Purification of 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase from Pseudomonas putida OU83 and characterization of the gene (bphC)

The 2,3-dihydroxybiphenyl 1,2-dioxygenase (2,3-DBPD) of Pseudomonas putida OU83 was constitutively expressed and purified to apparent homogeneity. The apparent molecular mass of the native enzyme was 256 kDa, and the subunit molecular mass was 32 kDa. The data suggested that 2,3-DBPD was an octamer of identical subunits. The nucleotide sequence of a DNA fragment containing the bphC region was determined. The deduced protein sequence for 2,3-DBPD consisted of 292 amino acid residues, with a calculated molecular mass of 31.9 kDa, which was in agreement with data for the purified 2,3-DBPD. Nucleotide and amino acid sequence analyses of the bphC gene and its product, respectively, revealed that there was a high degree of homology between the OU83 bphC gene and the bphC genes of Pseudomonas cepacia LB400 and Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes KF707.     

Mixed Attention Densely Residual Network for Single Image Super-Resolution

Recent applications of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in single image super-resolution (SISR) have achieved unprecedented performance. However, existing CNN-based SISR network structure design consider mostly only channel or spatial information, and cannot make full use of both channel and spatial information to improve SISR performance further. The present work addresses this problem by proposing a mixed attention densely residual network architecture that can make full and simultaneous use of both channel and spatial information. Specifically, we propose a residual in dense network structure composed of dense connections between multiple dense residual groups to form a very deep network. This structure allows each dense residual group to apply a local residual skip connection and enables the cascading of multiple residual blocks to reuse previous features. A mixed attention module is inserted into each dense residual group, to enable the algorithm to fuse channel attention with laplacian spatial attention effectively, and thereby more adaptively focus on valuable feature learning. The qualitative and quantitative results of extensive experiments have demonstrate that the proposed method has a comparable performance with other state-of-the-art methods.     

On coefficient inequalities of functions associated with conic domains

In this paper, the concepts of Janowski functions and the conic regions are combined to define a new domain which represents the conic type regions. Different views of this modified conic domain for specific values are shown graphically for better understanding of the behavior of this domain. The class of such functions which map the open unit disk E onto this modified conic domain is defined. Also the classes of k-uniformly Janowski convex and k-Janowski starlike functions are defined and their coefficient inequalities are formulated. The coefficient bound for a certain class of analytic functions, proved by Owa et al. (2006) in [16], has also been improved.     

Formal modeling and verification of security controls for multimedia systems in the cloud

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Organizations deploy the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems for centralized management of security alerts for securing their multimedia...     

Structural and high temperature conduction studies of (Na<Subscript>0.46</Subscript>Bi<Subscript>0.46</Subscript>Ba<Subscript>0.08</Subscript>) (Mn<Subscript>x</Subscript>Ti<Subscript>1−x</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>)–CuO lead-free piezoelectric ceramics

Polycrystalline lead-free (Na_0.46Bi_0.46Ba_0.08)(Mn_xTi_1?xO₃)?+?0.2CuO ceramics (x?=?0.0, 0.5, 2.0, 3.0 wt%) were prepared via solid-state reaction method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the formation of single-phase perovskite structure and indicated the presence of morphotropic phase boundary, where the tetragonal and rhombohedral phases co-existed for all the synthesized compositions. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that the average grain size decreased with the increase in Mn content. Impedance spectroscopy (IS) indicated that Mn doping was found to decrease the grain boundary resistance. Two semi-circles were observed for higher Mn content which indicates the contribution of both bulk grains and grain boundaries. Non-Debye type and temperature dependent relaxation phenomenon was also revealed by IS studies. The activation energies at different frequencies were found to be 0.05–0.9 eV, indicating hopping charge conduction mechanism. These results have comprehensive implications for the expanded use of BNT based lead free piezoelectric ceramics for practical applications.     

Synthesis and characterization of manganese containing mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Mesoporous bioactive glass (BG) nanoparticles based in the system: SiO₂–P₂O₅–CaO–MnO were synthesized via a modified Stöber process at various concentrations of Mn (0–7 mol %). The synthesized manganese-doped BG nanoparticles were characterized in terms of morphology, composition, in vitro bioactivity and antibacterial activity. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis confirmed that the particles had spherical morphology (mean particle size: 110?nm) with disordered mesoporous structure. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) confirmed the presence of Mn, Ca, Si and P in the synthesized Mn-doped BG particles. Moreover, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that Mn has been incorporated in the amorphous silica network (bioactive glass). Moreover, it was found that manganese-doped BG particles form apatite crystals upon immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF). Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) measurements confirmed that Mn is released in a sustained manner, which provided antibacterial effect against Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The results indicate that the incorporation of Mn in the bioactive glass network is an effective strategy to develop novel multifunctional BG nanoparticles for bone tissue engineering.     

Green fabricated CuO nanobullets via Olea europaea leaf extract shows auspicious antimicrobial potential

In present investigation, copper oxide (CuO) nanostructures have been prepared via green chemistry. Olea europaea leaf extract act as strong chelating agent for tailoring physical as well as bio‐medical characteristics of CuO at the nano‐size. Physical characterisation such as scanning electron microscope analysis depicts the formation of homogenised spherical shape nanoparticles (NPs) with average size of 42 nm. X‐ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy further confirmed the crystalline pure phase and monoclinic structure. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) testing is performed to evaluate the relative concentration of bioactive molecules in the O. europaea leaf extract. From HPLC results capping action of organic molecules around CuO‐NPs is hypothesised. The antimicrobial potency of biosynthesised CuO‐NPs have been evaluated using colony forming unit (CFU) counting assay and disc diffusion method which shows a significant zone of inhibition against bacterial and fungal strains may be highly potential for future antimicrobial pharmaceutics. Furthermore, reduction of various precursors by plant extract will reduce environmental impact over chemical synthesis.Inspec keywords: copper compounds, antibacterial activity, biochemistry, nanoparticles, nanomedicine, biomedical materials, chromatographyOther keywords: CuO, size 42 nm, chemical synthesis, antimicrobial pharmaceutics, bacterial strain, fungal strain, disc diffusion method, colony forming unit counting assay, biosynthesised CuO‐NP, bioactive molecules, high‐performance liquid chromatography testing, monoclinic structure, crystalline pure phase, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, homogenised spherical shape nanoparticles, scanning electron microscope analysis, CuO biomedical characteristics, chelating agent, green fabricated CuO nanobullets, green chemistry, copper oxide nanostructures, antimicrobial potential, Olea europaea leaf extract     

Ten switched‐beams with 2 × 2 series‐fed 2.4 GHz array antenna and a simple beam‐switching network

This article presents a 2 × 2 series fed 2.4 GHz patch antenna array having multiple beam switching capabilities by using two simple 3 dB/90° couplers to achieve required amplitude and phase excitations for array elements with reduced complexity, cost and size. The beam switching performance with consistent gain and low side lobe levels (SLL) is achieved by exciting the array elements from orthogonally placed thin quarter‐wave (λ_g/4) feeds. The implemented array is capable to generate ten (10) switched‐beams in 2‐D space when series fed elements are excited from respective ports through 3 dB quadrature couplers. The dual polarized characteristics of presented array provide intrinsic interport isolation between perpendicularly placed ports through polarization diversity to achieve independent beam switching capabilities for intended directions. The implemented antenna array on 1.575 mm thick low loss (tan δ = 0.003) NH9450 substrate with ε_r = 4.5 ± 0.10 provides 10 dB return loss impedance bandwidth of more than 50 MHz. The measured beam switching loss is around 0.8 dB for beams switched at θ = ±20°, Ф = 0°, 90°, and 45° with average peak gain of 9.5 dBi and SLL ≤ ?10 dB in all cases. The novelty of this work is the capability of generating ten dual polarized switched‐beams by using only two 3 dB/90° couplers as beam controllers.     

Evaluation of layer properties of effective parameters of metallic rod metamaterials in GHz frequencies

In this paper, analytical modeling and numerical simulation of the complex effective dielectric, magnetic constants and refractive index of a metallic rod metamaterial in microwave frequency range are presented. Analytical modeling has been done using modified mathematical models of the complex dielectric and magnetic constants obtained for rod metamaterial structure. Numerical simulation of the above-mentioned parameters has been made using S-parameters obtained with the help of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations. The numerical simulation has been carried out for different thickness of rods. Remarkable coincidence between analytical and numerical results was found. The effective dielectric constant enhancement of the considered composite has been obtained. Recommendations for the practical application of considered metamaterial structure for designing patch antennas have been discussed.