Optimization-Based Peptide Mass Fingerprinting for Protein Mixture Identification

*Motivation:* In current proteome research, peptide sequencing is probably the most widely used method for protein mixture identification. However, this peptide-centric method has its own disadvantages such as the immense volume of tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS) data for sequencing peptides. With the fast development of technology, it is possible to investigate other alternative techniques. Peptide Mass Fingerprinting (PMF) has been widely used to identify single purified proteins for more than 15 years. Unfortunately, this technique is less accurate than peptide sequencing method and cannot handle protein mixtures, which hampers the widespread use of PMF technique. If we can remove these limitations, PMF will become a useful tool in protein mixture identification. 
*Results:* We first formulate the problem of PMF protein mixture identification as an optimization problem. Then, we show that the use of some simple heuristics enables us to find good solutions. As a result, we obtain much better identification results than previous methods. Moreover, the result on real MS data can be comparable with that of the peptide sequencing method. Through a comprehensive simulation study, we identify a set of limiting factors that hinder the performance of PMF method in protein mixtures. We argue that it is feasible to remove these limitations and PMF can be a powerful tool in the analysis of protein mixtures

Q-enhanced fold-and-bond MEMS inductors

This work presents a novel coil fabrication technology to enhance quality factor (Q factor) of microfabricated inductors for implanted medical wireless sensing and data/power transfer applications. Using parylene as a flexible thin-film device substrate, a post-microfabrication substrate folding-and-bonding method is developed to effectively increase the metal thickness of the surface-micromachined inductors, resulting in their lower self-resistance so their higher quality factor. One-fold-and-bond coils are successfully demonstrated as an example to verify the feasibility of the fabrication technology with measurement results in good agreements with device simulation. Depending on target specifications, multiple substrate folding-and-bonding can be extensively implemented to facilitate further improved electrical characteristics of the coils from single fabrication batch. Such Q-enhanced inductors can be broadly utilized with great potentials in flexible integrated wireless devices/systems for intraocular prostheses and other biomedical implants

Interaction-induced Metal to Topological Insulator Transition

By means of exact diagonalizations, the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model at quarter-filling in the limit of strong Hubbard on-site repulsion is investigated. We find that the non-interacting metallic state will be turned into a Chern insulator with saturated magnetization under strong correlations. That is, at such a metal-insulator transition, both the topological and the magnetic properties of the system are changed due to spontaneous breaking of time reversal symmetry in the ground states. According to our findings, this topological phase transition seems to be of first order. Our results illustrate the interesting physics in topological Mott transitions and provide guidance to the search of more interaction-induced topological phases in similar systems.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

A Web-Services-Based P2P Computing-Power Sharing Architecture

As demands of data processing and computing power are increasing, existing information system architectures become insufficient. Some organizations try to figure out how to keep their systems work without purchasing new hardware and software. Therefore, a Webservices-based model which shares the resource over the network like a P2P network will be proposed to meet this requirement in this paper. In addition, this paper also discusses some problems about security, motivation, flexibility, compatibility and workflow management for the traditional P2P power sharing models. Our new computing architecture - Computing Power Services (CPS) - will aim to address these problems. For the shortcomings about flexibility, compatibility and workflow management, CPS utilizes Web Services and Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) to overcome them. Because CPS is assumed to run in a reliable network where peers trust each other, the concerns about security and motivation will be negated. In essence, CPS is a lightweight Web-Services-based P2P power sharing environment and suitable for executing computing works in batch in a reliable networ

{μ-6,6′-Dimeth­oxy-2,2′-[ethane-1,2-diyl­bis(nitrilo­methanylyl­idene)]diphenolato-1κ4 O 6,O 1,O 1′,O 6′;2κ4 O 1,N,N′,O 1′}(methanol-1κO)(tetra­fluoridoborato-1κ2 F,F′)-2-copper(II)-1-sodium

In the dinuclear salen-type title complex, [CuNa(BF4)(C18H18N2O4)(CH3OH)], the CuII atom is chelated by two O atoms and two N atoms of the deprotonated Schiff base in a square-planar geometry. The Na atom is seven-coordinate as it is linked to four O atoms of the same Schiff base ligand, one O atom of the methanol and two tetra­fluorido­borate F atoms. The remaining two F atoms of the anion are disordered over two sites in a 0.598 (18):0.402 (18) ratio

catena-Poly[[bis­(μ-2-formyl-6-meth­oxy­phenolato-1:2κ4 O 1,O 6:O 1,O 2)copper(II)sodium]-μ-tetra­fluorido­borate-1:1′κ2 F:F′]

In the title heterodinuclear complex, [CuNa(BF4)(C8H7O3)2]n, the CuII ion is four-coordinated by four O atoms of two 2-formyl-6-meth­oxy­phenolate ligands, giving rise to a square-planar geometry. The Na+ ion is six-coordinated by four O atoms from the two ligands and two F atoms of two tetra­fluoridoborate anions. The tetra­fluoridoborate anion links the Na+ ions, forming a one-dimensional structure along [001]. Three F atoms of the tetra­fluoridoborate anion are disordered over two sets of sites, with an occupancy ratio of 0.790 (11):0.210 (11)

USE JD-R THEORY TO EXPLORE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT—TAKING JOB DEMANDS AS THE MODERATING VARIABLE

Past research has proven that employee experience has a positive impact on employee engagement. Based on the conceptual framework of Job Demands-Resources model (JD-R) model, this study regards efficient employee experience as a job resource to explore the impact of "employee experience" and” job demands” on employee engagement in organizations. Work requirements are further divided into challenge demand and hindrance demand. This study adopts the experimental design of the scenario method and uses two two-factor independent sample designs, namely 2x2(employee experience is high / employee experience is low x challenging job demands is high / challenging job demands is low) and 2x2(employee experience is high / employee experience is low x hindering job demands is high / hindering job demands is low).A total of 176 valid questionnaires were collected. The research results found that when employee experience is high, employee engagement is higher than when employee experience is low. Employee experience and job demands have an interactive effect on employee engagement. When employee experience is high, employee engagement will be higher when challenging job demands are added than when hindering job demands are added. It is expected that the results of this study can help in theoretical and practical application