IoT Technology,Applications and Challenges: A Contemporary Survey

Wireless Personal Communications - Internet of things (IoT) is a very unique platform which is getting very popular day by day. The very reason for this to happen is the advancement in technology...     

Face anti-spoofing by identity masking using random walk patterns and outlier detection

Pattern Analysis and Applications - Existing architectures used in face anti-spoofing tend to deploy registered spatial measurements to generate feature vectors for spoof detection. This means that...     

Screening of Yeast Display Libraries of Enzymatically Treated Peptides to Discover Macrocyclic Peptide Ligands

We present the construction and screening of yeast display libraries of post-translationally modified peptides wherein site-selective enzymatic treatment of linear peptides is achieved using bacterial transglutaminase. To this end, we developed two alternative routes, namely (i) yeast display of linear peptides followed by treatment with recombinant transglutaminase in solution; or (ii) intracellular co-expression of linear peptides and transglutaminase to achieve peptide modification in the endoplasmic reticulum prior to yeast surface display. The efficiency of peptide modification was evaluated via orthogonal detection of epitope tags integrated in the yeast-displayed peptides by flow cytometry, and via comparative cleavage of putative cyclic vs. linear peptides by tobacco etch virus (TEV) protease. Subsequently, yeast display libraries of transglutaminase-treated peptides were screened to isolate binders to the N-terminal region of the Yes-Associated Protein (YAP) and its WW domains using magnetic selection and fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). The identified peptide cyclo[E-LYLAYPAH-K] featured a K_D of 1.75 μM for YAP and 0.68 μM for the WW domains of YAP as well as high binding selectivity against albumin and lysozyme. These results demonstrate the usefulness of enzyme-mediated cyclization in screening combinatorial libraries to identify cyclic peptide binders.     

Expression of deletion constructs of bovine {beta}-1, 4-galactosyltransferase in Escherichia coli: importance of Cysl34 for its activity

Bovine ß-1, 4-galactosyltransferase (ß-1,4-GT; EC 2.4.1.90 [EC] ) belongs to the glycosyltransferase familyand as such shares a general topology: an N-terminal cytoplasmictail, a signal anchor followed by a stem region and a catalyticdomain at the C-tenninal end of the protein. cDNA constructsof the N-terminal deleted forms of ß-1, 4-GT wereprepared in pGEX-2T vector and expressed in E.coli as glutathione-S-transferase(GST) fusion proteins. Recombinant proteins accumulated withininclusion bodies as insoluble aggregates that were solubilizedin 5 M guanidine HCl and required an ‘oxido-shuffling’reagent for regeneration of the enzyme activity. The recombinant(ß-1, 4-GT, devoid of the GST domain, has 30–85%of the sp. act. of bovine milk ß-1, 4-GT with apparentK_ms for N-acetylglucosamine and UDP-galactose similar to thoseof milk enzyme. Deletion analysesshow that both (ß-1,4-GT and lactose synthetase activities remain intact even inthe absence of the first 129 residues (pGT-dl29). The activitiesare lost when either deletions extend up to residue 142 (pGT-dl42)or Cysl34 is mutatedto Ser (pGT-dl29C134S). These results suggestthat the formation of a disulfide bond involving Cysl34 holdsthe protein in a conformation that is required for enzymaticactivity.     

Monte Carlo simulation of transport process of the sputtered species in the facing target sputtering technique

In facing target sputtering (FTS) technique two targets facing each other are sputtered simultaneously and the particles are collected in the off axis position. When these two targets constitute two different materials having different sputtering yields, the deposited films show a gradation in composition along the axis parallel to the targets. The process parameters involved, increase the complexity of understanding the composition profile of the deposited films. Here an attempt has been made to simulate the transport behavior of the sputtered species, which leads to the theoretical realization of the variation in composition. The simulation has been performed for SmCo system using the Monte Carlo approach based on the empirical formula proposed by Sigmund and Thompson. The theoretical results have been compared with the experimental results obtained and are explained in detail.     

Structural phase transition,impedance spectroscopy and narrow optical band Gap in 1-xKNbO3-xBaSc12Nb12O3

In the progress of exploring lead-free ferroelectric perovskites, a new solid solution of $\left(1-x\right)\mathrm{}\mathrm{K}\mathrm{N}\mathrm{b}{\mathrm{O}}_3-\mathrm{}x\mathrm{}\mathrm{B}\mathrm{a}\left({\mathrm{S}\mathrm{c}}_{\frac{1}{2}}\mathrm{}{\mathrm{N}\mathrm{b}}_{\frac{1}{2}}\right)O_3$ is synthesized using solid state method. The effect of Ba and Sc codoping on structural phase transition, dielectric, ferroelectric, electrical, and optical properties is systematically studied. A narrow band gap of 1.98eV is observed at x?=?0.05. On further increase in x, the optical band gap increases due to increased strain. The crystal symmetry changes from orthorhombic at x?=?0.00 to tetragonal phase at x?≤?0.15, remains in pseudocubic phase for 0.15?<?x?<?0.35, and finally transforms to the cubic symmetry at x?≥?0.35. A new Raman active mode evolves at 180?${\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$ at x?=?0.15, which could be the TO or LO phonon of ${\mathrm{A}}_1$ symmetry. The electrical microstructure of the prepared electroceramics at room temperature has been investigated using impedance spectroscopy. This newly synthesized ferroelectric perovskite material has promising potential applications for photocatalysis and photovoltaics, especially under the visible light spectrum.     

Quantitative measurement of the resolution and sensitivity of confocal microscopes using line-scanning fluorescence correlation spectroscopy

Spatial resolution and the sensitivity to detect a fluorophore are the two most important optical parameters that characterize a confocal microscope. However, these are rather difficult to estimate quantitatively. We show that fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) provides an easy and reliable measure of these quantities. We modify existing schemes for performing FCS on a commercial confocal microscope to carry out these measurements, and provide an analysis routine that can yield the relevant quantities. Our method does not require any modification of the confocal microscope, yet it yields a robust measure of the resolution and sensitivity of the instrument.     

Nonlinear Shape-Manifold Learning Approach: Concepts,Tools and Applications

In this paper, we present the concept of a “shape manifold” designed for reduced order representation of complex “shapes” encountered in mechanical problems, such as design optimization, springback or image correlation. The overall idea is to define the shape space within which evolves the boundary of the structure. The reduced representation is obtained by means of determining the intrinsic dimensionality of the problem, independently of the original design parameters, and by approximating a hyper surface, i.e. a shape manifold, connecting all admissible shapes represented using level set functions. Also, an optimal parameterization may be obtained for arbitrary shapes, where the parameters have to be defined a posteriori. We also developed the predictor-corrector optimization manifold walking algorithms in a reduced shape space that guarantee the admissibility of the solution with no additional constraints. We illustrate the approach on three diverse examples drawn from the field of computational and applied mechanics.     

WEB-Spline-based mesh-free finite element approximation for p-Laplacian

In this paper, we discuss the approximation of p-Laplace problem using WEB-Spline based mesh free finite elements. Along with usual weak formulation, we also consider the mixed formulation of the p-Laplace problem. We give existence, uniqueness results for both continuous and discrete problems. We also provide a priori error estimates for both the formulations.     

QR code based color image cryptography for the secured transmission of ECG signal

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The paper presents a novel QR code based color image steganography to facilitate remote transmission of ECG signal along with patient diagnosis data. The...