An engineered form of iso-1-cytochrome c with lysine 73 mutated to histidine is shown to increase by nearly 500-fold the rate of a conformational gate that modulates the rate of electron transfer into this protein. This result demonstrates the potential of protein engineering to provide electron transfer gates with tailored properties. The pH dependence of the rate of the conformational electro...

A genetic algorithm has been applied to the line profile reconstruction from the signals of the standard secondary electron (SE) and/or backscattered electron detectors in a scanning electron microscope. This method solves the topographical surface reconstruction problem as one of combinatorial optimization. To extend this optimization approach for three-dimensional (3-D) surface topography, th...

Multidomain enzymes often rely on large conformational motions to function. However, the conformational setpoints, rates of domain motions and relationships between these parameters and catalytic activity are not well understood. To address this, we determined and compared the conformational setpoints and the rates of conformational switching between closed unreactive and open reactive states i...

An efficient method for scattering Genetic Algorithm (GA) individuals in the design space is proposed to accelerate airfoil shape optimization. The method used here is based on the variation of the mutation rate for each gene of the chromosomes by taking feedback from the current population. An adaptive method for airfoil shape parameterization is also applied and its impact on the optimum desi...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) of a reentry vehicle. In this paper, optimization of a RV based on, minimization of heat flux integral and minimization of axial force coefficient integral and maximization of static margin integral along reentry trajectory is carried out. The classic optimization methods are not applicable here due to the c...

this paper presents a framework for long term transmission expansion planning in competitive, electricity markets. transmission lines and phase shifters are taken into account as expansion options. maximization of the network users' benefits, with satisfying security constraints are considered as the criterion for transmission expansion planning. the elements of the objective function are the...

clustering is a widespread data analysis and data mining technique in many fields of study such as engineering, medicine, biology and the like. the aim of clustering is to collect data points. in this paper, a cultural algorithm (ca) is presented to optimize partition with n objects into k clusters. the ca is one of the effective methods for searching into the problem space in order to find a n...

permanent magnet synchronous generators (pmsgs) are novel generators which can be used in high-performance wind farms. high efficiency and flexibility in producing electricity from variable rotation make them good candidate for wind power applications. furthermore, because these kinds of generators have no excitation winding, there is no copper loss on rotor; hence, they can operate at high pow...

Double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses such as herpesviruses and bacteriophages infect by delivering their genetic material into cells, a task mediated by a DNA channel called "portal protein." We have used electron cryomicroscopy to determine the structure of bacteriophage P22 portal protein in both the procapsid and mature capsid conformations. We find that, just as the viral capsid undergoes ma...