Empirical solvent-mediated potentials hold for both intra-molecular and inter-molecular inter-residue interactions

Whether knowledge-based intra-molecular inter-residue potentials are valid to represent inter-molecular interactions taking place at protein-protein interfaces has been questioned in several studies. Differences in the chain connectivity effect and in residue packing geometry between interfaces and single chain monomers have been pointed out as possible sources of distinct energetics for the two cases. In the present study, the interfacial regions of protein-protein complexes are examined to extract inter-molecular inter-residue potentials, using the same statistical methods as those previously adopted for intra-molecular residue pairs. Two sets of energy parameters are derived, corresponding to solvent-mediation and "average residue" mediation. The former set is shown to be highly correlated (correlation coefficient 0.89) with that previously obtained for inter-residue interactions within single chain monomers, while the latter exhibits a weaker correlation (0.69) with its intra-molecular counterpart. In addition to the close similarity of intra- and inter-molecular solvent-mediated potentials, they are shown to be significantly more residue-specific and thereby discriminative compared to the residue-mediated ones, indicating that solvent-mediation plays a major role in controlling the effective inter-residue interactions, either at interfaces, or within single monomers. Based on this observation, a reduced set of energy parameters comprising 20 one-body and 3 two-body terms is proposed (as opposed to the 20 x 20 tables of inter-residue potentials), which reproduces the conventional 20 x 20 tables with a correlation coefficient of 0.99.     

Integration of strategic and tactical decisions for vendor selection under capacity constraints

We examine a generalized vendor selection problem of a multi-store firm where the goal is the simultaneous determination of (i) the set of vendors the firm should work with and (ii) how much each store should order from the selected vendors. In addition to the typical costs associated with vendor selection and delivery between the vendors and their assigned stores, we explicitly consider the inventory-related costs and decisions of the stores. We emphasize the relationship between facility location applications and the problem at hand, and we propose an integrated vendor selection and inventory optimization model. Also, arguing that our model creates a venue for precise incorporation of realistic capacity constraints, we model throughput and dispatch capacities, explicitly. The model is a challenging mixed integer nonlinear program for which we propose an efficient solution approach that relies on Generalized Benders Decomposition (GBD).     

Evaluation of sericin/collagen membranes as prospective wound dressing biomaterial

Sericin, a silk protein, has high potential for use in biomedical applications. In this study, wound dressing membranes of Sericin (S) and Collagen (C) were prepared by glutaraldehyde cross-linking at S/C; 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, and 0:1 weight ratios. They were stable in water for 4 weeks. However, increasing the proportion of sericin had decreasing effect on the membrane stability. Water swelling property of membranes was enhanced with sericin. The highest water swelling was obtained in 1:1 group (9.06 g/g), but increasing collagen or sericin content in the membranes had a diminishing effect. Highest water vapor transmission rate was obtained with 1:2 group (1013.80 g/m²/day). Oxygen permeability results showed that 1:2 (7.67 mg/L) and 2:1 (7.85 mg/L) S/C groups were better than the other groups. While sericin decreased the tensile strength and elongation of membranes, it increased modulus. Sericin also increased brittleness of membranes, but their UTS range (24.93–44.92 MPa) was still suitable for a wound dressing. Membranes were not penetrable to microorganisms. Cytotoxicity studies showed that fibroblasts and keratinocytes attached and gained their characteristic morphologies. They also proliferated on membranes significantly. After 1 week of subcutaneous implantation, a fibrous capsule formed around all membranes with an acute inflammation. Sericin containing membranes showed signs of degradation (at 2nd week), while collagen only membranes remained largely intact. Eventually, sericin containing membranes degraded in 3 weeks with moderate inflammatory response. Overall results suggest that sericin/collagen membranes would be favorable as wound dressing material when sericin ratio is less than or equal to the collagen component.     

Comparative analysis of thermophilic immobilized biohydrogen production using packed materials of ceramic ring and pumice stone

Ceramic ring and pumice stone were used as a support matrix for the enhancement of biohydrogen production in immobilized cell culture systems. The reactors were continuously operated for the hydrogen fermentation using sucrose as the major carbon source at varying hydraulic retention times (HRT) as an important operational factor. In terms of volumetric hydrogen production, the best value was obtained with ceramic ring at 1.5 h HRT (2.98 l H₂/l/d), on the other hand, the pumice stone packed reactor resulted in 30% less volumetric hydrogen production (2.28 l H₂/l/d) at two fold longer retention time (HRT 3 h). It was demonstrated that volumetric hydrogen production with the immobilized bioreactor configurations was 6 fold better than the suspended culture bioreactor configuration (CSTR). Furthermore, up to 4 mol and 5 mol hydrogen yields per mole of sucrose used (which are 62.5% and 50% of the theoretical values) were achieved by pumice stone and ceramic ring packed reactors, respectively, whereas suspended culture system yielded only 0.5 mol H₂/mol sucrose.     

Dynamic analysis of changes in diffusion and sorption parameters in the reaction of SO2 with activated soda ash

Variations in pore structure cause significant changes in diffusion resistance and adsorption characteristics during the reaction of SO₂ with activated soda. Breakthrough and moment analysis of the SO₂-activated soda ash reaction showed that the effective diffusion coefficient of SO₂ in the solid product (mostly Na₂SO₃) was about three times smaller than its value in the original activated soda. About 30% of the diffusion flux of SO₂ in the solid product was found to be due to surface diffusion. The adsorption equilibrium constant of SO₂ on the solid product was found to be about half the value of the adsorption equilibrium constant on activated soda. It was also determined that SO₂ was irreversibly adsorbed on the solid product Na₂SO₃ at 200°C and 3.7 atm. The gaseous product CO₂ was not adsorbed on the solid product while it was slightly adsorbed on activated soda.     

Fall detection using single-tree complex wavelet transform

The goal of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) research is to improve the quality of life of the elderly and handicapped people and help them maintain an independent lifestyle with the use of sensors, signal processing and telecommunications infrastructure. Unusual human activity detection such as fall detection has important applications. In this paper, a fall detection algorithm for a low cost AAL system using vibration and passive infrared (PIR) sensors is proposed. The single-tree complex wavelet transform (ST-C$\mathbb{C}$WT) is used for feature extraction from vibration sensor signal. The proposed feature extraction scheme is compared to discrete Fourier transform and mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients based feature extraction methods. Vibration signal features are classified into “fall” and “ordinary activity” classes using Euclidean distance, Mahalanobis distance, and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers, and they are compared to each other. The PIR sensor is used for the detection of a moving person in a region of interest. The proposed system works in real-time on a standard personal computer.     

Self-characterization of linear and nonlinear adaptive optics systems

We present methods used to determine the linear or nonlinear static response and the linear dynamic response of an adaptive optics (AO) system. This AO system consists of a nonlinear microelectromechanical systems deformable mirror (DM), a linear tip-tilt mirror (TTM), a control computer, and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. The system is modeled using a single-input-single-output structure to determine the one-dimensional transfer function of the dynamic response of the chain of system hardware. An AO system has been shown to be able to characterize its own response without additional instrumentation. Experimentally determined models are given for a TTM and a DM.     

A Four Quadrant Analog Multiplier Employing Single CDBA

The author proposes a new, fully-integrable four quadrant analog multiplier using a current differencing buffered amplifier (CDBA), a new universal active element. The use of CDBA in fully-integrated multiplier circuit design is attractive, since it simplifies the implementation and reduces the component count while maintaining good performance.     

Hot-air optical turbulence generator for the testing of adaptive optics systems: principles and characterization

A statistically repeatable, hot-air optical turbulence generator, based on the forced mixing of two air flows with different temperatures, is described. Characterization results show that it is possible to generate any turbulence strength up to CN2 Dh approximately 6 x 10(-10) m1/3, allowing a ratio of beam diameter to Fried's parameter as large as D/r0 approximately 25 for one crossing through the turbulator or D/r0 approximately 38 for two crossings. The outer scale (L0 approximately 133 +/- 60 mm) is found to be compatible with the turbulator mixing chamber size (170 mm), and the inner scale (l0 approximately 7.6 +/- 3.8 mm) is compatible with the values in the literature for the free atmosphere. The temporal power spectrum analysis of the centroid of the focused image shows good agreement with Kolmogorov's theory. Therefore the device can be used with confidence to emulate realistic turbulence in a controlled manner. A calibrated CN2 profile, both in layer altitude and strength, is necessary for the testing of off-axis adaptive optics correction (multiconjugate adaptive optics). Testing was done to calibrate the CN2 profile using the slope detection and ranging technique. The first results, with only one layer, show the validity of the approach and indicate that a multiple-pass scheme is viable with a few modifications of the current setup.