Investigation of MALDI-TOF and FT-MS techniques for analysis of Escherichia coli whole cells

Recently, it has been demonstrated that bacteria can be characterized using whole cells and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). However, identification of specific bacterial proteins usually requires analysis of cellular fractions or purified extracts. Here, the first application of Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FTMS) to analysis of bacterial proteins directly from whole cells is reported. It is shown that accurate mass MALDI-FTMS can be used to characterize specific ribosomal proteins directly from Escherichia coli cells. High-accuracy mass measurements and high-resolution isotope profile data confirm posttranslational modifications proposed previously on the basis of low-resolution mass measurements. Seven ribosomal proteins from E. coli whole cells were observed with errors of less than 27 ppm. This was accomplished directly from whole cells without fractionation, concentration, or overt overexpression of characteristic cellular proteins. MALDI-FTMS also provided information regarding E. coli lipids in the low-mass region. Although ions with m/z values below 1000 have been observed by FTMS of whole cells, this represents the first report of detection of ions in the 5000 to 10,000 m/z range by MALDI-FTMS using whole cells.     

A note on the independence of stereotype and attitude.

Presented 43 attitude statements and 14 evaluative and 10 stereotypic bipolar trait-adjectives concerning French-Canadians to 67 male and 94 female Manitoba undergraduates. The 1st-order factor analysis produced a separation of the 3 measures, resulting in 3 attitude factors, an evaluative trait-adjective factor, and a stereotype factor. A 2nd-order factor analysis of the relations among primary factors resulted in 2 factors: (a) a general evaluative factor comprising the evaluative trait-adjective dimension and the 3 attitude dimensions from the 1st-order analysis, and (b) a factor clearly defined by the stereotype dimension. Implications of the present findings of relative independence of stereotype and attitude are discussed in relation to traditional methods of defining and assessing stereotypes. (French summary) (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heuristic Procedures for Multi-Item Inventory Planning with Limited Storage

The determination of replenishment quantities for multiple products with dynamic demand, subject to storage constraints, is addressed. A lower bound is obtained by solving the dual problem. Both subgradient optimization of the Lagrangean relaxation and LP relaxation of the convexified solution space are considered. Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition is used to solve the LP relaxation. A heuristic is proposed for the generation of feasible solutions obtained by modifying solutions created at each step of either subgradient optimization or Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition. An experimental investigation of 428 test problems indicates that the heuristic coupled with sub-gradient optimization gives consistently good solutions.     

Erfahrungen mit der Methode von Rebelein zum Nachweis naturreiner und gezuckerter Weine

Zusammenfassung Auf Grund der möglichen Streuungen kann das Verfahren vonRebelein vorGericht nicht zur Beurteilung von gezuckerten oder naturreinen Weinen herangezogenwerden.     

The effects of task difficulty and anxiety on hesitations in speech.

Investigated effects of cognitive and emotional-motivational variables on measures of verbal output, verbal rate, and speech hesitations. Speakers (24 male undergraduates) differing in audience sensitivity and n-exhibition (an attention-seeking disposition) were presented under relatively nonstressful conditions with 3 verbal tasks of varying difficulty. This procedure was repeated in a 2nd session. All dependent measures were affected by the task difficulty variable, the relationship generally being linear and positive. In addition, self-ratings of concurrent anxiety were found to relate positively to task difficulty. Predispositional anxiety (audience sensitivity) was related to the unfilled pause data, verbal rate, and verbal output. Intraindividual, intersession stabilities of the dependent measures were substantially high. Interrelationships between the dependent variables were also examined. (French summary) (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The crystallisation of glasses based on the eutectic compositions in the system Li2O-Al2O3-SiO2

A study has been made of the crystallisation of glasses based on the eutectic between lithium metasilicate and-eucryptite and of the rÔle of TiO₂ in promoting fine-grained crystallisation. The hypothesis advanced in part 1 of this work is extended to a semi-quantitative measure of the effect of TiO₂.Characteristics of two metastable phases are described in an appendix.     

Global convergence analysis for the NIC flow

Previously, a family of fast subspace tracking algorithms based on a novel information criterion (NIC) has been proposed and investigated. It is known that these new algorithms are associated with a new kind of flow, which is called the NIC flow in this paper as in the case of the conventional Oja subspace algorithms with the Oja flow. In this paper, some fundamental questions about this new NIC flow such as its solution existence and convergence, are investigated. In addition, the convergence domain is characterized. Some important results on these issues are obtained via manifold theory