Dissecting the cholera toxin-ganglioside GM1 interaction by isothermal titration calorimetry

The complex of cholera toxin and ganglioside GM1 is one of the highest affinity protein-carbohydrate interactions known. Herein, the GM1 pentasaccharide is dissected into smaller fragments to determine the contribution of each of the key monosaccharide residues to the overall binding affinity. Displacement isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) has allowed the measurement of all of the key thermodynamic parameters for even the lowest affinity fragment ligands. Analysis of the standard free energy changes using Jencks' concept of intrinsic free energies reveals that the terminal galactose and sialic acid residues contribute 54% and 44% of the intrinsic binding energy, respectively, despite the latter ligand having little appreciable affinity for the toxin. This analysis also provides an estimate of 25.8 kJ mol(-1) for the loss of independent translational and rotational degrees of freedom on complexation and presents evidence for an alternative binding mode for ganglioside GM2. The high affinity and selectivity of the GM1-cholera toxin interaction originates principally from the conformational preorganization of the branched pentasaccharide rather than through the effect of cooperativity, which is also reinvestigated by ITC.     

Unsteady double-diffusive natural convection in a two-sided lid-driven inclined porous enclosure with sinusoidal boundary conditions with Soret and Dufour effects

Unsteady double-diffusive natural convection in an inclined porous enclosure with sinusoidal boundary conditions and Soret and Dufour parameters is studied. The unique aspects of the set-up are that the left vertical and bottom walls are heated and concentrated non-uniformly and uniformly, respectively, while the right vertical wall is well insulated and the top wall is maintained at a constant concentration and cold temperature. A staggered grid finite-difference method is used to solve the system of partial differential equations that model heat and mass transfer inside the enclosure. We demonstrate the effects of the Soret and Dufour parameters and the inclination angle on the unsteady double-diffusive natural convection in the inclined porous enclosure. With all the numerical studies, the least square curve fitting (exponential non-linear curve fitting) of average Nusselt number and average Sherwood number with respect to different Soret and Dufour numbers at the left vertical wall which is non-uniformly heated and concentrated is examined here. Comparison with previously published results shows an excellent agreement.     

On a new quasi‐linearization method for systems of nonlinear boundary value problems

We propose a new quasi‐linearization technique for solving systems of nonlinear equations. The method finds recursive formulae for higher order deformation equations which are then solved using the Chebyshev spectral collocation method. The implementation of the method is demonstrated by solving the coupled nonlinear equations that govern the injection of a non‐Newtonian fluid through the sides of a vertical channel. The equations are also solved numerically and comparison made with the results in the literature. The linearization method is found to be computationally efficient and accurate with a rapidly convergent series solution. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.