Intestinal Structure and Injury of Extremely Premature Lambs During Artificial Placenta Support

Honors (Bachelor's)MicrobiologyUniversity of Michiganhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147407/1/pyerrami.pd

Structural studies on enzymes of biotechnological and biomedical interest

Structural studies of proteins aim at elucidating the atomic details of molecular interactions in biological processes of living organisms. These studies are particularly important in understanding structure, function and evolution of proteins and in defining their roles in complex biological settings. Furthermore, structural studies can be used for the development of novel properties in biomolecules of environmental, industrial and medical importance. X-ray crystallography is an invaluable tool to obtain accurate and precise information about the structure of proteins at the atomic level. Glutathione transferases (GSTs) are amongst the most versatile enzymes in nature. They are able to catalyze a wide variety of conjugation reactions between glutathione (GSH) and non-polar components containing an electrophilic carbon, nitrogen or sulphur atom. Plant GSTs from the Tau class (a poorly characterized class) play an important role in the detoxification of xenobiotics and stress tolerance. Structural studies were performed on a Tau class fluorodifen-inducible glutathione transferase from Glycine max (GmGSTU4-4) complexed with GSH (2.7 Å) and a product analogue Nb-GSH (1.7 Å). The three-dimensional structure of the GmGSTU4-4-GSH complex revealed that GSH binds in different conformations in the two subunits of the dimer: in an ionized form in one subunit and a non-ionized form in the second subunit. Only the ionized form of the substrate may lead to the formation of a catalytically competent complex. Structural comparison between the GSH and Nb-GSH bound complexes revealed significant differences with respect to the hydrogen-bonding, electrostatic interaction pattern, the upper part of -helix H4 and the C-terminus of the enzyme. These differences indicate an intrasubunit modulation between the G-and Hsites suggesting an induced-fit mechanism of xenobiotic substrate binding. A novel binding site on the surface of the enzyme was also revealed. Bacterial type-II L-asparaginases are used in the treatment of haematopoietic diseases such as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and lymphomas due to their ability to catalyze the conversion of L-asparagine to L-aspartate and ammonia. Escherichia coli and Erwinia chrysanthemi asparaginases are employed for the treatment of ALL for over 30 years. However, serious side-effects affecting the liver and pancreas have been observed due to the intrinsic glutaminase activity of the administered enzymes. Structural studies on Helicobacter pylori L-asparaginase (HpA) were carried out in an effort to discover novel L-asparaginases with potential chemotherapeutic utility in ALL treatment. Detailed analysis of the active site geometry revealed structurally significant differences between HpA and other Lasparaginases that may be important for the biological activities of the enzyme and could be further exploited in protein engineering efforts.Siirretty Doriast

PALATAL RUGOSCOPY AS A METHOD OF SEX DETERMINATION IN FORENSIC SCIENCE

 Objective: The role of forensic science in establishing the personal identity is based on DNA analysis, finger print and dental analysis. When theforensic remains are decomposed making all these sources, unavailable palatal rugae served as an important aid as it is resistant to heat and placeddeep inside the oral cavity in a secure environment. Thus, palatal rugae can be used as an adjunct in the gender determination. This study wasperformed to determine the length, number and the patterns of palatal rugae in males and females on right and left side and thereby determine thegender difference.Methods: A total of 50 subjects were included in the study comprising of 25 males and 25 females. An impression of the maxillary arch was madeusing the hydrocolloid impression material (alginate). The palatal rugae were highlighted using a graphite pencil and the length, number and patternof the rugae were determined using Thomas and Kotze classification. Statistical analysis was performed to determine the two-tailed significance testto determine the significance between the two genders.Results: The wavy pattern was found to highest, followed by curved, straight, circular and unification pattern. The females showed a statisticallysignificant rise in the unification pattern, whereas males demonstrated higher amount of wavy and straight pattern based on descriptive statistics.There was no statistical difference in the length and number of the rugae in males and females.Conclusion: No two palatal rugae are alike and this forms the basis of rugoscopy. The uniqueness, overall stability and feasibility make palatal rugaean ideal forensic identification marker.Keywords: Rugoscopy, Personal identification, Gender, Marker

Learning Relationships between Text, Audio, and Video via Deep Canonical Correlation for Multimodal Language Analysis

Multimodal language analysis often considers relationships between features based on text and those based on acoustical and visual properties. Text features typically outperform non-text features in sentiment analysis or emotion recognition tasks in part because the text features are derived from advanced language models or word embeddings trained on massive data sources while audio and video features are human-engineered and comparatively underdeveloped. Given that the text, audio, and video are describing the same utterance in different ways, we hypothesize that the multimodal sentiment analysis and emotion recognition can be improved by learning (hidden) correlations between features extracted from the outer product of text and audio (we call this text-based audio) and analogous text-based video. This paper proposes a novel model, the Interaction Canonical Correlation Network (ICCN), to learn such multimodal embeddings. ICCN learns correlations between all three modes via deep canonical correlation analysis (DCCA) and the proposed embeddings are then tested on several benchmark datasets and against other state-of-the-art multimodal embedding algorithms. Empirical results and ablation studies confirm the effectiveness of ICCN in capturing useful information from all three views

Isolation and identification of Streptomyces ST1 and ST2 strains from Tsunami affected soils: Morphological and biochemical studies

Tsunamis are one of the natural disasters that are a series of long oceanic waves. A large volume of water gets displaced from the ocean because of undersea earthquakes or land slides or volcanic eruptions or extra terrestrial collisions. Our current research focuses on screening and characterization of microbes in water, soil and other extraneous material from the Tsunami affected areas along with substrates. Our present research work rests with Actinomycetes spp. possessing wide diversity of Genera. The morphological and biochemical characteristics of two Streptomyces spp. were identified from collected samples at different places of Pondicherry and Chennai. The screening methods, biochemical characterization and tentative identification methods will be discussed

STUDY OF IN VIVO PHARMACOKINETIC DRUG INTERACTIONS OF CURCUMIN ON TACRINE

Objective: Tacrine is a potent acetylcholine esterase inhibitor (AChEI), and curcumin has been recently proven to possess AChEI, amyloid β aggregation inhibitory activity in addition to its diverse pharmacodynamic nature. Tacrine undergoes biological transformation by cytochrome P450 (CYP 1A2) to a hydroxy metabolite, which is hepatotoxic. Curcumin is known for its inhibitory nature for various metabolic enzymes along with CYP1A2. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the influence of curcumin on the disposition kinetics of tacrine and to assess its impact on dosage regimen.Methods: It was hypothesized that the simultaneous administration of curcumin and tacrine can minimize the toxicity along with increased absorption of tacrine and curcumin into the biological system during the treatment of Alzheimer's patients.Results and Discussion: Hence, an attempt was made to develop a simple, precise, accurate, and cost-effective reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method for simultaneous determination of curcumin and tacrine and also to estimate the effect of curcumin on absorption of tacrine, in rat plasma.Conclusion: Concomitant administration of curcumin with tacrine improved the parameters such as Cmax and AUC, which indicates that the curcumin would improve the absorption of tacrine