Development of new computational amino acid parameters for protein structure/function analysis within the resonant recognition model

The Resonant Recognition Model (RRM) is a physico-mathematical model developed for analysis of protein and DNA sequences. Biological function of proteins and their 3D structures are determined by the linear sequences of amino acids. Previously, the electron-ion interaction potentials (EIIP) of amino acids have been used to determine the characteristic patterns of different proteins independent of their biological activity. In this study, the effect of various other amino acid parameters on periodicity, obtained using the RRR, were assessed. Here, we are proposing new computational amino acid parameters that could be used successfully for protein analysis instead of EIIP within the RRM

Non-thermal effects of 500 MHz-900MHz microwave radiation on enzyme kinetics

Enzymes are essential for the catalysis of biochemical reactions and in the regulation of metabolic pathways. They function by greatly accelerating the rate of specific chemical reactions that would otherwise be slow. It has been shown that extremely low-power microwaves can influence enzyme activity [1¿5]. This study is focused at investigating the effects of low level microwave exposures ranging from 500MHz to 900MHz on L-Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) enzyme activity. The results obtained revealed the increased bioactivity of the LDH upon microwave radiation at two particular frequencies 500MHz and 900MHz

Towards a business analytics capability maturity model

Business analytics (BA) systems are an important strategic investment for many organisations and can potentially contribute significantly to firm performance. Establishing strong BA capabilities is currently one of the major concerns of chief information officers. This research project aims to develop a BA capability maturity model (BACMM). The BACMM will help organisations to scope and evaluate their BA initiatives. This research-in-progress paper describes the current BACMM, relates it to existing capability maturity models and explains its theoretical base. It also discusses the design science research approach being used to develop the BACMM and provides details of further work within the research project. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of how the BACMM might be used in practice.<br /

Influence of sinusoidally modulated visual stimuli at extremely low frequency range on the human EEG Activity

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sinusoidally modulated visual stimuli at extremely low frequencies (ELF) of 50, 16.66, 13, 10, 8.33 and 4Hz could influence the changes in EEG activity in 33 human subjects. An improved design of visual stimulator system has addressed an issue of electrical interference from electrical signals driven by LED arrays onto simultaneously recorded EEG. A comparison between 1 and 3-Way ANOVA was performed in order to evaluate whether visual stimuli at ELFs could influence the EEG in humans to compliment the currently active medical research in seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and photic driving. The results revealed that under evaluation of 1 and 3-Way repeated-measures ANOVA tests, the Theta, Alpha2 and Gamma EEG bands exhibited a common significant difference between ELF visual stimuli

Decomposition of evoked potentials using peak detection and the discrete wavelet transform

A new method of viewing evoked potential data is described. This method, called the peak detection method, is based on singularity detection using the discrete wavelet transform. The peaks and troughs of raw visual evoked potential data are identified and characterized using the algorithms of this method, resulting in a linear decomposition of the recording into sets of individual peaks. The individual peaks are then added together, averaged and compared to the ensemble average signal. The peak detection method correlates strongly to the ensemble average showing that this method retains the same evoked potential signal profil

Sleep onset estimator: evaluation of parameters

The electroencephalographic (EEG) alterations during the human sleep onset (falling asleep period) has been evaluated by several studies in the past. However, the analysis part has been limited due to standard signal processing methods. This paper has attempted to evaluate a number of advanced parameters for improved sleep onset estimation, such as EEG non-parametric coherence, power frequency and spectral band power. These parameters can be utilised in an on-line algorithm design for neurofeedback applications

Bioactive peptide design using the Resonant Recognition Model

With a large number of DNA and protein sequences already known, the crucial question is to find out how the biological function of these macromolecules is &quot;written&quot; in the sequence of nucleotides or amino acids. Biological processes in any living organism are based on selective interactions between particular bio-molecules, mostly proteins. The rules governing the coding of a protein&#039;s biological function, i.e. its ability to selectively interact with other molecules, are still not elucidated. In addition, with the rapid accumulation of databases of protein primary structures, there is an urgent need for theoretical approaches that are capable of analysing protein structure-function relationships. The Resonant Recognition Model (RRM) [1,2] is one attempt to identify the selectivity of protein interactions within the amino acid sequence. The RRM [1,2] is a physico-mathematical approach that interprets protein sequence linear information using digital signal processing methods. In the RRM the protein primary structure is represented as a numerical series by assigning to each amino acid in the sequence a physical parameter value relevant to the protein&#039;s biological activity. The RRM concept is based on the finding that there is a significant correlation between spectra of the numerical presentation of amino acids and their biological activity. Once the characteristic frequency for a particular protein function/interaction is identified, it is possible then to utilize the RRM approach to predict the amino acids in the protein sequence, which predominantly contribute to this frequency and thus, to the observed function, as well as to design de novo peptides having the desired periodicities. As was shown in our previous studies of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) peptidic antagonists [2,3] and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) envelope agonists [2,4], such de novo designed peptides express desired biological function. This study utilises the RRM computational approach to the analysis of oncogene and proto-oncogene proteins. The results obtained have shown that the RRM is capable of identifying the differences between the oncogenic and proto-oncogenic proteins with the possibility of identifying the &quot;cancer-causing&quot; features within their protein primary structure. In addition, the rational design of bioactive peptide analogues displaying oncogenic or proto-oncogenic-like activity is presented here

Leadership and productivity in transition: Employees' view in Serbia

Research is carried out on a sample of 300 employees in a company that went through the process of ownership change and became a shareholders' association. The study aims to find out the preferred pattern of leader's behaviour as a predictor of employees' productive behaviour. Obtained results suggest that it is essential for increased productivity that the employees show a high level of trust towards their leader but he should not hold high expectations of them. Production errors are influenced by leaders' readiness to provide assistance to the employees and his expectations of the employees. When it comes to production quality, leader's helpfulness and expectations have proved variables in their behaviour that directly influence production quality.Diese Untersuchung wurde an einer Auswahl von 300 Angestellten in einer Firma durchgeführt, die den Inhaber wechselte und eine Aktiengesellschaft wurde. Die Studie untersucht, welches der von Angestellten bevorzugten Verhaltensmuster ihrer Führungskräfte einen direkten Einfluss auf ihre produktionsbezogenen Verhaltensweisen hat. Die erhaltenen Ergebnisse lassen vermuten, dass es essentiell wichtig für eine erhöhte Produktivität ist, dass die Angestellten ein hohes Maß an Vertrauen zu, aber keine hohen Erwartungen an ihre Vorgesetzten haben. Produktionsfehler werden durch die Bereitschaft der Führungskraft beeinflusst, ihren Angestellten zu helfen und von ihren Erwartungen an diese. Was die Produktionsqualität betrifft, haben sich Hilfsbereitschaft von Führungskräften und Erwartungen als Variablen erwiesen, die diese direkt beeinflussen

Client side decompression technique provides faster DNA sequence data delivery

DNA sequences are generally very long chains of sequentially linked nucleotides. There are four different nucleotides and combinations of these build the nucleotide information of sequence files contained in data sources. When a user searches for any sequence for an organism, a compressed sequence file can be sent from the data source to the user. The compressed file then can be decompressed at the client end resulting in reduced transmission time over the Internet. A compression algorithm that provides a moderately high compression rate with minimal decompression time is proposed in this paper. We also compare a number of different compression techniques for achieving efficient delivery methods from an intelligent genomic search agent over the Interne