Quantification of immunoreactive viral influenza proteins by immunoaffinity capture and isotope-dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

An immunocapture isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IC-IDMS) method was developed to quantify antibody-bound influenza hemagglutinins (HA) in trivalent influenza vaccines (TIV). Currently, regulatory potency requirements for TIV require HA quantification based on the single radial immunodiffusion (SRID) assay, which is time-consuming, laborious, and requires production of large quantities of reagents globally. In IC-IDMS, antiserum to the HA of interest captured viral proteins that were in the correct conformation to be recognized by the antibodies. The captured proteins were digested, and evolutionarily conserved tryptic peptides were quantified using isotope-dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. IC-IDMS relies on antibody-antigen binding similar to SRID but incorporates the accuracy and precision of IDMS. Polyclonal antibodies (pAb-H3) prepared by injection of sheep with purified H3 HA captured 82.9% (55.26 fmol/μL) of the total H3 HA (66.69 fmol/μL) from the commercial TIV and 93.6% (57.23 fmol/μL) of the total H3 HA (61.14 fmol/μL) in purified virus. While other HA (H1, B), neuraminidase (N1, N2, NB), viral matrix proteins, and nucleoproteins were also captured by this antiserum, our results were not affected due to the specificity of the mass spectrometer. IC-IDMS is an accurate, precise, sensitive, and selective method to measure antibody-bound HA in purified virus and commercial vaccines.     

The relationship between age and gender in workers' attitudes toward sexual harassment

The relationship between gender, age, and workers' attitudes toward sexual harassment as measured by the Sexual Harassment Attitudes Scale was examined. Participants were full-time workers employed at a local hardware-manufacturing company or a local utility company in New England. Results indicated that the women younger than 40 years old were significantly less tolerant of sexual harassment than older women were. In contrast, male workers' tolerance of sexual harassment decreased with age up until the age of 50 years, after which their tolerance level of sexual harassment increased significantly.     

How the Conveyor Belt Length Affects Belt Weigher Accuracy

The length of a conveyor belt is analyzed as a function of where the belt weigher is located and recommendations are made for optimizing the choice of location, taking the belt stiffness into account.     

Increasing the accuracy and efficiency of a conveyor balance

A fundamentally new comprehensive conveyor balance design is proposed along with an indirect method of calibration by deadweight loading. Calculated and experimental estimates of the metrological characteristics are given. Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 8, pp. 25–29, September, 1996.     

Delivery of epitopes by the Salmonella type III secretion system for vaccine development

Avirulent strains of Salmonella typhimurium are being considered as antigen delivery vectors. During its intracellular stage in the host, S. typhimurium resides within a membrane-bound compartment and is not an efficient inducer of class I-restricted immune responses. Viral epitopes were successfully delivered to the host-cell cytosol by using the type III protein secretion system of S. typhimurium. This resulted in class I-restricted immune responses that protected vaccinated animals against lethal infection. This approach may allow the efficient use of S. typhimurium as an antigen delivery system to control infections by pathogens that require this type of immune response for protection.     

Feasibility of heterogeneous batch distillation processes

Synthesis of heterogeneous batch distillation is discussed, which aims at splitting azeotropic mixtures by adding an entrainer partially miscible with one of the initial binary mixture components. Key operational parameters are identified such as the amount of entrainer added in the ternary feed, the reflux policy, and the vapor line position by examples. Synthesis and operation are less straightforward for heterogeneous batch distillation than those for the homogeneous case, but offer many advantages: more design alternatives, simplified distillation sequences, a lower consumption of entrainer, and a crossing of distillation boundaries by the still path. Feasibility is assessed using simplified modeling and confirmed using a commercial batch process simulator package. Synthesis expectations and simulated results are verified throughout bench-plant experiments for the separation of the acetonitrile—water mixture using acrylonitrile as a light heterogeneous entrainer.     

Indirect method of checking conveyor scales

Translated from Izmeritel'naya Tekhnika, No. 5, pp. 18–20, May, 1992.     

The oblique effect in pigeons (Columba livia).

The oblique effect—the greater discriminability of lines in the main axes orientation compared with obliquely oriented ones—was investigated in 3 experiments in which pigeons (Columba livia) were trained on 2-choice discrimination tasks. In Experiment 1, the reaction times (RTs) of separate groups of 4 pigeons trained to discriminate between a horizontal and a vertical line were significantly faster than pigeons trained to discriminate between 2 oblique lines. In Experiment 2, pigeons trained to concurrently discriminate between the 2 oblique and the horizontal and vertical lines did not show clear RT differences. However, in Experiment 3, the RT results of the 1st experiment were replicated with pigeons trained as in Experiment 1 but with stimuli consisting of 3 dots aligned along the main axes or obliquely. The results are discussed in terms of response measures, biasing habitats, and greater confusability of oblique lines that is due to these lines being mirror images. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)