Culturable grade oocytes (n=380) recovered by aspiration of surface follicles from buffalo ovaries (n=97) were either mechanically denuded (DN) or kept cumulus compact (CC) and were vitrified in Dulbecco's phosphate buffered saline + 0.4% sucrose, 0.4% bovine serum albumin and 6 M concentrations of either ethylene glycol (EG) or propylene glycol (PG). Oocytes were randomly allocated to four groups of vitrification (EGCC, EGDN, PGCC and PGDN) and cryostorage for 7-10 days in liquid nitrogen. They were then warmed to record morphological survival and morphologically normal oocytes were matured in vitro along with fresh oocytes (control) for 24 h in TCM-199 containing hormones (LH + FSH + estradiol) at 38.5 0 C and 5% CO2 in humidified air in a CO2 incubator. The arcsine transformed data of the proportion of morphologic survival of oocytes and in vitro maturation of oocytes was compared by DNMRtest. The morphologically normal oocytes were significantly higher (P<0.05) for cumulus compact oocytes compared with denuded oocytes for both cryoprotectants EG and PG. The in vitro maturation was significantly higher (P<0.05) for nonvitrified oocytes (control) compared to vitrified oocytes. Significantly higher (P<0.05) proportion of cumulus compact oocytes matured in vitro compared to denuded oocytes for both cryoprotectants EG and PG. The differences between the cryoprotectants were non-significant. It was concluded that cryo-damage to the oocytes during vitrification can be minimized by the presence of cumulus cells with the oocyte, whereas the two cryoprotectants EG and PG are equally effective in preventing cryodamage to oocytes.
Wireless Sensor Networks, are made of low-cost, low-power, small in size, and multifunctional sensor nodes. The efficient energy utilization is one of the important performance factors for wireless sensor networks survivability be-cause nodes operate with limited battery power. In this paper we propose and analyze a new approach of zone based clustering head selection algorithm for wireless sensor network of homogeneous nodes. Nodes in the network are uniformly distributed. In this clustering algorithm, network performance is improved by selecting cluster heads on the basis of the residual energy of existing cluster heads, and nearest hop distance of the node. In this paper we evaluate various performance metrics like energy consumption, network life time, number of channel heads metrics in each round and compare these with respect to random algorithm i.e. LEACH. We conclude that proposed protocol effectively extends the network lifetime without degrading the other critical overheads and perform-ance metrics.
Coronavirus-2 Main protease (SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup>), one of the most vital enzymes of the new coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and a crucial target for drug discovery, has been battered with numerous types of drugs/inhibitors. Regrettably, till date there is no any potential drugs or effective inhibitors available to combat its action. Based on the reports of HIV-protease inhibitors can be applied against the SARS by targeting the SARS-CoV-1 M<sup>pro</sup>, we have chosen few clinically trialed experimental HIV-protease inhibitors (JE-2147, KNI-227 and KNI-272) and a variant JE2-CH3, to examine their binding affinities with SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup> and to assess their potential to check for a possible drug candidate against the protease. Here, we have chosen a methodology to understand the rational elucidation of the binding mechanism of these four inhibitors to SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup> by merging molecular docking, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation, and MM-PBSA based free energy calculations. Our estimations disclose that JE-2147 is highly effective (-14.95 kcal/mol) compared to JE2-CH3 (--11.19 kcal/mol), KNI-227 (-13.93 kcal/mol) and KNI-272 (-12.84 kcal/mol) against SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup>. The increase in binding affinity for JE-2147 comparative to other three inhibitors arises due to an increased favorable van der Waals interactions and decreased solvation energies between the inhibitor and viral protease. Residue decomposition analysis and hydrogen bonding pattern confirms binding affinities of the inhibitors crucial for the interactions. Binding contributions of important residues (His41, Met49, Cys145, His164, Met165, Pro168, Gln189 etc.) from the active site or near the active site regions with more than 1.0 kcal/mol suggest a potent binding of the inhibitors. It is anticipated that the current study of binding interactions of these APNS containing inhibitors can pitch some valuable insights to design the significantly effective anti-SARS-CoV-2 M<sup>pro</sup> drugs. <br>
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