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Étude de coupleurs de puissance hyperfréquence pour accélérateurs supraconducteurs / Study of hyperfrequency power couplers for superconducting acceleratorsGeslin, Florian 30 May 2017 (has links)
Les accélérateurs de particules hyperfréquences sont au cœur de projets d’envergure aux visées scientifiques (comme l’European Spallation Source) ou énergétiques (comme le réacteur hybride MYRRHA). Pour ces applications, les cavités résonnantes composant ces accélérateurs doivent atteindre des champs accélérateurs très importants. Elles ont alors besoin d’une grande puissance RF. Le coupleur de puissance doit permettre d’injecter cette puissance dans la cavité tout en garantissant une grande fiabilité. L’étude d’un coupleur à 704,4MHz a été réalisée. Les comportements radiofréquences, thermiques et mécaniques ont été modélisés pour une puissance de 50kW en réflexion toutes phases. Les performances simulées permettent d’envisager son utilisation comme coupleur pour les cavités elliptiques de l’ADS MYRRHA. L’industrialisation d’un tel coupleur a également été étudiée. Cette étude a donné lieu à la fabrication de deux prototypes. L’étude d’un coupleur à 352MHz a également été réalisée afin de répondre aux exigences de la cavité SPOKE ESS. Un nouveau processus d’assemblage, impliquant une méthode de précontrainte de la céramique, sera exposé. Ce processus diminue le nombre d’étapes de fabrication et renforce mécaniquement la fenêtre du coupleur. Cette thèse a également permis la validation de l’extension aux ondes progressives d’un logiciel de simulation 3D du multipactor : Musicc3D. Les simulations et les mesures ont été favorablement comparées pour les coupleurs SPIRAL2 et XFEL. / Nowadays, the number of projects aiming at building high intensity proton linear accelerators is increasing thanks to a large field of applications: particles & nuclear physics, spallation sources and some applications in material sciences, biology and nuclear waste reprocessing. All these linear accelerator projects are based on superconducting technology that allows high accelerating gradients in continuous mode. The RF power coupler is one of the main components of the accelerator. It is designed to transmit the radio frequency power from the waveguide at room temperature to the cavity at 4 Kelvin with high reliability. In this thesis, a study of a 704.4MHz power coupler was carried out. The RF, thermal and mechanical behaviors of the coupler were simulated for 50kW full reflection continuous wave. This power coupler could be used as RF injector for MYRRHA elliptical cavities. The fabrication process has been established and two prototypes were build. A study of a 352MHz power coupler was also carried out to fulfill ESS Spoke cavities needs. The obtained design satisfies the specifications and lowers the maximum electric field in the power coupler window compared to existing design. Then a new fabrication process was developed using prestressed ceramic. Brazing operations have halved with this new process. It was shown that the prestressed could enhance the strengths ceramic. The last study in this thesis consisted in validating an extension to progressive waves of 3D simulation software of Multipacting, Musicc3D. The results obtained were favorably compared to the measurements for SPIRAL2 and XFEL power couplers.
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Estudos taxonômicos e anatômicos no gênero Poiretia Vent. (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae, Dalbergieae)Mendes, Katiane Reis January 2020 (has links)
Orientador: Ana Paula Fortuna Perez / Resumo: Poiretia Vent. (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae, Dalbergieae, Clado Adesmia) é caracterizado pela presença de glândulas punctiformes em todo corpo vegetal, hábito arbustivo, subarbustivo ou trepador, estames monadelfos, anteras dimórficas e frutos do tipo lomento. A última revisão taxonômica do gênero data da década de 80 e muitas de suas espécies ainda apresentam uma delimitação difícil com sobreposição de caracteres, dificultando uma precisa identificação dos táxons. Como mencionado, uma das características morfológicas mais marcantes do gênero é a presença de glândulas orbiculares com forte odor por toda a planta e apesar disto, estudos investigativos morfológicos e anatômicos, especialmente destas glândulas, objetivando a busca de potenciais caracteres com valor taxonômico são inexistentes no gênero. Por isso, um estudo taxonômico e anatômico, com ênfase nas estruturas secretoras de folíolos, visando a precisa delimitação dos táxons deste gênero, a partir de técnicas usuais em taxonomia e anatomia, foi realizado. Como resultado, são apresentados dois capítulos nesta tese. O primeiro capítulo apresenta a revisão taxonômica, no qual foram reconhecidas 12 espécies exclusivamente Americanas e predominantemente Tropicais. Todas ocorrem no Brasil, das quais nove são endêmicas. Foram realizadas duas lectotipificações e duas neotipificações. Além disso, é fornecida uma chave para identificação, descrições, comentários quanto às suas distribuições geográficas, incluindo mapas, status ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Poiretia Vent. (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae, Dalbergieae, Adesmia clade) is characterized by presence of punctiform glands throughout the entire plant body, shrubby, subshrubby and climbing plants, monadelfhous stamens, dimorphic anthers and fruit of the lomento type. The last taxonomic revision of the genus dates back to the 1980s and many of its species still have a difficult delimitation with overlapping characters, making it difficult to accurately identify taxa. As mentioned, one of the most striking morphological characteristics of the genus is the presence of orbicular glands with a strong odor throughout the plant and despite this, morphological and anatomical investigative studies, especially of these glands, aiming at the search for potential characters with taxonomic value are nonexistent in the genus. For this reason, a taxonomic and anatomical study, with emphasis on the secretory structures of leaflets, aiming at the precise delimitation of the taxa of this genus, using techniques usual in taxonomy and anatomy, was carried out. As a result, two chapters are presented in this thesis. The first chapter presents the taxonomic revision, which recognized 12 exclusively American and predominantly Tropical species. All of them occur in Brazil, of which nine are endemic to the country. Two lectotypifications and two neotypifications were performed. In addition, it is provided an identification key, descriptions, comments about it’s geographical distributions, including ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor
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The Effect of Defects on Functional Properties of Niobium for Superconducting Radio-Frequency Cavities: A First-Principles StudyJanuary 2019 (has links)
abstract: Niobium is the primary material for fabricating superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) cavities. However, presence of impurities and defects degrade the superconducting behavior of niobium twofold, first by nucleating non-superconducting phases and second by increasing the residual surface resistance of cavities. In particular, niobium absorbs hydrogen during cavity fabrication and promotes precipitation of non-superconducting niobium hydride phases. Additionally, magnetic flux trapping at defects leads to a normal conducting (non-superconducting) core which increases surface resistance and negatively affects niobium performance for superconducting applications. However, undelaying mechanisms related to hydride formation and dissolution along with defect interaction with magnetic fields is still unclear. Therefore, this dissertation aims to investigate the role of defects and impurities on functional properties of niobium for SRF cavities using first-principles methods.
Here, density functional theory calculations revealed that nitrogen addition suppressed hydrogen absorption interstitially and at grain boundaries, and it also decreased the energetic stability of niobium hydride precipitates present in niobium. Further, hydrogen segregation at the screw dislocation was observed to transform the dislocation core structure and increase the barrier for screw dislocation motion. Valence charge transfer calculations displayed a strong tendency of nitrogen to accumulate charge around itself, thereby decreasing the strength of covalent bonds between niobium and hydrogen leading to a very unstable state for interstitial hydrogen and hydrides. Thus, presence of nitrogen during processing plays a critical role in controlling hydride precipitation and subsequent SRF properties.
First-principles methods were further implemented to gain a theoretical perspective about the experimental observations that lattice defects are effective at trapping magnetic flux in high-purity superconducting niobium. Full-potential linear augmented plane-wave methods were used to analyze the effects of magnetic field on the superconducting state surrounding these defects. A considerable amount of trapped flux was obtained at the dislocation core and grain boundaries which can be attributed to significantly different electronic structure of defects as compared to bulk niobium. Electron redistribution at defects enhances non-paramagnetic effects that perturb superconductivity, resulting in local conditions suitable for flux trapping. Therefore, controlling accumulation or depletion of charge at the defects could mitigate these tendencies and aid in improving superconductive behavior of niobium. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Materials Science and Engineering 2019
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Resonance-Assisted Tunneling in Deformed Optical MicrodisksFritzsch, Felix 16 June 2020 (has links)
The characteristics of optical modes in whispering-gallery cavities crucially depend on the underlying classical ray dynamics as they are subject to dynamical tunneling. In particular, classical nonlinear resonances lead to the hybridization of whispering-gallery modes spoiling their quality factors and decreasing their lifetimes via resonance-assisted tunneling. In this thesis we present an intuitive semiclassical description of resonance-assisted tunneling in deformed optical microdisks whose classical ray dynamics exhibits a mixed phase space. We find good agreement between semiclassically obtained decay rates of whispering-gallery modes and numerical solutions of the mode equation computed with the boundary element method. Moreover, we extend a perturbative description for weakly deformed microdisks with near-integrable ray dynamics to larger deformations and mixed phase spaces. This yields an accurate description of decay rates and of the near-field intensity distributions. Our approach is based on the approximation of the actual ray dynamics by an integrable Hamiltonian constructed in adiabatic action-angle coordinates. This allows for semiclassical quantization in order to determine the wave numbers of whispering-gallery modes as well as for a ray based description of their decay. The resonance-assisted coupling between individual modes is determined either perturbatively or semiclassically in terms of complex paths. / Flüstergaleriemoden in optischen Resonatoren zeigen dynamische Tunnelprozesse, welche maßgeblich von der zugrundeliegenden klassischen Strahlendynamik abhängen.
Die Lebenszeit und die daraus resultierenden Gütefaktoren dieser Moden werden durch klassische nichtlineare Resonanzen und den Effekt des resonanzunterstützten Tunnelns verringert. Hierfür entwickeln wir eine intuitive semiklassische Beschreibung für den Fall deformierter optischer Kreiskavitäten, deren klassische Strahlendynamik einen gemischten Phasenraum aufweist. Die semiklassisch berechneten Zerfallsraten stimmen gut mit den numerischen Lösungen der Maxwell-Gleichungen, welche unter Nutzung der Randelementmethode ermittelt werden, überein. Darüber hinaus erweitern wir den Anwendungsbereich einer störungstheoretische Beschreibung von schwach deformierten Kavitäten hin zu größeren Deformationen. Dies ermöglicht nicht nur eine akkurate Vorhersage von Zerfallsraten, sondern auch die Beschreibung der Intensitätsverteilung von optischen Moden im Nahfeld. Unsere Methode basiert auf der Konstruktion von adiabatischen Winkel-Wirkungskoordinaten und der Approximation der Strahlendynamik durch ein integrables Hamiltonsches System. Mittels semiklassischer Quantisierung bestimmen wir damit die Wellenzahlen von Flüstergaleriemoden, deren Lebenszeit ferner durch ein strahlenbasiertes Modell beschrieben wird. Wir bestimmen die resonanzunterstützte Kopplung zwischen einzelnen solcher Moden sowohl mittels Störungstheorie als auch mittels klassischer komplexer Trajektorien.
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Subwavelength engineering of silicon waveguides and cavities for nonlinear photonics / Ingénierie des sous-longueurs d'onde de guides d'ondes et de cavités en silicium pour la photonique non linéaireZhang, Jianhao 19 October 2019 (has links)
Les effets Pockels de deuxième ordre et les effets Kerr de troisième ordre font partie des effets importants exploités pour la modulation de la lumière et la génération de sources dans les plateformes technologiques de la photonique intégrée. Pour tirer parti de ces non-linéarités en photonique au silicium, l'utilisation de structures optiques sub-longueurs d'onde a été explorée. Dans ce contexte, ce travail de thèse s'est concentré sur deux aspects principaux, notamment : 1) L’exploration d'un nouveau schéma de cavité photonique pour tirer profit de l'effet Pockels électro-optique dans les structures de silicium contraint pour la réalisation de modulateurs ultra-rapides à faible consommation ; 2) L’exploration d'une nouvelle famille de guides d'ondes conduisant à une satisfaction automatique des lois de conservation énergie/vecteur d’onde pour la génération de peignes de fréquence Kerr au sein des plateformes photoniques intégrées (notamment silicium).Pour améliorer les performances des modulateurs optiques Si résonants intégrés, nous avons mis au point un nouveau résonateur à cavité de Fano qui, grâce à une ingénierie sub-longueur d'onde (λ=1.55µm), a permis d'obtenir simultanément un taux d'extinction élevé (23 dB) avec un faible facteur Q de seulement 5600, et caractérisé par une très faible consommation électrique inférieure à 5 fj/bit quand on utilise l'effet de modulation par dispersion plasma des porteurs libres. Nous avons étendu la méthode à la conception d'une structure de modulation Fano en silicium contraint dont les performances souffrent traditionnellement de la faible amplitude de l'effet Pockels induit par la déformation exploitée et des pertes micro-ondes considérables dues à des composants de grande surface. Au moyen du résonateur Fano ultra-compact à structuration sub-longueur d'onde, une amélioration d'environ 200 fois/60 fois (facteurs Q de 32000/5600) du rapport d'extinction de modulation avec la même tension de commande a été théoriquement prévue. Pour améliorer l'exploitation des non-linéarités Kerr des structures silicium, nous avons proposé une nouvelle famille de guides d'ondes optiques pour satisfaire automatiquement les lois de conservation de l'énergie et du vecteur d’onde des procédés de mélange à quatre ondes (FWM). La conception de la section des guides d'ondes est basée sur un principe hérité des puits quantiques et des concepts hérités des structures sub-longueur d'onde pour la réalisation des profils d'indice particuliers. En nous basant sur ces guides d'ondes spécifiques en terme de dispersion chromatique, nous les avons appliqués à la modélisation des micro peignes de fréquence (en utilisant des résonateurs à micro anneaux) en résolvant l’équation non linéaire pertinente (Lugiato-Lefever) pour analyser de façon dynamique le processus de génération du spectre des peignes à solitons dans diverses configurations. En complément de ce modèle, les guides d'ondes sub-longueur d'onde à accord de phase automatique ont été considérés pour étendre la largeur de bande des peignes de fréquence à solitons, démontrant une largeur de bande élargie et une meilleure flexibilité dans la réalisation des peignes de fréquence relativement aux démonstrations des travaux précédents. Dans l'ensemble, l'une des caractéristiques dominantes de notre étude a été de contribuer à montrer que les structures photoniques sub-longueur d'onde pouvaient apporter des solutions concrètes aux problèmes utiles à la réalisation de fonctions non linéaires sur puce. Les nano-structures sub-longueur d’onde permettent non seulement une amélioration des circuits photoniques passifs, sujet intensivement développé depuis dix ans, mais ont également un fort potentiel pour la réalisation des fonctions actives. Cette boîte à outils de structures sub-longueur d'onde est décisive dans la pratique pour la réalisation concrète de fonctions optiques nonlinéaires intégrées, en particulier en photonique silicium. / Second-order Pockels and the third-order Kerr effects are among the important effects exploited for light modulation and light generation in integrated photonic platforms. To take advantage of these nonlinearities in silicon photonics, especially due to the lack of second order effect in bulk Si, the use of subwavelength optical structures is explored. In this context, this thesis work has focused on two main aspects, including: 1) Exploration of a novel photonic cavity scheme to take benefit of the electro-optical Pockels effect in strained Si structures for the realization of ultra-fast lower-consumption compact silicon modulators; 2) Exploration of a new family of waveguides leading to an automatic satisfaction of energy/momentum conservation for the purpose of Kerr frequency comb generation in integrated photonic platforms. For improving the performances of integrated silicon resonant optical modulators, we have developed a novel Fano cavity resonator enabled by sub-wavelength engineering, leading simultaneously to high extinction ratio (23 dB) with a small Q factor of only 5600, and characterized by an ultra-low power consumption of less than 5 fj/bit when relying on the free carrier plasma dispersion effect. We have further extended the method to design a strained silicon Fano modulation structure which performances traditionally suffer from the weak amplitude of the exploited strain-induced Pockels effect and from considerable microwave losses due to large footprint components. By means of the proposed ultra-compact subwavelength structured Fano resonator, around 200-fold/60-fold (Q factor of 32000/5600) improvement on the modulation extinction ratio with the same driven voltage was theoretically predicted. For improving the exploitation of silicon Kerr nonlinearities, we have proposed a novel family of graded index optical waveguides intending to automatically fulfill the energy and momentum conservation laws of four-wave mixing processes. The design of the waveguide section is based on a principle inherited from quantum wells of wave mechanics and concepts inherited from subwavelength structures for the practical realization of the rather particular index profiles. Standing on these specific waveguides in term of light dispersion, we have applied them to the modeling of frequency micro-combs (e.g. frequency combs generated using micro-ring resonators and a CW light source) by solving the nonlinear relevant equations (Lugiato-Lefever) to dynamically analyze the soliton comb spectrum generation process in various configurations. On top of this model, the specifically automatically phase-matched sub-wavelength-enabled graded-index waveguides were considered to trim and extend the bandwidth of silicon soliton frequency combs, demonstrating enlarged bandwidth and improved spectrum design flexibility with respect to previous works. Overall, one of the dominant features of our study was to contribute to showing that sub-long wavelength photonic structures could provide concrete solutions to problems useful for the realization of on-chip non-linear functions. Subwavelength/nano structures not only benefit to passive photonic circuits which have been intensively developed in the past ten years, but also show strong potentials in the realization of active functions. This subwavelength toolbox is decisive in practice for the concrete achievement of the objectives pursued.
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Design and performance of resonant cavities for communication systems. The theory and performance of resonant cavities for application-, in mobile radio and base-stations in the VHF and UHF bands are investigated.Adeniran, S. Adekunle January 1984 (has links)
It is often necessary to operate a number of radio communication
channels from a single control room without time-sharing between the
various channels. Here it is necessary to operate a number of transmitters
and receivers simultaneously from the same base station or
mobile unit without interference. The best method to achieve this
has been found in the use of filters inserted in the transmission line
between the antenna and the transmitter(s) on one hand and the receiver(s)
on the other hand.
The basic unit employed in the design of microwave filters is
usually a cavity resonator of which the most important factors are the
Q, insertion loss and resonant frequency. However, a problem which
frequently arises with cavity resonators is the accurate determination
of these resonant characteristics complicated by the presence of coupling
port, materials and various design and geometrical deviations. Such
cavities have been investigated in several cases and the results have
been generalised, but this investigation has been conducted to examine
thoroughly most of the problems being met in present practice. Design
and development of some common resonant structures are considered.
Emphasis is placed on solutions found to special problems especially
regarding complicated boundary conditions. Furthermore, investigation
includes methods for optimising resonant parameters such as insertion
loss and Q, trading of insertion loss with coupled cavity selectivity,
frequency tuning and compensation for frequency variations due to wide
ranges of operating temperatures. By comparing Q values obtained in
practice with theoretical values, it has been possible to establish an
appropriate Q loss budget to as to facilitate accurate prediction of coupled
cavity unloaded Q. A satisfactory agreement between theory and practice
has been obtained.
By application of the results of theoretical analysis and experiment,
it is shown that microwave filters can be designed to have a desired
insertion loss and off-band attenuation slope. Steps leading to
designs of any number of cascaded cavities in a two-port network and,
subsequently, multi-port networks are discussed in detail.
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Experimental and Computational Evaluation of Microscopic Tissue Damage and Remodeling Cavities in Trabecular BoneKUMMARI, SEETHA RAMUDU 14 April 2011 (has links)
No description available.
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Modes, Excitation and Applications of Plasmonic Nano-apertures and Nano-cavitiesWang, Feng 25 September 2012 (has links)
No description available.
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Sound Generation By Flow Over Multiple Shallow CavitiesShaaban, Ayman January 2018 (has links)
Corrugated pipes are widely used in offshore gas and oil fields for their flexibility while offering local rigidity. However, self-sustained pressure pulsations associated with the flow in corrugated pipes results in a noisy environment, high running costs and eventually structure fatigue failure upon long exposure. Recent literature has addressed either the flow over a single cavity or the global oscillations. The current research aims at understanding the flow over multiple cavities as a first step to correlate the rich single cavity literature and the actual corrugated pipe problem with the ultimate goal of predicting oscillations amplitude in corrugate pipes.
The standing wave method (SWM), which is an efficient experimental tool, has been successfully adapted in the first phase of the project to measure the source of multiple cavity configurations. One, two and three-cavity configurations have been investigated by means of the SWM. The source non-linearly becomes more pronounced as the number of cavities increases. The cavity length (L) is still found to be the appropriate length scale to define the oscillation dimensionless frequency (the Strouhal number). The measured source data have been successfully employed in a semi-empirical model to predict the amplitude of the self-excited oscillations. Accurate model performance is achieved for the single, double and triple cavity configurations. Including the absorption losses at the cavity corners has been found to be crucial for the model prediction accuracy.
The separation distance (Lp) effect on the generated source is investigated for two and three-cavity configurations using the SWM over a practical range of spacing ratios. At extremum spacing ratios of (Lp/L) 0.5 and 1.375, constructive hydrodynamic interference associated with strong sources has been observed. At high excitation levels the source consistently becomes weaker upon increasing the spacing ratio. The reported trends are consistent for both the double and triple cavity configurations. However, the destructive interference spacing ratio is found to depend on the number of cavities indicating a relatively more complicated interaction mechanism. The different interaction patterns have been analytically interpreted based on the synchronization of the hydrodynamic cycle of the cavity shear layer and the disturbance convection along the pipe spacing between the cavities. Moreover, the three-cavity constructive interference cases have been visualized using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The source evaluated based on the PIV data and applying Howe’s analogy revealed each cavity share of the global source, which fairly agrees with the SWM measured source.
The source contribution due to gradually increasing the number of cavities is investigated using the SWM up to a six-cavity configuration. The source contribution reaches asymptotically a consistent value starting from the fourth cavity. This persistent contribution defines a building unit cavity source which is representative of a general cavity in a long corrugated pipe. The building unit source fairly agrees with the ninth-cavity source in a twelve-cavity configuration extracted by means of the PIV technique. Finally, a predication model, based on the building unit source, successfully predicts the oscillations amplitude of a twelve-cavity configuration, which serves as a model for a corrugated pipe section. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Computational Analyses of Protein Structure and Immunogen DesignPatel, Siddharth January 2015 (has links) (PDF)
The sequence of a polypeptide chain determines its structure which in turns determines its function. A protein is stabilized by multiple forces; hydrophobic interaction, electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bond formation between residues. While the above forces are non-covalent in nature the protein structure is also stabilized by disulfide bonds. Structural features such as naturally occurring cavities in proteins also affect its stability. Studying factors which affect a protein’s structural stability helps us understand complex sequence-structure-function relationships, the knowledge of which can be applied in areas such as protein engineering.
The work presented in this thesis deals with various and diverse aspects of protein structure. Chapter 1 gives an overall introduction on the topics studied in this thesis. Chapter 2 focuses on a unique, non-regular, structural feature of proteins, viz. protein cavities. Cavities directly affect the packing density of the protein. It has been shown that large to small cavity creating mutations destabilize the protein with the extent of destabilization being proportional to the size of cavity created. On the other hand, small to large cavity filling mutations have been shown to increase protein stability. Tools which analyze protein cavities are thus important in studies pertaining to protein structure and stability. The chapter presents two methods which detect and calculate cavity volumes in proteins. The first method, DEPTH 2.0, focuses on accurate detection and volume calculation of cavities. The second method, ROBUSTCAVITIES, focuses on detection of biologically relevant cavities in proteins.
We then study another aspect of protein structure – the disulfide bond. Disulfide bonds confer stability to the protein by decreasing the entropy of the unfolded state. Previous studies which attempted to engineer disulfides in proteins have shown mixed results. Previously, disulfide bonds in individual secondary structures were characterized. Analysis of disulfides in α-helices and antiparallel β-strands yielded important common features of such bonds. In Chapter 3 we present a review of these studies. We then use MODIP; a tool that identifies amino acid pairs which when mutated to cysteines will most likely form a disulfide bond, to analyze disulfide bonds in parallel β-strands.
A direct way to analyze sequence-structure relationships is via mutating individual residues, evaluating the effect on stability and activity of the protein and inferring its effect on protein structure. Saturation mutagenesis libraries, where all possible mutations are made at every position in the protein contain a huge amount of information pertaining to the effect of mutations on structure. Making such libraries and screening them has been an extremely resource intensive process. We combine a fast inverse PCR based method to rapidly generate saturation mutagenesis libraries with the power of deep sequencing to derive phenotypes of individual mutants without any large scale screening. In Chapter 4 we present an Illumina data analysis pipeline which analyzes sequencing data from a saturation mutagenesis library, and derives individual mutant phenotypes with high confidence.
In Chapter 5 we apply the insights derived from structure-function studies and apply it to the problem of protein engineering, specifically immunogen design. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus adopts various strategies to evade the host immune system. Being able to display the conserved epitopes which elicit a broadly neutralizing response is the first step towards an effective vaccine. Grafting such an epitope onto a foreign scaffold will mitigate some of the key HIV defenses. We develop a computational protocol which grafts the broadly neutralizing antibody b12 epitope on scaffolds selected from the PDB. This chapter also describes the only experimental work presented in this thesis viz. cloning, expressing and screening the epitope-scaffolds using Yeast Surface Display. Our epitope-scaffolds show modest but specific binding. In a bid to improve binding, we make random mutant libraries of the epitope-scaffolds and screen them for better binders using FACS. This work is on-going and we aim to purify our epitope-scaffolds, characterize them biophysically and eventually test their efficacy as immunogens.
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