The organization of conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) interacting with biomolecules sets conditions for the biodetection of biological processes and identity, through the use of optical emission from the CPE. Herein, a well-defined CPE and its binding to DNA is studied. By using dynamic light scattering and circular dichroism spectroscopy, it is shown that the CPE forms a multimolecule ensemble i

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a debilitating motor function disorder due primarily to a loss of midbrain dopaminergic neurons and a subsequent reduction in dopaminergic innervation of the striatum. Several attempts have been made to generate dopaminergic neurons from progenitor cell populations in vitro for potential use in cell replacement therapy for PD. However, expanding cells from fetal brain w

This paper explores the possibility of providing robots with an 'inner world' based on internal simulation of perception rather than an explicit representational world model. First a series of initial experiments is discussed, in which recurrent neural networks were evolved to control collision-free corridor following behavior in a simulated Khepera robot and predict the next time step's sensory i

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) share several epidemiological and biochemical features. The present study aimed to assess the possible influence of the AMD-associated complement factor H (CFH) Y402H (1277T > C) polymorphism on the risk of AD. Caucasian subjects (n=800) meeting the criteria for probable (n = 717) or definite (n = 83) AD and Caucasian non-demented

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), including COBRA-FISH, was used to characterize 11 salivary gland tumors that had been investigated by banding analysis. Five cases were pleomorphic adenoma (PA), three were adenoid cystic carcinoma, and one case each was mucoepidermoid carcinoma, carcinoma ex-pleomorphic adenoma (CaPA), and adenocarcinoma. All 11 cases were selected on the basis that they

A well-established effect of animated agents in educational and other contexts is their potential to motivate and engage. "Increased motivation in users" is also one of the more frequent answers given to the question, "What is gained by adding an animated pedagogical agent to an intelligent tutoring system?" To further develop and exploit this potential, there are, however, several issues that nee

A piezoelectric sprayer was recently developed for precision release of odor stimuli in olfactory research. The device replaces conventional dispensers used to release semiochemicals in studies of moth flight toward odor sources. However, the device generates high-frequency sounds in the range that some moths can hear. Ultrasound from the standard set-up sprayer had a considerable impact on flight

In foster care research the focus is generally placed on the children, not on the parents who perform the foster care. In this article the focus is on foster parents of 10-11 year-old children. They were interviewed about their motives for becoming foster parents, which were linked to their family and work circumstances. Among the 21 foster families in the study, four different but equally frequen

We present a general framework for computing various optimal embeddings of undirected and directed connected graphs in two and multi-dimensional integer lattices in time sub-exponential either in the minimum number n of lattice points used by such optimal embeddings or in the budget upper bound b on the number of lattice points that may be used in an embedding. The sub-exponential upper bounds in

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a disease of unknown etiology. Multiple genetic factors are believed to be involved in its pathogenesis. In addition, and due to genetic heterogeneity, these factors and/or their combinations may be different in different ethnic groups, while some might be shared between populations. We have performed genome scans in multicase families from three different populatio

During evolution of land plants, a specific motif occurred in the N-terminal domain of the chloroplast-localized small heat shock protein, Hsp21: a sequence with highly conserved methionines, which is predicted to form an amphipathic -helix with the methionines situated along one side. The functional role of these conserved methionines is not understood. We have found previously that treatment, wh

The article’s findings show how in the Chinese reform-era of the 1980s and 90s, language control and strategic management of political discourse exercised by cadres in China's communist party propaganda apparatus helped forestall a development along Soviet lines ending with the sudden collapse of the socialist state. The findings indicate that the post-reform future—which in parts of China has, in