Survey of the charge properties of phospholipids using Nanodiscs and Membrane-confined electrophoresis

Phospholipids (PL) are a major, diverse constituent of cell membranes. PL diversity arises from the nature of the fatty acid chains, as well as the head group structure. The head group charge is thought to contribute to both the strength, and specificity of protein-membrane interactions. Furthermore, the divalent cations Ca2+ and Mg2+, have been shown to be essential for optimal binding for some of these interactions. Because it has been difficult to measure membrane charge, it has been impossible to quantitate the role charge plays in these interactions. However, Nanodiscs provide a stable, planar membrane bilayer suitable for biophysical studies. Here we present the first measurements of the charge on Nanodiscs containing neutral (POPC and POPE) and anionic (POPS, POPA, and PIP2) PLs in varying ratios, and in different solvent conditions. The data reveal that: 1) Nanodiscs provide high-quality charge data using membrane-confined electrophoresis (MCE), and; 2) Nanodiscs exhibit polyelectrolyte behavior. Therefore, the technique of MCE combined with the technology of Nanodiscs give us the ability to develop a simple, reproducible way to analyze lipid charge under physiological conditions; which can clarify inconsistencies between data obtained using various analytical techniques, membrane systems, and experimental conditions

Technology Management Competency of Healthcare IS Professionals and Its Effects on IT-healthcare Partnerships

This study presents a conceptual model to investigate technology management competency required by healthcare IS professionals and its impacts on IT-healthcare partnerships. Technology management competency, at the broad level, comprises the business strategic thinking, external knowledge resources linkage, healthcare technology integration capability as well as management and interpersonal skill/knowledge possessed by IS professionals. Such competency is hypothesized to be instrumental in increasing the intentions of IS professionals to develop and reinforce the partnerships with healthcare people. The empirical results support the proposed conceptual framework for technology management related skills/knowledge of IS professionals and indicate that the competency would significantly influences the intentions of IS professionals to develop collaborative relationships with their healthcare partners. The findings of this study not only can provide useful suggestions to help IS professionals review their technology management competency, but also serve as instrumental guidelines for the technology management competency training to strength the IT-healthcare partnership

catena-Poly[[diaqua­magnesium(II)]-bis­(μ-5-ammonio­isophthalato-κ2 O 1:O 3)]

In the title compound, [Mg(C8H6NO4)2(H2O)2]n, the MgII ion lies on a twofold roatation axis and is coordinated in a slightly distorted octa­hedral environment. Pairs of bridging ammonium­isophthalate ligands connect symmetry-related MgII ions, forming chains along [010]. In the crystal, inter­molecular O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link these chains into a three-dimensional network. The centroids of pairs of symmetry-related benzene rings within a chain are separated by 3.5707 (12) Å

The Impacts of BTM Capability and CIO Role Effectiveness on Firms\u27 Information Technology Assimilation: An Empirical Study

This study presents a conceptual model to investigate the impacts of business technology management (BTM) capability and CIO role effectiveness on firms’ information technology assimilation. A large-scale field survey was used as the methodology for this research. Global logistic enterprises of Taiwan and China were randomly selected for constituting a representative sample in this study. Using the partial least squares (PLS) method, the causal relationships among BTM capability, CIO role effectiveness, and firms’ IT assimilation were verified. Also, the contribution of business technology and business management competencies on CIO role effectiveness was verified. The results of this study can provide practical implications for how firms can align, synchronize and converge IT and business management, thus ensuring better execution, risk control, and profitability

Synthesis of a MUC1 Mucin Cyclic Dimer Peptide and Its Antibody Binding Properties as Revealed by STD-NMR

ABSTRACT In a previous study we showed that the shortened MUC1 mucin peptide GVTSAPD could bind monoclonal antibody (mAb). We proceeded on to make a cyclic peptide of the same sequence to see if it would be more effective in binding antibody. We were able to synthesize and isolate two different cyclic mucin peptides: 1) a monomer cyclic peptide with sequence GVTSAPD which we did not study due to difficulties in achieving homogeneity, and 2) a dimer cyclic peptide with sequence GVTSAPDGVTSAPD that was successfully isolated and studied. We describe here the results of the dimer cyclic peptide-antibody interactions obtained by Saturation Transfer Difference NMR (STD-NMR). The results indicated that the protons of all residues experienced STD effects, notably being more pronounced at Pro, Val, Ala and Asp compared to the linear peptide GVTSAPD. The Pro residue exhibited STD peaks for all its side chain protons with stronger intensity at ProHγ while Ala, Val and Thr are localized to methyl groups

Poly[(μ5-5-amino­isophthalato)aqua­barium]

In the title compound, [Ba(C8H5NO4)(H2O)]n, the BaII ion is eight-coordinated by six O atoms and one N atom from five 5-amino­isophthalate ligands and one water mol­ecule in a distorted dodeca­hedral geometry. The BaII ions are connected via the ligands into a layer parallel to (011). The layers are linked by N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The coordinated water mol­ecule is involved in intra­layer O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

The Impacts Of Presentation Modes And Product Involvements On “Line” Short Message Service (SMS) Advertising Effectiveness

In today’s ubiquitous commerce (UC) era, short message service (SMS) advertisement has played an important role in the world of marketing. Convenience and economical reasons influence SMS usage frequency along with social involvement to influence attitudes towards SMS advertising. SMS advertising creates numerous opportunities for the marketers in promoting their products effectively. Adopting the competition for attention theory as the theoretical framework, we developed hypotheses to investigate the influences of presentation mode and involvement on SMS advertising performance (recall of advertising information). An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of three types of information presentation modes (text-only, image-text, and emoji-text) in the contexts of two product types (high- versus low-involvement products) in the “LINE” SMS environment. Specifically, in this current study, we allocate participants to six experimental environments (text-only for high-involvement products, text-only for low-involvement products, image-text for high-involvement products, image-text for low-involvement products, emoji-text for high-involvement products and emoji-text for low-involvement products) randomly to collected empirical data to examine the proposed hypotheses. The research findings are expected to provide instrumental guidelines for the practitioners to better achieve the goals of ads in the “LINE” SMS environment. Also, the empirical results may provide insights into the research of advertising interface design of SMS and integrating efforts from cognitive science and vision research to understand users’ involvement of SMS advertising processes

A Methodology for Evaluating Data and Output Misfits in Commercial Off-The-Shelf ERP Systems

This paper presents a methodology based on the task-technology fit theory to identify data and output misfits in the ex-ante evaluation of an off-the shelf enterprise resources planning (ERP) package. The proposed methodology consists of two stages: output misfit analysis and data misfit analysis. The purpose of the first stage is to identify corresponding field (output misfits) and data glossary for data misfit analysis. The latter stage identifies data misfits for every corresponding activity in the business process sequence. The proposed methodology provides a systematic approach to alleviate the difficulty and complexity in identifying data and output misfits. The identification results identify where the misfits are and provide a degree of mismatch, thus providing a practical basis for ERP tool selection to reduce the risk of failure in its implementation