Dissipation and maintenance of stable states in an enzymatic system: Analysis and simulation

The constraint-based analysis has emerged as a useful tool for analysis of biochemical networks. An essential assumption for constraint-based analysis is the formation of a stable steady state. This work investigates dissipation and maintenance of stable states in a simple reversible enzymatic reaction with substrate inhibition. Under mass-action kinetics, the conditions under which the reaction maintains a stable steady state are analytically derived and numerically confirmed. It is shown that, in order to maintain a steady state in the regulated reaction, maximal enzyme activity must be much higher than input rate. Moreover, it is revealed that requirements for large enzyme activity are due to substrate inhibition. It is suggested that high activities of enzymes may play a vital role in protecting a stable state from its catastrophic collapse, giving an additional explanation to an intriguing problem—why the activities of some enzymes greatly exceed the flux capacity of a pathway. In addition, dissipation of the enzymatic reaction is analysed. It is shown that the collapse of stable states is always associated with a point at which dissipation is the highest. Therefore, in order to maintain a stable state, dissipation of the reaction must be less than a critical value. Moreover, although external forcing may not change net mass flow, it may lead to collapse of stable states. Furthermore, when stable states collapse at a critical forcing amplitude and period, dissipation also reaches a highest value. It is concluded that collapse of stable steady state in the enzyme system with substrate inhibition always corresponds to critical points at which dissipation is highest, regardless if the reaction is forced or not. Therefore, for the substrate inhibited reaction, maintenance of stable states is intrinsically related to level of dissipation

Biodegradation and biotransformation of wastewater organics as precursors of disinfection byproducts in water

Laboratory experiments were carried out to investigate wastewater organics as the precursors of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in drinking water supply. The focus was on the change in wastewater DBP precursors during biological degradation under simulated natural conditions. The wastewater and its treated secondary effluent were characterized for DBP formation potential (DBPFP) and DBP speciation profile, including trihalomethanes, haloacetic acids, chloral hydrate, and nitrogen-containing DBPs. Several model organic compounds, including humic acid, tannic acid, glucose, starch, glycine, and bovine serum albumin (BSA), were used to represent the different types of organic pollutants in wastewater discharge. The results show that the DBPFP of wastewater decreased after biodegradation, but the remaining organic matter had a greater DBPFP yield with chlorine. Different model organics displayed different changes in DBPFP during biodegradation. The DBPFP remained largely unchanged for the glycine solution, decreased greatly for the tannic acid and BSA solutions, and increased nearly 3-fold for the glucose and starch solutions after 10d of biodegradation. Meanwhile, the DBPFP yield increased from 3 for glycine to 51μg DBP mg-1 C for its degradation residue, and from 1 for glucose and starch to 87 and 38μg DBP mg-1 C for their organic residues, respectively. Although biodegradation may effectively remove some DBP precursors, biotransformation during the process produces new DBP precursors in the form of soluble microbial products (SMPs). The experimental results reveal that SMPs may be an important source of wastewater-derived DBP precursors in natural waters. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.postprin

Advances in development and application of shape memory alloy in textiles

2005-2006 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Removal of soluble microbial products as the precursors of disinfection by-products in drinking water supplies

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Capital market and corporate misbehaviour

Journal editorial

Institutional preferences, demand shocks and the distress anomaly

Our paper examines the distress anomaly on the Chinese stock markets. We show that the anomaly disappears after controlling for institutional ownership. We propose two hypotheses. The growing scale of institutional investors and changes in institutional preferences can generate greater demand shocks for stocks with low distress risk than those with high distress risk, causing the former to outperform the latter. Consistent with our hypotheses, the growth of institutions explains the anomaly when the institutional market share increases rapidly. We also show that institutional preferences for stocks with low distress risk have significantly increased over time and changes in preferences also explain the anomaly. Finally, momentum trading and gradual incorporation of distress information cannot account for the anomaly. Key words: institutional investors, institutional preferences, distress, the Chinese stock market

Supernatants derived from chemotherapy-treated cancer cell lines can modify angiogenesis

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that tumours produce substances such as cytokines and microvesicular bodies bearing bioactive molecules, which support the carcinogenic process. Furthermore, chemotherapy has also been shown to modify these exudates and in doing so, neutralise their tumourigenic influence. METHODS: In the current study, we have investigated the effect of chemotherapy agents on modifying the cytokine profile and microvesicular cargo of supernatants derived from cancer cell lines. In addition, we have explored the effect of these tumour-derived supernatants on angiogenesis, and how chemotherapy can alter the supernatants rendering them less pro-angiogenic. RESULTS: Herein, we show that supernatants contain a rich cocktail of cytokines, a number of which are potent modulators of angiogenesis. They also contain microvesicular bodies containing RNA transcripts that code for proteins involved in transcription, immune modulation and angiogenesis. These supernatants altered intracellular signalling molecules in endothelial cells and significantly enhanced their tubulogenic character; however, this was severely compromised when supernatants from tumours treated with chemotherapy was used instead. CONCLUSION: This study suggests tumour exudates and bioactive material from tumours can influence cellular functions, and that treatment with some chemotherapy can serve to negate these pro-tumourigenic processes

Solar wind speed theory and the nonextensivity of solar corona

The solar corona is a complex system, with nonisothermal plasma and being in the self-gravitating field of the Sun. So the corona plasma is not only a nonequilibrium system but also a nonextensive one. We estimate the parameter of describing the degree of nonextensivity of the corona plasma and study the generalization of the solar wind speed theory in the framework of nonextensive statistical mechanics. It is found that, when use Chapman's corona model (1957) as the radial distribution of the temperature in the corona, the nonextensivity reduces the gas pressure outward and thus leads a significant deceleration effect on the radial speed of the solar wind.Comment: 12 pages,1 figure, 1 table, 21 references; UN/ESA/NASA Workshop on Basic Space Science and the International Heliophysical Year 2007, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 18-22 June, 2007, Tokyo, Japa

Credit supply constraints and financial policies of listed companies during the 2007–2009 financial crisis

This study examines the effects of lending constraints on the financial policies of UK publicly listed companies during the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Using a sample of 2039 publicly listed firms, the results of our analysis indicate that financial policies of firms are sensitive to variations in the supply of external finance and credit, suggesting that liquidity-constraint firms with low cash reserves suffered more at the time of the credit crunch. While managing through the potential negative effects of the financial crisis, majority of the sample companies increased the use of internal finance and deferred the payments of dividends which helped them apply effective financial policies during the crisis period. The findings of this study also document that during the crisis period, financial policies of firms were exposed to variations in the supply of finance and credit, which, by implication, posed a threat to their operations, sustainability and growth. Our findings produce awareness about the negative effects of the non-availability of external finance and credit supply to listed companies, and signify the role of different financing channels and credit system in the operations and growth of listed companies. These findings have implications for financial regulation and policy making in the UK

Hands-on reconfigurable robotic surgical instrument holder arm

Abstract: The use of conventional surgical tool holders requires an assistant during positioning and adjustment due to the lack of weight compensation. In this paper, we introduce a robotic arm system with hands-on control approach. The robot incorporates a force sensor at the end effector which realises tool weight compensation as well as hands-on manipulation. On the operating table, the required workspace can be tight due to a number of instruments required. There are situations where the surgical tool is at the desired location but the holder arm pose is not ideal due to space constraints or obstacles. Although the arm is a non-redundant robot because of the limited degrees of freedom, the pseudo-null-space inverse kinematics can be used to constrain a particular joint of the robot to a specific angle while the other joints compensate in order to minimise the tool movement. This allows operator to adjust the arm configuration conveniently together with the weight compensation. Experimental results demonstrated that our robotic arm can maintain the tool position during reconfiguration significantly more stably than a conventional one