Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons^™

Analytic Approach To Ground State Energy Of Charged Anyon Gas In Strong Magnetic Field, Bakhodir Abdullaev, Ulrich Rössler, Chul-Hong Park, M. Musakhanov

Bulletin of National University of Uzbekistan: Mathematics and Natural Sciences

We present analytic formulas for the ground state energy of two-dimensional (2D) anyon gas in strong magnetic field (Landau level filling factor ν_L ≤ 1). The formulas are obtained by applying harmonic potential regularization for the vanishing confinement to harmonically confined Coulomb anyon gas. In a case of absence of the Coulomb interaction our analytic result provides an exact solution. It contains a contribution of the anyon gauge field characterized by the anyon parameters ν and ν_L. In a case of presence of the Coulomb interaction we introduce a function depending on the parameters ν, ν_{L …}

Differentiation Of Membrane Active Crown Ethers On The Multilamellar Layers, Ulugbek Mirkhodjaev, Oleg Yarishkin, Umida Sharafutdinova, Uktam Toyirov, Nafisa Atamuratova, Anisa Tashmukhamedova, Bekdjan Tashmukhamedov

Bulletin of National University of Uzbekistan: Mathematics and Natural Sciences

Investigation of the interaction of crown ethers, which are have different structure and mechanism of membrane action, with multilamellar dispersions makes it possible to establish a difference in their effect on the rearrangement of the initial structure of lipid bilayers. Investigation of the restructuring of lipid bilayers during interaction of complexons, ionophores and channel-formers with a membrane allows obtaining important information on the mechanisms of transmembrane ion transport.

Physico-Chemical And Adsorption Properties Of Activated Adsorbents Obtained On The Basis Of Wood Stems, Rakhimjon Paygamov, Izzat Eshmetov, Shakhnoza Kuldasheva, Hamdam Akbarov, Feruza Jurayeva

Bulletin of National University of Uzbekistan: Mathematics and Natural Sciences

As a result of the investigations, the adsorbents of activated coal at different temperatures and with water vapor were extracted from plane-tree, ash-tree, Cherry, Apricot, nut stems were received and their physico-chemical and adsorption properties were determined. The results have shown that the adsorption efficiency and adsorption properties of the plane-tree adsorbents are significantly higher than those of other trees. It can be seen that heating the resulting coal adsorbents from 400 to 800°, that is, thermal activation, almost has double their pore volume. The adsorption properties of adsorbents were determined in the following orders, for thermally activated coals at …

Atom Identifiers Generated By A Neighborhood-Specific Graph Coloring Method Enable Compound Harmonization Across Metabolic Databases, Huan Jin, Joshua M. Mitchell, Hunter N. B. Moseley

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Metabolic flux analysis requires both a reliable metabolic model and reliable metabolic profiles in characterizing metabolic reprogramming. Advances in analytic methodologies enable production of high-quality metabolomics datasets capturing isotopic flux. However, useful metabolic models can be difficult to derive due to the lack of relatively complete atom-resolved metabolic networks for a variety of organisms, including human. Here, we developed a neighborhood-specific graph coloring method that creates unique identifiers for each atom in a compound facilitating construction of an atom-resolved metabolic network. What is more, this method is guaranteed to generate the same identifier for symmetric atoms, enabling automatic identification of …

Indoline‐6‐Sulfonamide Inhibitors Of The Bacterial Enzyme Dape, Cory T. Reidl, Tahirah K. Heath, Iman Darwish, Rachel M. Torrez, Maxwell Moore, Elliot Gild, Boguslaw P. Nocek, Anna Starus, Richard C. Holz, Daniel P. Becker Ph.D.

Chemistry: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Inhibitors of the bacterial enzyme dapE-encoded N-succinyl-l,l-diaminopimelic acid desuccinylase (DapE; EC 3.5.1.18) hold promise as antibiotics with a new mechanism of action. Herein we describe the discovery of a new series of indoline sulfonamide DapE inhibitors from a high-throughput screen and the synthesis of a series of analogs. Inhibitory potency was measured by a ninhydrin-based DapE assay recently developed by our group. Molecular docking experiments suggest active site binding with the sulfonamide acting as a zinc-binding group (ZBG).

Rethinking Fda Regulation Of Complex Products, Philip E. Alford

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Homicide And Drug Trafficking In Impoverished Communities In Brazil, Elenice De Souza De Souza Oliveira, Braulio Figueiredo Alves Da Silva, Flavio Luiz Sapori, Gabriela Gomes Cardoso

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Many studies demonstrate that homicides are heavily concentrated in impoverished neighborhoods, but not all socially disadvantaged neighborhoods are hotbeds of violence. Conducted in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, this study hypothesizes that the association between high rates of homicide and impoverished areas is influenced by the emergence of a specific type of street drug-dealing common to favelas (slums). The study applies econometric techniques to police data on homicides and drug arrests from 2008 to 2011, as well as 2010 Census data, to test its hypothesis. The findings provide insight into the development of crime prevention policies in areas of high social vulnerability.

Current Scenario Of Covid-19 With Epidemiological And Phylogenetic Analysis Of Pakistani Coronavirus: A Review, Asma Altaf, Wafa Iqbal, Sidra Younis, Farah Deeba

Journal of Bioresource Management

A novel corona virus named as 2019 n-CoV was identified to be the actual cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness in Wuhan, China beginning in late December 2019. This respiratory disease was named as COVID-19 by WHO. There are many countries affected by COVID-19 including Pakistan. In this review we have provided a brief introduction of COVID-19 and discussed epidemiological and phylogenetic analysis of Pakistani novel corona virus strain. Our epidemiological analysis of data till 16^th May 2020 showed rapidly increasing number of new cases, while at the same time a higher recovery rate than number of deaths …

Estimating Partial Body Ionizing Radiation Exposure By Automated Cytogenetic Biodosimetry, Peter Rogan

Biochemistry Publications

Purpose: Inhomogeneous exposures to ionizing radiation can be detected and quantified with the Dicentric Chromosome Assay (DCA) of metaphase cells. Complete automation of interpretation of the DCA for whole body irradiation has significantly improved throughput without compromising accuracy, however low levels of residual false positive dicentric chromosomes (DCs) have confounded its application for partial body exposure determination.

Materials and Methods: We describe a method of estimating and correcting for false positive DCs in digitally processed images of metaphase cells. Nearly all DCs detected in unirradiated calibration samples are introduced by digital image processing. DC frequencies of irradiated calibration …

Foraging Tactics In Dynamic Sea-Ice Habitats Affect Individual State In A Long-Ranging Seabird, Arnaud Tarroux, Yves Cherel, Per Fauchald, Akiko Kato, Oliver P. Love, Yan Ropert-Coudert, Gunnar Spreen, Øystein Varpe, Henri Weimerskirch, Nigel G. Yoccoz, Sandrine Zahn, Sébastien Descamps

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research Publications

Individual heterogeneity in diet and foraging behaviour is common in wild animal populations, and can be a strong determinant of how populations respond to environmental changes. Within populations, variation in foraging behaviour and the occurrence of individual tactics in relation to resources distribution can help explain differences in individual fitness, and ultimately identify important factors affecting population dynamics. We examined how foraging behaviour and habitat during the breeding period related to the physiological state of a long-ranging seabird adapted to sea ice, the Antarctic petrel Thalassoica antarctica. Firstly, using GPS tracking and state-switching movement modelling (hidden Markov models) on 124 …

Detecting Mercury (Ii) And Thiocyanate Using “Turn-On” Fluorescence Of Graphene Quantum Dots, Faezeh Askari, Abbas Rahdar, Mohadeseh Dashti, John F. Trant

Chemistry and Biochemistry Publications

In this work, 1.8 nm graphene quantum dots (GQDs), exhibiting bright blue fluorescence, were prepared using a bottom-up synthesis from citric acid. The fluorescence of the GQDs could be almost completely quenched (about 96%) by adding Hg2+. Quenching was far less efficient with other similar heavy metals, Tl+, Pb2+ and Bi3+. Fluorescence could be near quantitatively restored through the introduction of thiocyanate. This “turn-on” fluorescence can thus be used to detect both or either environmental and physiological contaminants mercury and thiocyanate and could prove useful for the development of simple point-of-care diagnostics in the future. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].

The Synthesis Of Methotrexate-Loaded F127 Microemulsions And Their In Vivo Toxicity In A Rat Model, Abbas Rahdar, Mohammad Reza Hajinezhad, Sarah Nasri, Hamid Beyzaei, Mahmood Barani, John F. Trant

Chemistry and Biochemistry Publications

Methotrexate (MTX) has been often formulated as nano and micro-emulsions, nominally to address its poor solubility and off-target effects. Nanoformulated MTX is universally reported to be a more efficacious anti-cancer agent than direct-dissolved drug; however, these investigations generally fail to screen for in vivo toxicity. This study aims to remedy this oversight. MTX was formulated as a standard Pluronic oil-in-water microemulsion with good drug encapsulation efficiency (73.0% ± 8.4). Preliminary in vitro free radical scavenging studies found that formulation reduces drug oxidation four-fold. The toxic effects of formulated and unformulated MTX were investigated in a Wistar rat model. Rats received …

Mesenchymal Stem Cells And Their Extracellular Vesicles: A Potential Game Changer For The Covid-19 Crisis, Dina H. Kassem, Mohamed M. Kamal

Pharmacy

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global public health crisis. The high infectivity of the disease even from non-symptomatic infected patients, together with the lack of a definitive cure or preventive measures are all responsible for disease outbreak. The severity of COVID-19 seems to be mostly dependent on the patients’ own immune response. The over-activation of the immune system in an attempt to kill the virus, can cause a “cytokine storm” which in turn can induce acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), as well as multi-organ damage, and ultimately may lead to death. Thus, harnessing the immunomodulatory properties of mesenchymal …

Study Of The Role Of Biologically-Relevant, Labile Nickel Pools In The Maturation Of Nickel-Dependent Enzymes, Priyanka Basak

Doctoral Dissertations

Cellular nickel pools, comprised of static and labile pools of nickel complexes, play important roles in maintaining nickel homeostasis in various organisms (microbes, fungi, and plants), which utilize it as a cofactor of one or more nickel enzymes that catalyze specific reactions and are essential for their proper growth and survival in various ecological niches. Like other metals, tight regulation of cellular nickel levels is critical to prevent toxic effects of nickel deprivation, nickel overload, and ‘free’ nickel. While more static nickel pools include nickel tightly bound to nickel-dependent enzymes, nickel in the labile pool is exchangeable and weakly bound …

Electronic-Cigarette Vehicles And Flavoring Affect Lung Function And Immune Responses In A Murine Model, Brittany N. Szafran, Rakeysha Pinkston, Zakia Perveen, Matthew K. Ross, Timothy Morgan, Daniel B. Paulsen, Arthur L. Penn, Barbara L. F. Kaplan, Alexandra Noel

Faculty Publications

The use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), also known as electronic-cigarettes (e-cigs), has raised serious public health concerns, especially in light of the 2019 outbreak of e-cig or vaping product use-associated acute lung injury (EVALI). While these cases have mostly been linked to ENDS that contain vitamin E acetate, there is limited research that has focused on the chronic pulmonary effects of the delivery vehicles (i.e., without nicotine and flavoring). Thus, we investigated lung function and immune responses in a mouse model following exposure to the nearly ubiquitous e-cig delivery vehicles, vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG), used …

Pressure Driven Desalination Utilizing Nanomaterials, Fangyou Xie

Master's Theses

Nanomaterials such as graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes, have demonstrated excellent properties for membrane desalination, including decrease of maintenance, increase of flux rate, simple solution casting, and impressive chemical inertness. Here, two projects are studied to investigate nanocarbon based membrane desalination. The first project is to prepare hybrid membranes with amyloid fibrils intercalated with graphene oxide sheets. The addition of protein amyloid fibrils expands the interlayer spacing between graphene oxide nanosheets and introduces additional functional groups in the diffusion pathways, resulting in increase of flux rate and rejection rate for the organic dyes. Amyloid fibrils also provide structural assistance to …

Machine Learning Applications For Drug Repurposing, Hansaim Lim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The cost of bringing a drug to market is astounding and the failure rate is intimidating. Drug discovery has been of limited success under the conventional reductionist model of one-drug-one-gene-one-disease paradigm, where a single disease-associated gene is identified and a molecular binder to the specific target is subsequently designed. Under the simplistic paradigm of drug discovery, a drug molecule is assumed to interact only with the intended on-target. However, small molecular drugs often interact with multiple targets, and those off-target interactions are not considered under the conventional paradigm. As a result, drug-induced side effects and adverse reactions are often neglected …

Small Molecule Synthetic Carbohydrate Receptors, Marcelo F. Bravo Carranco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Carbohydrate – receptor interactions are often involved in the attachment of viruses to host cells, and this docking is a necessary step in the virus life cycle that precedes infection and, ultimately, replication. Despite the conserved structures of the glycans involved in docking, they are still considered “undruggable”, meaning these glycans are beyond the scope of conventional pharmacological strategies. Recent advances in the development of synthetic carbohydrate receptors (SCRs) – small molecules that bind carbohydrates – could bring carbohydrate-receptor interactions within the purview of druggable targets. Here we discuss the role of carbohydrate-receptor interactions in viral infection, the evolution of …

Pointing The Zinc Finger On Protein Folding: Energetic Investigation Into The Role Of The Metal-Ion In The Metal-Induced Protein Folding Of Zinc Finger Motifs, Inna Bakman-Sanchez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Interactions between inorganic metal-ion cofactors and organic protein scaffolds are important for the proper structure and function of metalloproteins. Zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) are an example of proteins with such crucial metal-protein interactions. Incorporation of the Zn(II)-ion into ZFPs allows for their correct folding into structures that can carry out vital biological functions which include gene expression and tumor suppression. In addition, engineered ZFPs have shown to be promising genetic therapeutics in the clinic. And yet, there is still a gap in a quantitative understanding of the energetic contribution of the metal-protein interactions towards the structure and function of these …

1,4-Dioxane Biodegradation In Propanotrophs: Molecular Foundations And Implications For Environmental Remediation, Li Fei

Dissertations

1,4-Dioxane (dioxane) has emerged with an escalating concern given its human carcinogenicity and widespread occurrence in groundwater. Bioremediation is promising as an effective and cost-efficient treatment alternative for in situ or ex situ cleanup of dioxane and co-existing pollutants in the field. Soluble di-iron monooxygenases (SDIMOs) are reputed for their essential roles in initiating the cleavage of dioxane and other pollutants. In this doctoral dissertation, molecular foundations for SDIMOs-mediated dioxane biodegradation are untangled to promote the development and implication of site-specific bioremediation and natural attenuation strategies. This dissertation focused on propanotrophic bacteria given their pivotal roles in dioxane metabolism and …