Differentiation of hydroxyproline isomers and isobars in peptides by tandem mass spectrometry

The isomeric 3- and 4-hydroxyprolines are isobaric with the isomers leucine and isoleucine, and all four have, therefore, the same "residue mass" of 113. Secondary fragmentation processes were found that differentiate the hydroxyproline isomers from each other and from the leucines. Variants of synthetic bradykinin containing one or two hydroxyproline moieties were prepared by using manual Edman degradation and/or enzymatic methods. The tandem mass spectra of these peptides were recorded. The C-terminal wn fragment ions allow the differentiation of 4-hydroxyproline from the 3-isomer and isoleucine, while the N-terminal an ions containing 4-hydroxyproline undergo H2O elimination to differentiate this amino acid from the 3-isomer and leucine. Lys-C digestion of a mussel adhesive protein produced a set of decapeptides varying in the degree of hydroxylation of proline and tyrosine. Heterogeneity with respect to 3-hydroxyproline and 4-hydroxyproline at a certain position in these peptides was assessed by tandem mass spectrometry based on the wn ion series in the CID spectra of these Lys-C peptides. Some N-terminal ions further allow for the differentiation of these two isomeric species.     

Investigation of fusion reactions in palladium and titanium tritide using galvanostatic,coulometric, and hydrogen permeation techniques

We describe several electrochemical methods used to investigate the possibility of cold fusion phenomena in palladium and titanium tritide cathodes. We performed long-term (up to 77 days) electrolysis experiments with electrochemical cells of the University of Utah type at current densities as high as 1 A/cm², while monitoring neutron and tritium levels. With some cells, we pulsed the current to determine if neutron bursts would result. In another cell, we used titanium tritide as the cathode to determine if D-T reactions yielding neutrons would occur. In no instance were levels of neutrons or tritium significantly above background except in the titanium tritide cell where isotopic exchange, occcurring between the electrode and the electrolyte, resulted in significant tritium levels. We also combined x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrochemical hydrogen permeation experiments to determine the effectiveness of various Pd surface treatment procedures on the resultant electrochemical hydrogen absorption efficiency. Electroanalytical and thermal desorption/gas analysis techniques indicated the maximum loading of H in Pd was to a ratio of HPd=0.8.     

Two-Stage Method for Grouping News with Similar Topics

Programming and Computer Software - This paper is devoted to event detection as part of news stream analysis. An event is regarded as a group of news texts dedicated to one real-world fact or...     

A Stream X-Machine Tool for Modelling and Generating Test Cases for Chronic Diseases Based on State-Counting Approach

Programming and Computer Software - In the biomedical domain, diagrammatical models have been extensively used to describe and understand the behaviour of biological organisms (biological agents)...     

The Improvement of Segmentation of Lung Pathologies and Pleural Effusion on CT-scans of Patients with Covid-19

Programming and Computer Software - In 2020 the outbreak of Covid-19 influenced lives of billions of people all around the globe and motivated governments of different countries to revisit the...     

Parallel source separation system for heart and lung sounds

The Journal of Supercomputing - In this paper, we propose a parallel source separation system designed to extract heart and lung sounds from single-channel mixtures. The proposed system is based on...     

Stress-sensitivity mapping for surface acoustic waves on quartz

A model is presented, relating the velocity shifts of surface acoustic waves (SAW) to the six tensor components of quasistatic stresses. Stress sensitivity is then defined through six independent coefficients, whatever the origin of the stress (direct external forces, thermoelastic stresses) might be. These coefficients, depending on crystal anisotropy, are computed for different cut angles and propagation directions of quartz crystal, and represented as a contour-line mapping. The determination of SAW quartz cuts compensated for both planar isotropic stresses and first-order temperature effects make it possible to define a family of quartz cuts with potentially low stress and temperature sensitivities for oscillator applications.