Development of a rapid method for extraction of uranium from uranium bearing materials using ionic liquid as extracting agent from basic media.

The paper presents the development of a rapid method for the direct determination of uranium using liquid scintillation analysis in uranium bearing materials with different uranium concentrations and with different impurity levels (U-ore, Uranium ore concentrate (UOC) and U-metal). Uranium extraction was carried out using hydrophobic ionic liquid Aliquat-336 thiosalicylate, ([A-336][TS]) from diluted samples in basic medium followed by liquid scintillation counting (LSC). Extraction efficiencies for uranium from aqueous medium was studied with very small volumes of ionic liquid under varying volume, pH and uranium concentration of the aqueous medium.

Ingestion of polonium ((210)Po) via dietary sources in high background radiation areas of south India.

Purpose: To study the distribution of Polonium ((210)Po) activity in dietary sources in the high background radiation zone of Puttetti in southern Tamil Nadu.

Materials And Methods: (210)Po was analyzed in the food materials consumed by the male and female individual representatives living in the high background areas by 24-h Duplicate Diet Study (DDS) and Market Basket Study (MBS). The MBS was performed by collecting the food samples such as, cereals, fruits, leafy vegetables, roots and tubers, other vegetables, fish, meat and milk grown in the high background radiation zone of southern Tamil Nadu as a part of baseline study in this region.

Optimal contact definition for reconstruction of contact maps.

Background: Contact maps have been extensively used as a simplified representation of protein structures. They capture most important features of a protein's fold, being preferred by a number of researchers for the description and study of protein structures. Inspired by the model's simplicity many groups have dedicated a considerable amount of effort towards contact prediction as a proxy for protein structure prediction.

Defining an essence of structure determining residue contacts in proteins.

The network of native non-covalent residue contacts determines the three-dimensional structure of a protein. However, not all contacts are of equal structural significance, and little knowledge exists about a minimal, yet sufficient, subset required to define the global features of a protein. Characterisation of this "structural essence" has remained elusive so far: no algorithmic strategy has been devised to-date that could outperform a random selection in terms of 3D reconstruction accuracy (measured as the Ca RMSD).

Designing evolvable libraries using multi-body potentials.

Novel high-throughput technologies for directed evolution enable experimental coverage of an impressive number of sequences. Nevertheless, the success of such experiments hinges on the initial sequence libraries. Here we consider the computational design of smart focused libraries and review insights from experimental strategies and theoretic advances in modelling their energy landscapes.