various formats to biologists performing screening assays. Until recently, our compounds were distributed in screw cap vials to assayists who would then manually transfer and dilute each sample in an “assay-ready” compound plate for screening. The vials would then be managed by the individuals in an ad hoc manner.To relieve the assayist from searching for compounds and preparing their own assay-ready compound plates, a newly customized compound storage system with an ordering software application was implemented at our research facility that eliminates these bottlenecks. The system stores and retrieves compounds in 1 mL-mini-tubes or microtiter plates, facilitates compound searching by identifier or structure, orders compounds at varying concentrations in specified wells on 96- or 384-well plates, requests the addition of controls (vehicle or reference compounds), etc. The orders are automatically processed and delivered to the assayist the following day for screening. An overview of our system will demonstrate that we minimize compound waste and ensure compound integrity and availability.     

EXTRACTION OF TRANSITION METALS FROM WOOD PULP FIBERS USING SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE

The supercritical fluid extraction of manganese and iron from solid matrix (wood pulp) is demonstrated experimentally. Supercritical carbon diodixe is used together with lithium bis(trifluoroethyl) dithiocarbonate (FDDC) as the ion-pairing reagent. The metal content of the pulp samples was determined by inductively couple plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Optimum conditions were determined to be 30 min each of static and dynamic extraction with 200 atm pressure at 40 °C. Thermomechanical pulp (TMP) extracted under these parameters exhibits an 80% decrease in manganese content, and 91% after a second, sequential extraction. The simultaneous removal of iron was found to be only 6% and supports evidence that it is much more strongly bound to the TMP matrix than manganese.     

Provisioning Methods for Bit-Rate-Differentiated Services in Hybrid Optical Networks

This paper addresses the problem of routing and wavelength assignment of bit-rate-differentiated optical services in a hybrid network. Hybrid optical networks are composed of resources, such as fiber links and photonic/electronic switches, that vary in their capabilities and transmission qualities. These networks are also responsible for the realization of optical services with varying quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees. In such networks, it is required to have a cost-effective assignment of the optical and electronic resources to these services in order to maximize the revenue of the network operator. This paper deals with optical services that are defined according to their tolerance to transmission impairments. We first divide the provisioning problem into two phases: (1) routing and (2) wavelength assignment and regeneration reservation. In the routing phase, a set of k-routes are generated to select from in the second phase, where each route optimizes a specific aspect of the problem (e.g., number of hops, maximum accumulated noise, etc.). The second phase, using the information about the resources along each route, attempts at finding the best wavelength allocation on that route such that the signal quality meets the service-level agreement (SLA). The second phase also uses the minimum number of regenerator ports on intermediate nodes for the purpose of wavelength translation and signal clean-up. Comparisons of the above scheme with a probing-based method, reveal substantial enhancements to the blocking performance with a maximum running time increase of 60%. In addition, the use of multiple routes provides higher reduction in the blocking probability over single-routing schemes. Moreover, the proposed, non-pessimistic, provisioning approach has a major impact on reducing the regeneration budget of the network.     

Design and Expected Performance of GISMO-2, a Two Color Millimeter Camera for the IRAM 30 m Telescope

We present the main design features for the GISMO-2 bolometer camera, which we build for background-limited operation at the IRAM 30 m telescope on Pico Veleta, Spain. GISMO-2 will operate simultaneously in the 1 and 2 mm atmospherical windows. The 1 mm channel uses a \(32 \times 40\) TES-based backshort under grid (BUG) bolometer array, the 2 mm channel operates with a \(16 \times 16\) BUG array. The camera utilizes almost the entire full field of view provided by the telescope. The optical design of GISMO-2 was strongly influenced by our experience with the GISMO 2 mm bolometer camera, which is successfully operating at the 30 m telescope. GISMO is accessible to the astronomical community through the regular IRAM call for proposals.     

纤巧型便携式设计中的多媒体信号路径

引言 把语音服务、高分辨率相机模块、MP3或PMP播放器功能整合在单个移动电话设计中,已成为未来中高端电话市场的发展趋势。除了超高的功率（〉700mW）立体声音频功能外,视频输出功能也出现在手机应用中,其输出仍主要是CVBS格式,而某些电话甚至提供S视频或模拟RGB输出。     

Synthesis and characterization of carbon-coated Li0.5Ni0.25TiOPO4 anode material

Li_0.5Ni_0.25TiOPO₄/C composite was synthesized by the co-precipitation method using polyethylene glycol as carbon source. X-ray diffraction study showed that the as-prepared material crystallizes in the monoclinic system (S.G. P2₁/c). This 3D structure exhibits an open framework favourable to intercalation reactions. The morphology and the microstructure characterisation was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Small particles (∼1 μm) coated by carbon were observed. Raman study confirms the presence of carbon graphite in the Li_0.5Ni_0.25TiOPO₄/C composite. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and charge-discharge galvanostatic cycling were used to characterize its electrochemical properties. The Li_0.5Ni_0.25TiOPO₄/C composite exhibits excellent electrochemical performances with good capacity retention for 50 cycles. Approximately 200 mAh/g could be reached at C, C/2, C/5 and C/20 rates in the 0.5-3 V potential range. These results clearly evidenced the positive effect of the carbon coating on the electrochemical properties of the studied phosphate.