Competition from Cu(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) in Pb(II) binding to Suwannee River Fulvic Acid

This is a study of trace metal competition in the complexation of Pb(II) by well-characterized humic substances, namely Suwannee River Fulvic Acid (SRFA) in model solutions. It was found that Cu(II) seems to compete with Pb(II) for strong binding sites of SRFA when present at the same concentration as Pb(II). However, Cd(II) and Zn(II) did not seem to compete with Pb(II) for strong binding sites of SRFA. These two metals did compete with Pb(II) for the weaker binding sites of SRFA. Heterogeneity of SRFA was found to play a crucial role in metal-SRFA interactions. The environmental significance of this research for freshwater is that even at relatively low Pb(II) loadings, the metals associated with lead in minerals, e.g. Cu(II), may successfully compete with Pb(II) for the same binding sites of the naturally occurring organic complexants, with the result that some of the Pb(II) may exist as free Pb2+ ions, which has been reported to be one of the toxic forms of Pb in aquatic environment

Open computation tree logic for formal verification of modules

Modules of large VLSI circuits are often designed by different designers spread across the globe. One of the main challenges of the designer is to guarantee that the module he/she designs will work correctly in the global design, the details of which, is often unknown to him/her. Modules are open systems whose behavior is subject to the inputs it receives from its environment. It has been shown that verification of open systems (modules) is computationally very hard (EXPTIME complete, 1996) when we consider all possible environments. On the other hand we show that integrating the specification of the properties to be verified with the specification of only the valid input patterns (under which the module is expected to function correctly) gives us a powerful syntax which can be verified in polynomial time. We call the proposed logic Open-CTL (CTL for open systems). The convenience of being able to specify the property and the environment in a unified way in Open-CTL is demonstrated through a study of the PCI Bus properties. We present a symbolic BDD-based verification scheme for checking Open-CTL formulas, and present experimental results on modules from the Texas-97 Verification Benchmark circuits

Focused browsing: Providing topical feedback for link selection in hypertext browsing

When making decisions about whether to navigate to a linked page, users of standard browsers of hypertextual documents returned by an information retrieval search engine are entirely reliant on the content of the anchortext associated with links and the surrounding text. This information is often insufficient for them to make reliable decisions about whether to open a linked page, and they can find themselves following many links to pages which are not helpful with subsequent return to the previous page. We describe a prototype focusing browsing application which provides feedback on the likely usefulness of each page linked from the current one, and a term cloud preview of the contents of each linked page. Results from an exploratory experiment suggest that users can find this useful in improving their search efficiency

Sensing Models and Its Impact on Network Coverage in Wireless Sensor Network

Network coverage of wireless sensor network (WSN) means how well an area of interest is being monitored by the deployed network. It depends mainly on sensing model of nodes. In this paper, we present three types of sensing models viz. Boolean sensing model, shadow-fading sensing model and Elfes sensing model. We investigate the impact of sensing models on network coverage. We also investigate network coverage based on Poisson node distribution. A comparative study between regular and random node placement has also been presented in this paper. This study will be useful for coverage analysis of WSN.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, IEEE Region 10 Colloquium and the Third ICIIS, Kharagpur, INDIA December 8-10, 200

Geometry of interaction of metal ions with histidine residues in protein structures

An analysis of the geometry and the orientation of metal ions bound to histidine residues in proteins is presented. Cations are found to lie in the imidazole plane along the lone pair on the nitrogen atom. Out of the two tautomeric forms of the imidazole ring, the NE2-protonated form is normally preferred. However, when bound to a metal ion the ND1-protonated form is predominant and NE2 is the ligand atom. When the metal coordination is through ND1, steric interactions shift the side chain torsional angle, X2 from its preferred value of 90 or 270δ. The orientation of histidine residues is usually stabilized through hydrogen bonding; ND1-protonated form of a helical residue can form a hydrogen bond with the carbonyl oxygen atom in the preceding turn of the helix. A considerable number of ligands are found in helices and β-sheets. A helical residue hound to a heme group is usually found near the C-terminus of the helix. Two ligand groups four residues apart in a helix, or two residues apart in a β-strand are used in many proteins to bind metal ions

Histological and histochemical studies on the olfactory rosette of Mugil parsia (Hamilton)

The structure and functions of the olfactory organs in Mugil parsia (Ham.) has been described. Histologically each lamella consists of supporting, olfactory receptor, basal, labyrinth and mast cells. The distribution and localization of acid and neutral mucins in the various cells of olfactory epithelium in M. parsia has been studied histochemically. Variations in the localization of glycogen in the different cells of the olfactory epithelium have been correlated with the functional significance of the region concerned in the fish studied

Anomalous glassy relaxation near the isotropic-nematic phase transition

Dynamical heterogeneity in a system of Gay-Berne ellipsoids near its isotropic-nematic (I-N) transition and also in an equimolar mixture of Lennard-Jones spheres and Gay-Berne ellipsoids in deeply supercooled regime is probed by the time evolution of non-Gaussian parameter (NGP). The appearance of a dominant second peak in the rotational NGP near the I-N transition signals the growth of pseudonematic domains. Surprisingly such a second peak is instead observed in the translational NGP for glassy binary mixture. Localization of orientational motion near the I-N transition is found to be responsible for the observed anomalous orientational relaxation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

RTT relations, a modified braid equation and noncommutative planes

With the known group relations for the elements $(a,b,c,d)$ of a quantum matrix $T$ as input a general solution of the $RTT$ relations is sought without imposing the Yang - Baxter constraint for $R$ or the braid equation for $\hat{R} = PR$. For three biparametric deformatios, $GL_{(p,q)}(2), GL_{(g,h)}(2)$ and $GL_{(q,h)}(1/1)$, the standard,the nonstandard and the hybrid one respectively, $R$ or $\hat{R}$ is found to depend, apart from the two parameters defining the deformation in question, on an extra free parameter $K$,such that only for two values of $K$, given explicitly for each case, one has the braid equation. Arbitray $K$ corresponds to a class (conserving the group relations independent of $K$) of the MQYBE or modified quantum YB equations studied by Gerstenhaber, Giaquinto and Schak. Various properties of the triparametric $\hat{R}(K;p,q)$, $\hat{R}(K;g,h)$ and $\hat{R}(K;q,h)$ are studied. In the larger space of the modified braid equation (MBE) even $\hat{R}(K;p,q)$ can satisfy $\hat{R}^2 = 1$ outside braid equation (BE) subspace. A generalized, $K$- dependent, Hecke condition is satisfied by each 3-parameter $\hat{R}$. The role of $K$ in noncommutative geometries of the $(K;p,q)$,$(K;g,h)$ and $(K;q,h)$ deformed planes is studied. K is found to introduce a "soft symmetry breaking", preserving most interesting properties and leading to new interesting ones. Further aspects to be explored are indicated.Comment: Latex, 17 pages, minor change

Evolution of the quasi-periodic oscillation frequency in GRO J1655-40 -- Implications for accretion disk dynamics

Low and intermediate frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are thought to be due to oscillations of Comptonizing regions or hot blobs embedded in Keplerian disks. Any movement of these perturbations is expected systematically to change the QPO frequency. Our goal is to find systems where such a systematic drifts have been observed. We also try to find the real cause of such drifts and whether they shed some light on the accretion disk dynamics. Using archival data of the recent outburst of GRO J1655-40, we report the presence of such systematic drifts not only during the rising phase from the 25th of February 2005 to the 12th March 2005, when the QPO frequency monotonically increased from 82mHz to 17.78Hz but also in the decline phase from the 15th September 2005 to the 5th of October 2005, when the QPO frequency decreased from 13.14Hz to 34mHz. We fitted the frequency drifts with the propagatory oscillating shock solution. In the shock-oscillation solution, the frequency is inversely proportional to the infall time scale from the shock location. We obtained the shock location and strength through such a fit. The astonishing smoothness of the variation of the QPO frequency over a period of weeks directly supports the view that it may due to the drift of an oscillating shock rather than the movements of a blob inside a differentially rotating disk.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Astronomy & Astrophysics (accepted