Production of human normal adult and fetal hemoglobins in Escherichia coli

A hemoglobin expression system in Escherichia coli is described. In order to produce authentic human hemoglobin, we need to co-express both methionine aminopeptidase and globin genes under the control of a strong promoter. We have constructed three plasmids, pHE2, pHE4 and pHE7, for the expression of human normal adult hemoglobin and a plasmid, pHE9, for the expression of human fetal hemoglobin, in high yields. The globin genes can be derived from either synthetic genes or human globin cDNAs. The extra amino-terminal methionine residues of the expressed globins can be removed by the co-expressed methionine aminopeptidase. The heme is inserted correctly into the expressed alpha- globin from our expression plasmids. A fraction (approximately 25%) of the heme is not inserted correctly into the expressed beta- or gamma- globin. However, the incorrectly inserted hemes can be converted into the correct conformation by carrying out a simple oxidation-reduction process on the purified hemoglobin molecule. We have investigated the functional properties of the expressed hemoglobins by measuring their oxygen-binding properties and their structural features by obtaining their 1H-NMR spectra. Our results show that authentic human normal adult and fetal hemoglobins can be produced from our expression plasmids in E. coli and in high yields. Our expression system allows us to design and to produce any recombinant hemoglobins needed for our research on the structure-function relationship in hemoglobin.      

Novel rare-earth-containing lead-free solders with enhanced ductility

Severallead-free material systems are availableas replacements for traditional lead-based solders in microelectronic packaging, including near-eutectic combinations oftin-rich alloys. Although these materials have superior mechanical properties as compared to the Pb-Sn system, much work remains in developing these materials for electronic packaging. Small additions of rare-earth elements have been shown to refine the microstructure of several lead-free solder systems, thus improving their mechanical properties. This study investigated the effect of the addition of lanthanum on the melting behavior, microstructure, and shear strength of an Sn-3.9Ag-0.7Cu alloy. The influence of LaSn₃ intermetallics on microstructural refinement and damage evolution in these novel solders is discussed.     

A 931 + 2T-->C transition in one COL1A2 allele causes exon 16 skipping in PRO alpha 2(I) mRNA and produces moderately severe OI

The breast clinic in the university Hospital Kuala Lumpur was started in August 1993 to cater for the increasing number of women seeking treatment for breast complaints. A four-month survey carried out from January to April 1994 found that Chinese women are more "breast conscious" than Malay and Indian women. The majority of patients were in the reproductive age group. Benign breast diseases form the majority of cases of breast diseases seen. The pick-up rate for new cases of breast cancer was 3.1%. Fine needle aspiration biopsy had a 100% sensitivity during the four-month study, and was a quick method of obtaining a diagnosis.     

Estimating errors of numerical approximation for periodic analytic functions

We give a simple method based on Cauchy's integral formula for estimating the errors of numerical approximation for periodic analytic functions. We then obtain error estimates for the quadrature formulas of Chawla and Ramakrishnan [1] for the numerical evaluation of the Cauchy principal value integral $$I\left( {f;a} \right) = \int\limits_0^{2\pi } {f(x)\cot \left( {\left( {x - a} \right)/2} \right)dx,} $$ and for the quadrature formula of Garrick [2] for the evaluation ofI (f;o), Based on these error estimates, we are led to conclude that for the evaluation ofI (f;o), Garrick's formula has a better error estimate than the formula of Chawla and Ramakrishnan with the same number of function evaluations. Finally, we extend Garrick's formula for the evaluation ofI (f;a) for arbitrarya∈[0,2π); the extended formula has, for alla, the same error estimate as Garrick's formula. While, for a=x_j, the extended formula is identical with the quadrature formula of Wittich [3], fora≠x _j, the extended formula is much better in that it uses only half the number of function evaluations of Wittich's formula for the same accuracy.     

A learning automata-based fault-tolerant routing algorithm for mobile ad hoc networks

Reliable routing of packets in a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) has always been a major concern. The open medium and the susceptibility of the nodes of being fault-prone make the design of protocols for these networks a challenging task. The faults in these networks, which occur either due to the failure of nodes or due to reorganization, can eventuate to packet loss. Such losses degrade the performance of the routing protocols running on them. In this paper, we propose a routing algorithm, named as learning automata based fault-tolerant routing algorithm (LAFTRA), which is capable of routing in the presence of faulty nodes in MANETs using multipath routing. We have used the theory of Learning Automata (LA) for optimizing the selection of paths, reducing the overhead in the network, and for learning about the faulty nodes present in the network. The proposed algorithm can be juxtaposed to any existing routing protocol in a MANET. The results of simulation of our protocol using network simulator 2 (ns-2) shows the increase in packet delivery ratio and decrease in overhead compared to the existing protocols. The proposed protocol gains an edge over FTAR, E2FT by nearly 2% and by more than 10% when compared with AODV in terms of packet delivery ratio with nearly 30% faulty nodes in the network. The overhead generated by our protocol is lesser by 1% as compared to FTAR and by nearly 17% as compared to E2FT when there are nearly 30% faulty nodes.