Thiol/disulphide exchange reaction: A key regulatory process in biological systems

Cysteine residues in proteins serve many important functions such as stabilizing and maintaining the three-dimensional conformation of many proteins(1), in enzyme catalysis, as a residue undergoing post-translational 2 and in the formation of DNA-binding modification domain of a class of transcriptional activators(3), It is also involved in biological redox coupling(4) and xenobiotic metabolism(5). Disulphide bonds formed by xenobiotic metabolism oxidation of cysteine residues have been used as a probe to study the structure/function relationships of proteins, Introducing novel disulphide bonds in proteins to increase their thermal stability and, therefore, the shelf life is an important goal of protein engineering(6,7), In addition, the thiol group of cysteine residue participates in a reaction termed as thiol/disulphide exchange reaction, the biological significance of this reaction being the theme of this review.

Recovery of tropical rainforest avifauna in relation to vegetation succession following shifting cultivation in Mizoram, north-east India

1. Recovery of rainforest bird community structure and composition, in relation to forest succession after slash-and-burn shifting cultivation or jhum was studied in Mizoram, north-east India. Replicate fallow sites abandoned after shifting cultivation 1, 5, 10, 25 and approximate to 100 years ago, were compared with primary evergreen and semi-evergreen forest using transect and quadrat sampling. 2. Vegetation variables such as woody plant species richness, tree density and vertical stratification increased with fallow age in a rapid. nun-linear, asymptotic manner. Principal components analysis of vegetation variables summarized 92.8% of the variation into two axes: PC1 reflecting forest development and woody plant succession (variables such as tree density, woody plant species richness), and PC2 depicting bamboo density, which increased from 1 to 25 years and declined thereafter. 3. Bird species richness, abundance and diversity, increased rapidly and asymptotically during succession paralleling vegetation recovery as shown by positive correlations with fallow age and PC1 scores of sites. Bamboo density reflected by PC2 had a negative effect on bird species richness and abundance. 4. The bird community similarity (Morisita index) of sites with primary forest also increased asymptotically with fallow age indicating sequential species turnover during succession. Bird community similarity of sites with primary forest (or between sites) was positively correlated with both physiognomic and floristic similarities with primary forest (or between sites). 5. The number of bird species in guilds associated with forest development and woody plants (canopy insectivores, frugivores: bark feeders) was correlated with PCI scores of the sites. Species in other guilds (e. g. granivores, understorey insectivores) appeared to dominate during early and mid-succession. 6. The non-linear relationships imply that fallow periods less than a threshold of 25 years for birds, and about 50-75 years for woody plants, are likely to cause substantial community alteration. 7. As 5-10-year rotation periods or jhum cycles prevail in many parts of north-east India. there is a need to protect and conserve tracts of late-successional and primary forest.

Synthesis of nonlinear controller to recover an unstable aircraft from poststall regime

Dynamics of the aircraft configuration considered in this paper show a unique characteristic in that there are no stable attractors in the entire high angle-of-attack flight envelope. As a result, once the aircraft has departed from the normal flight regime, no standard technique can be applied to recover the aircraft. In this paper, using feedback linearization technique, a nonlinear controller is designed at high angles of attack, which is engaged after the aircraft departs from normal flight regime. This controller stabilizes the aircraft into a stable spin. Then a set of synthetic pilot inputs is applied to cause an automatic transition from the spin equilibrium to low angles of attack where the second controller is connected. This controller is a normal gain-scheduled controller designed to have a large domain of attraction at low angles of attack. It traps the aircraft into a low angle-of-attack level flight. This entire concept of recovery has been verified using six-degrees-of-freedom nonlinear simulation. Feedback linearization technique used to design a controller ensures internal stability only if the nonlinear plant has stable zero dynamics. Because zero dynamics depend on the selection of outputs, a new method of choosing outputs is described to obtain a plant that has stable zero dynamics. Certain important aspects pertaining to the implementation of a feedback linearization-based controller are also discussed.

Electrochemical aspects of leaching of ocean nodules in the presence and absence of microorganisms

instead of using chemical-reducing agents to facilitate the reduction and dissolution of manganese and iron oxide in the ocean nodule, electrochemical reduction based on two approaches, namely, cathodic polarization and galvanic interaction, can also be considered as attractive alternatives. Galvanic leaching of ocean nodules in the presence of pyrite and pyrolusite for complete recovery of Cu, Ni and Co has been discussed. The key for successful and efficient dissolution of copper, nickel and cobalt from ocean nodules depends on prior reduction of the manganese and ferric oxides with which the above valuable nonferrous metals are interlocked. Polarization studies using a slurry electrode system indicated that maximum dissolution of iron and manganese due to electrochemical reduction occurred at negative DC potentials of -600 mV (SCE) and -1400 mV (SCE). The present work is also relevant to galvanic bioleaching of ocean nodules using autotrophic microorganisms, such as Thiobacillus ferrooxidans and T thiooxidans, which resulted in significant dissolution of copper, nickel and cobalt at the expense of microbiologically generated acids. Various electrochemical and biochemical mechanisms are outlined and the electroleaching and galvanic processes so developed are shown to yield almost complete dissolution of all metal values. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Non-Gaussianity and direction-dependent systematics in HST Key Project data

Two new statistics, namely Delta(chi 2) and Delta(chi), based on the extreme value theory, were derived by Gupta et al. We use these statistics to study the direction dependence in the HST Key Project data, which provides one of the most precise measurements of the Hubble constant. We also study the non-Gaussianity in this data set using these statistics. Our results for Delta(chi 2) show that the significance of direction-dependent systematics is restricted to well below the 1 sigma confidence limit; however, the presence of non-Gaussian features is subtle. On the other hand, the Delta(chi). statistic, which is more sensitive to direction dependence, shows direction dependence systematics to be at a slightly higher confidence level, and the presence of non-Gaussian features at a level similar to the Delta(chi 2) statistic.

Recovery from DoS Attacks in MIPv6: Modelling and Validation

Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks form a very important category of security threats that are prevalent in MIPv6 (mobile internet protocol version 6) today. Many schemes have been proposed to alleviate such threats, including one of our own [9]. However, reasoning about the correctness of such protocols is not trivial. In addition, new solutions to mitigate attacks may need to be deployed in the network on a frequent basis as and when attacks are detected, as it is practically impossible to anticipate all attacks and provide solutions in advance. This makes it necessary to validate the solutions in a timely manner before deployment in the real network. However, threshold schemes needed in group protocols make analysis complex. Model checking threshold-based group protocols that employ cryptography have not been successful so far. Here, we propose a new simulation based approach for validation using a tool called FRAMOGR that supports executable specification of group protocols that use cryptography. FRAMOGR allows one to specify attackers and track probability distributions of values or paths. We believe that infrastructure such as FRAMOGR would be required in future for validating new group based threshold protocols that may be needed for making MIPv6 more robust.

Ultrasound-modulated optical tomography: recovery of amplitude of vibration in the insonified region from boundary measurement of light correlation

We address a certain inverse problem in ultrasound-modulated optical tomography: the recovery of the amplitude of vibration of scatterers [p(r)] in the ultrasound focal volume in a diffusive object from boundary measurement of the modulation depth (M) of the amplitude autocorrelation of light [phi(r, tau)] traversing through it. Since M is dependent on the stiffness of the material, this is the precursor to elasticity imaging. The propagation of phi(r, tau) is described by a diffusion equation from which we have derived a nonlinear perturbation equation connecting p(r) and refractive index modulation [Delta n(r)] in the region of interest to M measured on the boundary. The nonlinear perturbation equation and its approximate linear counterpart are solved for the recovery of p(r). The numerical results reveal regions of different stiffness, proving that the present method recovers p(r) with reasonable quantitative accuracy and spatial resolution. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America

Bayesian framework and message passing for joint support and signal recovery of approximately sparse signals

In this paper, we develop a low-complexity message passing algorithm for joint support and signal recovery of approximately sparse signals. The problem of recovery of strictly sparse signals from noisy measurements can be viewed as a problem of recovery of approximately sparse signals from noiseless measurements, making the approach applicable to strictly sparse signal recovery from noisy measurements. The support recovery embedded in the approach makes it suitable for recovery of signals with same sparsity profiles, as in the problem of multiple measurement vectors (MMV). Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm, termed as JSSR-MP (joint support and signal recovery via message passing) algorithm, achieves performance comparable to that of sparse Bayesian learning (M-SBL) algorithm in the literature, at one order less complexity compared to the M-SBL algorithm.

Performance analysis for geometrical attack on digital image watermarking

We present a technique for irreversible watermarking approach robust to affine transform attacks in camera, biomedical and satellite images stored in the form of monochrome bitmap images. The watermarking approach is based on image normalisation in which both watermark embedding and extraction are carried out with respect to an image normalised to meet a set of predefined moment criteria. The normalisation procedure is invariant to affine transform attacks. The result of watermarking scheme is suitable for public watermarking applications, where the original image is not available for watermark extraction. Here, direct-sequence code division multiple access approach is used to embed multibit text information in DCT and DWT transform domains. The proposed watermarking schemes are robust against various types of attacks such as Gaussian noise, shearing, scaling, rotation, flipping, affine transform, signal processing and JPEG compression. Performance analysis results are measured using image processing metrics.

Smart polymer mediated purification and recovery of active proteins from inclusion bodies

Obtaining correctly folded proteins from inclusion bodies of recombinant proteins expressed in bacterial hosts requires solubilization with denaturants and a refolding step. Aggregation competes with the second step. Refolding of eight different proteins was carried out by precipitation with smart polymers. These proteins have different molecular weights, different number of disulfide bridges and some of these are known to be highly prone to aggregation. A high throughput refolding screen based upon fluorescence emission maximum around 340 nm (for correctly folded proteins) was developed to identify the suitable smart polymer. The proteins could be dissociated and recovered after the refolding step. The refolding could be scaled up and high refolding yields in the range of 8 mg L-1 (for CD4D12, the first two domains of human CD4) to 58 mg L-1 (for malETrx, thioredoxin fused with signal peptide of maltose binding protein) were obtained. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) showed that polymer if chosen correctly acted as a pseuclochaperonin and bound to the proteins. It also showed that the time for maximum binding was about 50 min which coincided with the time required for incubation (with the polymer) before precipitation for maximum recovery of folded proteins. The refolded proteins were characterized by fluorescence emission spectra, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, melting temperature (T-m), and surface hydrophobicity measurement by ANS (8-anilinol-naphthalene sulfonic acid) fluorescence. Biological activity assay for thioredoxin and fluorescence based assay in case of maltose binding protein (MBP) were also carried out to confirm correct refolding. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

UAV Grouping and Coordination Tactics for Ground Attack Missions

Grouping and coordination tactics for ground attack missions by a heterogeneous mix of reconnaissance, enemy suppression, and attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is presented. Dubins' paths are used to determine the optimal number of attack UAVs and their positional and heading freedoms, as functions of weapon seeker range and field of view. A generic battlefield scenario with layered defense is created and the tactics are evaluated on a Group Flyer simulation platform for both nominal and off-nominal conditions.

Anaerobic retting of banana and arecanut wastes in a plug flow digester for recovery of fiber, biogas and compost

Leaves and leaf sheath of banana and areca husk (Areca catechu) constitute an important component of urban solid waste (USW) in India which are difficult to degrade under normal windrow composting conditions. A successful method of anaerobic digestion built around the fermentation properties of these feedstock has been evolved which uses no moving parts, pretreatment or energy input while enabling recovery of four products: fiber, biogas, compost and pest repellent. An SRT of 27 d and 35 d was found to be optimum for fiber recovery for banana leaf and areca husk, respectively. Banana leaf showed a degradation pattern different from other leaves with slow pectin-1 degradation (80%) and 40% lignin removal in 27 d SRT. Areca husk however, showed a degradation pattern similar to other plant biomass. Mass recovery levels for banana leaf were fiber-20%, biogas-70% (400 ml/g TS) and compost-10%. For areca husk recovery was fiber-50%, biogas-45% (250 ml/g TS) and compost-5%. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phalangopsidae crickets from the Indian Region (Orthoptera, Grylloidea), with the descriptions of new taxa, diagnoses for genera, and a key to Indian genera

The Indian region is presently the second region after the Neotropics in terms of diversity of phalangopsid crickets. Yet their study is impeded by the lack of necessary taxonomic tools for taxon identification. In the present paper, all generic diagnoses are clarified, using morphological and genitalic characters; female genitalia are described and illustrated for all genera with known females. New taxa are described from southern India: Kempiola flavipunctatus Desutter-Grandcolas n. sp., Opiliosina meridionalis Desutter-Grandcolas n. gen., n. sp., Phalangopsina bolivari Desutter-Grandcolas n. sp., P. chopardi Desutter-Grandcolas n. sp., P. gravelyi Desutter-Grandcolas n. sp., and Speluncasina Desutter-Grandcolas n. gen. The list of phalangopsid crickets from the Indian Region is updated, and a key to phalangopsid genera proposed. A lectotype and a paralectotype are designated to fix the name of Phalangopsina dubia (Bolivar, 1900). Opilionacris annandalei Chopard, 1928, previously transferred to the African genus Phaeophilacris Walker, 1871, is transferred to the genus Speluncasina Desutter-Grandcolas n. gen., while Larandopsis jharnae Bhowmik, 1981 and L. newguineae Bhowmik, 1981 described from New Guinea are transferred to the eneopterine genus Lebinthus Stal, 1877. Finally Luzaropsis confusa Chopard, 1969 is removed from its synonymy with L. ferruginea Walker, 1871.

Effective contrast recovery in rapid dynamic near-infrared diffuse optical tomography using l(1)-norm-based linear image reconstruction method

Traditional image reconstruction methods in rapid dynamic diffuse optical tomography employ l(2)-norm-based regularization, which is known to remove the high-frequency components in the reconstructed images and make them appear smooth. The contrast recovery in these type of methods is typically dependent on the iterative nature of method employed, where the nonlinear iterative technique is known to perform better in comparison to linear techniques (noniterative) with a caveat that nonlinear techniques are computationally complex. Assuming that there is a linear dependency of solution between successive frames resulted in a linear inverse problem. This new framework with the combination of l(1)-norm based regularization can provide better robustness to noise and provide better contrast recovery compared to conventional l(2)-based techniques. Moreover, it is shown that the proposed l(1)-based technique is computationally efficient compared to its counterpart (l(2)-based one). The proposed framework requires a reasonably close estimate of the actual solution for the initial frame, and any suboptimal estimate leads to erroneous reconstruction results for the subsequent frames.