Bacteria-Responsive Self-Assembly of Antimicrobial Peptide Nanonets for Trap-and-Kill of Antibiotic-Resistant Strains

Bacterial trapping using nanonets is a ubiquitous immune defense mechanism against infectious microbes. These nanonets can entrap microbial cells, effectively arresting their dissemination and rendering them more vulnerable to locally secreted microbicides. Inspired by this evolutionarily conserved anti-infective strategy, a series of 15 to 16 residue-long synthetic β-hairpin peptides is herein constructed with the ability to self-assemble into nanonets in response to the presence of bacteria, enabling spatiotemporal control over microbial killing. Using amyloid-specific K114 assay and confocal microscopy, the membrane components lipoteichoic acid and lipopolysaccharide are shown to play a major role in determining the amyloid-nucleating capacity as triggered by Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria respectively. These nanonets displayed both trapping and killing functionalities, hence offering a direct improvement from the trap-only biomimetics in literature. By substituting a single turn residue of the non-amyloidogenic BTT1 peptide, the nanonet-forming BTT1-3A analog is produced with comparable antimicrobial potency. With the same sequence manipulation approach, BTT2-4A analog modified from BTT2 peptide showed improved antimicrobial potency against colistin-resistant clinical isolates. The peptide nanonets also demonstrated robust stability against proteolytic degradation, and promising in vivo efficacy and biosafety profile. Overall, these bacteria-responsive peptide nanonets are promising clinical anti-infective alternatives for circumventing antibiotic resistance.     

Analysing green supply chain management practices in Brazil’s electrical/electronics industry using interpretive structural modelling

Industries need to adopt the environmental management concepts in the traditional supply chain management. The green supply chain management (GSCM) is an established concept to ensure environment-friendly activities in industry. This paper identifies the relationship of driving and dependence that exists between GSCM practices with regard to their adoption within Brazilian electrical/electronic industry with the help of interpretive structural modelling (ISM). From the results, we infer that cooperation with customers for eco-design practice is driving other practices, and this practice acts as a vital role among other practices. Commitment to GSCM from senior managers and cooperation with customers for cleaner production occupy the highest level.     

Adaptive Optimizing Compilers for the 21st Century

Historically, compilers have operated by applying a fixed set of optimizations in a predetermined order. We call such an ordered list of optimizations a compilation sequence. This paper describes a prototype system that uses biased random search to discover a program-specific compilation sequence that minimizes an explicit, external objective function. The result is a compiler framework that adapts its behavior to the application being compiled, to the pool of available transformations, to the objective function, and to the target machine. This paper describes experiments that attempt to characterize the space that the adaptive compiler must search. The preliminary results suggest that optimal solutions are rare and that local minima are frequent. If this holds true, biased random searches, such as a genetic algorithm, should find good solutions more quickly than simpler strategies, such as hill climbing.     

Acid-base,electron-donating and magnetic properties of Nd2O3 and its mixed oxides with alumina catalysts

The electron donor properties of Nd₂O₃ activated at 300, 500 and 800°C were investigated through studies on the adsorption of electron acceptors of various electron affinities — 7, 7, 8, 8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (2.84 eV), 2, 3, 5, 6-tetrachloro-1, 4-benzoquinone (2.40 eV), p-dinitrobenzene (1.77 eV), and m-dinitrobenzene (1.26 eV) in solvents acetonitrile and 1, 4-dioxan. The extent of electron transfer during adsorption has been found from magnetic measurements and electronic spectral data. The corresponding data on mixed oxides of neodymium and aluminium are reported for various compositions. The acid-base properties of catalysts were also determined using a set of Hammett indicators.     

Water crisis through the analytic of urban transformation: an analysis of Bangalore’s hydrosocial regimes

ABSTRACT

This paper explores intensified water crisis in Bangalore (or Bengaluru) in India by using the analytic of three hydrosocial regimes: the catchment-based regime, the hydraulic regime and the speculative urban regime. It uses a wide range of qualitative interviews, scientific reports and secondary sources to analyze shifting urban trajectories, agrarian relations and their interlinkages with water. Historical ruptures (in the realm of governance, urban growth and changing urban–rural dynamics) allow one to highlight the complex role of speculative logics that shape urban expansion and water scarcity.     

Elucidating the mechanism of cellular uptake and removal of protein-coated gold nanoparticles of different sizes and shapes

We investigated the mechanism by which transferrin-coated gold nanoparticles (Au NP) of different sizes and shapes entered mammalian cells. We determined that transferrin-coated Au NP entered the cells via clathrin-mediated endocytosis pathway. The NPs exocytosed out of the cells in a linear relationship to size. This was different than the relationship between uptake and size. Furthermore, we developed a mathematical equation to predict the relationship of size versus exocytosis for different cell lines. These studies will provide guidelines for developing NPs for imaging and drug delivery applications, which will require "controlling" NP accumulation rate. These studies will also have implications in determining nanotoxicity.     

Analysis of closed loop supply chain using genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimisation

This paper describes a relational database system for semi-generative process planning for sheet metal parts that emulates expert system capabilities. The system integrates a feature-based relational database for the parts, a forward chaining rule-based strategy for machine selection, both global and feature-specific execution of the rules and a graph theoretic cost optimization model for optimal process plan selection. This system, which is currently being developed for a sheet metal fabrication company, suggests that, using the experience of shopfloor personnel, an efficient integration of feature-based process planning and expert system strategies can be accomplished.     

Random 3-SAT: The Plot Thickens

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the following questions: how does the average-case complexity of random 3-SAT, understood as a function of the order (number of variables) for fixed density (ratio of number of clauses to order) instances, depend on the density? Is there a phase transition in which the complexity shifts from polynomial to exponential in the order? Is the transition dependent or independent of the solver? Our experiment design uses three complete SAT solvers embodying different algorithms: GRASP, CPLEX, and CUDD. We observe new phase transitions for all three solvers, where the median running time shifts from polynomial in the order to exponential. The location of the phase transition appears to be solver-dependent. GRASP shifts from polynomial to exponential complexity near the density of 3.8, CPLEX shifts near density 3, while CUDD exhibits this transition between densities of 0.1 and 0.5. This experimental result underscores the dependence between the solver and the complexity phase transition, and challenges the widely held belief that random 3-SAT exhibits a phase transition in computational complexity very close to the crossover point.     

Competitive performance improvement by operational budget allocation using ANFIS and fuzzy quality function deployment: a case study

A budget is a detailed and comprehensive plan estimated to use a company’s resources over a specific period, and a primary purpose of budget allocation is to drive all activities towards organizational goals. But it seems, often, there is no logical and coherent relationship between overall objectives and action plans. This paper has drawn a consistent relationship between an organization's strategic plans to operational budgeting in a competitive environment. According to the step-by-step model proposed in this article, a strategic plan’s importance considers the main competitors of the market as an external environment factor and a balanced scorecard factors as an internal environment. Both are calculated by an artificial neuro-fuzzy inference systems approach to outshine competing companies. Then, sub-progress must be hierarchically determined in specific plans. In passing, a fuzzy quality function deployment method translates a strategic plan’s weight to detailed task importance (as the smallest component of an operational program) at the mercy of four houses of a quality matrix. An operational budget is allocated to programs for propagating strategic plans in a competitive environment. Finally, a case study in an automobile industry is presented and discussed to illustrate the application of the developed pattern.     

Barriers to the adoption of green operational practices at Brazilian companies: effects on green and operational performance

The objective of this paper is to verify to what degree the internal and external barriers (I/EBs) to environmental management affect the adoption of green operational practices (GOPs) and to determine whether they influence the firms’ operational and green performance in a sample of Brazilian companies. A conceptual framework with 8 hypotheses is proposed and tested at 75 companies using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with WarpPLS 4.0. The main results show that (a) the proposed framework obtained an adequate statistical adjustment, (b) the internal barriers (IBs) are more significant than the EBs when adopting GOPs, (c) GOPs relate directly to the firms’ green and operational performance (OP), (d) the IBs also indirectly influence the firms’ green and OP and (e) the firm size does not significantly influence its green and OP. This work contributes to the literature by showing that companies which are looking for green competitive advantages should try to reduce their IBs. Also, policy-makers should pay attention not only to legislation that promotes ecological modernisation, but also to create a strong set of initiatives to overcome IBs, regardless of the size of the firms.