Modulation of stability properties of bovine trypsin after in vitro structural changes with a variety of chemical modifiers

Controlled chemical modification of enzymes, targeting groups not involved in the active site, can lead to modified catalysts that are intrinsically more efficient and resistant to heat and denaturing agents. Bovine pancreatic trypsin was covalently modified up to 75-85% with monomeric glutaraldehyde (MGA), polymeric glutaraldehyde (PGA), oxidized sucrose and oxidized sucrose polymers (OSP 70 and OSP 400). Virtually no loss in activity occurred upon modification. Temperature optima of trypsin shifts from 45-76 degrees C and T50 from 54-76 degrees C for the best modified sample made with OSP. The efficiency of the modifiers in stabilization was ranked in the order: OSP 400-T > OSP 70-T > PGA-T > MGA-T > Sucrose-T. Half-life of modified enzymes also followed the same trend. Both stabilization factor and t1/2 decreased with increasing temperatures. The free energy of activation for inactivation delta(deltaG*) varies from 12-20 kJ/mol and the activation enthalpy delta(deltaH*) of the modified trypsin by 80-120 kJ/mol indicating stabilization. Inactivation of modified trypsin by urea is less noticeable. The character of the two-step inactivation process of trypsin changes with the degree of stabilization in that the duration of phase I one increased noticeably as stabilization increases. Native trypsin fluoresces less intensely showing a red shift under the influence of denaturation. Such a fluorescence change is not so obvious for the modified enzymes indicating conformational stability acquired by modification.      

Effect of micronisation and electromagnetic radiation on physical and mechanical properties of Canadian barley

The effect of micronisation (high‐intensity infrared heating) and microwave radiation of normal barley (NB), high‐amylose barley (HAB) and waxy barley (WB) on the physical and mechanical properties was studied. Samples were tempered to 42–45% moisture content and then subjected to infrared or microwave radiation to reduce the moisture content to approximately 10%. The grain surface temperature during radiation was maintained at 100 °C. The changes in physical and mechanical properties were compared with unprocessed samples. Thermal radiation increased slightly the volume of the kernels because of the diffusion of water vapour from inside to the outer surface. These changes resulted in a decrease in particle and bulk densities. Thermal radiation affected the Hunter colour values, as well. The mechanical properties including bio‐yield point, modulus of elasticity and breakage susceptibility were affected by micronisation and microwave heating.     

Anodic dissolution of U, Zr and U–Zr alloy and convolution voltammetry of Zr|Zr couple in molten LiCl–KCl eutectic

The anodic dissolution of U and Zr metal was studied in LiCl–KCl–UCl₃ and LiCl–KCl–ZrCl₄, respectively, at 773 K by cyclic voltammetry and compared with their respective dissolution behaviour in blank LiCl–KCl eutectic. The anodic dissolution of U–Zr alloy in LiCl–KCl–UCl₃ was also studied at 773 K to compare with the dissolution of U and Zr. The transfer coefficients evaluated by Tafel analysis and the method of Allen–Hickling for U and Zr dissolution were found to be in fair agreement with each other. U dissolution in LiCl–KCl–UCl₃ and Zr dissolution LiCl–KCl–ZrCl₄ were also studied by chronoamperometry and the diffusion coefficient value of U³⁺ was calculated to be in the range of 2.9 × 10⁻⁵ to 3.3 × 10⁻⁵ cm² s⁻¹ which is in agreement with those reported in literature. Convolution voltammetric analysis of Zr⁴⁺/Zr²⁺ redox couple in LiCl–KCl–ZrCl₄ was carried out for the first time to have a comprehensive understanding of the electrode kinetics.     

Electrochemical characterization of Cu dissolution and chemical mechanical polishing in ammonium hydroxide–hydrogen peroxide based slurries

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of copper in ammonium hydroxide based slurry in the presence of hydrogen peroxide was investigated. The polishing trend was found to be similar to that exhibited by other slurries containing hydrogen peroxide and various complexing agents used for Cu CMP. When the hydrogen peroxide concentration is increased, the polish rate increases, reaches a maximum and then decreases. The location and the magnitude of the maximum depend on the ammonium hydroxide concentration. The dissolution of copper in the NH₄OH–hydrogen peroxide solution was probed by potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) experiments. Electrical equivalent circuit (EEC) and reaction mechanism analysis (RMA) were employed to determine the mechanistic reaction pathway of Cu dissolution in NH₄OH–hydrogen peroxide system. Based on the RMA analysis, a four step catalytic mechanism with two adsorbed intermediate species is proposed.     

Reliability Analysis of Torsional MEMS Varactor

This paper discusses reliability issues in torsional MEMS varactor. Self-actuation due to high ac signals is analyzed, and solutions are proposed. The mode of failure at high actuation voltages is analyzed and established through experiments. Issues like stiction due to high voltages and effect of high residual stress are studied experimentally.     

Exploring mesh and tree-based multicast. Routing protocols for MANETs

Recently, it became apparent that group-oriented services are one of the primary application classes targeted by MANETs. As a result, several MANET-specific multicast routing protocols have been proposed. Although these protocols perform well under specific mobility scenarios, traffic loads, and network conditions, no single protocol has been shown to be optimal in all scenarios. The goal of this paper is to characterize the performance of multicast protocols over a wide range of MANET scenarios. To this end, we evaluate the performance of mesh and tree-based multicast routing schemes relative to flooding and recommend protocols most suitable for specific MANET scenarios. Based on the analysis and simulation results, we also propose two variations of flooding, scoped flooding and hyper flooding, as a means to reduce overhead and increase reliability, respectively. Another contribution of the paper is a simulation-based comparative study of the proposed flooding variations against plain flooding, mesh, and tree-based MANET routing. In our simulations, in addition to "synthetic" scenarios, we also used more realistic MANET settings, such as conferencing and emergency response.     

Learning pattern classification-a survey

Classical and recent results in statistical pattern recognition and learning theory are reviewed in a two-class pattern classification setting. This basic model best illustrates intuition and analysis techniques while still containing the essential features and serving as a prototype for many applications. Topics discussed include nearest neighbor, kernel, and histogram methods, Vapnik-Chervonenkis theory, and neural networks. The presentation and the large (though nonexhaustive) list of references is geared to provide a useful overview of this field for both specialists and nonspecialists     

Fire Endurance of High Strength Concrete Columns

In buildings, fire represents one of the most severe environmental conditions, and therefore, should be properly accounted for in the design of high strength concrete (HSC) structural members. The increased use of HSC in buildings has raised concerns regarding the behavior of such concrete in fire. In particular, spalling at elevated temperatures, as identified in studies by a number of laboratories, is a main concern.In this paper, results from an experimental program on the fire resistance of HSC columns are presented. The factors that influence the thermal and structural behavior of HSC concrete columns under fire conditions are discussed. Data from this study indicate that the type of aggregate, concrete strength, load intensity, and detailing and spacing of ties have an influence on the fire resistance performance of HSC columns. Further, the test results show that tie configuration (bending of ties at 135°, ties and provision of cross ties) and closer tie spacing has a significantly beneficial effect on the fire resistance of HSC columns. The results presented will generate data on the fire resistance of HSC columns, and contribute to identifying the factors that influence the behavior of HSC columns.     

Parameterized algorithms for feedback set problems and their duals in tournaments

The parameterized feedback vertex (arc) set problem is to find whether there are k vertices (arcs) in a given graph whose removal makes the graph acyclic. The parameterized complexity of this problem in general directed graphs is a long standing open problem. We investigate the problems on tournaments, a well studied class of directed graphs. We consider both weighted and unweighted versions.     

Overlap pattern synthesis with an efficient nearest neighbor classifier

Nearest neighbor (NN) classifier is the most popular non-parametric classifier. It is a simple classifier with no design phase and shows good performance. Important factors affecting the efficiency and performance of NN classifier are (i) memory required to store the training set, (ii) classification time required to search the nearest neighbor of a given test pattern, and (iii) due to the curse of dimensionality the number of training patterns needed by it to achieve a given classification accuracy becomes prohibitively large when the dimensionality of the data is high. In this paper, we propose novel techniques to improve the performance of NN classifier and at the same time to reduce its computational burden. These techniques are broadly based on: (i) overlap based pattern synthesis which can generate a larger number of artificial patterns than the number of input patterns and thus can reduce the curse of dimensionality effect, (ii) a compact representation of the given set of training patterns called overlap pattern graph (OLP-graph) which can be incrementally built by scanning the training set only once and (iii) an efficient NN classifier called OLP-NNC which directly works with OLP-graph and does implicit overlap based pattern synthesis. A comparison based on experimental results is given between some of the relevant classifiers. The proposed schemes are suitable for applications dealing with large and high dimensional datasets like those in data mining.