Characterization of ZnS grown by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition on GaAs(100) using t-butyl mercaptan and dimethylzinc

ZnS has been grown on GaAs(100) substrates by atmospheric pressure metal–organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) using dimethylzinc (DMZn) and t-butyl mercaptan (t-BuSH). The effects of the reactant gas phase molar ratio and the growth temperature on the characteristics of the material grown have been investigated. The structural quality of the layer is demonstrated by X-ray rocking curve half-widths of less than 300 arcsec for the epilayers. There is little significant pre-reaction and the layers are of excellent surface morphology and layer uniformity.     

Enhancement of the transient-evoked otoacoustic emission produced by the addition of a pure tone in the guinea pig

Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a nonreceptor tyrosine kinase implicated in cell-matrix interaction and integrin signaling. It is well established that Tyr-397 is the FAK autophosphorylation site and Tyr-407, -576/577, -861, and -925 are the sites on murine FAK that are mediated by Src family kinases. To study how FAK is regulated by tyrosine phosphatase(s), cells overexpressing chicken FAK are treated with sodium vanadate. Both the phosphotyrosine content and the enzymatic activity of FAK are increased in response to vanadate. Interestingly, sustained FAK Tyr-576/577 and -863 phosphorylations are detected in vanadate-treated FAK overexpressors and are dependent on FAK autophosphorylation. Further analysis of sodium vanadate-treated FAK overexpressors reveals that the enhanced FAK kinase activity parallels its elevated Tyr-576/577 phosphorylation. Thus, we conclude that Src-mediated FAK phosphorylation is regulated by a tyrosine phosphatase(s) and may be of physioligical significance.     

Expandable metal stents for the treatment of colonic obstruction: techniques and outcomes

Modulation of CD8(+) T-cell responses specific for an exogenous antigen by epitope variants would be advantageous to develop a novel means of antigen-specific immune regulation. We have analyzed CD8(+) T-cell responses to single amino acid-substituted variants of a peptide corresponding to residues 142-149 (p142-149; LAYFYPEL) of alphas1-casein, a major milk allergen, which is a dominant determinant restricted by H-2Kb. An analog peptide L142I with a substitution of Ile for Leu at the nonanchor N-terminal residue induced more IFN-gamma secretion than p142-149 from specific CD8(+) T cells. Furthermore, L142I could prime CD8(+) T cells more efficiently in vivo, and these L142I-primed cells secreted more IFN-gamma than p142-149-primed CD8(+) T cells upon stimulation with p142-149 in vitro. These findings are mainly explained by the greater ability of L142I to form stable Kb-peptide complexes. These findings indicate that appropriate analog peptides may be useful as efficient inducers of CD8(+) T cells which recognize the parent peptide and secrete IFN-gamma, a potent inhibitor of Th2-dependent events, including IgE production.     

Image Enhancement of Conventional Transverse-Axial Tomograms

An image processing system for image enhancement of conventional transverse axial tomography (TAT) is described. Conventional TAT means a tomography system in which the X-ray source and X-ray film move in a circular arc about the long axis of the patient, which is a different technique from computerized tomography. In the image processing system described, the original X-ray tomograms are digitized, high-pass filtered, and displayed on a TV monitor. The results of processing several clinical tomograms are shown, and definite improvements in the observed information are noted. The basic technique should be equally applicable to other conventional tomography systems, e.g., linear tomography or hypocycloidal tomography.     

Multiplicity of the steady state in fluidised bed reactors — I.: Steady state considerations

Multiple steady states are known to be possible in many types of chemical reactor due to the non-linear dependence of reaction rate on either temperature or reactant concentration. It is reasoned in this study that multiple steady states can also exist in a gas-solid fluidised bed reactor. The calculations are based on the two-phase theory of fluidisation and on the important assumption that the interstitial phase gas in completely mixed. Both thermal and concentration multiplicites are shown to be possible.     

Differential mass spectrometry: a label-free LC-MS method for finding significant differences in complex peptide and protein mixtures

Efficiently identifying and quantifying disease- or treatment-related changes in the abundance of proteins is an important area of research for the pharmaceutical industry. Here we describe an automated, label-free method for finding differences in complex mixtures using complete LC-MS data sets, rather than subsets of extracted peaks or features. The method selectively finds statistically significant differences in the intensity of both high-abundance and low-abundance ions, accounting for the variability of measured intensities and the fact that true differences will persist in time. The method was used to compare two complex peptide mixtures with known peptide differences. This controlled experiment allowed us to assess the validity of each difference found and so to analyze the method's sensitivity and specificity. The method detects both presence versus absence and a 2-fold change in peptide concentration near the limit of detection of the instrument used, where chromatographic peaks may not be sufficiently well defined to be detected in individual samples. The method is more sensitive and gives fewer false positives than subtractive methods that ignore signal variability. Differential mass spectrometry combined with targeted MS/MS analysis of only identified differences may save both computation time and human effort compared to shotgun proteomics approaches.     

A model for random sampling and estimation of relative protein abundance in shotgun proteomics

Proteomic analysis of complex protein mixtures using proteolytic digestion and liquid chromatography in combination with tandem mass spectrometry is a standard approach in biological studies. Data-dependent acquisition is used to automatically acquire tandem mass spectra of peptides eluting into the mass spectrometer. In more complicated mixtures, for example, whole cell lysates, data-dependent acquisition incompletely samples among the peptide ions present rather than acquiring tandem mass spectra for all ions available. We analyzed the sampling process and developed a statistical model to accurately predict the level of sampling expected for mixtures of a specific complexity. The model also predicts how many analyses are required for saturated sampling of a complex protein mixture. For a yeast-soluble cell lysate 10 analyses are required to reach a 95% saturation level on protein identifications based on our model. The statistical model also suggests a relationship between the level of sampling observed for a protein and the relative abundance of the protein in the mixture. We demonstrate a linear dynamic range over 2 orders of magnitude by using the number of spectra (spectral sampling) acquired for each protein.     

Apparatus for Precise Measurement of Scintillator Decay Times

A digital system has been built for making precise measurements of scintillator decay times. The approach used is similar to the one developed by Bollinger and Thomas. Time intervals between the start of a gamma-induced scintillation and the detection of a single light photon are measured with a time-to-height converter and stored in a pulse height analyzer. The apparatus has a time resolution of less than 2 nanoseconds, a dynamic range of greater than four decades, and is able to detect both prompt and slow decay components in plastic and liquid scintillators. For all fast scintillators studied, the decay of light intensity over the first decade is approximately exponential; however, measured decay times are shorter than those generally quoted. Results of measurements made on several commercially available scintillators will be presented, including NE 102, Pilot B, Pilot A, and MEL-150C.