STRUCTURAL COMPARISON OF PROKARYOTIC AND EUKARYOTIC FOLATE TRANSPORTERS BY COMPUTATIONAL APPROACH

Objective: In silico approach has particularly drawn attention in providing a realistic representation needed to understand the fundamental molecular structure of a transporter. The importance of folate metabolism and role in the internalization of antifolates in eukaryotes have been studied extensively, but the structural study of folate transporters in Homo sapiens (HFT), Plasmodium falciparum (PFT), and Streptococcus sp. (SFT) is still lacking. This study was conducted to study and compare the structures of prokaryotic and eukaryotic folate transporters. Methods: HFT, PFT, and SFT were queried using blast and sequences were retrieved using National Center for Biotechnology and Information (NCBI) databases. This was superseded by structural and functional prediction of transporters. The structure has been generated using Swiss model which was visualized using PyMol and validated by Procheck and ERRAT analysis along with the values of different secondary structures mapping to diverse sections of the Ramachandran plot. The structural and functional comparison was performed by PROSO, ProFunc, TM Score, Porewalker, TMHMM, and Protscale. Result: All the parameters for structural comparison suggest that H. sapiens folate transporter is 16.67% and 17.72% identical to Plasmodium and Streptococcus whereas Plasmodium is 21.59% identical to Streptococcus. The evaluation of transmembrane helices and hydrophobicity resulted in the presence of 1, 4, and 12 membrane-spanning segments with predicted US, UDUD, and UDS as pore shape in Plasmodium, Streptococcus, and humans. Conclusion: Such folate receptors are the main targets for the specific conveyance of antifolates. The differences found between these species may offer possibilities for the development of new drugs in future.Â

STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISATION OF 5-HYDROXYTRYPTAMINE2A RECEPTOR IN HOMO SAPIENS BY IN - SILICO METHOD

Objective: Structural characterization of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)2A receptor in homo sapiens using in silico method.Methods: In silico approach has particularly providing a realistic representation needed to understand the fundamental molecular structure of a serotonin receptor. The structure has been generated using Swiss model, Modeller 9.14, Phyre2, and Geno three-dimensional, which was visualized using PyMol, and validated by Procheck and ERRAT analysis along with the values of different secondary structures mapping to diverse sections of the Ramachandran plot.Results: We compared all different models. Further structural analysis suggested that the structure of 5-HT2A is a monomer with 18 alpha helices, seven beta sheets, and one disulfide bridge. There is no signal peptide region in the protein sequence. The structure contains mostly polar and aromatic amino acid as suggested by using hydropathy plot. However, in both partitioning systems bilayer to water and water to bilayer, there are some hydropathy predicted segments, which are also transmembrane segments. Finally, the pore features, including diameter profile, size, and shape, were determined by porewalker, and the shape of the pore was found to be UDSD.Conclusion: This study suggested that 5-HT2A receptor interaction with its natural ligand serotonin and other inhibitor compounds would further additional information about G protein-coupled receptors. The 5-HT2A receptor could be an important target for therapeutics development

Storage Stability of Sandesh – an Indian Milk Sweet

Storage stability of sandesh, one of the popular Indian milk sweets was determined in terms of its moisture adsorption isotherms by gravimetrically at 20 and 30°C using saturated salt solutions in the range of 11.2 and 97.2%. The isotherms obtained were of sigmoid shape and of the BET type. Out of three sorption models fitted to the experimental data, Caurie model was found superior in interpreting the moisture adsorption characteristics of sandesh with low relative deviation percent and high coefficient of determination. The values of isosteric heat of sorption as calculated from Clausius–Clapeyron equation was found to increase with decreasing moisture content at lower moisture content and approached the value of heat of vaporization of free water above 17.25% (db).

Intelligent Control and Path Planning of Multiple Mobile Robots Using Hybrid Ai Techniques

This work reports the problem of intelligent control and path planning of multiple mobile robots. Soft computing methods, based on three main approaches i.e. 1) Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm, 2) Radial Basis Function Network and 3) Bees Algorithm are presented. Initially, Bacterial foraging Optimization Algorithm (BFOA) with constant step size is analyzed for the navigation of mobile robots. Then the step size has been made adaptive to develop an Adaptive Bacterial Foraging Optimization (ABFO) controller. Further, another controller using radial basis function neural network has been developed for the mobile robot navigation. Number of training patterns are intended to train the RBFN controller for different conditions arises during the navigation. Moreover, Bees Algorithm has been used for the path planning of the mobile robots in unknown environments. A new fitness function has been used to perform the essential navigational tasks effectively and efficiently. In addition to the selected standalone approaches, hybrid models are also proposed to improve the ability of independent navigation. Five hybrid models have been presented and analyzed for navigation of one, two and four mobile robots in various scenarios. Comparisons have been made for the distance travelled and time taken by the robots in simulation and real time. Further, all the proposed approaches are found capable of solving the basic issues of path planning for mobile robots while doing navigation. The controllers have been designed, developed and analyzed for various situations analogous to possible applications of the robots in indoor environments. Computer simulations are presented for all cases with single and multiple mobile robots in different environments to show the effectiveness of the proposed controllers. Furthermore, various exercises have been performed, analyzed and compared in physical environments to exhibit the effectiveness of the developed controllers

Mechanical Characterization and Solid Particle Erosion Response of Particulate Filled Jute-Epoxy Composites

Fiber reinforced polymer composites are now considered as an important class of engineering materials. This thesis depicts the processing and mechanical characterization of a new class of multi-phase composites consisting of epoxy resin reinforced with jute fiber and filled with silicon carbide (SiC) particulates. The SiC used as filler material in this work has been prepared from rice husk through plasma processing technique. The effect of filler in modifying the physical and mechanical properties of jute-epoxy composites has been studied. Rice husk is considered as an agricultural waste and it is thus interesting to explore the utilization potential of SiC derived from rice husk in composite making. Moreover, being cheap, inexhaustible and easily available, it would hopefully provide a cost effective solution to composite manufacturers. With the increased use of these materials in erosive work environments, it has become extremely important to investigate their erosion characteristics intensively. In view of this, erosion trials are carried out at various test conditions. For this, an air jet type erosion test rig and Taguchi’s orthogonal arrays are used. Significant control factors influencing the erosion wear rate are identified. This thesis also presents the development of a theoretical model for estimating erosion damage caused by solid particle impact on the composites. The model is based upon conservation of particle kinetic energy and relates the erosion rate with some of the material properties and test conditions. The theoretical results are compared and are found to be in good agreement with the experimental values. The research reported in this thesis reveals that successful fabrication of multi-component hybrid jute-epoxy composites with reinforcement of SiC derived from rice husk by plasma processing route is possible. Incorporation of these SiC fillers modifies the micro-hardness, density, tensile, flexural and inter-laminar shear strengths of the composites. Hence, while fabricating a composite of specific requirements, there is a need for the choice of appropriate filler material and for optimizing its content in the composite system. It is demonstrated that if supported by an appropriate magnitude of erosion efficiency, the proposed theoretical model can perform well for epoxy based hybrid composites for normal as well as oblique impacts. The presence of particulate fillers in these composites improves their erosion wear resistance and this improvement depends on the weight content of the filler. Erosion characteristics of these composites have been successfully analyzed using Taguchi experimental design. Significant control factors affecting the erosion rate have been identified through successful implementation of this technique. Impact velocity, fiber/filler content and impingement angle in declining sequence are found to be significant for minimizing the erosion rate of all the composites. Erodent size is identified as the least influencing control factor for erosion rate

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma: A rare case report

Minor salivary gland carcinomas are rarely reported. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is one of the most common salivary glandmalignancies. MEC accounts for 1% to 2% of major salivary gland neoplasms and 9% of minor gland tumors. It is most commonly seenin the parotid gland and usually appears as asymptomatic swelling. However, the palate is a frequent site when it occurs in the minorsalivary glands. Follow-up of the patient is very important as local recurrence rate with conservative treatment is high. Here we arereporting a low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma involving palatal region in a 25-years-old female patient. The patient presented witha fast-growing swelling, invading the underlying anatomical structures and was treated successfully through the antrostomy procedure

First-principles predictions of tunable half metallicity in zigzag GaN nanoribbons with possible applications in CO detection and spintronics

Based on systematic first-principles density-functional theory (DFT) simulations, we predict that the zigzag GaN nanoribbons (ZGaNNR) can be used both as highly efficient CO detectors as well as spin filters. Our calculations performed both on infinitely long nanoribbons, and also on finite strands, suggest that: (a) CO binds strongly at the edges of ZGaNNRs, and (b) that several of the resultant configurations exhibit half-metallic behavior. We considered various edge-passivation sites and found that all the resultant structures are thermodynamically stable. The metallic, half-metallic, and semiconducting configurations are observed as a function of CO passivation coverage. We also compute the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of various structures using the Landauer formalism and find that the devices made up of half-metallic configurations act as highly-efficient spin filters. The effect of CO concentration is also investigated which suggests a viable way to not just tune the electronic band gap of ZGaNNRs, but also their half metallicity. Our simulations thus suggest a new direction of research for possible device applications of III-V heterostructures.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures (included

Superconductive REBCO Thin Films and Their Nanocomposites: The Role of Rare-Earth Oxides in Promoting Sustainable Energy

The lossless transmission of direct electrical currents in superconductors is very often regarded as an “energy superhighway” with greatly enhanced efficiency. With the discovery of high temperature superconductors (HTS) in the late eighties, the prospect of using these materials in efficient and advanced technological applications became very prominent. The elevated operating temperatures as compared to low temperature superconductors (LTS), relaxing cooling requirements, and the gradual development of facile synthesis processes raised hopes for a broad breakthrough of superconductor technology. The impact of superconductor technology on the economy and energy sectors is predicted to be huge if these are utilized on a large scale. The development of superconducting tapes with high critical current density (Jc) is crucial for their use in transmission cables. Many countries these days are running projects to develop wires from these HTS materials and simultaneously field trials are being conducted to assess the feasibility of this technology. These HTS wires can carry electrical currents more than 100 times larger than their conventional counterparts with minimal loss of energy. The increased efficiency of HTS electric power products may result in greatly reduced carbon emissions compared to those resulting from using the conventional alternatives. In order to use the thin films of YBa2Cu3O7−δ (YBCO) and REBCO [RE (rare-earth) = Sm, Gd, Eu etc.], members of the HTS family, for future technological applications, the enhancement of Jc over wide range of temperatures and applied magnetic fields is highly desired. The enhancement of Jc of YBCO and REBCO films has been successfully demonstrated by employing different techniques which include doping by rare-earth atoms, incorporating nanoscale secondary phase inclusions into the REBCO film matrix, decoration of the substrate surface etc. which generate artificial pinning centers (APCs). In this review, the development of the materials engineering aspect that has been conducted over the last two decades to improve the current carrying capability of HTS thin films is presented. The effect of controlled incorporation of APCs through various methods and techniques on the superconducting properties of YBCO and REBCO thin films is presented, heading toward superior performance of such superconducting thin films