Understanding the Molecular Mechanism of Signal Transduction in LiaSR Two Component System in Bacillus Subtilis

The Bacillus subtilis two-component system (TCS) LiaSR responds to environmental stresses inducing cell envelope damage. Here, the signal transduction mechanisms of LiaS/R are investigated in order to comprehend its uniqueness compared to other TCSs. My results indicate that the soluble portion of LiaS autophosphorylates and plays a bifunctional role towards LiaR. LiaR undergoes phosphorylation by acetyl phosphate in a time dependent manner. LiaR and its mutants bind to distinct regions on the liaSR promoter pre and post-phosphorylation. LiaR function is controlled independently by the N and C terminal domains. Characterization of the effector domain mutants created based on the homologous protein from Enterococcus faecalis suggested that the dimerization interface of LiaR lies on the N-terminal domain. Additionally, signal transduction between LiaSR and Staphylococcus aureus VraSR indicated possible in vivo interspecies cross-communication. In conclusion, my research provides comprehensive analysis of the LiaS/R signal transduction pathways regulating cellular responses in B. subtilis

Visualizing Resiliency Of Deep Convolutional Network Interpretations For Aerial Imagery

This thesis aims at visualizing deep convolutional neural network interpretations for aerial imagery and understanding how these interpretations change when network weights are damaged. We focus our investigation on networks for aerial imagery, as these may be prone to damages due to harsh operating conditions and are usually inaccessible for regular maintenance once deployed. We simulate damages by zeroing network weights at different levels of the network and analyze their effects on activation maps. Then we re-train the network to observe if it can recover the lost interpretations. Visualizing changes in the neural network\u27s interpretation, when the undamaged weights are retrained, allows us to visually assess the resiliency of a network. Our experiments on the AID and the UC Merced Land Use aerial datasets demonstrate the emergence of object and texture detectors in convolutional networks commonly used for classification. We further analyze these interpretations when the network is trained on one dataset and tested on another to demonstrate the robustness of feature learning across aerial datasets. We also explore the shift in interpretations when transfer learning is performed from an aerial dataset (AID) to a generic object dataset (MS-COCO). These results illustrate how transfer learning benefits the network\u27s internal representations. Additionally, we explore the effects of various kinds of pooling operations for class activation map extraction and their resiliency to coefficient damages. Finally, we investigate the effects of network retraining by visualizing the change in the network\u27s degraded interpretations before and after retraining. Our visualization results offer insights on the resiliency of some of the most commonly used networks, such as VGG16, ResNet50, and DenseNet121. This type of analysis can help guide prudent choices when it comes to selecting the network architecture during development and deployment under challenging conditions

Matsya Sampada Newsletter

The first edition of the Newsletter would help stakeholders stay up-to-date with the latest information on government policies and programmes, upcoming events and progress of projects related to fisheries sector

Computational Analysis of Heat Dissipation Strategies in Li-Ion Battery System Using Aluminium 7075 and Aluminium 6061

This study examines the thermal behaviour of batteries by doing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis on them using ANSYS. The analysis focuses on various heat sink configurations, including situations without heat sinks as well as those with aluminium alloys 7075 and 6061 of varying thicknesses. The purpose of this study is to determine how effective various setups are in preventing thermal runaway and maintaining temperature rises that are acceptable within predetermined parameters. The findings demonstrate that thicker heat sinks are more effective in improving heat dissipation and the overall performance of battery cooling systems. The comparisons made between the various materials and thicknesses provide insights into the most effective design for heat management systems. In the end, this research contributes to enhanced battery safety, performance, and longevity. Additionally, it serves as a vital reference for engineers and researchers working to advance energy storage technology across a variety of applications

Significance of chromosome 9p status in renal cell carcinoma:a systematic review and quality of the reported studies

Defining the prognosis of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) using genetic tests is an evolving area. The prognostic significance of 9p status in RCC, although described in the literature, remains underutilised in clinical practice. The study explored the causes of this translational gap. A systematic review on the significance of 9p status in RCC was performed to assess its clinical applicability and impact on clinical decision-making. Medline, Embase, and other electronic searches were made for studies reporting on 9p status in RCC. We collected data on: genetic techniques, pathological parameters, clinical outcomes, and completeness of follow-up assessment. Eleven studies reporting on 1,431 patients using different genetic techniques were included. The most commonly used genetic technique for the assessment of 9p status in RCC was fluorescence in situ hybridization. Combined genomic hybridisation (CGH), microsatellite analysis, karyotyping, and sequencing were other reported techniques. Various thresholds and cut-off values were used for the diagnosis of 9p deletion in different studies. Standardization, interobserver agreement, and consensus on the interpretation of test remained poor. The studies lacked validation and had high risk of bias and poor clinical applicability as assessed by two independent reviewers using a modified quality assessment tool. Further protocol driven studies with standardised methodology including use of appropriate positive and negative controls, assessment of interobserver variations, and evidenced based follow-up protocols are needed to clarify the role of 9p status in predicting oncological outcomes in renal cell cancer