8,992 research outputs found
ESTIMATION OF SOME SECONDARY METABOLITES FROM THE IN VITRO CULTURES OF CHLOROPHYTUM BORIVILIANUM SANT. Et. FERN
Objective: To perform phytochemical screening, estimate total saponins and to study the secondary metabolite profiling of Chlorophytum borivilianum by ESI-MS (Electron spray ionisation-mass spectroscopy) and GC-MS (Gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy) techniques.Methods: The powdered samples of leaves and roots (nature grown and freshly harvested and hardened in vitro regenerated) and callus of Chlorophytum borivilianum (2 g) were extracted exhaustively by soxhlet by refluxing with petroleum ether (60-80 °C) and then with ethanol (85%). Alternatively, the methanol extract was prepared for the samples by the cold maceration method and the filtered extract was used. This extract was further analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify and characterize the chemical compounds present in the crude extracts. Vanillin sulphuric acid assay was done to estimate the total saponin content of extracts.Results: Phytochemical analysis of ethanolic extract showed the presence of major classes of phytochemicals. The spectrophotometric analysis as well as the GC-MS results revealed the remarkably high percentage of saponin content in the in vitro roots. Besides this, many important secondary metabolites viz. β-Sitosterol and Taraxerone were also revealed by GC-MS.Conclusion: Results of this study showed enhanced production of many important secondary metabolites, especially saponins in tubers of in vitro regenerated plantlets vis a vis that of the nature grown plants establishing the fact that micropropagation can pave new vistas for the research in phytopharmaceuticals and bioprospecting of rare and important medicinal plants.Â
Near-linear Time Algorithm for Approximate Minimum Degree Spanning Trees
Given a graph , we wish to compute a spanning tree whose maximum
vertex degree, i.e. tree degree, is as small as possible. Computing the exact
optimal solution is known to be NP-hard, since it generalizes the Hamiltonian
path problem. For the approximation version of this problem, a
time algorithm that computes a spanning tree of degree at most is
previously known [F\"urer \& Raghavachari 1994]; here denotes the
minimum tree degree of all the spanning trees. In this paper we give the first
near-linear time approximation algorithm for this problem. Specifically
speaking, we propose an time algorithm that
computes a spanning tree with tree degree for any constant .
Thus, when , we can achieve approximate solutions with
constant approximate ratio arbitrarily close to 1 in near-linear time.Comment: 17 page
Specific IgE Response to Purified and Recombinant Allergens in Latex Allergy
Background
In recent years, allergy to natural rubber latex has emerged as a major allergy among certain occupational groups and patients with underlying diseases. The sensitization and development of latex allergy has been attributed to exposure to products containing residual latex proteins. Although improved manufacturing procedures resulted in a considerable reduction of new cases, the potential risk for some patient groups is still great. In addition the prevalent cross-reactivity of latex proteins with other food allergens poses a major concern. A number of purified allergens and a few commercial kits are currently available, but no concerted effort was undertaken to evaluate them. Methods
We studied 11 purified latex allergens, Hev b 1 to Hev b 10, and Hev b 13 along with several crude allergen extracts and two commercial ImmunoCAP assays to evaluate specific IgE antibody in the sera from latex allergic patients and controls. Health care workers and spina bifida patients with clinical symptoms of latex allergy, spina bifida patients without latex allergy, and non-atopic health care workers have been studied. Results
The results suggest that Hev b 2, 5, 6, and 13 together identified over 80 percent health care workers with latex allergy, while Hev b 6 along with Hev b 1 or 3 detected specific IgE antibody in all sera studied from patients with spina bifida and latex allergy. The ImmunoCAP results using both Hev b 5 amplified and non-amplified closely agreed with the clinical diagnosis of latex allergy in health care workers and in spina bifida. Conclusion
Although the purified allergens and crude extracts reacted diversely with IgE from different patient groups, the results indicated that use of certain combinations of purified recombinant antigens will be useful in commercial kits or in in-house assays for detecting specific IgE antibody in the sera. The results suggest that a combination of Hev b 2, 3, 5, 6, and 13 together detected specific IgE in 80% of the sera from latex allergic patients. Both ImmunoCAPs correctly identified over 95% of latex allergic patients, however, showed reactivity with a few normal control subject
Module networks revisited: computational assessment and prioritization of model predictions
The solution of high-dimensional inference and prediction problems in
computational biology is almost always a compromise between mathematical theory
and practical constraints such as limited computational resources. As time
progresses, computational power increases but well-established inference
methods often remain locked in their initial suboptimal solution. We revisit
the approach of Segal et al. (2003) to infer regulatory modules and their
condition-specific regulators from gene expression data. In contrast to their
direct optimization-based solution we use a more representative centroid-like
solution extracted from an ensemble of possible statistical models to explain
the data. The ensemble method automatically selects a subset of most
informative genes and builds a quantitatively better model for them. Genes
which cluster together in the majority of models produce functionally more
coherent modules. Regulators which are consistently assigned to a module are
more often supported by literature, but a single model always contains many
regulator assignments not supported by the ensemble. Reliably detecting
condition-specific or combinatorial regulation is particularly hard in a single
optimum but can be achieved using ensemble averaging.Comment: 8 pages REVTeX, 6 figure
The generalized Robinson-Foulds metric
The Robinson-Foulds (RF) metric is arguably the most widely used measure of
phylogenetic tree similarity, despite its well-known shortcomings: For example,
moving a single taxon in a tree can result in a tree that has maximum distance
to the original one; but the two trees are identical if we remove the single
taxon. To this end, we propose a natural extension of the RF metric that does
not simply count identical clades but instead, also takes similar clades into
consideration. In contrast to previous approaches, our model requires the
matching between clades to respect the structure of the two trees, a property
that the classical RF metric exhibits, too. We show that computing this
generalized RF metric is, unfortunately, NP-hard. We then present a simple
Integer Linear Program for its computation, and evaluate it by an
all-against-all comparison of 100 trees from a benchmark data set. We find that
matchings that respect the tree structure differ significantly from those that
do not, underlining the importance of this natural condition.Comment: Peer-reviewed and presented as part of the 13th Workshop on
Algorithms in Bioinformatics (WABI2013
In-Plane Orbital Texture Switch at the Dirac Point in the Topological Insulator Bi2Se3
Topological insulators are novel macroscopic quantum-mechanical phase of
matter, which hold promise for realizing some of the most exotic particles in
physics as well as application towards spintronics and quantum computation. In
all the known topological insulators, strong spin-orbit coupling is critical
for the generation of the protected massless surface states. Consequently, a
complete description of the Dirac state should include both the spin and
orbital (spatial) parts of the wavefunction. For the family of materials with a
single Dirac cone, theories and experiments agree qualitatively, showing the
topological state has a chiral spin texture that changes handedness across the
Dirac point (DP), but they differ quantitatively on how the spin is polarized.
Limited existing theoretical ideas predict chiral local orbital angular
momentum on the two sides of the DP. However, there have been neither direct
measurements nor calculations identifying the global symmetry of the spatial
wavefunction. Here we present the first results from angle-resolved
photoemission experiment and first-principles calculation that both show,
counter to current predictions, the in-plane orbital wavefunctions for the
surface states of Bi2Se3 are asymmetric relative to the DP, switching from
being tangential to the k-space constant energy surfaces above DP, to being
radial to them below the DP. Because the orbital texture switch occurs exactly
at the DP this effect should be intrinsic to the topological physics,
constituting an essential yet missing aspect in the description of the
topological Dirac state. Our results also indicate that the spin texture may be
more complex than previously reported, helping to reconcile earlier conflicting
spin resolved measurements
Search for decays to invisible final states at Belle
We report the result from the first search for decays to invisible
final states. The analysis is performed on a data sample of 924
collected at and near the and resonances with the
Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy collider. The
absolute branching fraction is determined using an inclusive sample,
obtained by fully reconstructing the rest of the particle system including the
other charmed particle. No significant signal yield is observed and an upper
limit of is set on the branching fraction of to
invisible final states at 90\% confidence level.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRD(RC
Measurements of the masses and widths of the and baryons
We present measurements of the masses and decay widths of the baryonic states
and using a data sample
corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 711 fb collected with the
Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy collider operating at
the resonance. We report the mass differences with respect to
the baryon MeV/, MeV/,
MeV/, MeV/, and the decay widths
MeV/,
MeV/,
MeV/,
MeV/,
where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic.
The isospin mass splittings are measured to be
MeV/ and
MeV/. These results are the most precise to date.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to PRD(RC
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