A detailed note on the finite-buffer queueing system with correlated batch-arrivals and batch-size-/phase-dependent bulk-service

4OR - This paper analyzes a finite-buffer queueing system, where customers arrive in batches and the accepted customers are served in batches by a single server. The service is assumed to be...     

Graphene Oxide as an Enhancer of Fluorescence

Solvent‐dependent switching of graphene oxide (GO) as fluorescence quencher or enhancer was observed. In some solvents, GO increases the fluorescence yield of a hydrophilic molecule 7‐(diethylamino)‐coumarin‐3‐carboxylic acid (7‐DCA), and in some solvents GO act as a quencher of fluorescence.     

Multiscale computations of thin films in multiphase flows

In multiphase flows thin films are often encountered when fluid masses collide. These films can become very thin and in direct numerical simulations (DNS) it is often impractical to resolve their thickness fully, even with adaptive grid refining. Here we examine the collision of a fluid drop with a wall and develop a multiscale approach to compute the flow in the film between the drop and the wall. By using a semi-analytical model for the flow in the film we capture the evolution of films thinner than the grid spacing reasonably well.     

A front-tracking method for computation of interfacial flows with soluble surfactants

A finite-difference/front-tracking method is developed for computations of interfacial flows with soluble surfactants. The method is designed to solve the evolution equations of the interfacial and bulk surfactant concentrations together with the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations using a non-linear equation of state that relates interfacial surface tension to surfactant concentration at the interface. The method is validated for simple test cases and the computational results are found to be in a good agreement with the analytical solutions. The method is then applied to study the cleavage of drop by surfactant—a problem proposed as a model for cytokinesis [H.P. Greenspan, On the dynamics of cell cleavage, J. Theor. Biol. 65(1) (1977) 79; H.P. Greenspan, On fluid-mechanical simulations of cell division and movement, J. Theor. Biol., 70(1) (1978) 125]. Finally the method is used to model the effects of soluble surfactants on the motion of buoyancy-driven bubbles in a circular tube and the results are found to be in a good agreement with available experimental data.     

A general contact mechanical formulation of multilayered structures and its application to deconvolute thickness/mechanical properties of glue used in surface force apparatus

Currently data obtained from surface force apparatus experiments are convoluted with the mechanical response of glue of unknown thickness, used to bond mica sheets to the substrates. This paper describes a formulation to precisely deconvolute out the forces between the mica sheets by determining the thickness of glue, knowing the mechanical properties of the glue. The formulation consists of a general solution based on the noniterative Hankel transform of the Laplace equation. The generality is achieved by treating all the layers except the one in contact as an effective lumped system consisting of a set of springs in series, where each spring represents a layer. The solution is validated by nanoindentation of trilayer systems consisting of layers with widely diverse mechanical properties, some differing from each other by three orders of magnitude. SFA experiments are done with carefully metered slabs of glue. The proposed method is validated by comparing the actual glue thicknesses with those determined using the present analysis.     

Role of locked nucleic acid modified complementary strand in quadruplex/Watson-Crick duplex equilibrium

In the human genome, the G-rich sequences that form quadruplexes are present along with their C-rich complementary strands; this suggests the existence of equilibrium between a quadruplex and a Watson-Crick duplex which allows the execution of their respective biological functions. We have investigated the sensitivity of this equilibrium to pharmacological agents by employing locked nucleic acid (LNA) modified complementary strands, and demonstrated successful invasion of the stable telomeric quadruplex d[(G(3)TTA)(3)G(3)]. Fluorescence, UV, ITC, and SPR studies were performed to understand the binding process involving the preformed quadruplex and LNA-modified complementary strands compared with that involving the unmodified complementary strand. Our data indicate that LNA modifications in the complementary strand shift the equilibrium toward the duplex state. These modifications confer increased thermodynamic stability to the duplex and increase the magnitude of relative free energy (DeltaDeltaG degrees) difference between duplex and quadruplex, thus favoring the predominance of duplex population over quadruplex. This superior ability of LNA-modified complementary strand can be exploited to pave an exploratory approach in which it hybridizes to a telomeric quadruplex and drives duplex formation, and inhibits the recognition of 3' G-rich overhang by RNA template of telomerase which guides telomere extension.     

Single Amino-Acid Based Self-Assembled Biomaterials with Potent Antimicrobial Activity

The design and development of soft biomaterials based on amino acid and short-peptide have gained much attention due to their potent biomedical applications. A slight alteration in the side-chain of single amino acid in a peptide or protein sequence has a huge impact on the structure and function. Phenylalanine is one of the most studied amino acids, which contains an aromatic phenyl group connected through a flexible −CH₂− unit. In this work, we have examined whether flexibility and aromatic functionality of phenylalanine (Phe) are important in gel formation of model gelator Fmoc-Phe-OH or not. To examine this hypothesis, we synthesized Fmoc-derivatives of three analogues unnatural amino acids including cyclohexylalanine, phenylglycine, and homophenylalanine; which are slightly varied from Phe. Interestingly, all these three new analogues formed hydrogels in phosphate buffer at pH 7.0 having different gelation efficacy and kinetics. This study suggests that the presence of aromatic side-chain and flexibility are not mandatory for the gelation of this model gelator. Newly synthesized unnatural amino acid derivatives have also exhibited promising antimicrobial activity towards gram-positive bacteria by inhibiting cellular oxygen consumption. We further determined the biocompatibility of these amino acid derivatives by using a hemolysis assay on human blood cells. Overall studies described the development of single amino acid-based new injectable biomaterials with improved antimicrobial activity by the slight alteration in the side-chain of amino acid.     

Chemical ecology of endophytic fungi: origins of secondary metabolites

Endophytes constitute a remarkably multifarious group of microorganisms ubiquitous in plants and maintain an imperceptible association with their hosts for at least a part of their life cycle. Their enormous biological diversity coupled with their capability to biosynthesize bioactive secondary metabolites has provided the impetus for a number of investigations on endophytes. Here, we highlight the possible current and future strategies of understanding the chemical communication of endophytic fungi with other endophytes (fungi and bacteria) and with their host plants, which might not only allow the discovery and sustainable production of desirable natural products but also other mostly overlooked bioactive secondary metabolites.     

Long strange segments,ruin probabilities and the effect of memory on moving average processes

We obtain the rate of growth of long strange segments and the rate of decay of infinite horizon ruin probabilities for a class of infinite moving average processes with exponentially light tails. The rates are computed explicitly. We show that the rates are very similar to those of an i.i.d. process as long as the moving average coefficients decay fast enough. If they do not, then the rates are significantly different. This demonstrates the change in the length of memory in a moving average process associated with certain changes in the rate of decay of the coefficients.