Can Lionel Messi’s brain slow down time passing?

It seems that seeing others in slow-motion by heroes does not belong only to movies. When Lionel Messi plays football, you can hardly see anything from him that other players cannot do. Then why he is not stoppable really? It seems the answer may be that opponents do not have enough time to do what they want; because in Messi’s neural system, time passes slower. In differential equations that model a single neuron, this speed can be generated by multiplying an equal term in all equations. Or maybe interactions between neurons and the structure of neural networks play this role.     

Modeling multi-robot task allocation with limited information as global game

Continuous response threshold functions to coordinate collaborative tasks in multi-agent systems are commonly employed models in a number of fields including ethology, economics, and swarm robotics. Although empirical evidence exists for the response threshold model in predicting and matching swarm behavior for social insects, there has been no formal argument as to why natural swarms use this approach and why it should be used for engineering artificial ones. In this paper, we show, by formulating task allocation as a global game, that continuous response threshold functions used for communication-free task assignment result in system level Bayesian Nash equilibria. Building up on these results, we show that individual agents not only do not need to communicate with each other, but also do not need to model each other’s behavior, which makes this coordination mechanism accessible to very simple agents, suggesting a reason for their prevalence in nature and motivating their use in an engineering context.     

Tyrosyl-DNA Phosphodiesterase I Catalytic Mutants Reveal an Alternative Nucleophile That Can Catalyze Substrate Cleavage

Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase I (Tdp1) catalyzes the repair of 3′-DNA adducts, such as the 3′-phosphotyrosyl linkage of DNA topoisomerase I to DNA. Tdp1 contains two conserved catalytic histidines: a nucleophilic His (His^nuc) that attacks DNA adducts to form a covalent 3′-phosphohistidyl intermediate and a general acid/base His (His^gab), which resolves the Tdp1-DNA linkage. A His^nuc to Ala mutant protein is reportedly inactive, whereas the autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disease SCAN1 has been attributed to the enhanced stability of the Tdp1-DNA intermediate induced by mutation of His^gab to Arg. However, here we report that expression of the yeast His^nucAla (H182A) mutant actually induced topoisomerase I-dependent cytotoxicity and further enhanced the cytotoxicity of Tdp1 His^gab mutants, including H432N and the SCAN1-related H432R. Moreover, the His^nucAla mutant was catalytically active in vitro, albeit at levels 85-fold less than that observed with wild type Tdp1. In contrast, the His^nucPhe mutant was catalytically inactive and suppressed His^gab mutant-induced toxicity. These data suggest that the activity of another nucleophile when His^nuc is replaced with residues containing a small side chain (Ala, Asn, and Gln), but not with a bulky side chain. Indeed, genetic, biochemical, and mass spectrometry analyses show that a highly conserved His, immediately N-terminal to His^nuc, can act as a nucleophile to catalyze the formation of a covalent Tdp1-DNA intermediate. These findings suggest that the flexibility of Tdp1 active site residues may impair the resolution of mutant Tdp1 covalent phosphohistidyl intermediates and provide the rationale for developing chemotherapeutics that stabilize the covalent Tdp1-DNA intermediate.     

Join queries optimization in the distributed databases using a hybrid multi-objective algorithm

Cluster Computing - In the distributed database systems, the relations needed by a query can be kept in several locations. This process significantly increases potential corresponding Query...     

Metronidazole aryloxy,carboxy and azole derivatives: Synthesis,anti-tumor activity,QSAR, molecular docking and dynamics studies

A series of novel metronidazole aryloxy, carboxy and azole derivatives has been synthesized and their cytotoxic activities on three cancer cell lines were evaluated by MTT assay. Compounds 4m, 4l and 4d showed the most potent cytotoxic activity (IC₅₀s?less than?100?µg/mL). Apoptosis was also detected for these compounds by flow cytometry. Docking studies were performed in order to propose the probable target protein. In the next step, molecular dynamics simulation was carried out on the proposed target protein, focal adhesion kinase (FAK, PDB code: 2ETM), bound to compound 4m. As, 4m showed a potent cytotoxic activity and an acceptable apoptotic effect, it can be a potential anticancer candidate that may work through inhibition of FAK.     

Enhanced h6h transcript level,antioxidant activity and tropane alkaloid production in Hyoscyamus reticulatus L. hairy roots elicited by acetylsalicylic acid

Hyoscyamine (Hyos) and scopolamine (SCP) are drugs widely used as antimuscarinic to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s or to calm schizoid patients. In this study, with the aim of enhancing tropane alkaloid production in H. reticulatus hairy root cultures, the effects of the signalling molecule acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) were investigated at different concentrations (0, 0.01, 0.1 and 1 mM) and inoculation times (24 and 48 h). As well as reducing biomass production, ASA treatment significantly enhanced the activity of catalase, guaiacol peroxidase and ascorbate peroxidase (p < 0.01), which was highest at 48 h of exposure to 1 mM of ASA. The highest accumulation of Hyos and SCP (1.6- and 3.5-fold more than in the control, respectively) was obtained at 24 h of exposure to 0.1 mM ASA. Additionally, semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed an increased expression of the hyoscyamine-6-beta-hydroxylase (h6h) gene, involved in the last Hyos and SCP biosynthetic step, which correlated with the enhanced level of Hyos and SCP production under ASA elicitation. Our findings suggest that ASA, by stimulating the expression of key biosynthetic genes and enzymes, can be applied to increase commercial tropane alkaloid production in a H. reticulatus hairy root system.     

The role of endogenous opioids in the protective effects of local sublethal hyperthermia against the progression of burn injury

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the role of endogenous opioids in local sublethal hyperthermia-induced protection against burn injury.Second-degree burn wounds were induced on the back of Balb/c mice. Progression of burn injury and expression of heat shock protein (HSP)-70 were evaluated after 24 h.Both inhibition of HSP synthesis and blocking opioid receptors before applying local sublethal hyperthermia decreased the protective effects of sublethal hyperthermia against the progression of burn injury. Blocking opioid receptors attenuated induction of HSP-70 by sublethal hyperthermia.     

Design,synthesis and SAR studies of 4-allyoxyaniline amides as potent 15-lipoxygensae inhibitors

A group of 4-allyloxyaniline amides 5a–o were designed, synthesized and evaluated as potential inhibitors of soybean 15-lipoxygenase (SLO) on the basis of eugenol and esteragol structures. Compound 5e showed the best IC₅₀ in SLO inhibition (IC₅₀ = 0.67 ± 0.06 μM). All compounds were docked in SLO active site retrieved from RCSB Protein Data Bank (PDB entry: 1IK3) and showed that allyloxy group of compounds is oriented towards the Fe³⁺-OH moiety in the active site of enzyme and fixed by hydrogen bonding with two conserved His⁵¹³ and Gln⁷¹⁶. It is resulted that molecular volume of the amide moiety would be a major factor in inhibitory potency variation of the synthetic amides, where the hydrogen bonding of the amide group could also involve in the activity of the inhibitors.     

CFD simulation of mass transfer and flow behaviour around a single particle in bioleaching process

The pathway to reach a certain target in many processes such as bioleaching, due to the complex and poorly understood hydrodynamics, reaction kinetics, and chemistry knowledge involved is not apparent. An investigation of the interactions between the parameters in bioleaching process can be applied to optimize the rate of metal extraction from sulphide minerals. Such investigations can be carried out with the aid of numerical simulations. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to better understand the mass transfer phenomenon and complex flow field around a single particle. The commercial software FLUENT 6.2 has been employed to solve the governing equations. Volume of fluid (VOF) method was used to predict the fluid volume fraction in a 3D geometry. The computational model has successfully captured the results observed in the experiments. Simulation results indicate that concentrations of species in a thin layer of liquid on the particle surface are much higher than their concentrations in the liquid bulk and significant gradients in the ion concentrations between the surface of the particle and the liquid bulk were observed.