Bitter Taste Receptors for Asthma Therapeutics.

Clinical management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has primarily relied on the use of beta 2 adrenergic receptor agonists (bronchodilators) and corticosteroids, and more recently, monoclonal antibody therapies (biologics) targeting specific cytokines and their functions. Although these approaches provide relief from exacerbations, questions remain on their long-term efficacy and safety. Furthermore, current therapeutics do not address progressive airway remodeling (AR), a key pathological feature of severe obstructive lung disease. Strikingly, agonists of the bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs) deliver robust bronchodilation, curtail allergen-induced inflammatory responses in the airways and regulate airway smooth muscle (ASM) cell proliferation and mitigate features of A

Viscosity Behaviour of Aqueous Solutions of Sodium Chloroacetate & ɑ-Chloropropionate

1097-109

Modeling of Breakdown Voltage of White Minilex Paper in the Presence of Voids Using Fuzzy Logic

Occluded gaseous cavities within the insulating materials are potential sources of electrical trees which can lead to continuous deterioration and breakdown of materials. To determine the suitability of use and to acquire the data for the dimensioning of electrical insulation systems breakdown voltage of insulators should be determined. In this project, Fuzzy Logic (FL) method is used to model breakdown voltages of White Minilex Paper samples based on experimental data generated in the laboratory. Two models are proposed with triangular and trapezoidal shape of the membership functions for the FL under both dc and ac voltage conditions. The cavities are created artificially with different dimensions. Low values of mean absolute errors of the estimated breakdown voltage of the test data show the effectiveness of such models

Bow Shocks from Neutron Stars: Scaling Laws and HST Observations of the Guitar Nebula

The interaction of high-velocity neutron stars with the interstellar medium produces bow shock nebulae, where the relativistic neutron star wind is confined by ram pressure. We present multi-wavelength observations of the Guitar Nebula, including narrow-band H-alpha imaging with HST/WFPC2, which resolves the head of the bow shock. The HST observations are used to fit for the inclination of the pulsar velocity vector to the line of sight, and to determine the combination of spindown energy loss, velocity, and ambient density that sets the scale of the bow shock. We find that the velocity vector is most likely in the plane of the sky. We use the Guitar Nebula and other observed neutron star bow shocks to test scaling laws for their size and H-alpha emission, discuss their prevalence, and present criteria for their detectability in targeted searches. The set of H-alpha bow shocks shows remarkable consistency, in spite of the expected variation in ambient densities and orientations. Together, they support the assumption that a pulsar's spindown energy losses are carried away by a relativistic wind that is indistinguishable from being isotropic. Comparison of H-alpha bow shocks with X-ray and nonthermal, radio-synchrotron bow shocks produced by neutron stars indicates that the overall shape and scaling is consistent with the same physics. It also appears that nonthermal radio emission and H-alpha emission are mutually exclusive in the known objects and perhaps in all objects.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures (3 degraded), submitted to ApJ; minor revisions and updates in response to referee report. (AASTeX, includes emulateapj5 and onecolfloat5.

Dielectric characterization and molecular interaction behaviour in binary mixtures of methyl acetate with 1-butanol and 1-pentanol

900-910The dielectric constant (ɛs) and relaxation time () of binary mixtures of methyl acetate with alcohols (1-butanol and 1-pentanol) have been investigated at fifteen molar concentrations over the entire mixing range at 288 K, 298 K, 308 K and 318 K using time domain reflectometery technique over the frequency range from 10 MHz to 10 GHz. The relaxation in these mixtures can be described by a single relaxation time using the Debye model. The concentration dependent plots of excess dielectric constant (ɛE), excess inverse relaxation time (1/)E, Kirkwood correlation factor (geff), thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy of activation (H) and Gibbs free energy (G) of activation and Bruggman factor (fB) have been used to explore the complexes formed between unlike molecules, dipolar ordering, hydrogen bond molecular connectivity’s and their strength in the binary mixtures. Results confirm that there are strong hydrogen-bond interactions between unlike molecules of ester-alcohol mixtures

Identification of Moisture Content in Cotton Bale by Microwave Imaging

Understanding of cotton quality is important in order to properly identify the moisture content .Measurement of moisture is difficult particularly at harvest and through the gin, because of the influence these processes have different fibre quality. Dry cotton can be harvested cleanly and efficiently but may suffer undue damage in the gin. On the other hand harvesting and ginning wet cotton leads to significant issues in processing and quality. A number of methods are used to measure moisture in seed cotton, lint and fuzzy seed, each has its varying advantages. A moisture variation of the bales that is not monitored from the outside of the bale. This research examines a new microwave imaging technique to view the internal moisture variations of cotton bale. Tests on the developed imaging sensor showed the ability to resolve small structures of parameters, against a low standard background, that were less than 1 cm in width. The accuracy of the sensing structure was also shown to provide the ability to accurately determine parameter standards. A preliminary test of the imaging capabilities on a wet commercial bale showed the technique was able to accurately image and determines the location of the wet layer within the bale

Synthesis of biologically active compounds of agricultural interest

A practical approach for the chiral synthesis of propargyl alcohols and hydroxyvinyl chlorides, making use of base induced elimination of chiral 2,3-epoxy chlorides is described and their utility in the synthesis of octadecenoids, viz., (S)-coriolic acid (I) and (S)-l5,16-didehydrocoriolic acid (V) the self-defensive substances in rice plant against rice blast disease, is discussed

Left-Right Symmetry and Supersymmetric Unification

The existence of an SU(3) X SU(2)_L X SU(2)_R X U(1) gauge symmetry with g_L = g_R at the TeV energy scale is shown to be consistent with supersymmetric SO(10) grand unification at around 1O^{16} GeV if certain new particles are assumed. The additional imposition of a discrete Z_2 symmetry leads to a generalized definition of R parity as well as highly suppressed Majorana neutrino masses. Another model based on SO(10) X SO(10) is also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures not included, UCRHEP-T124, Apr 199

Texture of fermion mass matrices in partially unified theories

We investigate the texture of fermion mass matrices in theories with partial unification (for example $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R\times SU(4)_c$) at a scale $\sim 10^{12}$ GeV. Starting with the low energy values of the masses and the mixing angles, we find only two viable textures with atmost four texture zeros. One of these corresponds to a somewhat modified Fritzsch textures. A theoretical derivataion of these textures leads to new interesting relations among the masses and the mixing angles.Comment: 10 pages(Latex