Internet of Things (IoT) enabled water monitoring system

Water is always a crucial part of everyday life. Due to global environmental situation, water management and conservation is vital for human survival. In recent times, there were huge needs of consumer based humanitarian projects that could be rapidly developed using Internet of Things (IoT) technology. In this paper, we propose an IoT based water monitoring system that measures water level in real-time. Our prototype is based on idea that the level of the water can be very important parameter when it comes to the flood occurrences especially in disaster prone areas. A water level sensor is used to detect the desired parameter, and if the water level reaches the parameter, the signal will be feed in realtime to social network like Twitter. A cloud server was configured as data repository. The measurement of the water levels are displayed in remote dashboard

Crystal structure of 2-methylamino-3-nitro-4-p-tolylpyrano[3,2-c]chromen-5(4H)-one

The authors thank Dr Babu Varghese, SAIF, IIT, Chennai, India, for the data collection.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BUILDING CONTAINER CLUSTER

The present disclosure provides a method and container management system for building container cluster. The container management system based on user requirement may automate hardening of operating system and configure network and storage for adding new container. The container management system obtains and configures load balancer VIP without any manual intervention. Thereafter, the container management system performs end-to-end validation by deploying test application and validating the test application. Thus, the present disclosure reduces time consumption for building container clusters based on the user requirement

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP IV) inhibitory activity screening of Momordica charantia, Taraxacum officinale and Trigonella foenum-graecumextracts in vitro

Diabetes, a globally popular disease which attracted the attention of many researches worldwide to discover a non-toxic and side effect free remedy for this disease. Inhibition of DPP IV enzymes has been adopted as one of the strategies in recent years in controlling diabetes. DPP IV inhibitor inhibits the dipeptidyl peptidase enzyme which degrades several incretin hormones that are vital in the production of insulin and managing the blood glucose level.Thus, the present study was designed to investigate the DPP IV inhibitory effects of plants having antidiabetic property. In vitro DPP IV inhibition was evaluated by the specific inhibitory activity of Momordica charantia (whole fruit), Taraxacum officinale (whole plant) and Trigonella foenum-graecum (seed) extracts prepared with heat treatment using petroleum ether, acetone, ethanol and water as solvents. Among the tested plants T. officinale and M. charantia acetone extracts exhibited strong DPP IV activity inhibition, with 78.88% and 54.13% respectively. The present study is the first report on screening of DPP IV inhibitory activity of T. officinale, M. charantiaand T. foenum-graecum extracts. This could provide a new insight into DPP IV inhibitors from plants that could be useful for treatment of type 2 diabetes

Adenylation of plant miRNAs

The modification or degradation of RNAs including miRNAs may play vital roles in regulating RNA functions. The polyadenylation- and exosome-mediated RNA decay is involved in the degradation of plant RNAs including the primary miRNA processing intermediates. However, plant miRNA levels are not affected by exosome depletion. Here, we report the cloning of a large number of 5′ and/or 3′ truncated versions of the known miRNAs from various tissues of Populus trichocarpa (black cottonwood). It suggests that plant miRNAs may be degraded through either 5′ to 3′ or 3′ to 5′ exonucleolytic digestion. We also show that a significant portion of the isolated miRNAs contains, at the 3′-end, one or a few post-transcriptionally added adenylic acid residues, which are distinct in length from the polyadenylate tail added to other plant RNAs for exosome-mediated degradation. Using an in vitro miRNA degradation system, where synthesized miRNA oligos were degraded in extracts of P. trichocarpa cells, we revealed that the adenylated miRNAs were degraded slower than others without adenylation. It indicates that addition of adenylic acid residues on the 3′-end plays a negative role in miRNA degradation. Our results provide new information for understanding the mechanism of miRNA degradation

Understanding dynamics using sensitivity analysis: caveat and solution

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Parametric sensitivity analysis (PSA) has become one of the most commonly used tools in computational systems biology, in which the sensitivity coefficients are used to study the parametric dependence of biological models. As many of these models describe dynamical behaviour of biological systems, the PSA has subsequently been used to elucidate important cellular processes that regulate this dynamics. However, in this paper, we show that the PSA coefficients are not suitable in inferring the mechanisms by which dynamical behaviour arises and in fact it can even lead to incorrect conclusions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A careful interpretation of parametric perturbations used in the PSA is presented here to explain the issue of using this analysis in inferring dynamics. In short, the PSA coefficients quantify the integrated change in the system behaviour due to persistent parametric perturbations, and thus the dynamical information of when a parameter perturbation matters is lost. To get around this issue, we present a new sensitivity analysis based on impulse perturbations on system parameters, which is named impulse parametric sensitivity analysis (iPSA). The inability of PSA and the efficacy of iPSA in revealing mechanistic information of a dynamical system are illustrated using two examples involving switch activation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The interpretation of the PSA coefficients of dynamical systems should take into account the persistent nature of parametric perturbations involved in the derivation of this analysis. The application of PSA to identify the controlling mechanism of dynamical behaviour can be misleading. By using impulse perturbations, introduced at different times, the iPSA provides the necessary information to understand how dynamics is achieved, i.e. which parameters are essential and when they become important.</p

Emodin Suppresses Migration and Invasion through the Modulation of CXCR4 Expression in an Orthotopic Model of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma

10.1371/journal.pone.0057015PLoS ONE83

Hsp90 governs dispersion and drug resistance of fungal biofilms

Fungal biofilms are a major cause of human mortality and are recalcitrant to most treatments due to intrinsic drug resistance. These complex communities of multiple cell types form on indwelling medical devices and their eradication often requires surgical removal of infected devices. Here we implicate the molecular chaperone Hsp90 as a key regulator of biofilm dispersion and drug resistance. We previously established that in the leading human fungal pathogen, Candida albicans, Hsp90 enables the emergence and maintenance of drug resistance in planktonic conditions by stabilizing the protein phosphatase calcineurin and MAPK Mkc1. Hsp90 also regulates temperature-dependent C. albicans morphogenesis through repression of cAMP-PKA signalling. Here we demonstrate that genetic depletion of Hsp90 reduced C. albicans biofilm growth and maturation in vitro and impaired dispersal of biofilm cells. Further, compromising Hsp90 function in vitro abrogated resistance of C. albicans biofilms to the most widely deployed class of antifungal drugs, the azoles. Depletion of Hsp90 led to reduction of calcineurin and Mkc1 in planktonic but not biofilm conditions, suggesting that Hsp90 regulates drug resistance through different mechanisms in these distinct cellular states. Reduction of Hsp90 levels led to a marked decrease in matrix glucan levels, providing a compelling mechanism through which Hsp90 might regulate biofilm azole resistance. Impairment of Hsp90 function genetically or pharmacologically transformed fluconazole from ineffectual to highly effective in eradicating biofilms in a rat venous catheter infection model. Finally, inhibition of Hsp90 reduced resistance of biofilms of the most lethal mould, Aspergillus fumigatus, to the newest class of antifungals to reach the clinic, the echinocandins. Thus, we establish a novel mechanism regulating biofilm drug resistance and dispersion and that targeting Hsp90 provides a much-needed strategy for improving clinical outcome in the treatment of biofilm infections