Bioautomation

Volume 15, Issue 1
Editorial
Worldwide scientists
Prof. Marco Dorigo
Forthcoming events
USAB 2011 Information Quality in eHealth - 7th Conference of the Austrian Computer Society (OCG)
New books
Bioprocess systems
Effect of Hydrolysis Products of Different Proteins of Wheat on Antioxidant Enzymes	5-12
Hasan Hasanov, Akmal Boboev, Lyubov Yotova, Sadritdin Turabdjanov [ +/- abstract ][ full text ]
This paper presents a study of the effect of products of enzymatic hydrolysis of various proteins of wheat with a neutral proteinase (neutrase “Novozymes”, Denmark) on the activity of peroxidase from horseradish. It is shown that the hydrolysis products of albumin activate peroxidase activity, the constant of activation being 2.3 micromoles. At the same time with increasing the depth of hydrolysis of albumin the activating effect of peptides disappears. Peptides derived from the salt-soluble, alcohol-soluble alkali-soluble proteins had no effect on the activity of peroxidase.
Modelling and Extremum Seeking Control of a Cascade of Two Anaerobic Bioreactors	13-24
Ivan Simeonov, Stoyan Stoyanov [ +/- abstract ][ full text ]
The principle of extremum seeking control has been applied on a cascade of two anaerobic bioreactors using the dilution rate as control action and the biogas flow rates as measured outputs to be maximized. In all cases maximum biogas flow rate with sensible decrease of the general output depollution parameter (compared to the case of one single bioreactor) has been obtained, starting from different initial conditions. With the same algorithm, good performances have been obtained in the presence of variations of the inlet organics. Its implication for biotechnology may result in substantial economic benefits.
Biomedical systems
An Approach to Modeling Protein Release from Lipid Implants	25-32
Rumiana Blagoeva, Assen Nedev [ +/- abstract ][ full text ]
A new approach to modeling protein release kinetics from lipid implants is presented. The recently offered model for prediction of protein transfer out of the lipid implant simultaneously with two water soluble excipients release is improved. Appropriate expressions for concentrations dependent diffusion coefficients are introduced taking into account the initial and current implant porosity. A numerical scheme for solving the arisen highly nonlinear model problem is also developed on the basis of Finite Element (FE) domain approximation and time difference scheme. The new approach and created software are validated using available experimental data for protein release, under different initial content of the drug release modifier. A good correspondence is obtained and a numerical simulation of the effect of the initial implant porosity on drug release profiles is performed.
Gender Event-related Brain Oscillatory Differences in Normal Elderly Population EEG	33-48
Stiliyan Georgiev, Zlatogor Minchev, Christina Christova, Dolja Philipova [ +/- abstract ][ full text ]
In most of the scientific publications the data on gender related EEG differences is connected to exploration of disease or abuse-related changes and so takes the gender only as a cofactor. Although no one argues the fact, that gender is one of the greatest factors, influencing EEG results, there is a small number of papers discussing predominantly the gender influence on EEG. That is why the aim of this work is to try to examine the event-related oscillatory differences between a group of male and female individuals being a part of the normal elderly population. We calculated the Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) in time domain, the absolute Fourier power spectrum and S-transform for time-frequency analysis. The reaction times to auditory target stimuli were also calculated and compared. As a result of the present study we found that our female individuals have shown a significantly larger absolute theta and beta1 spectral power compared to male and having a larger N1 and higher P2 event-related potential components. In contrast to these, the male individuals have shown a stronger theta to beta coupling compared to the female individuals.
Bioinformatics
ACE Gene DD Genotype Association with Obesity in Pakistani Population	49-56
Amara Javaid, Qaisar Mansoor, Nighat Bilal, Anum Bilal, Uzma Shaukat, Muhammad Ismail [ +/- abstract ][ full text ]
The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has an established role in pathogenesis of metabolic etiologies. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) is an important component of RAS that may influence metabolic outcomes in adipose tissue. The deletion “D allele”, of ACE gene I/D (insertion/deletion) polymorphism has been shown to be associated with rise in the serum level of ACE. This study is designed to correlate the association between ACE gene I/D polymorphism and obesity in adult population of Pakistan. Our study included 535 individuals; 147 normal with body mass index (BMI) 19-24.9, 183 overweight (BMI 26-29.9) and 205 obese (BMI > 30). The individuals were genotyped for ACE gene I/D polymorphism. The ratio of ACE gene II and ID genotypes were not significantly different among normal, overweight and obese individuals. However, the DD genotype in normal, overweight and obese individuals was 12.9%, 18.0% and 28.8% respectively. DD genotype is significantly high (P = 0.002) in obese than in overweight and normal individuals. Thus the results of this study may suggest a possible association of the D allele in adipogenesis and adipocyte metabolism by affecting the ACE plasma level.
In-silico Molecular Analysis of Mutated Sequences of HFE1, HFE2, TFR2 and SLC40A1 causing Hemochromatosis Disease	57-64
Bilal Hussain, Hassan Tariq, Tayyaba Sultana, Shahid Mahboob, Tariq Niaz [ +/- abstract ][ full text ]
Hemochromatosis is a disorder in iron metabolism that is characterized by excess iron absorption. There are two forms of hemochromatosis: primary hemochromatosis is caused by a problem with your genes. Secondary or acquired hemochromatosis can be caused by other diseases. The main objective of this study is to analyze structure of different types of proteins involved in hemochromatosis. As this is the most threatening disease all over the world including Pakistan but unfortunately no data is available about it so it will be a great step to analyze the structure of its different proteins by using different online tools that gave different results according to their potential as each tool must show the same results for the same protein. Protein structure prediction is one of the most important goals persuaded by Bioinformatics for evolutionary studies and drug designing. Other objective of this project is to provide the prevalence of hemochromatosis in Faisalabad and structure prediction of its proteins to find the conserved regions. At the end the creation of a database is done that would contain all necessary information about diseases. Hereditary hemochromatosis is mainly caused by a defect in a gene called HFE. There are several types of genetic hemochromatosis. These include: Type I or Classic (HHC); Type II or Juvenile (JHC); Type III or Transferrin Receptor Mutation; and Type IV or Ferroportin Mutation. Most types of hereditary haemochromatosis have autosomal recessive inheritance, while type IV has autosomal dominant inheritance.