skip to main content


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Berry, Colin"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. Abstract Pesticidal proteins derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, have provided the bases for a diverse array of pest management tools ranging from natural products used in organic agriculture, to modern biotechnological approaches. With advances in genome sequencing technologies and protein structure determination, an increasing number of pesticidal proteins from myriad bacterial species have been identified. The Bacterial Pesticidal Protein Resource Center (BPPRC) has been established to provide informational and analytical resources on the wide range of pesticidal proteins derived from bacteria that have potential utility for arthropod management. In association with a revised nomenclature for these proteins, BPPRC contains a database that allows users to browse and download sequences. Users can search the database for the best matches to sequences of interest and can incorporate their own sequences into basic informatic analyses. These analyses include the ability to draw and export guide trees from either whole protein sequences or, in the case of the three-domain Cry proteins, from individual domains. The associated website also provides a portal for users to submit protein sequences for naming. The BPPRC provides a single authoritative source of information to which all stakeholders can be referred including academics, government regulatory bodies and research and development personnel in the industrial sector. The database provides information on more than 1060 pesticidal proteins derived from 13 species of bacteria, including insecticidal activities for a subset of these proteins. Database URL: www.bpprc.org and www.bpprc-db.org/ 
    more » « less
  2. null (Ed.)
    The control of dipteran pests is highly relevant to humans due to their involvement in the transmission of serious diseases including malaria, dengue fever, Chikungunya, yellow fever, zika, and filariasis; as well as their agronomic impact on numerous crops. Many bacteria are able to produce proteins that are active against insect species. These bacteria include Bacillus thuringiensis, the most widely-studied pesticidal bacterium, which synthesizes proteins that accumulate in crystals with insecticidal properties and which has been widely used in the biological control of insects from different orders, including Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Diptera. In this review, we summarize all the bacterial proteins, from B. thuringiensis and other entomopathogenic bacteria, which have described insecticidal activity against dipteran pests, including species of medical and agronomic importance. 
    more » « less
  3. null (Ed.)
  4. Abstract

    Modern approaches to modelling cardiac perfusion now commonly describe the myocardium using the framework of poroelasticity. Cardiac tissue can be described as a saturated porous medium composed of the pore fluid (blood) and the skeleton (myocytes and collagen scaffold). In previous studies fluid–structure interaction in the heart has been treated in a variety of ways, but in most cases, the myocardium is assumed to be a hyperelastic fibre‐reinforced material. Conversely, models that treat the myocardium as a poroelastic material typically neglect interactions between the myocardium and intracardiac blood flow. This work presents a poroelastic immersed finite element framework to model left ventricular dynamics in a three‐phase poroelastic system composed of the pore blood fluid, the skeleton, and the chamber fluid. We benchmark our approach by examining a pair of prototypical poroelastic formations using a simple cubic geometry considered in the prior work by Chapelle et al (2010). This cubic model also enables us to compare the differences between system behaviour when using isotropic and anisotropic material models for the skeleton. With this framework, we also simulate the poroelastic dynamics of a three‐dimensional left ventricle, in which the myocardium is described by the Holzapfel–Ogden law. Results obtained using the poroelastic model are compared to those of a corresponding hyperelastic model studied previously. We find that the poroelastic LV behaves differently from the hyperelastic LV model. For example, accounting for perfusion results in a smaller diastolic chamber volume, agreeing well with the well‐known wall‐stiffening effect under perfusion reported previously. Meanwhile differences in systolic function, such as fibre strain in the basal and middle ventricle, are found to be comparatively minor.

     
    more » « less