Efficient Incorporation of Clickable Unnatural Amino Acids Enables Rapid and Biocompatible Labeling of Proteins in Vitro and in Bacteria

Site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids (uAAs) bearing a bioorthogonal group has enabled the attachment – typically at a single site or at a few sites per protein – of chemical groups at precise locations for protein and biomaterial labeling, conjugation, and functionalization. Herein, we report the evolution of chromosomal Methanocaldococcus jannaschii tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) for the alkyne-bearing uAA, 4-propargyloxy-l -phenylalanine (pPR), with ∼30-fold increased production of green fluorescent protein containing three instances of pPR compared with a previously described M. jannaschii-derived aaRS for pPR, when expressed from a single chromosomal copy. We show that when expressed from multicopy plasmids, the evolved aaRSs enable the production – using a genomically recoded Escherichia coli and the non-recoded BL21 E. coli strain – of elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) containing multiple pPR residues in high yields. We further show that the multisite incorporation of pPR in ELPs facilitates the rapid, robust, and nontoxic fluorescent labeling of these proteins in bacteria. The evolved variants described in this work can be used to produce a variety of protein and biomaterial conjugates and to create efficient minimal tags for protein labeling.     

Reduced Collocation Methods: Reduced Basis Methods in the Collocation Framework

In this paper, we present the first reduced basis method well-suited for the collocation framework. Two fundamentally different algorithms are presented: the so-called Least Squares Reduced Collocation Method (LSRCM) and Empirical Reduced Collocation Method (ERCM). This work provides a reduced basis strategy to practitioners who prefer a collocation, rather than Galerkin, approach. Furthermore, the empirical reduced collocation method eliminates a potentially costly online procedure that is needed for non-affine problems with Galerkin approach. Numerical results demonstrate the high efficiency and accuracy of the reduced collocation methods, which match or exceed that of the traditional reduced basis method in the Galerkin framework.     

Held in contempt: The psychological, interpersonal, and performance consequences of contempt in a work context.

Guided by a social function of emotions perspective, the authors examined a model of the psychological, interpersonal, and performance consequences of contempt in a series of 3 experiments that tested the outcomes of being a recipient of contempt in the work domain. In these experiments, participants engaged in a business strategy simulation with a virtual partner—a computer programmed to give contemptuous and other types of feedback. In Study 1, which examined the task performance and interpersonal outcomes of contempt, recipients of contempt had significantly better task performance but also significantly more interpersonal aggressiveness toward their virtual partners compared with recipients of failure, angry, or neutral feedback. Study 2 examined 3 psychological outcomes mediating the contempt–task performance/aggression relationship: self-esteem, returned feelings of contempt, and activation levels. Lowered levels of implicit self-esteem and greater levels of activation significantly mediated the relationship between receiving contempt and task performance, whereas the contempt–aggression relationship was mediated by lowered implicit self-esteem and increased feelings of returned contempt. Study 3 examined status as a moderator of these relationships. Low-status recipients had significantly better task performance than did equal-status recipients, who performed significantly better than did the high-status recipients of contempt. In addition, low-status recipients displayed significantly lower levels of aggression in response to contempt than did equal-status and high-status recipients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Economics of nuclear power stations in Russia: Increasing the market competitiveness of producers of electrical power

An analysis is made of the role and the place of Russian nuclear power stations on the federal (all-Russia) wholesale market for electrical energy and power, the structure of the costs of producing electricity at these stations, the competitiveness of nuclear energy sources with other producers of electricity. Possible ways are discussed for reducing the cost of producing electricity at nuclear power stations. Journal version of the plenary paper “From the first nuclear power station in the world to the power engineering of the twenty first century” (Annual Conference of Nuclear Society, Obninsk, June 28 to July 2, 1999). Rosénergoatm Concern. Translated from Atomnaya énergiya, Vol. 87, No. 2, pp. 92–101, August, 1999.     

Load-rate tariffs and their effect on the financial results of nuclear power plant operation

The peculiarities of the load-rate tariff system operating in the federal wholesale marketplace for electricity (power), the subject of which are nuclear power plants, are analyzed. It is shown that the order of the calculations in load-rate tariffs is quite flexible and consequently economically advantageous for the producers of electricity. It is shown on the basis of experience over two and half years of operation with the load-rate tariff system that the features of this system for nuclear power plants are undoubtedly justified from the standpoint of cooperative interests of the industry. This system guaranteed to nuclear power plants more complete compensation of the costs of producing electricity, and it ensured the economic survival of the plants under the difficult conditions of the transitional period in our country's economics. 2 figures. 2 tables. ”Rosénergoatom“ concem. Translated from Atomnaya énergiya, Vol. 88, No. 3, pp. 217–224, March, 2000     

On the problem of modelling for parameter identification in distributed structures

Structures are often characterized by parameters, such as mass and stiffness, that are spatially distributed. Parameter identification of distributed structures is subject to many of the difficulties involved in the modelling problem, and the choice of the model can greatly affect the results of the parameter identification process. Analogously to control spillover in the control of distributed-parameter systems, identification spillover is shown to exist as well and its effect is to degrade the parameter estimates. Moreover, as in modelling by the Rayleigh–Ritz method, it is shown that, for a Rayleigh–Ritz type identification algorithm, an inclusion principle exists in the identification of distributed-parameter systems as well, so that the identified natural frequencies approach the actual natural frequencies monotonically from above.