DETECTION OF FOREST DISTURBANCE USING TANDEM-X POL-INSAR COHERENCE

This current study shows the potential of TanDEM-X pol-InSAR coherence to identify progressive selective logging of Teak plantation in Uttarakhand, India. Pol-InSAR data were acquired over four months with 11 days interval with perpendicular baseline varying from 111 to 689 m. Progressive selective logging of mature teak plantation from January to February was analyzed using time-series pol-InSAR coherences. The results shows the baseline selection critical for forest change studies. TanDEM-X derived pol-InSAR coherence would enable us to detect the change in forest structure with high reliability

3-D STRUCTURE OF INDIAN FORESTS – PERSPECTIVES FROM EXPERIMENTS ON THE FIRST FULLY-POLARIMETRIC TANDEM-X TOMOGRAMS

This paper provides a first hand view of the 3-D structure of the forests when viewed by X-band SAR data. Tomograms are generated using multi-polarimetric space-borne TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X acquisitions and analysed over a multi-species forest range. The paper analysed these generated tomograms and puts forth-interesting observations of these unique forest species. The high- and low-canopy density plantations provide unique tomograms and vertical structure profiles where the effect of varying extinction is observed in X-band. Further, the scattering powers are shown relative to their backscatter powers. In-depth analysis in currently underway and would be reported in future

Standardization of natural mycolic acid antigen composition and production for use in biomarker antibody detection to diagnose active tuberculosis

This research article published by Elsevier B.V., 2016Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, is characterized by the abundance of species specific, antigenic cell wall lipids called mycolic acids. These wax-like molecules all share an identical, amphiphilic mycolic motif, but have different functional groups in a long hydrophobic hydrocarbon mero-chain that divide them into three main classes: alpha-, keto- and methoxy-mycolic acids. Whereas alpha-mycolic acids constitutively maintain an abundance of around 50%, the ratio of methoxy- to keto-mycolic acid types may vary depending on, among other things, the growth stage of M. tuberculosis. In human patients, antibodies to mycolic acids have shown potential as diagnostic serum biomarkers for active TB. Variations in mycolic acid composition affect the antigenic properties and can potentially compromise the precision of detection of anti-mycolic acids antibodies in patient sera to natural mixtures. We demonstrate this here with combinations of synthetic mycolic acid antigens, tested against TB patient and control sera. Combinations of methoxy- and α-mycolic acids are more antigenic than combinations of keto- and α-mycolic acids, showing the former to give a more sensitive test for TB biomarker antibodies. Natural mixtures of mycolic acids isolated from mature cultures of M. tuberculosis H37Rv give the same sensitivity as that with synthetic methoxy- and α-mycolic acids in combination, in a surface plasmon resonance inhibition biosensor test. To ensure that the antigenic activity of isolates of natural mycolic acids is reproducible, we cultured M. tuberculosis H37Rv on Middlebrook 7H10 solid agar plates to stationary growth phase in a standardized, optimal way. The proportions of mycolic acid classes in various batches of the isolates prepared from these cultures were compared to a commercially available natural mycolic acid isolate. LC-MS/MS and NMR data for quantitation of mycolic acids class compositions show that the variation in batches is small, suggesting that the quality of the results for anti-mycolic acid antibody detection in the TB patients should not be affected by different batches of natural mycolic acid antigens if prepared in a standard way

Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activities of Some New Pyrazoles, Oxadiazoles and Isoxazole Bearing Benzofuran Moiety

The synthesis of novel derivatives of pyrazole-3-carboxylate (3–5) from methyl 4-(benzofuran-2-yl)-2,4-dioxobutanoate (1) is reported. Synthesis of substituted 1,3,4-oxadiazoles (7–11) and 5-amino pyrazole-4-carboxylate (12) derivatives starting fromthe 5-(benzofuran-2-yl)-1-phenyl-1H-pyrazole-3-carbohydrazide (6) are also described. Twelve new compounds were synthesized and their identities have been established on the basis of elemental and spectroscopic analysis such as IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, Mass Spectra. The compounds were also screened for their antibacterial and antifungal activities against Gram-positive, Gramnegative bacteria and a fungus.KEYWORDS 2,4-Dioxobutanoate, isoxazole, pyrazoles, pyrazole-3-carbohydrazide, 1,3,4-oxadiazoles

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PROTEIN CLASSIFICATION METHODS

A large number of new gene candidates are being accumulated in genomic databases day by day. It has become an important task for researchers to identify the functions of these new genes and proteins. Faster and more sensitive and accurate methods are required to classify these proteins into families and predict their functions. Many existing protein clas-sification methods build hidden Markov models (HMMs) and other forms of profiles/motifs based on multiple alignments. These methods in general require a large amount of time for building models and also for predicting functions based on them. Furthermore, they can predict protein functions only if sequences are sufficiently conserved. When there is very little sequence similarity, these methods often fail, even if sequences share some structural similarities. One example of highly diverged protein families is G-protein coupled recep-tors (GPCRs). GPCRs are transmembrane proteins that play important roles in various signal transmission processes, many of which are directly associated with a variety of hu-man diseases. Machine learning methods that have been studied specifically for a problem of GPCR family classification include HMM and support vector machine (SVM) methods. However, amino acid composition has not been studied well as a property for GPCR clas

HIV-macrophage interactions at the cellular and molecular level.

Macrophages, centrally involved in both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system are not only the chief target of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but also its main reservoir and vehicle of transmission. Macrophage-tropic (M-tropic) viruses are responsible for the initial infection, predominate in the asymptomatic phase, and persist throughout infection, even after the emergence of preferential T cell- and/or dual-tropic HIV-1 variants. Functional impairment of HIV-infected macrophages plays a role in the immune dysregulation characteristic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Efforts directed at understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying HIV-macrophage interactions remain the basis for devising novel and efficacious therapeutic strategies against HIV ant the AIDS epidemic