Assessment Methods for Comparing Shared Mobility and Conventional Transportation Modes in Urban Areas

Shared mobility is an innovative and sustainable approach to passenger transportation, which has only recently emerged. In urban areas car-sharing, bike-sharing and other special vehicles (e.g., scooters) are popular. For greater distances, ridesharing is considered as a great option beside own private car usage or public transportation. We elaborated an assessment to analyse mobility modes. The research consists of two main parts. First, a wide spectrum of key variables is identified. We classified the variables among the following indicators: flexibility, comfort, and dynamic characteristics. These indicators support mode choice decisions. The second part is the model of service level. In the model, we included parameters to represent the importance of certain attributes. The model can be used to support mode choice decisions. We applied the method to analyse a simple urban mobility palette and place shared mobility within it. We found that shared mobility modes can be placed between private car usage and public transportation according to the aggregated indicators

Genetic purity testing of maize hybrids using a MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric method: modern 'test of origin' of seeds

Summary Mass spectrometry is one of the most versatile techniques of modern instrumental methodologies. Starting from the most sensitive analytical instruments, through application in space research, to the intelligent scalpel (iknife), there is almost no scientific area where the advantages of the method cannot be exploited. In this paper the application of mass spectrometry in a new area is presented. From an economic point of view, maize is one of our most important crops 5 to 8 million tons of which is produced annually in Hungary. For this industrial scale production, high quality seeds are essential, and this requires a systematic, strict control of the seeds. In this spirit, identification and elimination of seeds of dubious origin or of poor quality are important tasks of growers and seed producers. Genetic purity of seeds the varietal identity is one of the most important qualification parameters. Our research goal was to develop a state-of-the-art, effective analytical method to test the genetic purity and varietal identity of maize seeds, and to prove the applicability of our method by measurements. The procedure is based on the application of MALDI-TOF-MS (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry), with the help of which the reserve proteins of maize grains can be investigated. Following the extraction of maize grains, proteins characteristic of the given parents can be selected from among the different mass number peaks (proteins) appearing in the mass spectra of the extracts, which can then be followed as genetic markers during the testing of hybrid seeds. To check the MALDI-TOF-MS method, our analytical results were compared to results obtained by the recommended reference method (isoelectric focusing – IEF). Results of the tests performed so far are promising, there is a very good agreement with the results obtained by the reference method. Exact results were also provided by our method when testing fungus-infected maize seed batches, while such lots can only be analyzed by the reference method in a limited way. Running on the gel using isoelectric focusing is affected by fungal infection, which makes the evaluation of the results harder, in some cases even impossible. Our MALDI-TOF mass spectrometric method developed for the genetic purity testing of maize seeds proved to be satisfactory not only because of its speed, sensitivity and comparable results, but it also made the analysis of fungus-infected hybrids possible

Functionally and structurally relevant residues of enzymes: are they segregated or overlapping?

AbstractThere is a delicate balance between stability and flexibility needed for enzyme function. To avoid undesirable alteration of the functional properties during the evolutionary optimization of the structural stability under certain circumstances, and vice versa, to avoid unwanted changes of stability during the optimization of the functional properties of proteins, common sense would suggest that parts of the protein structure responsible for stability and parts responsible for function developed and evolved separately. This study shows that nature did not follow this anthropomorphic logic: the set of residues involved in function and those involved in structural stabilization of enzymes are rather overlapping than segregated

The role of stabilization centers in protein thermal stability

AbstractThe definition of stabilization centers was introduced almost two decades ago. They are centers of noncovalent long range interaction clusters, believed to have a role in maintaining the three-dimensional structure of proteins by preventing their decay due to their cooperative long range interactions. Here, this hypothesis is investigated from the viewpoint of thermal stability for the first time, using a large protein thermodynamics database. The positions of amino acids belonging to stabilization centers are correlated with available experimental thermodynamic data on protein thermal stability. Our analysis suggests that stabilization centers, especially solvent exposed ones, do contribute to the thermal stabilization of proteins

Sodium-Assisted Formation of Binding and Traverse Conformations of the Substrate in a Neurotransmitter Sodium Symporter Model

Therapeutics designed to increase synaptic neurotransmitter levels by inhibiting neurotransmitter sodium sym- porters (NSSs) classify a strategic approach to treat brain disorders such as depression or epilepsy, however, the critical elementary steps that couple downhill flux of sodium to uphill transport of neurotransmitter are not disti nguished as yet. Here we present modelling of NSS member neuronal GAT1 with the substrate � -aminobutyric acid (GABA), the major inhibitory neurotransmitter. GABA binding is simulated with the occluded conformation of GAT1 homodimer in an ex- plicit lipid/water environment. Simulations performed in the 1-10 ns range of time elucidated persistent formation of half- extended minor and H-bridged major GABA conformations, referred to as binding and traverse conformations, respec- tively. The traverse GABA conformation was further stabilized by GAT1-bound Na + (1). We also observed Na + (1) trans- location to GAT1-bound Cl - as well as the appearance of water molecules at GABA and GAT1-bound Na + (2), conjectur- ing causality. Scaling dynamics suggest that the traverse GABA conformation may be valid for developing substrate in- hibitors with high efficacy. The potential for this finding is significant with impact not only in pharmacology but wherever understanding of the mechanism of neurotransmitter uptake is valuable

Fehérjék aktiv állapotának elemzése modellezése és predikciója = Analyzing, modeling and predicting of the active state of proteins

A 2008. április 1. és 2011. december 31. között végzett munka része volt az munkatársaimmal több, mint húsz éve végzett elméleti fehérje szerkezet kutató tevékenységnek, melynek hosszú távú célja a fehérjék szerkezet szerveződésének korszerű leírása. Új molekulamechanikai és molekuladinamikai módszereket fejlesztettünk ki. Ezeket és a már korábban is ismert módszereket felhasználtuk fehérjék egymás közötti, illetve fehérje működése szempontjából releváns folyamatok vizsgálatára. Az általános fehérje szerkezeti vizsgálatokhoz kapcsolódóan létrehoztuk és a világhálóra telepítettünk egy adatbázist a EPIC-DB-t Befejeztük a transzmembrán fehérjék topológiájának vizsgálatát. Ezen a területen is létrehoztunk egy adatbázist, a TOPDOM-ot, amit szintén feltelepítettünk a világhálóra. Transzmembrán fehérjékről több összefoglalót publikáltunk és megkezdtük a munkálatokat ezen fehérjék harmadlagos szerkezetének becsléséhez. A legtöbb munkát a rendezetlen fehérjék témakörében végeztük. Létrehoztuk a jelenleg egyetlen módszert, az ANCHOR-t, rendezetlen fehérjék fehérje kötőhelyeinek a szekvenciából történő becslésére. Jelentős eredményeket értünk el, részben rendezetlen fehérjék más fehérjékkel illetve nukleinsavakkal való kölcsönhatásainak vizsgálatában is. Ezen a területen is publikáltunk összefoglalókat is. | The work we performed in the frame of this project between April 1, 2008 and December 31, 2011 is part of a long term project, started more than two decades ago, to provide a state of the art description of protein structure organization. New molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics methods were developed. These methods, those which we developed earlier and those available from the literature were applied to study protein structures and functionally relevant interactions. As part of our general protein structure research I was involved in the construction of the EPIC-DB database, which is available in the WWW. We have completed our long term study on the topology of transmembrane proteins. As a final part of this program we have constructed the TOPDOM database, put it onto the WWW and published some reviews on transmembrane proteins. We have started the next chapter of our transmembrane protein studies, focusing the relative positions and interactions of the transmembrane segments i.e. the 3D structure. Most of the work of this project involved partly or completely unstructured proteins. The currently only publicly available server to predict binding regions of unstructured protein segments, the ANCHOR were developed and placed on the WWW. We have published several important results on unstructured proteins and their interactions as well as a few reviews in this fiel

Sidecar based resource estimation method for virtualized environments

The widespread use of virtualization technologies in telecommunication system resulted in series of benefits, as flexibility, agility and increased resource usage efficiency. Nevertheless, the use of Virtualized Network Functions (VNF) in virtualized modules (e.g., containers, virtual machines) also means that some legacy mechanisms that are crucial for a telco grade operation are no longer efficient. Specifically, the monitoring of the resource sets (e.g., CPU power, memory capacity) allocated to VNFs cannot rely anymore on the methods developed for earlier deployment scenarios. Even the recent monitoring solutions designed for cloud environments is rendered useless if the VNF vendor and the telco solution supplier has to deploy its product into a virtualized environment, since it does not have access to the host level monitoring tools. In this paper we propose a sidecar-based solution to evaluate the resources available for a virtualized process. We evaluated the accuracy of our proposal in a proof of concept deployment, using KVM, Docker and Kubernetes virtualization technologies, respectively. We show that our proposal can provide real monitoring data and discuss its applicability