Integral and differential form of the protein folding problem

The availability of the complete genomic sequences of many species, including human, has raised enormous expectations in medicine, pharmacology, ecology, biotechnology and forensic sciences. However, knowledge is only a first step toward understanding, and we are only at the early stage of a scientific process that might lead us to satisfy all the expectations raised by the genomic projects. In this review I will discuss the present status of computational methods that attempt to infer the unique three-dimensional structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences. Although this problem has been defined as the “holy grail” of biology, it represents only one of the many hurdles in our path towards the understanding of life at a molecular level.     

Generalized Relative Entropies as Contrast Functionals on Density Matrices

We use a class of generalized relative entropies on density matrices to obtain one-parameter families of torsion-free affine connections.     

Effect of maltodextrins on the surface activity of small-molecule surfactants

We report on the effect of commercially important polysaccharides (maltodextrins with variable dextrose equivalent (Paselli SA-2, MD-6 and MD-10) on the surface activity at the air–water interface of small-molecule surfactants (sms), possessing different hydrophobic–lipophilic balance ((SSL (Na⁺), the main component is a sodium salt of stearol–lactoyl lactic acid, and PGE (080), polyglycerol ester of C18 fatty acid), and widely used in food products. A marked change of the surface activity of sms was found in the presence of maltodextrins by tensiometry. The combined data of laser multiangle light scattering and mixing calorimetry have suggested that this result is governed by specific complex formation between maltodextrins and sms in aqueous medium. Measurements have been made of the molar mass, the second virial coefficient and the enthalpy of intermolecular interactions in aqueous solutions. The implication of a degree of polymerization of maltodextrins in this phenomenon was shown. The interrelation between the molecular parameters of the formed complexes and their surface activity at the air–water interface has been revealed and discussed.     

Separating points of measures on effect algebras

We prove the existence of separating points for every countable family of nonatomic σ-additive modular measures on a σ-complete lattice ordered effect algebra.      

A priori bounds in weighted spaces

In unbounded domains we state some a priori bounds for solutions of the Dirichlet problem for linear second order elliptic differential equations in nondivergence form with discontinuous coefficients in weighted spaces. The weight function is related to the distance function from a fixed subset S of ∂Ω.     

Collision Avoidance in Bi-Directional AGV Systems

The use of a bi-directional, as opposed to a one-way, transportation system, can increase the operational efficiency of automated guided vehicles in both manufacturing and warehousing environments. However, the full potential will only be realized if the routeing algorithms pay particular attention to the problem of collision avoidance. This paper is concerned with the development of such an algorithm. The method is based on the use of delays and deviations to avoid collisions that could arise when using the shortest routes for each vehicle, and is applicable to any transportation system which can be represented as a network with known travel times.     

Micellar effect in hydroformylation of high olefin catalysed by water-soluble rhodium complexes associated with sulfonated diphosphines

High linear alkenes (1-octene and 1-decene) have been hydroformylated using water-soluble rhodium complexes associated with sulfonated diphosphines in the presence of ionic surfactants or methanol. In all cases, the hydroformylation activities were higher than in experiments without additives. The selectivity in aldehydes was higher when we used cetyltrimethylammonium hydrogensulfate (CTAHSO₄) as the surfactant or methanol as the co-solvent.