Crystallization of the immunodominant outer membrane protein OmpC; the first protein crystals from Salmonella typhi, a human pathogen

AbstractOmpC, a surface antigen of Salmonella typhi was crystallized after several attempts, using PEG 3350. Well shaped hexagonal crystals were grown from vapor diffusion method using octyl glucoside and C12E9 as detergents. Crystals are sensitive to X-ray and diffract weakly up to 7 Å. Porin isoforms, due to the bound lipopolysaccharides, could be the cause for poor diffraction. Crystal quality depends largely on the purification method, and in case of LPS contamination, the genetic background of the bacteria. Crystallization and initial data collection suggest optimum conditions and the method of choice for OmpC crystallization

E Business in Developing Countries (including Middle East): Information Systems Strategic Thinking

E Business in Developing Countries and the Middle East (and in Oman in particular) is of great interest because of opportunities for growth, to elsewhere around the world. For example, E Business expansion in the Middle East is of growing importance because of the scaling down of income from Middle Eastern sourced oil over the next decades. In Developing Countries other than the Middle East E Business is of critical importance for development, for example, China (and examples will be given of China). We are interested in building Case Studies of E Business Strategic Thinking and also exploring ideas for Strategic Thinking generally and more specifically in relation to Developing Countries (including Middle Eastern) E Business. The workshop will consist of two parts (1) What constitutes Strategic Thinking? How can Strategic Thinking be applied to E Business? (2) What are the key issues for E Business development in relation to Developing Countries and extended innovation in the Middle East? This topic, in general terms related to the Middle East, recently won, for the presenters of this workshop, a major research grant in Oman (the equivalent of just over US$200,000). Workshop Leader Information (Please attach a copy of your resum

Implementation of Vector Quantization for Image Compression - A Survey

This paper presents a survey on vector quantization for image compression. Moreover it provides a means of decomposition of the signal in an approach which takes the improvement of inter and intra band correlation as more lithe partition for higher dimension vector spaces. Thus, the image is compressed without information loss using artificial neural networks (ANN). Since 1988, a growing body of research has examined the use of VQ for the image compression. This paper discusses about vector quantization, its principle and examples, its various techniques and image compression its advantages and applications. Additionally this paper also provides a comparative table in the view of simplicity, storage space, robustness and transfer time of various vector quantization methods. In addition the proposed paper also presents a survey on different methods of vector quantization for image compression

Analysis of Malicious Detection in Bluetooth Enabled Devices Exploiting Wireless Personal Area Networks

The growing popularity of mobile devices (smart phones, handsets, PDAs) along with 3G technology brings the mobile internet services on these devices. The wireless devices with messaging capabilities attracted the malware writers to target the hand held devices. Even though the mobile device have numerous benefits like mobility, compact size and ease of their connectivity, the open nature increases the threats and risks being posed. The mobile viruses so far discovered exploited vulnerabilities in Bluetooth by infecting nearby devices and then propagate through SMS to other devices in the mobile network. The problem becomes worse with the growth of MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), mobile game, and mobile commerce in near future. This paper investigates the propagation of mobile worms and viruses that spread primarily via SMS/MMS messages and short range radio interfaces – Bluetooth