inhibitors of soluble epoxide hydrolase (seh) represent one of the novel pharmaceutical approaches for treating hypertension, vascular inflammation, pain and other cardiovascular related diseases. most of the potent seh inhibitors reported in literature often suffer from poor solubility and bioavailability. toward improving pharmacokinetic profile beside favorable potency, two series of 4-benza...

allopurinol, the xanthine oxidase inhibitor, is the only drug available for the treatment of gout. we examined the xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity of some commercially available flavonoids such asepigallocatechin, acacatechin, myricetin, naringenin, daidzein and glycitein by virtual screening and in-vitro studies. the interacting residues within the complex model and their contact types we...

Given a large set of objects in a distributed database, the goal of a top-k query is to determine the top-k scoring objects and return them to the user. Efficient top-k ranking over distributed databases has been the focus of recent research, with most current algorithms operating on the assumption that each node holds a single or small subset of each object’s numerical attributes. However, in ...

Maneuvers performed with tractor-trailers vehicles (N-trailers) belong to the most demanding motion control tasks in the transportation practice. Very frequent maneuvers concern the lining-up process of a vehicle chain, usually as a preliminary stage which prepares the system to subsequent parking/docking maneuvers. The most common lining-up control approach results from utilization of the open...

The nematode C. elegans provides a powerful model system for exploring the molecular basis of synaptogenesis and neurotransmission. However, the lack of direct functional assays of release processes has largely prevented an in depth understanding of the mechanism of vesicular exocytosis and endocytosis in C. elegans. We address this technical limitation by developing direct electrophysiological...

Since protein complex crystallization is expensive and time-consuming, computational docking tools provide a valuable method to investigate protein interactions. While the sampling of possible docked conformers of two proteins can be performed efficiently by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) methods, the selection of near-native decoys from the pool of thousands of possible decoys is still far from ...

Microstructures that generate shear-protected regions in microchannels can rapidly immobilize cells for cell-based biosensing and drug screening. Here, a two-step fabrication method is used to generate double microgrooves with various depth ratios to achieve controlled double-level cell patterning while still providing shear protection. Six microgroove geometries are fabricated with different g...

Variance analysis of postsynaptic current amplitudes suggests the presence of distinct docking sites (also called release sites) where vesicles pause before exocytosis. Docked vesicles participate in the readily releasable pool (RRP), but the relation between docking site number and RRP size remains unclear. It is also unclear whether all vesicles of the RRP are equally release competent, and w...

A protein consists of atoms. Given a protein, the automatic recognition of depressed regions on the surface of the protein, often called docking sites or pockets, is important for the analysis of interaction between a protein and a ligand and facilitates fast development of new drugs. Presented in this paper is a geometric approach for the detection of docking sites using b-shape which is based...