Scorpion venom is a complex mixture of salts, small molecules, peptides, and proteins. Scorpions employ this valuable tool in several sophisticated ways for subduing prey, deterring predators, and possibly during mating. Here, a subtle but clever strategy of venom utilization by scorpions is reported. Scorpions secrete a small quantity of transparent venom when initially stimulated that we propose to name prevenom. If secretion continues, a cloudy and dense venom that is white in color is subsequently released. The prevenom contains a combination of high K ؉ salt and several peptides including some that block rectifying K ؉ channels and elicit significant pain and toxicity because of a massive local depolarization. The presence of high extracellular K ؉ in the prevenom can depolarize cells and also decrease the local electrochemical gradient making it more difficult to reestablish the resting potential. When this positive change to the K ؉ equilibrium potential is combined with the blockage of rectifying K ؉ channels, this further delays the recovery of the resting potential, causing a prolonged effect. We propose that the prevenom of scorpions is used as a highly efficacious predator deterrent and for immobilizing small prey while conserving metabolically expensive venom until a certain level of stimuli is reached, after which the venom is secreted.
A multivariate statistical regression technique is proposed to address underlying nonlinear
correlations among the predictor variables, as well as between the predictor variables and the
response variable. The method is based on a neural network architecture that preserves the
orthogonality properties of the principal component analysis (PCA) approach. Applications to a
synthetic dataset and a benchmark example demonstrate the key features of the method, and
another example shows the utility of the method in using process measurements to predict the
shelf-life stability characteristics of a pharmaceutical product.
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