The Arabidopsis Mitochondrial Glutaredoxin GRXS15 Provides [2Fe-2S] Clusters for ISCA-Mediated [4Fe-4S] Cluster Maturation

Iron-sulfur (Fe-S) proteins are crucial for many cellular functions, particularly those involving electron transfer and metabolic reactions. An essential monothiol glutaredoxin GRXS15 plays a key role in the maturation of plant mitochondrial Fe-S proteins. However, its specific molecular function is not clear, and may be different from that of the better characterized yeast and human orthologs, based on known properties. Hence, we report here a detailed characterization of the interactions between Arabidopsis thaliana GRXS15 and ISCA proteins using both in vivo and in vitro approaches. Yeast two-hybrid and bimolecular fluorescence complementation experiments demonstrated that GRXS15 interacts with each of the three plant mitochondrial ISCA1a/1b/2 proteins. UV-visible absorption/CD and resonance Raman spectroscopy demonstrated that coexpression of ISCA1a and ISCA2 resulted in samples with one [2Fe-2S]²⁺ cluster per ISCA1a/2 heterodimer, but cluster reconstitution using as-purified [2Fe-2S]-ISCA1a/2 resulted in a [4Fe-4S]²⁺ cluster-bound ISCA1a/2 heterodimer. Cluster transfer reactions monitored by UV-visible absorption and CD spectroscopy demonstrated that [2Fe-2S]-GRXS15 mediates [2Fe-2S]²⁺ cluster assembly on mitochondrial ferredoxin and [4Fe-4S]²⁺ cluster assembly on the ISCA1a/2 heterodimer in the presence of excess glutathione. This suggests that ISCA1a/2 is an assembler of [4Fe-4S]²⁺ clusters, via two-electron reductive coupling of two [2Fe-2S]²⁺ clusters. Overall, the results provide new insights into the roles of GRXS15 and ISCA1a/2 in effecting [2Fe-2S]²⁺ to [4Fe-4S]²⁺ cluster conversions for the maturation of client [4Fe-4S] cluster-containing proteins in plants.     

Electrical conduction mechanism in plasma polymerized 2‐(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate thin films

Thin films of different thicknesses were prepared through glow discharge of 2‐(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DEAEMA) using a capacitively coupled reactor. Current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics for plasma polymerized (PP) DEAEMA thin films of thicknesses 100, 200, 250, and 300 nm in aluminum/PPDEAEMA/aluminum sandwich configuration were studied over the temperature range from 298 to 423 K. J–V curves reveal that in the low‐voltage region, the conduction current obeys Ohm's law while in the high‐voltage region the behavior attributed to be space charge‐limited conduction in PPDEAEMA thin films. The carrier mobility was calculated to be about 6.80 × 10^?19 to 2.38 × 10^?18 m^?2 V^?1s^?1 for various thicknesses. The free carrier density was found to be about 1.78 × 10²³ to 2.04 × 10²³ m^?3, and the trap density was found to be about 6.93 × 10²³ to 15.9 × 10²³ m^?3 for different thicknesses. The activation energies were estimated to be about 0.005–0.016 eV for 2 and 30 V of PPDEAEMA thin films of different thicknesses. The low‐activation energies indicate that the thermally activated hopping conduction is operative in PPDEAEMA thin films. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:2729–2734, 2015. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Engineering order‐preserving pattern matching with SIMD parallelism

The order‐preserving pattern matching problem has gained attention in recent years. It consists in finding all substrings in the text, which have the same length and relative order as the input pattern. Typically, the text and the pattern consist of numbers. Since recent times, there has been a tendency to utilize the ability of the word RAM model to increase the efficiency of string matching algorithms. This model works on computer words, reading and processing blocks of characters at once, so that usual arithmetic and logic operations on words can be performed in one unit of time. In this paper, we present a fast order‐preserving pattern matching algorithm, which uses specialized word‐size packed string matching instructions, grounded on the single instruction multiple data instruction set architecture. We show with experimental results that the new proposed algorithm is more efficient than the previous solutions. ©2016 The Authors. Software: Practice and Experience Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Thickness dependence of ac electrical conductivity and dielectric behavior of plasma polymerized 1, 1, 3, 3–tetramethoxypropane thin films

AC electrical conductivity (σ_ac), dielectric constant (?′), and dielectric loss tangent (tan δ) of plasma polymerized 1, 1, 3, 3‐tetramethoxy‐propane (PPTMP) thin films of thicknesses 100, 150, and 200 nm prepared by plasma polymerization technique using a capacitively coupled glow discharge reactor have been investigated in the frequency range of 30–10⁶ Hz. It is observed that σ_ac increases as frequency increases with a higher slope in the medium frequency (<10⁵Hz) region in the PPTMP thin films of three thicknesses. These observations suggest that the conduction may be dominated by hopping of carriers between the localized states. The general trend of ?′ is to increase with increasing thickness, ?′ remains independent of frequency upto about 10⁴Hz and then falls rapidly. The dependence of tanδ with frequency for PPTMP thin films of different thicknesses showed small relaxation peak at the very low frequencies (<10²Hz) and then it decreases slightly with a broad minimum at 10³ Hz and again increases. Cole–Cole plot reveals that Debye type of mechanism is operative in the experimental frequency range. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 58:1342–1345, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Effect of Gamma Radiation on the Mechanical Properties of Urea-Treated Rice Straw Polypropylene Composites

Rice straw (RS) polypropylene (PP) composites were prepared in the different ratios of 10:90, 20:80, 30:70, 40:60 and 50:50 (RS wt% : PP wt%) by extrusion moulding and hot press compression technique and investigated the mechanical properties like tensile strength (TS), bending strength (BS), impact strength (IS) and elongations at break (Eb%) of the composites. RS was soaked in the different ratios of urea solution and it was observed that 1% urea-treated RS content composites exhibited better mechanical properties. Gamma-irradiated RSPP composites showed superior performance. Water uptake and degradation studies of composites were also monitored.     

Ultraviolet Light-Assisted Photocatalytic Disinfection of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Escherichia coli</Emphasis> and Its Effects on the Quality Attributes of White Grape Juice

Ultraviolet (UV) light-assisted titanium dioxide (TiO₂) photocatalysis is an emerging technology in food safety that utilizes TiO₂ photocatalysts to accelerate the generation of reactive oxygen species during UV illumination. In this work, we studied the use of immobilized TiO₂-SiO₂ photocatalysts illuminated with UVA radiation (350 nm; 14.8 mW/cm²) for the inactivation of Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 in white grape juice, and compared the effectiveness of the photocatalytic disinfection with respect to the quality attributes of white grape juice against those of thermal and UVC (254 nm; 19.7 mW/cm²) treated samples. To obtain a 5-log reduction of the target microorganism, treatment durations of UVA in the absence and presence of the photocatalyst were 60 and 40 min, respectively. A 5-log reduction with UVC radiation led to the loss of health-related compounds such as vitamin C, total phenolic content, and total antioxidant capacity at 92.0?±?1.1%, 19.4?±?5.6%, and 54.3?±?10.0%, respectively. However, the same level of reduction with UVA led to a loss of 74.2?±?2.3%, 7.1?±?3.6%, and 39.7?±?2.5%, and with UVA-assisted photocatalytic method resulted in a loss of 75.8?±?6.1%, 13.6?±?5.8%, and 45.6?±?4.4% of vitamin C, total phenolic content, and total anti-oxidant capacity, respectively. Given its efficacy in deactivating E. coli while retaining a relatively higher level of health-related constituents in the fruit juice compared to other common pasteurization techniques, the photocatalyst developed in this study provides a promising technology for food disinfection.     

Effects of fertilisation on the allyl isothiocyanate profile of above‐ground tissues of New Zealand‐grown wasabi

Wasabi (Wasabia japonica (Miq) Matsum) is a developing crop in New Zealand and is valued for its spicy taste and pungent smell. It is popular as a condiment for traditional and modern Japanese foods. However, the limited area suitable for wasabi production in Japan has resulted in inability to meet increasing market demand. Isothiocyanates (ITCs) are sulphur compounds responsible for the unique flavour of wasabi, with allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) being the main compound responsible for the pungency. In this study, AITC tissue concentration and yield were measured in three above‐ground tissues of the wasabi plant to investigate the effects of different fertiliser, manure and lime treatments. The highest tissue concentration of AITC was found in the rhizomes, ranging from 1564 to 3366 mg kg^?1 (fresh weight basis), while the petioles and leaves contained 254–373 and 453–643 mg kg^?1 respectively. Fertilisation with ammonium sulphate produced the highest‐quality rhizomes (72% increase in AITC yield) and petioles (64% increase), but the best response in the leaves (51%) resulted from the manure treatment. Nitrogen fertiliser alone reduced the AITC yield by up to 15%. These results should help in formulating guidelines for production of high‐quality wasabi tops containing high levels of AITC. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

Magnesium sulphate versus diazepam in the management of eclampsia

This clinical trial was conducted to compare the anticonvulsant response of magnesium sulphate and diazepam in the management of eclampsia. The study was carried out at the eclampsia unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital during the period from October, 1995 to January, 1996. Two hundred consecutive admitted patients were recruited for the study and randomly assigned to two treatment groups: magnesium sulphate and diazepam. One hundred patients received injection magnesium sulphate and another one hundred received injection diazepam. All patients of both the group were matched for baseline characteristics. Convulsion was controlled in 95% of the patients of magnesium sulphate group and 74% of the patients of diazepam group (p < .0005). The mean controlling time is also significantly lower in magnesium sulphate group than diazepam group (8.50 hours vs 9.39 hours). Patients of magnesium sulphate group regain consciousness much earlier (mean time 20.62 hrs.) than the patients of diazepam group (mean time 40.62 hrs.). No significant difference was observed in controlling blood pressure and foetal outcome. The study finding shows that magnesium sulphate has some advantage over diazepam in controlling convulsion and regaining consciousness. If magnesium sulphate can be made available in the market by local production it may be recommended to use this drug in the primary health care without any hazzard before referring to other hospital.