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Topological Characterization of Book Graph and Stacked Book Graph
Full text linkDegree based topological indices are being widely used in computer-aided modeling, structural activity relations, and drug designing to predict the underlying topological properties of networks and graphs. In this work, we compute the certain important degree based topological indices like Randic index, sum connectivity index, ABC index, ABC4 index, GA index and GA5 index of Book graph Bn and Stacked book graph Bm,n. The results are analyzed by using edge partition, and the general formulas are derived for the above-mentioned families of graphs
A Comparative Study of Machine Learning Methods for Genre Identification of Classical Arabic Text
Full text linkThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of five supervised machine learning methods for the task of automated genre identification of classical Arabic texts using text most frequent words as features. We design an experiment for comparing five machine-learning methods for the genre identification task for classical Arabic text. We set the data and the stylometric features and vary the classification method to evaluate the performance of each method. Of the five machine learning methods tested, we can conclude that Support Vector Machine (SVM) are generally the most effective. The contribution of this work lies in the evaluation of the five machine learning methods for the task of genre identification for classical Arabic text using stylometric features
Drug Side-Effect Prediction Using Heterogeneous Features and Bipartite Local Models
Full text linkDrug side-effects impose massive costs on society, leading to almost one-third drug failure in the drug discovery process. Therefore, early identification of potential side-effects becomes vital to avoid risks and reduce costs. Existing computational methods employ few drug features and predict drug side-effects from either drug side or side-effect side separately. In this work, we explore to predict drug side-effects by combining heterogeneous drug features and employing the bipartite local models (BLMs) which fuse predictions from both the drug side and side-effect side. Specifically, we integrate drug chemical structures, drug interacted proteins and drug associated genes into a unified framework to measure the comprehensive similarity between drugs first. Then, high-quality and balanced training samples are selected for individual drugs and individual side-effects using the designed balanced sample selection framework, based on drug comprehensive similarities and side-effect cosine similarities respectively. Trained with corresponding training samples, BLMs first predict drugs associated with a given side-effect, then predict side-effects for a given drug. This produces two independent predictions for each putative drug-side-effect association which are further combined to give a definitive prediction. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated on side-effect prediction for 901 drugs from DrugBank. Particularly, we performed 5-fold cross-validation experiments on the 742 characterized drugs and independent testing experiment on the 159 uncharacterized drugs. The simulative predictions show that the side-effect prediction performance is significantly improved owing to the integration of information from drug chemical, biological and genomic spaces, the proposed sample selection framework, and the implemented BLMs
Meta-analysis evaluation of the treatment of neonatal hypoxic– ischemic encephalopathy with ganglioside
No full textThe efficacy and safety of ganglioside in the treatment of neonates who suffer from hypoxic–ischemic
encephalopathy (HIE) needs to be fully evaluated. We searched the following databases: PubMed, ScienceDirect,
LISTA, CNKI, Chinese biomedical literature database and Wanfang digital journals of full-text database to determine
the inclusion and exclusion criteria of papers and a total of 12 papers were included after quality evaluation. Then we
conducted the meta-analysis with RevMan5.0 software. The results showed that compared with the control group, the
abnormal rate declined in the ganglioside-treated group (relative risk (RR)=0.27, 95% confidence interval (CI)= 0.05–
1.96). NBNA records of the 7, 10–14d neonates were improved effectively: RR (95% CI) were 2.28 (0.86–3.42) and 2.53
(1.04–2.92) respectively. Neural system sequelae incidence was reduced significantly: RR (95% CI) = 0.35: (0.15–0.79).
Ganglioside treatment could effectively reduce the abnormality rate of head size, improve the neurological score, reduce
the incidence of neurological sequelae, and significantly prompt clinical recovery for neonates with HIE
Influence of the Area of the Reflux Hole on the Performance of a Self-Priming Pump
No full textThe self-priming process of a pump involves a complex gas-liquid two-phase flow. Studying the distribution of gas and water and the evolution of their flow in the pump is of great importance to optimize this process and shorten the pump self-priming time. In the present study, a standard k-ε turbulence model and a multiphase flow model have been used to simulate the self-priming pump process considering four different reflux hole areas. A comparison of the distribution of air and water distribution on the axial surface and inside the volume have been carried out for the different considered cases. The pattern formed by the streamlines at different times during the whole self-priming process has also been investigated. The results show that the velocity at the trailing edge of the impeller outlet is the largest. The flow in the pump cavity is complicated by the formation of vortices. The number, shape and location of the vortices change depending on the considered configuration
Heterologous expression of bacteriocin E-760 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and functional analysis
No full textThe use of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) synthesized
by bacteria (bacteriocins) is an alternative for combating multidrug
resistant bacterial strains and their production by recombinant route
is a viable option for their mass production. The bacteriocin E-760
isolated from the genus Enterococcus sp. has been shown to possess
inhibitory activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive
bacteria. In this study, the expression of a chimeric protein coding
for E-760 in the nucleus of C. reinhardtii was evaluated, as well as,
its antibacterial activity. The synthetic gene E-760S was inserted
into the genome of C. reinhardtii using Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
A transgenic line was identified in TAP medium with hygromycin
and also by PCR. The increment in the culture medium temperature
of the transgenic strain at 35 °C for 10 minutes, increased the
production level of the recombinant protein from 0.14 (Noninduced
culture, NIC) to 0.36% (Induced culture, IC) of total soluble
proteins (TSP); this was quantified by an ELISA assay. Recombinant
E-760 possesses activity against Staphylococcus aureus in 0.34 U
log, Streptococcus agalactiae in 0.48 U log, Enterococcus faecium in
0.36 U log, Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 2 U log and for Klebsiella
pneumoniae, the activity was 0.07 U log. These results demonstrate
that the nucleus transformation of C. reinhardtii can function as
a stable expression platform for the production of the synthetic
gene E-760 and it can potentially be used as an antibacterial agent
Targeting Glycinebetaine for Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants: Physiological Mechanism, Molecular Interaction and Signaling
No full textIn the era of climate change, abiotic stresses (e.g., salinity, drought, extreme temperature, flooding, metal/metalloid(s), UV radiation, ozone, etc.) are considered as one of the most complex environmental constraints that restricts crop production worldwide. Introduction of stress-tolerant crop cultivars is the most auspicious way of surviving this constraint, and to produce these types of tolerant crops. Several bioengineering mechanisms involved in stress signaling are being adopted in this regard. One example of this kind of manipulation is the osmotic adjustment. The quarternary ammonium compound glycinebetaine (GB), also originally referred to as betaine is a methylated glycine derivative. Among the betaines, GB is the most abundant one in plants, which is mostly produced in response to dehydration caused by different abiotic stresses like drought, salinity, and extreme temperature. Glycinebetaine helps in decreased accumulation and detoxification of ROS, thereby restoring photosynthesis and reducing oxidative stress. It takes part in stabilizing membranes and macromolecules. It is also involved in the stabilization and protection of photosynthetic components, such as ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, photosystem II and quarternary enzyme and protein complex structures under environmental stresses. Glycinebetaine was found to perform in chaperone-induced protein disaggregation. In addition, GB can confer stress tolerance in very low concentrations, and it acts in activating defense responsive genes with stress protection. Recently, field application of GB has also shown protective effects against environmental adversities increasing crop yield and quality. In this review, we will focus on the role of GB in conferring abiotic stress tolerance and the possible ways to engineer GB biosynthesis in plants
Pollen Morphology of Indian Species of Saraca L. (Leguminosae)-A Threatened and Legendary Medicinal Tree
No full textThe genus Saraca L. (Leguminosae) is a universal panacea in herbal medicine. The present study investigates the comparative pollen morphology of four species of Saraca viz. S. asoca (Roxb.) de Wilde, S. declinata (Jack) Miq., S. indica L., and S. thaipingensis Cantley ex Prain growing in India to reveal differences of their pollen structures to aid taxonomic and evolutionary values. The detailed morphology and surface structure of pollen grains were studied and described using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The pollen grains of Saraca showed isopolar, para-syncolporate, tricolporate, with radially symmetric, prolate and prolate-spheroidal structure. The surface of pollen of S. indica is rugulate with large lirae but in S. declinata, the surface is micro-rugulate to vermiculate with relatively thin lirae and that of S. thaipingensis is indistinct as the psilate surface with a frequent protuberance and fewer perforations were observed along with the gemmae like structure. Exine ornamentation helped to separate S. indica and S. asoca. Exine thickness varies from 3-4 μm. Presence of protuberance and exine thickness varies among individuals of the species spread over different locations. Present work also provides a unique palynological identity and interrelationship of these four species based on cluster analysis taking 23 pollen characters with the help of statistical method like the plotting of ternary graph. Ternary plots also helped to calculate the level of plasticity of each character in the intra- and inter-specific level
Nerve growth factor alleviates cerebral infarction and neurologic deficits by regulating VEGF, SDF-1 and S100A12 expression through PI3K pathway
No full textStroke remains the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, which destroys the quality of patients’
lives and thus is becoming a heavy burden to the society. However, the current therapeutic approaches are far from
satisfaction. The objective of this study is to elucidate the impact of nerve growth factor (NGF) on the brain damage
induced by cerebral ischemia and its potential molecular mechanism. Middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rats
were used as animal models and neurological functions were evaluated by modified Neurological Severity Score (NSS).
Brain cell apoptosis was analyzed by TUNEL-positive staining while brain infarct size was determined according to 2%
2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TCC) staining volume. Rats receiving NGF demonstrated significantly alleviated
brain damage, reflected by a substantial improvement in the neurobehavioral outcome, a decrease in brain cell apoptosis
and shrinkage of brain infarct volume. Further analysis revealed a markedly elevated circulating vascular endothelial
growth factor (VEGF) and stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) levels as well as a significant downregulation of
SA10012 expression in NGF treated group compared with the untreated group. Strikingly, the protective effect of
NGF on cerebral ischemic injury was abolished in rats treated with both NGF and PI3K inhibitors, indicating that
phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) signaling is essential for NGF function. In conclusion, NGF treatment might be a
potential therapeutic approach against cerebral infarction by downregulating SA10012 expression and upregulating
VEGF, SDF-1 in a PI3K signaling dependent manner
Implementing the Node Based Smoothed Finite Element Method as User Element in Abaqus for Linear and Nonlinear Elasticity
No full textIn this paper, the node based smoothed-strain Abaqus user element (UEL) in the framework of finite element method is introduced. The basic idea behind of the node based smoothed finite element (NSFEM) is that finite element cells are divided into subcells and subcells construct the smoothing domain associated with each node of a finite element cell [Liu, Dai and Nguyen-Thoi (2007)]. Therefore, the numerical integration is globally performed over smoothing domains. It is demonstrated that the proposed UEL retains all the advantages of the NSFEM, i.e., upper bound solution, overly soft stiffness and free from locking in compressible and nearly-incompressible media. In this work, the constant strain triangular (CST) elements are used to construct node based smoothing domains, since any complex two dimensional domains can be discretized using CST elements. This additional challenge is successfully addressed in this paper. The efficacy and robustness of the proposed work is obtained by several benchmark problems in both linear and nonlinear elasticity. The developed UEL and the associated files can be downloaded from https://github.com/nsundar/NSFEM