effects of partial docking on feedlot performance and body fat characteristics were studied in a fat-tailed sheep breed. thirty-eight male lambs with an average weight of 4.44 ± 0.48 were randomly divided into two groups. the lambs in one group were partially docked at 3-4 h after birth, using rubber rings, and the lambs in another group remained intact (control). after weaning, 20 male lambs f...

Local minima of a fitness landscape are separated by barriers. A barrier tree (Flamm et al., 2002) is a representation of a fitness landscape as a binary tree, where each leaf represents a local minimum; the barriers connecting the local minima are represented as the internal horizontal nodes of the barrier tree. To reflect the fitness values of barriers and minima, each node in the barrier tre...

Protein-small molecule docking algorithms provide a means to model the structure of protein-small molecule complexes in structural detail and play an important role in drug development. In recent years the necessity of simulating protein side-chain flexibility for an accurate prediction of the protein-small molecule interfaces has become apparent, and an increasing number of docking algorithms ...

In this contribution we consider the eeect of a class of \averaging op-erators" on isotropic tness landscapes. Explicit expressions for the correlation function of the averaged landscapes are derived. A new class of tunably rugged landscapes, obtained by iterated smoothing of the random energy model, is established. The correlation structure of certain landscapes, among them the Sherrington-Kir...

For a class of stochastic restart algorithms we address the effect of a nonzero level of randomization in maximizing the convergence rate for general energy landscapes. The resulting characterization of the optimal level of randomization is investigated computationally for random as well as parametric families of rugged energy landscapes.

In agent-based modeling (ABM), an explicit spatial representation may be required for certain aspects of the system to be modeled realistically. A spatial ABM includes landscapes in which agents seek resources necessary for their survival. The spatial heterogeneity of the underlying landscape plays a crucial role in the resource-seeking process. This study describes a previous agent-based model...

Class I major histocompatibility complex proteins play a critical role in the adaptive immune system by binding to peptides derived from cytosolic proteins and presenting them on the cell surface for surveillance by T cells. The varied peptide binding specificity of these highly polymorphic molecules has important consequences for vaccine design, transplantation, autoimmunity, and cancer develo...

Objective(s): The novel 1,5-diaryl-1,4-pentadien-3-one derivatives were studied for analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anticancer potential to establish their role in pain, inflammatory disorders and cancer.Materials and Methods: Two 1,5- diaryl-1,4-pentadien-3-one derivatives: (1E,4E)- 5-(4-fluoro phenyl)-1-(4-methoxyphenyl)- 2-methylpenta-1,4-dien-3-one (A2K2A17) and  (1E,4E)-5-(4-nitrophenyl)-...

We apply our recently developed metadynamics method to the docking of ligands on flexible receptors in water solution. This method mimics the real dynamics of a ligand exiting or entering an enzyme and in so doing reconstructs the free energy surface. We apply it to four docking cases: beta-trypsin/benzamidine, beta-trypsin/chlorobenzamidine, immunoglobulin McPC-603/phosphocholine, and cyclin-d...

This paper describes a new docking system called Compliant-And-Self-Tightening (CAST) developed as an effective and efficient connector for joining and releasing modules of self-reconfigurable or metamorphic robotic systems. CAST has been successfully implemented in CONRO where its highly compliant and passive features have allowed a considerable ease of execution of a variety of docking algori...