Performance Comparison of Symmetric and Offset Reflector Antennas Adaptively Illuminated by Novel Triple Mode Feedhorn

Parabolic symmetric and offset reflector antennas adaptively illuminated using a novel triple-mode feedhorn (TE11+TM01+TE21) with different mode combinations and impedance and radiation performances are presented. The combination of the radiating modes in a feedhorn with proper amplitude and fixed phase values helps in electronically pointing the main beam of the radiating patterns such as that obtained in a beam-steering antenna with limited beam-scan range. This type of radiation performance virtually creates a displaced phase center location for the feedhorn, which, consequently, adaptively illuminates the reflector antenna surface. Impedance-matching bandwidths are preserved for both reflector antennas similar to the case of feedhorn alone. The copolarization gain and peak cross-polarization levels are far better with the offset reflector antenna than the symmetric reflector antenna. Such reflector antennas find applications in ground moving target indicator (GMTI) and space based radars. The investigation results are solely computed using FEKO full-wave analysis tool

TRA-942: IMPUTATION OF MISSING CLASSIFIED TRAFFIC DATA DURING WINTER SEASON

Highway agencies collect traffic data to calculate traffic parameters such as Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT), Design Hourly Volume (DHV) and then to use as input in the planning, operation and management of their highway systems. The traffic data are usually collected through traffic monitoring programs. In particular, the Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) system is one of data collection systems to capture configuration patterns of vehicle travelling on the detection area. It is learned from literatures that traffic monitoring devices are prone to be in malfunctioning and, consequently, providing erroneous or missing traffic data due to the adverse weather conditions in which they operate. It is very critical for transportation agencies to be able to estimate classified missing traffic data in high accuracy level because the truck traffic plays a crucial role in developing pavement design and evaluation long term pavement performance. Several imputation methods have been cited in the literature but none of them have been designed to impute classified traffic data missed during severe winter weather conditions. To do this, winter weather model is structured and then calibrated to relate classified traffic volume variation to weather factors (snowfall and temperature) with traffic data collected from WIM stations located on highway network of Alberta, Canada and weather data collected from weather stations nearby WIM stations. Performance of the developed weather model is compared with a nonparametric regression method namely k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN) method in terms of several error measures. It is concluded that winter weather models show better performance in terms of error measures than k-NN method while imputing the missing classified traffic data

Genetic divergence evaluation of apple germplasm by D2 multivariate analysis

Genetic divergence was worked out in the new germplasm of apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) including 42 genotypes. Mahalanobis's D2 statistics was applied for identifying the potential parents to be involved in the hybridization programme for trait specific improvement or selecting better segregants. On the basis of performance for various traits, genotypes were grouped into three clusters and maximum numbers of genotypes i.e. 28 were accommodated in cluster I , while 10 and 4 genotypes were arranged in cluster II and III respectively. The average intra cluster distance was maximum in cluster II (2.214) and minimum in cluster III (1.212). Inter cluster distance was maximum between cluster II and III (5.077) indicating that hybridization between genotypes from cluster II and III can be utilized for getting the superior recombinants in segregating generations. On the basis of cluster means for various characters , cluster II was found superior for shoot thickness (0.34cm), inter - nodal length (2.38cm), number of lenticels (62.10) and leaf blade length (8.79cm) whereas cluster III was found superior for leaf blade width (5.10cm), petiole length (2.64cm) and leaf blade ratio (3.62). Hence, hybridization between parents from cluster II and cluster III for these characters can produce better recombinants in segregating generations

Novel 5-substituted benzyloxy-2-arylbenzofuran-3-carboxylic acids as calcium activated chloride channel inhibitors

Transmembrane protein 16A (TMEM16A) channels are recently discovered membrane proteins that functions as a calcium activated chloride channel (CaCC). CaCCs are major regulators of various physiological processes, such as sensory transduction, epithelial secretion, smooth muscle contraction and oocyte fertilization. Thirty novel 5-substituted benzyloxy-2-arylbenzofuran-3-carboxylic acids (B01-B30) were synthesized and evaluated for their TMEM16A inhibitory activity by using short circuit current measurements in Fischer rat thyroid (FRT) cells expressing human TMEM16A. IC(50) values were calculated using YFP fluorescence plate reader assay. Final compounds, having free carboxylic group displayed significant inhibition. Eight of the novel compounds B02, B13, B21, B23, B25, B27, B28, B29 exhibit excellent CaCCs inhibition with IC(50) value <6 μM, with compound B25 exhibiting the lowest IC(50) value of 2.8 ± 1.3 μM. None of the tested ester analogs of final benzofuran derivatives displayed TMEM16A/CaCCs inhibition

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) recombinant reverse transcriptase Asymmetry in p66 subunits of the p66/p66 homodimer

AbstractA recombinant p66 form of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase (RT) can be obtained [(1991) Biotechnol. Appl. Biochem. 14, 69-81] from crude Escherichia coli extracts by immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC). We have analyzed the p66 HIV-1 RT, isolated in the presence of 0.3 M imidazole, by gel permeation HPLC on Superose 12. The results show that it contains two major distinct p66 forms (24.1 min and 28.3 min peaks) which are distinguishable from the purified homodimeric (p66/p66) HIV-1 RT (22.2 min peak). Protein peak 1 (24.1 min) is converted to a 22.3 min peak upon storage for 20 h at 4°C. Under identical conditions, the isolated peak 2 (28.3 min) appeared as a conformationally heterogeneous mixture elaborated by peaks at 22.3 min and 25.9 min. The protein species thus obtained were active in the RNA-dependent DNA polymerase and RNase H activity assays and produced heterodimeric HIV-1 RT upon incubation with the HIV-1 protease. When the IMAC-purified, imidazole-free homodimeric (p66/p66) form of the enzyme was incubated with 0.3 M imidazole for 16 h at 4°C, protein peaks at 28.3 min (peak A) and 30.5 min (peak B) were isolated by gel permeation HPLC. While both of these p66-containing species were stable and displayed identical RNA-dependent DNA polymerase activities, the protein in peak B was only 50% active in RNase H function compared with the protein from peak A. These imidazole-mediated dissociation studies support the hypothesis of partial unfolding of one of the RNase H domains of the p66/p66 homodimer, suggesting that the p66 subunits are asymmetric in the native enzyme

Single Feed Aperture-Coupled Wideband Dielectric Resonator Antenna with Circular Polarization for Ku-Band Applications

A novel single feed aperture-coupled wideband dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) exhibiting righ-handed circular polarization (RHCP) operating in the Ku-band frequency range is presented. The aperture-coupled single feed design utilizes back-side microstrip excitation through a novel bow-tie-shaped cross-slots in the ground plane. Extensive simulation parametric studies resulted in a 3 dB axial ratio (AR) bandwidth of 17.24% at a center frequency of 13 GHz, where the dielectric resonator is excited in its HEM11δ resonant mode. A prototype DRA was fabricated with some limitations and experimentally verified for the impedance matching and radiation patterns showing circular polarization

Morphological Markers based Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Cultivated Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicon L.) Genotypes

Assessment of genetic diversity in any crop species provides a basis for devising future strategies for crop improvement; conservation and sustainable use. An experiment consisting of 24 genotypes of Tomato was conducted during the year 2016 at the Research Farm and Molecular Biology Laboratory of School of Biotechnology, SKUAST-J, Chatha. The experiment was conducted in Randomised Block Design (RBD) with three replications in 2 rows of 5m length with spacing of 45 x 90 cm. The extent of genetic divergence /relatedness was estimated among 24 genotypes by using 11 traits viz. plant height (cm), number of branches, number of fruits per bunch, total soluble solids, flesh thickness (mm), number of locules, fruit width (cm), fruit length (cm), yield per plant (g), average fruit weight (g), number of fruits per plant. The maximum number of fruits/bunch was recorded in “Utkal Pragyan” (3.66) and the minimum number was recorded in “Swarna Sampada” (2.03). Maximum TSS(%) was recorded in DCT-1 (8.06%) and minimum TSS was recorded in “Dhanshri” (2.83%). Maximum number of fruits and yield/plant was recorded in “DCT-1” (115.33) and “Hisar Lalit” (2507.36g), respectively. The minimum number of fruits and yield/ plant was recorded in “NDT-4” (23.20) and “DCT-1” (861.40g), respectively.Mean data revealed high range for most of studied traits. Hierarchical cluster analysis allowed the assessment of similarity and clarified some of the relationships among tomato genotypes. UPGMA produced a dendrogram with two main clusters with further sub clusters. Of all the studied 24 genotypes Anand tomato and Hisar lalit were found to be most dissimilar based on UPGMA clustering. Hisar lalit was found to be most promising variety among all the genotypes for most of the traits under study, which can be used for further breeding and crop improvement programmes

Polimorfizam gena za adiponektin (ADIPOQ) i njegova povezanost s proizvodnim i rasplodnim svojstvima indijskog mliječnog goveda

The present investigation was performed to explore the SNP in the promoter of the adiponectin (ADIPOQ) gene and its association with production and reproduction traits in Indian Sahiwal cows. A portion of the promoter (ADIPOQ) region of the ADIPOQ gene was amplified which revealed a 977 bp amplicon, and its PCR-RFLP assay with the restriction enzyme TasI revealed three genotypes, in which the CT genotype was the most frequent (62.32%), followed by CC (24.64%) and TT (13.04%). The frequency of the C and T alleles was 0.558 and 0.442, respectively. The ADIPOQ/TasI genotypes revealed a significant association with calving interval (CI) in the first and fourth lactations, in which the CC genotype showed a significantly (P<0.05) longer CI compared to the TT genotype, while in the fourth lactation the TT genotype showed a longer CI compared to the CC genotype. In the fourth lactation, the TT genotype showed a significantly (P<0.05) longer lactation period (LP) and greater total milk yield (TMY) as compared to CC and CT genotypes. In conclusion, the SNP identified in the promoter of the ADIPOQ gene and its association with production and reproduction traits suggests that this gene might serve as a candidate genetic marker for selection of dairy cattle with better milk yield. However, further studies are needed to explore these SNPs in other regions of this gene, and in other breeds and populations.Cilj ovoga rada bio je istražiti polimorfizam pojedinačnog nukleotida (SNP) u promotoru gena za adiponektin (ADIPOQ) i njegovu povezanost s proizvodnim i rasplodnim svojstvima indijskog goveda Sahiwal pasmine. Dio promotora (ADIPOQ) regije gena ADIPOQ je umnožen i prikazan produktom 977 bp, a PCR-RFLP metodom s restrikcijom enzimom TasI dobivena su tri genotipa. Među njima najčešći je bio CT genotip (62,32 %), zatim CC (24,64 %) i TT (13,04 %). Učestalost C-alela bila je 0,558, a T-alela 0,442. ADIPOQ/TasI genotipovi su pokazali znakovitu povezanost s međutelidbenim intervalom (CI) u prvoj i četvrtoj laktaciji u kojima je CC genotip pokazao znakovito duži interval između teljenja (P<0,05) u usporedbi s TT genotipom, dok je u četvrtoj laktaciji TT genotip pokazao duži interval teljenja u usporedbi s CC genotipom. U četvrtoj laktaciji TT genotip pokazao je znakovito duže trajanje laktacije (LP) (P<0,05) i ukupan prinos mlijeka (TMY) u usporedbi s CC i CT genotipovima. Zaključno, SNP identificiran u promotoru gena ADIPOQ i njegova povezanost s proizvodnim i reproduktivnim svojstvima upućuju na to da ovaj gen može poslužiti kao kandidatni genski biljeg za selekciju mliječnih krava s većim prinosom mlijeka. Potrebna su daljnja istraživanja polimorfizama pojedinačnih nukleotida u drugim regijama ovoga gena kao i u drugih pasmina i populacija