Synthesis and characterization of monometallic rhenium(I) complexes and their application as selective sensors for copper(II) ions

Novel imine functionalized monometallic rhenium(I) polypyridine complexes (1-4) comprising two phenol moieties attached to 2,20-bipyridine ligands L1-L4 have been synthesized and characterized. These complexes exhibit selective and sensitive detection towards copper(II) ions and this is observed through changes in UV-visible absorption, luminescence and time-resolved spectroscopic techniques. An enormous enhancement is observed in emission intensity, quantum yield and luminescence lifetime with the addition of copper(II) ions, and this can be attributed to the restriction of C=N isomerization in the Re(I) complexes. The strong binding between copper(II) ions and these complexes reveals that the binding constant values are in the range of 1.1 x 10(3)-6.0 x 103 M-1. The absorption spectral behavior of the complexes is supported by DFT calculations.

Acoustic Noise Characterization of Space-Vector Modulated Induction Motor Drives-An Experimental Approach

This paper presents an experimental procedure to determine the acoustic and vibration behavior of an inverter-fed induction motor based on measurements of the current spectrum, acoustic noise spectrum, overall noise in dB, and overall A-weighted noise in dBA. Measurements are carried out on space-vector modulated 8-hp and 3-hp induction motor drives over a range of carrier frequencies at different modulation frequencies. The experimental data help to distinguish between regions of high and low acoustic noise levels. The measurements also bring out the impact of carrier frequency on the acoustic noise. The sensitivity of the overall noise to carrier frequency is indicative of the relative dominance of the high-frequency electromagnetic noise over mechanical and aerodynamic components of noise. Based on the measured current and acoustic noise spectra, the ratio of dynamic deflection on the stator surface to the product of fundamental and harmonic current amplitudes is obtained at each operating point. The variation of this ratio of deflection to current product with carrier frequency indicates the resonant frequency clearly and also gives a measure of the amplification of vibration at frequencies close to the resonant frequency. This ratio is useful to predict the magnitude of acoustic noise corresponding to significant time-harmonic currents flowing in the stator winding.

Molecular and Functional Characterization of RecD, a Novel Member of the SF1 Family of Helicases, from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Background: The heterotrimeric M. tuberculosis RecBCD complex, or each of its individual subunits, remains uncharacterized. Results: MtRecD exists as a homodimer in solution, catalyzes ssDNA-dependent ATP hydrolysis, unwinding of DNA replication/recombination intermediates, and interacts with RecA. Conclusion: MtRecD possesses strong 5 3- and weak 3 5-helicase activities. Significance: These findings provide insights into the mechanism underlying DSB repair and homologous recombination in mycobacteria. The annotated whole-genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis revealed the presence of a putative recD gene; however, the biochemical characteristics of its encoded protein product (MtRecD) remain largely unknown. Here, we show that MtRecD exists in solution as a stable homodimer. Protein-DNA binding assays revealed that MtRecD binds efficiently to single-stranded DNA and linear duplexes containing 5 overhangs relative to the 3 overhangs but not to blunt-ended duplex. Furthermore, MtRecD bound more robustly to a variety of Y-shaped DNA structures having 18-nucleotide overhangs but not to a similar substrate containing 5-nucleotide overhangs. MtRecD formed more salt-tolerant complexes with Y-shaped structures compared with linear duplex having 3 overhangs. The intrinsic ATPase activity of MtRecD was stimulated by single-stranded DNA. Site-specific mutagenesis of Lys-179 in motif I abolished the ATPase activity of MtRecD. Interestingly, although MtRecD-catalyzed unwinding showed a markedly higher preference for duplex substrates with 5 overhangs, it could also catalyze significant unwinding of substrates containing 3 overhangs. These results support the notion that MtRecD is a bipolar helicase with strong 5 3 and weak 3 5 unwinding activities. The extent of unwinding of Y-shaped DNA structures was approximate to 3-fold lower compared with duplexes with 5 overhangs. Notably, direct interaction between MtRecD and its cognate RecA led to inhibition of DNA strand exchange promoted by RecA. Altogether, these studies provide the first detailed characterization of MtRecD and present important insights into the type of DNA structure the enzyme is likely to act upon during the processes of DNA repair or homologous recombination.

Nest site characterization of sympatric hornbills in a tropical dry forest

Hornbills, among the largest and most threatened tropical frugivores, provide important seed dispersal services. Hornbill nest site characteristics are known primarily from wet tropical forests. Nests of the Indian grey hornbill Ocyceros birostris and Oriental pied hornbill Anthracoceros albirostris were characterized in a tropical dry forest. Despite A. albirostris being twice the size of O. birostris, few of the nest cavity attributes were different. A. albirostris nests were surrounded by higher proportion of mixed forest and lower sal forest compared to O. birostris. In this landscape, the larger A. albirostris may prefer to nest in sites with more food plants compared to the smaller O. birostris.

Functional characterization of heat-shock protein 90 from Oryza sativa and crystal structure of its N-terminal domain

Heat-shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is an ATP-dependent molecular chaperone that is essential for the normal functioning of eukaryotic cells. It plays crucial roles in cell signalling, cell-cycle control and in maintaining proteome integrity and protein homeostasis. In plants, Hsp90s are required for normal plant growth and development. Hsp90s are observed to be upregulated in response to various abiotic and biotic stresses and are also involved in immune responses in plants. Although there are several studies elucidating the physiological role of Hsp90s in plants, their molecular mechanism of action is still unclear. In this study, biochemical characterization of an Hsp90 protein from rice (Oryza sativa; OsHsp90) has been performed and the crystal structure of its N-terminal domain (OsHsp90-NTD) was determined. The binding of OsHsp90 to its substrate ATP and the inhibitor 17-AAG was studied by fluorescence spectroscopy. The protein also exhibited a weak ATPase activity. The crystal structure of OsHsp90-NTD was solved in complex with the nonhydrolyzable ATP analogue AMPPCP at 3.1 angstrom resolution. The domain was crystallized by cross-seeding with crystals of the N-terminal domain of Hsp90 from Dictyostelium discoideum, which shares 70% sequence identity with OsHsp90-NTD. This is the second reported structure of a domain of Hsp90 from a plant source.

Voice source characterization using pitch synchronous discrete cosine transform for speaker identification

A characterization of the voice source (VS) signal by the pitch synchronous (PS) discrete cosine transform (DCT) is proposed. With the integrated linear prediction residual (ILPR) as the VS estimate, the PS DCT of the ILPR is evaluated as a feature vector for speaker identification (SID). On TIMIT and YOHO databases, using a Gaussian mixture model (GMM)-based classifier, it performs on par with existing VS-based features. On the NIST 2003 database, fusion with a GMM-based classifier using MFCC features improves the identification accuracy by 12% in absolute terms, proving that the proposed characterization has good promise as a feature for SID studies. (C) 2015 Acoustical Society of America

Lead selection and characterization of antitubercular compounds using the Nested Chemical Library

Discovering new drugs to treat tuberculosis more efficiently and to overcome multidrug resistance is a world health priority. To find novel antitubercular agents several approaches have been used in various institutions worldwide, including target-based approaches against several validated mycobacterial enzymes and phenotypic screens. We screened more than 17,000 compounds from Vichem's Nested Chemical Library(TM) using an integrated strategy involving whole cell-based assays with Corynebacterium glutamicum and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and target-based assays with protein kinases PknA, PknB and PknG as well as other targets such as PimA and bacterial topoisomerases simultaneously. With the help of the target-based approach we have found very potent hits inhibiting the selected target enzymes, but good minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) against M. tuberculosis were not achieved. Focussing on the whole cell-based approach several potent hits were found which displayed minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) against M. tuberculosis below 10 mu M and were non-mutagenic, non-cytotoxic and the targets of some of the hits were also identified. The most active hits represented various scaffolds. Medicinal chemistry-based lead optimization was performed applying various strategies and, as a consequence, a series of novel potent compounds were synthesized. These efforts resulted in some effective potential antitubercular lead compounds which were confirmed in phenotypic assays. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ANRC Hybrid Test Bed Implementation and an End-to-End Performance Characterization of Dynamic Spectrum Access

An abundance of spectrum access and sensing algorithms are available in the dynamic spectrum access (DSA) and cognitive radio (CR) literature. Often, however, the functionality and performance of such algorithms are validated against theoretical calculations using only simulations. Both the theoretical calculations and simulations come with their attendant sets of assumptions. For instance, designers of dynamic spectrum access algorithms often take spectrum sensing and rendezvous mechanisms between transmitter-receiver pairs for granted. Test bed designers, on the other hand, either customize so much of their design that it becomes difficult to replicate using commercial off the shelf (COTS) components or restrict themselves to simulation, emulation /hardware-in-Ioop (HIL), or pure hardware but not all three. Implementation studies on test beds sophisticated enough to combine the three aforementioned aspects, but at the same time can also be put together using COTS hardware and software packages are rare. In this paper we describe i) the implementation of a hybrid test bed using a previously proposed hardware agnostic system architecture ii) the implementation of DSA on this test bed, and iii) the realistic hardware and software-constrained performance of DSA. Snapshot energy detector (ED) and Cumulative Summation (CUSUM), a sequential change detection algorithm, are available for spectrum sensing and a two-way handshake mechanism in a dedicated control channel facilitates transmitter-receiver rendezvous.

Synthesis and characterization of magnetic and conductive nickel ferrite-polyaniline nanocomposites

Conducting polymer/ferrite nanocomposites with an organized structure provide a new functional hybrid between organic and inorganic materials. The most popular among the conductive polymers is the polyaniline due to its wide application in different fields. In the present work nickel ferrite nanoparticles were prepared by sol-gel citrate-nitrate method. Polyaniline/nickel ferrite nanocomposites were synthesized by a simple general and inexpensive in-situ polymerization in the presence of nickel ferrite nanoparticles. The effects of nickel ferrite nanoparticles on the DC-electrical and magnetic properties of polyaniline were investigated. The structural, morphological and thermal stability of nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, FTIR, scanning electron micrograph and TGA. The DC conductivity of polyaniline/nickel ferrite nanocomposites have been measured as a function of temperature in the range of 80K to 300K. The magnetic properties of the nanocomposites were measured using vibrating sample magnetometer in the temperature range 300-10K up to 30 kOe magnetic field.

Single-Cell Optical Absorbance Characterization With High-Throughput Microfluidic Microscopy

Morphological changes in cells associated with disease states are often assessed using clinical microscopy. However, the changes in chemical composition of cells can also be used to detect disease conditions. Optical absorption measurements carried out on single cells using inexpensive sources, detectors can help assess the chemical composition of cells; thereby enable detection of diseases. In this article, we present a novel technique capable of simultaneously detecting changes in morphology and chemical composition of cells. The presented technique enables characterization of optical absorbance-based methods against microscopy for detection of disease states. Using the technique, we have been able to achieve a throughput of about 1000 cells per second. We demonstrate the proof-of-principle by detecting malaria in a given blood sample. The presented technique is capable of detecting very lower levels of parasitemia within time scales comparable to antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests.

Structure Elucidation and Characterization of Different Thyroxine Polymorphs

Thyroid hormones regulate almost every process in the body, including body temperature, growth, and heart rate. They influence carbohydrate metabolism, protein synthesis and breakdown, and cardiovascular, renal, and brain function. Two new polymorphs of synthetic L-thyroxine (T4) are reported and the effect of polymorphism on the solubility of this important hormone is shown. Conformational changes were also discovered to have a remarkable effect on the strength of halogen bonding and the reactivity of the CI bonds, which could have a significant effect on the hormone activity.

Characterization of Precursor PfHsp60 in Plasmodium falciparum Cytosol during Its Asexual Development in Human Erythrocytes

Mitochondrial heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60) is a nuclear encoded gene product that gets post-translationally translocated into the mitochondria. Using multiple approaches such as immunofluorescence experiments, isoelectric point analysis with two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, and mass spectrometric identification of the signal peptide, we show that Hsp60 from Plasmodium falciparum (PfHsp60) accumulates in the parasite cytoplasm during the ring, trophozoite, and schizont stages of parasite development before being imported into the parasite mitochondria. Using co-immunoprecipitation experiments with antibodies specific to cytoplasmic PfHsp90, PfHsp70-1, and PfHsp60, we show association of precursor PfHsp60 with cytoplasmic chaperone machinery. Metabolic labeling involving pulse and chase indicates translocation of the precursor pool into the parasite mitochondrion during chase. Analysis of results obtained with Geldanamycin treatment confirmed precursor PfHsp60 to be one of the clients for PfHsp90. Cytosolic chaperones bind precursor PfHsp60 prior to its import into the mitochondrion of the parasite. Our data suggests an inefficient co-ordination in the synthesis and translocation of mitochondrial PfHsp60 during asexual growth of malaria parasite in human erythrocytes.

Zinc acetylacetonate hydrate adducted with nitrogen donor ligands: Synthesis, spectroscopic characterization, and thermal analysis

We report synthesis, spectroscopic characterization, and thermal analysis of zinc acetylacetonate complex adducted by nitrogen donor ligands, such as pyridine, bipyridine, and phenanthroline. The pyridine adducted complex crystallizes to monoclinic crystal structure, whereas other two adducted complexes have orthorhombic structure. Addition of nitrogen donor ligands enhances the thermal property of these complexes as that with parent metal-organic complex. Zinc acetylacetonate adducted with pyridine shows much higher volatility (106 degrees C), decomposition temperature (202 degrees C) as that with zinc acetylacetonate (136 degrees C, 220 degrees C), and other adducted complexes. All the adducted complexes are thermally stable, highly volatile and are considered to be suitable precursors for metal organic chemical vapor deposition. The formation of these complexes is confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. The complexes are widely used as starting precursor materials for the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures by microwave irradiation assisted coating process. (c) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mass spectrometry based characterization of Hb Beckman variant in a falsely elevated HbA(1c) sample

Glycated hemoglobin (HbA(1c)) is a `gold standard' biomarker for assessing the glycemic index of an individual. HbA(1c) is formed due to nonenzymatic glycosylation at N-terminal valine residue of the P-globin chain. Cation exchange based high performance liquid chromatography (CE HPLC) is mostly used to quantify HbA(1c), in blood sample. A few genetic variants of hemoglobin and post-translationally modified variants of hemoglobin interfere with CE HPLC-based quantification,. resulting in its false positive estimation. Using mass spectrometry, we analyzed a blood sample with abnormally high HbA(1c) (52.1%) in the CE HPLC method. The observed HbA(1c) did not corroborate the blood glucose level of the patient. A mass spectrometry based bottom up proteomics approach, intact globin chain mass analysis, and chemical modification of the proteolytic peptides identified the presence of Hb Beckman, a genetic variant of hemoglobin, in the experimental sample. A similar surface area to charge ratio between HbA(1c) and Hb Beckman might have resulted in the coelution of the variant with HbA(1c) in CE HPLC. Therefore, in the screening of diabetes mellitus through the estimation of HbA(1c), it is important to look for genetic variants of hemoglobin in samples that show abnormally high glycemic index, and HbA(1c) must be estimated using an alternative method. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

COMPOSITE AND MULTI-SCALE COMPLIANT MECHANISMS FOR MANIPULATION AND MECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION

In this paper, we integrate two or more compliant mechanisms to get enhanced functionality for manipulating and mechanically characterizing the grasped objects of varied size (cm to sub-mm), stiffness (1e5 to 10 N/m), and materials (cement to biological cells). The concepts of spring-lever (SL) model, stiffness maps, and non-dimensional kinetoelastostatic maps are used to design composite and multi-scale compliant mechanisms. Composite compliant mechanisms comprise two or more different mechanisms within a single elastic continuum while multi-scale ones possess the additional feature of substantial difference in the sizes of the mechanisms that are combined into one. We present three applications: (i) a composite compliant device to measure the failure load of the cement samples; (ii) a composite multi-scale compliant gripper to measure the bulk stiffness of zebrafish embryos; and (iii) a compliant gripper combined with a negative-stiffness element to reduce the overall stiffness. The prototypes of all three devices are made and tested. The cement sample needed a breaking force of 22.5 N; the zebrafish embryo is found to have bulk stiffness of about 10 N/m; and the stiffness of a compliant gripper was reduced by 99.8 % to 0.2 N/m.