Paul Sabatier University

About: Paul Sabatier University is a education organization based out in Toulouse, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 15431 authors who have published 23386 publications receiving 858364 citations.

Evaluation of cell wall preparations for proteomics: a new procedure for purifying cell walls from Arabidopsis hypocotyls

Abstract: The ultimate goal of proteomic analysis of a cell compartment should be the exhaustive identification of resident proteins; excluding proteins from other cell compartments. Reaching such a goal closely depends on the reliability of the isolation procedure for the cell compartment of interest. Plant cell walls possess specific difficulties: (i) the lack of a surrounding membrane may result in the loss of cell wall proteins (CWP) during the isolation procedure, (ii) polysaccharide networks of cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectins form potential traps for contaminants such as intracellular proteins. Several reported procedures to isolate cell walls for proteomic analyses led to the isolation of a high proportion (more than 50%) of predicted intracellular proteins. Since isolated cell walls should hold secreted proteins, one can imagine alternative procedures to prepare cell walls containing a lower proportion of contaminant proteins. The rationales of several published procedures to isolate cell walls for proteomics were analyzed, with regard to the bioinformatic-predicted subcellular localization of the identified proteins. Critical steps were revealed: (i) homogenization in low ionic strength acid buffer to retain CWP, (ii) purification through increasing density cushions, (iii) extensive washes with a low ionic strength acid buffer to retain CWP while removing as many cytosolic proteins as possible, and (iv) absence of detergents. A new procedure was developed to prepare cell walls from etiolated hypocotyls of Arabidopsis thaliana. After salt extraction, a high proportion of proteins predicted to be secreted was released (73%), belonging to the same functional classes as proteins identified using previously described protocols. Finally, removal of intracellular proteins was obtained using detergents, but their amount represented less than 3% in mass of the total protein extract, based on protein quantification. The new cell wall preparation described in this paper gives the lowest proportion of proteins predicted to be intracellular when compared to available protocols. The application of its principles should lead to a more realistic view of the cell wall proteome, at least for the weakly bound CWP extractable by salts. In addition, it offers a clean cell wall preparation for subsequent extraction of strongly bound CWP.

Fuzzy constraints in job-shop scheduling

Abstract: This paper proposes an extension of the constraint-based approach to job-shop scheduling, that accounts for the flexibility of temporal constraints and the uncertainty of operation durations. The set of solutions to a problem is viewed as a fuzzy set whose membership function reflects preference. This membership function is obtained by an egalitarist aggregation of local constraint-satisfaction levels. Uncertainty is qualitatively described in terms of possibility distributions. The paper formulates a simple mathematical model of job-shop scheduling under preference and uncertainty, relating it to the formal framework of constraint-satisfaction problems in artificial intelligence. A combinatorial search method that solves the problem is outlined, including fuzzy extensions of well-known look-ahead schemes.

New Results about Properties and Semantics of Fuzzy Set-Theoretic Operators

Abstract: This communication is a first step towards a general approach to fuzzy set-theoretic operators, i.e. algebraic operators which coincide with set-operators when membership values are crisp. Some properties of subclasses of such fuzzy set-theoretic operators are investigated. Specific examples are given. An attempt to discuss a possible interpretation of these operators is proposed. The choice of a good operator in a given practical situation can be crucial in decision analysis, information retrieval, pattern recognition for the purpose of aggregating several pieces of information.