Environmental effects on the coevolution of pursuit and evasion strategies

The game of tag is frequently used in the study of pursuit and evasion strategies that are discovered through competitive coevolution. The aim of coevolution is to create an arms race where opposing populations cyclically evolve in incremental improvements, driving the system towards better strategies. A coevolutionary simulation of the game of tag involving two populations of agents; pursuers and evaders, is developed to investigate the effects of a boundary and two obstacles. The evolution of strategies through Chemical Genetic Programming optimizes the mapping of genotypic strings to phenotypic trees. Four experiments were conducted, distinguished by speed differentials and environmental conditions. Designing experiments to evaluate the efficacy of emergent strategies often reveal necessary steps needed for coevolutionary progress. The experiments that excluded obstacles and boundaries provided design pointers to ensure coevolutionary progress as well as a deeper understanding of strategies that emerged when obstacles and boundaries were added. In the latter, we found that an awareness of the environment and the pursuer was not critical in an evader’s strategy to survive, instead heading to the edge of the boundary or behind an obstacle in a bid to ‘throw-off or hide from the pursuer’ or simply turn in circles was often sufficient, thereby revealing possible suboptimal strategies that were environment specific. We also observed that a condition for coevolutionary progress was that the problem complexity must be surmountable by at least one population; that is, some pursuer must be able to tag an opponent. Due to the use of amino-acid building blocks in our Chemical Genetic Program, our simulations were able to achieve significant complexity in a short period of time.

On the pH dependence of protein stability

This paper treats the free energy contribution of ionizable groups to protein stability. A method is presented for the calculation of the pH dependence of the denaturation free energy of a protein, which yields results that can be compared directly to experiment. The first step in the treatment is the determination of the average charges of all the ionizable groups in both the folded and unfolded protein. An expression due to Tanford then relates the pH dependence of the unfolding free energy to the difference in net charge between the two states. In order to determine absolute rather than relative unfolding free energies, it is necessary to calculate the total contribution of ionizable groups to protein stability at some reference pH. This is accomplished through a statistical mechanical treatment similar to the one used previously in the calculation of pKas. The treatment itself is rigorous but it suffers from uncertainties in the pKa calculations. Nevertheless, the overall shape of experimentally observed plots of denaturation free energy as a function of pH are reasonably well reproduced by the calculations. A number of general conclusions that arise from the analysis are: (1) knowledge of titration curves and/or effective pKa values of ionizable groups in proteins is sufficient to calculate the pH dependence of the denaturation free energy with respect to some reference pH value. However, in order to calculate the absolute contribution of ionizable groups to protein stability, it is necessary to also know the intrinsic pKa of each group. This is defined as the pKa of a group in a hypothetical state of the protein where all other groups are neutral. (2) Due to desolvation effects, ionizable groups destabilize proteins, although the effect is strongly dependent on pH. There are however, strongly stabilizing pairwise Coulombic interactions on the surface of proteins. (3) Plots of stability versus pH should not be interpreted in terms of a group whose pKa corresponds to the titration midpoint, but rather to a group with different pKas (that correspond approximately to the titration end points) in each state. (4) Any residual structure in the GuHCl-denatured state of proteins appears to have little effect on the pH dependence of stability. (5) pH-dependent unfolding, for example to the "molten globule" state, appears due to individual groups with anomalous pKas whose locations on the protein surface may determine the nature of the unfolded state.     

Numerical analysis on compliance and electrical behavior of multi-copper-column flip-chip interconnects for wafer-level packaging

This paper presents modeling and simulation results of a modified copper-column-based flip-chip interconnect with ultrafine pitch for wafer-level packaging, and the process and prototyping procedure are described as well. This interconnect consists of multiple copper columns which are electrically in parallel and supporting a solder bump. A simple analytical model has been developed for correlation between the interconnect geometry and the thermal fatigue life. In comparison to the conventional single-copper-column (SCC) interconnects, numerical analysis reveals that the multi-copper-column (MCC) interconnect features enhanced compliances and, hence, higher thermomechanical reliability, while the associated electrical parasitics (R, L, and C) at dc and moderate frequencies are still kept low. Parametric studies reveal the effects of geometric parameters of MCC interconnects on both compliances and electrical parasitics, which in turn facilitate design optimization for best performance. By using coplanar waveguides (CPWs) as feed lines on both chip and package substrate, a high-frequency (up to 40 GHz) S-parameter analysis is conducted to investigate the transmission characteristics of the MCC interconnects within various scenarios which combines various interconnect pitches and common chip and package substrates. An equivalent lumped circuit model is proposed and the circuit parameters (R, L, C, and G) are obtained throughout a broad frequency range. Good agreement is achieved for the transmission characteristics between the equivalent lumped circuit model and direct simulation results.     

Effect of Substrate Nitrogen/Chemical Oxygen Demand Ratio on the Formation of Aerobic Granules

The effect of the substrate nitrogen/chemical oxygen demand (N/COD) (mg/mg) ratio on the formation and characteristics of aerobic granules for simultaneous organic removal and nitrification were studied in four sequencing batch reactors operated at different substrate N/COD ratios ranging from 5/100 to 30/100. Results showed that aerobic granules formed at the substrate N/COD ratios studied, and both nitrifying and heterotrophic activities of aerobic granules were governed by the substrate N/COD ratio. The nitrifying activity was significantly enhanced with the increase of the substrate N/COD ratio, while the heterotrophic activity decreased. By determining elemental compositions of aerobic granules cultivated at different substrate N/COD ratios, it was revealed that the cell hydrophobicity was inversely related to the ratio of cell oxygen content to cell carbon content of aerobic granule. The production of extracellular polysaccharides showed a decreasing trend as the substrate N/COD ratio increased. This is probably due to enriched nitrifying population with the high N/COD ratios. This study clearly demonstrated that an aerobic granule-based sequencing batch reactor would have a great potential for simultaneous organic oxidation and nitrification.     

Passengers’ perceived ability to get out safely from an underground train station in an emergency situation

Cognition, Technology & Work - Many recent studies have been done on the development of evacuation systems and plans. There are also several studies on human behaviour in fire. However, little...     

Biohydrogen production: Current perspectives and the way forward

Global research is moving forward in developing biological production of hydrogen (biohydrogen) as a renewable energy source to alleviate stresses due to carbon dioxide emissions and depleting fossil fuels resource. Biohydrogen has the potential to replace current hydrogen production technologies relying heavily on fossil fuels through electricity generation. While biohydrogen research is still immature, extensive work on laboratory- and pilot-scale systems with promising prospects has been reported. This work presents a review of advances in biohydrogen production focusing on production pathways, microbiology, as well as bioreactor configuration and operation. Challenges and prospects of biohydrogen production are also outlined.     

Environmental Factors,Toxicants and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an immune-complex-mediated multi-systemic autoimmune condition of multifactorial etiology, which mainly affects young women. It is currently believed that the onset of SLE and lupus flares are triggered by various environmental factors in genetically susceptible individuals. Various environmental agents and toxicants, such as cigarette smoke, alcohol, occupationally- and non-occupationally-related chemicals, ultraviolet light, infections, sex hormones and certain medications and vaccines, have been implicated to induce SLE onset or flares in a number case series, case-control and population-based cohort studies and very few randomized controlled trials. Here, we will describe some of these recognized environmental lupus triggering and perpetuating factors and explain how these factors potentially bias the immune system towards autoimmunity through their interactions with genetic and epigenetic alterations. Further in-depth exploration of how potentially important environmental factors mechanistically interact with the immune system and the genome, which trigger the onset of SLE and lupus flares, will certainly be one of the plausible steps to prevent the onset and to decelerate the progress of the disease.     

Modeling of friction-stir butt-welds and its application in automotive bumper impact performance Part 2. Impact modeling and bumper crash performance

Ever increasing requirements regarding vehicle safety have led to rapid developments in various joining process. Among FSW widely used for Aluminum alloy welded structure of car body because of their remarkable performance in welding. For a better understanding of this performance, it is necessary to determine the behavior of butt weld in service conditions. In earlier phase of this study, thermo mechanical simulations and analysis are performed to understand the thermal behavior in the FSW weld zones. The developed models are correlated against published experimental results in terms of temperature profile of the weld zone. The objectives of the second part of this work is to develop and demonstrate an FE model of bumper and crash box assembly that would improve on the current modeling techniques for the mechanical response of welds in structural problems.     

Nano and Microtechnologies for the Study of Magnetotactic Bacteria

Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) naturally synthesize magnetic nanoparticles that are wrapped in lipid membranes. These membrane‐bound particles, which are known as magnetosomes, are characterized by their narrow size distribution, high colloidal stability, and homogenous magnetic properties. These characteristics of magnetosomes confer them with significant value as materials for biomedical and industrial applications. MTB are also a model system to study key biological questions relating to formation of bacterial organelles, metal homeostasis, biomineralization, and magnetoaerotaxis. The similar size scale of nano and microfluidic systems to MTB and ease of coupling to local magnetic fields make them especially useful to study and analyze MTB. In this Review, a summary of nano‐ and microtechnologies that are developed for purposes such as MTB sorting, genetic engineering, and motility assays is provided. The use of existing platforms that can be adapted for large‐scale MTB processing including microfluidic bioreactors is also described. As this is a relatively new field, future synergistic research directions coupling MTB, and nano‐ and microfluidics are also suggested. It is hoped that this Review could start to bridge scientific communities and jump‐start new ideas in MTB research that can be made possible with nano‐ and microfluidic technologies.