Upgrading a TCABR data analysis and acquisition system for remote participation using Java, XML, RCP and modern client/server communication/authentication

The TCABR data analysis and acquisition system has been upgraded to support a joint research programme using remote participation technologies. The architecture of the new system uses Java language as programming environment. Since application parameters and hardware in a joint experiment are complex with a large variability of components, requirements and specification solutions need to be flexible and modular, independent from operating system and computer architecture. To describe and organize the information on all the components and the connections among them, systems are developed using the extensible Markup Language (XML) technology. The communication between clients and servers uses remote procedure call (RPC) based on the XML (RPC-XML technology). The integration among Java language, XML and RPC-XML technologies allows to develop easily a standard data and communication access layer between users and laboratories using common software libraries and Web application. The libraries allow data retrieval using the same methods for all user laboratories in the joint collaboration, and the Web application allows a simple graphical user interface (GUI) access. The TCABR tokamak team in collaboration with the IPFN (Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa) is implementing this remote participation technologies. The first version was tested at the Joint Experiment on TCABR (TCABRJE), a Host Laboratory Experiment, organized in cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) in the framework of the IAEA Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on ""Joint Research Using Small Tokamaks"". (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Lipopeptides Produced by a Soil Bacillus Megaterium Strain

A soil microorganism identified as Bacillum megaterium was found to produce several antibiotics substances after growth for 20 h at 37A degrees C in a mineral culture medium. Analysis both by electron spray ionization (ESI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) identified these substances as lipopeptides. Predominant peaks at m/z 1,041 and m/z 1,065 revealed ions which are compatible with surfactins and lichenysins, respectively. Two other ions m/z 1,057 and m/z 1,464 were further studied by collision-induced dissociation (CID) unveiling an iturin A at the first and fengycins A and B at the second m/z peaks. The CID spectrum of the m/z 1,464 ion also suggests the existence of fengycins A and B variants in which Ile was changed to Val in the position 10 of the peptide moiety. Raw mixtures of all these compounds were also assayed for antibiotic features. The data enlighten the unusual diversity of the lipopeptide mixture produced by a sole Bacillus species.

Insights into the Molecular Requirements for the Anti-obesity Activity of a Series of CB1 Ligands

Two-dimensional and 3D quantitative structure-activity relationships studies were performed on a series of diarylpyridines that acts as cannabinoid receptor ligands by means of hologram quantitative structure-activity relationships and comparative molecular field analysis methods. The quantitative structure-activity relationships models were built using a data set of 52 CB1 ligands that can be used as anti-obesity agents. Significant correlation coefficients (hologram quantitative structure-activity relationships: r 2 = 0.91, q 2 = 0.78; comparative molecular field analysis: r 2 = 0.98, q 2 = 0.77) were obtained, indicating the potential of these 2D and 3D models for untested compounds. The models were then used to predict the potency of an external test set, and the predicted (calculated) values are in good agreement with the experimental results. The final quantitative structure-activity relationships models, along with the information obtained from 2D contribution maps and 3D contour maps, obtained in this study are useful tools for the design of novel CB1 ligands with improved anti-obesity potency.

Application of chemometric methods in the evaluation of chemical and spectroscopic data on organic matter from Oxisols in sewage sludge applications

Chemometric methods can contribute to soil research by permitting the extraction of more information from the data. The aim of this work was to use Principal Component Analysis to evaluate data obtained through chemical and spectroscopic methods on the changes in the humification process of soil organic matter from two tropical soils after sewage sludge application. In this case, humic acids extracted from Typic Eutrorthox and Typic Haplorthox soils with and without sewage sludge application for 7 consecutive years were studied. The results obtained for all of the samples and methods showed two clusters: samples extracted from the two soil types. These expected results indicated the textural difference between the two soils was more significant than the differences between treatments (control and sewage sludge application) or between depths. In this case, an individual chemometric treatment was made for each type of soil. It was noted that the characterization of the humic acids extracted from soils with and without sewage sludge application after 7 consecutive years using several methods supplies important results about changes in the humification degree of soil organic matter, These important result obtained by Principal Component Analysis justify further research using these methods to characterize the changes in the humic acids extracted from sewage sludge-amended soils. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.