3D active workspace of human hand anatomical model

Background  

If the model of the human hand is created with accuracy by respecting the type of motion provided by each articulation and the dimensions of articulated bones, it can function as the real organ providing the same motions. Unfortunately, the human hand is hard to model due to its kinematical chains submitted to motion constraints. On the other hand, if an application does not impose a fine manipulation it is not necessary to create a model as complex as the human hand is. But always the hand model has to perform a certain space of motions in imposed workspace architecture no matter what the practical application does.     

Transient integral boundary layer method to calculate the translesional pressure drop and the fractional flow reserve in myocardial bridges

Background  

The pressure drop - flow relations in myocardial bridges and the assessment of vascular heart disease via fractional flow reserve (FFR) have motivated many researchers the last decades. The aim of this study is to simulate several clinical conditions present in myocardial bridges to determine the flow reserve and consequently the clinical relevance of the disease. From a fluid mechanical point of view the pathophysiological situation in myocardial bridges involves fluid flow in a time dependent flow geometry, caused by contracting cardiac muscles overlying an intramural segment of the coronary artery. These flows mostly involve flow separation and secondary motions, which are difficult to calculate and analyse.     

A simple powerful bivariate test for two sample location problems in experimental and observational studies

Background  

In many areas of medical research, a bivariate analysis is desirable because it simultaneously tests two response variables that are of equal interest and importance in two populations. Several parametric and nonparametric bivariate procedures are available for the location problem but each of them requires a series of stringent assumptions such as specific distribution, affine-invariance or elliptical symmetry.     

Behavior of a viscoelastic valveless pump: a simple theory with experimental validation

Background  

A valveless pump generates a unidirectional net flow of fluid around a closed loop of soft viscoelastic tubing that is rhythmically compressed at one point. The tubing must have at least two sections with two different stiffnesses. When a short segment of the tube is squeezed asymmetrically at certain frequencies, net flow of fluid around the loop can occur without valves.     

Bayesian DNA copy number analysis

Background  

Some diseases, like tumors, can be related to chromosomal aberrations, leading to changes of DNA copy number. The copy number of an aberrant genome can be represented as a piecewise constant function, since it can exhibit regions of deletions or gains. Instead, in a healthy cell the copy number is two because we inherit one copy of each chromosome from each our parents.     

FlexOracle: predicting flexible hinges by identification of stable domains

Background  

Protein motions play an essential role in catalysis and protein-ligand interactions, but are difficult to observe directly. A substantial fraction of protein motions involve hinge bending. For these proteins, the accurate identification of flexible hinges connecting rigid domains would provide significant insight into motion. Programs such as GNM and FIRST have made global flexibility predictions available at low computational cost, but are not designed specifically for finding hinge points.     

Expression of endo-1, 4-beta-xylanase from Trichoderma reesei in Pichia pastoris and functional characterization of the produced enzyme

Background  

In recent years, xylanases have attracted considerable research interest because of their potential in various industrial applications. The yeast Pichia pastoris can neither utilize nor degrade xylan, but it possesses many attributes that render it an attractive host for the expression and production of industrial enzymes.     

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis by deconvolution of internal standard

Background  

Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) is a collection of methods for estimating the number of copies of a specific DNA template in a sample, but one that is not universally accepted because it can lead to highly inaccurate (albeit precise) results. The fundamental problem is that qPCR methods use mathematical models that explicitly or implicitly apply an estimate of amplification efficiency, the error of which is compounded in the analysis to unacceptable levels.     

ST segment depression: the possible role of global repolarization dynamics

Background  

At least some clinical data suggests that, regardless of which major coronary artery is narrowed, the early ST segment body surface pattern is characterized by a minimum near precordial lead V5 and a broad area of left precordial negative potentials. Some clinical data also suggests that late ST segment potentials can localize an ischemic heart region.     

Base-By-Base: Single nucleotide-level analysis of whole viral genome alignments

Background  

With ever increasing numbers of closely related virus genomes being sequenced, it has become desirable to be able to compare two genomes at a level more detailed than gene content because two strains of an organism may share the same set of predicted genes but still differ in their pathogenicity profiles. For example, detailed comparison of multiple isolates of the smallpox virus genome (each approximately 200 kb, with 200 genes) is not feasible without new bioinformatics tools.     

SAMPLEX: Automatic mapping of perturbed and unperturbed regions of proteins and complexes

Background  

The activity of proteins within the cell is characterized by their motions, flexibility, interactions or even the particularly intriguing case of partially unfolded states. In the last two cases, a part of the protein is affected either by binding or unfolding and the detection of the respective perturbed and unperturbed region(s) is a fundamental part of the structural characterization of these states. This can be achieved by comparing experimental data of the same protein in two different states (bound/unbound, folded/unfolded). For instance, measurements of chemical shift perturbations (CSPs) from NMR ¹H-¹⁵N HSQC experiments gives an excellent opportunity to discriminate both moieties.     

Dynamics based alignment of proteins: an alternative approach to quantify dynamic similarity

Background  

The dynamic motions of many proteins are central to their function. It therefore follows that the dynamic requirements of a protein are evolutionary constrained. In order to assess and quantify this, one needs to compare the dynamic motions of different proteins. Comparing the dynamics of distinct proteins may also provide insight into how protein motions are modified by variations in sequence and, consequently, by structure. The optimal way of comparing complex molecular motions is, however, far from trivial. The majority of comparative molecular dynamics studies performed to date relied upon prior sequence or structural alignment to define which residues were equivalent in 3-dimensional space.     

Quantized correlation coefficient for measuring reproducibility of ChIP-chip data

Background  

Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by microarray hybridization (ChIP-chip) is used to study protein-DNA interactions and histone modifications on a genome-scale. To ensure data quality, these experiments are usually performed in replicates, and a correlation coefficient between replicates is used often to assess reproducibility. However, the correlation coefficient can be misleading because it is affected not only by the reproducibility of the signal but also by the amount of binding signal present in the data.     

Hairy-root organ cultures for the production of human acetylcholinesterase

Background  

Human cholinesterases can be used as a bioscavenger of organophosphate toxins used as pesticides and chemical warfare nerve agents. The practicality of this approach depends on the availability of the human enzymes, but because of inherent supply and regulatory constraints, a suitable production system is yet to be identified.     

Atrial fibrillation detection by heart rate variability in Poincare plot

Background  

Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is one of the prominent causes of stroke, and its risk increases with age. We need to detect AFib correctly as early as possible to avoid medical disaster because it is likely to proceed into a more serious form in short time. If we can make a portable AFib monitoring system, it will be helpful to many old people because we cannot predict when a patient will have a spasm of AFib.     

Sparse estimation for structural variability

Background  

Proteins are dynamic molecules that exhibit a wide range of motions; often these conformational changes are important for protein function. Determining biologically relevant conformational changes, or true variability, efficiently is challenging due to the noise present in structure data.     

Fluid-structure interaction in abdominal aortic aneurysms: effects of asymmetry and wall thickness

Background  

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a prevalent disease which is of significant concern because of the morbidity associated with the continuing expansion of the abdominal aorta and its ultimate rupture. The transient interaction between blood flow and the wall contributes to wall stress which, if it exceeds the failure strength of the dilated arterial wall, will lead to aneurysm rupture. Utilizing a computational approach, the biomechanical environment of virtual AAAs can be evaluated to study the affects of asymmetry and wall thickness on this stress, two parameters that contribute to increased risk of aneurysm rupture.     

Systematic determination of the mosaic structure of bacterial genomes: species backbone versus strain-specific loops

Background  

Public databases now contain multitude of complete bacterial genomes, including several genomes of the same species. The available data offers new opportunities to address questions about bacterial genome evolution, a task that requires reliable fine comparison data of closely related genomes. Recent analyses have shown, using pairwise whole genome alignments, that it is possible to segment bacterial genomes into a common conserved backbone and strain-specific sequences called loops.     

Kinesins in the Arabidopsis genome: A comparative analysis among eukaryotes

Background  

Receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase rho (RPTPρ, gene symbol PTPRT) is a member of the type IIB RPTP family. These transmembrane molecules have been linked to signal transduction, cell adhesion and neurite extension. The extracellular segment contains MAM, Ig-like and fibronectin type III domains, and the intracellular segment contains two phosphatase domains. The human RPTPρ gene is located on chromosome 20q12-13.1, and the mouse gene is located on a syntenic region of chromosome 2. RPTPρ expression is restricted to the central nervous system.