I describe a modification to Shanks’ baby-step giant-step algorithm for computing the order n of an element g of a group G, assuming n is finite. My method has the advantage of being able to compute n quickly, which Shanks’ method fails to do when the order of G is infinite, unknown, or much larger than n. I describe the algorithm in detail. I also present the results of implementations of my a...

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been extensively used for the mutation of DNA sequences (1–5,7,8). Many variations of the protocol have been implemented, but most involve a first step in which PCR is used to modify the molecule, and a second step in which the new sequence is subcloned into a vector. A new method, named inverse PCR mutagenesis (IPCRM) has been shown to be an efficient an...

We developed a one-step real-time duplex reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) method using the LightCycler platform. This method allows simultaneous reverse transcription and real-time PCR amplification of two mRNAs of specific genes of interest (analyte genes) and mRNA of constantly transcribed genes (housekeeping genes) in a single-tube reaction. Specimen total nucleic acids were used because e...

Baby boomers will begin entering old age in 2011. They will be the largest and most diverse cohort ever to experience this life-course transition. The sheer number of baby boomers has challenged institutions time after time (Dychtwald, 1990). Despite extensive speculation regarding the political, economic, and social impact that the aging of baby boomers will have on American society, no one ha...

We argue that the giant graviton configurations known from the literature have a complementary, microscopical description in terms of multiple gravitational waves undergoing a dielectric (or magnetic moment) effect. We present a non-Abelian effective action for these gravitational waves with dielectric couplings and show that stable dielectric solutions exist. These solutions agree in the large...

Construction of a random ssDNA sublibrary is an important step of the aptamer screening process. The available construction methods include asymmetric PCR, biotin-streptavidin separation, and lambda exonuclease digestions, in which PCR amplification is a key step. The main drawback of PCR amplification is overamplification increasing nonspecific hybridization among different products and by-pro...

BACKGROUND As a new class of therapeutic and diagnostic reagents, more than fifteen years ago RNA and DNA aptamers were identified as binding molecules to numerous small compounds, proteins and rarely even to complete pathogen particles. Most aptamers were isolated from complex libraries of synthetic nucleic acids by a process termed SELEX based on several selection and amplification steps. Her...

Though many diagnostic PCR methods have been described, few techniques have been developed to rapidly and efficiently screen transformed bacterial colonies for plasmid presence (1). Unfortunately, PCR screening of a large number of colonies is time consuming and requires substantial amounts of polymerase and primers. In this report, we describe a two-step large-scale bacterial colony screening ...

We have developed a novel method to clone and sequence minute quantities of DNA. The method was applied to sequence a 180 kb plasmid pNL1. The first step was the production of a size distributed population of DNA molecules that were derived from the 180 kb plasmid pNL1. The first step was accomplished by a random synthesis reaction using Klenow fragment and random hexamers tagged with a T7 prim...

In this paper we describe a novel method for detecting many DNA fragments through efficient amplification by using an emulsion system based on "on-chip" PCR instead of conventional multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). During the preparation of on-chip PCR, a set of primers were immobilized on a slide and other sets were in an emulsion system. Different emulsion phase primers and other rel...