HUMHOT: a database of human meiotic recombination hot spots

Meiotic recombination occurs preferentially at certain regions in the genome referred to as hot spots. The number of hot spots known in humans has increased manifold in recent years. The identification of these hot spots in humans is of great interest to population and medical geneticists since they influence the structure of Linkage Disequilibrium and Haplotype blocks in human populations, whose patterns have applications in mapping disease genes. HUMHOT is a web-based database of Human Meiotic Recombination Hot Spots. The database comprises DNA sequences corresponding to the hot spot regions from the literature that have been mapped to a high resolution (<4 kb) in humans. It also provides flanking sequence information for the hot spot region along with references describing the hot spot. The database can be queried based on hot spot identity, chromosome position or by homology to user-defined sequences. It is also updated with new hot spot sequences as they are discovered and provides hyperlinks to commonly used tools for estimating recombination rates, performing genetic analysis and new advances in our understanding of meiotic hot spots. Public access to the HUMHOT database is available at

Investigation of mass discharge rate and segregation from hopper by discrete element method

Hoppers of different shape and angle are widely used in different industries particularly in handling of solids as storage units and in unit operations, e.g. mixing, tableting, etc. It is a challenge to choose a right hopper to achieve desired flow and insignificant segregation due to difference in material properties. General approach for the selection of optimum hopper for a given unit operation is based on the trial-and-error experimental approach. To address this optimum hopper selection, combined experimental and numerical approach is presented in this study. The objective of this study is to analyze the effect of mixture composition and hopper angle on the flow rate and segregation behavior. The numerical simulation of granular flow out of various conical hoppers was also performed using the discrete element method (DEM). The materials considered include different particle size glass bead particles in different proportions by mass. The experimental study is done to validate the DEM results, particularly, mass flow rate. The results analyzed include temporal development of mass fraction of a given particle size during discharge. In addition, the mass flow rate is also computed. The results indicate that fines percentage in the mixture, ratio of smallest particle size to largest in the mixture, and hopper angle plays significant role in determining the segregation and mass flow rate. The flow pattern found to be influenced by the hopper angle and mean particle size of mixture. The results of discharge rate from DEM are also compared with existing empirical correlations and finite element method based elastoplastic model. The DEM prediction shows a good agreement with the existing correlations for a wide range of hopper angles, and with the experimental data

Comprehensive Analysis of Homologous Proteins for Specific Drug Design

A drug is a chemical substance used in the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of disease or as a component of a medication, should be specific and freedom from side affect. Many issues should be addressed while designing a new drug or improving existing compound. The increase in the interdisciplinary nature of science gives bioinformatics, systems and computational biology, which helps in reducing research and development costs, minimize drug failures by predicting drug efficacy and toxicity. One of the most important pathogenic bacterium is Aeromonas species which causes tissue damage, acute gastroenteritis and neonatal septicemia. Bacterial proteins are the ultimate target to inhibit their growth and these are the executors of cellular function. In related to this we selected four such different proteins Flavohemo protein, Guanylate kinase, Topoisomerase and Oligopeptidase found to be present in both humans and Aeromonas to study the effects of antibiotics through in silico approaches. An attempt has been made to classify the inhibitors as host protein inhibitors or guest protein inhibitors. Finally we conclude that the molecule AgkI5 (2-morpholin-4-yl-thianthren-1-ylpyron-4-one) shown good inhibition with minimum binding energy -9.30, docking energy -10.03, inhibition constant 1.53e-007 and RMS 0.0 against Aeromonas Guanylate kinase [Aeromonas: Modelled] when compared to human Guanylate kinase [PDB ID: 1KJD]. So AgkI5 was predicted as a good antibiotic against Aeromonas Species.Keywords: Aeromonas species; Host; Guest; Guanylate kinase Docking; Protein Inhibitor

Zn-induced spin dynamics in overdoped La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCu1−y_{1-y}Zny_yO4_4

Spin fluctuations and the local spin susceptibility in isovalently Zn-substituted La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$Cu$_{1-y}$Zn$_y$O$_4$ ($x=0.25$, $y\approx0.01$) are measured via inelastic neutron scattering techniques. As Zn$^{2+}$ is substituted onto the Cu$^{2+}$-sites, an anomalous enhancement of the local spin susceptibility $\chi^{\prime\prime}(\omega)$ appears due to the emergence of a commensurate antiferromagnetic excitation centered at wave vector \textbf{Q}$=(\pi, \pi, 0)$ that coexists with the known incommensurate SDW excitations at \textbf{Q}$_{HK}=(\pi\pm\delta,\pi), (\pi,\pi\pm\delta)$. Our results support a picture of Zn-induced antiferromagnetic (AF) fluctuations appearing through a local staggered polarization of Cu$^{2+}$-spins, and the simultaneous suppression of T$_c$ as AF fluctuations are slowed in proximity to Zn-impurities suggests the continued importance of high energy AF fluctuations at the far overdoped edge of superconductivity in the cuprates.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Projective Ribbon Permutation Statistics: a Remnant of non-Abelian Braiding in Higher Dimensions

In a recent paper, Teo and Kane proposed a 3D model in which the defects support Majorana fermion zero modes. They argued that exchanging and twisting these defects would implement a set R of unitary transformations on the zero mode Hilbert space which is a 'ghostly' recollection of the action of the braid group on Ising anyons in 2D. In this paper, we find the group T_{2n} which governs the statistics of these defects by analyzing the topology of the space K_{2n} of configurations of 2n defects in a slowly spatially-varying gapped free fermion Hamiltonian: T_{2n}\equiv {\pi_1}(K_{2n})$. We find that the group T_{2n}= Z \times T^r_{2n}, where the 'ribbon permutation group' T^r_{2n} is a mild enhancement of the permutation group S_{2n}: T^r_{2n} \equiv \Z_2 \times E((Z_2)^{2n}\rtimes S_{2n}). Here, E((Z_2)^{2n}\rtimes S_{2n}) is the 'even part' of (Z_2)^{2n} \rtimes S_{2n}, namely those elements for which the total parity of the element in (Z_2)^{2n} added to the parity of the permutation is even. Surprisingly, R is only a projective representation of T_{2n}, a possibility proposed by Wilczek. Thus, Teo and Kane's defects realize `Projective Ribbon Permutation Statistics', which we show to be consistent with locality. We extend this phenomenon to other dimensions, co-dimensions, and symmetry classes. Since it is an essential input for our calculation, we review the topological classification of gapped free fermion systems and its relation to Bott periodicity.Comment: Missing figures added. Fixed some typos. Added a paragraph to the conclusio

Saraca indica

Medicinal plants are used as a complementary and alternative medicine in treatment of various diseases including cancer worldwide, because of their ease of accessibility and cost effectiveness. Multicomposed mixture of compounds present in a plant extract has synergistic activity, increases the therapeutic potential many folds, compensates toxicity, and increases bioavailability. Saraca indica (family Caesalpiniaceae) is one of the most ancient sacred plants with medicinal properties, exhibiting a number of pharmacological effects. Antioxidant, antibreast cancer activity and toxicological evaluation of Saraca indica bark extract (SIE) were carried out in the present study. The results of the study indicated that this herbal preparation has antioxidant and antibreast cancer activity. Toxicological studies suggest that SIE is safer to use and may have a potential to be used as complementary and alternative medicine for breast cancer therapy

Quantum Numbers of Textured Hall Effect Quasiparticles

We propose a class of variational wave functions with slow variation in spin and charge density and simple vortex structure at infinity, which properly generalize both the Laughlin quasiparticles and baby Skyrmions. We argue that the spin of the corresponding quasiparticle has a fractional part related in a universal fashion to the properties of the bulk state, and propose a direct experimental test of this claim. We show that certain spin-singlet quantum Hall states can be understood as arising from primary polarized states by Skyrmion condensation.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, Phyzz