Abstract

Heritage structures bears a valuable testimony of ancient cultural heritage of any country. Among these structures statues, iconic emblems plays significant role. In the proposed to study the vulnerability of monolithic statues to earthquake ground motions. Initially we used the equations developed by Housner for studying the dynamics of rigid blocks. Parametric study was conducted to study the inuence of size of the block and input parameters such as amplitude and frequency on the behaviour of the block. The study was extended to generate safe surface for the block of given dimensions. This surface gives the information that with any combination of parameters such as amplitude of vibration, frequency of vibration and duration of vibration, if the point lies outside the surface then block overturns otherwise it is safe. To verify the above formulation we selected four statues, viz, Gomateswara statue, Christ the Redeemer, Statue of Liberty, Guinyin Statue for case study. Initially all the statues were idealized like rigid blocks and later safe surfaces were developed for each statue. Since each statue is having different dimensions, surfaces were are also of different nature. Later, eighteen earthquake records were selected and strong ground motion parameters were estimated. Finally every statue was tested for the safety during the earthquake events. It was found that as the height of the statue is increasing its vulnerability is increasing. However, for all the given ground motions, none of the statue overturned.

Abstract

Graphics processing units provide a large computational power at a very low price which position them as an ubiquitous accelerator. Efficient primitives that can expand the r ange of operations performed on the GPU are thus important. Discrete Range Searching(DRS) is one such primitive with direct applications to string processing, document and text retrieval systems, and least common ancestor queries. In this work, we present a GPU specific implementation of DRS with an optimal space-time trade off. Toward this end, we also present GPU amenable succinct representations and discuss limitations on the GPU. Our method uses 7.5 bits of additional space per element. The speedup achieved by our method is in the range of 20-25 for preprocessing, and 25-35 for batch querying over a sequential implementation. Compared to an 8-threaded implementation, our methods obtain a speedup of 6-8. We study applications of the DRS on the GPU. Also, we suggest that most graph algorithms which focus on using least common ancestor, can easily be enabled on the GPU based on range minima primitive. Beyond this, we show applications of DRS in string querying and tree queries, and suggest how DRS can be helpful in implementing tree based graph algorithms on the GPU.

Abstract

Graphics Processing Units (GPU) are application specific accelerators which provide high performance to cost ratio and are widely available and used, hence places them as a ubiquitous accelerator. A computing paradigm based on the same is the general purpose computing on the GPU (GPGPU) model. The GPU due to its graphics lineage is better suited for the data-parallel, data-regular algorithms. The hardware architecture of the GPU is not suitable for the data parallel but data irregular algorithms such as graph connected components and list ranking. In this paper, we present results that show how to use GPUs efficiently for graph algorithms which are known to have irregular data access patterns. We consider two fundamental graph problems: finding the connected components and finding a spanning tree. These two problems find applications in several graph theoretical problems. In this paper we arrive at efficient GPU implementations for the above two problems. The algorithms focus on minimising irregularity at both algorithmic and implementation level. Our implementation achieves a speedup of 11-16 times over a corresponding best sequential implementation.

Abstract

Symmetry breaking is a fundamental operation in distributed computing. It has applications to important problems such as graph vertex and edge coloring, maximal independent sets, and the like. Deterministic algorithms for symmetry breaking that run in a polylogarithmic number of rounds are not known. However, randomized algorithms that run in poly-logarithmic number of rounds are known starting from Luby's algorithm. Recently, orientation on edges was considered and it was shown that an O(Δ) coloring of the vertices of a given oriented graph can be arrived at using essentially O(log Δ + √log n) bits of communication. In this paper we further demonstrate the power of orientation on edges in symmetry-breaking. We present efficient algorithms to construct fractional independent sets in constant degree graphs using very low order communication between the vertices. For instance, we show that in bounded degree graphs and planar graphs, it is possible to construct a fractional independent set by exchanging O(1) bits. Further, we present algorithms to construct maximal independent sets in bounded degree graphs and oriented trees. Our algorithm for constructing an MIS of an oriented tree uses only O(log n) bits of communication.

Abstract

One important challenge in wireless ad hoc networks is to achieve collision free communication. Many MAC layer protocols have been proposed by considering various communication models of the ad hoc networks. One such protocol is TDMA, which provides for interference free communication while providing some bound on the packet delay. However, most proposed TDMA schemes can perform scheduling transmissions among nodes that are within transmission range. This is due to the simplistic modeling of the underlying network. Recently, more practical network models and overlay construction algorithms have been proposed that consider the interference among nodes as well. Existing TDMA protocols are unsuitable for such models as they will have to consider the interference range of the nodes as well. This requires that the TDMA protocol operate in a global perspective while working as a local-control algorithm. In this work, we describe a novel TDMA protocol that is suitable for such realistic and practical network models. We also extend the TDMA protocol to handle other difficulties such as membership changes within transmission range and interference range. Some networks also have to deal with sleeping nodes that wake up periodically. Our TDMA scheme employs a simple control phase and a data phase to handle such tasks. Some of the benefits of our solution are that no knowledge of the network parameters such as the size or an estimate of the size are used. The overhead of our scheme is also very low and (control) messages exchanged are of small size. Our solution will also be self-stabilizing which is an important property for distributed systems. To the best of our knowledge, our TDMA protocol is the first MAC layer protocol for such realistic network models. Additionally, we report some experimental results of our scheme.

Abstract

Graphics processing units provide a large compu-tational power at a very low price which position them as an ubiquitous accelerator. General purpose programming on the graphics processing units (GPGPU) is best suited for regular data parallel algorithms. They are not directly amenable for algorithms which have irregular data access patterns such as list ranking, and finding the connected components of a graph, and the like. In this work, we present a GPU-optimized implementation for finding the connected components of a given graph. Our implementation tries to minimize the impact of irregularity, both at the data level and functional level. Our implementation achieves a speed up of 9 to 12 times over the best sequential CPU implementation. For instance, our implementation finds connected components of a graph of 10 million nodes and 60 million edges in about 500 milliseconds on a GPU, given a random edge list. We also draw interesting observations on why PRAM algorithms, such as the Shiloach-Vishkin algorithm may not be a good fit for the GPU and how they should be modified.

Abstract

Distance bounding protocols are used by nodes in wireless networks to calculate upper bounds on their distances to other nodes. However, dishonest nodes in the network can turn the calculations both illegitimate and inaccurate when they participate in protocol executions. It is important to analyze protocols for the possibility of such violations. Past efforts to analyze distance bounding protocols have only been manual. However, automated approaches are important since they are quite likely to find flaws that manual approaches cannot, as witnessed in literature for analysis pertaining to key establishment protocols. In this paper, we use the constraint solver tool to automatically analyze distance bounding protocols. We first formulate a new trace property called Secure Distance Bounding (SDB) that protocol executions must satisfy. We then classify the scenarios in which these protocols can operate considering the (dis) honesty of nodes and location of the attacker in the network. Finally, we extend the constraint solver so that it can be used to test protocols for violations of SDB in these scenarios and illustrate our technique on some published protocols.

Abstract

Thermal, chemical and force induced unfolding are three primary experimental approaches that have been successfully used to study protein folding and associated pathways. Recent experimental studies have demonstrated the importance of the use of combination of these techniques to study various aspects of protein folding. We have addressed this issue using two different model systems. The effect of temperature on the mechanical unfolding of titin I27 immunoglobulin domain has been investigated using steered molecular dynamics (MD) simulations performed both at constant velocity and constant force. The maximum force of unfolding decreases with respect to the increase in the temperature, but the extension corresponding to this force remains similar. However, we observed that the maximum probable unfolding force steadily decreases with an increase in temperature (see below). Several computations done on each of the temperatures consistently reproduce these effects. The results will be discussed in light of the available experimental data, and molecular level details on the conformational changes that effect such temperature dependence will be presented. In another study, we have done rigorous free energy calculations on the unfolding of Trp-mini cage protein using umbrella sampling MD simulations. Calculations were done with respect to increase in the temperature, and with respect to the concentration of the urea solution. The change in the free energy profiles, and the effect of external perturbations, and the atomistic details of the unfolding will be discussed. Temperature

Abstract

The enlarging HIV/AIDS pandemic and the virus’ ability to develop resistance to anti-retroviral therapy requires the development of new drugs based on novel targets. Viruses interact extensively with the host at the cellular and molecular levels, which is necessary for the expression of viral proteins and replication of viral genomes. At another level, these interactions also help the virus evade host immune responses. Besides the prototypic retroviral proteins (Gag, Pol and Env), HIV-1 also expresses two regulatory proteins (Tat and Rev) and four accessory proteins (Nef, Vif, Vpr and Vpu). The accessory proteins are not required for viral replication in vitro, but are critical for pathogenesis and disease development in the host. We have focused our efforts on two of these – Nef and Vpu, with an aim to understand their interactions with host proteins and the functional consequences of these interactions for HIV-1 infection and pathogenesis. The Nef protein binds to multiple host proteins to optimize the host cell environment and to enable infected cells to evade the host immune response. A major property of Nef is to downregulate surface expression of the CD4, MHC I and MHC II proteins, by increasing the endocytosis of these molecules. We also discovered that Nef binds to the cytoplasmic domains of the B7 family of costimulatory proteins – CD80 and CD86; this results in their removal from the cell surface and sequestration to the Golgi compartment (1-3). We have now developed an in vitro screen based on purified recombinant Nef proteins and a 20-mer synthetic peptide from the cytoplasmic domain of CD80 and CD86. A chemical library comprising of 1064 compounds was screened and ~7% compounds were obtained as hits, which inhibited the Nef-CD80/CD86 interaction. These compounds are now being evaluated in a cellbased assay and an independent dose dependent response assay. The top hits will be used in a combinatorial chemical approach to synthesize a large array of new molecules for further screening using the in vitro and cell-based screens. The HIV-1 Vpu protein is required for the release of new virions from the surface of infected cells; for this the transmembrane domain of Vpu is critical. Using the Topology Data Bank of Transmembrane Proteins (TOPDB) database we extracted 13 alpha-helical sequences that closely resemble the Vpu-TM domain. We have taken the top two hits and have constructed recombinant Vpu proteins in which the native TM domain was replaced by the identified sequences. These recombinant proteins were successfully expressed in HEK293 cells, and are now being tested for their effects on virion release as well as their ability to inhibit Vpu activity. We describe here two paradigms to screen for anti-HIV activity based on proteinprotein interactions. Results will be presented for both of these.

Abstract

Hyperthermophilic proteins are naturally occurring proteins that are capable of retaining their structure, and performing their normal functions at temperatures above 80º C. Identification of the structural determinants that are crucial for such a remarkable stability is of fundamental importance, and has potential applications in biocatalysis. Molecular dynamics simulations on two such proteins (Sac7d and Sso7d) illustrated the importance of ion pair interactions for achieving thermostability.1 Previous studies have indicated that the formation of ion pair interactions does not contribute to stability due to high desolvation penalty, while others have argued in favor of stabilization. We have performed umbrella sampling simulations on model systems at different temperatures, which showed that with increasing temperature, the stability of the ion pair interactions become highly favorable. Thus, protein folding involving association of an ion pair may lead to stabilization at enhanced temperature close to the growth temperature of the hyperthemophiles. We have also investigated the effect of protein-DNA interactions, and their role in DNA stabilization at these conditions.2 Canonical B- to A-form transitions were observed in the protein-DNA complexes, and the protein-DNA interaction energies are used to explain the sequence nonspecific nature of the binding activity. The crucial nonbonded interactions that facilitate extraordinary thermal stability of proteins and DNAs in thermophiles will be discussed in this presentation.