Evolution of structures and specific recognitions in aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases

The aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (AARS) are very important during the protein biosynthesis, which can make the gene sequence be accurately translated into the protein sequence by the specific recognition between AARS and tRNA/amino acids. However, the recog

IUTAM Symposium on the Vibration Analysis of Structures with Uncertainties

The Symposium was aimed at the theoretical and numerical problems involved in modelling the dynamic response of structures which have uncertain properties due ...

In vitro anti-HIV and -HSV activity and safety of sodium rutin sulfate as a microbicide candidate

Sodium rutin sulfate (SRS) is a sulfated rutin modified from the natural flavonol glycoside rutin. Here, we investigated its in vitro anti-HIV and -HSV activities and its cytotoxic profile. Fifty percent inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of SRS against HIV-1 X4 virus IIIB, HIV-1 R5 isolates Ada-M and Ba-L were 2.3 +/- 0.2, 4.5 +/- 2.0 and 8.5 +/- 3.8 mu M with a selectivity index (SI) of 563, 575 and 329, respectively. Its IC50 against primary R5 HIV-1 isolate from Yunnan province in China was 13.1 +/- 5.5 mu M, with a Sl of 197. In contrast, unsulfated rutin had no activity against any of the HIV-1 isolates tested. Further study indicated that SRS blocked viral entry and virus-cell fusion likely through interacting with the HIV- I envelope glycoprotein. SRS also demonstrated some activity against human herpes simplex virus (HSV) with an IC50 of 88.3 +/- 0.1 mu M and a Sl of 30. The 50% cytotoxicity concentration (CC50) of SRS was >3.0 mM, as determined in human genital ME 180, HeLa and primary human foreskin fibroblast cells. Minimum inhibitory concentration of SRS for vaginal lactobacilli was >3.0 mM. These results collectively indicate that SRS represents a novel candidate for anti-HIV-1/HSV microbicide development. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Geometry and interaction of structures in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

A strategy to extract turbulence structures from direct numerical simulation (DNS) data is described along with a systematic analysis of geometry and spatial distribution of the educed structures. A DNS dataset of decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence at Reynolds number Reλ = 141 is considered. A bandpass filtering procedure is shown to be effective in extracting enstrophy and dissipation structures with their smallest scales matching the filter width, L. The geometry of these educed structures is characterized and classified through the use of two non-dimensional quantities, planarity' and filamentarity', obtained using the Minkowski functionals. The planarity increases gradually by a small amount as L is decreased, and its narrow variation suggests a nearly circular cross-section for the educed structures. The filamentarity increases significantly as L decreases demonstrating that the educed structures become progressively more tubular. An analysis of the preferential alignment between the filtered strain and vorticity fields reveals that vortical structures of a given scale L are most likely to align with the largest extensional strain at a scale 3-5 times larger than L. This is consistent with the classical energy cascade picture, in which vortices of a given scale are stretched by and absorb energy from structures of a somewhat larger scale. The spatial distribution of the educed structures shows that the enstrophy structures at the 5η scale (where η is the Kolmogorov scale) are more concentrated near the ones that are 3-5 times larger, which gives further support to the classical picture. Finally, it is shown by analysing the volume fraction of the educed enstrophy structures that there is a tendency for them to cluster around a larger structure or clusters of larger structures. Copyright © 2012 Cambridge University Press.

Transient response of structures with uncertain properties to nonlinear shock loading

A method is presented to predict the transient response of a structure at the driving point following an impact or a shock loading. The displacement and the contact force are calculated solving the discrete convolution between the impulse response and the contact force itself, expressed in terms of a nonlinear Hertzian contact stiffness. Application of random point process theory allows the calculation of the impulse response function from knowledge of the modal density and the geometric characteristics of the structure only. The theory is applied to a wide range of structures and results are experimentally verified for the case of a rigid object hitting a beam, a plate, a thin and a thick cylinder and for the impact between two cylinders. The modal density of the flexural modes for a thick slender cylinder is derived analytically. Good agreement is found between experimental, simulated and published results, showing the reliability of the method for a wide range of situations including impacts and pyroshock applications. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predicting the response of structures to transient shock loading.

This work concerns the prediction of the response of an uncertain structure to a load of short duration. Assuming an ensemble of structures with small random variations about a nominal form, a mean impulse response can be found using only the modal density of the structure. The mean impulse response turns out to be the same as the response of an infinite structure: the response is calculated by taking into account the direct field only, without reflections. Considering the short duration of an impulsive loading, the approach is reasonable before the effect of the reverberant field becomes important. The convolution between the mean impulse response and the shock loading is solved in discrete time to calculate the response at the driving point and at remote points. Experimental and numerical examples are presented to validate the theory presented for simple structures such as beams, plates, and cylinders.

Expert system for elucidation of structures of organic compounds (ESESOC) - Algorithm on stereoisomer generation

An algorithm for enumeration of stereoisomers due to asymmetric carbon, C=C double bond and so on has been developed. It consists of three steps. The output of stereoisomers can be represented by 2.5-dimensional connection table.

Effect of structures of modifiers on electrochemistry of di-mu-oxo dimanganese 2,2'-bipyridine complex

The gold electrodes modified with 2-picolinic acid , nicotinic acid, iso-nicotinic or thiophene were prepared using membrane transfer method, The electrochemistry of di-mu-oxodimanganese 2,2'-bipyridine complex was studied in the acetic acid buffer solution at different modified gold electrodes, It was found that the modifiers which can promote the electrochemical reaction of the complex should be of at least two functional groups, One group can be bound to the electrode surface and the other can form electron transfer pathway between the modifier and the complex through sal; bridge or hydrogen bond, In addition, the mechanism of the electrochemical reaction was discussed.

Probabilistic distribution of one-phase structure seminvariants for an isomorphous pair of structures: Theoretical basis and initial applications

Given a special type of triplet of reciprocal-lattice vectors in the monoclinic and orthorhombic systems, there exist eight three-phase structure seminvariants (3PSSs) for a pair of isomorphous structures. The first neighborhood of each of these 3PSSs is defined by the six magnitudes and the joint probability distribution of the corresponding six structure factors is derived according to Hauptman's neighborhood principle. This distribution leads to the conditional probability distribution of each of the 3PSSs, assuming as known the six magnitudes in its first neighborhood. The conditional probability distributions can be directly used to yield the reliable estimates (0 or pi) of the one-phase structure seminvariants (1PSSs) in the favorable case that the variances of the distributions happen to be small [Hauptman (1975). Acta Cryst. A31, 680-687]. The relevant parameters in the formulas for the monoclinic and orthorhombic systems are given in a tabular form. The applications suggest that the method is efficient for estimating the 1PSSs with values of 0 or pi.