Search results for: binding site

Authors: Yi-Zhong Weng, Chien-Kang Huang, Yu-Feng Huang, Chi-Yuan Yu, Darby Tien-Hao Chang

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Search for a tertiary substructure that geometrically matches the 3D pattern of the binding site of a well-studied protein provides a solution to predict protein functions. In our previous work, a web server has been built to predict protein-ligand binding sites based on automatically extracted templates. However, a drawback of such templates is that the web server was prone to resulting in many false positive matches. In this study, we present a sequence-order constraint to reduce the false positive matches of using automatically extracted templates to predict protein-ligand binding sites. The binding site predictor comprises i) an automatically constructed template library and ii) a local structure alignment algorithm for querying the library. The sequence-order constraint is employed to identify the inconsistency between the local regions of the query protein and the templates. Experimental results reveal that the sequence-order constraint can largely reduce the false positive matches and is effective for template-based binding site prediction.

Keywords: Protein structure, binding site, functional prediction

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Authors: Assyl Bari, Olga Berillo, Saltanat Orazova, Anatoliy Ivashchenko

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Among all microRNAs (miRNAs) in 12 plant species investigated in this study, only miR398 targeted the copper chaperone for superoxide dismutase (CCS). The nucleotide sequences of miRNA binding sites were located in the mRNA protein-coding sequence (CDS) and were highly homologous. These binding sites in CCS mRNA encoded a conservative GDLGTL hexapeptide. The binding sites for miR398 in the CDS of superoxide dismutase 1 mRNA encoded GDLGN pentapeptide. The conservative miR398 binding site located in the CDS of superoxide dismutase 2 mRNA encoded the GDLGNI hexapeptide. The miR398 binding site in the CDS of superoxide dismutase 3 mRNA encoded the GDLGNI or GDLGNV hexapeptide. Gene expression of the entire superoxide dismutase family in the studied plant species was regulated only by miR398. All members of the miR398 family, i.e. miR398a,b,c were connected to one site for each CuZnSOD and chaperone mRNA.

Keywords: MicroRNA, mRNA, plant, superoxide dismutase.

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Authors: M. Michael Gromiha, Kiyonobu Yokota, Kazuhiko Fukui

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We have developed an energy based approach for identifying the binding sites and important residues for binding in protein-protein complexes. We found that the residues and residuepairs with charged and aromatic side chains are important for binding. These residues influence to form cation-¤Ç, electrostatic and aromatic interactions. Our observation has been verified with the experimental binding specificity of protein-protein complexes and found good agreement with experiments. The analysis on surrounding hydrophobicity reveals that the binding residues are less hydrophobic than non-binding sites, which suggests that the hydrophobic core are important for folding and stability whereas the surface seeking residues play a critical role in binding. Further, the propensity of residues in the binding sites of receptors and ligands, number of medium and long-range contacts, and influence of neighboring residues will be discussed.

Keywords: Protein-protein interactions, energy based approach;binding sites, propensity, long-range contacts, hydrophobicity

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Authors: Jihyung Kim, Taejin Kim, Sungho Park, Jun-Dong Cho

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A conventional binding method for low power in a high-level synthesis mainly focuses on finding an optimal binding for an assumed input data, and obtains only one binding table. In this paper, we show that a binding method which uses multiple binding tables gets better solution compared with the conventional methods which use a single binding table, and propose a dynamic bus binding scheme for low power using multiple binding tables. The proposed method finds multiple binding tables for the proper partitions of an input data, and switches binding tables dynamically to produce the minimum total switching activity. Experimental result shows that the proposed method obtains a binding solution having 12.6-28.9% smaller total switching activity compared with the conventional methods.

Keywords: low power, bus binding, switching activity, multiplebinding tables

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Authors: Ching-Wei Tsai, Chih-I Liu, Ruoh-Chyu Ruaana

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A new strategy for oriented immobilization of proteins was proposed. The strategy contains two steps. The first step is to search for a docking site away from the active site on the protein surface. The second step is trying to find a ligand that is able to grasp the targeted site of the protein. To avoid ligand binding to the active site of protein, the targeted docking site is selected to own opposite charges to those near the active site. To enhance the ligand-protein binding, both hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions need to be included. The targeted docking site should therefore contain hydrophobic amino acids. The ligand is then selected through the help of molecular docking simulations. The enzyme α-amylase derived from Aspergillus oryzae (TAKA) was taken as an example for oriented immobilization. The active site of TAKA is surrounded by negatively charged amino acids. All the possible hydrophobic sites on the surface of TAKA were evaluated by the free energy estimation through benzene docking. A hydrophobic site on the opposite side of TAKA-s active site was found to be positive in net charges. A possible ligand, 3,3-,4,4- – Biphenyltetra- carboxylic acid (BPTA), was found to catch TAKA by the designated docking site. Then, the BPTA molecules were grafted onto silica gels and measured the affinity of TAKA adsorption and the specific activity of thereby immobilized enzymes. It was found that TAKA had a dissociation constant as low as 7.0×10-6 M toward the ligand BPTA on silica gel. The increase in ionic strength has little effect on the adsorption of TAKA, which indicated the existence of hydrophobic interaction between ligands and proteins. The specific activity of the immobilized TAKA was compared with the randomly adsorbed TAKA on primary amine containing silica gel. It was found that the orderly immobilized TAKA owns a specific activity twice as high as the one randomly adsorbed by ionic interaction.

Keywords: Protein Oriented immobilization, Molecular docking, ligand design, surface modification.

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Authors: Jihyung Kim, Taejin Kim, Sungho Park, Jun-Dong Cho

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In this paper, we address the problem of reducing the switching activity (SA) in on-chip buses through the use of a bus binding technique in high-level synthesis. While many binding techniques to reduce the SA exist, we present yet another technique for further reducing the switching activity. Our proposed method combines bus binding and data sequence reordering to explore a wider solution space. The problem is formulated as a multiple traveling salesman problem and solved using simulated annealing technique. The experimental results revealed that a binding solution obtained with the proposed method reduces 5.6-27.2% (18.0% on average) and 2.6-12.7% (6.8% on average) of the switching activity when compared with conventional binding-only and hybrid binding-encoding methods, respectively.

Keywords: low power, bus binding, switching activity, multiple traveling salesman problem, data sequence reordering

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Authors: Olga A. Berillo, Assel S. Issabekova, Anatoly T. Ivashchenko

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MiRNAs participate in gene regulation of translation. Some studies have investigated the interactions between genes and intragenic miRNAs. It is important to study the miRNA binding sites of genes involved in carcinogenesis. RNAHybrid 2.1 and ERNAhybrid programmes were used to compute the hybridization free energy of miRNA binding sites. Of these 54 mRNAs, 22.6%, 37.7%, and 39.7% of miRNA binding sites were present in the 5'UTRs, CDSs, and 3'UTRs, respectively. The density of the binding sites for miRNAs in the 5'UTR ranged from 1.6 to 43.2 times and from 1.8 to 8.0 times greater than in the CDS and 3'UTR, respectively. Three types of miRNA interactions with mRNAs have been revealed: 5'- dominant canonical, 3'-compensatory, and complementary binding sites. MiRNAs regulate gene expression, and information on the interactions between miRNAs and mRNAs could be useful in molecular medicine. We recommend that newly described sites undergo validation by experimental investigation.

Keywords: Exon, intron, miRNA, oncogene.

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Authors: Olga A. Berillo, Gaukhar K. Baidildinova, Аnatoliy Т. Ivashchenko

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Tumour suppressors are key participants in the prevention of cancer. Regulation of their expression through miRNAs is important for comprehensive translation inhibition of tumour suppressors and elucidation of carcinogenesis mechanisms. We studies the possibility of 1521 miRNAs to bind with 873 mRNAs of human tumour suppressors using RNAHybrid 2.1 and ERNAhybrid programmes. Only 978 miRNAs were found to be translational regulators of 812 mRNAs, and 61 mRNAs did not have any miRNA binding sites. Additionally, 45.9% of all miRNA binding sites were located in coding sequences (CDSs), 33.8% were located in 3' untranslated region (UTR), and 20.3% were located in the 5'UTR. MiRNAs binding with more than 50 target mRNAs and mRNAs binding with several miRNAs were selected. Hsa-miR-5096 had 15 perfectly complementary binding sites with mRNAs of 14 tumour suppressors. These newly indentified miRNA binding sites can be used in the development of medicines (anti-sense therapies) for cancer treatment.

Keywords: Exonic miRNA, intergenic miRNA, intronic miRNA, tumor suppressor.

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Authors: Jihyung Kim, Taejin Kim, Sungho Park, Jun-Dong Cho

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In this paper, the problem of reducing switching activity in on-chip buses at the stage of high-level synthesis is considered, and a high-level low power bus binding based on dynamic bit reordering is proposed. Whereas conventional methods use a fixed bit ordering between variables within a bus, the proposed method switches a bit ordering dynamically to obtain a switching activity reduction. As a result, the proposed method finds a binding solution with a smaller value of total switching activity (TSA). Experimental result shows that the proposed method obtains a binding solution having 12.0-34.9% smaller TSA compared with the conventional methods.

Keywords: bit reordering, bus binding, low power, switching activity matrix

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Authors: S. Ashrafpour, T. Tohidi Moghadam, B. Ranjbar

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Identifying the nature of protein-nanoparticle interactions and favored binding sites is an important issue in functional characterization of biomolecules and their physiological responses. Herein, interaction of silver nanoparticles with lysozyme as a model protein has been monitored via fluorescence spectroscopy. Formation of complex between the biomolecule and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) induced a steady state reduction in the fluorescence intensity of protein at different concentrations of nanoparticles. Tryptophan fluorescence quenching spectra suggested that silver nanoparticles act as a foreign quencher, approaching the protein via this residue. Analysis of the Stern-Volmer plot showed quenching constant of 3.73 μM−1. Moreover, a single binding site in lysozyme is suggested to play role during interaction with AgNPs, having low affinity of binding compared to gold nanoparticles. Unfolding studies of lysozyme showed that complex of lysozyme- AgNPs has not undergone structural perturbations compared to the bare protein. Results of this effort will pave the way for utilization of sensitive spectroscopic techniques for rational design of nanobiomaterials in biomedical applications.

Keywords: Nanocarrier, Nanoparticles, Surface Plasmon Resonance, Quenching Fluorescence.

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Authors: R. C. J. Mphahlele, K. Bolton, H. Kasaini

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Empirical force fields and density functional theory (DFT) was used to study the binding energies and structures of methylamine on the surface of activated carbons (ACs). This is a first step in studying the adsorption of alkyl amines on the surface of functionalized ACs. The force fields used were Dreiding (DFF), Universal (UFF) and Compass (CFF) models. The generalized gradient approximation with Perdew Wang 91 (PW91) functional was used for DFT calculations. In addition to obtaining the aminecarboxylic acid adsorption energies, the results were used to establish reliability of the empirical models for these systems. CFF predicted a binding energy of -9.227 (kcal/mol) which agreed with PW91 at - 13.17 (kcal/mol), compared to DFF 0 (kcal/mol) and UFF -0.72 (kcal/mol). However, the CFF binding energies for the amine to ester and ketone disagreed with PW91 results. The structures obtained from all models agreed with PW91 results.

Keywords: Activated Carbons, Binding energy, DFT, Force fields.

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Authors: Laleh Yerushalmi, Fariborz Haghighat, Maziar Bani Shahabadi

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The estimation of overall on-site and off-site greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by wastewater treatment plants revealed that in anaerobic and hybrid treatment systems greater emissions result from off-site processes compared to on-site processes. However, in aerobic treatment systems, onsite processes make a higher contribution to the overall GHG emissions. The total GHG emissions were estimated to be 1.6, 3.3 and 3.8 kg CO2-e/kg BOD in the aerobic, anaerobic and hybrid treatment systems, respectively. In the aerobic treatment system without the recovery and use of the generated biogas, the off-site GHG emissions were 0.65 kg CO2-e/kg BOD, accounting for 40.2% of the overall GHG emissions. This value changed to 2.3 and 2.6 kg CO2-e/kg BOD, and accounted for 69.9% and 68.1% of the overall GHG emissions in the anaerobic and hybrid treatment systems, respectively. The increased off-site GHG emissions in the anaerobic and hybrid treatment systems are mainly due to material usage and energy demand in these systems. The anaerobic digester can contribute up to 100%, 55% and 60% of the overall energy needs of plants in the aerobic, anaerobic and hybrid treatment systems, respectively.

Keywords: On-site and off-site greenhouse gas (GHG)emissions, wastewater treatment plants, biogas recovery

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Authors: A. Nusrath Unissa, Sameer Hassan, Luke Elizabeth Hanna

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Altered drug binding may be an important factor in isoniazid (INH) resistance, rather than major changes in the enzyme’s activity as a catalase or peroxidase (KatG). The identification of structural or functional defects in the mutant KatGs responsible for INH resistance remains as an area to be explored. In this connection, the differences in the binding affinity between wild-type (WT) and mutants of KatG were investigated, through the generation of three mutants of KatG, Ser315Thr [S315T], Ser315Asn [S315N], Ser315Arg [S315R] and a WT [S315]) with the help of software-MODELLER. The mutants were docked with INH using the software-GOLD. The affinity is lower for WT than mutant, suggesting the tight binding of INH with the mutant protein compared to WT type. These models provide the in silico evidence for the binding interaction of KatG with INH and implicate the basis for rationalization of INH resistance in naturally occurring KatG mutant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, KatG, INH resistance, Mutants, Modeling, Docking.

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Authors: Y. Abdelrazig

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Evolutionary optimization methods such as genetic algorithms have been used extensively for the construction site layout problem. More recently, ant colony optimization algorithms, which are evolutionary methods based on the foraging behavior of ants, have been successfully applied to benchmark combinatorial optimization problems. This paper proposes a formulation of the site layout problem in terms of a sequencing problem that is suitable for solution using an ant colony optimization algorithm. In the construction industry, site layout is a very important planning problem. The objective of site layout is to position temporary facilities both geographically and at the correct time such that the construction work can be performed satisfactorily with minimal costs and improved safety and working environment. During the last decade, evolutionary methods such as genetic algorithms have been used extensively for the construction site layout problem. This paper proposes an ant colony optimization model for construction site layout. A simple case study for a highway project is utilized to illustrate the application of the model.

Keywords: Construction site layout, optimization, ant colony.

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Authors: Faisal Alazzaz, Andrew Whyte

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Off-site construction methods have played an important role in the construction sector in the past few decades. It is increasingly becoming a major alternative technique and strategic direction compared to traditional in-situ method. It produces a significant amount of value for the construction industry and the economy more generally. To date, an impressive number of studies have been lunched on the perceived perception of off-site construction. However, it seems that a quantifying benefit on the offsite construction area is lacking. Therefore, this paper examines the recent research literature on the benefits of off- site construction and provides future direction. In the beginning, this paper provides a brief history and current value of the off-site construction followed by a detailed discussion on the benefit of off-site construction. These benefits include but not limited to time saving, quality improvement, relieving skills shortages, cost reduction and productivity improvement. Toward this end, off-site construction should learn from other productive industry similar to services or manufacturing industry by applying operational management tools and techniques with extensive focus on employee empowerment will shed the light on future uptake of Off-site construction. This study is of value in providing scholars have a clear picture of perceived benefit of off-site construction research and give an opportunities for future uptake of off-site method.

Keywords: Building projects, Employer empowerment, Off-site construction benefits, Productivity.

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Authors: R. Chanajaree, D. Luanwiset, K. Pongpratea

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Dye removal is an environmental concern because the textile industries have been increasing by world population and industrialization. Adsorption is the technique to find adsorbents to remove dyes from wastewater. This method is low-cost and effective for dye removal. This work tries to develop effective adsorbents using the computational approach because it will be able to predict the possibility of the adsorbents for specific dyes in terms of binding free energies. The computational approach is faster and cheaper than the experimental approach in case of finding the best adsorbents. All starting structures of dyes and adsorbents are optimized by quantum calculation. The complexes between dyes and adsorbents are generated by the docking method. The obtained binding free energies from docking are compared to binding free energies from the experimental data. The calculated energies can be ranked as same as the experimental results. In addition, this work also shows the possible orientation of the complexes. This work used two experimental groups of the complexes of the dyes and adsorbents. In the first group, there are chitosan (adsorbent) and two dyes (reactive red (RR) and direct sun yellow (DY)). In the second group, there are poly(1,2-epoxy-3-phenoxy) propane (PEPP), which is the adsorbent, and 2 dyes of bromocresol green (BCG) and alizarin yellow (AY).

Keywords: Dye removal, binding free energies, quantum calculation, docking.

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Authors: Mala Nath, Nagamani Kompelli, Partha Roy, Snehasish Das

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Two new metal-based anticancer chemotherapeutic agents, [(Ph2Sn)2(HGuO)2(phen)Cl2] 1 and [(Ph3Sn)(HGuO)(phen)]- Cl.CH3OH.H2O 2, were designed, prepared and characterized by analytical and spectral (IR, ESI-Mass, 1H, 13C and 119Sn NMR) techniques. The proposed geometry of Sn(IV) in 1 and 2 is distorted octahedral and distorted trigonal-bipyramidal, respectively. Both 1 and 2 exhibit potential cytotoxicity in vitro against MCF-7, HepG-2 and DU-145 cell lines. The intrinsic binding constant (Kb) values of 1 (2.33 × 105 M-1) and 2 (2.46 × 105 M-1) evaluated from UV-Visible absorption studies suggest non-classical electrostatic mode of interaction via phosphate backbone of DNA double helix. The Stern- Volmer quenching constant (Ksv) of 1 (9.74 × 105 M-1) and 2 (2.9 × 106 M-1) determined by fluorescence studies suggests the groove binding and intercalation mode for 1 and 2, respectively. Effective cleavage of pBR322 DNA is induced by 1.Their interaction with DNA of cancer cells may account for potency.

Keywords: Anticancer agents, DNA binding studies, NMR spectroscopy, organotin.

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Authors: H. Elsawy, A. Jeltsch

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EcoDam is an adenine-N6 DNA methyltransferase that methylates the GATC sites in the Escherichia coli genome. DNA-adenine methylation is not present in higher eukaryotes including humans. These observations raise the possibility that dam inhibitors may be used as anti-microbial agents. Polyphosphate (Poly(P)) is an important metabolite and signaling molecule in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Here, by using gel retardation experiments to investigate the competition of DNA binding by EcoDam in the presence of polyphosphate, we found that Poly (P) strongly interferes with DNA binding by EcoDam, while same concentration of monophosphate does not. In addition, we demonstrated that Poly (P) binding inhibits the activity of EcoDam and our results suggest that Poly (P) led to strong inhibition of the EcoDam catalytic activity, while monophosphate had only moderate effect.

Keywords: Antibacterial drugs, EcoDam inhibitors, Polyphosphate.

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Authors: G. V. Novikov, V. S. Sivozhelezov, S. S. Kolesnikov, K. V. Shaitan

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The study reports about the influence of binding of orthosteric ligands as well as point mutations on the conformational dynamics of β-2-adrenoreceptor. Using molecular dynamics simulation we found that there was a little fraction of active states of the receptor in its apo (ligand free) ensemble corresponded to its constitutive activity. Analysis of MD trajectories indicated that such spontaneous activation of the receptor is accompanied by the motion in intracellular part of its alpha-helices. Thus receptor’s constitutive activity directly results from its conformational dynamics. On the other hand the binding of a full agonist resulted in a significant shift of the initial equilibrium towards its active state. Finally, the binding of the inverse agonist stabilized the receptor in its inactive state. It is likely that the binding of inverse agonists might be a universal way of constitutive activity inhibition in vivo. Our results indicate that ligand binding redistribute pre-existing conformational degrees of freedom (in accordance to the Monod-Wyman-Changeux-Model) of the receptor rather than cause induced fit in it. Therefore, the ensemble of biologically relevant receptor conformations is encoded in its spatial structure, and individual conformations from that ensemble might be used by the cell in conformity with the physiological behavior.

Keywords: Seven-transmembrane receptors, constitutive activity, activation, x-ray crystallography, principal component analysis, molecular dynamics simulation.

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Authors: Yin-Yann Chen

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As the gradual increase of the enterprise scale, the firms may possess many manufacturing plants located in different places geographically. This change will result in the multi-site production planning problems under the environment of multiple plants or production resources. Our research proposes the structural framework to analyze the multi-site planning problems. The analytical framework is composed of six elements: multi-site conceptual model, product structure (bill of manufacturing), production strategy, manufacturing capability and characteristics, production planning constraints, and key performance indicators. As well as the discussion of these six ingredients, we also review related literatures in this paper to match our analytical framework. Finally we take a real-world practical example of a TFT-LCD manufacturer in Taiwan to explain our proposed analytical framework for the multi-site production planning problems.

Keywords: Multi-Site, Production Planning, Supply Chain, TFT-LCD.

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Authors: Zs. Csanádi, A. Szabó Nagy, J. Szabó, J. Erdős

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The main objective of this study was to assess the annual concentration and seasonal variation of benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) associated with PM10 in an urban site of Győr and in a rural site of Sarród in the sampling period of 2008–2012. A total of 280 PM10 aerosol samples were collected in each sampling site and analyzed for BaP by gas chromatography method. The BaP concentrations ranged from undetected to 8 ng/m3 with the mean value of 1.01 ng/m3 in the sampling site of Győr, and from undetected to 4.07 ng/m3 with the mean value of 0.52 ng/m3 in the sampling site of Sarród, respectively. Relatively higher concentrations of BaP were detected in samples collected in both sampling sites in the heating seasons compared with non-heating periods. The annual mean BaP concentrations were comparable with the published data of different other Hungarian sites.

Keywords: Air quality, benzo(a)pyrene, PAHs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

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Authors: Shirong Li, Xueping Xiang

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Construction site safety in China has aroused comprehensive concern all over the world. It is imperative to investigate the main causes of poor construction site safety. This paper divides all the causes into four aspects, namely the factors of workers, object, environment and management and sets up the accident causes element system based on Delphi Method. This is followed by the application of structural equation modeling to examine the importance of each aspect of causes from the standpoints of different roles related to the construction respectively. The results indicate that all the four aspects of factors are in need of improvement, and different roles have different ideas considering the priority of those factors. The paper has instructive significance for the practitioners to take measures to improve construction site safety in China accordingly.

Keywords: construction site safety, Delphi Method, structuralequation modeling, different perspective.

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Authors: Keun Woo Lee, Minky Son, Chanin Park, Ayoung Baek

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Certain tRNA synthetases have developed highly accurate molecular machinery to discriminate their cognate amino acids. Those aaRSs achieve their goal via editing reaction in the Connective Polypeptide 1 (CP1). Recently mutagenesis studies have revealed the critical importance of residues in the CP1 domain for editing activity and X-ray structures have shown binding mode of noncognate amino acids in the editing domain. To pursue molecular mechanism for amino acid discrimination, molecular modeling studies were performed. Our results suggest that aaRS bind the noncognate amino acid more tightly than the cognate one. Finally, by comparing binding conformations of the amino acids in three systems, the amino acid binding mode was elucidated and a discrimination mechanism proposed. The results strongly reveal that the conserved threonines are responsible for amino acid discrimination. This is achieved through side chain interactions between T252 and T247/T248 as well as between those threonines and the incoming amino acids.

Keywords: Amino acid discrimination, Binding free energy Leucyl-tRNAsynthetase, Molecular dynamics.

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Authors: Pedro Gutemberg de Alcântara Segundinho, José Antonio Matthiesen, Marcelo Rodrigo Carreira

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Timber-concrete structures were recently introduced in Brazil as a viable option for bridge construction on side roads. Binding between timber and concrete is fundamentally important to assure the rigidity and performance of this structural system. The objective of this study was to assess the structural performance of a timber-concrete bridge prototype with width of 170cm and span of 400cm, whose binding among timber beams and concrete slabs was made with metal pins, obtained from CA 50 construction steel bars of 12.5mm diameter. It was possible to conclude, from the results obtained experimentally in laboratory, that the timber-concrete bridge prototype showed a good structural performance. This structural system provides an economical, rapid implementation solution, which may be used on side roads, favoring regional integration and agricultural production flow.

Keywords: Binding, bridge prototype, timber and concrete

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Authors: Chang-Guk Sun, Jin-Soo Shin

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In this study, an inland metropolitan area, Gwangju, in Korea was selected to assess the amplification potential of earthquake motion and provide the information for regional seismic countermeasure. A geographic information system-based expert system was implemented for reliably predicting the spatial geotechnical layers in the entire region of interesting by building a geo-knowledge database. Particularly, the database consists of the existing boring data gathered from the prior geotechnical projects and the surface geo-knowledge data acquired from the site visit. For practical application of the geo-knowledge database to estimate the earthquake hazard potential related to site amplification effects at the study area, seismic zoning maps on geotechnical parameters, such as the bedrock depth and the site period, were created within GIS framework. In addition, seismic zonation of site classification was also performed to determine the site amplification coefficients for seismic design at any site in the study area. KeywordsEarthquake hazard, geo-knowledge, geographic information system, seismic zonation, site period.

Keywords: Earthquake hazard, geo-knowledge, geographic information system, seismic zonation, site period.

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Authors: Sizhong Zhou, Yang Xu

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A graph G is fractional k-covered if for each edge e of G, there exists a fractional k-factor h, such that h(e) = 1. If k = 2, then a fractional k-covered graph is called a fractional 2-covered graph. The binding number bind(G) is defined as follows, bind(G) = min{|NG(X)| |X| : ├ÿ = X Ôèå V (G),NG(X) = V (G)}. In this paper, it is proved that G is fractional 2-covered if δ(G) ≥ 4 and bind(G) > 5 3 .

Keywords: graph, binding number, fractional k-factor, fractional k-covered graph.

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Authors: James D. Clark, Bernard H. Stark

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The paper presents a modelling methodology for small scale multi-source renewable energy systems. Using historical site-specific weather data, the relationships of cost, availability and energy form are visualised as a function of the sizing of photovoltaic arrays, wind turbines, and battery capacity. The specific dependency of each site on its own particular weather patterns show that unique solutions exist for each site. It is shown that in certain cases the capital component cost can be halved if the desired theoretical demand availability is reduced from 100% to 99%.

Keywords: Energy Analysis, Forecasting, Distributed powergeneration.

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Authors: B. Chouhan, A. Denesyuk, J. Heino, M. S. Johnson, K. Denessiouk

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Integrins are a large family of multidomain α/β cell signaling receptors. Some integrins contain an additional inserted I domain, whose earliest expression appears to be with the chordates, since they are observed in the urochordates Ciona intestinalis (vase tunicate) and Halocynthia roretzi (sea pineapple), but not in integrins of earlier diverging species. The domain-s presence is viewed as a hallmark of integrins of higher metazoans, however in vertebrates, there are clearly three structurally-different classes: integrins without I domains, and two groups of integrins with I domains but separable by the presence or absence of an additional αC helix. For example, the αI domains in collagen-binding integrins from Osteichthyes (bony fish) and all higher vertebrates contain the specific αC helix, whereas the αI domains in non-collagen binding integrins from vertebrates and the αI domains from earlier diverging urochordate integrins, i.e. tunicates, do not. Unfortunately, within the early chordates, there is an evolutionary gap due to extinctions between the tunicates and cartilaginous fish. This, coupled with a knowledge gap due to the lack of complete genomic data from surviving species, means that the origin of collagen-binding αC-containing αI domains remains unknown. Here, we analyzed two available genomes from Callorhinchus milii (ghost shark/elephant shark; Chondrichthyes – cartilaginous fish) and Petromyzon marinus (sea lamprey; Agnathostomata), and several available Expression Sequence Tags from two Chondrichthyes species: Raja erinacea (little skate) and Squalus acanthias (dogfish shark); and Eptatretus burgeri (inshore hagfish; Agnathostomata), which evolutionary reside between the urochordates and osteichthyes. In P. marinus, we observed several fragments coding for the αC-containing αI domain, allowing us to shed more light on the evolution of the collagen-binding integrins.

Keywords: Integrin αI domain, integrin evolution, collagen binding, structure, αC helix

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Authors: Darby Tien-Hao Chang, Guan-Yu Shiu, You-Jie Sun

Abstract:

Various cis-regulatory module (CRM) predictors have been proposed in the last decade. Several well-established CRM predictors adopted different categories of prediction strategies, including window clustering, probabilistic modeling and phylogenetic footprinting. Appropriate integration of them has a potential to achieve high quality CRM prediction. This study analyzed four existing CRM predictors (ClusterBuster, MSCAN, CisModule and MultiModule) to seek a predictor combination that delivers a higher accuracy than individual CRM predictors. 465 CRMs across 140 Drosophila melanogaster genes from the RED fly database were used to evaluate the integrated CRM predictor proposed in this study. The results show that four predictor combinations achieved superior performance than the best individual CRM predictor.

Keywords: Cis-regulatory module, transcription factor binding site.

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Authors: A. K. Abd El-Aleem, W. F. Abd El-wahed, N. A. Ismail, F. A. Torkey

Abstract:

This study suggests a model of a new set of evaluation criteria that will be used to measure the efficiency of real-world E-commerce websites. Evaluation criteria include design, usability and performance for websites, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique has been used to measure the websites efficiency. An efficient Web site is defined as a site that generates the most outputs, using the smallest amount of inputs. Inputs refer to measurements representing the amount of effort required to build, maintain and perform the site. Output is amount of traffic the site generates. These outputs are measured as the average number of daily hits and the average number of daily unique visitors.

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, E-commerce, Efficiency.

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