Characterisation of the mantle transcriptome and biomineralisation genes in the blunt-gaper clam, Mya truncata

Members of the Myidae family are ecologically and economically important, but there is currently very little molecular data on these species. The present study sequenced and assembled the mantle transcriptome of Mya truncata from the North West coast of Scotland and identified candidate biomineralisation genes. RNA-Seq reads were assembled to create 20,106 contigs in a de novo transciptome, 18.81% of which were assigned putative functions using BLAST sequence similarity searching (cuttoff E-value 1E − 10). The most highly expressed genes were compared to the Antarctic clam (Laternula elliptica) and showed that many of the dominant biological functions (muscle contraction, energy production, biomineralisation) in the mantle were conserved. There were however, differences in the constitutive expression of heat shock proteins, which were possibly due to the M. truncata sampling location being at a relatively low latitude, and hence relatively warm, in terms of the global distribution of the species. Phylogenetic analyses of the Tyrosinase proteins from M. truncata showed a gene expansion which was absent in L. elliptica. The tissue distribution expression patterns of putative biomineralisation genes were investigated using quantitative PCR, all genes showed a mantle specific expression pattern supporting their hypothesised role in shell secretion. The present study provides some preliminary insights into how clams from different environments – temperate versus polar – build their shells. In addition, the transcriptome data provides a valuable resource for future comparative studies investigating biomineralisation

In-depth genome characterization of a Brazilian common bean core collection using DArTseq high-density SNP genotyping

Background: Common bean is a legume of social and nutritional importance as a food crop, cultivated worldwide especially in developing countries, accounting for an important source of income for small farmers. The availability of the complete sequences of the two common bean genomes has dramatically accelerated and has enabled new experimental strategies to be applied for genetic research. DArTseq has been widely used as a method of SNP genotyping allowing comprehensive genome coverage with genetic applications in common bean breeding programs. Results: Using this technology, 6286 SNPs (1 SNP/86.5 Kbp) were genotyped in genic (43.3%) and non-genic regions (56. 7%). Genetic subdivision associated to the common bean gene pools (K = 2) and related to grain types (K = 3 and K = 5) were reported. A total of 83% and 91% of all SNPs were polymorphic within the Andean and Mesoamerican gene pools, respectively, and 26% were able to differentiate the gene pools. Genetic diversity analysis revealed an average HE of 0.442 for the whole collection, 0.102 for Andean and 0.168 for Mesoamerican gene pools (FST = 0.747 between gene pools), 0. 440 for the group of cultivars and lines, and 0.448 for the group of landrace accessions (FST = 0.002 between cultivar/line and landrace groups). The SNP effects were predicted with predominance of impact on non-coding regions (77.8%). SNPs under selection were identified within gene pools comparing landrace and cultivar/line germplasm groups (Andean: 18; Mesoamerican: 69) and between the gene pools (59 SNPs), predominantly on chromosomes 1 and 9. The LD extension estimate corrected for population structure and relatedness (r2 SV) was~88 kbp, while for the Andean gene pool was~395 kbp, and for the Mesoamerican was ~ 130 kbp. Conclusions: For common bean, DArTseq provides an efficient and cost-effective strategy of generating SNPs for large-scale genome-wide studies. The DArTseq resulted in an operational panel of 560 polymorphic SNPs in linkage equilibrium, providing high genome coverage. This SNP set could be used in genotyping platforms with many applications, such as population genetics, phylogeny relation between common bean varieties and support to molecular breeding approaches

SCREENING AND OPTIMIZATION OF VALACYCLOVIR NIOSOMES BY DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS

Objective: The objective of the study was to perform a screening, optimization of valacyclovir niosomal formulation to achieve a sustained release of drug using the design of experiments by 32 full factorial design.Methods: Valacyclovir loaded niosomes were prepared using thin film hydration method by varying the ratio of Span 60 and Cholesterol. The prepared niosomes were evaluated for vesicle size, entrapment efficiency, cumulative drug release, fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), zeta potential and surface morphology by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).Results: The valacyclovir was successfully encapsulated and its entrapment efficiency ranged from 36.70 % to 50.62 %. The average vesicle size of the niosomes was found to be 431 to 623 nm. At 8th hour the drug release varied from 77.50% to 96.31 %. The optimized niosomes were multilamellar with a surface charge potential of about-43.2 mV. The studies revealed that the interaction of cholesterol and surfactant had a substantial effect on vesicle size, entrapment efficiency and drug release from the niosomes. The release kinetics of the optimized niosomes followed zero order kinetics with fickian diffusion controlled mechanism. The stability studies were performed for the optimized formulation and found that the formulation is stable at 4°C ± 2°C.Conclusion: Model equations were developed for the responses. No significant difference was observed between the predicted and observed value, showing that the developed model is reliable

"Hey..! This medicine made me sick": Sentiment Analysis of User-Generated Drug Reviews using Machine Learning Techniques

Sentiment analysis has become increasingly important in healthcare, especially in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. The data generated by the general public on the effectiveness, side effects, and adverse drug reactions are goldmines for different agencies and medicine producers to understand the concerns and reactions of people. Despite the challenge of obtaining datasets on drug-related problems, sentiment analysis on this topic would be a significant boon to the field. This project proposes a drug review classification system that classifies user reviews on a particular drug into different classes, such as positive, negative, and neutral. This approach uses a dataset that is collected from publicly available sources containing drug reviews, such as drugs.com. The collected data is manually labeled and verified manually to ensure that the labels are correct. Three pre-trained language models, such as BERT, SciBERT, and BioBERT, are used to obtain embeddings, which were later used as features to different machine learning classifiers such as decision trees, support vector machines, random forests, and also deep learning algorithms such as recurrent neural networks. The performance of these classifiers is quantified using precision, recall, and f1-score, and the results show that the proposed approaches are useful in analyzing the sentiments of people on different drugs

Sketchtivity, an Intelligent Tutoring Software: Broadening Applications and Impact

Freehand sketching is an essential skill for engineers. Sketching enables designers to represent ideas rapidly and offload working memory. Sketches in the design process also correlate with positive design outcomes. Teaching sketching to engineers, however, presents many challenges in engineering curriculums. Sketching is most often taught in large entry-level courses where individualized feedback, which is vital to learning sketching, is not possible. Sketchtivity is an intelligent tutoring software designed to aid in the practice and feedback on freehand sketching skills. Sketchtivity teaches the basics of two-point perspective sketching providing lessons, feedback, and tips on how to improve. The goal of this project is to implement Sketchtivity at a broader range of universities, to expand on the software functionality, and to understand more about the implications of improving sketching skill. Sketchtivity is currently being implemented in classrooms at three diverse universities across the United States. Our research has shown that the tablet interface does not negatively impact students’ sketching skill development. We are currently conducting further experiments to better understand how students are learning from the feedback the software provides. Beyond measuring current impact, this project seeks to expand the functionality of Sketchtivity to offer lessons on more complex sketching tasks and more poignant feedback to learners. The main research goal is focused on improving sketching skills. The remaining goals turn outward toward the implications for improved sketching skill for engineers. It is essential to understand how to measure sketching skill effectively, and what role sketching skill plays in engineering design. Sketching skill has been measured in many different ways in many different fields and there seems to be no consensus on measurement strategy or validity. As a part of this project, we are conducting a systematic literature review of sketching evaluation. This literature review aims to compile the different methods of measurement to remove some of the ambiguity around evaluating sketching skill in engineering research and education. There has been much research on the role of sketching in engineering design, but the research around sketching skill has been limited. Essential to improving skill in any task is understanding how confidence in the skill is affected. Engineers’ self-efficacy can enable or limit their application of skills. We are also looking at how sketching skill is related to drawing self-efficacy. Sketching has the largest impact in the early stages of design. The final research goal of this project is to investigate the relationship between sketching and creativity in the early stages of design. Through experiments of idea generation and sketching abilities, we hope to better understand to what degree sketching enables creativity in design. To summarize, this project seeks to improve sketching skill through Sketchtivity. We are accomplishing this through expanding reach at multiple universities and expanding the capabilities of the software. It is also essential to understand the implications of improving sketching skill. This is being investigated through improved evaluation of sketching and investigations of sketching’s relationship to drawing self-efficacy and creativity

Adaptation of counters redundant bits with the provision of dual supply and modified clock gating to favour of low power in VLSI

750-757The utilization of usual supply voltage and clock for repetitive state transistors in digital circuits is a fundamental driver for high power utilization. Most significant bit states of the counter stay longer than the least significant bit states and it has some repetitive states. To limit the supply voltage and stop the clock for MSB Flip Flop (FF) transistor, our method uses Control Combinational Logic, Voltage selector and Modified Integrated Clock Gating blocks. The LSB transistor always have a supply voltage of 1.2V and succession of the clock, while MSB transistor gets just 480mV and the clock will be stopped by the this technique. Bring down the supply voltage and quit the clock for redundant states either 0 or 1 in MSB. Meantime supply 1.2V and clock for state changes over from one state to next state. The experimental simulation was done in 45nm CMOS technology using Cadence virtuoso indicates that this asynchronous counter achieves a power savings of 23.57% and the same modified technique when applied to the counters with transmission-gate FF, hybrid-latch FF and sense amplifier FF will have more than 40% power savings and the technique applied in some benchmark circuits will have more than 22% power savings than existing techniques

Adaptation of counters redundant bits with the provision of dual supply and modified clock gating to favour of low power in VLS

The utilization of usual supply voltage and clock for repetitive state transistors in digital circuits is a fundamental driver for high power utilization. Most significant bit states of the counter stay longer than the least significant bit states and it has some repetitive states. To limit the supply voltage and stop the clock for MSB Flip Flop (FF) transistor, our method uses Control Combinational Logic, Voltage selector and Modified Integrated Clock Gating blocks. The LSB transistor always have a supply voltage of 1.2V and succession of the clock, while MSB transistor gets just 480mV and the clock will be stopped by the this technique. Bring down the supply voltage and quit the clock for redundant states either 0 or 1 in MSB. Meantime supply 1.2V and clock for state changes over from one state to next state. The experimental simulation was done in 45nm CMOS technology using Cadence virtuoso indicates that this asynchronous counter achieves a power savings of 23.57% and the same modified technique when applied to the counters with transmission-gate FF, hybrid-latch FF and sense amplifier FF will have more than 40% power savings and the technique applied in some benchmark circuits will have more than 22% power savings than existing techniques

NOVEL APPROACH IN E-LEARNING TO IMBIBE ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS

ABSTRACT Real world problems are often felt to be somebody else's problems. By transferring the real world problems to the virtual world the player experiences the gravity of the situation first hand, as he/she is forced to solve the problems of environmental degradation faced by his/her virtual town. This game, through the concept of infotainment aspires to help average individuals of all age groups to understand the importance of environment protection and enhancement and learn to lead an eco-friendly life. While the game is simple to play, the learning process is facilitated because all the available solutions to protect the Environment will be researched and implemented in the game. Players and spectators will subconsciously learn various methods to protect the environment

Insight on current advances in food science and technology for feeding the world population

While the world population is steadily increasing, the capacity of Earth to renew its resources is continuously declining. Consequently, the bioresources required for food production are diminishing and new approaches are needed to feed the current and future global population. In the last decades, scientists have developed novel strategies to reduce food loss and waste, improve food production, and find new ingredients, design and build new food structures, and introduce digitalization in the food system. In this work, we provide a general overview on circular economy, alternative technologies for food production such as cellular agriculture, and new sources of ingredients like microalgae, insects, and wood-derived fibers. We present a summary of the whole process of food design using creative problem-solving that fosters food innovation, and digitalization in the food sector such as artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and blockchain technology. Finally, we briefly discuss the effect of COVID-19 on the food system. This review has been written for a broad audience, covering a wide spectrum and giving insights on the most recent advances in the food science and technology area, presenting examples from both academic and industrial sides, in terms of concepts, technologies, and tools which will possibly help the world to achieve food security in the next 30 years.Peer reviewe