scholarly journals Analyses of Sequences of (β/α) Barrel Proteins Based on the Inter-Residue Average Distance Statistics to Elucidate Folding Processes

10.5772/35793 ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masanari Matsuoka ◽  
Michirou Kabata ◽  
Yosuke Kawai ◽  
Takeshi Kikuchi
Keyword(s):  
1979 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 209-213
Author(s):  
B. Rompolt

The aim of this contribution is to turn attention to a peculiarity of location of the filaments (quiescent prominences) with respect to the boundaries of the coronal holes. It is generally known that quiescent prominences are located at some distance from the boundary of coronal holes. My intention was to check whether the average distance between the nearest border of a coronal hole and the prominence is comparable to the average horizontal extension of a helmet structure overlying the prominence. As well as, whether this average distance depends upon the orientation of the long axis of the prominence with respect to the nearest boundary of the coronal hole.


Author(s):  
V. Lyandres

Introduction:Effective synthesis of а mobile communication network includes joint optimisation of two processes: placement of base stations and frequency assignment. In real environments, the well-known cellular concept fails due to some reasons, such as not homogeneous traffic and non-isotropic wave propagation in the service area.Purpose:Looking for the universal method of finding a network structure close to the optimal.Results:The proposed approach is based on the idea of adaptive vector quantization of the network service area. As a result, it is reduced to a 2D discrete map split into zones with approximately equal number of service requests. In each zone, the algorithm finds such coordinates of its base station that provide the shortest average distance to all subscribers. This method takes into account the shortage of the a priory information about the current traffic, ensures maximum coverage of the service area, and what is not less important, significantly simplifies the process of frequency assignment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Ying Long ◽  
Jianting Zhao

This paper examines how mass ridership data can help describe cities from the bikers' perspective. We explore the possibility of using the data to reveal general bikeability patterns in 202 major Chinese cities. This process is conducted by constructing a bikeability rating system, the Mobike Riding Index (MRI), to measure bikeability in terms of usage frequency and the built environment. We first investigated mass ridership data and relevant supporting data; we then established the MRI framework and calculated MRI scores accordingly. This study finds that people tend to ride shared bikes at speeds close to 10 km/h for an average distance of 2 km roughly three times a day. The MRI results show that at the street level, the weekday and weekend MRI distributions are analogous, with an average score of 49.8 (range 0–100). At the township level, high-scoring townships are those close to the city centre; at the city level, the MRI is unevenly distributed, with high-MRI cities along the southern coastline or in the middle inland area. These patterns have policy implications for urban planners and policy-makers. This is the first and largest-scale study to incorporate mobile bike-share data into bikeability measurements, thus laying the groundwork for further research.


The Auk ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Robert McLandress

Abstract I studied the nesting colony of Ross' Geese (Chen rossii) and Lesser Snow Geese (C. caerulescens caerulescens) at Karrak Lake in the central Arctic of Canada in the summer of 1976. Related studies indicated that this colony had grown from 18,000 birds in 1966-1968 to 54,500 birds in 1976. In 1976, geese nested on islands that were used in the late 1960's and on an island and mainland sites that were previously unoccupied. Average nest density in 1976 was three-fold greater than in the late 1960's. Consequently, the average distance to nearest neighbors of Ross' Geese in 1976 was half the average distance determined 10 yr earlier. The mean clutch size of Ross' Geese was greater in island habitats where nest densities were high than in less populated island or mainland habitats. The average size of Snow Goose clutches did not differ significantly among island habitats but was larger at island than at mainland sites. Large clutches were most likely attributable to older and/or earlier nesting females. Habitat preferences apparently differed between species. Small clutches presumably indicated that young geese nested in areas where nest densities were low. The establishment of mainland nesting at Karrak Lake probably began with young Snow Geese using peripheral areas of the colony. Young Ross' Geese nested in sparsely populated habitats on islands to a greater extent than did Snow Geese. Ross' Geese also nested on the mainland but in lower densities than Ross' Geese nesting in similar island habitats. Successful nests with the larger clutches had closer conspecific neighbors than did successful nests with smaller clutches. The species composition of nearest neighbors changed significantly with distance from Snow Goose nests but not Ross' Goose nests. Nesting success was not affected by the species of nearest neighbor, however. Because they have complementary antipredator adaptations, Ross' and Snow geese may benefit by nesting together.


Author(s):  
Wei He ◽  
Wenhui Zhang ◽  
Zhenhua Chu ◽  
Yu Li

The aim of this paper is to explore the mechanism of the change in oestrogenic activity of PCBs molecules before and after modification by designing new PCBs derivatives in combination with molecular docking techniques through the constructed model of oestrogenic activity of PCBs molecules. We found that the weakened hydrophobic interaction between the hydrophobic amino acid residues and hydrophobic substituents at the binding site of PCB derivatives and human oestrogen receptor alpha (hERα) was the main reason for the weakened binding force and reduced anti-oestrogenic activity. It was consistent with the information that the hydrophobic field displayed by the 3D contour maps in the constructed oestrogen activity CoMSIA model was one of the main influencing force fields. The hydrophobic interaction between PCB derivatives and oestrogen-active receptors was negatively correlated with the average distance between hydrophobic substituents and hydrophobic amino acid residues at the hERα-binding site, and positively correlated with the number of hydrophobic amino acid residues. In other words, the smaller the average distance between the hydrophobic amino acid residues at the binding sites between the two and the more the number of them, and the stronger the oestrogen activity expression degree of PCBS derivative molecules. Therefore, hydrophobic interactions between PCB derivatives and the oestrogen receptor can be reduced by altering the microenvironmental conditions in humans. This reduces the ability of PCB derivatives to bind to the oestrogen receptor and can effectively modulate the risk of residual PCB derivatives to produce oestrogenic activity in humans.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (14) ◽  
pp. 7375
Author(s):  
Julie Ledoux ◽  
Alain Trouvé ◽  
Luba Tchertanov

The kinase insert domain (KID) of RTK KIT is the key recruitment region for downstream signalling proteins. KID, studied by molecular dynamics simulations as a cleaved polypeptide and as a native domain fused to KIT, showed intrinsic disorder represented by a set of heterogeneous conformations. The accurate atomistic models showed that the helical fold of KID is mainly sequence dependent. However, the reduced fold of the native KID suggests that its folding is allosterically controlled by the kinase domain. The tertiary structure of KID represents a compact array of highly variable α- and 310-helices linked by flexible loops playing a principal role in the conformational diversity. The helically folded KID retains a collapsed globule-like shape due to non-covalent interactions associated in a ternary hydrophobic core. The free energy landscapes constructed from first principles—the size, the measure of the average distance between the conformations, the amount of helices and the solvent-accessible surface area—describe the KID disorder through a collection of minima (wells), providing a direct evaluation of conformational ensembles. We found that the cleaved KID simulated with restricted N- and C-ends better reproduces the native KID than the isolated polypeptide. We suggest that a cyclic, generic KID would be best suited for future studies of KID f post-transduction effects.


Foods ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Line Elgaard ◽  
Line A. Mielby ◽  
Helene Hopfer ◽  
Derek V. Byrne

Feedback on panel performance is traditionally provided by the panel leader, following an evaluation session. However, a novel method for providing immediate feedback to panelists was proposed, the Feedback Calibration Method (FCM). The aim of the current study was to compare the performance of two panels trained by using FCM with two different approaches for ranges calibration, namely self-calibrated and fixed ranges. Both panels were trained using FCM for nine one-hour sessions, followed by a sensory evaluation of five beer samples (in replicates). Results showed no difference in sample positioning in the sensory space by the two panels. Furthermore, the panels’ discriminability was also similar, while the self-calibrated panel had the highest repeatability. The results from the average distance from target and standard deviations showed that the self-calibrated panel had the lowest distance from target and standard deviation throughout all sessions. However, the decrease in average distance from target and standard deviations over training sessions was similar among panels, meaning that the increase in performance was similar. The fact that both panels had a similar increase in performance and yielded similar sensory profiles indicates that the choice of target value calibration method is unimportant. However, the use of self-calibrated ranges could introduce an issue with the progression of the target scores over session, which is why the fixed target ranges should be applied, if available.


2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-360
Author(s):  
Sally H. J. Choi ◽  
Gary K. Yang ◽  
Keith Baxter ◽  
Joel Gagnon

Background: Adequate seal for thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) commonly requires landing in zone 2, but can prove to be challenging due to the tortuous and angulated anatomy of the region. Objectives: Our objective was to determine the proximal landing accuracy of zone 2-targeted TEVARs following carotid-subclavian revascularization (CSR) and its impact on clinical outcomes. Methods: Retrospective review of patients that underwent CSR for zone 2 endograft delivery at a tertiary institute between January 2008 and March 2018 was conducted. Technical outcomes were assessed by examining the incidence of intraoperative corrective maneuvers, 1a endoleaks and reinterventions. Distance to target and incidence of LSA stump filling were examined as radiographic markers of landing accuracy. Results: Zone 2-targeted TEVAR with CSR was performed in 53 patients for treatment of dissections (49%), aneurysms (30%) or trauma (21%). Nine (17%) cases required intraoperative corrective procedures: 5 (9%) proximal cuffs due to type 1a endoleak and 4 (8%) left common carotid artery (LCCA) stenting due to inadvertent coverage. Cases performed using higher resolution hybrid fluoroscopy machine compared to mobile C-arm were associated with increased proximal cuff use (OR 8.8; 95% CI 1.2-62.4). Average distance between the proximal edge of the covered graft to LCCA was 8 ± 1 mm and larger distances were not associated with higher rates of 1a endoleak. Twenty-eight (53%) cases of antegrade LSA stump filling were noted on follow-up imaging, but were not associated with higher rates of reinterventions (OR 0.8, 95% CI [0.2-4.6]). Three (6%) patients had a stroke within 30 days and 4 (8%) patients expired within 1 month. Intraoperative corrective maneuvers, post-operative 1a endoleak and reinterventions were not associated with higher rates of stroke or mortality. Conclusion: Using current endografts and imaging modalities, zone 2-targeted TEVARs have suboptimal technical accuracy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongliang Yao ◽  
Tiegang Li ◽  
Weidong Chen ◽  
Sanlin Lei ◽  
Kuijie Liu ◽  
...  

AbstractNatural orifice specimen extraction surgery (NOSES) is especially suitable for colorectal surgery. Until now, most of the reports published were about laparoscopic NOSES, the reports about robotic NOSES are extremely rare. This study aims to explore the safety and feasibility of robotic NOSES for colorectal neoplasms. All patients underwent robotic NOSES from March 2016 to October 2019 in our hospital were enrolled for retrospective analysis. Clinicopathological data including patient characteristics, perioperative information and pathological information were collected and analyzed. According to the distance between tumor and anus or whether neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nRCT) is performed, we grouped the cases and studied its influence on robotic NOSES. Also, we compared the previous reports on laparoscopic NOSES with our study and revealed advantages of robotic NOSES in terms of safety and feasibility. A total of 180 patients were enrolled. The average distance from the lower edge of the tumor to the anus was (8.64 ± 3.64) cm and maximum circumferential diameter (CDmax) of specimen was (3.5 ± 1.6) cm. In terms of safety, the average operation time, intraoperative blood loss, and postoperative hospital stay were (187.5 ± 78.3) min, (47.4 ± 34) mL, and (11.3 ± 7.5) days, respectively. In terms of feasibility, the average number of lymph node harvested was (14.8 ± 5). Robotic NOSES shows advantages in terms of safety and feasibility compared with laparoscopic NOSES. This procedure could not only be a safe procedure but also could achieve good oncological outcomes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1795
Author(s):  
Pedro Dorta Antequera ◽  
Jaime Díaz Pacheco ◽  
Abel López Díez ◽  
Celia Bethencourt Herrera

Many small islands base their economy on tourism. This activity, based to a large extent on the movement of millions of people by air transport, depends on the use of fossil fuels and, therefore, generates a large amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this work, these emissions are evaluated by means of various carbon calculators, taking the Canary Islands as an example, which is one of the most highly developed tourist archipelagos in the world. The result is that more than 6.4 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 are produced per year exclusively due to the massive transport of tourists over an average distance of more than 3000 km. The relative weight of these emissions is of such magnitude that they are equivalent to more than 50% of the total amount produced by the socioeconomic activity of the archipelago. Although, individually, it is travelers from Russia and Nordic countries who generate the highest carbon footprint due to their greater traveling distance, the British and German tourists account for the greatest weight in the total, with two-thirds of emissions.


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