The molecular interactions between staphylococcal phages and host cell surfaces are poorly understood. Employing Staphylococcus aureus teichoic acid mutants, we demonstrate that wall teichoic acid (WTA), but not lipoteichoic acid, serves as a receptor for staphylococcal siphovirus and myovirus, while only the siphovirus requires glycosylated WTA.

In the present study, the economic value of sleep disturbance due to traffic noise was examined by means of the contingent valuation method (CVM). In 2009, we conducted a questionnaire study in an area in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan; residents of this area are expected to be affected by the expansion of the Tokyo International Airport, which is scheduled for 2010. Residents were asked about their wil...

The winner-take-all (WTA) computation in networks of recurrently connected neurons is an important decision element of many models of cortical processing. However, analytical studies of the WTA performance in recurrent networks have generally addressed rate-based models. Very few have addressed networks of spiking neurons, which are relevant for understanding the biological networks themselves ...

Simulations of weighted tree automata (wta) are considered. It is shown how such simulations can be decomposed into simpler functional and dual functional simulations also called forward and backward simulations. In addition, it is shown in several cases (fields, commutative rings, Noetherian semirings, semiring of natural numbers) that all equivalent wta M and N can be joined by a finite chain...

This paper contributes to the widespread discussion of the sources of the divergence between WTA and WTP values. The theoretical and empirical investigations show that value and outcome uncertainty offer an explanation for this disparity. Given a set of hypotheses generated by the theory, the paper investigates the disparity using an induced-value experimental laboratory setting. The incentive-...

This paper contributes to the widespread discussion of the sources of the divergence between WTA and WTP values. The paper reports on theoretical and empirical investigations which show that value and outcome uncertainty offer an explanation for this disparity. Given a set of hypotheses generated by the theory, the paper investigates the disparity using an inducedvalue experimental laboratory s...

What is the subjective value assigned to information? Is the subjective value of information similar to the realistic or normative value, or are there deviations introduced by human processing, the framing of the information source, or the external qualities of packaging and ownership of the information? Do people assess information as having the same value when offered the chance to sell it (W...