Zika virus (ZIKV) is a dangerous human pathogen and no antiviral drugs have been approved to date. The chalcones are a group of small molecules that are found in a number of different plants, including Angelica keiske...
详细信息
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a dangerous human pathogen and no antiviral drugs have been approved to date. The chalcones are a group of small molecules that are found in a number of different plants, including Angelica keiskei Koidzumi, also known as ashitaba. To examine chalcone anti-ZIKV activity, three chalcones, 4-hydroxyderricin (4HD), xanthoangelol (XA), and xanthoangelol-E (XA-E), were purified from a methanol-ethyl acetate extract from A. keiskei. Molecular and ensemble docking predicted that these chalcones would establish multiple interactions with residues in the catalytic and allosteric sites of ZIKV NS2B-NS3 protease, and in the allosteric site of the NS5 RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase (RdRp). Machine learning models also predicted 4HD, XA and XA-E as potential anti-ZIKV inhibitors. Enzymatic and kinetic assays confirmed chalcone inhibition of the ZIKV NS2BNS3 protease allosteric site with IC(50)s from 18 to 50 mu M. Activity assays also revealed that XA, but not 4HD or XA-E, inhibited the allosteric site of the RdRp, with an IC50 of 6.9 mu M. Finally, we tested these chalcones for their anti-viral activity in vitro with Vero cells. 4HD and XA-E displayed anti-ZIKV activity with EC50 values of 6.6 and 22.0 mu M, respectively, while XA displayed relatively weak anti-ZIKV activity with whole cells. With their simple structures and relative ease of modification, the chalcones represent attractive candidates for hit-to-lead optimization in the search of new anti-ZIKV therapeutics.
The paper studies packing ellipsoids of revolution in a cylindrical container of minimum volume. Ellipsoids can be continuously rotated and translated. Two nonlinear mathematical programming models are introduced: exa...
详细信息
The paper studies packing ellipsoids of revolution in a cylindrical container of minimum volume. Ellipsoids can be continuously rotated and translated. Two nonlinear mathematical programming models are introduced: exact and approximated. The latter uses an optimized multi-spherical approximation of ellisoids. For both models the phi-function technique is employed to describe analytically non-overlapping and containment constraints. Two solution approaches are proposed to solve the packing problem. Computational results for up to 500 ellipsoids are provided to demonstrate efficiency of the proposed approaches. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Images of micrometer-scale domains in lipid bilayers have pro-vided the gold standard of model-free evidence to understand the domains' shapes, sizes, and distributions. Corresponding tech-niques to directly and q...
详细信息
Images of micrometer-scale domains in lipid bilayers have pro-vided the gold standard of model-free evidence to understand the domains' shapes, sizes, and distributions. Corresponding tech-niques to directly and quantitatively assess smaller (nanoscale and submicron) liquid domains have been limited. Researchers com-monly seek to correlate activities of membrane proteins with at-tributes of the domains in which they reside;doing so hinges on identification and characterization of membrane domains. Al-though some features of membrane domains can be probed by indirect methods, these methods are often constrained by the lim-itation that data must be analyzed in the context of models that require multiple assumptions or parameters. Here, we address this challenge by developing and testing two methods of identifying submicron domains in biomimetic membranes. Both methods le-verage cryo-electron tomograms of ternary membranes under vit-rified, hydrated conditions. The first method is optimized for probe-free applications: Domains are directly distinguished from the surrounding membrane by their thickness. This technique quantitatively and accurately measures area fractions of domains, in excellent agreement with known phase diagrams. The second method is optimized for applications in which a single label is deployed for imaging membranes by both high-resolution cryo-electron tomography and diffraction-limited optical microscopy. For this method, we test a panel of probes, find that a trimeric mCherry label performs best, and specify criteria for developing future high-performance, dual-use probes. These developments have led to direct and quantitative imaging of submicron mem-brane domains in vitrified, hydrated vesicles.
Historically, anadromous steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss and spring-run Chinook Salmon O. tshawytscha used high-elevation rivers in the Sierra Nevada of California but were extirpated in the 20th century by construction...
Historically, anadromous steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss and spring-run Chinook Salmon O. tshawytscha used high-elevation rivers in the Sierra Nevada of California but were extirpated in the 20th century by construction of impassable dams. Plans to reintroduce the fish by opening migratory passage across the dams and reservoirs can only succeed if upstream habitats have the capacity to support viable populations of each species. To estimate capacity in the Tuolumne and Merced rivers of the central Sierra Nevada, we used a high-resolution approach based on remote sensing and dynamic habitat modeling. Our results suggested that for both species in both systems, sediment grain sizes would support widespread spawning and the water temperatures, depths, and velocities would generate ample capacity for fry and juveniles. However, the unregulated Merced River was consistently too warm for adult Chinook Salmon to hold in the dry season prior to spawning, while the regulated Tuolumne River maintained a cooler, more stable thermal regime with a capacity for thousands of holding adults. In our high-resolution approach, we also discovered several specific physical controls on life history expression, including thermal constraints on the timing of spawning, hydraulic prompts for downstream migration of fry, divergence of the hydraulic niches of steelhead and Chinook Salmon, and a key but uncertain role for thermal tolerance in adult Chinook Salmon. Our results suggested that steelhead reintroduction could succeed in either system and Chinook Salmon could succeed in the Tuolumne River if passage strategies account for large numbers of migrant fry and juveniles driven downstream by winter storms and snowmelt. The Merced River appeared too warm for adult Chinook Salmon, which raises questions about the current limited understanding of thermal tolerance in holding adults. Our study shows how a high-resolution approach can provide valuable insights on specific limiting factors that mus
In this study, Citrus Sinensis Leaf Activated Carbon (CSLAC), as adsorbent for acid blue 25 (AB25) dye removal from water, was synthesized from Citrus Sinensis Leaf (CSL) by using sulfuric acid (H2SO4) activation proc...
详细信息
In this study, Citrus Sinensis Leaf Activated Carbon (CSLAC), as adsorbent for acid blue 25 (AB25) dye removal from water, was synthesized from Citrus Sinensis Leaf (CSL) by using sulfuric acid (H2SO4) activation procedure. The obtained adsorbent was thereafter characterized by various methods such as FTIR, BET-BJH, and SEM-EDX. Further, the adsorption of AB25 on CSLAC was performed under different operating conditions. High CSLAC surface area of 485.16 m(2) g(-1) was obtained, affirming that the prepared adsorbent is permeable, which is an advantage for the efficient removal of contaminants. Moreover, optimal conditions for the batch removal process of the dye from water were investigated. It was found that for 100 mg L-1 AB25 dye initial concentration, the CSLAC achieved almost complete removal of 98.64% within 60 min at a temperature of 25 degrees C, by using only 0.4 g L-1 of the adsorbent dose. In addition, the Langmuir theoretical model efficiently agreed with the experimental data, and it has led to a maximum equilibrium adsorption capacity of 543.47 mg g(-1)at 25 degrees C. Kinetic studies, on the other hand, were in favor of pseudo-second-order (PSO) model to describe the dye removal from water. Others features of the CSLAC adsorbent resulted in its good regeneration and reusability. The results of theo-retical statistical modeling at temperatures varied from 25 to 40 degrees C showed a monolayer adsorption of AB25 with two energy sites of CSLAC. Various characterization methods show that the mechanism of adsorption for CSLAC towards AB25 including electrostatic attraction, hydrogen bond, and pi-pi interactions. Finally, the AB25 adsorption appeared to be an endothermic spontaneous process as evidenced by the determined thermodynamic parameters. The obtained overall data suggest that the CSLAC is an inexpensive adsorbent which has promising potential for dye removal from wastewater.
In additive manufacturing(also known as 3D printing),a layer-by-layer buildup process is used for manufacturing *** laser 3D printers can work with various materials including metal *** particular,mixing various-sized...
详细信息
In additive manufacturing(also known as 3D printing),a layer-by-layer buildup process is used for manufacturing *** laser 3D printers can work with various materials including metal *** particular,mixing various-sized spherical powders of titanium alloys is considered most promising for the aerospace *** achieve desired mechanical properties of the final product,it is necessary to maintain a certain proportional ratio between different powder *** this paper,a modeling approach for filling up a rectangular 3D volume by unequal spheres in a layer-by-layer manner is proposed.A relative number of spheres of a given radius(relative frequency)are known and have to be fulfilled in the final packing.A fast heuristic has been developed to solve this special packing *** results are compared with experimental findings for titanium alloy spherical *** relative frequencies obtained by using the imposed algorithm are very close to those obtained by the *** provides an opportunity for using a cheap numerical modeling instead of expensive experimental study.
Room-temperature (RT) multiferroic materials have received significant research attention for various potential applications;however, their properties are not suitable for real-world implementation. In this study, a n...
详细信息
Room-temperature (RT) multiferroic materials have received significant research attention for various potential applications;however, their properties are not suitable for real-world implementation. In this study, a nano-scale localized flexoelectric effect is introduced to enhance the RT multiferroic performance of epitaxial bismuth iron oxide (BiFeO3;BFO) thin films by embedding 10 mol% Ba(Cu1/3Nb2/3)O-3 (BCN) nano-clusters into the host BFO film, which originally has a rhombohedral crystal structure. By utilizing nano-clustering, a large out-of-plane coherent strain is localized around the nano-clusters, resulting in a highly strained tetragonality of the BFO structure;subsequently, the films exhibit peculiar types of domains and domain walls, such as nano-scale rotational vortices and antiparallel dipole configurations. These peculiar domain structures, which originate from the localized flexoelectric effect at the nano-scale, enable excellent ferroelectric, ferromagnetic, and RT multiferroic magnetoelectric coupling. This study reveals that the local variation in the localized flexoelectric field around nano-clusters considerably impacts the formation of unusual domain-wall structures. This suggests that the controlled introduction of nano-clusters with different crystal structures is promising for achieving the desired multiferroic properties.
Efficient road-lane detection is expected to be achievable by application of the Hough transform (HT) which realizes high-accuracy straight-line extraction from images. The main challenge for HT-hardware implementatio...
详细信息
Efficient road-lane detection is expected to be achievable by application of the Hough transform (HT) which realizes high-accuracy straight-line extraction from images. The main challenge for HT-hardware implementation in actual applications is the trade-off optimization between accuracy maximization, power-dissipation reduction and real-time requirements. We report a HT-hardware architecture for road-lane detection with parallelized voting procedure, local maximum algorithm and FPGA-prototype implementation. Parallelization of the global design is realized on the basis of theta-value discretization in the Hough space. Four major hardware modules are developed for edge detection in the original video frames, computation of the characteristic edge-pixel values (rho,theta) in Hough-space, voting procedure for each (rho,theta) pair with parallel local-maximum-based peak voting-point extraction in Hough space to determine the detected straight lines. Implementation of a prototype system for real-time road-lane detection on a low-cost DE1 platform with a Cyclone II FPGA device was verified to be possible. An average detection speed of 135 frames/s for VGA (640x480)-frames was achieved at 50 MHz working frequency.
Chemically induced toxicity is the leading cause of recent extinction of honey bees. In this regard, we developed an innovative artificial intelligence-based web app (BeeToxAI) for assessing the acute toxicity of chem...
详细信息
Chemically induced toxicity is the leading cause of recent extinction of honey bees. In this regard, we developed an innovative artificial intelligence-based web app (BeeToxAI) for assessing the acute toxicity of chemicals Apis mellifera. . Initially, we developed and externally validated QSAR models for classification (external set racy similar to 91%) through the combination of Random Forest and molecular fingerprints to predict the potential chemicals to cause acute contact toxicity and acute oral toxicity to honey bees. Then, we developed and nally validated regression QSAR models (R-2 = 0.75) using Feedforward Neural Networks (FNNs). Afterward, best models were implemented in the publicly available BeeToxAI web app ( http://***/ ) . The outputs of BeeToxAI are: toxicity predictions with estimated confidence, applicability domain estimation, and color-coded maps of relative structure fragment contributions to toxicity. As an additional assessment BeeToxAI performance, we collected an external set of pesticides with known bee toxicity that were not included in our modeling dataset. BeeToxAI classification models were able to predict four out of five pesticides correctly. The acute contact toxicity model correctly predicted all of the eight pesticides. Here we demonstrate that ToxAI can be used as a rapid new approach methodology for predicting acute toxicity of chemicals in bees.
Eye irritation and corrosion are fundamental considerations in developing chemicals to be used in or near the eye, from cleaning products to ophthalmic solutions. Unfortunately, animal testing is currently the standar...
Eye irritation and corrosion are fundamental considerations in developing chemicals to be used in or near the eye, from cleaning products to ophthalmic solutions. Unfortunately, animal testing is currently the standard method to identify compounds that cause eye irritation or corrosion. Yet, there is growing pressure on the part of regulatory agencies both in the USA and abroad to develop New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) that help reduce the need for animal testing and address unmet need to modernize safety evaluation of chemical hazards. In furthering the development and applications of computational NAMs in chemical safety assessment, in this study we have collected the largest expertly curated dataset of compounds tested for eye irritation and corrosion, and employed this data to build and validate binary and multi-classification Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships (QSAR) models that can reliably assess eye irritation/corrosion potential of novel untested compounds. QSAR models were generated with Random Forest (RF) and Multi-Descriptor Read Across (MuDRA) machine learning (ML) methods, and validated using a 5-fold external cross-validation protocol. These models demonstrated high balanced accuracy (CCR of 0.68-0.88), sensitivity (SE of 0.61-0.84), positive predictive value (PPV of 0.65-0.90), specificity (SP of 0.56-0.91), and negative predictive value (NPV of 0.68-0.85). Overall, MuDRA models outperformed RF models and were applied to predict compounds' irritation/corrosion potential from the Inactive Ingredient Database, which contains components present in FDA-approved drug products, and from the Cosmetic Ingredient Database, the European Commission source of information on cosmetic substances. All models built and validated in this study are publicly available at the STopTox web portal ( https://***/ ). These models can be employed as reliable tools for identifying potential eye irritant/corrosive compounds.
暂无评论