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Aims.Understand the shape and implications of the multiband ligth curve of GRB 050408, an X-ray rich (XRR) burst.

In clinical and diagnostic proteomics, it is essential to develop a comprehensive and robust system for proteome analysis. Although multidimensional liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) systems have been recently developed as powerful tools especially for identification of protein complexes, these systems still some drawbacks in their application to clinical research that requires an analysis of a large number of human samples. Therefore, in this study, we have constructed a technically simple and high throughput protein profiling system comprising a two-dimensional (2D)-LC/MS/MS system which integrates both a strong cation exchange (SCX) chromatography and a μLC/MS/MS system with micro-flowing reversed-phase chromatography. Using the μLC/MS/MS system as the second dimensional chromatography, SCX separation has been optimized as an off-line first dimensional peptide fractionation. To evaluate the performance of the constructed 2D-LC/MS/MS system, the results of detection and identification of proteins were compared using digests mixtures of 6 authentic proteins with those obtained using one-dimensional μLC/MS/MS system. The number of peptide fragments detected and the coverage of protein sequence were found to be more than double through the use of our newly built 2D-LC/MS/MS system. Furthermore, this multidimensional protein profiling system has been applied to plasma proteome in order to examine its feasibility for clinical proteomics. The experimental results revealed the identification of 174 proteins from one serum sample depleted HSA and IgG which corresponds to only 1 μL of plasma, and the total analysis run time was less than half a day, indicating a fairly high possibility of practicing clinical proteomics in a high throughput manner. Keywords: proteomics • human plasma • multidimensional chromatography • μLC/MS/MS

The interaction of NaHCO3and tartaric acid in powder mixtures and compressed tablets has been studied. It has been found that in an open system the reaction is simply a decarboxylation of NaHCO3and that the effect of compression on the reaction rate can be attributed to the brittle fracture (and subsequent surface area increase) that occurs on compaction. In a closed system the decomposition of the mixture is an interaction between the acid and the base, and it is mediated by the amount of moisture in the system. This latter is a product of reaction, and a suitable kinetic scheme is described for this. It is shown that “curing” the sodium bicarbonate by heating it to, e.g., 90°C stabilizes the system by virtue of the formation of surface Na2CO3, which acts as a moisture scavenger.

The first Japanese infrared space mission AKARI successfully scanned the whole sky with its two main instruments, the Infrared Camera (IRC) and the Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS). The AKARI All-Sky Survey provides us with an invaluable opportunity to examine the zodiacal emission (ZE) over the entire sky in the leading as well as the trailing direction of the Earth’s motion. We describe our efforts to reduce the ZE brightness map from the AKARI’s survey in the 9   μm waveband. Compared with the interplanetary dust cloud model of Kelsall et al. (1998), the map requires an increase of the contribution of the resonance ring component to the ZE brightness by about 20%. We paid special attention to the north and south ecliptic pole brightnesses. The symmetry plane’s inclination and longitude of ascending node need to be modified from those in Kelsall et al. (1998) to reach a best fit to the observed pole brightness difference.

Context. AKARI is the first Japanese astronomical satellite dedicated to infrared astronomy. One of the main purposes of AKARI is the all-sky survey performed with six infrared bands between 9 μm and 200 μm during the period from 2006 May 6 to 2007 August 28. In this paper, we present the mid-infrared part (9 μm and 18 μm bands) of the survey carried out with one of the on-board instruments, the infrared camera (IRC).Aims. We present unprecedented observational results of the 9 μm and 18 μm AKARI all-sky survey and detail the operation and data processing leading to the point source detection and measurements.Methods. The raw data are processed to produce small images for every scan, and the point sources candidates are derived above the 5σnoise level per single scan. The celestial coordinates and fluxes of the events are determined statistically and the reliability of their detections is secured through multiple detections of the same source within milli-seconds, hours, and months from each other.Results. The sky coverage is more than 90% for both bands. A total of 877 091 sources (851 189 for 9 μm, 195 893 for 18 μm) are confirmed and included in the current release of the point source catalog. The detection limit for point sources is 50 mJy and 90 mJy for the 9 μm and 18 μm bands, respectively. The position accuracy is estimated to be better than 2''. Uncertainties in the in-flight absolute flux calibration are estimated to be 3% for the 9 μm band and 4% for the 18 μm band. The coordinates and fluxes of detected sources in this survey are also compared with those of the IRAS survey and are found to be statistically consistent.

Context. AKARI is the first Japanese astronomical satellite dedicated to infrared astronomy. One of the main purposes of AKARI is the all-sky survey performed with six infrared bands between 9 μm and 200 μm during the period from 2006 May 6 to 2007 August 28. In this paper, we present the mid-infrared part (9 μm and 18 μm bands) of the survey carried out with one of the on-board instruments, the infrared camera (IRC).