Advantages of using nested collision induced dissociation/post-source decay with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry: sequencing of novel peptides from wasp venom

We have examined the applicability of the 'nested' collision induced dissociation/post-source decay (CID/PSD) method to the sequencing of novel peptides from solitary wasps which have neurotoxic venom for paralyzing other insects. The CID/PSD spectrum of a ladder peptide derived from an exopeptidase digest was compared with that of the intact peptide. The mass peaks observed only in the CID/PSD spectrum of a ladder peptide were extracted as C-terminal fragment ions. Assignment of C-terminal fragment ions enabled calculation of N-terminal fragment masses, leading to differentiation between N-terminal fragment ions and internal fragment ions. This methodology allowed rapid and sensitive identification by removing ambiguity in the assignment of the fragment ions, and proved useful for sequencing unknown peptides, in particular those available as natural products with a limited supply. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Collision of positronium with atoms, molecules and ions using a modified coupled-channel framework

Scattering of positronium (Ps) from atoms (H, He, Ne, Ar), molecule (H(2)) and ion (He(+)) have been investigated using a coupled-channel (CC) formalism with a regularised non-local exchange potential. The advantage of using such a regularized exchange potential in the close-coupling formalism and the normalizability aspect of the solution at low energies with a minimum effective coupling are discussed. Results for the elastic and total scattering cross-sections, resonance and binding energies in Ps-H, and pick-off annihilation results in Ps-He are found to be in excellent agreement with measurements and variational predictions. (C) 2000 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Search for single top quarks in the tau plus jets channel using 4.8 fb(-1) of p(p)over-bar collision data

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Search for scalar leptoquarks and T-odd quarks in the acoplanar jet topology using 2.5 fb(-1) of p(p)over-bar collision data at root s=1.96 TeV

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with jets and missing transverse energy using 2.1 fb(-1) of p(p)over-bar collision data at root s=1.96 TeV - D phi Collaboration

A data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.1 fb(-1) collected by the D phi detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider was analyzed to search for squarks and gluinos produced in p (p) over bar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. No evidence for the production of such particles was observed in topologies involving jets and missing transverse energy, and 95% C.L. lower limits of 379 GeV and 308 GeV were set on the squark and gluino masses, respectively, within the framework of minimal supergravity with tan beta = 3, A(0) = 0, and mu < 0. The corresponding previous limits are improved by 54 GeV and 67 GeV. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Measurement of the W boson helicity in top quark decays using 5.4 fb(-1) of p(p)over-bar collision data

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

SPH simulations of clumps formation by dissipative collision of molecular clouds - I. Non magnetic case

Computer experiments of interstellar cloud collisions were performed with a new smoothed-particle-hydrodynamics (SPH) code. The SPH quantities were calculated by using spatially adaptive smoothing lengths and the SPH fluid equations of motion were solved by means of a hierarchical multiple time-scale leapfrog. Such a combination of methods allows the code to deal with a large range of hydrodynamic quantities. A careful treatment of gas cooling by H, H(2), CO and H II, as well as a heating mechanism by cosmic rays and by H(2) production on grains surface, were also included in the code. The gas model reproduces approximately the typical environment of dark molecular clouds. The experiments were performed by impinging two dynamically identical spherical clouds onto each other with a relative velocity of 10 km s(-1) but with a different impact parameter for each case. Each object has an initial density profile obeying an r(-1)-law with a cutoff radius of 10 pc and with an initial temperature of 20 K. As a main result, cloud-cloud collision triggers fragmentation but in expense of a large amount of energy dissipated, which occurred in the head-on case only. Off-center collision did not allow remnants to fragment along the considered time (similar to 6 Myr). However, it dissipated a considerable amount of orbital energy. Structures as small as 0.1 pc, with densities of similar to 10(4) cm(-3), were observed in the more energetic collision.

Possibility of collision between co-orbital asteroids and the Earth

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Sequencing wasp venom peptides by endopeptidase digestion and nested collision-induced dissociation/post-source decay methods

A method incorporating nested collision-induced dissociation/post-source decay (CID/PSD) combined with endopeptidase digestion is described as an approach to determine the sequence of N-terminally modified peptides. The information from immonium and related ions observed in the CID/PSD spectrum was used for the selection of a suitable endopeptidase for the digestion of peptides. Rapid and reliable assignment of peptide sequence was performed by the comparison of CID/PSD spectra of both intact and endopeptidese-digested peptide fragments, since the assignments of the observed fragment ions to either N- or C-terminal ions can thus be carried out unambiguously. This nested CID/PSD method was applied to the sequence determination of two peptides from the solitary wasps Anoplius samariensis and Batozonellus maculifrons (pompilid wasps), which could not be sequenced by the Edman method due to N-terminal modification. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

ASSESSMENT of POLYATOMIC INTERFERENCES ELIMINATION USING A COLLISION REACTION INTERFACE (CRI) FOR INORGANIC ANALYSIS of FUEL ETHANOL BY ICP-QMS

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The Triplaria tree (Triplaris spp) and Pseudomyrmex ants: a symbiotic relationship with risks of attack for humans

The authors report a massive attack by Pseudomyrmex ants on a human who touched a Triplaria - novice tree (Triplaris spp). The ants naturally live in these trees and their stings cause intense pain and discrete to moderate local inflammation. The problem is common in sonic Brazilian regions and can be prevented by identifying the trees.