Natural Suppression of the Aquatic Weed Salvinia molesta D.S. Mitchell, by Two Previously Unreported Fungal Pathogens

Salvinia molesta D. S. Mitchell (Salviniaceae), variously called giant salvinia, water fern or African payal, is a vegetatively reproducing, perennial, free-floating, aquatic weed, native to southeastern Brazil (Waterhouse and Norris 1987). It (hereafter called salvinia) is a very serious weed in most regions outside its native range (Harley and Mitchell 1981) including India. The purpose of this paper is to report on two fungal pathogens that were found to be the cause of a sudden decline in salvinia in Bangalore.(PDF has 4 pages.

Respiratory Sound Analysis for the Evidence of Lung Health

Significant changes have been made on audio-based technologies over years in several different fields along with healthcare industry. Analysis of Lung sounds is a potential source of noninvasive, quantitative information along with additional objective on the status of the pulmonary system. To do that medical professionals listen to sounds heard over the chest wall at different positions with a stethoscope which is known as auscultation and is important in diagnosing respiratory diseases. At times, possibility of inaccurate interpretation of respiratory sounds happens because of clinician’s lack of considerable expertise or sometimes trainees such as interns and residents misidentify respiratory sounds. We have built a tool to distinguish healthy respiratory sound from non-healthy ones that come from respiratory infection carrying patients. The audio clips were characterized using Linear Predictive Cepstral Coefficient (LPCC)-based features and the highest possible accuracy of 99.22% was obtained with a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP)- based classifier on the publicly available ICBHI17 respiratory sounds dataset [1] of size 6800+ clips. The system also outperformed established works in literature and other machine learning techniques. In future we will try to use larger dataset with other acoustic techniques along with deep learning-based approaches and try to identify the nature and severity of infection using respiratory sounds

Entity Relationship Approach to Knowledge Base Systems.

A unified framework for knowledge base systems is proposed based on Entity-Relationship (ER) approach. Following the analysis and the specification of the real-world using Entity-Relationship approach, the knowledge base is implemented as a first-order logic system, a production system, or a frame-based system by mapping the appropriate symbolic data structures. An approach for analyzing and specifying real-world perceptions must provide appropriate semantic primitives. Therefore, a justification is provided for the semantic primitives proposed in Entity-Relationship approach by considering the fundamental issues in perception. A notation that allows Entity-Relationship approach to be used as a holistic representation is presented. Translation rules are provided for the conversion of ER-diagrams into symbolic data structures of first-order logic systems, production systems, and frame-based systems. The feasibility of using Entity-Relationship approach to support a natural language front-end of a knowledge base system is examined by analyzing the representation of surface and deep structures of a sentence in Entity-Relationship approach

Molecular mechanism of facilitated transport by carrier ionophores: a study of energetics

The mechanism of ion transport by carrier ionophores is investigated. The electrostatic potential is used as index of the binding energy of a cation with valinomycin and enniatin B. The ion binding capacities of these ionophores are studied as functions of conformation and of distance of an approaching ion-complex. The energetics of dirnerisation and the binding energy profile of an ion in dimers of valinomycin and enniatin B are examined. The binding energy profiles and the electrostatic potential surfaces of valinomycin and enniatin B are compared in relation to their biological activities

Time-domain chirally-sensitive three-pulse coherent probes of vibrational excitons in proteins

The third order optical response of bosonic excitons is calculated using the Green's function solution of the Nonlinear Exciton Equations (NEE) which establish a quasiparticle-scattering mechanism for optical nonlinearities. Both time ordered and non ordered forms of the response function which represent time and frequency domain techniques, respectively, are derived. New components of the response tensor are predicted for isotropic ensembles of periodic chiral structures to first order in the optical wavevector. The nonlocal nonlinear response function is calculated in momentum space, where the finite exciton-exciton interaction length greatly reduces the computational effort. Applications are made to coupled anharmonic vibrations in the amide I infrared band of peptides. Chirally-sensitive and non sensitive signals for alpha helices and antiparallel beta sheets are compared.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure

On the Role of Nuclear Binding Energy in Understanding Cold Nuclear Fusion

The basic aim of this paper is to highlight the hidden energy source and understand the mechanism of the controversial and spectacular ‘cold nuclear fusion’ at nuclear energy scales. Following the concept of strong interaction, theoretically, fusion of proton seems to increase the binding energy of the final atom by 8.8 MeV. Due to Coulombic repulsion, asymmetry effect, pairing effect and, other nuclear effects, final atom is forced to choose a little bit of binding energy less than 8.8 MeV and thus it is able to release left over binding energy in the form of internal kinetic energy or external thermal energy. Thus, in cold fusion, heat release to occur, binding energy difference of final atom and base atom seems to be less than 8.8 MeV

The RCK2 domain of the human BKCa channel is a calcium sensor

Large conductance voltage and Ca2+-dependent K+ channels (BKCa) are activated by both membrane depolarization and intracellular Ca2+. Recent studies on bacterial channels have proposed that a Ca2+-induced conformational change within specialized regulators of K+ conductance (RCK) domains is responsible for channel gating. Each pore-forming α subunit of the homotetrameric BKCa channel is expected to contain two intracellular RCK domains. The first RCK domain in BKCa channels (RCK1) has been shown to contain residues critical for Ca2+ sensitivity, possibly participating in the formation of a Ca2+-binding site. The location and structure of the second RCK domain in the BKCa channel (RCK2) is still being examined, and the presence of a high-affinity Ca2+-binding site within this region is not yet established. Here, we present a structure-based alignment of the C terminus of BKCa and prokaryotic RCK domains that reveal the location of a second RCK domain in human BKCa channels (hSloRCK2). hSloRCK2 includes a high-affinity Ca2+-binding site (Ca bowl) and contains similar secondary structural elements as the bacterial RCK domains. Using CD spectroscopy, we provide evidence that hSloRCK2 undergoes a Ca2+-induced change in conformation, associated with an α-to-β structural transition. We also show that the Ca bowl is an essential element for the Ca2+-induced rearrangement of hSloRCK2. We speculate that the molecular rearrangements of RCK2 likely underlie the Ca2+-dependent gating mechanism of BKCa channels. A structural model of the heterodimeric complex of hSloRCK1 and hSloRCK2 domains is discussed

Prediction and Performance of Piles under Static and Dynamic Loads

Pile driving changes the soil properties for use in analysis of piles under lateral static and dynamic loads. In this study, the analytical predictions of pile group use soil and pile data obtained from tests on a single pile. The group predictions are compared with field and laboratory test results for both static and dynamic lateral response. A reasonably good agreement is found between the computed and measured dynamic response