15,804 research outputs found
GM crops and gender issues
Correspondence in the December issue by Jonathan Gressel not only states that gender issues in rural settings have not been adequately addressed with respect to weed control biotech but also asserts that such technology can increase the quality of life of rural women in developing countries. Improved weed control is a labor-saving technology that can result in less employment in a labor surplus rural economy. Often in rural areas, wage income is the main source of income and an important determinant of the quality of life, particularly where employment opportunities are generally limited. Apart from soil preparation, planting and weeding, harvesting is also 'femanual' work that can generate more employment if yields are higher. Biotech can enhance the quality of life of women but only if the technology is associated with overall generation of rural employment
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Molecular modelling studies of binding of DACD derivatives into G-Quadruplex DNA: comparison of force field and quantum polarized ligand docking methods
The DNA G-qadruplexes are one of the targets being actively explored for anti-cancer therapy by inhibiting them through small molecules. This computational study was conducted to predict the binding strengths and orientations of a set of novel dimethyl-amino-ethyl-acridine (DACA) analogues that are designed and synthesized in our laboratory, but did not diffract in Synchrotron light.Thecrystal structure of DNA G-Quadruplex(TGGGGT)4(PDB: 1O0K) was used as target for their binding properties in our studies.We used both the force field (FF) and QM/MM derived atomic charge schemes simultaneously for comparing the predictions of drug binding modes and their energetics. This study evaluates the comparative performance of fixed point charge based Glide XP docking and the quantum polarized ligand docking schemes. These results will provide insights on the effects of including or ignoring the drug-receptor interfacial polarization events in molecular docking simulations, which in turn, will aid the rational selection of computational methods at different levels of theory in future drug design programs. Plenty of molecular modelling tools and methods currently exist for modelling drug-receptor or protein-protein, or DNA-protein interactionssat different levels of complexities.Yet, the capasity of such tools to describevarious physico-chemical propertiesmore accuratelyis the next step ahead in currentresearch.Especially, the usage of most accurate methods in quantum mechanics(QM) is severely restricted by theirtedious nature. Though the usage of massively parallel super computing environments resulted in a tremendous improvement in molecular mechanics (MM) calculations like molecular dynamics,they are still capable of dealing with only a couple of tens to hundreds of atoms for QM methods. One such efficient strategy that utilizes thepowers of both MM and QM are the QM/MM hybrid methods. Lately, attempts have been directed towards the goal of deploying several different QM methods for betterment of force field based simulations, but with practical restrictions in place. One of such methods utilizes the inclusion of charge polarization events at the drug-receptor interface, that is not explicitly present in the MM FF
Max-min Fairness in 802.11 Mesh Networks
In this paper we build upon the recent observation that the 802.11 rate
region is log-convex and, for the first time, characterise max-min fair rate
allocations for a large class of 802.11 wireless mesh networks. By exploiting
features of the 802.11e/n MAC, in particular TXOP packet bursting, we are able
to use this characterisation to establish a straightforward, practically
implementable approach for achieving max-min throughput fairness. We
demonstrate that this approach can be readily extended to encompass time-based
fairness in multi-rate 802.11 mesh networks
The structure of dark matter halos in hierarchical clustering theories
During hierarchical clustering, smaller masses generally collapse earlier
than larger masses and so are denser on the average. The core of a small mass
halo could be dense enough to resist disruption and survive undigested, when it
is incorporated into a bigger object. We explore the possibility that a nested
sequence of undigested cores in the center of the halo, which have survived the
hierarchical, inhomogeneous collapse to form larger and larger objects,
determines the halo structure in the inner regions. For a flat universe with
, scaling arguments then suggest that the core density
profile is, with . But
whether such behaviour obtains depends on detailed dynamics. We first examine
the dynamics using a fluid approach to the self-similar collapse solutions for
the dark matter phase space density, including the effect of velocity
dispersions. We highlight the importance of tangential velocity dispersions to
obtain density profiles shallower than in the core regions. If
tangential velocity dispersions in the core are constrained to be less than the
radial dispersion, a cuspy core density profile shallower than 1/r cannot
obtain, in self-similar collapse. We then briefly look at the profiles of the
outer halos in low density cosmological models where the total halo mass is
convergent. Finally, we analyze a suite of dark halo density and velocity
dispersion profiles obtained in cosmological N-body simulations of models with
n= 0, -1 and -2. We find that the core-density profiles of dark halos, show
considerable scatter in their properties, but nevertheless do appear to reflect
a memory of the initial power spectrum, with steeper initial spectra producing
flatter core profiles. (Abridged)Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Ap
Learning General Purpose Distributed Sentence Representations via Large Scale Multi-task Learning
A lot of the recent success in natural language processing (NLP) has been
driven by distributed vector representations of words trained on large amounts
of text in an unsupervised manner. These representations are typically used as
general purpose features for words across a range of NLP problems. However,
extending this success to learning representations of sequences of words, such
as sentences, remains an open problem. Recent work has explored unsupervised as
well as supervised learning techniques with different training objectives to
learn general purpose fixed-length sentence representations. In this work, we
present a simple, effective multi-task learning framework for sentence
representations that combines the inductive biases of diverse training
objectives in a single model. We train this model on several data sources with
multiple training objectives on over 100 million sentences. Extensive
experiments demonstrate that sharing a single recurrent sentence encoder across
weakly related tasks leads to consistent improvements over previous methods. We
present substantial improvements in the context of transfer learning and
low-resource settings using our learned general-purpose representations.Comment: Accepted at ICLR 201
Nonlinear dynamo action in a precessing cylindrical container
It is numerically demonstrated by means of a magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) code
that precession can trigger the dynamo effect in a cylindrical container. This
result adds credit to the hypothesis that precession can be strong enough to be
one of the sources of the dynamo action in some astrophysical bodies.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures including subfigure
Gravitational Lensing Characteristics of the Transparent Sun
The transparent Sun is modeled as a spherically symmetric and centrally
condensed gravitational lens using recent Standard Solar Model (SSM) data. The
Sun's minimum focal length is computed to a refined accuracy of 23.5 +/- 0.1
AU, just beyond the orbit of Uranus. The Sun creates a single image of a
distant point source visible to observers inside this minimum focal length and
to observers sufficiently removed from the line connecting the source through
the Sun's center. Regions of space are mapped where three images of a distant
point source are created, along with their associated magnifications. Solar
caustics, critical curves, and Einstein rings are computed and discussed.
Extremely high gravitational lens magnifications exist for observers situated
so that an angularly small, unlensed source appears near a three-image caustic.
Types of radiations that might undergo significant solar lens magnifications as
they can traverse the core of the Sun, including neutrinos and gravitational
radiation, are discussed
Young\u27s modulus of [111] germanium nanowires
This paper reports a diameter-independent Youngâs modulus of 91.9 ± 8.2 GPa for [111] Germaniumnanowires (Ge NWs). When the surface oxide layer is accounted for using a core-shell NW approximation, the YM of the Ge core approaches a near theoretical value of 147.6 ± 23.4 GPa. The ultimate strength of a NW device was measured at 10.9 GPa, which represents a very high experimental-to-theoretical strength ratio of âŒ75%. With increasing interest in this material system as a high-capacity lithium-ion battery anode, the presented data provide inputs that are essential in predicting its lithiation-induced stress fields and fracture behavior
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